What's new from Apple? There's the new iPhone 16 Pro, built for Apple Intelligence. And it comes with the all-new camera control, giving you an easier way to quickly access your camera tools. The new Apple Watch Series X has our biggest display in our thinnest design ever. And this? It's the sound of active noise cancellation, now available on one of two new AirPods 4 models. So quiet. Check out all of the new products and new features at Apple.com. You can even buy yourself something new. See, Apple.com for product availability updates, Apple Intelligence coming this fall. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B. But with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linked in, the place to be, to be. So let's get into part two of today's show, Trevor. And that is going to be a discussion about quarterback. Because it is real lazy to simply say Riley Leonard is why they lost on Saturday. It's equally as lazy to say, well, you know, it's not Riley's fault. It's, it's, it's, you know, they didn't do this. They jade in Great House dropped a pass. You know, the offensive line didn't protect these two snaps or whatever. You know what I mean? Like everybody played a role in the loss. But we can also sit there and look and say quarterback play has not been even close to good enough. Not even close to good enough so far. And, and so that's where, that's where they are at. They've got to find some answers to quarterback because even if everybody else steps up and plays well on Saturday, but the quarterback plays the way he did on Saturday or the, not even he, the position. Because obviously Riley Leonard did it. But, you know, whoever's going to be the quarterback on Saturday, you have to, you have to play better. The, the, you know, the piece of all, you know, these guys that they got, they're handling this. They're doing all, you know, quarterbacks playing bad hurts this. And a lot of that's BS. You could do your job no matter what. But there doesn't come a point in time where they're also human beings. And when a quarterback continues to make mistakes, it's kind of like, you know, and, and it's true for a quarterback. When an old line keeps letting guys through, it's like gets to the point where it's like, even when you're not getting pressured, it's like your internal clock has been sped up. And, you know, you've got to receive the keeps dropping a ball. You're not going to throw them to ball because like, I'm sick of this guy dropping balls, you know what I mean? So, that's human nature. You got to work past. But as coaches, this week, they have to, like right now, find answers to quarterback. And I wrote an article today about this. And this was before the quote unquote news about Riley Leonard came out. So just so you guys know, I've seen the tweet about Riley Leonard having a labor issue on his left shoulder. And, you know, that he's still expected to play. I've reached out to people at Notre Dame. They will not, they will not, they have simply said that he's not on their injury report and he's, he'll be a full participant in practice and is expected to play. That's all they'll say. So I said, is it a false report? I've told you everything that I can tell you. So what that tells me is he is injured, but it's something he can play through. I don't know how I feel about that because you've got a mobile quarterback who now has a banged up shoulder. So I don't know if I don't know what's going on. Notre Dame, I don't know what the plan is, but, but let's just kind of work with. They're going to play him because if they're going to play him, then the answer doesn't change of what I discussed in the article. Notre Dame has three options Trevor and we're going to break down each one. Number one, if Riley Leonard your guy and he's the guy you're going to roll with and he's the guy you truly believe in to be your quarterback, then you stick with him in in full in every capacity and what that means is, I know you've got an offense that you think works and you think it works because it worked last year and it worked. But you also have to be as a coaching staff willing to say hey look, this is where our quarterback is right now. Yes, I would love for him to look like Jane Daniels next week, but he's not going to. We're going to have to eventually get him to the point where he's a more effective player of reading full field reads and all that kind of stuff and I get all that but that's not where he is in a quote unquote good week of practice is not going to fix that. What you're going to need to do is you have to lean into him and build around him we'll talk about what that looks like number two is if he's not the guy and you're not willing to alter your offense to fit him because you don't think he's good enough for you to do that, then you need to make a change. And then there's two options within that change. Number one, and this is number two overall is go with the temporary fix of just put your backup quarterback in the game. And that's Steve Angeli put him in the game he started the ball game he played a lot last year it is what it is we'll get into specific specifics of what that looks like or number three is okay it's time to turn the keys over to the future. Whether that's Kenny mentioned your CJ car I don't care. I'm not saying what Notre Dame should do. I think most people know what my two answers would be. But that's not the point the point is you have three options you need to figure out now what you want. And so I will tell you what I think they should do moving forward, but the answer is Trevor they've got to make a decision they can't do this well. You know Riley's going to start but he's on a short leash and all that no, he's on a short leash. He's a senior. He's been here for two games. You've got talented quarterbacks. If you have that little faith in him that you're not willing to adjust your deep your offense to fit his style. Then just move on. And now you're going to screw yourself over when it comes to future portal quarterbacks but hopefully you don't need to do that anymore. Well that's really the three options let's start first Trevor with it option number one. And this is just an order of like like practicality not so much in order of what we think they should do. But you know let's get into to this aspect of if if Riley's going to be your starter for Purdue and just Purdue just forget the rest of the season but for Purdue. You have to look at the first two games and say what we're asking him to do. He can't do right now for whatever reason whether he's not an accurate deep ball thrower or he's not reading defenses or whatever the case may be. He's not comfortable. He's not processing reads. He's not comfortable making the throws that we're asking him to make. So we got to figure something out because when a quarterback's uncomfortable with certain things he's even going to miss on the throws he normally makes. Like that back the throw to Jayden Greyhouse on the first series I've seen Riley Leonard make that throw at Duke 30 times. Yeah. I've seen him make it in practice. And he didn't wasn't even close to Jane Grant us because there's a mental block up here. And Trevor you played quarterback I played quarterback I've coached quarterbacks. When a quarterback's in his head, it screws everything up his footwork gets jacked up his arm his his release speed gets jacked up his his release point gets jacked up his timing gets jacked up it all gets jacked up. So you've got to simplify for this game if he's your guy simplify your reads for him. You've also got again nine starters who are first freshman or sophomore eligibility and your two non. Freshman or sophomore guys are first semester guys or first like they didn't play in the spring. They were around but they didn't play in the spring in both columns and Riley Leonard. You've got to simplify and build you say look, I thought they could