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Irish Breakdown

Rapid Fire: Riley Leonard, Steve Angeli, CJ Carr, Carries For Jeremiyah Love And Jadarian Price

Today's Rapid Fire topics include:

  • We hear and discuss comments from Marcus Freeman on what he sees for Riley Leonard this season. * On a scale of 1 to 10, what are the chances an Irish quarterback not named Riley Leonard plays against Purdue this week?
  • Thoughts on a post on Twitter/X by ESPN's Dan Orlovsky on Irish freshman quarterback CJ Carr. * Fill-in the blank...Texas got a big road win at Michigan last weekend. It’s BLANK that Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkesian warned his team not to fall into a “Notre Dame scenario” this week when they host UT San Antonio. * Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price combined for 15 carries last week vs NIU. What’s the minimum number of combined carries those two should have in a game?
  • A listener asks if we would rather Notre Dame win 10 games with Riley Leonard this season and then start over with a new quarterback next year or win eight games with freshman CJ Carr to build off his experience going into next season.
  • With all the drama after the Irish loss, we haven’t had a chance to talk about new NBC play by play announcer Dan Hicks calling the game. What did you think of him and the broadcast? Shop for Irish Breakdown gear at our online store: https://ibstore.irishbreakdown.com/  Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com  Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com​ Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/irish-breakdown/id1485286986 Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishbreakdown Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/irish-breakdown-newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:
43m
Broadcast on:
10 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

Today's Rapid Fire topics include:

* We hear and discuss comments from Marcus Freeman on what he sees for Riley Leonard this season.

* On a scale of 1 to 10, what are the chances an Irish quarterback not named Riley Leonard plays against Purdue this week?

* Thoughts on a post on Twitter/X by ESPN's Dan Orlovsky on Irish freshman quarterback CJ Carr.

* Fill-in the blank...Texas got a big road win at Michigan last weekend. It’s BLANK that Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkesian warned his team not to fall into a “Notre Dame scenario” this week when they host UT San Antonio.

Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price combined for 15 carries last week vs NIU. What’s the minimum number of combined carries those two should have in a game?

* A listener asks if we would rather Notre Dame win 10 games with Riley Leonard this season and then start over with a new quarterback next year or win eight games with freshman CJ Carr to build off his experience going into next season.

* With all the drama after the Irish loss, we haven’t had a chance to talk about new NBC play by play announcer Dan Hicks calling the game. What did you think of him and the broadcast?

Shop for Irish Breakdown gear at our online store: https://ibstore.irishbreakdown.com/ 

Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com 

Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com​

Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/irish-breakdown/id1485286986

Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishbreakdown

Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/irish-breakdown-newsletter

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King Super's, a world of care is in store. Visit kinksoopers.com/vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply seasight for details. Are you ready for rapid fire? I am ready for rapid fire, but just one final comment just makes me sad that the offense just can't just can't get the simple things going. And I think that's what's the most frustrating is even when you can't do the simple things right, you fail to even do the things that you are being successful at. And that's just like a bad, bad recipe in my opinion. But I'm ready to get fired up and rapid fire now. No more badness. Let's go. We'll see. We'll see. Marcus Freeman was asked yesterday what he sees for the future of Riley Leonard. But here's the response. You know, I'm trying not to look so far around the corner. I know what I can expect of Riley Leonard this week. And that's a quarterback that's going to be prepared, that is going to look to enhance the way he prepares, that's going to look to be a great leader and challenges teammates in the right way, and that will be ready to go on Saturday. Like that's what I know in terms of him. And you know, that's what I'm focusing on is like let's get the mistakes corrected from Saturday. Let's come up with the right plan and go and attack that plan and let the performance take care of itself on this upcoming Saturday. But that's the, I know that's who our quarterback is and now it's time to go do it. I thought that hesitation at the beginning was interesting. What did you make of the response? To be honest with you, I thought it was kind of more or less vintage Marcus Freeman kind of putting on that politician cap and not really giving you a really committing to a true answer essentially, right? He found a way to kind of broke it down and become as simple and non-direct as possible to me, right? Well, of course, Marcus Freeman, you're going to find a way to utilize Marcus Freeman the best you can per week, per the game plan, per the opponent, like that's your job as a head coach. But realistically, you should have, you know, basically a plan, I guess you would say, a master plan of the development you'd like to see from Riley Leonard from the start to Riley Leonard by the end of the season and how ultimately that's going to carry your offense to, you know, whatever your end goal is, right? And so I think that's more of the appropriate answer is we need Riley Leonard to be better at X, Y and Z because that allows X, Y, Z to open up in our offense, right? Like that's more of the answer I'm looking for, not, well, I'm looking at what Riley Leonard can do this game compared to this game or that game. I think that's ultimately what leads to what you saw against NIU. If you don't have an identity as an offense, then what can you take in weekend and week out and consistently get better at and develop a set of skills and to, you know, establish the identity as an offense and say, you know, by the end of the year, this is where we're going to be at, essentially, right? Like this is the foundation that we're building on. And so I just don't like that response really. Yeah, like I said, you know, the hesitation at the beginning and the fact that it sounded like there was some doubt in his mind in terms of what he's going to get from Riley Leonard. I mean, you know, again, you have a body of work on Riley Leonard, otherwise you wouldn't have brought him in to the program. You had a pretty good idea of what you thought you're going to get from this guy when you brought him in to begin with. And now after two weeks, it feels like that's in question now, how much of whatever, you know, this report today about his shoulder could have, could have factored into that hesitation and saw all of a sudden, you know, it's not a, it's not a muscle memory response in terms of what you're going to say about Riley Leonard. It's what do I want to say about him knowing that potentially there's this other information out there that I don't want to disclose, you know, disclose. So I just, I thought it was, I thought that hesitation at the start just made me feel like there was some kind of doubt one way or another, whether it has anything to do with the injury or just based on what they've seen of his play so far, that's what it felt like to me. Now when you factor in this news that came out today and, you know, if you weren't here at the start of the show, maybe you haven't seen it or maybe you have and we haven't talked about it yet, but there is the report out there that Riley Leonard did injure his non-throwing shoulder Saturday against Northern Illinois, and according to the report, it is some kind of labrum injury, posterior labrum injury is what they said, but Riley Leonard has been practicing this week and does plan to play this week, this Saturday against Purdue. Scale of one to 10 though, Jesse, what are the chances that an Irish quarterback not named Riley Leonard plays against Purdue this week? You know, I ultimately think this is 50/50 because, you know, it just, if Riley Leonard already has a compromised shoulder and he comes down on a hard hit or falls on that shoulder, you know, again, in a certain way, he could be done, right? And so I think if you're Notre Dame, you have to be prepared for that situation, knowing that your quarterback is coming into this game damaged, right? And then kind of what we talked about as well, earlier in the show, if he can't run the ball and be a true dual-therit quarterback, that significantly takes away from his