What's new from Apple? There's the new iPhone 16 Pro, built for Apple Intelligence. And it comes with the all-new camera control, giving you an easier way to quickly access your camera tools. The new Apple Watch Series X has our biggest display in our thinnest design ever. And this? It's the sound of active noise cancellation, now available on one of two new AirPods 4 models. So quiet. Check out all of the new products and new features at Apple.com. You can even buy yourself something new. See, Apple.com for product availability updates, Apple Intelligence coming this fall. Happy Wednesday, Ivy Nation Sports Talk Up in Roland, along with Vince De Dario, Sean Steyers, who you are having a good day. Today, Vince has been bouncing back and forth and finds himself in his pen high school office this afternoon. I mean, it helps if you take your laptop home at the end of the day if you want to do a show from home. That's usually how that goes. And, you know, realizing it 10 minutes before the show starts, here we are. A little mad dash back to the office. Absolutely. It's mailbag day. We've got a lot of questions already start up and nice in the queue and ready to go today. So get your questions in for the mailbag. We know today in football, whatever else it happens to be. Someone actually had a Top Gun 3 question in there. Okay. So, yeah, we will hit that in a little bit. Let's just start with this one. It is 9/11. And obviously, this is a very monumental day in our nation's history. 23 years ago today, the planes hit the tower, the towers in Manhattan and, you know, America. I think we've at least somewhat stabilized, normalized over the last 23 years. But it's obviously a day that, you know, everyone remembers for different reasons. And, you know, we always keep everyone in our hearts who was who was directly impacted. I'm talking about families, firefighters, police officers, emergency responders and everyone. You know, anyone, you know, who was affected by 9/11 directly. We were all affected, at least in some indirect way. But Salty was asking, where were you when the first plane hit on 9/11? I think that that's something that just about all of us remember, where were you Vince? I was a junior in college. I was at Loyola University in Chicago. And I was asleep because I had late classes that day. And it was either a Tuesday or a Thursday, I believe. I can't remember specifically, but I was in bed. And my roommate came and woke me up and said, "Dude, you've got to see this. You need to wake up. You need to see what's going on. The World Trade Center buildings were just hit." I was, what, so it was 2001. So I was 20 years old. I had no idea what the World Trade Center buildings were. Really? Even at 20 years old, you had no idea at that point? Well, I'm 43 and I have never set foot in New York City. So I've never been there. So I don't, you know, outside of like the Empire State Building or something like that, I had no idea, you know, what buildings were in New York, to be perfectly honest with you. Still not a huge, I still don't really know a whole idea to garden and stuff like that. But like, I had no idea. So I was like, oh, well, I better see what's going on. And of course, then we sat there and watched on TV. And then people started to get nervous since we were in Chicago. The third, you know, largest city in the country. Right. We went to a class, or I went to a class and the professor never showed up. And then by that point, they just pretty much canceled everything on campus just because they were, they were just nervous and something might happen in Chicago. You know, that kind of a deal and they basically just told everybody to go home. So those are my memories from that day, kind of wild. I learned very quickly, obviously what the World Trade Center buildings were. And obviously it was a tragic day and it was just, I just remember thinking to myself, how surreal the entire situation was. You know what I mean? Like, is this real? Is this really happening? You know, all of those different things just, it was just a very surreal moment because, you know, outside of the Civil War, there's never really been, I mean, since the Civil War, there's never really been anything on our shores. And attack on it. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. That was it. That was the attack on the mainland of the United States. Obviously, I was doing morning radio, U-93 here in South Bend. And so I don't remember exactly what time it was. But, you know, I had been up since like four o'clock in the morning because we'd get up, go to work, do my, you know, sports. And then there were three of us in the studio. And we had a small TV that we typically kept on. And I remember Corey, his honor name was Taylor. But he had flipped on, you know, I don't know if it was like the Today Show or one of the cool things. You know, the morning where it shows. Because, remember, there was no social media at that. Right. Like, so like, if that had happened, obviously, during social media, it would have been all over social media right away. And it definitely, yeah. It found out, but it was still, you were relying on TV at that point. And so he flipped it over. And the first tower had been hit. And so there was smoke coming out of that, you know, the out of the first tower. And then the next thing, you know, we were, you know, we were kind of watching that. And boom, here comes the second point. You know, we saw that happen. Right. And, you know, and from there, everyone is just like, what is going on? You know, like, what happened to the first one and had what just flew into the second one. You know, and obviously we all found out relatively quickly. It's interesting. You said that about the Twin Towers. Because I think that that probably for anyone who wasn't, you know, hadn't either been to New York or like to that area. The, the Twin Towers were kind of like a, almost like a prop in a movie or a TV show. Because like I remember in Friends, for example, set in New York City at that time. Still one of the most popular TV shows, like even after the fact it is now. But like some of the cutaway shots would have the Twin Towers or movies you'd see cutaway shots of the Twin. That's kind of what, you know, what most people, again, who hadn't, you know, lived in New York City or whatever. You