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IB Nation Sports Talk: Marcus Freeman Talks Riley Leonard/Clarifies NBC Comments

Irish Breakdown has comments from Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman on the status of quarterback Riley Leonard heading into Saturday's game at Purdue. Freeman also clarifies the pregame comments on Leonard that he made on NBC before last week's game and has more comments on Leonard and this week's QB depth chart. Shop for Irish Breakdown gear at our online store: https://ibstore.irishbreakdown.com/  Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com  Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com​ Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/irish-breakdown/id1485286986 Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishbreakdown Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/irish-breakdown-newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:
46m
Broadcast on:
12 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

Irish Breakdown has comments from Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman on the status of quarterback Riley Leonard heading into Saturday's game at Purdue. Freeman also clarifies the pregame comments on Leonard that he made on NBC before last week's game and has more comments on Leonard and this week's QB depth chart.

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

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

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

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

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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. I've been Asian Sports Talk Up, rolling on a Thursday. We've got so much to get to. These Thursday shows, man, they fill up fast. We do we and we out. We've got the Marcus Freeman comments from earlier today. We've got a lot of quarterback talk on today's show from Riley Leonard to Sprinkles of Angeli and some CJ Carr in there as well. But just to clarify, Jesse posted this, looking for his good friend, Anthony P because the Pittsburgh Pirates Paul Skeens talk earlier this week. Anthony is outside, standing his deck, but he is listening. He's not going to be able to see you. You look a little bit like Paul Skeens right now with that Pirates hat on and that mustache of yours. Some would say a more handsome Paul Skeens, but. Oh, well, some. I don't know who, but. I told Anthony that if Skeens had an ERA, ERA under three after 20 games. I eat my pants. I can't really eat pants. So I decided I would I would go go on and put on this this Pirates hats for the show in honor of Anthony. So Anthony, I know you're standing your deck, but I hope you go back and rewatch it and and live this glorious moment of me wearing this Pittsburgh Pirates hat. He said he's taking a break. He's taking a break. I know. So. All right. Got his Pirates hat on the number one Cubs fan, Jesse with his Pirates hat on for today's show. Well, we got to talk to Marcus Freeman this afternoon and we've got we and we out questions coming up a little bit, by the way, but got to talk with him. And as you can imagine on his Thursday media call quarterbacks came up. Were you expecting quarterbacks to come up today? No, why would quarterbacks come up today? I know like that happened. So have you heard have you actually heard the comments that Freeman made to NBC sideline reporter Zora Stevenson before the game last week? I don't think I did. Have you read them? Or do you just kind of know the gist of them? I know the gist of it. I wouldn't. A light refresher always helps. Okay. We will do that. So this was asked about the comments that he made on NBC before the game about this is what he said on NBC to Zora Stevenson, their sideline reporter about what he wanted from Riley Leonard against Northern Illinois. We want to play within the office. I don't need any. We don't need anything spectacular. Do exactly what your coaches tell you to do play within the game plan and the rest will take care of itself. But we start trying to make plays and throw the ball down the field. Then also we're playing out of character. Just do exactly what we want you to do and the rest will take care of itself. So any any initial thoughts on that before I play his explanation to that. From earlier this afternoon. Yeah, I think some kind of preliminary thoughts and I might have, you know, said a little bit of this on Tuesday when we were talking about quarterbacks. I really believe that Riley Leonard has, you know, a specific skill set that that makes him kind of the dual threat quarterback that he is. And I think that at times, you know, during Marcus Truman's tenure, he has a specific idea of what he wants the offense to look like. And to me, it kind of sounds like there. You know, we don't want Riley Leonard just running around all over the field potentially, you know, turning the ball over is what it sounded like to me. And I think that either Marcus Truman was really trying to impose, you know, a certain skill set on to Riley Leonard rather than taking Riley Leonard skill set and kind of turning that into the game plan. And I think that's kind of where the issue lies at the moment. It felt to me felt to a lot of people like they were basically putting the clamps on Riley Leonard trying to force him into a box, you know, square, square peg and round hole. However, you want to look at it like they wanted it. They