potency as a quarterback, right? And then if you combine that with the inability to make any noise in the passing game, then really what can he do, right? And so at some point, if neither of those things are going right and you need to get something going in the passing game, and Riley Leonard is again hurt to some degree, then I do believe it provides a nice, easy excuse to be like, you know what, I think that we need to get someone in here who can at least hit the layups, right? Like everyone makes fun of Angeli for being a check-down king, well, you got to start somewhere, right? And if Riley Leonard can't do that-- I mean, a check-down might get it done at this point, you know? Right. And if they can run the ball with efficiency, that's going to open up the pass game as well. So I have to say 5 out of 10 because, again, I'm out of 50-50 on this one. If Riley Leonard-- if it's halftime and Riley Leonard isn't hitting the layups, hitting any down-field passes, getting into some progressions, not stepping into working up the pocket and making throws, I really do believe that you could see a different quarterback in there. So you're 50-50 on this. And I think I would not be 50-50 if the shoulder injury didn't come out. The shoulder injury kind of really changed kind of some of the stuff that I was going to hit on today. Riley Leonard wasn't injured at all, and, you know, I see all these message board warriors who their first thing is to always say, well, there's got to be a quarterback better, right? Like, let's put it in the backup quarterback. No. Riley Leonard, we've seen him throw the ball at Duke. He was able to throw the ball and have success. You can't tell me he can't do that Notre Dame with better ride receivers, better offensive line, better running backs, right? I just think now that you add this injury element to it, it significantly changes how he can play the style of quarterback. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 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 $10 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. So my confidence that we see a quarterback not named Riley and I'm not saying this is a starting quarterback because I think that Riley Leonard is going to start against Purdue. But as you kind of alluded to and I think that we said earlier the fact that if Riley Leonard does have some kind of injury and he continues to play the way that he played against Northern Illinois the other day it gives you, it gives you a reason basically to put him out there. Now like you can easily give him and they get these all the time, the injection in the shoulder to ease whatever pain that he's got and those injections last for a long time. The quarter zone shot in the shoulder. So he could easily have one of that if it's, if it is in fact a tear but it is a minor tear and he feels like he's able to play, give him the quarter zone and he's really not going to feel anything unless he takes another really bad hit on that thing. And again, remember it's the non-throwing shoulder we're talking about. He's not, you know, we're not talking about the actual throwing shoulder. But I feel like this opens the door for a reason to put and Steve Angeli out there on the field. If Leonard is performing at that same level, my confidence, well it's not really confidence. What are the chances? My number is a six. I think mine is a little bit above 50/50. I think that there is a good shot based on what we saw on Saturday unless something drastically changes that there's a better, better than 50/50 shot that we see one of the other quarterbacks out there this weekend. And now Andre was asking, you know, a fair question, what do you really want him to say? This going back to Marcus Freeman in the comments that he made about Angeli, again, like a confident statement about Riley Leonard, like we have a body of work on Riley Leonard. We saw Riley Leonard perform against us Notre Dame last year. We scouted him in the four games that he played before Notre Dame and Duke played last year. And he had a full 2022 season where he threw 20 touchdown passes in that season. And he ran for another 11 touchdowns. We know what Riley Leonard can be and we're confident that he's going to get back to that. That's something along those lines is what I would have expected Marcus Freeman to say. But that wasn't what he said, you know, it was a hesitation. And then a little bit of a word salad that came after that. Brody is saying like eight to 10 range. The chances that a different quarterback beyond Riley Leonard is playing. On the subject of quarterbacks, what did you think of Dan Orlowski's tweet over the weekend when everything was falling apart for Notre Dame? All he said was CJ Carr question mark. I think it's a very easy and kind of lazy response because, you know, no one was saying that after the Texas A&M win. And it's so easy to be in hindsight and just start throwing names out there, right? And I kind of got into this a little bit earlier in the show too of, you know, did Riley Leonard play bad? Yes. But I believe he was ultimately kind of, you know, the coaches didn't really tailor kind of the second half around what was working for Notre Dame and what wasn't working for Riley Leonard at the time. And so I think it's a little bit premature. And again, I do think it's relatively lazy on Dan Orlowski's part just to be like, you know, thrown quarterback names out there essentially. I know. It just stirs the pot more at the end of the day. And this came from someplace other than Dan Orlowski, just being a casual follower of Notre Dame to be throwing CJ Carr's name out there like this. I mean, he might as well might as well just call him Guy