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And I just cut all kinds of grief for even mentioning the fact that we went to the game the other day. And I tell you what, I'm still recovering. Like, I'm exhausted after two games last weekend and all the driving and everything else. But good times, good times, a lot of good stuff. Before we get into some Notre Dame football talk, Anthony has something for you. At the 1/20/11 mark of the July 9th, 2024, your grandpa's birthday, interestingly enough, of Ivination, sports talk, Jesse brazenly declared that if Paul Skeens had an ERA under 3 after 20 starts, he would eat his pants. Skeens 20th start was yesterday and his ERA is now 2.1. As a Pirates fan, Anthony says he doesn't have much else to hang on to first organization in sports. So what's your plan, Jesse? Do you need a letter? Do you need a condiment to eat that or like, how's this going to go? I have to do something. I will honor my word unlike the guy, the poop man, the Florida State poop man. Oh boy. I think peanut butter can mess just about anything. I just got to find a shred of some pants and make like a peanut butter pant sandwich and get this thing over with. There you go. All right, well, you've got some time to come up with something and we'll let you figure out how you're going to pay that off. Some interesting news coming out today from on three reporting that Riley Leonard injured the posterior labrum of his non-throwing shoulder. Saturday against Northern Illinois happened in the first half and probably seen some of the video of the play that everyone is pretty much assuming that it happened on where he gets, you know, drop to the ground, you know, drop to the to the turf and he was down for a little bit. He gets up slowly. I guess your initial thoughts on what this could potentially mean for both Riley Leonard and the Irish. The report that we have now, even though this the report is he injured the non-throwing shoulder, but that he is still going to play this Saturday against Purdue because it's the non-throwing shoulder and the information that I be is getting there. You may have noticed that you're not seeing any of the reporters on the local beat, you know, can confirm this report, you know, any of that different kind of stuff. The news we're getting, Riley Leonard, not on this week's injury report, which is released every Monday, not on this week's injury report. He is a full go and plans to play this week. So what do you think of this news? I think that this clearly indicates that Riley Leonard suffered some sort of injury in the first half because it was very apparent in the second half that they weren't going. I don't think we saw any design Riley Leonard runs in the second half like we did in the first half. So it's kind of on par with what was going on. It kind of explains a lot, explains a lot in terms of that game plan, taking the running of Riley Leonard out of it, the fact that potentially the shoulder is injured. 100% and I think it definitely takes a big chunk out of this offense at the end of the day. He is known to be a dual threat quarterback. The arm is obviously very shaky right now. The pull passing game is very shaky right now. And the one thing that Notre Dame has been able to rely on or tip a tattoo is the run game between, you know, Jeremiah Love, Riley Leonard and Darian Price. And so again, if you take that element out of the game, I think it takes away from Riley Leonard's game as well. And I'm not. I mean, that's the benefit to having a guy like Riley Leonard in there. One, his competitiveness, but two, the fact that he is not as precise a passer. I'm, you know, like he is, he is not the horrible passer that a lot of people have tried to make him out as in the last couple of days, but we know that he's a low 60s in terms of completion percentage passer. But as I've said before, with a dual threat guy, dual threat guys are always going to have a little bit lower completion percentage and you can live with that because of the extra dimension that they give you with their legs. But if you're going to take the legs out of it, kind of changes the equation, doesn't it? Yes, it definitely, again, it takes away kind of like another option or a third option in this offense at the end of the day, right? Because you have the passing game, you have the run game and then you have the Riley Leonard run game and a whole part of, you know, Riley Leonard's game is his ability to run because it does make those kind of passes and RPO looks a little bit easier because you have to honor the legs of Riley Leonard. And so if you're taking away having to honor Riley Leonard and he's not able to, you know, make up for it in the passing game, it's a hard buy of, is he going to be, you know, ultimately the best candidate to run the offense at the University of Notre Dame? And I'm not saying that, you know, it's time to bench Riley Leonard or, you know, this means this, this injury news means that they should bench bench either, you know, I'm, I'm okay with still riding with Riley Leonard but I do think that there's a lot of stuff to clean up. And if you don't see change within these next couple games and he's still not able to run the ball. You got to find someone who's going to be able to complete the layup type passes and I mean that's what it comes down to. And just to kind of, you know, get into the game a little bit from the other day. Hold on, hold on, we're still talking about Riley Leonard, I want to address some of this stuff with, with Riley unless it was going to do with Riley Leonard is that like you're talking about his performance, basically. But, I mean, yeah, we can continue on with. All right, give it, give it a chance to work so we got you obviously people feel a certain way about some of this so I want to make sure that we get some of this in here like Irish for life. And Riley Dye says he thinks they should sit him for Purdue, assuming they don't let him run that much, you know, again, like that is sort of the question if if he's not going to bring the other element, the running game. Now, you know, the other thing like James is saying, I think with this news, we have to start and jelly don't want an injured quarterback playing remember it is reportedly the non throwing shoulder and James also says they need to put him on the list, even if he's a full participant. The one thing about that is Notre Dame is actually one of the few schools who is actually putting out on a weekly basis, an injured list, colleges are not required to do this, they can hide it as much as they don't, they don't even have to address injuries if they don't want to Notre Dame has always been pretty open with the injuries, especially in the three years that Marcus Freeman has been here and the fact that they are doing this putting out an injured list every week. Look, if, if the report is, is as it says that he had an MRI over the weekend and he injured the shoulder. I mean, we don't know to what extent the, you know, like, like, there's so many different degrees of labrum tears like my senior year in high