wanted it like they wanted to be the puppet master. They only wanted Riley Leonard to do exactly what they wanted him to do. So, Freeman asked about those comments today. And here is his explanation for those comments. My comments were if Zora to be misconstrued that me and Riley weren't on the same page. I think Riley was excited for the opportunity to compete on Saturday. And I was really intent on making sure guys focus on just getting the job done, doing the job that the coaches tell them to do. And that's probably more so what I meant by those comments. So, I don't know, whoops, that's one thing in there. I don't know, Jess, when I hear that, like, does that really? Does that really explain the initial comment? It really just feels like maybe not as forcefully, but almost just kind of saying the same thing, you know, like, we wanted him to do what the coaches wanted him to do. What did you think? Yeah, I think it's really a statement that kind of shows a lack of confidence in your quarterback overall. And I think that you saw times, you know, on both sides of the ball last week where guys were maybe trying to make the perfect play rather than, you know, kind of going out and just playing football, essentially. And I think when you start talking about, "Well, you got to do this," or "You can't make mistakes here," I think it takes away some of the confidence and freeness that some of these players can play with, you know, basically backyard football. And I know that Notre Dame is, you know, it needs to be more organized than backyard football, but at times, you just got to let these players do their thing and, you know, play in space, essentially. And you can't tell me that Notre Dame's players can't play in space better than NIU players. And so when you start to constrain them and restrict them and say, "These are the things you can and can't do and you don't want to do this and do this," it really starts to kind of mentally play with you as a player. And rather than just kind of, you know, free playing, now you're sitting there and it slows you down, honestly, as well. Well, the message is also, if part of the message, even though he didn't say it, but I mean, you know, like with the initial comments that he made, you know, the initial comments down there on the field, play within the game, the rest will take care of itself. You don't need to do anything spectacular, do exactly what your coaches tell you to do. If we start trying to make plays and throw the ball down field, then all of a sudden we're playing out of character, just do exactly what we tell you to do. I mean, it feels like Marcus Freeman is so afraid of Riley Leonard making a turnover that, I mean, that's like, it's like simple psychology, you know, like if you say, "Don't jump, don't jump, don't jump." What your brain actually hears is jump, jump, jump, you know, just as an example, like if you put a don't in front of something, what your brain actually hears is the something that comes behind the don't, you know. So, obviously, that was it, that Saturday was the first time in Riley Leonard's career that he had multiple interceptions in the same game. And it just, it just feels like, you know, again, like trying to corral the stallion rather than just letting the stallion go out there, kind of piggybacking on what you were saying, just letting him play, letting him be himself. That's where he's had success in the past. You know, now again, like, there's more to the game than just the deep ball, you know, I get what you're talking about, but like, Andrew, there were other passes there, like on that same route, there were open receivers on the same route who weren't as deep, and that was the decision to make that play. I'm not saying he has to cut it loose and just go out there winging it and letting it fly, but just trust your instincts. He's not a pocket quarterback, and it sure seemed like they wanted him to stand in the pocket and be a pocket quarterback for a lot of the day Saturday. 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That's code IRISH on prize picks for a deposit match up to a hundred dollars. Prize picks run your game. You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs takes the crispy and spicy nugs that you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey barbecue, garlic palm, or if you're a real heat seeker, try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins, and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's at participating U.S. Wendy's. I agree and I think kind of, you know, the best comparison I can maybe make is when Jalen Hertz was kind of in college, right? Like he wasn't known as the greatest passer and he was obviously more mobile and can do a lot of, you know, a lot of work with his feet, especially at Oklahoma. And I think that's the kind of, and again, I'm not trying to say that that's, you know, right. Leonard has the same skill set or the same amount of talent, but that's kind of who I think about of a guy who can, he can use his legs to get others open. You know what I mean? Like, as he's kind of moving the pocket a little bit and using his legs, he has the decision, you know, to allow those wide receivers to maybe get open to start moving with, you know, moving around a little bit, find some holes in the zone or in coverage. And if he doesn't see it, just just tuck it and pick up a couple yards. And honestly, what I was thinking about too, like, right lender can