handle this. We put too much on them. Let's pull things back scheme wise. Let's maybe pick up the tempo. Let's maybe get a little bit more creative with our personnel. Let's maybe get a little bit more creative with some of our pre step movement but the reads are going to be simplified. Riley you got this or this to check down this to this run, you know like here's where we're at maybe design four five plays a game where he has no read. Trevor you know how this works. It's hey we know we can manipulate them into cover one when we get when we manipulate that cover one we're taking a shot the Chris Mitchell on a go rep that's just what we're doing. There is no read simple things like that where Riley sits back and just lets it rip. And if you can't execute that then you know it's time to move on. If you can't do that then you've got your answers time to move on but just doing what you're doing and hoping he figures it out isn't the answer. So if he's your guy if they make that decision right or wrong if that's the decision they make, they have to alter course when it comes to how they prepare and how they run the offense with him a quarterback. Because what they're doing right now doesn't really fit who Riley letter is in my opinion especially what we saw this past weekend. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You can turn ten dollars into a thousand dollars. I'm a Bears fan so this one gets me really excited. One Caleb Williams passing yard gets you one win on prize picks every week in September. That's right only one yard gets you an automatic win every football weekend in September. Four weeks of free W's don't miss this deal on prize picks because it's gone when September ends. Think Tyreke Hill get more than ninety point five yards in week one. Aaron Jones runs for more than sixty six and a half yards. Cook up hot takes with your friends and win real money this football season when you and your crew run your game on prize picks. Prize picks also has college picks all ready to go for you as well. Get in before game one hits and you can predict how many passing yards your favorite college quarterback will hit. For me, I think Riley Leonard's going to go above two thousand five hundred and fifty and a half yards. So I'm going to take that one and I'm going to combine it with Quinn yours to throw two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine and a half yards. Put those together and bang bang boom baby I'm going to be a winner. You just wait and see. I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of depositing my first ten dollars and I received an instant ten dollar bonus. If you have the skills you can play for a shot at turning your ten dollars into a thousand dollars. Download the prize picks at today and use code Irish for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars. That's code Irish on prize picks for a deposit match up to a hundred dollars. Prize picks run your game. You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs takes the crispy and spicy nugs that you love and turn them up to eleven. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey barbecue, garlic palm or if you're a real heat seeker try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug it's got to be Wendy's at participating US Wendy's. Look at what they do with starting quarterbacks. I don't want to call Riley Leonard new because he is a senior in college but new to this system. He didn't finish the season last year and in his final two games that he played in he was kind of banged up. So again I don't want to label him as a new quarterback but the way that I would go about Riley Leonard from a game to game a week to week basis is how I would treat a rookie quarterback in the NFL. You're not going to go ask bow nicks for the Broncos or you're not going to go ask Caleb Williams for the Bears to go out and make multi level reads that you would ask a Joe burrow or a Patrick Mahomes of one thing that I want to see is, you know, one of the easiest things to do for a quarterback to get them comfortable. Get him outside of the pocket. Roll him out a little bit. Get him into some sort of rhythm that is the, that is the one glaring issue that I've seen from Mike Denmark is there seems like there has been no issue to try to get Riley Leonard into a rhythm. And that starts with getting your tight ends more involved. Yes, I know Mitchell Evans is banged up. You're going to tell me that Eli Raridin and Cooper Flanagan are that bad to where they can't get involved more in the passing game. I don't believe you. I don't. There's been no attempt to try to get the tight ends and the or involved in the pass game. And no, I'm not talking about having, you know, Riley Leonard had a couple of good deep in routes to Mitchell Evans and that's not even what I'm talking about get Riley Leonard out of the pocket and have a tight end flare out into the flat something. Get him in a groove. You know, they ran play action once on Saturday. And you're asking your quarterback to go drop back 36 times and pick a part of defense which is something that he didn't show that he could do. In week one. So for me, if Riley Leonard is going to be the guy, you almost have to take a step back and say what can we do early to get him in a rhythm. Roll him outside of the pocket. Simplify your route concepts. Run simple high low reads. Yeah. Run a slot corner with an underneath hitch. Yeah. Everything is everything is a vertical stretch right now, Trevor, everything is left to right ISO routes. There's not a lot of vertical stretch concepts like you mentioned high lows things that we're like hey if they're bringing pressure. I've got Chris Mitchell running a cross route against the corner who can't run with him or I've got both. You know, exactly right, like everything is geared towards full field reads and a lot and full field reads tend to be the vertical routes, which is actually a horizontal stretch a horizontal stretch is when stuff that you're running. You know, all stops, all goes, things like that, where you've got to kind of go left to right, right to left, whatever. And it's sort of one on one I so's vertical reads just so people understand is more of a low to high high to low so you're reading vertically even though it's not about the route concept because allverts, all verticals. Is a horizontal stretch is a horizontal read. Right. So a vertical read is more like smash. Flood concepts, high lows, post with it overcoming underneath with a slide that that's a vertical read to your point. They're not running much of that there's a couple things like the Jaden great house over route was that there's a couple of those but, you know, maybe some of those things are needed. You need a little heavier dose of that in hopes of a getting your receivers running different ways. I found as a quarterback that that stuff can be a little bit easier to complete outside of, you know, just the more like the vertical stuff you got to be a little bit more precise on as a passer. Right. Well, right now Riley Leonard's not doing anything precise. So do some of this stuff that gets you going Trevor to your point because that is those are things is a quarterback that can can slow your mind down. And that's really what what you and I are talking about is it's it's it's slowing his mind down because the more reads he has the more he feels he has to rush through them. And you can see it on the all 22 you can see him go boom boom boom like he's not reading anything. Yeah, I mean look at look at the additional hit steps that he's taken on that. I forgot what quarter it was in, but it was when he was about a yard behind two seconds too late on that deep in route to Jaden great house. That trigger should have been pulled in his break. Right. And it was just that that last second like I want to throw this I know he's open I know he's going to be open I'm