Montag. Remember Farenheit 451, you know, the fire, you know, the fireman, he's a fire starter. Basically, it's like, that's, that's what Orlowski did, you know, let's just set it on fire. Riley Leonard's having a little bit of trouble. So let's just throw out the fourth string freshman quarterback out there with all the talent. Who granted we all know how we played in the spring, but let's just throw that out there right now because Notre Dame doesn't need any quarterback controversy at all. Let's just, let's just fan the flames and get that right out there. Thank you very much, Dan Orlowski. Fill in the blank. Texas got a big road win at Michigan last weekend. It's blank that Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkeesian warned his team not to fall into a Notre Dame scenario this week when they host UT San Antonio. Unfortunately, it's, it's a warranted statement, right? Because now you have, you have bulletin board material for, for both sides of the situation, right? Like if you're San Antonio, or UT San Antonio, then you're the head coach. It's like, look at what NIU just did last week to Notre Dame, right? Come out, play hard, execute how we know we're supposed to on the flip side of that when you're the, the heavy favorite, you're the, you know, you're the Texas, the Georgia's, the, you know, top 25 opponents and even more so, top 10 opponent, I think it's definitely easy to say, you know, let, let's not fall into that same sort of trap because this is what can happen, right? Like, if we don't do our job, have a good week of practice. If we come out how we're supposed to, then these sort of things can happen and our entire season can start to go down a different path. So, you know, as much as it sucks, Notre Dame brought this on themselves to kind of be, you know, the example for the rest of college football this season. Yeah, I mean, it, it is never good when you're the example, you know, like, for those who have ever watched the TV show, the TV series, Brock Meyer, that had Hank Azaria, where he was a, he was, he started off in the very first episode of the series, he, he went nuts in the broadcast booth, he was supposed to be calling a major league baseball game, he goes nuts, he goes on this rant induced by liquor, and then he disappears and falls off the face of the earth for like a year or two, a few years, actually, and then he shows back up in this minor league park, and it's like doing what he did is now known as pulling a Brock Meyer, like, you don't want to be the one that they named the example of is what I'm saying, you know, and like, here's, here's Notre Dame now, and here's Steve Sarkeesian using him as an example, and I mean, he showed him that he showed the team the clip of the game winning field goal and showed the clip of Northern Illinois storm in the field and the whole thing, so that's where Notre Dame is right now, they're the Brock Meyer, they're the example for the rest of the college football world, not to, you know, like, you can't take anybody for granted, basically, so that's, yay, yay. Chris following up about the Riley Leonard is numbers against good teams last year were mediocre at Bastys are running back that we hope to turn into a quarterback. Look, I've talked about this before, but I know if you, if all you do is look at his numbers against Florida State and Louisville, which came after the injury, Notre Dame, he was completing better than 70% of his passes pre injury last year, and no, he didn't have a lot of touchdown passes, but he had four touchdown runs as well. He basically single handedly beat Clemson, along with Duke's defense, but from an offensive perspective, he single handedly beat Clemson, you know, again, like, was he great in the first half against Notre Dame? No, but he led them to the lead in the second half. And then again, numbers not great against Louisville and Florida State, but that's after he tried to come back from the ankle injury, and then he had a toe injury to go along with it as well. He obviously was not able to run well at all or plant off that right leg last year in those last two games against a couple of ranked teams. So again, if all you want to do is straight up look at numbers, you can do that and you can make those numbers fit your argument. But there was an injury that played into that. And that's also why he didn't play the rest of the season. And the reason why he had to have surgery once he got to Notre Dame as well, because that injury was was something that was very serious and very lingering. Well, and to kind of double down on that, and I, I thought I kind of put this in the chat and Kristin, it really want to come respond to that part is sophomore season, he threw for 3000 yards, 20 touchdowns, 230 yards a game, six interceptions. And oh, by the way, had a QB rating of 141. Like those don't happen to a guy who can't throw the ball, right? And that's, and that's my point. I'm not going to argue with you that Riley Leonard needs to play better. He absolutely needs. But the point I made yesterday, he didn't just forget how to throw the football. He like, they're, they're like, there is a full season's body of work. And then the game's leading up to the Notre Dame game last year, where he was playing very good football. He was better than much better than just a running back, trying to play quarterback. He was a really good dual threat quarterback for a season and a half before the injury. It's when the injury came along that things obviously went downhill and his season ultimately ended. Yeah. I mean, getting after the his sophomore season, he was getting mocked into a lot of people's first rounds and NFL draft. So clearly he was doing something right