still run the ball as long as he makes a concerted effort to step out of bounds to slide. Like you can do a lot of things to be preventative in taking hits. And so I don't think his legs are completely, you know, taken away from him. So again, if you can move the pocket with your legs a little bit, allow the defense to have to guard you even longer. Allow your wide receivers to sit down in some holes or some zone spots. Okay, if it's not there that I'm just going to tuck it gain two, three, four yards and get out of bounds essentially and I think that kind of has to be, you know, the way this, this offense operates right. Right. And so as we look at the Riley Leonard that we saw Saturday versus the Riley Leonard that had success at Duke. And again, he was never going to be a 70% passer. That's not what he was at Duke. I don't think anyone realistically expected that that was what he was going to be coming here to Notre Dame. He was able to make plays in different ways at Duke. But, you know, again, when you talk about the mindset, what the head coach expects via the offensive coordinator and the quarterback coach and then you throw the quarterback into the mix as well. Are they all on the same page? How do they get on the same page? Or is, you know, making sure that the coaches and players on the same page. It does take time, right? Like anything that we, we've done anything we do. Um, with experience, um, comes improvement. Uh, you know, and I think what Riley and Coach Dimrock and Coach Dooley, they, they're continuously being intentional about making sure like we are very clear on what we want out of the plays that we call. Um, you know, sometimes, you know, we might give too much freedom. We have to make sure that we are very clear on what is expected, but they're also as a part of playing the game. Um, at quarterback that you have to give them certain freedoms to make good decisions. And so that's just been something that I think we've been continuously working on. Um, it's important that us as coaches, we call plays that our players feel very confident about. They feel confident about what is expected, um, what they like, what they don't like. And that's something I think that, uh, we as a staff and especially often staff has done this week and making sure that, hey, what plays are you confident in? Um, how do we make sure that we design plays that there's, there's clarity, right? And that, you know, you feel very confident about the looks you will see defensively, um, about your options, uh, on offense. And, um, again, it, it does take time, but I think we can expedite that process, um, with intentional conversations and meetings and practice and all those different things that go into preparing for a game. So the fact that they have to expedite the process and he's saying it takes time. They're not on the same page, obviously right now. And you hear some of the things that he said in the first part of that sound bite right there. He says that, um, you know, coach den brought coach, continuously being intentional about making sure we're very clear on what we want out of the plays we call. Sometimes we might give too much freedom. We have to make sure we are very clear on what is expected. Again, it just sounds like they're trying to put constraints on this guy. And the more I listened to it and based on what we have seen, seen so far, I have no idea why they brought Riley Leonard into this program. If this is sort of the direction that they're trying to go with him. What do you think? Yeah, I think it's very obvious that, you know, Marcus Sremen, Mike Dembrock, Riley Leonard, you know, the Dooley, everyone that's got a hand in this quarterback development slash offensive design are not on the same page. And it's really frustrating because, you know, I get it that he was out during the spring, but you had the entire fall, like, you had a camp for a reason like now is not really the time. To kind of be figuring out or determining, you know, what plays your quarterback likes best or what plays are going to work best for. Right. Now granted what you didn't have a chance to do that in the spring because he was injured for most of this. Yeah, but he still was there for all of the, you know, all of the, even though he wasn't fully participating. Yeah, I was just kidding. Right. He's probably offense operates. And so yeah, it's really frustrating. Like, now is not the time, you know, three weeks into the season to be determining, you know, is this ultimately what works best for our quarterback or what plays are quarterbacks like, or does our quarterback like to run the most? That should have been determined. Game one, you should be building off of, you know, stuff by now and not kind of going back to the drawing board essentially. So, you know, as a fan that that is really concerning to hear and I would have to echo echo what you just said. You knew what rally Leonard was coming out of the portal. You know, I don't see Chip Kelly down at Ohio State, you know, altering what kind of offense that they want to run with Will Howard because that's a similar type of quarterback. As Riley Leonard, a guy that is, you know, a dual threat can can throw the ball had maybe some questions about whether or not he can throw the ball. I don't see Chip Kelly down there at Ohio State being like, you know what, game three, let's let's scratch here and try to figure out, you know, what our quarterback can do here. And so it's