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That's LinkedIn.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be to be. I be nation. Welcome back to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. It is Tuesday, September 10th. And we got a lot to talk about everybody. That's Trevor Troberg, my dude. And we are going to talk about a lot of things. Trevor, normally Tuesday is intro the opponent day. But, you know, we're going to take out a page, a page out of Notre Dame's flawed fit game plan from last week. And we're just going to not practice like we have. Orgy for us. It won't have any outcome on this weekend's game. But we're going to talk about Notre Dame and Purdue from the standpoint of a few different aspects of the game. So we're not going to just kind of rehash Northern Illinois. We're past Northern Illinois. It's time to talk about what's next for Notre Dame. And instead of diving into Purdue, because honestly, I'm sure a lot of you don't really care, you know, you care, but there's a lot more important than just necessarily produce specifically here. So they do offensively, defensively. I'll dive into that stuff tomorrow. But we're going to talk today about what this means for Notre Dame. And here's what we're not going to do. And we're not going to do it in the chat either. We're going to have some constructive football conversations. We're not going to have to fire this guy, bench that guy, childish pot, shots at players. We're going to be grown-ups in this chat. And we're going to be grown-ups in the show. And we're going to talk about real aspects of what this game means, Trevor. We're going to talk about what's at stake for Notre Dame. What does it mean against Purdue? What does this game mean for Notre Dame against Purdue? And what does it, you know, what's at stake for Notre Dame? And there's a lot more at stake than people think, at least in one direction, in my opinion. And maybe actually people do know that. And we're just, we just haven't got to just talk about it yet. Because we're so pissed off about what happens Saturday. Then we're going to talk about quarterback. And we're going to talk about what Notre Dame needs to do to find answers of quarterback and what, again, what we're not going to do. And I'm already knocking people out of the chat. We're not going to just come in here and say, this guy sucks. That guy sucks. That's not what we're doing. We're going to have actual football conversations. If you want just flame-thrown, then go somewhere else. Okay? We're going to, we're going to, we're going to actually be grown-ups today. But that doesn't mean that we have to say everything is rainbow and sunshine. There's a difference between saying it's okay, guys. Put your, put your everything is happy caps on. And, you know, we're all ready to rock and roll. And so that, that's not what we're doing. But we're also not going to be those, that we're not going to do that stuff. Okay, we're going to talk about, okay, they got to find answers of quarterback because what we've seen in the first two games of quarterback outside of a couple series here and there again, Texas Adams is not good enough. So we're going to figure out what they need to do there. We're going to talk about there's really three options that Notre Dame has. We'll, we'll break down each one. And then we'll wrap things up with a look at what do we want to see from Notre Dame this weekend Purdue that tells us they've, they've at least taken a step in the right direction. That'll be at the end of the show. So that's what we're going to talk about today. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it. I think you and I probably talked about this for like an hour last night. And then, you know, obviously a little bit before the show. So we're going to get into, we're going to get into it today to ever be with, with this breakdown of what's to, what to expect from Notre Dame Purdue, what's at stake for Notre Dame Purdue, and then we will talk quarterback. 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. 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For a whole new way to nug it's got to be Wendy's at participating US Wendy's. Love it excited to get into it. There's a lot to unpack after really what's happened the last 72 hours call it. So pump to be a part of it today and dive into what we need to see and where the team goes from here. So let's begin with a discussion about what's at stake this weekend for Purdue. Because it's actually in my belief it's a very interesting game. Because I don't know that there's a lot that Notre Dame can do this weekend Trevor and to say hey look they rited the ship. Everything is good. It's all good. And there's also there's also aspects of this where you have to say. But there's obviously a lot at stake if they lose and here's why I say that because when I look at when I look at the positives. It's okay so let's say they come out and just rip Purdue up this weekend let's say the offense figures it out and they come out and they play like the team we all thought they were and they go on their own beat Purdue by 27 points. Okay. We've we've seen this before. Right like we've been here done that we've seen this before. That doesn't mean it's not a good thing. If Notre Dame does that it's a great thing and we'll talk about why that's a great thing in a little bit but that doesn't make everyone necessary it'll calm things down a bit. But the whole point is the frustration is you do look great so often and then look like that. And I don't know that beating going on the road and beating a Purdue team that's you know I think is improved but coming off a four and eight season and a new head coach in his second year who'd never been a head coach before. You know beating that team doesn't necessarily say all right you figured it out you've rectified the problem no we need to see that they don't continue to have those type of what the heck was that moments. And that's the big thing but it is at least a step in the right direction Trevor from a positive standpoint from a negative standpoint. You lose this game. I don't know how you recover from that as when if you're Marcus Freeman so in one instance. It's not necessarily about. Hey. Fix when when big and everything is good or when and everything is good. You know it's not that but to the opposite side is you lose this football game and you could be going down a path that I'm not sure you can recover from. The way that I look at this game is it is the first step in a multi step recovery process from what happened on Saturday. If Notre Dame comes out and beats Purdue like how we think that they should and how we believe that they would have last Saturday. To me that raises even more questions about the level of consistency of this football program. But for me looking