going to sit on it for a second. So, I think that's what you're timing. When you're a quarterback, and you are putting a favorable matchup you're the route concepts that are being ran or isolating one specific defender like I said on a, on a high load, you know slot corner, boundary hitch type of read is it simplifies your read as a quarterback that's the stuff that can help get him in a rhythm and then you can start chunking away at alright now let's start looking at longer developing place. And I know this isn't really the topic of conversation here but not only will that get your quarterback in a rhythm that will get your offensive line in a rhythm as well. And then it's just it's kind of that domino effect of okay now receivers are starting to get confidence because they know they're getting targets and it's, but it starts with the quarterback it starts with getting Riley Leonard in that rhythm and slowing down his mental process because I mean I remember my first game starting. You know there's nowhere near starting in Texas A&M and being at Duke or anything but when you're a 16 year old kid starting in front of 8,000 people that is I mean to you that's the show man that's it. And what my coach did not ask of me is to go run, you know a multi layered read and you know testing my ability to step up in the pocket. And for those of you who don't know I'm not a mobile quarterback in the slightest I'm not a I can't escape the pocket even if I wanted to and ran track for four years it's it's just not in my repertoire, but you have a quarterback and Riley Leonard who can. Which even begs the question even more to roll out in the pocket you want to, you want one of his you know maybe tertiary reads his third read to be running the ball, something that he's good at. Nothing easier than getting him outside of the pocket and rolling protection with him. And seeing where he can take it from there. And then you just start to chunk away to see and to your point man. If you do that, then it's time. But you can't overload this kids plate with no practice in the spring, no real legitimate reps in the spring. And say, here's the keys to the entire offense. I'm expecting you to go run everything. And I just don't think it'd be giving him a fair shot to say well you weren't able to run our offense to its full effectiveness, even though we didn't really do our due diligence. And if you're not going to have any staff to put you in a position to be successful. And now we're going to yank you. Because that, that is where you were setting your quarterbacks up for failure. That's where I don't agree with the short leash stuff. If you're going to pick a guy that has to be your guy. You'll be looking to see on Saturday, if they do those things to get him in a rhythm early, get the ball into your playmaker's hands and know that doesn't mean sending Jaden Great House on a, on a seam route and you're asking him to fit it in between the underneath linebacker and the single high safety. That's build, build to that, build to that. That's what you're saying, build to that. You want him to be able to make those stores, which you're going to need to be able to make those throws to beat Louisville and to beat Florida State and Georgia Tech and the USC and Georgia and Alabama and all these teams that right now we're not even worried about. It comes down to this man, you've got to build to that because it's just this. Look, like somebody, somebody said in the chat on Saturday, I said, look, I have no problem with them calling a second than one. But they needed to call something a little simpler and somebody was like, Oh, that's, that's a stretch and, you know, he needs to be able to read. He should be able to read that, but whether or not a guy should is not doesn't mean that's your present reality. As a coach, you have to deal with your present if you call a play, knowing a guy has to make a complex read when all game he's been struggling to make complex reads. That's not a him problem. That's a you problem. You have to recognize that as a coach and adjust. That's the key. And, and so that's that to me is where I'm at with this Trevor is you've got to kind of start over again. And here's the thing, if he's injured to the point where I don't know how much you're going to be able to run him. It's especially important that you do this stuff. Because you don't have that running threat anymore. You now have to make sure that you get him comfortable in the offense. And honestly, if he does have a hurt shoulder, I would not play him this weekend. I wouldn't because you're setting him up to fail in my opinion. He comes out in struggles throwing and you can't because like normally to get him into rhythm, he's even said it likes to run and get hit. And if you're going to take that away like look just get him healthy. Just get let him get mentally and physically healthy for a week let Steve or Kenny or CJ or whoever gotten and win that game probably be Steve. And then kind of get him back in there when he's physically and mentally a little bit more right. But if you're going to start him and your dead set on starting him this it's even more important that you do this. Which is get things that he can get into a rhythm throwing a ball because if he comes comes out in this game on Saturday and he can't get into the room throw the ball and he can't run. You're screwed. You're screwed. You know so that's that's kind of it's imperative no matter what but it's even more so if he can't run the way that you'd hope for him to be able to run. And look and just some of you just just stop with a hole they can't bench him because of NIL. There's no contract that says a guy can't be benched. There's not just just stop. This is what I'm talking about. We're going to have a grown up conversation not this not so they can't play him because they're paying him NIL money. Notre Dame is going to lose a lot more than what the pen Riley Leonard if they keep losing games. If they think someone else gives them a better chance to win, they will play him. They will play him RJ open got NIL money. He didn't play nearly as much as Josh Burnham Dylan Saturday. Why? Because he wasn't playing well. Rod Heard got some NIL money come to their name. He doesn't start for Notre Dame. Adon Shuler does. Right. Just just stop. I'm so sick and tired of just the people coming in just throwing this nonsense. We're not doing that here. We're not have construction constructive conversation or just keep your thoughts to yourself or go put them on Twitter because I don't care what people put on Twitter. I don't care about Twitter. Right. So my point is this. If he is going to be your starter Notre Dame, then you need to adjust what you're doing to get him. It's about him not you. If he's your guy. It's about what he's good at what he what you need to do to get him right. And if that's not the case and he's not your guy and you don't have enough faith to make that adjustment in your scheme, that tells me you don't believe in him and you should just move on to somebody else. That that's that's it. And that takes us to number two. If you are going to move on from Riley Leonard, even if it's just temporary while he gets healthy or more permanent. The most likely option is Steve and Jolly, because you have a head football coach who has made it very clear that he wants you to do exactly what we tell you to do. Don't be a playmaker. Don't do anything outside of the offense. Do exactly what we tell you to do. Coaches like that. Don't then play freshman. They're going to play someone with experience. And that sums up Steve and Jolly. And to me, I know some people are going to hate this because they think Steve and Jolly is this really good player and I hope that they're right. But the end of the day, if he is what I think he is, then he's kind of perfect for what they want, but that's also part of the problem. Because