really, it's really frustrating and concerning. So why did you bring him in, if you mark a stream and want to run a more pro style offense because that's all you have to say, you know, like those straight dropbacks and going through progressions and, you know, all that stuff, I get it. But if you want a pro style quarterback as well, why are you not running the ball more to, and that's the other kind of crazy aspect of this thing because a pro style often does rely on running the ball, but you abandoned running the ball the entire second half. Yeah, it's also frustrating as well. If you're worried about your quarterback throwing the ball around and potentially turning it over then why aren't you, you know, because like, even when Riley Leonard was throwing and I want to put this come up coming up here from USMA 87. I think it's a great observation. You said he rewatched some of the game. So many of the passes are to receiver standing still. The big misses were to receivers on the move. And that's right. You know, like you see, you know, these stop routes and these digs and come, you know, all this. These, you know, different routes like that, where it is a lot more stagnant. Really, it kind of reminds me a little bit of what Kellen Moore was doing. You know, when he was still with the Dallas Cowboys, you saw far less fluidity and movement from the receivers. You just, you saw a lot of, of standing still. And I don't know if they think that that's what suits Riley Leonard best since he wasn't, you know, he wasn't a big bombs away type guy guy at Duke. Most of the stuff that you saw was shorter and intermediate type stuff. But again, those passes are there. It's just that he's not making very many of them. And even the ones that he was attempting. And some of them making it just like he looked to me like he was hesitant, you know, almost at times like he was trying to, you know, like aim the ball in there and guided in there with, with some of those short throws. It just did not look very natural anything that he was doing last week. I think that comes with the mindset of, I can't lose this game, you know what I mean? Like, I felt like Riley Leonard was trying not to lose the game rather than just going out and playing his, his brand of football and winning a football game. I think he did down the first drive of the game when they, when they went down there and he got in on that touchdown, like that's Riley Leonard football right there. Yeah, I didn't see a drive that felt like that the rest of the way. And I don't know if that's, you know, when that shoulder comes into play, but he was running over that shoulder was still later in the half. Like, if it didn't happen right away, there were still series after that where it's like, what are you doing. Some of those same things. It's like, well, we'll take some of that running and doing some of these things early on, but okay, now we've got some points. So we want to avoid that as much as possible. That's kind of. And I think it goes back to, like, look at, I just remember seeing Riley Leonard's face after NI, you got that last field goal. And he didn't look like a guy that had the confidence that he was going to go down and get a field goal and Notre Dame was going to win this football game. And he kind of had that deer in the headlights look, which in my opinion, considering he led a game winning touchdown drive just a week prior at Kyle field against the top, you know, 25 opponent, one of the toughest environments to play. And so I just, I don't understand what happened. You know, Marcus Riemann talks about how they had such a good week of practice and he was going to focus on, you know, not having a let down and all of these things. And it's like, what did you go so far to say, you know, here's the things that we have to do. And, you know, we can't do these things and we can't do those things that no one, I don't think anyone really had confidence in what they were doing. And most specifically, the most important person Riley Leonard had no confidence in what he was doing. So, because that goes to, you know, like you were talking about how he's guiding passes that's like a, to me that's a symptom of no confidence you're trying to just like almost shot put the ball right to where it needs to go. Like he would hand it to the receiver. Right. Good, basically. So, this week, we've had the report about the injury to his non throwing shoulder, Mike Denbrock said, I guess it was just what that was two days ago it was Tuesday and we talked about it yesterday but Mike Denbrock said Riley Leonard's been out there practicing. They have no reason to believe that, you know, that he can't be a runner of the football and basically can't play the quarterback position. And so Marcus Freeman asked today about what Riley Leonard's role has looked like this week at practice as well as the other quarterbacks. Nobody's roles have changed. Riley's had a really good week of practice has made some really good throws and done a really good job at decision making, taking care of the football. And everybody else has been done a great job too in terms of what they've been asked to do but nobody's been asked to do anything differently this week than previously. The depth chart remains the same, according to Marcus Freeman, and that means Riley Leonard is number one, Steve Angeli is number two, Kenny Menchie is number three and CJ Carr is number four and we're going to save the car discussion