at the quarterback level. He just, his whole junior season to me gets thrown out the window when he talked about the, the severity of an ankle and a, in a toe issue. Apollo 27 wants to know if you have faith in him, Jelly. I mean, he's got the most experience. He's shown the most in, in live game situations. And again, to me, it's, it's just getting this offense into some sort of rhythm, completing some of those, you know, layups coming on. They need to be a run, a run first team right now, first and foremost, their identity needs to be able to run the ball and then whatever you can open up off of running the ball, play action, screens, you know, shorter kind of developing routes, hit your layups. And then as the game progresses, continue to run the ball and find ways to work the ball downfield in the passing game as well. And so I think and Jelly can do most of that. My biggest question would be, can you get the ball downfield at some point? Yeah, that's my biggest question that I have for him because again, there's just a lot of check downs. There's a lot of check downs. And we said it yesterday when you, when you look at that video that Notre Dame put out of that scrimmage a few weeks back, back in training camp, they had all these different highlights for the different players in there. The highlight they had for Steve and Jelly was a check down pass, very short within 10 yards of a line of scrimmage. And, you know, Irish for life 99, what's his arm strength? I would say average. Very, I know, no better. It's definitely not better than Riley Leonard's, you know, like if we're, if we're going to compare the two, Leonard doesn't have a rocket arm by any means, but and Jelly doesn't either. So that's here's, here's the best way I would sum this. The ceiling is very short, you know, like again. Now all bets are obviously off after Northern Illinois, but I would have said coming into the season that Riley or that Steve and Jelly, if you put him on the field, would probably be able to get you wins against nine teams on Notre Dame schedule this year, eight, maybe nine, but you needed a guy like Leonard to come in and get you over the hump against the Texas A&M to get you over the hump against what we thought was going to be a good Florida state team or, you know, the better teams on the schedule. And that's where things are going to come a lot more into question, the better the team that Angeli would have to play. What were you going to say? No, I just, the biggest thing I'm seeing right now, and the thing I can compare this to most too, is you remember when Mike McDaniel's took over in Miami and then the previous kind of before the season started, there were all those, you know, comments about the previous Dalton, or sorry, dolphins coach and how he handled, you know, two and all that stuff. Mike McDaniel's came in, watched all kinds of film onto a and tailored his offense specifically around the things that to a can and cannot do. He's getting the most out of his quarterback that he's being dealt. I don't feel like Marcus Freeman is doing the same thing with Riley Leonard. He's not allowing Riley Leonard to be the true Riley Leonard and finding, you know, what works best for Riley Leonard to make this offense tick. I think he has a certain vision for what he wants this offense to look like. And I don't think Riley Leonard necessarily fits that mold with the skill sets that he possessed. And so at some point, you need to be able to be flexible and tailor your offense around the things that your quarterback can do and not what he can't do essentially, right? Which is, you know, again, like when you, when you look at it, what's gone on over the last couple of years, regardless of who the offensive coordinator is, when they brought in these quarterbacks that doesn't feel like what's going on. And there needs to be a lot more of that running back. I love talking about quarterbacks. Running back talk. You want to get into running back talk? I do. That's my favorite part of this offense. So Jeremiah Love and Jadarion Price combined for 15 carries last week against Northern Illinois. What is the minimum number of combined carries those two need 30? I think you could 30 man, 30 heavy. And I think that I would be well, I'm 30 now because Ryan Leonard can't run the ball. I think my number would have been down to maybe like 24 22 ish. But since Riley Leonard can't run the ball and you can't pass the ball, I need 30 carries out of those guys. I mean, again, NIU combined for like 38 run, you know, rushes between their two running backs. And so if you're not effective on first and second down, you're getting into third and seven, third and eight, third and nine, third and 10. Well, just rely on what's working in the guys who are giving you the most explosive plays on your offense and until you can open up the passing game more and show that you can be a competent passing offense. I do think it's an offense that needs to see Love and Price carry the ball 30 times. So we've got a lot of, you know, like John is saying 40. Chief Brody is saying 30. I think DK was saying 25. My number is closer to what DK is saying in the 22 to 25 range. That's where I would put it. I think that that's where the number probably, because again, we're talking minimal numbers, the minimum, they need to at least have 10 carries per, you know, each per game, which gets you to 20. And really, I'm looking at Jeremiah Love probably needs 15 to 20 himself and Jadarion Price is in that, you know, 10 to 12 range, some like that. I mean, if you have 65 offensive plays, so I'm in the 22 to 25 range for the minimum those two guys need. I'm still sticking with 30. You're still you're. That's a lot. 30 is a lot. I mean, again, who scored all of their touchdowns this season? Who's given you the most explosive plays? Who's given you seven yards of carry, six yards of carry until something else. They definitely need to lean into those guys as a much bigger part of the game plan until and if the passing game comes around, you know, again, like if you if you've got those two guys out there, Steve and Jelly can be very successful if you're able to run the football with with with those two guys. I mean, Audrick Estimae and love last year combined for, I think it was right around 25. Now, obviously Estimae had the bulk of them, but I think that I think if you lean into that running game, you could definitely help out a young quarterback like in Jelly night. 