school I tore the labrum of my right shoulder rested it for a week and then went on, you know, throughout the rest of the season and literally didn't have surgery on it for years and, you know, basically, I think 20 years or something like that went by before it, you know, because it just started gradually bothering me more. You know, like, there can be a little bit of pain with a labrum tear there can, you know, there can be a lot of pain with a labrum tear. It depends on the degree. And again, like, the degrees and I'm, you know, I'm widening my hands, it can be from a tiny bit out to a lot. There's so many different levels and so if they feel confident enough and he feels confident enough he obviously played the rest of the game so I mean, there can be an injury, but we don't know to what extent it's injured and this is still an initial report. Notre Dame not putting out anything on their own and again like what we're being told at IB is he's practicing this week he's a full go and he plans to play so we don't know and like what's time he say I mean the guy tried to play last year. After you coming back from that ankle injury and I think, I think it sounds like that was a lot worse than what he's got right now I mean literally he has to be able to stand on it and run on it and plant on it and all that. Different kind of stuff so I don't know I definitely think that this adds a different layer to things at the very least if you run Riley Leonard out there and he's not performing at the level that you think it kind of gives you a fall back. 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That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love pick a flavor grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before for a whole new way to nug. It's got to be Wendy's at participating us Wendy's. Yeah I think Riley well first of all to kind of just talk about, you know the whole kind of he needs to be on the injured list or whatever. I mean you kind of got into it here's the thing look at what the 49ers did with Christian McCaffrey you're not entitled to tell you know what the if the guy has the possibility of going in a fifty fifty at game time and he's practicing all week. You don't have to tell the other team anything because what that does now is it for do is practicing or game planning for Riley Leonard all week right and then you do end up switching to Steve and jelly CJ car whoever it might be. That's an advantage for you because now they've game plan about Riley Leonard right you come out with a completely different quarterback so I think it's a complete strategic advantage to just basically kind of do what they're doing keep it on the wraps. Let him practice during the week see how things go and if he is a game time decision he's a game time decision but if you ultimately have to go elsewhere. That is to your advantage because that is not something that Purdue is expecting throughout the week that's not what they're practicing through you know throughout the week so I think that's the right way to approach it. And then the second aspect of this thing is kind of what we were what I was getting into at the beginning is Riley Leonard not being able to run the ball takes away 50% of his game and it changes how this offense wants to operate with Riley Leonard at quarterback. And if he on top of that if you combine what he can't get the simple passes down and teams are going loaded boxes you know seven eight man boxes and you can't you can't you know complete some simple man beater routes to allow your run game to naturally open up a little bit more. Then yeah I do think that you have to do something to get right there because his game is compromised not only in run but also in pass and so you can't just allow teams to load the box and tee off on you like that someone has to be able to complete some passes. Correct. I agree with that. I agree with that. So now since you weren't here on Monday and you weren't here obviously doing post game shows over the weekend before we get into some of the other stuff and we'll come back to Riley Leonard in a little bit as well because again there's just so much with this you know whether or not he's going to play I do agree like somebody said if there is some degree of injury obviously you have to give whoever number two is you've got to give them more reps during the week to try to get them ready because it's it's essentially going to be a different game plan between if you have Riley Leonard and whichever other quarterback. You know if it's Steve and Jelly or or Kenny Menchie or you know whoever that they would decide it's going to be. It's good as you said it's going to be a different game plan and why would Notre Dame want to tip off Purdue and let them know in advance that there's going to be a different guy out there. But again we'll come back to the Riley Leonard quarterback conversation. And we're going to get to some whiteboard here in a little bit and some other stuff we're going to get to even before that some thoughts on the game Saturday against Northern Illinois. Yeah I mean first of all it's just inexcusable. There's nothing that you can say that's going to defend Marcus Freeman and the performance that was put on display against NIU this week and this is a game you have to win point Blake no matter what I don't care if they had a scratch back on an ugly game I don't care if they won by 20 40 you know five points whatever it is this is an opponent that you have to find a way to win and in year three of Marcus Freeman. You just can't you can't be doing this anymore am I ready you know to jump ship on Marcus Freeman no do I still think there's still there's a bunch on the table for this season. Obviously everyone's next immediate immediate thought is to go 11 and one right well you can't go in 11 and one without going 1 and 0 1 and 0 1 and 0 and 1 and 0 right. And so the I guess the frustrating part to me is we kind of thought the bottom of this season was absolute worst was 10 and 2 probably 11 and 1 and the ceiling was 12 and 0. So you can burn your mole again you know to that that 11 and one kind of record where I think a lot of people would be you know still content with on NIU not USC not Florida State not Louisville not Georgia Tech some of those other opponents that were served on the season. So that's the frustrating part as a fan and and you know I think the other frustrating part is I really didn't like the quote for Marcus Freeman in his press conference yesterday. We've got a handle success. Everybody says you're going to the playoff. You've gotten easy schedule. I think we started to believe that you cannot that is not a sentence that can be said by your head coach Marcus Freeman. You basically are saying that you allowed, you know this noise of you know an easy schedule and undefeated season to creep into you know the entire locker room essentially your job as the head coach is to make sure that those things don't happen. And you were you know square to the right poison. Keep the keep the rat poison out right like Nick Saban said. I almost wish that