at this game it's going to be almost about tailoring my expectations. Unfortunately stuff doesn't get corrected as quickly as it falls off and I think that's something a lot of Notre Dame fans are familiar with the way I look at it is almost like if you're trying to get back in shape. You put on weight or whatever pretty quick eggs a while for it to come back off and that's kind of how I look at Notre Dame and the rest of this season. Because as awesome as it would be to come out and watch Riley Leonard have four total touchdowns and Notre Dame handles business and they're getting the young guys in quickly like we thought this three game stretch was going to look like for them. It's more about starting to course correct and starting to take a step in the right direction of where this program needs to go to finish out the season on a strong note because to your point Brian. On the upside of that coin. I don't want to take extremes here but you drop this game to Purdue. You are looking at what does the rest of this season mean for the team in South Bend right so that is in my mind what is at stake from a higher level view. And like we've touched on we'll dive into what that's going to look like and some of the more granular things that we'll be looking for it Saturday. What about how important it is for Notre Dame to come out and play well though right like here's the thing what's at stake on Saturday beating Purdue does not mean everything is fixed. But I do think after what happened Saturday, Trevor this team needs a boost in confidence. I think this team needs the to so like the answers will come down the road about whether or not they've fixed what happened Saturday and then what happened against Louisville last year and Clemson last year and Stanford the year before and Marcy before they just didn't answer. Right look they just didn't show up in those games, but it is something that can then be a setup to then be like get them to the point where they do have it fixed. If you lose this game it's you don't recover from this and now we're starting to get into like okay you just lost a Northern Illinois in Purdue, and you still got Miami of Ohio Louisville, an improved Stanford team, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Virginia. And like Navy on everyone can beat you now. And now you get into like like this could this could end up being 2016 and my first thought is like, stop. Just can we just stop can we be. Can we not over and I'm like but hold on a second. Like, okay it's that game does not equal 2016 but a loss here does. And because it's snowballs it tells me that this team got broken and mentally and emotionally by Northern Illinois bouncing back with a good. It doesn't have to be a great performance just a good performance against against Purdue tells me that at least emotionally and mentally and confidence wise this team has bounced back well. It's very important for short term looking at it from a micro standpoint. It is, it is good for them short term to be able to go out and say hey listen. We've we've rited that that ship for this season, at least for now we've bounced back from that that game didn't snowball into to a loss, sort of like Ohio State led into I think Marshall. In 2022 I think losing Ohio State in 2023 led into kind of a couple poor performances against Duke and Louisville. This team has not always handled those type of things well. They backed from the loss to Clemson well last year. And they did bounce back from the loss to Louisville last year, which is further evidence of why a big win doesn't mean it's all good because they bounce back against USC last year but then three years later, went and laid an egg against Clemson. Right and that's what we're trying to this program needs to get past. And so when I look at it, it's just, you know, the you need that first step though to fix the macro down the road. You need that first step because that first step is going to tell us where this team is that mentally and emotionally coming out of this loss. Totally. It's about sharing your expectations for what this game actually does mean. Right. So much like last week I do believe that Notre Dame is fully capable of beating Purdue, however, because of the results of last week now we have to look at every single opponent and say, well, is it as much of a guaranteed win is as we thought before and as a team in a in a position in a game if I'm Purdue, I smell blood in the water. I'm looking at this, and I'm saying yo, this is an injured team, emotionally coming into our house, who is at a pivotal point in their season going into week three, which is not a spot that you see in Marcus Freeman preaches all the time one play one life and challenge everything and now that is more true than ever. And I think I fall into the category of a lot of people that want to see that go beyond the coaches speak. We need to see it on the field. And against Texas A&M you saw it on the field you saw Marcus Freeman fires team up and they were ready and we talked about it so much. The Notre Dame game show that your players are a byproduct of how you lead them. And I think there is a reflection of that on Saturday and I don't want to open up that can of worms because we got enough of our of our beefs out in the post game show. But when we're talking about what's at stake here that is part of the step one of course correcting where Notre Dame needs to go for the next nine plus games after Purdue. Notre Dame needs to take a hard look at from, you know, from head coach to coordinators to the captains of the team that were elected by the players and to the role guys and the other starters that this is the standard that we're not living up to. And it's on us to fix it. We have an opportunity at Purdue to take that next step. And if it doesn't, there's going to be some serious conversations after that. But what I think needs to happen is coming in, having a clear full prep week of practice, and coming in focused. And I think that is as big of a step of big of a part of step one as possible is your focus going into Saturday. So it doesn't take a genius to look at that team that came out there against Northern Illinois and say that they weren't focused, and that they weren't bought into what was going on. And that's where it starts for me. So the other thing to Trevor is we still don't know who this team is, because if the team that showed up against North against Texas A&M showed up against Northern Illinois we're talking about Notre Dame being to an O and ranked in the top five. And Notre Dame's a much bigger favorite against Purdue, because they would have beaten Northern by at least two touchdowns if that team would have shown up. What version of this is this is what we've kind of been talking about with Marcus Freeman here and talked about it over the summer