and some of Marcus Freeman's comments on CJ Carr for rapid fire. I guess the bottom line is right now Jesse as happy Notre Dame fan. I don't know if there's some irony sarcasm in that handle. Who do you want to start a quarterback should it be Riley Leonard should it be Steve Angeli because then you know like some other people like a baby playing jelly in the first half car in the second half and you can always throw Kenny Menchie in the mix to that he says he or she and jelly first half car in the second half Kenny, but like Oh, we just playing a junior high game out there and we're going to throw all these different quarterbacks in the game. I don't think that's really how it how it works. So again, we're going to save the CJ Carr part for rapid fire KBA so, so hold on tight tonight because like I said we've got a lot of stuff to talk about. What do you think of the top though like who are you good with Riley Leonard starting do you think it should be Steve Angeli do they need to make a change this week. So I kind of want to just a quick before I answer this question. Okay. And that last mark is streaming soundbite. You know he basically I didn't like what I heard, because all he said was well right Leonard has taken care of the ball this week and so you're still echoing the same thing in practice that you're hammering into him. It basically is the same thing that he was that he said to Zora before the game and he just echoed it in his Thursday press conference. After they've had a whole week of practice that he liked what he saw at a rather Leonard because he was taking care of the football so again, like what are we doing are we asking someone not to generate you know big plays explosive plays and score. Or are we asking someone to you know take care of the ball and well we don't score we don't score but as long as you don't turn the ball I just, I'm not really liking that honestly if that's your emphasis. You'd probably be better with Steve Angeli out there. If that's the only thing you're prioritizing. Like if you're not prioritizing the ability to make play with his legs to lead game winning drives like he did against Texas A&M. Those kind of things you might just be better with Angeli. Yeah and so that kind of leads me into, you know, I would still start Riley Leonard out there against Purdue this week. But if there's just a lot of kind of other moving parts around that answer. If it's a Riley Leonard that because a Mike Dembrock offense is better run by like by a quarterback like Riley Leonard a guy with you know mobility can move. Which again is shocking that they're handcuffing him as much as they are. Right and so if you're letting him play a true Mike Dembrock offense, then yeah I think Riley Leonard is the better option. I mean if because again think about it not to complete I'm cutting you off but this just kind of popped into my head. You know again like this is not a guy who never threw interceptions at Duke, but he never had a multi interception game. And I don't think that that Mike Elko and his staff were beating into his head so hard that don't turn the ball over thing. He's still in interceptions for the first time in his career against Northern Illinois last week and apparently all that they, you know the main thing they're emphasizing with him is don't turn the ball over and again. It comes back that's all there that you know that's that's that's all they're talking about and he's playing very tight he's not playing anywhere near you know like what we saw at Duke you know and again like. That's not what we necessarily saw against Texas A&M either when they were, you know, just letting him make plays. Yeah and so if this is an offense that truly is allowing Riley Leonard to play, then of course Riley Leonard is is the option he better fits Mike Dembrock's offense and the overall kind of goals and and thought process of you know the design of Mike Dembrock's offense either if he's forced into you know what we've seen the last couple weeks, and you know what market streaming kind of keeps emphasizing. You know if he comes out and has a bad first half and the shoulder is limited and he can't make you know we don't see as many design runs out of him. I think you have and especially if you're losing to if you're losing hang on hang on you're jumping ahead you're jumping ahead because we got the final soundbite for Marcus Freeman you're kind of leading into that so let's just let's play that and then we can have this conversation that you're kind of leading to here so Leonard is going to be the starter so if he struggles what would it take to make a change at quarterback during the game. I don't know if there's an exact parameter we have to have success we have to move the ball we got to score points and so if we're not able to do that then you got to make changes but there was no consideration of changing Riley that last game. So now Jess what would it take for you to make a move if you start Riley Leonard and things aren't going the way you want. I think if you're losing at halftime and you see no improvement in the passing game you have to make a move. You know in order in order to kind of free some free some things up and I would like to see them again try to run the ball more this week I think you can start with with a kind of run heavy. I mean again Jadarion Price and Jeremiah Love have made you know all the explosive plays really on offense or not in this season they account for majority