head coaches would just make their their student athletes delete social media once the season starts just no outside noise right like you know they need to focus on Notre Dame and that can't happen. You know you can achieve your long term goals if you're not going to want to know every week winning every quarter winning every possession type situation and so I really did not like did not like that comment. You know kind of coming out of his mouth you know describing kind of you know post game thoughts I guess you could say and that's just kind of like the tip of the iceberg and I really am going to kind of start talking about the offense here and just talk about. You know the the lack of performance and the overall frustrations like we'll get I'll get into the defense but it's not nearly as much as what I have to say about the offense because the day the defense you know did they did they look bad at times. Sure but they only gave up 16 points you know 16 point you should be able to score 17 points against a Mac opponent and win that game like what I've been more comfortable around 10 points. Sure but they only gave up one touchdown on a on a broken play. I don't disagree but and I don't want to get in you know because we had a big debate yesterday Michael said they were outcoach the roc coach circles around Al Golden like you and I were talking over the weekend Ontario Brown just every time he touched the ball. Like what look like should have been maybe a one or two yard run ended up being a five or six yard run and on and I use this is this is what this is what stood out. You know other than what happened with the quarterback and the fact that the offense couldn't do anything. The thing that was the most disturbing to me on the defensive side of the ball was the explosive place. Their their first three they started the two yard line and they end up scoring a touchdown because they got an 83 yard pass play Ontario Brown first explosive play of the day. Second drive a 28 yard run by Ontario Brown sets up a field goal. Third drive a 43 yard play by Ontario Brown three explosive plays on the first three drives by the same guy. The guy who should have been really the sole focus of your defense three explosive plays that totaled 154 yards. All three of them one was a touchdown the other two led to six more points for NI you know like they're not scoring their first 13 points if they don't get those three explosive plays and you did that to a Mac team. Texas A&M no explosive plays those explosive plays man like you know one it's there was poor fundamentals shown by Notre Dame on on all three of them whether it was tackling or coverage or whatever it happened to be they all led to points. And that that was the most disturbing thing to me that you're letting a Mac team make those kind of plays against jazz a defense so like you know again. Yeah, they managed the points for the most part but they gave up three unacceptable plays to the same guy. He had 154 yards on those three plays alone in the first half Notre Dame and 160 total yards in the first half he all had almost as many total yards on those three plays as Notre Dame had the entire first half. And you can like go to the offense and say the offense should have been better and that's absolutely right but you can't give up those kind of explosive plays to a Mac team. You can't give them up to any team but especially a Mac team. Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you're saying but they only gave up three points the entire second half like the offense had. The offense can, but it was also with the game on the line like I know when the deep when the offense is going three and out three and out three and out and you know I do agree. Notre Dame's defense was getting gouged in the second half they're allowing NIU to control time of possession keeping Notre Dame's offense off of the field. What I've liked them to you know clean up some drives a little bit sooner. Yeah but at the end of the day you know three points in the second half 16 points overall. I'm still shouldering 75% of the blame on the offense not being able to figure it stuff out at the end of the day and I don't I can I can deal with that I can deal with that. You know the just to kind of get into the laundry list of what upset me you know offensively is the two running backs for NIU combined for 37 carries and 158 yards. Jeremiah Love and Jadarion Price combined for 15 carries and 103 yards their averages respectively were 7.2 yards and 6.0 yards. I do not understand why there was not more of an effort if you can't get anything going in the past game to just allow these running backs who are averaging seven and six yards a carry to run the ball especially when Riley Leonard is no longer able to run the ball. And that's that was the difference in the game NIU was not afraid to run the ball on first and second down just about every first and second down of of the game right like they were running the ball. Notre Dame knew they were going to run the ball first and second down and they still get in a manageable third down and be able to pick it up. Notre Dame wouldn't run on first and second down they they and even after getting big plays on the ground on first and second down and so to me it was inexcusable. The lack of running that Notre Dame did especially when the passing game wasn't going right who has made all the explosive plays on the offense this season the running backs they don't have a single passing touchdown. All of the running backs and Riley Leonard have combined for rushing touchdowns like you have to it. I get it you might want to pass the ball better but at some point you have to do what's going to win you the game and that's handing that's exactly what they did against Texas A&M in the fourth quarter. They were lied on the run game and just turned it out I don't understand why they abandoned it so so much. Did you look at the rapid fire questions for today. Briefly. Okay. I feel like I feel like you're using all your ammunition right now. And another point of concern was you know Notre Dame had two touchdown drives and two interception drives outside of those drives. Their average third down different third down distance with seven and seven yards you're telling me that they're facing third and seven. You know on how many drives here six drives outside of the touchdowns and interceptions. And you're you're you're you're you're telling me you can't pick up more than three yards combined on the ground on first and second down when you're running backs are averaging. You know seven yards a pop six yards a pop. And then you get into the two interception plays. I mean one of them was on second and one and the other one was on third and two. Why are you throwing the ball on second and one and third and two when you're running backs again. Are averaging seven and six yards on average per carry it just doesn't make any sense to me one bit I don't understand. You know I think this kind of gets into the bigger picture of things is Notre Dame doesn't have an identity on offense and I said that yesterday