they don't want someone to take they're going to be totally fine if Steve and that jelly comes in and throws a million checkdowns like he doesn't practice every time we go watch practice. You know, I mean, but here's the thing, but if you're going to put Steve Angeli in the game, you kind of need to do this because here's the fresher. Well, I guess it's not frustrating because it was a different coaching staff, but like what Gino Godouli did in the bowl game was Steve Angeli's he made him have very simple reads. One to check down one to run. And Steve handed himself well. Right. He did some things. So, you know, if you're going to go to Steve Angeli, that's a temporary fix. As you bridge the gap to what I'm confident they all believe is the future, which is Kenny or CJ, whoever the best of that duo is. My whole point is, if you're going to go to CJ, however, Kenny has, or Steve, however, the same principle still applies starting one bowl game against the depleted team of the month to prepare does not mean you're going to be going out there and making the same reach Jaden Daniels made right. So that same thing still applies, but at least this way Steve gives you a little bit more of a style fit for what you're clearly looking for. Because no names were trying to run one offense that they then fit some Riley Leonard runs into. And it's not the entire offense has to fit your quarterback, not just one part of it. And I think with what Steve does well. I think fits a little bit better what they'd like to do but even there they are going to have to simplify because this is a kid with one career start played well in that one career start. I'm going to ask him to go be Jane Daniels because Jane Daniels didn't become that guy at LSU until the second years to start. Jane Daniels last year wasn't Jane Daniels near one. They had to build to that. And so if you're going to go to Steve, don't put in here's a point. Don't put Steve in the same situation you put Riley in, which is we're going to run our offense and hope that you can execute it. If you're going to make this move to Steve and say, okay, what does Steve do well. Let's get to that. Let's build around that. Let's not keep calling place we like and hope that he can execute it. Let's do something to get him wrong because they're going to have to get if they make the move to Steve and jelly. Then you have to come out early on and make sure that his confidence gets established early and he gets it to an early rhythm. The same principle still applies but if they don't have enough faith and Riley to make the change to make the changes to fit him. They need to go with somebody else. And I think Steve, Steve Angeli is the most likely first option. From a schematic standpoint, if Marcus Freeman pulls the trigger to start Steve Angeli, they're going to have to tailor the offense to him. And what did we just get done talking about? They're going to have to. I don't want to say regress, but dial back the offense a little bit for Riley Leonard to get him into a rhythm. So I think there's this misconception that you're going to go and put in Steve Angeli and he's going to be doing the reads and making the throws that Riley Leonard has shown that he can't make right now in the first two games. And I think that's a misconception that I think needs addressed because Notre Dame is not going to put Steve in a position where he is going to be asked to go make those multi layered reads. To your point in his one start in the bowl game, the reason why he was so successful is because the game was simplified, which is what we just got done talking about what they need to do for Riley Leonard. So let's call the play calling style of wash. Right, because I think if if Notre Dame wants to become a more effective team on offense, you simplify it whether it's Leonard, or Angeli, or if you make a move for the future and in Kenny and CJ. So let's call play calling a wash. There's no argument whether you think Steve is a better passer or if just whether it's fan banter and you think that he's just going to be the guy because you just need to see some sort of change to put the band aid on the bullet hole of what happened last weekend. Steve Angeli is not as mobile and as good of an athlete as Riley Leonard, and that is no knock on Steve we're talking about a kid and Riley Leonard that was talked about as getting drafted last year. Right. The logical answer if the if if Riley Leonard gets the sample size in this week, and they simplify his reads, or if he's not healthy enough to go. I think that Steve is is the logical answer. And, and we talked about this a good amount in the preseason of what it would look like if worst case scenario Riley Leonard doesn't pan out. Depending on the outcome of the Purdue game or what stuff looks like I think you. I think you have to have a serious look at your quarterback room and think about Sean Sean brought it up in the post game. At what point do you pull the trigger to build for the future versus let's just limp through and see what we can do the rest of this year. So, Steve would be the obvious choice because as much as I love Riley Leonard's dynamic play making ability. Yes, Steve only has one start. That's one more start than Kenny Menchie and CJ car. And that's the reality of the situation so then if you get to the point where you do believe that Steve is the guy, you're putting yourself in a spot where the off the offense is going to have to be simplified regardless. I, like I said before, I think there's a misconception that you put Steve Angeli in and the offense is going to be this LSU type Jaden Daniels type of offense and that's that's just not reality guys I don't know where that narrative came from. And that's not a knock on Steve. No, no reasonable coach should ask your QB to go in and run this style of offense in his first start in a regular season game. The story is Trevor no matter who the quarterback is, they're going to have to scale it a little back a little bit from a read standpoint, be more creative with the things that they're doing pre and post snap, mix up their personnel a little bit more, and design more things to get the ball into hands of their playmakers in different ways. I mean, Northern Illinois did a phenomenal job of that. I mean they got, they got an internal brown the ball in so many different ways, seam routes, jet sweeps, handoffs, fake a jet sweep someone else, have them run a wheel route. I'm centered thinking they're doing that with him but Notre Dame hasn't done any of that with Jeremiah love or jadarion price. So that's the other thing too is if you have some things like that that that that also takes pressure off your quarterback where your quarterback, you know, and again, we're not blaming the coaches for why Riley Leonard is struggling. We're simply saying he is struggling. That's the reality. This is what you need to do to correct course that he is struggling. That's what I'm saying. And that's what that's what needs to get fixed. And so, in, and if you're going to make the move then you've got, as you mentioned, inexperienced quarterbacks. Option number three, as we talked about is just saying, hey, listen, the Riley Leonard experiment isn't isn't working. And you're going to sit them. You're going to tell Riley. Hey, listen, we're not going to play the rest of the year. You can take a red shirt is Riley never had a red shirt so he can red shirt this year and you can go play somewhere else next year. But we're moving on to the future. And you play either Kenny mentioned your CJ car, whoever you, whoever of that duo you think is your future quarterback. And then you just say, hey, listen, Marcus Freeman said it. We're going to run the football. We're going to do have the quarterback do exactly what we tell him to do. Stay with him. That also can fit a younger player. No, I don't think he thinks it does because he's