and it continues to be the concern for him is we don't necessarily know what team is going to show up from week to week. Where's the disconnect and so that's why I say like if they come out and look great this week that doesn't answer anything in the big picture does answer something for this season because you had mentioned it like look, there, there is a sit. There's a reality in sports, where when you're playing a team that's far more dominant than you, you're going to look at it as an opportunity for yourself. But if that team comes out and plays well early there's a there's a level of a yeah well, you know, just saying our day, this team's too good for us. And no one's going to look at Notre Dame like that now, I don't care, I don't care if Notre Dame runs off their next seven or eight wins and they climb back into the top 10 Virginia's going to be like a Northern Illinois beat them we can beat them army's going to be like Northern Illinois beat them we can beat them there. No one's going to be afraid of this football team anymore. And so it makes it imperative that this team regained some confidence and some swagger back that they completely did not have on Saturday they didn't lose it against Northern Illinois, they never had it against Northern Illinois. And that's where Marcus Freeman's got to find some answers as to why how could I have my team that ready to play A&M. And he starts talking about, you know, this is what's going to be interesting is because he starts talking about you know hey you know they started watching ESPN and it's like isn't isn't that something you've got to be aware of before the game. And deal with in your preparation before the game, when you know your players are looking at ESPN and how great they are. The last thing you should want to do is change your routine and say well we're going to confirm that we're arrived and we're going to because we're going to not practice on Thursday now because that's what we think about this team. Does anyone on the planet think that Marcus Freeman would have not would have only done walkthroughs on Thursday if they were playing Louisville last weekend. Or if they're playing USC last weekend course not. And that's the thing is like how do you reprogram your team now to say hey listen everybody is a team that we are going to take very seriously. And we got to be ready for. And it's not just Marcus Freeman to we're going to learn a lot about this football team Trevor this weekend about your leadership, because your leadership was null and void on Saturday even some of the answers I heard from the quote Captains and all Americans on on both sides of the ball and Saturday were like wow I now have confirmed that everything I my worst fears were true that you just were not. I think I think I heard Howard Cross say something like you know around halftime or something like that they realize they were in a dog fight like you didn't know that watching film. You know and so it just tells you the entire process was flawed and it starts is at the top not just Marcus Freeman but with your leadership. And how you bounce back from this game is going to tell you a lot about your leadership and not just with Marcus Freeman it's going to tell you a lot about your leadership in each side of each room. And it's going to tell your leadership on both sides of the ball from a player level how's the locker room. Is this something that tears this team apart. Is there like a lot of finger pointing that comes on now the offense defense saying to the offense or God you guys got to do more we can't You know, you know, have to we can't lose games going 16 points is the offense going to say hey listen we gave you a fourth quarter lead and you guys gave up. Do we see that or does this team say hey fellas. We all screwed up on Saturday. We all played a role in this loss. And we are going to fix it. And those are things that I that you need to see because if they don't do those things then this is just going to kind of they may go out and out talent Purdue for a win. But it there's going to be there's going to be some major cracks. And we saw that a little bit from Notre Dame in the past with teams that underachieved is you'd see how you'd see the that's what they're supposed to be versions of that team from time to time. You know, I mean Notre Dame in 2016 as bad as they were. It'd be a pretty decent Miami team that year. Right. I mean, I think it was a Miami team that won nine games handled your business. And then you also lost a Navy. You know, and you come out first half and you give every USC everything they can handle in a year where USC at that point time was really good. And then USC kind of, you know, did what they did pull away from it. But those are different things that you look at and say, Hey, listen, you've got, you've got to be able to respond mentally to what happened on Saturday. And that's why I say we're going to learn a lot about this football team and that's what makes this game so important. It's not even about Purdue. It's, it's about Notre Dame. It's about what's their psyche. What's their mindset? Is it, do they come out on Saturday with real confidence? Do they come on Saturday with fake confidence? Do they come out on Saturday flat? Those are the three options. And right now, I don't know that anyone can confidently say that they know what that's going to be. This game opens up the opportunity for somebody on the team to step up and be that guy. And I'm not necessarily talking about on the field. Right. We've seen it Notre Dame has so far this year have had guys that produce in the field obviously number four in the backfield is a dude. And there's not a whole lot of convincing that needs to happen there. Bo Collins has shown flashes of, Hey, I can be that guy in the passing game for you. Feed me the ball. What I'm talking about is you have the opportunity. Somebody on that team has the opportunity to come in and bring the juice. That's what I think is lacked. And I think a guy's like Nano Safa Mensa, who didn't start last year. Right. He was a role player and a darn good role player at that. But he was the guy if you remember that 2022 almost behind the scenes video when Notre Dame beat Clemson. And he was the guy in the locker room that was firing everybody up. It's halftime and he's yelling at everybody and he's, man, like we don't have a takeaway yet we don't, we don't have a sack yet a tackle for a loss yet. And there's something about this team that I feel like they don't have that right now that the players that were elected captains all at one point in time have came out and said, I'm a leader in my own way. Or have came out and said, you know, I lead by example, I might not necessarily be the raw, raw guy, but, you know, I'm more of that one on one captain where I can sit down and, and, and