that's what are they trying to do offensively I have no clue. You know who's the leader on that offense who stepping up and saying this is inexcusable right like when times get tough who are they leaning on to get them out of these type of situations when things aren't going well. Because it sure didn't look like Riley Leonard I didn't see that fire in his eyes in the second half that said you know let's let's get on my back here and figure things out right and so that's the frustrating part. Well I mean if he was injured that can explain some of that though as well you know probably not knowing if he felt like he could put the, they could put the game on his shoulders like they did the week before. Sloppy Joe I know a lot of people have pointed this out that Leonard had just three touchdown passes last year in five starts when he was healthy. You're right but he also had I think it was four more touchdown runs as well and again this is a dual threat. Guy and if you look at the score of some of those games he came out you know like he came out against Lafayette he came out against Northwestern and UConn so he wasn't in there the whole game and they were winning those games. And again like I think you're focused a lot you know one if Notre Dame wins the game on Saturday no one's focused nearly as much on that you know if Notre Dame finds a way to win again like. I said it yesterday and I still like stats are for losers do you find a way to win the game or not with a quarterback like Riley Leonard doesn't matter how many touchdown passes he has now you want him to pass better you want him to throw the ball better obviously so I'm not saying that throwing the ball and passing the ball doesn't matter with a dual threat quarterback and coupled with what you were talking about with running backs and what other people have said as well you like why are you not running the ball more are you telling me that you couldn't run the ball against northern Illinois because as you said that the averages of those guys. They they had some effective runs against northern Illinois they just stopped running the ball against either stopped or they tried to hand the ball to an E.S. Williams they tried to hand the ball to Devon Ford give the ball back down if you look at pro football focus and I've got some grades on some other guys jadarion price and Jeremiah love and in reverse order love and then price. Those are Notre Dame's top two rated offensive players right now according to pro football focus. They've got to factor more into the game plan I mean you know like Marcus Freeman said early in training camp it's not rocket science find a way to get Jeremiah love the football you know the easiest way to get Jeremiah love the football you know just drop the ball of the quarterback the quarterback handed off to Jeremiah love that's like that's not rocket science that's the easiest way literally either that or just do a direct snap to him like NIU is doing with Ontario Brown and the other guy the other day you know just let him make place it's it's just that simple and when you've got these short yard situations and you're giving guys not name love or price the football I don't even know what you're doing out there in terms of game in terms of game plan. So a lot of people are talking about you know second one is a good opportunity to take a shot. Yeah not at midfield with six minutes left in the game and you're just trying to ice this thing out and go get a score and win the game and especially when the passing what is the passing game and doing all day right like just hand the ball off get the first down get a new set of downs let the clock bleed a little Brian the clock like NIU ended up doing to you on the back end after the interception. Like Vince said yesterday he would have taken the shot I don't agree with no because like because like he said well to you know like confidence you had the underneath guys who were open but Leonard decided to go for the long ball don't even give him that option it's second and one and your whole your your two goals in that situation one is obviously scoring points but two because it's a one point game and your and a field goal makes it a two possession game and you're at midfield. You grind that clock milk that clock as much as possible move that thing downfield in the easiest way possible the passing game had not been working throughout the game. But Jeremiah love and jadarion price runs had been working give them the football that's it give them the football use as much clock as possible it you know you can't tell me that if they wouldn't have just started running the football they couldn't have taken at least three and a half minutes off the clock again this was in a half for NIU had not scored any points yet the defense was still doing their job and not an allowing this offense the opportunity to get back in the game. At that point was six minutes left in the game in the passing game isn't working the entire game pick up the first down get a new set of chains go from there. It's just inexcusable in my opinion to throw that ball in second and one and to make the decision that Riley Leonard made to it was like a double down on just you know bad decision after bad decision. And that's going to take me you know into my next point is you know who is ultimately making the big picture offensive. Do we need a white board for your points here is that like doing it an actual white board for that like these points of the day. Yes but I mean that's the biggest thing overall because yes Riley Leonard played bad but in certain situations he was doing you know what he was asked to do to make some reads and you know again a play call decision that I don't ultimately agree with but it just feels like this offense is not tailored tailoring to what Riley Leonard can do best it's kind of being forced into this. You know kind of cookie cutter mold for maybe what you know that certain people expect of this offense but that's not what Riley Leonard it's not playing to Riley Leonard skills and so you can't force an offense. On to someone's skills that they might not have the best skills for and I think that Riley Leonard could be utilized much better because you know if Notre Dame can't make the simple throws in this offense the offense will not work. It's okay to be a run first team until the past develops and that's what NI you did they were a run first team and pass when they needed to in order to win that game. There's no disrespect for that in my opinion right like I don't ignore Notre Dame should establish itself as the run and as more teams get players into the box that's when you start completing you know more man on man type passes. And again with with Jeremiah love and jadarion price being the most explosive plays. Players players in this offense so far. How are you not doing simple run you know running back plays to get them incorporated into the past game right. How about some running back screens. How about some running back flares into the flat that just gets Jeremiah love the ball right all the screens go to both