so, you know, don't mess up, don't mess up, don't mess up. I don't know that he's going to put a young quarterback in there unless he has to. But that could be the other option because look, the one thing that we that we saw in fall camp that I don't think is really debatable is. There's no question who throws the best balls in the team who throws the best footballs on the team. It's the two young kids. They have the best arms. Kenny and see, you have the best arms. It's not even close. And that's something that I've written about talked about. Vince and I've talked about it. It's like those two kids, though, great footballs. Can they read defenses? Can they handle the pressure? That's unknown. We don't know that about either one of them. But if this is who you are and this is what your offense is going to do and you can't fix it, then you need to just say, hey, let's put the really talented young kids in and try to run a ball and get our playmakers a ball and eventually maybe by the time we get the end of the year, these kids are rocking and rolling. I mean, that's kind of where we're at, man. It's really frustrating that we're having this conversation, but that's how bad quarterback play was on Saturday. And that's just not off game bad. There's a problem bad. Every quarterback has an off game. Every single one. I've watched Sean away, fan. I've watched Sean away have bad games. I've watched Peyton Manning have bad games. I've watched Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Joe Montana, Tom Brady. Everybody has bad games. Everybody. The question is, is it just a bad game? Or are you going out and there's a bigger problem than just I had an off game? Right? I mean, that's what you have to kind of figure out. And I don't, I hope that they can kind of figure that out. You know, we'll see. Like, I remember watching Bryce Young, the year he won the Heisman was terrible for much, much of that Auburn game. Terrible, just terrible. But you were kind of like, dude, the game before he had 559 passing yards in the game after he threw for 421 yards and three touchdowns in the SEC title game against Georgia. Like, he's fine. Yep. You know, he just had a bad game. Sure. That's not what was going on on Saturday with Riley Leonard. There was something clearly not clicking and he had no confidence in himself. It wasn't like he was off. Clean up your footwork, clean up your release point. He was mentally in week and I broke. I mean, you saw the video I did on the site. I showed that he was missing this stuff against A&M as well. Just thought they'd clean it up and get it figured out and it got worse in week two. And so they're going to have to figure it out. But look, option three is something that this staff needs to consider. If they don't think Riley's the guy, they need to have a very open and honest conversation about what the future holds quarterback. And if you think Steve Angeli is your future, then go with Steve Angeli. But if you don't think he's your future, I don't think putting a band-aid on this thing does much. I say, look, put the young kids in, take your lumps and maybe you can win some games with those guys. If you're good enough on defense and good enough in these other areas and all that other kind of stuff, then, you know, I think I move. Sure. Light it. Hey, Irish Breakdown listeners, it's Urban Meyer. This fall, the game changes. Join me. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week. We will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines. Let us guide you through a new era of college football. Watch Triple Option on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. Hey Irish Breakdown listeners, it's Matt Liner. I've got a podcast called Throwbacks with actor Jay Farrar, where we'll be talking all things sports, but also so much more. We'll give you the behind the scenes stories from my days as the quarterback on an iconic college football team to Jerry's days as a star on an iconic TV series. So subscribe to throwbacks on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. I, my only hesitation with making the decision and pull the trigger on the young guys on the topic of you look to the future. Starting one of the young guys I think opens up a really big can of worms and not from a talent perspective, right? Like I also agree, I haven't been able to go and see them in practices. But what I saw from the Blue Gold game and some of the clips that the team releases and whatnot, there is no mystery that Kenny mentioned CJ Carr throw the best football in the team. Some of the quarterbacks in the room say they're not even close. Right. The thing that I would be interested to see is almost from a PR standpoint, how it's handled if you do decide to go with either a true freshman or a red shirt freshman. I think that's the one thing that they could do to reignite the fan base. I mean, look, in the chat, you guys tell me, if Notre Dame came out, all of you that are just. So I'm just I'm over it. If Notre Dame came out tomorrow and said, Hey, listen, we've made a decision. We feel that the guy that gives us the best chance to win the guy that we're going to roll with because he's our present in our future. CJ Carr, we're starting him or Kenny mentioned it. Would that not kind of even if you know, Hey, I'll take a, I'll take a couple bad games. If it means we get to start that clock ticking. I mean, I think that would be the one thing that would fire the fan base up, to be honest with you. I mean, so talking about PR, Travis was a great point like, yeah, that that's something that could do it. You know, and to me, I would feel this, I don't know, fans would, I would feel the same way if they decided, Hey, we're going to go with Kenny. I would feel the same way with either one of those two, to be honest with you, because I think they're both incredibly talented players. So pick one, but like, that's the only thing that would really to me get the fan base fired up now there's like that pro Steve Angeli group. That would want to see that. And, and that's fine, but I don't know that that necessarily fires the fan. You don't make quarterback decisions based on what fires the fan base up. We're just saying like, if, if you are concerned about that. That's the thing that gets the gets everybody fired up. It's that right there. You know, and then Steve gets a chance to go out and say, Hey, listen, I'm the guy now I'm going to prove, and that's what I said in my article, Steve Angeli needs to prove the doubters like me wrong with how he plays. He wouldn't be the first guy, you know, so like, I don't care what they do. They just got to say, Hey, whoever we're going to roll with, we're going to, we're going to, like, what I don't want to do Trevor's just play musical chairs a quarterback. And just, well, we want to do this and we're going to keep throwing someone in there until they can do what we want them to do pick a guy, the team needs to know who that guy is, and then build around them. That's, that's the facts. And I honestly at this point in time, don't really care who that quarterback is. It's like, if they decide that Steve Angeli's that guy, cool, let's roll. And you won't see a bigger person rooting for Steve Angeli than me because I would love to be wrong about Steve Angeli. Sure. If he's the starting quarterback, then I want to be wrong because I want to see Notre Dame win. A, Notre Dame fan, B, it's good for business and see, I don't mind being wrong when it's when it's wrong about a kid saying that like I don't think it's good. I loved being wrong about Kyron Williams loved it. I'd love to be wrong about Steve but he you're not. If you don't build around Steve's specific skill set, then you're putting, Steve in a position to fail. Just like you've kind of done that a little bit with Riley, to be honest with you. Sure. And, and so that's my thing is, no matter who you play, the