give coaching and, and help develop people individually. Christian Gray talked about that with the mentorship that he received from Ben Morrison, but what Notre Dame lacked last Saturday was that guy, that guy to say, yo, it's, it's time to go. Doesn't matter who we're playing. I'm talking about the non esophomences of the world, the bow bowers of the world, the guys that even the little stuff that on a kickoff would run down the field and they're getting the student section hyped up and, and getting everybody into it because now none of that energy on Saturday, 100% is flat. Trevor, I don't know if you guys could see this on TV, but up in the press box, there was never it. Like there was never a moment like, hey, we got this now, even when they score to come in the fourth quarter, there wasn't that. And, and it's in people saying like, oh, they need vocal leaders. Yeah, to a degree, I mean you need you need somebody step up and say this, but the vocal leadership stops working if it's not backed up by action. Totally. What they need even more. Again, vocal leadership needed somebody's got to step up and say, hey, this is not acceptable, but then you got to go out and practice and make sure and demand that everybody's going to a certain standard and you've got to be the one to set that standard. You've got to be the one to go out there on Saturday and make that first big hit. I don't want to hear Howard Cross talking about this, that and the other thing I want to see how it cross got there and make a big play on Saturday. I don't want to see Riley Mills as a leader, get in front of the team and say, hey, we got to do this, this and this and this. No, I want to see you go out there and make a frickin play on Saturday. Like, I don't want to see Jack Kaiser, you know, be be a, you know, hey, fellas. It's all good. We've got lots of play for. No, I don't see. I want to see you go frickin stick somebody. Go hit somebody. Don't see Benjamin Morrison go pick a ball off and not get beat on a crucial crossing route late in the game, you know, like somebody's got to step up and say, hey, listen, I don't want to hear Riley Leonard talk about I got to practice. I don't give a crap about all that. I want to see you go make a play. That's what I want to see. And, you know, it's like defensively, you've got all these captains. And when the game was on the line, not one of them stepped up and made a play to prevent them from going on a five minute game winning drive, not once, not once, not one of them. And that's what we need to see on Saturday as well is again, it comes down to where's your leadership leadership will emerge in a game like this against Purdue. And it will have emerged starting really yesterday, hopefully, but definitely today when they put the pads on. And I mean, that's going to be a big key. The big part of their preparation this week, Trevor, is going to be, hey, they got to bring it. Because again, what's it stake in this football game? What's it stake in this football game is your season to a degree and the tenure of Marcus Freeman to a degree. And sometimes I wonder and some people have have have discussed it in the in the chat a little bit. And I was talking about this with a couple of guys before the show, but I really wonder if sometimes Marcus Freeman. Maybe listens to too many people and doesn't have enough conviction about certain things on his own. I want to see him, like, get back saying like, look, okay, this is what I believe and we're going to do it and then sink or swim because right now your career, your career Notre Dame is essentially on the line this week. I mean, like, like, Trevor, I don't know how this team in year three recovers from a low road loss to Purdue to fall to one and two preseason number five team in the country. It's like getting to number five has been a horrible thing for Marcus Freeman. He's gotten to number five twice in his career in both times. Actually, I don't count the bowl game. That's unfair, because that wasn't his team. He wasn't the coach of that team, but the other two times you were number five preseason going to Ohio State and you lost two games in a row. You go into this weekend, and your fought your number five in the country and the AP and you lose. Okay, so you like he was frustrating to hear from Marcus Freeman is he's talking about after the game. He's talking about how we got to learn handle success better. I said that on Tuesday of last week. How is that message not being hammered in your players head last Tuesday? You know, and that's that's kind of frustrating, but at the end of the day, if they don't go out and win this game this weekend and again it's one of those. I don't care if it's uglier or a blowout. I really don't. They need to. They need to win this game. The better they play, the better will all feel about it, but they've got to win this game because I honestly don't know how you recover from this number one. It's going to say, who else are you going to beat? Because if beating Northern Illinois in Purdue is really tough business, then who's not going to be tough business? And so those that's why again, I think this weekend is huge for them Trevor is they've they've got to. There's a lot more at stake here than I think maybe they're they realize. You know, they're probably looking at a real macro level like, you know, it's just one game, you know, one play one life one game. Okay, that's all fine, but you've got to have some awareness of what's outside of that. Like, you know, yes, you got to focus on that one play, but as a coach, I'm talking about, you've got to be more aware of some more bigger picture broad things. And that's why I think this Purdue game is is huge because this is a this is a it's not a maker break moment for Notre Dame because I don't think a win makes this team, but it can be a break moment. And that's what we need to see. It's it's a sinker float opportunity, to be honest with you. And that's the way that I look at it. Notre Dame needs to show themselves needs to show us as Irish nation. They need to show that they can handle the bright lights. Right. And I'm not talking about the bright lights a college game day. I'm not talking about the bright lights of a top 20 showdown at night. I'm talking about when something needs to happen, because something needs to happen this game. This isn't a, well, I guess we'll go out there and we'll see what happens. That's what I mean when the lights are on you. The spotlight is now on Notre Dame and it's not the good kind. You have other coaches referencing your team, talking about how, hey, look at Notre Dame versus Northern Illinois. Nothing's guaranteed. That's the narrative of your team. After you just beat Texas A&M and college station at night. So, I want to know how this team is going to handle what's at stake