Collins just simple layups to get your most effective you know your most explosive players. Into the game because what are these wide receivers shown nothing like it is very obvious that the running backs to the bright spot of this offense so far. So give them the ball and if you're going to pass find ways to get him into the past game too so. I don't know it's just very infuriating to watch the amount of drives that stalled around midfield like Notre Dame had no problem kind of getting around midfield. If I'm not mistaken in the first half they had ball on their own 45 ball on NIU 39 ball on NIU 30 ball on NIU 45. They didn't get any points out of any of those drives right like NIU 39 and Marcus dream is deciding to punt the ball after going forward on his own like 40 yard line against Texas A&M on the road like. That's the sort of confidence that the whole team was lacking you can go for it on the road and a high pressure environment against Texas A&M but you can't go for it on NIU 39 you're going to punt the ball and plus territory. I just I don't understand that one bit and I just. There's a lack of consistency of what the identity of this offense is and I just think that that's going to allow for mistakes to like that like this to happen when your offense doesn't know who they are. And you can't even just simply revert to what's going well for you just handing the ball off to your running backs. Then how is the whole offense supposed to play with confidence. Yeah, I don't disagree with any of that or with most of it anyway. There's a couple comments that I wanted to get here before we get to some other stuff. Anthony was asking about Josh Baker is going to be out this week he was out last week as well. And Anthony was asking if Sullivan absure is potentially moving to tackle for depth he is he is the number two according to the depth chart this week he is the number two left tackle. Anthony Lambert is the number two right tackle right now but Sullivan absure is listed as the number two left tackle for this week so that answers that. Joe sloppy Joe talking about if Riley makes the throw it's a great playcom and again talking about the second one, but even if it's just an incomplete pass it stops the clock. And it's it's really you had a you know you obviously had a few more minutes at that point then at the end of the Ohio State game but it's also why I disagree with how they handled the end of the Ohio State game last year because as we've been doing the same thing, you know, you're just going to be doing the same thing. And then you're going to be doing the same thing. And then you're going to be doing the same thing. And then you're going to be doing the same thing. And then you're going to be doing the same thing. And then you're going to be doing the same thing. And then you're going to be doing the same thing. And then you're going to be doing the same thing. And then you're going to be doing the same thing. Like you keep using clock and then at some point Northern Illinois or whoever the opponent is is going to have to make a decision do I want to start using my timeouts here how are they going to handle all that different stuff just like Marcus Freeman had to make his own decisions about how he was going to handle timeouts and stuff coming down the stretch but you're not putting any pressure on them to make them have to make those kind of decisions because you throw you know again. Obviously you got the worst case scenario not only was it intercepted but it's returned to midfield right where Notre Dame was so it's a short field to begin with and on and on. You know again it's just I don't like the call to pass when you're two best offensive players are guys who take care of the football and run the we ran the ball with success in the limited opportunities that they got to do it. I think Sloppy Joe also asked if love is caught up past this year he had two catches the other day against an IUE has three for the season through two games so far just short ones but he has got the ball on it. Interested on your your take on this and I don't know if this is something that would come up in the whiteboard he wanted to know Ryan wanted to know if you think Riley Leonard drops back too deep on his past place. I think he drops back too deep for someone who's not stepping up into the pocket and right going into his throws. That's the thing that I noticed looking back at a lot of the plays he is not his pocket his pocket presence his pocket movement you can call it footwork or whatever you want. He is not he is not moving up in the pocket to make his throws it's it's either you know he either just stands tall back as much as possible. And then his reads and then he's out of the pocket it seemed like to me he was not stepping up in the pocket vertically he only kind of eludes and kind of goes. He likes to go off to the right and try to get outside of the pocket he never steps up into his throws he never moves up into the pocket as he's making progressions and ultimately if he decides to run just you know pull the ball down and kind of run towards the middle of the field there. Correct, correct, correct, I wanted to talk about so is your whiteboard if I have you correct your whiteboard is going to be mostly offense. Yeah and I just kind of people are I just want to say one more thing to get this point wrapped up about the second in one call everyone's saying, you know it's time to take your shots and all that. I agree if the passing game looked good the first three quarters, but it did not they had nothing going passing the ball and so yeah if they're blazing the ball down the field the entire first three quarters, sure rip one on second and one, but your quarterback that's the only thing that is working is running the ball just pick up the first down, get momentum, get confidence, get into plus territory, and then you can reevaluate from there but with the passing game was in the condition that it was, there was no reason to be ripping that it was completing somewhere around 50% for the you know in the game at that point with one interception already now the end the first interception was obviously tipped that I don't put that all on him but the second one was definitely all on him now again. If he was injured early in the game, that could have had something to do with it but the coaches got to know that that he's you know the medical staff, you know they they they they knew that there was something going on there. He got up and the medical staff came out and checked on him and all that different stuff I agree with what you're saying like if he had been having even a decent passing day. I'm I'm more okay with it in that situation because second and one is the down in distance to take a shot in your at med midfield. That fit factors into there as well but he had not had a good passing day to that point and that's why I am completely opposed to it in that situation again feel of the game flow of the game that all factors in it's not just a bunch of numbers that that spit out at you on an analytic sheet which I know you like sometimes Jesse but like the game feel comes into it as well. And that's why I don't like let's move on from second one because that's that's been hammered to death. I think I wanted to talk a little bit. Kind of talk about this a little bit afterwards Marcus Freeman was asked about the play of the interior defensive line. And if bigger bodies like Armelle Mukam or Sean Saviano who are both over 300 pounds compared to Howard Cross and Donovan Hynish and some of those other guys like that who are playing in there right now like are those guys potential options for the inside and some interesting comments for Marcus Freeman in terms of his response to that. Yeah I mean Armelle is really getting he's improving he's improving and probably right now is your fifth inside guy Rubio should be back. I don't know exactly when he's going to come back here in a couple weeks but you know I think Howard and Riley and Hynish and you know even Henrietta done a good job we gave up way too many rushing yards we know that. I don't think it was because of our play at D tackle I think it's more so they did a good job of forcing us to be lateral. And that's not who we are we are aggressive attacking defense that plays on the other side line of scrimmage but when all of a sudden you get all these motions in color in front of your face and you get outside running plays it makes our guys a little bit it made our guys almost play football set a football and that's a challenge that we have for our defense this week like we have to be aggressive no matter what type of offense we're seeing we still have to play on the other side line of scrimmage and that's going to be a point emphasis this week. I'll let you address the football versus football here in a minute and what he was saying about moving laterally I will just say this Howard cross and Donovan Hynish are Notre Dame's two lowest graded overall defensive players through two games according to pro football focus. They sit at the bottom Riley Mills is number 14 around middle of a pack burn them and open are 15 and 16 and just to kind of say that's not what I saw is I went back and I'm watching some of those runs by Ontario Brown it wasn't all perimeter stuff like they were just gouging and gashing right up the middle as well with with those and I'm not sure whether it's nose or or three technique get pushed around out there and he said football versus football what do you think what do you think you're going to address kind of the interior go with go whichever direction you want to fit ball and foot versus football go well I mean that's the explanation that he gave do you agree with the explanation that he gave reasoning overall for it because, I mean, look at, look at Notre Dame's linebackers, Drake Bowen, Jay Nazberry, Jaylen Snead, those guys should have no issues covering on the perimeter. I think what he, what I, what I do agree with is, you know, a team that's trying to expose you on the perimeter. Why are you bringing vertical blitzes then? Why are you taking guys out of plays when you know they're trying to get you on the perimeter? Right? So that's kind of, you know, first and foremost, if you want to play in a team like this, where they are run, when they are running, run first and there's a lot of motions and there's a lot of, you know, trying to get to the perimeter, just, you don't need the blitz. Just allow your guys to hang out in the box and see what they see and allow them to go be an athlete, you know what I mean? Because you can't tell me that Osbury, Snead, Bowen, Jack Kaiser can't catch up to these guys. I mean, you know, on the perimeter. And that's, that's the strength of their linebacker core guys who are supposed to be agile, quick, athletic. And so when you start bringing inside pressures or, you know, loop pressures like that, you're, you're getting vertical while they're getting horizontal. So you're taking players out of out of the whole situation essentially. This was my concern. If you remember, we were talking about how you sort of manage the blitz and calculate the blitzes. This was more my concern against Texas A&M because of the way they wanted to run the ball and run fits and things like that. And again, Notre Dame did a really good job against A&M. They allowed no explosive plays against A&M. And now not every run, obviously, by Northern Illinois, was an explosive, but I rattled off the Ontario Brown plays that he made. And like, I agree with what you're saying, I mean, that's, that's where you get into the problems with with all the blitzing that Al Golden likes to do when you're going against a team like this, because you guess wrong and you get gashed in a run. And that's, that's, you know, again, not not every one run was, was, you know, eight, 10 yards, but there were a lot of eight and 10, six, seven, eight yard runs by Northern Illinois throughout the afternoon. I think the most frustrating part was the yards after contact. There are a lot of situations where they're running back, was bottled up kind of around the line of scrimmage. And then all of a sudden you see him scampering around the corner in getting six to seven yards. And so, you know, to me, that comes down to, you know, your lineman and linebackers not ultimately not setting the edge, you know, allowing on those runs that go, you know, sideline to sideline or horizontally, here's here, you have two options as a defense. You set the edge, when you force the running back to go back inside to where all the help is your, you know, your linebackers, your defensive line, lineman or her pursuing. And if the other option is if he wants to keep, if he wants to, you know, go towards the sideline, well, you set the edge and then you just mirror him down the line because he's going to run out of time out of room eventually, right? You have the sideline, which is, which is what I thought was a strength of Notre Dame. And like Marcus Freeman's trying to tell us that, that the lateral stuff is not a strength. Well, that's, I felt like it should be a strength. That's exactly where I'm not buying because of the athleticism they have from their linebackers. And from people, you know, they have good perimeter tackling safeties and corners as well. You know, Jaden, Jaden Mickey, Benjamin Morris and Xavier Watts and Don Schuler, all these guys can come downhill and ultimately, you know, make some perimeter tackles. And I would say that's another thing I'm frustrated with it. At the third level, you know, your safeties need to be able to come downhill and fill those gaps on the perimeter, right? And so, you know, there were plenty of times where I felt like Xavier Watts could have also come downhill and clean things up as kind of the free players as well. So, you know, it's, it, you make it fit ball when you're blitzing and you're, you're basically a making this a man-to-man situation and run and pass because that's what it was. They were making it where Notre Dame players were playing so assignment sound fit ball that, you know, this guy had the quarterback. This guy has the running back. This guy has, you know, this person. And