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 Farah, 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 podcast, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Thank you very much for the super chat. Would you rather get 10 wins this year with Riley Leonard and back to square one next year or get eight wins with car, but are set up for a run next year to programs, take the lumps to build up a guy anymore, or has it or are those days gone? I think there was an extra yet or are those days gone? What do you think of this question? I love this question. I appreciate the question. I think it's a two full question first. 10 wins doesn't get you in the playoffs. It gets you into just a solid bowl. And that's ultimately what eight wins would get you as well. Maybe a less of a bowl game, but at the end of the day, you're not in the playoff. You're not competing for a national championship. So to me, the level of bowl game you play in doesn't really matter. So I would rather have the eight wins and truly try to develop a quarterback for next season compared to 10 wins and be just outside the playoff and maybe play in like, you know, a second tier type bowl game. It's not really worth it, especially when you're at Notre Dame and the expectations from, you know, the outside from the inside is a legit national championship run every season. And then the second part of this question would be do programs, take lumps to build up a guy anymore has are all those are all those days gone. I love this question because it also plays in to the NFL. Kayla Williams, Jayden Daniels. None of those guys should be starting as first year NFL guys. And, you know, Tom Brady got into this into the offseason. I know other people have echoed it as well. What happened to a guy coming in and learning the offense, being able to make reads, you know, that sort of situation, it just doesn't happen overnight. You have to be able to sit and wait your turn and be able to ultimately learn how to play quarterback at a high level. But, you know, these days in college where you have the transfer portal and NIL people want results now. They want the star in the stud to play now and for teams to, you know, be able to win instantly. And the same goes for the NFL, these top tier draft picks, you know, because you're pouring money into them, you're giving them guaranteed money, you're taking them with, you know, a top 10 pick, the fans expect, you know, to see results immediately. And I just, I hate that that's the way that this is trended to because there still needs to be a learning and development side of football. You can't just rush your quarterbacks into things. Right. And, you know, look, like even you go back to James Winston as Johnny Men's and Johnny Manziel. They won Heisman trophies. They won Heisman trophies as red shirt freshman quarterbacks. They both sat for a little bit, you know, like they didn't just get thrown into the fire. That's so to answer that part of the question, no, most programs aren't just going to throw a quarterback out there as a true freshman and throw him on the field and rely on that. At the very least, you are going to sit him for a little bit. Try to get him, you know, like ingrained in the system and in the offense and then see what happens in year two, which is essentially what this is leading to for car. You know, like look at I am a Lava down there at Tennessee. He's a red shirt freshman as well. He sat last year. Now he's had some early success. I mean, they fricking tore up NC State last week. He's off to a very good start. I mean, that's the path that most programs go. And that's also part of why you brought in Riley Leonard this year because this again, when you look at this schedule, it's a very important year for Marcus Freeman and it is already teetering for him after two games after you jake on your face against Northern Illinois. But that's why you went to the portal and brought in a quarterback who had played well and won at a smaller program like Duke where they don't have the same talent level as Notre Dame. You brought him in to add him to this and the, you know, the thought process being you get a guy like this, you've got a good chance to make it to the college football player because you could have stuck with what's on your roster. And again, probably been guaranteed at least eight wins, if not nine, but, you know, like in terms of that developmental piece to this, were you truly going to be a playoff team this year? And if they don't make it to the playoff this year, I mean, is anyone going to see it as anything but a colossal failure with the kind of schedule that they that they had coming into this season and all these pieces that they thought they had? I don't think so. Now, to answer the other part of the question, like if these are my only two options, get 10 wins with Riley Leonard, but then back to square one next year or get eight with car, but you're set up for