is, how can they handle it when their back is against the wall. And they're, you know, for lack of better analogies. They're a wounded animal there. I mean, you know, they're trying to find their way. They need to turn it around. And how they respond this week is going to be a big key indicator for me, whether it's a three point win or a 30 point win. How you respond is going to be everything. Because let's be real, much like how we talked about last week, Notre Dame is the more talented team. And that's not produced specific. You could say that about 90% of the teams on Notre Dame schedule. Just to be fair, that's why you went out and got Mike Denmark and that's why you went out and got Bo Collins and Chris Mitchell and that sophomore class has another year under their belt, right? But you need to go out and show yourselves. I mean, one that you can do this because as much as you know your media facing and you can say all the right things, but you, we will see what that's like on Saturday, whether you say it or not. And I, that I got to see it, you know, I got to see that the team believes in what they are saying, and the coaches believe in what they are saying. And if that doesn't come to fruition, that's what's at stake is now you have to look at a program and say, I will not only do the players not believe in themselves to the coaches believe in the players they have, do they believe in themselves? And I know it's so crazy to think about that with that, that the game that we're talking about is Purdue. But this is a situation that you're in right now and you have to play with the cards that you're dealt. And we'll see what direction it goes in from here. You got to deal with the reality you have, not the reality you want. If you want a different reality, then you got to do some about it, create it. I mean, that's where they're at. So if they do it, if they are able to go out and get a win. Then obviously that that that builds some momentum and then whether or not this is fixed is determined by how much they can consecutively string things together because if we're looking big picture at Marcus Freeman, we have definitely seen some very impressive stretches under him where they've won, you know, certain amount of games in a row or had had, you know, real good, solid wins. But the reality is, is he's now in year three. And, you know, when nine games this first year and one 10 games a second year, but he's never had more than five wins in a row. He had five wins in a row at during the 2022 season. So, but you and Ob Syracuse Clemson Navy BC and lost a USC. If you count the bowl game and then the start of 2023 they won five games in a row beat South Carolina Navy Tennessee State NC State Central Michigan. And then went one and two next three games and then they want to lost another one. One three at the end of the year and then one here so they had a four game winning streak that just got snapped again so. I mean that that's your next next benchmark is can you really go on a roll. But it has to start here and I do believe that how they perform against Purdue will have a say and then can they get rolling like if, if you just straight by the next two weeks. And, and you know kind of go through and just okay you won but you know you won ugly. You know the next two games look a lot like Texas A&M result wise. You're not going to be in a great position when Louisville comes to town. And it's going to be much harder for you to go on a run. So at some point in time they've got to get rolling. Is this the week or is this the week that sets up that role. That's something that we're going to find out so I do think then we talked a lot about. You know it's it's really devastating if you lose but but I do think winning is important obviously beyond just you're not losing but from the standpoint of. It does play a role in, in your confidence like just winning ugly doesn't necessarily make you a confident football team. Coming out there and playing to your potential is what really reignites that confidence that you had that swagger that was and it. And again Trevor like here's what's so frustrating about it. It wasn't false swagger because false swagger does not present itself in the fourth quarter of a tough game. It is gone by that false swagger goes away when that team takes the fall right down the field and gets a field goal and then takes another lead and that's not what that that's not false swagger false swagger dissipates real fast. If it's not real how that was that team with that was real swagger and confidence and it was gone on Saturday. So you've got to rebuild that and the better you play the faster that is because you've got to make sure that that what comes back isn't a false sense of bravado or swagger it's got to be real and genuine. And that's that's where I'm at with 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 podcast Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Hey Irish Breakdown listeners it's Matt Liner. I've got a podcast called Throwbacks with actor Jay Ferrar will 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 podcast Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. The weird thing is is you could make the argument and you'll have to hear me out here but you could make the argument that the mantra. The team had going into the Texas A&M game in the Northern Illinois, Northern Illinois game was almost the same of that we're better than you. Texas A&M you saw that swagger in the fire of no matter what you throw at us were the more prepared team were the more athletic team were the tougher team. And that's where that fourth quarter swagger comes in that you were talking about right. Unfortunately on the flip side of that coin you turn in the next week and you get so into it of yourself that you're like yeah we're better than you so we're just not going to practice. We're just not going to take this seriously because we know that you're better than you. You know and that's what's weird it's you could almost look at that and say yeah I think both weeks Notre Dame was very confident that they were better. But where that kind of dissipates is to your point when Texas A&M comes back and punches me in the mouth you can say you know we're better than you. This is nothing to us whereas Northern Illinois does that and it's like crap I thought we were better than you. You know and that's that's the weird line that you kind of have to walk. Notre Dame needs to put themself in a spot where they themselves and you know the media the local media like us like the Irish breakdown crew. You know other media outlets around the team and from a national perspective they need to put themself in a position where they look at that Northern Illinois game like it is an anomaly. And they need to position themselves to say at the end of the year ideally