offense needs to be tailored to him. You don't tailor him to what you want. And that's the key. To your point, I think that's what scares me the most is it would be really, I guess it comes from my lack of trust that the coaching staff as a whole would be willing to say, Hey, you're the guy and you are the guy. And I think that's where a lot of my hesitation comes in with the third option that we're talking about here. Because I very easily could see it being something like, All right, we're going to give Kenny a shot. And then if Kenny doesn't work out. All right, we'll see Jay and see what you got. And then if it's all right, well, the two young guys that experiment was fun, but now it's, you know, the team has passed lovable week and we're not getting the results that we want. Steve, let's see if you can go out and be the guy to salvage the season that that's my only fear with the third option I guess I should I should have worded that better when I initially brought it up but that's the musical chairs thing at quarterback, or even if it's a game where you know what we need more of a dynamic athlete at quarterback and Notre Dame might need somebody to run the football Hey Riley, I know we kind of went away from you but now is your chance at redemption to see like I just hope. Hope to God if they do make that decision, whether it's Steve, Kenny, CJ, I just hope that when they make that decision that is their guy end of story. Can I pause it a different scenario for you? Yeah, just give you something to chew on. Let's say that Notre Dame makes the decision one of two ways. Okay Riley's not right physically so he's not in a conversation for right now, or he's just not the guy, whatever. There's two ways you can kind of look at it. Number one is, Hey, we're going to do the best we can with Riley for the next three weeks if we can get him going because we clearly felt he was our best option. But we're going to groom the next guy, whether that's Kenny or Steve. And if Riley starts playing better than you're good you keep grooming that guy until that stops happening. Sure. And then you say, you know, you get into the bye week and then say okay let's see where we're at. Same thing if you go with Steve. And I can't justify putting CJ or Riley out on the field in their first game being against a big 10 team and then they got to play Louisville or whatever okay fine. So let's say they decide they're going to go with Steve and then for the next three weeks it's like okay Steve and then we're going to we're going to prep for the next guy I mean that that would be the only scenario where I would say. I'm okay with them having a two quarterback system is if that's what they're working towards. Not like okay Steve good luck he didn't get it done okay who's next so like in that regard I'm agreeing with you. But if there's a plan to eventually turn the reins over to whoever the next guy is that's the one scenario Trevor where I would be okay if that's what they decide to do. But again I don't know that this staff has the. Foresight to think that far ahead to be honest with you and like you even see it in the channel you know CJ needs a year in the system and let them learn. Well there's no better way to learn than to play. No better way to learn to play. And so but but I also don't know that you but you also don't want to throw to the to the people's point. But you also throw a guy in there too soon. Because this is competent shook now you've got a problem so like there it's not an easy answer either way it's not an easy answer I'll just let them stay a year because now you're saying what is first game is next year at home against Texas A&M. And you're two of Mike Elko's defense. Right. You know or you know like nice thing is what's a tougher scenario for Kenny or CJ. That their first start is at home against Stanford. Or at home against Texas A&M and the old season opener between two ranked teams and a number two you know a number season number two and a Mike Elko with the recruiting he's going to do and the coaching he's going to do. You know so those are the different things that I look at and say. But here's the thing it all comes out to have a plan. Yep. Have a plan to get the most out of your quarterback room. And that's what this all boils down to have a plan. Don't just this is our offense and hopefully you guys can figure it out have a plan to say this is what we need to do. And this is where we have to get with it. I think and this goes back to the conversation we had earlier the biggest issue with the offense right now is is lack of consistency. And so whatever quarterback they deem the best fit to be out there needs to give them the best chance at being consistent. And where my fear lies with that and it sounds like you and I are on the same page with this is then if your quarterback room starts being inconsistent in that how you decide to play them. If the entire root of the offenses is inconsistent that's where my concern starts to come in. But I do think that there is a very viable scenario where you look to the future and you say you know what like. Regardless of what happens and I don't want to think too far down the road or get you know the cart too far in front of the horse here but. You know people talk about the transfer portal all the time no matter what move that you go with like going into next year like somebody is like odds are just the way that the state of college football is somebody's going to leave. And so that'd be another task for the coaching staff is accepting that depending on who you go with you're going to lose some. Yes. So go with what's best for your football team. Right. If you know you're going to lose Steve because you put Kenny or CJ in then if that's what you think is the best present and future move then do that. If you think somebody's going to leave one of the young guys going to leave because you put Steve in. If he's if he's your best guy for now in the future then you make that move. Yep. My hope what I would do and we'll kind of wrap this part up with what I would do Trevor. Yep. Is it is. Because I actually kind of think we talked a lot about what the offense needs to do we'll talk a little bit more about that and then the defense of that is the next section but wrapping this part up to me if you want to know what I would do is my personal opinion. If Riley Leonard is is healthy to play. I would still go with Riley Leonard because I still think Riley Leonard at his best still gives this football team in 2024. Your best chance to win. Yep. So what I would do is I would lean into what gets Riley correct because here's the thing. In some ways the shoulder injury if you handle it right could be a blessing in disguise for him because it forces you to really get nitty gritty about what makes him successful as a passer. You have to see you can't build around his run game anymore. Right. You've got to really say okay he's our guy. This is the stuff he's comfortable with we're going to do this we're going to do that the stuff you and I talked about we're going to move the pocket here's a thought. Once I checked they did not well play action passes. So you're still allowed to do those. Notre Dame that's still allowed. You know you're allowed to move the pocket. I didn't I thought they might have banned it but then I watched Northern Illinois do some bootlegs on Saturday. They didn't throw flags. So they're going must still be allowed to run bootlegs and stuff and those kind of worked pretty well for Northern Illinois on Saturday. I hope people are picking up the sarcasm I didn't actually think some guys like Driscoll thought that they banned bootlegs idiot. But like do some of that because you know it's great about bootlegs it's a real simple read that that that run. That's it. But the that that's off of the same guy. If this guy comes up I throw that if this guy goes back I throw this. And