know, like, so that was, that was kind of, I think what most people, most people's vision of what the towers were. I have been to the memorial since then a few years later because that was my first stint with Notre Dame women's basketball. And that was when they were in the Big East. So like, I can't remember which trip it was like Seton Hall, Rutgers and St. John's all part of the Big East. And on one of those different trips, we went down and, you know, kind of saw. It was, it was like right after the, the memorials had kind of been, been built, you know, on that site. So just saw a little bit of it afterwards. Yeah, I, it's, you're absolutely correct about, you know, the skyline of New York and, you know, what you see when you're watching a movie or a TV show. And I obviously knew those two buildings, you know, I just had never, I never knew what the names of them were. You know what I mean? It's like I always do. Oh, that's New York City, you know, that kind of a thing. So I had no idea, you know, what the names of those two buildings were and all of that. Like, I was like a shame to like even admit that for a really long time because it seemed like everybody else knew. But I, you know, the bottom line was I am not a well traveled human being, especially when I was a kid. Oh, I mean, either like when I was. Yeah, like when I turned that age, I hadn't been really either, but it was eerie. It was eerie for a little while afterwards, just because like where I lived in South Bend, we were like right in the pathway of where the planes and stuff would go overhead, getting in and out of South Bend airport. And there was no air traffic. Obviously for however many days it was, because all air traffic was grounded and then finally. The plane started going again, you know, so it was, it was just, it was just a very, like you said, I think surreal is probably the best way to say it. I mean, everything was just so different. Yeah, in the immediate time after that. That was, you know, what I'll always remember is just the way the entire country just came together as one. And there was a TV commercial that I'll never forget. And it was like, all it was, was a shot of a row houses. And there was like one house that had American flag out or something like that and it said, you know, I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was like before 9/11. And then it shot to like after 9/11 and like every house had an American flag out like that kind of a thing. It's like, this is all changed or something like that. And like, that was powerful, man. Like, you know, and people can be divisive and people can have disagreements and everything. But for that period of time, there was, that didn't exist. Like everybody was an American. And like, it was, it was cool, man. Like the next member, they, I think they canceled the Notre Dame football game that was supposed to take place that weekend. And then the next game was against Michigan State. And they did the Notre Dame shirt that was red, white and blue themed. It was a navy blue shirt and the indie on the front. And I think there was an indie on the back was all starts and stripes and stuff like that. Gotcha. Yeah. So it was pretty cool as well. Yep, for sure. All right. So again, you know, obviously, like Sean Kelly said, he's a firefighter and we appreciate everything you do and every all, you know, all the other firefighters and police officers and everybody else. But Andrew said solid first pitch. I'm not sure. What he, what he meant by that. President Bush and his. Oh, oh, okay, I didn't see the initial. Yeah. Yeah. I am a unabashed hater of the Yankees. But that first pitch with the president and the whole, like, it wasn't like the Yankees. You know what I mean? Like that was, that was a first pitch for America because that was like the first because they canceled some baseball games, obviously. I believe that was the first game back. It was in New York, like, and he threw a friggin just strike man. It was like, the place just erupted. And one of the people in the chat. So he'll get chills for the rest of his life thinking about that. It was, it was Sean Kelly. Completely agree, man. Like watching that was like, that was freaking awesome. You got to stand on the mound. Can't stand in front of them. Right. That was awesome. Fired it in there with his jacket on and, and yeah, everything else. Yeah, pretty cool. 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 100 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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Well, you want to do some football questions here. I mean, try to change the tone. I don't. Yeah. It's like, how do you hard segue out of that? I don't know. And I'll just say my age is catching up to me because I cannot believe it has been 23 years since that happened. It feels like yesterday. I mean, it does. So, it does old. We all are Vince. We all are. So salty ass of Riley Leonard doesn't start slash play against Purdue due to the labrum injury. Is it a problem that he is not on Notre Dame's injured list this week? No, because they don't have to put anybody on the injured list if they don't want to. Like, I don't, it doesn't matter to me. This isn't like the NFL. Or, you know, a major league baseball or whatever where you have to do that. You don't have to do that. It's college. They don't tell you anything. They can cancel. Exactly. Yeah, as if he wants. Like, it's not a problem for me. I don't. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. Is Purdue putting out an injured list this week? I don't think they are. Most, most, most colleges don't. Most schools aren't Notre Dame is doing this. What their actual reason is for doing this? I don't know, but they're, you know, they're, they're, they're actually being much more upfront about this stuff than probably 99% of programs in the country. No college program has to do this. So, I have no problem with them. Not including Riley Leonard on there. And look, the other side of this is, and we'll, we'll get to some of this in rapid fire as well. I talked about this a little bit yesterday. You remember the shoulder surgery I had? Yes, several years back. I mean, it's been almost 20 years at this point. I remember it. But that was, it was my right show. I've had my left one done as well. I did. I injured my right one wrestling. I injured my left one diving for a ball in the outfield playing baseball, but the bottom like in both cases. The injury caused the shoulder to come out of socket and tore the labrum on both of them. But, you know, there, there was, and, you know, like obviously in the moment, it hurt quite a bit. Yeah. But they weren't like what you would consider, you know, they were far from complete tears. They were both small tears. So there was some discomfort. But for the most part, I had full use of both of my shoulders for a long time. And, but, you know, over a course of time as you continue to use them and do different stuff and you get older, they both needed surgery 15 and 20 years later. So like Riley Leonard may have torn a labrum on Saturday, but that's not to say that it is, you know, like a massive injury. You know, one is the non throwing shoulder. So it's not a shoulder that he has to worry about, you know, full function being able to throw the football with. You know, so like the degree of whatever injury this might be, you know Notre Dame Mike Dembrock addressed it a little bit yesterday, like he's out there practicing this week, you know, and based on what we've heard, he's been out there practicing So he may have, he may have suffered some kind of injury, but that does not mean that it's the kind of injury that would necessarily keeping out of a game. So like, like to their, for their purposes, they're not hiding anything if that's the case It's just like, you know, like Mike Dembrock said, like everyone's got some injuries to some extent. So, you know, and again, his non throwing shoulder, they can easily just give him a cortisone injection and whatever pain that he might has, he wouldn't be feeling Anyway, and again, you're not risking the money shoulder, you know, the one that you actually have to throw the ball with. Right. And it just depends on what the, you know, the seriousness of that injury is if it is a tear, if it's a bruise, is it. We don't know. We don't know. And to be perfectly honest with you, it's none of our freaking business like I don't, I don't really have an issue with it. I really don't. Whoever trots out at Notre Dame are at Purdue for Notre Dame on Saturday is who's going to be quarterback and I don't. I mean, I think you could pull your average Notre Dame fan and they'd probably be happy if he was injured and didn't play, you know what I mean. So, I, Notre Dame's not saying who's, who's playing. They're not saying he's not playing. So I assume the right of the letter is playing and I assume that he's healthy enough to play period. They're not going to play somebody that does not give them in their eyes, the best chance to win. So there you go. Correct. I don't think they're going to run him out there just to know they don't think that he's going to give him the bet, give them, because if he is injured, it gives them an excuse based on what we've seen of his play. So bright gives them an excuse just to put somebody else out there. If they want to. So, speaking of which Tom says we'll then jelly make a mistake free season debut someone's assuming Steve Angeli is going to play can a punter kick the ball into the coffin corner that punter is a big disappointment. I know you got some buzz. Well, the punter has not lived up to expectations. I will say that I don't know that I would rank him as the disappointment yet. I think, look, these are the first two games of American football he's ever played. Anybody that anticipated that he was going to look like Ray Guy out there. It was sadly mistaken. I didn't see that coming either. You know what I mean. So, I thought it would be someplace in the middle. But he's got some room for improvement. There's no doubt about it. As far as Angeli is concerned, is he going to be mistake free? Absolutely not. There is not a quarterback in the world that has been mistake free in any game they've ever played at a high level. Okay, maybe some P we kid was was mistake free at some point, but it is impossible to be a mistake free. Okay. Now, the question is, will he make the critical mistake that potentially loses you a game. That's the question. I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I really don't. He doesn't have to be a whole lot. If he just goes out there and is himself. The fans are going to fall down in love with them because he'll be better than what Riley Leonard was last week. That's the bottom line, right? I just think that the ceiling is still higher with Leonard than it is with Angeli. The odds that he would be mistake free are pretty much nil. You know, like that. That's not going to happen. And especially like Purdue has a defense. It's interesting in this matchup because Purdue has a defense that likes to blitz quite a bit as well. That's going to affect. I mean, it's going to affect any quarterback, but it's going to affect a young quarterback who has one career start to his credit and a handful of gains on top of that at least Riley Leonard has seen a blitz. So like to expect Steve Angeli, if he does in fact go out there and play to be mistake free against that kind of defense, a defense that wants to put a lot of pressure on you. And again, bring pressures from different directions and all that kind of stuff. Kind of like Al Golden. That's, that's just not going to happen. And in terms of James Rendell, Marty Biage, he talked a little bit about him last night because they bring the coordinators out and he talked about it. He said, look, he obviously needs to do better. Some of it is some of the stuff that we've talked about, a guy who's never been in any of these kinds of situations before because he comes from Australia. And he's adapting to that. He's still trying to sort of get the timing down of sort of how to feel that rush and what, you know, like it needs to be quicker, but it also doesn't need to be too quick so that he's not rushing his mechanics and all those different things. He sort of needs to find a happy medium. And he did also talk about the fact that even Northern Illinois's punter had some of his own issues because it was just a windy day out there in Notre Dame Stadium. And I think the new configuration that win definitely swirls around a little bit more so that, you know, I'm not trying to make excuses for him but, you know, it played with some especially like his, his shorter kicks, didn't do those any favors. He's, he just got a, he's got a big leg, man. He just got to figure it out and get that leg into it and he'll be fine eventually. But, you know, we'd like to see that sooner than later, but it hasn't happened so far. It's a great game. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how he does. And, you know, he's going to have his opportunity. So, we'll see. They're not, they don't have a backup really so it's James Rendell or bust. Yeah, exactly. DK wants to know how pivotal the great house drop was. I mean, are you, are you literally trying to rub some salt and salt these wounds here? Like, is that what's going on? Yeah, that's exactly what he's doing and that's okay. It was critical in the moment. I mean, because they weren't really able to do much offensively it felt like and that would have been a huge play. So, I mean, it was pivotal in that game. There's no doubt about it because they didn't really have another opportunity or they didn't take another opportunity or however you want to phrase it within the way that game played out, it ended up being a pivotal drop. Yeah, he makes the catch there in field goal range right away. And points were at a premium. Yeah, exactly. Now there's no guarantee as we saw that he would have made the field goal, but at the same time, you're in field goal range and you're feeling pretty good when you're in a little bit shorter range like that who's to say they wouldn't have ended up getting seven points even out of it. And when you flip it with the fact that no deep shots were hit like I think the longest pass play was the first drive to Mitchell Evans was the longest completed pass play that Notre Dame ended up with. And so that, that maybe affects the way that Northern Illinois is playing defense for a little while after that as well if he's able to make that catch so And nobody's saying that that was the no it's nothing deciding play. I want to I want to clear that up. It said pivotal. It was pivotal because they could have scored a touchdown on that drive. As Ryan Roberts said, he could have run in on that play alone if he catches the ball right. And so it was pivotal. It's not the reason they lost. Those are two different conversations. It's pivotal in that they had a much greater chance of getting points out of that possession than if he does, you know, turned out they got nothing. Correct. JHT 1988. How likely is it Notre Dame gets to win this weekend, but you don't think they got any better example play ball control not aggressive on offense. So like a scale of one to 10. I think that's like a nine to be perfectly honest with you because I think that's exactly how they're going to come out. They're going to play ball control. They're going to run it down their throat. Purdue is not good enough to really stop it. They'll do the same thing next week against Miami of Ohio. I just I haven't seen enough empirical evidence for me to think otherwise, because right now I think that's exactly what they're going to do. Yeah, Purdue was not a good run defensive team last year. They do have some new players and faces and stuff and they've moved some guys around on that side of the ball. And I think that they think they're better. This is really going to be a big test though for Purdue. I mean, they essentially got to play an exhibition game against Indiana State to open things up and they beat them 49 to nothing. And then they got there by week. And now they've got Notre Dame. So they've had a couple of weeks to sit and look and watch Notre Dame even more closely and maybe see what they think that they can pick apart but their run defense was not good last year. They were one of the better running teams offensively in the big 10 but they were also not a good run defense gave up a lot of points. But as I was just saying, they want to be aggressive. They want to be a better running pressure. So I can't see Notre Dame really kind of going, you know, all of a sudden just like switching the game plan to, you know, Riley Leonard or Steve Angelier, whoever it is, is going to just go out there and be taking chances in the past game and stuff like that. I think Notre Dame wants to try to smack Purdue up at the line of scrimmage and that I mean that's, that would make sense to me. But yesterday, keep the ball in Jeremiah Love and/or Jadarion Price's hands as much as possible. Right now they're the two best offensive players. Completely agree. I have no problem with them establishing the run and doing all of those kinds of things. I have no problem with that. Control the line of scrimmage because you didn't last week. Those are things that they absolutely need to do. I don't know, like, but I also want to see them, you know, expand the offense a little bit, push the ball down the field, like do the things that they weren't doing. I want to see Riley Leonard run the ball. If he's going to be the starting quarterback and he's healthy, then I want to see him being Riley Leonard. That's going to be very important for what I need to see in this game on Saturday. Are you going to let Riley Leonard be Riley Leonard? Or are you just going to let him sit back there, hand the ball off and just dump the ball off and make him try to stand to the pocket? And again, I don't think that's the way to go either if they're bringing pressures, just make him stand in the pocket and have to, because he's obviously not very comfortable doing that. That's when he looked as worst is when he was just trying to be just a pocket passer. You got to let him rely on his athleticism and just let his innate ability take over, I think. Agreed. Sean Kelly wants to know, is Gino Guduoli partly to blame for the quarterback regressions over the past two seasons? I mean, he's the quarterbacks coach, so is he partly to blame? Sure. I don't know. I mean, can you say Riley Leonard regressed? Because what I mean, he hasn't done anything yet. I wouldn't call that regression. I would call that not playing well at all. Now, it's difficult with these one year rentals and, you know, pinning it all on the quarterbacks coach. I will say that because I also think that the scheme is part of the problem, but where Gino Guduoli is going to make his case for being a good quarterback coach is when Kenny Menchie or CJ Carr starts taking snaps for Notre Dame. Then we're going to see what kind of developer of talent Gino Guduoli is. I don't know that it's fair to give him too much praise or too much blame when it comes to these one year guys, but he absolutely is partially to blame. Sure. And the one year thing, I think, is what stands out to me because, but wouldn't you be curious if Sam Hartman had one more year here? Absolutely. What he would look like this year. Now, granted, it's, it's, you still have a new offensive coordinator and a new system and all that, but I would be curious to see, with two years in the system, what a guy would look like. And it's kind of the same with Riley Leonard because we thought that a lot of the, and he said as much that the system that Duke was similar to what he was going to be running here. But I think that the, you know, like this is, he's only been here for a few months and he missed all of the spring. Now, Guduoli is the position coach. So he does factor into this, but I think it's more to do with, with what you're talking about. You're getting one year rentals and you're trying to plug guys who have played another systems for multiple years in here and make that fit kind of on the run. And look, I also don't think that it helps that it's essentially an entirely new offense. You know, like for everybody, like the person playing a completely different offensive line, starting file, compared to a year ago, completely different quarterback. You've got three brand new receivers added to the mix. Now there is chemistry with one of them, but so there's, there's just so much change from one year to the next. I think that all those things are factors. I don't think any one thing is, is completely to blame. The question is, do we see a flip switch at some point in this whole thing starts to take up because obviously our expectations were much higher coming in here with den Brock and Leonard and every, you know, and all these receivers much higher than what we've seen them produce so far. They're really good point, really good points Sean stars I had my bell I would ring it. Dang. Thank you. Appreciate you. So Mark says final NIU on NIU second series they ran a half back pass and just by luck was way off to a wide open receiver in the end zone you're right about that. Did that along with the 83 yard touchdown pass give the defense a passive mindset on run support. No, I don't think so I don't think it gave him a passive mindset on run support they weren't great in past game either so I don't know I don't think so. Because remember that the 83 yard pass play was a catch and run and what like 60 plus yards of it was basically just do the fact that nobody brought the guy to the ground he ran right between two different defenders. So I don't think that they were passive at all, you know, like if anything they stayed aggressive up front and still got hit with some, some, you know, run plays that shouldn't have been as long as they should have been so I agree I don't think that that necessarily was a passive mindset because, you know, because again like after that there was I think there was the one more relatively long pass play, but then everything after that was was like in the 14 15 yard range at the most. So it's not like you saw Hampton just tear up Notre Dame secondary after that. Which defensive unit had the most trouble against NI you. The defensive line because they got pushed around all day long. It's it I'm sorry. It's got to be the D line and you know linebackers didn't play great the secondary didn't play great but the defensive line got pushed around all day. That's my answer as well. And just looking at the pro football focus grades from last week they were not good. And like if you if you just look overall, I'm bringing them up right here. The bottom of the group in terms of how now, you know, again, like some of this grade of salt but I think it gives you at least something to go on, you know, like how pro football focus PFF grades this stuff but. Riley Mills Howard Cross and Donovan Hynish through two games are the three lowest graded Notre Dame players on the defense. They've got to be better up front. They've got to be a lot better up front. A lot better and they can't continue to put a guy like Donovan Hynish in a position to be, you know, a gap eater or something like like that's not who he is you're putting him in a position to be unsuccessful and he was unsuccessful the entire time. I don't think that's all his fault. Like he's he is undersized he needs to be an attacking defensive lineman and I don't think that they allowed him to do that. Thank you for the super chat Tyler Evans wants to know how confident are we in this team heading to West Lafayette Saturday. And then like they I had all the confidence in the world they were going to blow at NIU and obviously that didn't happen and unless they make changes like I don't I can't get on the bandwagon you know what I mean like it's 65 35 that they're going to win this game I still think they're going to win but there's a heck of a lot more margin for error now than there was. I think that I'm probably in the six seven range. Not quite to say I maybe give it a six and a half I'm fairly confident just because this Purdue team was not a very good team. Last year their quarterback Hudson card eight interceptions completed a little under 59% of his passes. He's got the name because he came from Texas and all that stuff but again they weren't a good passing team. They were not a good defensive team and that was with a head coach whose background is in defense. So I have confidence just based on that. But like everybody else they brought in guys from the transfer portal that you know again they you know they've they've done some things and they're they're at least feeling a little bit good about themselves because they beat. You know it was an FCS team but they still beat up a team in Indiana state. A couple of weeks ago so they got at least a shot of confidence coming in and. It's Notre Dame they're going to be up for it's been a long time since Notre Dame's been to West Lafayette. So I feel fairly confident but. I still have a like so many questions just because of all the like. I have no idea what this offense is Vince and there's there's nothing that tells me the offense is going to