because now if Notre Dame wants to make the playoffs I firmly believe it has to be an 11 in one type season it's funny we talked about before the Texas A&M game. We talked about how if you lose this game the season's not over but the margin for error is smaller. Now that you lost to Northern Illinois I'd make the argument the margin for error is zero. There is no well maybe if you know they play USC tough at the end of the year at no there is no you run the table the rest of the year let's just call that a common ground. They need to get to the point where they themselves believe that they are so good that that Northern Illinois was a we know exactly why we know why we lost that game. It is an anomaly there is no question that Notre Dame is one of the best 12 teams in the country and that's the position that they have to put themselves in starts with Purdue. And like we've been talking about it starts with taking that step in the right direction. Yeah, because it like you're making a good point because I thought you were going to start talking about you know whether or not they will or won or can or can't get into the playoffs and I was going to like pump the brakes but you said it perfectly. And of course if like I said if if Notre Dame runs the table they're in the playoff now where they're seated is going to be up for debate. But at this point in time like I don't care about that right now. But how you play this weekend is going to be something that can then set you up to then potentially go on that kind of run. Because as you mentioned you're now in like 10 and 2 might have been able to get you in but not 10 and 2 with a home loss against Northern Illinois where they outplayed you for 60 minutes like you're going to have to be 11 and 1 barring some. There's just a bunch of four lost teams out there. But how how you to get there you have to first come out and handle your business Saturday and you know what I want to see on Saturday Trevor. I'm going to be honest with you and we'll get into specifics from a offense defense I'm just about as a team. I want to see this team really pissed. And if this team doesn't come out pissed and I don't mean pissed in like they're taking late shots at Purdue or talking a lot of trash or you know that's not that's emotional. I'm not talking about emotional I'm talking about playing with a little bit of a chip on your shoulder because like you know I'm bad you know it's like when you when you we all played sports right. When you go out Trevor I know you played baseball as well as I did you don't have that game where you go over three with a couple strikeouts and a pop out to get some pitcher that sucks and you're just like you're embarrassed with how you played. You come out that next game and man you're locked in you're kind of pissed because I want to show everyone that's not who I am. You come out that next game go three for four to couple doubles in a you know and make two great plays at shortstop and you know I mean like that's what I'm talking about. Come out pissed off like that's not who we are we embarrassed ourselves. You know and and we put on this Notre Dame uniform. And we had multi tail there and we disappointed him. We disappointed our fans. You know like oh you know what we heard the booze and it's going to be motive. Why does why does us being disappointed in how you played motivation for you not to play that way. Explain that to me all American. I don't understand that. That's basically what Howard Cross said and after the game correct I mean you heard that right. Like wait a minute you getting embarrassed by Northern Illinois wasn't enough for you to have motivation to go play better. You needed to wait till you got booed by the fans who spent hundreds of dollars just on tickets. Thousands of dollars on travel. They're the bad guy now not you just got embarrassed at Northern Illinois by Northern Illinois right. But you need you need the fans booing you to be motivation. Here's a crazy thought Trevor had you not embarrassed yourself against Northern Illinois no one's booing you. Right. So that just makes me think like there is something going on in that locker room where they're not really understanding what's at stake right now. And that's why I need to see something completely different on Saturday for me to like nothing that happens. They could win 70 to nothing and it doesn't change a whole lot for me. And matter of fact that might actually piss me off a little bit more because I'm like this is who you should have been. But it doesn't guarantee that they're not going to lay an egg the next week against Miami, Ohio. Right. But I need to see the right attitude on Saturday because if they have the right attitude. It tells me they took the right lessons from the loss and saying that we're going to be motivated by the fans booing us for how we embarrassed this institution. This program and all the people that came before us we embarrassed them with this loss. We're we're that's the motivation we need to make sure that never happens again. Not that you don't get booed not the people don't say bad things about you on social media because hey guess what guys. People are going to talk trash about you no matter what. This is why I don't care what people say about me because like no matter what stance I take. Pro BK anti BK pro Riley Leonard anti Riley Leonard somebody's going to be pissed off at me. So I'm just going to be honest with you and give you my opinion and not really care what anybody thinks right like you need to focus on you as a team. And come out and play with that attitude that's a big thing for me Trevor against Purdue is I don't want you to go out talent Purdue. I want you to take out all your frustrations on Purdue because that you know what that's going to tell me Trevor's going to tell me that this team does have some pride. That this team is pissed off about how they embarrass themselves. And I don't want to see them come out and say well see maybe the fans alike is not like get. I don't want to hear all that crap. You embarrass yourself. Go out and play like you're embarrassed and you want to prove something that no that no. Yeah we we look like crap on that Saturday and I and I've used this example before. Ohio State I talked about it last week. Before this game I talked about Ohio State losing the Virginia Tech. And getting embarrassed by Virginia Tech in that game lost by two touchdowns of Virginia Tech. And that Ohio State team kind of came out with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. After that and they went on a long run so is it possible sure and I know I don't think that Virginia Tech team was all that much better than this Northern Loy team guys we told you all last week. That this is a good football team. This is a Michael Brewer led Virginia Tech team. Right so