if he tries to play both I run. You know what I mean like so it's it's a it's multiple options but it's off the basic one read. You know do some of that and and and try to get Riley going and if he doesn't get going. What I'm doing in the meantime is we're sitting down as a converse as a staff and we're having some real. Throw long conversations about who's our future. Yep. And consequences be darned to your point Trevor. That's our future that's our future. We have to accept the fact that somebody's going to leave if if we think this guy's our future. Totally. And that's somebody's going to leave whether it's Steve Kenny or CJ. I personally think Kenny or CJ gives them the best chance to win long term. Whoever that is. I think CJ is the best of that group but if Kenny outplays them is out plan significantly out playing them right now. Okay cool I'm comfortable rolling with Kenny as well I think they're both excellent players. I would stick with Riley build around him as I'm bringing those guys along. And then basically I'm let's see how these next three games go. And if Riley's not that guy and he can't get it going then I've got the bye week and to get my new guy in there to get ready for Stanford. Yep. Because that's basically that's basically kind of where where it's at is. You know maybe you can work that guy in I would still give Riley a shot to kind of do what he needs to do. But you come out of that bye week and you've got Stanford at home you've got a good Georgia Tech team but a Georgia Tech team is not great on defense. You've got Navy before Florida State. That's a nice stretch of three games to get that guy right before Florida State comes to town or it's a nice stretch of games where Riley can get going if the three game stretch really worked and got him going. That's what I would do. Let's say you Trevor. I agree. I actually I wanted to pose this question back to you because I'm curious on what your thought is here. Oh I like that. Most guys don't do that. I'm digging that. Let's do it. Bring it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious because we looked at Notre Dame got the win against Texas A&M despite subpar quarterback play from Riley Leonard. What situation do you have because I'm all for giving Riley Leonard a shot to prove that he can be the guy and be effective in this offense. Notre Dame just from a talent perspective looking at the entire team as a whole is talented enough even if Riley Leonard has a bad game to beat Purdue and beat Miami of Ohio. What happens if Riley Leonard in the next two games does not play where you need him to with a simplified offense but Notre Dame still wins. How do you evaluate it from that standpoint. What are your thoughts there because to me the answer gets a lot more simple if Notre Dame drops a game to Purdue because of quarterback play. Sure there will be more issues than just Riley Leonard being the issue. But it's made very easy to go with your future now. Totally. But if they win and they win these next two games but you're still looking at it of does Riley give us the best shot to be Louisville and Florida State and USC. What do you do in that situation. So basically if you come out this weekend and he doesn't play well. But you still win. But you still win. Mm hmm. I would still I'd I'd have him starting it's Miami of Ohio and I wouldn't tell him this but I would kind of have my my next guy kind of mentally ready to go. And now that he's got the injury it's perfect because you can say look we got to make sure this guy's ready in case you know you can't play shoulders banged up. Sure. And just kind of see how he goes against Miami Ohio. That's that's what I would do. My, my, I would have a little bit of a longer leash because again, I want to see if I can get him going because he does give you the best chance to win. I just don't know that. I'm ready to put that guy in. That guy's going to be more Louisville. Right because like you could say okay if he plays poorly again this weekend, then it's just like okay it's it's time to make the move. Let that guy's first start being it's Miami of Ohio. And then Louisville's game number two. Let's. I wouldn't be opposed to that. I just kind of think let's see what Riley can do these next couple weeks. Have that guy rating case you need to. And I think that's what we're going to do this week is when we make the official move. That that's, that's where we're at and we're going to really lean into, you know, our run game and defense and you know quarterback doing, you know, executing what coach down Brock wants and stuff like that. That's probably the way I would go. Now if if he proves he's not the guy in that he just he plays equally as bad as he did this past week. That's a bit of an extreme circumstance that I would say okay there's seriously something wrong and it's not getting any better. Sure. You got to make a move. And I, you know, I love Riley Leonard as a player and if he plays that way on Saturday, I'd just say no name broke him. But just because they broke him doesn't mean you keep playing them. Sure. And the other thing too is I'm also going to look out for Riley Leonard. Hey man, something's wrong here. We're going to take you off the field. We're going to red shirt you. And so you can go somewhere else next year and have a year to get it right. He's out of eligibility this year. And so there comes a point time where you're not only looking out for your team. You're looking out for Riley and making that move after game five. You've now screwed that kid over. So that might that might be something Trevor that has to factor into their this conversation for them is. Okay. If if he's not your guy, give him the red shirt, you move on to your future. So now Riley can save that year and then, you know, transfer somewhere that maybe is a better fit and get his career back on track. Now you're doing what's best for you and you're looking out for him. Like that that's something to least consider if he if he plays that if he shows progress, but still doesn't play great against Purdue, I'm rolling with him. Because you basically have to mind people high old before his eligibility is gone. You mean you play him against Louisville. It's over. So that's that's that kind of got me thinking Trevor. So I actually kind of think that's how I'd look at it is how. And it's not just about how he plays. If he's a little off, but he I just look in his eyes and I okay. He's because you know this Trevor, right? Did you coach football as well? Correct? I know you played it, but. He's slightly it was more from like a volunteer standpoint, but I went back to the high school and helped. But you can look into kids eyes and say, okay, he's good. He's just not playing well, but he's good. Then you can look into guys eyes and say that ain't good. Like I remember a Notre Dame coach telling me before the Georgia game in 19 talking to a Notre Dame coach a couple weeks after the game. He said, I had a bad feeling going into that last drive. So really, because I didn't think we were going to win. So what I was like, tell me why he goes, I knew we could. But when I was in the huddle with the ball, I looked around and there nobody believed that they were going to go down and score. There was nothing I could tell them that was going to change that they didn't believe in themselves. If you've been coaching long enough, you see that. And if you've been coaching long enough, you know, the difference between real bravado and false bravado. And so like if I'm looking at Riley's eyes and he's like, he's good. He's just got to get into a rhythm as soon as he gets rolling, he's going to go off. Because mentally I see it. He's locked in. He's confident. He's going to be okay. He's just in the funk right now. But if you look in his eyes and you see what you saw, because that was my biggest concern. I saw it like in the fourth quarter of the