look any better than what we saw last week. You know from one week to the next so that's that's my biggest question I think that I've got going into this. 100% it's I said this to you and I was on the phone with you before the show. This is literally a week to week team right now for me like anybody that's talking about playoffs or even October. You're putting the cart before the horse man like I need to see what this team does week to week to week before I make any kind of anything at this point like I. Last week was such a disappointment that there you know I need to see it every single week. The only thing that gives me confidence is. They have been in this position before Marcus Freeman has been in this position before and he has managed to turn it around in the next week. The question is are they going to be able to continue it over the course of the season or are we going to see a repeat of his first season. When he laid an egg not once but twice right in the you know the span of a of a few weeks like is he going to be able to fully write the ship. According to him it's not about the physical side of things it's about what between what's between the ears and the mental preparation and all that kind of stuff and it starts with the head coach so exactly. Yeah a lot of questions to be answered. What was the worst part of the offensive line play last week and what player needs to make the biggest improvement this week against Purdue. They all have a ton of work to do. Look Ashton Craig held for the second time on the almost the exact same play and the exact same scenario can't do that. You know the whole left side made a lot of mistakes they kick they got to start cleaning that up. You know and you know bottom line. The offensive line didn't the offensive line isn't the problem okay they didn't play great but nobody did. So I'm not going to single one guy out and say that this guy needs to get the most better of anybody they all have plenty of room to improve their mistakes made by all five of them multiple times. So it's the whole line just needs to get better. And to go along with that it's not just the offensive line remember the running backs are part of the deal as well when you're talking about pass protection. And again it like not to fall on the PFF grades all the time but all of Notre Dame's running backs have very low pass blocking grades right now according to PFF like alarmingly low. They have a young inexperienced line like they have because they've all shown good things but they've all shown at some point or another that they can be beaten as well. You know and again when you're talking about a matchup against a Purdue team that wants to bring a lot of pressures, very important that the running backs are doing their part not just the offensive line. I would say pass blocking I feel like from a run blocking standpoint, they're pretty good and that's what you would expect especially from a young inexperienced offensive line. So pass blocking would be I think but there are also moments when they were really good you know there were plenty of clean pockets that Riley Leonard had out there he just didn't pull the trigger when he needed to pull the trigger. Like I said, go around that's why I'm not singling anybody out. Besides quarterback which offensive and defensive player do you want to see the most improvement from against Purdue. I would say the offensive line for the offense and I would say the defensive line for the defense I mean both both of those positions need to play better both those positions need to play better. Since you're not letting me say quarterback. I'll go O line D line. Yeah I don't want to put it on one guy, because as a unit both of those groups need to play better because there's a ton of talent especially look. We hyped up this defensive line and how good we thought it was going to be. Yeah, again, yeah, the shame of it is they were both better against what was supposed to be the better team, but they were not they were worse against the Mac team last week. Just so I do think I do think that that mindset has a lot to do with that, but they've definitely both groups have got to be better. You want to be an offensive defensive line driven program. And that's not what we're seeing right now. No, and we know you said single player salty, but it's way bigger than that way bigger than that. Well, and if I'm going to, if I went one single player on defense. He can shore up the tackling. I think that that would be the like one of the biggest specific things from a defensive player. He knows he knows how to find the ball in the air, but he needs to tackle in space better. Like I don't want to necessarily put it all on him, but that's just one thing that stands out from a defensive player that stood out the first couple of games is cool tackle that 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'll 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. The first 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 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. I want to know what questions will be answered Saturday. Good question. I'm really fearful that no answers will no questions will be answered. Like I am. I am really fearful that like I said earlier, this team is just going to come out, run the ball, dink and dunk. And that's going to be enough to be Purdue, and it'll probably be enough to beat Miami, you know what I mean, but that's not what's going to win this team anything. And so that's honestly will really worries me that no questions will be answered on Saturday. Yeah, I'm. Like I just saw somebody say, you know, I've got this feeling that they come out and beat the brakes off Purdue. I just don't have the feeling that they're going to beat the breaks off of anybody right now, based on two games because beating the breaks off them. Starts with an offense that can look, we haven't like we thought that these receivers, we're going to look so much different than last year and like, so you can talk about the quarterback, if you want, but like, where are the receivers in any that you know like what, haven't you expected more from this receiver group Vince. I expected more from the entire team, but look, there were, yes, I mean, sure, but they were running open to and they weren't, they weren't being hit. That's true. You're right. I did. I expected more production part of that's the quarterback, but I expected more production from the wide receivers. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah. Salty's, Salty's getting dangerous. Oh boy. What would have to happen this season for Marcus Freeman to be on the hot seat and then to be fired. Well, so which is it? Is he going to be on the hot seat at the end of the season or is he going to be fired because those are obviously two very different things. If Notre Dame doesn't make the playoff, he's on the hot seat, in my opinion, because that should be the bare minimum of success. I think so as well. This schedule was just set up to for Notre in it with an expanded playoff and the way the schedule was set up. The whole thing was set up for Notre Dame to be in the playoff. And so you don't make the playoff, you're on the hot seat. Now, if this season blows up and you've got, I'd say three plus losses. I think that that pushes you to the, again, because when you look at what the schedule is, you lose at least three games against this schedule. I think that you're, you've definitely placed yourself on the hot seat at that point. And Irish Irish for life 99 says I think he's kind of on the hot seat right now. I don't disagree with that. How they play from here on out will cool it. Right. I absolutely. Now, in order for him to get fired at the end of this year, it's going to have to be another like 2016 where they win like three games. I mean, that would obviously get him fired, I think. And maybe it wouldn't. I don't know. They didn't get Brian Kelly fired so maybe it doesn't get him fired, but there would be a lot of calls for him to get fired if that's the case. Right. So, you know, Chris is saying nine and three, he can get another year. Yes. But it'll be a hot seat going into that year. Like, that's, that's what, yeah, I mean, there's a difference between, you know, again, you have to separate. You're on the hot seat, because you've still got the job. But you've got to up that performance and start. Getting it done getting getting consistent W's on Saturday. You know, like. Nine and three is not going to get him fired. I don't think. This year, you know, I'll never say never because I remember. You know, like when Charlie Weiss got fired, you know, like November rolled around. I remember going into November and I thought that. That things were going in the right direction and then things fell apart. The last month of the season and the next thing, you know, we had Brian Kelly. So, you know, like I said, I'll never say never because you just don't know what's going to happen. But, you know, again. You lose three games with all the expectations that were on this season. And against the schedule that you got in an expanded playoff era. Nine and three finds him on the hot seat, heading into the off season. And then next, you know, next year, nine and three, eight and four could get you fired next year. A hundred percent. I mean, that's obviously not traveling in the right direction. Yeah. Somebody had a question in there. Sean, I don't know if you have it. And I'm not going to go look for it. But somebody said if Riley Leonard is out for the season, does he try to get a medical red shirt and what does Notre Dame do with that? I thought that's a very interesting conundrum that obviously we have not had to face yet. But I find that to be very, very interesting because, in my opinion, if that's the case and he's now out for the whole year. And I think you turn the keys over to CJ Carr. And if CJ Carr is who you think he is, you're not bringing Riley Leonard back. You know what I mean? You're going to continue with CJ Carr for next year. So, I think you're looking at Riley Leonard at his third school. I think so too, because Riley Leonard was a stopgap quarterback. He was he was about one season, both for him and for Notre Dame. I don't think that there's benefit from from Notre Dame's perspective in bringing him back for another year because then at that point you are holding back the development of your own players, the guys you've gone out and recruited. And CJ Carr is a sophomore at that point and the clock is ticking right with him. How long is CJ Carr going to going to stick around while he waits for another guy, you know, to finish out his eligibility. So, I agree that would that would be that would be a pretty easy decision for me. That would be the move that I would make. That would be the move that I would think that they would make if it were to come to that if it comes to an injury. The keep you. The one thing about Riley Leonard though, is with his competitiveness, like what we saw from him last year when he tried to come back from the injuries when he was still at Duke, and he was essentially forced to stop playing because he just couldn't between the, you know, the ankle and then the toe injury that he had after that as well. The fact that he was obviously shaken up in the first half last week against Northern Illinois but he never missed a play he kept on playing I think that, you know, unless they amputate a limb there on the field. I think Riley Leonard's going to try to keep playing, you know, I can't I can't see him, you know, push, you know, like go to the point where it's like, okay I'm going to shut myself down now after four games or something like that. Unless he's forced to, but, you know, again, right, right, right, right, right. I would say, yeah, at some point, as a coach, you've got to put in a guy to give you the best opportunity to win whether he wants to be out there or not, right. I mean, if he's like dragging a leg or if he's dragging an arm and he's just not able to be who he is, then yeah, you got to make a change at that point, you know, from an injury standpoint. So you got to put that in the hands of the coaches and if they're not willing to make that decision and well then that's another check in the wrong box for the coaching staff too. Yeah. DK says he doesn't need a medical right like technically 100% apply, but as long as he only plays in four games. Right. He would qualify for red shirt because this is his year. Yeah, the point is still, but it would be for medical reasons, obviously. Right. The point would still be the same. I think at that point, you move on and you go with your future. Correct. Going