no I but but they got embarrassed. Right they got embarrassed that came out said no this isn't going to happen again this is going to happen again. And JT Barrett has one touchdown three interceptions and he plays terrible and the offense plays terrible Zeke Elliott does nothing but they came out. Then the next week and then the week after that and then the week after that like a pissed off football team. They came out the next week and they beat Kent State 66 to nothing and JT Barrett do six touchdowns week after that. They beat Cincinnati 50 to 28 JT Barrett through four touchdowns week after that. They come out beat Maryland on the road 52 to 24 JT Barrett throws four touchdowns. You know like so again. What who don't let Northern Illinois define who you are. Don't let that how you respond is going to define who you are good or bad. That's going to be the biggest takeaway from the game this weekend is that. I need to see the passion man. I need to see a team that wants to be there and believes in what they are doing. You should be and I don't want to beat a dead horse because you hit the nail on the head. But you need to be embarrassed for yourself. It should your Notre Dame people are going to hate you regardless of what you do. But you need to channel that into people need to hate you for the right reasons. Because they don't want to see you successful hate me because I just dominate you week after week. Yeah. It's like what there was this there's this great video before the game tremor and looking back on it. I'm like man I wish the this football team had the same mentality that Lou Holt's had. At the end of the video they said he basically said we're Notre Dame and they basically saying like they hate us because we're Notre Dame and you ain't. Lou Holt said that crowd goes nuts. And I'm thinking like if only the Notre Dame football team had that mentality. And that's exactly what you're talking about is we're going to play like a way like we're going to hate. We want you to hate us. It's like you watch the you right. Remember that. We hate we hate everything Notre Dame stands for. Well those guys growing up hated Notre Dame because when when they were growing up Notre Dame was pretty darn good. And you know I want you to hate us because we're on national TV every weekend and you're not why because we're this and you're not we're competing for championships and you're not. We're doing this and you're not we're successful and you're not we're kicking your butt in your own place and there's not a dang thing you can do about it. Right. That's what you need to see and that's the that's the attitude that they need to have. Why do you why do you think everybody hated Alabama from 2009 to 2020. Is because they were that team. You I had a I had an old coach that would always talk to me about if you are not. If somebody's not hating you you're doing something wrong. Because there are some people out there that just don't want to see you be successful and that is Notre Dame in a nutshell man. You hear everybody talk about it either well you either love Notre Dame or hate Notre Dame. But where you know you are doing something wrong is when the people who love you start to hate you. I know we're kind of throwing a lot of you know a lot of word mumbo jumbo in here. But that's the thing is your Notre Dame where that. And you can't get this little taste of oh my goodness we're actually starting to get some respect around here. Let's take the foot off the gas pedal if anything you should have been the opposite and that is what is so frustrating from last week. Is you had the opportunity to blow the doors off of this season man. You had the opportunity to go out and say yeah some areas of improvement against Texas A&M but we got the win we got a 10 point win. As three point dogs in the fourth largest crowd of that stadium's history. And no it's not a 60,000 attendance max crowd you 100 plus thousand people. You set the fourth largest attendance record. At that game and you had the opportunity to come in and say hey we're here. And you dug yourself in a hole and now it's all about how you respond. It's I have such a love hate relationship with the one play one life one week at a time sort of thing. I think in instances like this not you've dug yourself in a hole you have to take things one week at a time. But there are instances where I think that it's okay to look at the grand scheme of hey this is why we're practicing this hard for Northern Illinois because this is what's at stake in the grand scheme of our season. Instead of just yeah well we'll take this practice and we'll see how it goes and then we'll show up Wednesday and see how it goes and we'll evaluate on Thursday. You talk all the time Marcus Freeman talks all the time about like living a standard you don't play down to the level of the opponent and you don't play up to the level of your opponent you play to your standard. And his team does not do that. His team has never done that. Never done that. Not with any consistency. No there's times they show up and beat a BC like you're supposed to beat a BC. Sure. And that's fine. And there's times you beat a you know a Tennessee state the way you're supposed to beat a Tennessee state or a Navy the way you're supposed to beat a Navy. But consistently that's not at all what his team does. They don't play to a standard. Do you think that they played to the standard emotionally and physically against Duke last year or against Louisville last year or against Clemson last year or against Northern. No. And so that's why I say you're not fixing all this in one week. Nothing that happens against Purdue fixes it. But it's a big important step. And I don't want to minimize that I don't want to be like I don't care if I'm by 70 it still sucks that you lost in Illinois. That's not what we're saying. Because like it's time to move on from that like you can't fix that. It's about taking a positive step it doesn't but it doesn't erase all of that. But it can still be a positive step and I think this team needs that emotionally. That emotional kick in the pants. Of a good performance and and I don't even mean necessarily one that lacks sloppiness. I mean more so you come out and you're confident you're playing hard. You know you're you're getting after it you're you're not getting beaten to trenches if you. You know you drop a ball you drop a ball you miss attacking is that it's still early enough in the season where I can live with some of that. But what I can't live with is a team that doesn't fight I can't live with a team that has no motion I can't live with a team that has no leadership I can't live with a team. This gets a friend a commotionally week to week to week that that that I can't live with I've said this a million times Trevor. I know you've heard me say it I can live