if you make one mistake, then a big play is going to bust, you know, for a run instead of kind of using your leverage and allowing, you know, to funnel it to a defense as a whole and not allowing this to become an individual type thing where we need this guy to make this exact fit or, or, or the play is going to bust because that's what it turned into. And that's what Marcus Freeman is talking about. In fit ball, when you have to make the exact fit on your exact person and you don't do that, then the big play is going to bust. And that's not a good situation to be in. And so means everybody has to be in the perfect spot. There's zero room for exactly for error. And so again, why you why are you blitzing if you've realized that it's become this fit ball situation back off the line of scrimmage a little bit, take a deep breath, allow the defense to just kind of play free, trust their instincts. And don't be worried about, you know, rushing five or rushing six or, you know, creating these run lanes. And again, basically making these linebackers play, you know, man-to-man and run run defense as well. You are a defensive unit for a reason, funnel it to each other, right? It doesn't need to be a one man, you know, I need to make the perfect fit, allow the defense to play free. And I think that was ultimately the thing that disappointed me the most in terms of the run defense over the weekend. Yeah, I don't disagree with this DK says Sneed was all over the place, but rarely in the right spot. And like I, I agree with that is as soundly as he played against Texas, and, and I'm in the opener. Unfortunately, there was just a lot of hit and miss in, in the Northern Illinois game Saturday 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 J for our will be talking all things sports, but also so much more. We'll give you the behind the scenes stories for 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. What do you want a whiteboard for us before we hit rapid fire? So I have a few things there. I was talking a little bit earlier about how I was frustrated with the past game. And I think there's some things that you can do to get it going. I think it starts with baby steps, right? Obviously, you can't work on the down field. You know, progression throws 15 20 yards if you're not hitting your layups. You're kind of more simple passes, right? And so over the weekend, I saw, you know, a handful of plays that I was like, wow, these are really nice designs that I think are something that, you know, Notre Dame could get into. And the reason why I say that and what I was alluding to earlier is let's work in some some short passes to the running backs. Let's work in some hard, you know, running back screens. And so I just have a few plays that I think are what I would consider layups or involving your most explosive players, aka the running backs and getting the ball into their hands even more. So I'll start, I'll start with, let me start with this one right here. Can you can you see the play first of all? Yeah. Yeah, so, you know, this is this was a game I saw Penn State versus Bowling Green balls on the left hash here. They're an 11 personnel and they have the H back and the two wide receivers to the boundary side. They also have the quarterback and shotgun and the running back also into the boundaries. So you have four players into the boundary here through, you know, two wide receivers that tied in and a running back and then to the field side, you have have the lone wide receiver. And again, I think think 11 personnel is is right or like the sweet spot for this Notre Dame offense. I think the combination of getting the running back and some good, you know, pass catching tight ends involved is something that would work well for Notre Dame. And so you can see on this route, basically what you have is the two boundary wide receivers are just going to be running kind of posts over the middle. And then this tight end, her H back is running this wheel kind of, you know, on the backside of this thing. And then the running back is also, you know, flaring out of the back field. And so the reason why I think this this play could be, you know, effective for someone like Notre Dame is you have a really good talented, you know, tight ends between Mitchell Evans and Cooper Flanagan. And you have a really good running back out of the backfield, Jeremiah love who can also catch the ball, right? And so what I have these green circles for on the defensive players are the players who are stressed in this in this situation are ultimately who just got to make a tough decision, essentially, because these posts are going to occupy the corners, like in the safety. So these guys are out of the picture, right? And so basically what's going to happen when this tight end is wheeling up the sideline. And as this running back is also flaring out, is this inside linebacker and outside linebacker basically have to make a decision of how are we going to guard this, right? Someone's going to have to run, you know, to the flat and someone's going to try to have to run with this tight end, you know, basically running a wheel down the sideline, right? And so no matter which way they commit, you still have a nice, you know, one on one man coverage, right? And so if this, if this, if these linebackers kind of sink a little bit and help more on the wheel route, well, now you have Jeremiah love wide open in the flat, say this linebacker, you know, steps down more into the flat to go Jeremiah love. Well, now you have an inside linebacker trying to get, you know, completely horizontal, and run vertical with this tight end, wheeling down the sideline. So again, I think it's just an easy, you know, concept here to one involved the running back. And if they want to cover that up, well, now you have a tight end, you know, wheeling down the sideline for a 15 kind of 20 yard gain. So that was again, just a nice play I saw out of Penn State this week. I mean, this tight end was literally wide open because again, you're asking this this linebacker inside linebacker to cover a lot of ground and make a decision here. Well, look, I mean, tight ends have obviously been such a big part of this Notre Dame offense forever. And like we saw with Mitchell Evans, he converted that first down the other day. Now he hasn't been on the field a whole lot, but he's only got two catches through the first two game games. Cooper Flanagan only has two catches through the first two games. So I think that between tight ends, and Jeremiah love, or you know, you can even throw a Jadarion price, but love is the better pass catcher of the two just involving them more gives Notre Dame just another dimension that we haven't seen them try to really get to very much so far through the first couple games and makes it their their layups really a lot of times for the quarterbacks like that was one of the easiest throws that Leonard had to make when he hit Mitchell Evans there on that first drive of the game. Agreed. And this is kind of to me, you know, another what I would consider layup type play, right? This is