A&M game, you can look at where he's smiling. He's laughing. He said, but I got this fellas and then he went out and did exactly that. Made the throws he needed to make. I'm watching this kid on Saturday and I see a kid that was panicked. So clearly there was something up here that had him, he didn't know what was going on. And so if you see that again Saturday, that's up. If he makes some bad reads and again, you can fix that. But you've got to be able to look in his eyes and say, is it at least confident up here. If he's not, then you're almost forced to make a move. You can't keep putting a kid out there that doesn't have faith in himself. Because he doesn't trust himself. He's not going to trust me. He's not going to trust his teammates. So all that factors into it. So that's kind of where I'm at with that one. So yeah, I would say these next two weeks are going to be huge, huge. And if Riley's not the guy and you're going to make the move, you may not, like I'm all for it. You got to do what's best for your team first, but I'm also, you got to try to look out for the young people as well. Sure. And if you really don't think Riley's the guy, maybe you make the move a little sooner than I previously said, because now you're looking out for Riley, because of what I said earlier. Is you can now save a year of algebra because he played as a true freshman at 21. He played as a true sophomore in 22, a true junior lasher. He's a true senior this year. So this is his fourth and final year. Unless there's an injury or something where you red shirt him because he doesn't just need the injury to red shirt. He has a pure red shirt left. Yeah. He took no red shirt at Duke. So it's not like he redshirted in 2020 was a red shirt freshman at 21, et cetera, et cetera. And now to save a year, he needs the injury. He can redshirt just because he could walk in the room and say, I won't play anymore. I want you to red shirt me. And he had that they'd be able to red shirt him. So yeah, if he if the looks that not there in the next next week, then I think you have to start seriously having a very long conversation with him about his future. And say, Hey, look, we thought about trying to ride you through the Louisville game, but we think we're ready for a change and we didn't want to play you five games in and then you don't have an opportunity to come back and play for someone next year. So I'm not talking about red shirting him and having him be at Notre Dame again next year. I'm talking about red shirting him and giving him a chance to go somewhere else. I think that would be the right thing to do if you if he doesn't bounce back the the ideal scenarios that Riley bounces back. Yes. And he gets back to being the Riley Leonard that that he was. So that's the ideal scenario for me. That's the perfect world situation for me. But if he doesn't, and you've got to think long and hard because at the end of the day, Trevor, the whole point of this conversation is you need to get this. You need to get this position rolling. It's going to help this football team is going to help next year's football team and it's going to be huge for recruiting. You've got to get this team rolling and right now you can fix a lot of other if you fix everything else about Saturday. And the quarterback place poorly you still beat Northern Illinois. If Riley Leonard plays as bad as he did on Saturday, but the receivers play better. The play calling is better. The defense plays better. They win, but it doesn't change the fact that quarterback is going to get you beat at some point. They didn't lose that game because of Riley Leonard, but if everybody plays great Riley Leonard plays that well against Louisville, they're going to get beat. Like how well the defense plays. And so you can't keep playing like that. So you've got to, you've got to get it fixed and just throwing out Steve and jelly and doing the same crap you did with Riley Leonard is setting Steve up to fail. Just like it would be setting Kenny up to fail or CG up to fail. You've got to be more willing to say we've got to adapt to what our talent's really good at right now. And I don't know that they're doing that. They're not doing that with Chris Mitchell. They're not doing that with Riley Leonard. They're not doing that with Jeremiah Love. They did a little bit against Texas A&M. But right now you're two best football. You're three best football players on offense and you tell me if you disagree right now. Now taking Mitchell Evans out because he's not a full-time player yet, although he did play a lot more on Saturday, but like just outside of Mitchell, your three best players are very clearly very obviously very just not even just discussion. I love Bo Collins and Jadarion Price. Yeah. Now, you need, actually, you know what? Let's save that for the next segment. The point is quarterback play has to get a lot better and they can't just keep doing what they're doing and have a short lease for Riley and then pull him and put somebody else in and keep doing what you're doing. Because what you're doing is wrong and it's not working and you broke a talented quarterback. That's the fact. And so an altering of course is needed no matter who your quarterback is. Sure. And that's where I'm at. Yep. I'm in the same boat. You can't, a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. And something has to change. With the quarterback position specifically, you need to do things no matter who is under center to simplify the game for them. And that's the common theme. That doesn't mean only throw screens and only hand the ball off of inside zone. There are things that you can do creatively within that style of offense to get your quarterback into a rhythm. But it's not as simple as what we need to get the ball in the hands of our playmakers. Well, Collins is one of them. We'll just throw him a now screen. Why? You know, got to get the ball in the hands of Jeremiah Love. So we'll just run inside zone until he does something immaculate and breaks one open. But I know we'll dive into that here soon. For the quarterback specifically, what they need to do is, one, I'm with you. They need to give Riley Leonard more of a shot to be successful, not more of a shot to be a whole starter. Yes. Yes. They need to do things that favor his skill set and do things to get him in a rhythm. All comfortable with. Yes. Yes. And whether that's Riley, or whether that's Steve, or Kenny, or CJ, I think that narrative is the same regardless, or else you are putting young guys in a position who will definitely fail. I can kind of understand why, you know, you gave Riley Leonard the keys to this very expensive car and you're like, we expect that you'd be able to run this offense to its full capabilities. But now we're going to see what adjustments you can make as a coach, right, to say, Hey, this is where we thought he was going to be. Riley's not there yet. Here's our answer for this. But if you go out and you do the same thing and you're just expecting that miraculously in six days, Riley Leonard is just going to get better. That's crazy. And that's that's him up for failure. But that's why I wanted to ask you that because, and I love where you took it with the red shirting thing. Because at the end of the day, Riley Leonard was voted a captain of this football team. By his peers, by his players. So he is a well respected kid and knowing that the program did him a service of you're not our guy but that doesn't mean that you can't be somebody else's guy we're going to red shirt you. Still gives him the opportunity to be around a team and groom some of the younger guys if they do take that route. But yeah, in a hole in looking at this in a vacuum, simplify the offense, get your quarterback in a rhythm so he's then comfortable. Then start chunking away and open up the offense from there. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