with technical mistakes I can live with assignment mistakes I can I can correct some of the things that went wrong I can fix Ashton Craig. Constee holding guys I can fix that and he should have got called for five holding families on Saturday I mean literally he's just reaching jerseys that needs to get fixed but I can fix that when I can't fix. That's not necessarily just in a drill is you had to play with no passion or you did play with passion. The energy on the sideline was was and there was no reading of the it's it's like what I said with my play call on the second one play call. I have no problem in theory with Mike Dambrock throw running a double post on the backside smash and that concert in that situation I have no problem. Everybody knows double post is like my favorite football play. I don't have enough awareness of who your football team is. To say my quarterback is struggling to make real basic reads he almost to a pick two plays before on a comeback through a late comeback route backside almost got picked. I can't ask him to read double posts in this situation. You know there's got to be some awareness of here's who my team is now let's go fix it and to a degree we're going to learn if Marcus Freeman has that to a degree this weekend because this is this is worse than Stanford. In 2022 this is worse than Marshall in 2020 even though this is a better team than Stanford that's not the point. It's who you are as a program. Yep. And so in order to bounce back. The head coach is going to have to have some awareness and ability to read his football team a little better. And he's going to have to establish a a level of like. This is what he said Trevor in the in the thing he said you know we've got a we've got to be able to find a way. To be more consistent in our emotional preparation. I wanted to be like here's a thought. If you want to be more consistent in your emotional preparation. How about you have more consistency in your physical preparation. Don't not practice on Thursday. Just do a walk through and then be shocked when your team which is really young and a lot of instances. Yeah. And in really new in a lot to the system in a lot of instances. They're not ready for that in week two. The fact that he wasn't a what he didn't have that kind of read on the team concerns me. So this Saturday is going to tell us if Marcus Freeman really did have a look in the mirror come to Jesus moment. About others and it's not about yelling at them all week. It's not about tearing them down all week. That's what I'm talking about. If anything it's about building them up this week. Totally. You know it's a hey look this isn't okay. This is not okay. We're going to do something about it. And it says you know I don't want Joe Rudolph going out there in MF and National Craig every day. I want him to go out there and spend extra time working on hand placement. Yep. I don't want Mike Dembrock telling Riley letter. You freaking suck and can't throw a ball down the field. That may be true right now. Fix it. Identify why what's the hey Riley what what what are you seeing here. Well coach. Okay he's struggling with his reads. I got it. We'll get into that a little bit. You can see. I'll Washington now go and get in with the D line and say hey look what what's going on here. It's okay coach here's what you know and then fix it. Right. That's what we're going to find out this weekend if they can push the right buttons to fix it and have that. Can they can they look enough in the mirror or is it just going to be a let's yell at them all week. And tear them down all week. And then hope that that motivates them to go play well. I don't think that's what they're going to do because I don't they don't have a lot of coaches that strike me as that type of goes. Like I don't I don't see how golden is the guy that's just going to MF the defense the whole week. I don't know that he this is strike me as that kind of coach. Sure. And you hope that they're not but you know but but this is kind of what we're referring to. So go ahead and wrap up wrap this part up Trevor and we'll we'll let you kind of have the last word on this. Yeah I mean I was thinking really and I'm sure I'm in the same categories a lot of you guys. I thought so much about what do you say as a head coach after a win like this. You hear about self reflection and you hear about just the theme for this game and this week of practice and. And it kind of just finally hit me if I'm Marcus Freeman I'm preaching from the top down and what I want to see from the team this week. Play. Fearless man. That's what I want to see. That's what I want to see. I don't want to see linebackers sitting on their heels absorbing tackles because they're afraid if they go in out of control they're going to miss it. At this point to your point that's a correctable mistake. I now need to see that this team plays with the fire and passion that they should have my message all we can practice is be fearless. There is. Two people. Slightly more than two that I can think of on Saturday that played fearless. Jaden Osbury played fearless came in and took advantage of most of the opportunities that he got when he played the other one was Jeremiah love. Looking upon himself to hurdle a six foot tall safety to get into the end zone. Fearless. Easy saying would have been maybe a little shimmy lower the shoulder see what you can do there. Play fearless is a team man. That's what I need to see. Not to the point where you're making mistakes outside of the whistle. Not to the point where you are. You know grab and face masks and tackling people out of bounds that's not what I mean at all. I don't mean play out of character I mean between the whistles play fearless. And that's what I want to see and that's what I hope. Hope to God the messaging is this week of practice. And I think starting with that messaging like we're about to get into is going to start freeing up your quarterback to be himself and be why you brought him here. That is what I am praying that that's the message that started Saturday night. That they're going to be talking about on the bus ride or plane ride to West Lafayette. I hope that's what they're talking about every practice every team meeting is play fearless. That's what I'm hoping. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] At King Super's Pharmacy, care is making it easy to get vaccinated. Care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID and RSV. Seasonal vaccines are available seven days a week with evening hours. Care is giving you a shot at staying healthy this season. Walk in whenever is best and get multiple vaccines in one visit at your local King Super's Pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King Super's, a world of care is in store. 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