I saw this play in the Michigan versus Texas game balls on the right hash. And you bring this kind of trips bunch kind of tight here to the field side and leave one wide receiver into the boundary. And again, the running back has lined up to the trip side. So really, you're in 10 personnel here you have one running back four wide receivers. But but again, this is Michigan was in a loaded box. And Texas realized they had man to man coverage. That's very similar to what NIU was doing to Notre Dame this weekend. And so the reason why I like this play is because ultimately, this guy, this linebacker I have circled is the guy that's going to be trying to cover the running back, you know, as he's as he's flaring out here. And so all of these routes are basically they're running away from the flare because you're trying to get everyone to kind of flow this way, right? And pre snap. It's a quick motion out. And then, you know, basically, this running back maybe gets, you know, outside of the the left tackle before the wide receivers, boom, snap of the ball, he's flaring out here. It's almost like that Jaden great how great house play I did against Texas A&M, you're asking this guy to now completely vacate and guard Jeremiah love one on one out in the flat. Oh, and not even to mention Jeremiah love is getting, you know, basically a motion or a cheat or a head start to the to the flat here and all you got to do is flick the ball out to him. And good luck to this to this linebacker that's lined up over the guard and trying to catch him on the perimeter one on one, right? And so it's just to me, it's just simple stuff like that. Like you know, they're going to be playing men to men. And with these loaded boxes, and you know, you know, nothing's been progressing downfield. So just come up with your best man beaters and try to get a mismatch of putting your best athlete Jeremiah love one on one into the flat with a with a, you know, a linebacker that again, has to try to cover a ton of ground, not only does he have to try to catch up, but then he's got to try to make a tackle as Jeremiah loves going full speed. And we saw what love and jadarion price can do in the open field, they make linebackers miss all of the time. And so again, this was to me, another great play I saw that led to a Texas touchdown against Michigan. Another fairly simple one, it seems like. And that's kind of what I'm getting at is like, these are simple again, layups, right? Like, just complete the easy passes if nothing else is going right. If they want to load the box, they want to play you man to man, find the mismatch and just complete your layups and allow your athletes to just go to work because you can't tell me that nerd aims athletes aren't better than I use athletes, right? Just let them let them go to work in open space. All right, that's it for this one. Okay, last one I have, this is a really, really, really snazzy screen screen concept that I've seen out of Sarkeeson. Again, another Texas play, but other people have kind of adopted this that I've noticed. So here's, here's what I've kind of modified this a little bit to be, you know, more of kind of tailoring to Notre Dame's needs, again, getting into 11 personnel, balls on the right hash, you have the tied end and the two wide receivers into the boundary, one wide receiver to the field side. And then the running back this time, instead of being, you know, line up into the boundary with the the tied end and the wide receivers, he's actually going to go field side. And there's a reason for it that I'll get into kind of right now. So the first thing that you want to do is bring this number two wide receiver into jet motion, because now you're working everyone's eyes to this side of the field and not only that, but now this this safety over here is going to have to bump over. And then this other corner safety is going to kind of have to drop back essentially in order to kind of fit into into this jet motion because you've now become more balanced. It's kind of more so like a two by two look, you have two wide receivers on one side, you have a tied end and a wide receiver on the other side. So in terms of passing threats, you're kind of more so balanced. And then even more so, you know, what you want to do on the snap of the ball on this play is you first, you're going to fake a hand off to your running back. And so now you immediately have kind of two options here, because this running back is going to leak out over into this flat and be set up nicely for a screen. And so now ultimately, you have two easy passes each side into the flat. I can I can take the, you know, fake the hand off and look to the left, get the defense flowing to the left and kind of throw this, you know, quick screen out here to the flare, you know, off this guy running into motion. But that's the whole point. You fake that you look left. And now this field or sorry, boundary side wide receiver is just going to vacate this area. He's going to get this defensive back to follow him. Your tight end is going to run a post over the middle. So now you've, you've occupied this corner. He's got to go with the tight end. And so what does that leave? Left over here, you have this linebacker one on one with your running back who's leaking out into the flat and oh, also you have your right tackle pulling out in front of him. And you have your center pulling out in front of him. So you have two guys on one linebacker in a very open part of the field. And the reason why this works is because the quarterback is going to look to the field side and then turn around and hit a throwback screen. So again, everything is shifting one way, right? Everything's flowing to the left, you bring the motion to the left, the safeties now have to kind of, you know, shift over to the left and drop. And then to this boundary side, you run routes to clear out the flat. And now you just turn around and you flip a screen to your running back who's Jeremiah love. And he's got to make a linebacker miss and he's got two offensive linemen out in front of him. Just a easy play again. Once again, to hit a nice layup to get it good, in my opinion, 10, 15 yards easily. And again, say, say maybe the screen isn't there. Well, I guarantee that if the screen's not there, then this other, you know, jet motion into into the into the flat is going to be there. So the emphasis of the whiteboard this week or today was find ways to hit layups, find ways to get these running backs involved in the passing game, because they've clearly showed themselves as the most explosive players on the offense. Yeah, I mean, you start hitting some of those, it's going to open up some of the other stuff more downfield to the receivers. And again, you know, there has been stuff that's there. But if the quarterback is not seeing it, then you need to set him up to give him stuff that's just much easier to see. And you know, get him get him in a little bit of a rhythm early on. Some of that stuff. Good stuff. As always, Jess, everybody loves the whiteboard. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