a run next year, I would take the eight with car because again, like 10 is going to be my ceiling and you're probably not going to get into the playoff. But where they are right now, they still only have one loss. And obviously, you've got to win one game before you can win two and you got to win two before you win three and so on and so on. But they still have a chance of getting to the playoff at the end of the year. Like, that's that's the beauty of the expanded playoff field of having 12. But that's also why it was so important for them to be able to at a very minimum, get into the playoff this year, because you do have a 12 team expanded field. So if these are my only two options, I would take the eight wins with car and play for next year rather than Riley Leonard all this year and max out at 10 wins, because you're probably with a loss to Northern Illinois. You're probably as one of your two losses that you're going to have, you're probably not getting into the playoff with that. So that's what I would take. Is there anywhere else we need to go with the quarterbacks? Because I know you wanted to talk more quarterback. No, no, no, no. So with all the drama with the Irish loss, we haven't had a chance to talk about new NBC play by play announcer Dan Hicks, calling the game. What did you think of him on the broadcast? To be honest with you, I watched the first half on my phone while coming back from golfing. So I didn't even have the sound on. And then when I got home, I listened to the second, I watched the second half, but I was so enthralled with how bad they were playing. I was even thinking about Dan Hakes ultimately, right? And that's, I think a testament to not even being able to enjoy, you know, the viewing experience, because I was so preoccupied with how stressful and bad they were playing against an inferior opponent. Like that's just the honest answer, right? Like I literally did not, I was so zoned in on, you know, them not being able to move the ball offensively in the second half. And then the defense getting gouged on the run game, you know, the entire second half that listening to Dan Hicks was quite honestly an afterthought. And I, I'm going to say this to be it, I think, because I think it's funny. But I was thinking after the game, Dan Hicks probably thinks he's the jinx, because his first game as a Notre Dame broadcaster, they lay it in IU, right? And so, you know, we talked about jinxes and stuff last week. I just know I'm a superstitious person. I don't know how superstitious Dan Hicks is, but I'm sure his wife at some point, maybe crafted Joe goes like, you're no longer allowed to go back there and do games, right? Because they just completely laid an egg in your first game. Yeah, I thought, you know, obviously I wasn't listening to him in real time. I was going back and rewatching some of the game. And he was pretty much what I thought he was going to be just a, just a really good professional sounding announcer. The guy's been with the NBC forever, it seems like it again, you get to hear him every four years with the swimming events when the Olympics come up. He's done some Notre Dame football in the past. It's kind of surprising that they didn't just turn to him to begin with a couple of years ago. And, you know, instead of going with a much younger, much less experienced guy, because, you know, like the thing with the timeouts at the end of the game, Jason Garrett was obviously wrong about that saying it on the air. I don't know if he was fed that by a producer exactly what happened. But like, to me, with Dan Hicks there, just a professional sound, a guy who knows how to control a game, knows how to work, the analyst into the game and all that kind of stuff. I just felt like the flow of the broadcast was much less choppy. The interaction seemed better like between he and Jason Garrett as well. Because again, you've got a seasoned guy who's got multiple decades and not just a year or two, or a game or two of experience in the booth. So I just, I thought it was a really good sounding broadcast from, from what I've heard going back and rewatching some of it. Well, I think that is going to do. Oh, you know what? There was one more comment. Ed says I will never understand how true Notre Dame fans could ever root for the Dallas Cowboys in light of Jimmy Porkface's connection. One, you know, Jesse's wearing his, his Cowboys hat tonight. One, Jesse wasn't even born when Jimmy Johnson was still the head coach, Barry Switzer. I think yeah, Barry Switzer was the head coach by the time Jesse was born. I've, I know I've told this story before when the morning, the news came out that the Cowboys that Jerry Jones had bought the team. My dad woke me up in the morning because he was a Redskins fan still is. He woke me up and said, this guy named Jerry Jones just bought the Dallas Cowboys. They're firing Tom Landry and they hired Jimmy Johnson and he kind of chuckled and walked out of the room. So I was, you know, I was not very happy at all, you know, because this was all just within a, this is just a few months after that 1988 game at Notre Dame Stadium of Pat Terrell and, you know, saved Jimmy Johnson's butt for me and all that different kind of stuff. The bottom line is winning and cures a lot of things. And if they are your team, it doesn't matter who the head coach is. It doesn't matter who the owner is. Any of that stuff as long as your team is winning, you know, that's what it comes down to. Alright, good stuff tonight, Jess. As always, we will check out on that. We will talk to you tomorrow. Hit that like button before you leave. I have a lot of fun sports stuff. Peace. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]