back to the Marcus Freeman, Andrew says, Bevak was not going to let Freeman tank another season. If he goes seven and five or six and six, what changes can Freeman say he needs to make his coordinators are already locked in. No, I mean, I agree with that as well. Like, you're talking about, suppose it's worst case scenario though, if you're talking seven and five or six and six. That's complete complete disaster territory. And yeah, and you go seven and five or six and six against this schedule, then you deserve to go. Yeah. And clean house, like everybody's gone. Yep, like, I don't care who's locked in and who's not, you're, you're all gone. You're all getting fired at that point. But again, we're not there. We are not there. We're just speaking in, you know, possibilities. So, a lot of, a lot of conversation. I think about this, this week, if, if Marcus Freeman has instilled a defense centric, take no risks, offensive mindset, condemn, rock reverse it simply via the place called. No, it's a mentality and a philosophy. You can't just do it by calling different plays. It has to be a mindset going in. It can't be just calling different plays because you probably didn't practice those with an emphasis. That you should practice those, you know, throughout the offseason, you know what I mean, or throughout camp and all of that. So you can, you can change your philosophy and change what what you emphasize. We've talked about that, right? If you, what you emphasize is what you believe that is your philosophy. So you can change that and you can update that and they can definitely do that. You can't just do it by calling different plays. Correct. And, you know, again, to clarify there, it's not like they're not having receivers run any pass routes. Right. You know, like, as people were pointing out earlier when we were talking about wide receivers, they're open guys on the second interception. As you talked about earlier this week, there were guys open underneath, but Riley Leonard opted not to make either one of those throws. He tried for the deep shot. Instead, and the fact that there was a deep post on that play means that, you know, it's, it's, it's not like Marcus Freeman is saying we're not going to throw down field at all. It's just that the, the, there's a specific way that I think the head coach has kind of, you know, put his thumb on the scale and kind of kind of wants things called in general. It's, it's more that than specific kinds of play calls because there have been, again, there have been plenty of plays out there where receivers are running down field. Now, not all of them. There are still, like, for my liking way too many stop routes and, you know, a little come back some curls and stuff like that like to see, you know, Chris Mitchell had to take the top off the defense a little bit more. Now, you know, again, he did have his man beat on that post that it was just under thrown but I don't know. We'll see if it changes at all this week. But it's got a pretty good safety as well that the men. I know Notre Dame recruited him a few years like just a couple of years ago. I believe he was a freshman all American last year. Okay, safety. Been doing my Purdue homework this week. I don't think it matters who's on their team. So does that mean you think that Notre Dame wins handily? No, I do not think that. So what do you mean you don't think what I'm saying is making clearly lose to anybody. Oh, okay. That's what I meant by I meant to complete. Gotcha. Yeah. Because they look Northern Illinois had a really good running back. But you know what neutralizes a really good running back when your offensive line can't do anything. And the offensive line full of a bunch of nobody's and I mean that with all due respect to those guys on full scholarship at NIU, but they pushed around Notre Dame and allowed their really good running back to make place. You know what I'm saying. Their quarterback was nobody. Their wide receivers were nobody. They all made plays. They all made plays on Saturday. So, you know, I don't think it matters who plays for Purdue, because if you, if you're just looking at it on paper. They got a lot better players than NIU does. Across the board. Great. But they had a lot better players than Northern Illinois as well. Thanks again for the Super Chat, Tyler Evans. How do you feel about your Cowboys and Bears after week one. I feel pretty darn good, especially since Jesse and I shelled out a lot of money to go see the Cowboys in person and Cleveland. I tell you what, I had no idea what to expect going into that game. I thought Cleveland was going to play a lot better defensively and there was all the drama, of course, between Dak and CD lamb and everything else. The offense looked really good. Kavonti Turpin returned to punt for a touchdown. So that was pretty exciting as well. And the defense played pretty well. Deshawn Watson helped them out looking pretty pathetic out there, but I'll take it after. I'll take it after one week. I felt, I felt pretty good. That was the first time we'd seen him win in person in probably 14 years or something like that. Really good about it. Yeah. Wow. 148 yards total offense. Sean Steyers. That's how I feel about the Chicago Bears. They have a pretty darn good defense. They got pretty darn good special teams. And it's a good thing that they do because they won that game with those two sides of the football team. Two sides of the football, not the offense. Caleb Williams was dreadful. He was awful. He was terrible. Worse than I ever could have imagined that he would be. It's one game, but I enjoyed watching him struggle and the bears still winning. So we'll see. I don't know how to, I just don't know how to feel about my bears fandom right now, because I want him to win, but I also want Caleb Williams to struggle. You got to get past it, man. You just got to get past what school he's from. He's in the NFL now. It doesn't matter. Anyone out there with his orange painted fingernails and everything else. Once he's cashing that jacket, don't man. Yeah, he needs to stop a fingernail painting. Live it in the past, man. You're living in the past. Live it in the present. He has orange fingernails. I'm living in the present. Okay. All right. All right. Can't stand him. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