of the touchdowns. I think you start with you know a kind of a power run type situation. Try to open up the pass and you know if you're down against Purdue at half in the past game is not moving anywhere and they're still loading up the box and you know you can't do anything against man to man coverage. I think you got to find someone who can who can at least get three four yards out of the passing game to allow the running game to also you know set up as as best as possible so you know there's there's a lot of factors that go into this because of what we've been talking about of why why get right and if you you're not going to let him play. You know a specific type of football and if you're not going to let him play a specific you know type of football that's better to his skills. You can't run the ball it can't be a true dual threat guy and now he can't pass the ball either. I mean at some point you got to cut the cord and and go with the guy that's. That's going to play better in the offense that you want to run because you're not running an offense that's tailored for Riley Leonard at this point. No, not at all, not at all. Salty says can't put these restrictions on Jesse you can't make him play in your box he's better when he's freewheeling. Now he's thinking about things. Interesting question from Scott is Riley Leonard the type of player that thrives more in an underdog role I mean he is coming from Duke where they were almost always an underdog. I don't know about the underdog part but I will say and Mike Dembrock talked about this when he talked with the media this week as well. There's a much bigger spotlight at Notre Dame and it felt to me like without knowing any of these comments that Marcus Freeman made you know to on NBC before the game about what they wanted from him and all these different things just like watching him throughout the majority of the first half felt like is this is this pressure slash excitement or whatever of playing inside Notre Dame stadium for the first time as the Notre Dame quarterback like was that getting to Riley Leonard because he didn't he didn't look like a confident quarterback at all with you know really with the exception of that first touchdown drive that you talked about but again that was when he was playing his game and doing his thing but the rest of the half he just looked he just looked off on everything that he was doing from getting out of the pocket too early from those you know kind of likes you know short arm throws and stuff like that he was making all these different things and like so I don't know it's a good question you know maybe maybe some of that factors into this as well where there are so many you know because like what was the expectation at Duke you just want to have a winning season and go to the Duke's Mayo Bowl right like when you're at Notre Dame everyone starts talking national championship right away so there's obviously a much different level of expectation and pressure that comes with playing here compared to really just about any place else in the ACC with the exception of probably Clemson and Florida State. You know I don't really buy the whole pressure aspect of this thing I think Riley Leonard is as a highly confident young man and I think that he you know relies on his faith ultimately to kind of you know be the confident person that he is. I just think and again I'm not trying to you know be kind of the Debbie Donner in this situation but I really think when your head coach is you know telling you these are the things we need you to do and not do and you know this is and you're not really running in offense that you maybe feel like is tailoring to your skills. Well now I got to go out there and not do these things and I can't even try to do it into the best of my ability because my coach isn't allowing me to kind of play the type of ball that I'm good at right and so when you're asked not to do certain things and not do XYZ and then you're also you know hampered by the fact that you can't play exactly how you want to play. To me those are two negative things that equate to a lot of not a lot of confidence essentially at the end of the day I don't buy the pressure thing I think you know he's played harder opponents at Duke the NIU he's played on bigger stages. At Duke compared to just a home game against NIU on a Saturday right. And again I just it's all a mental confidence thing I don't I don't necessarily buy that he's succumbing to the pressure. Hey Irish Breakdown listeners it's Urban Meyer this fall the game changes join me Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week. We will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines. Let us guide you through a new era of college football. Watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple podcast Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Hey Irish Breakdown listeners it's Matt Liner. I've got a podcast called throwbacks with actor Jay Farrar 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. So you don't think it's it's pressure you think it's it's more they need to be telling him. They need to be and we've heard this from them before they essentially need to be focusing more on what he does right and what they like him doing than what they don't want him doing. Yeah I mean again I feel like I've talked about this a ton before and made this kind of comparison but you know you're going to see it tonight for anyone that watches the dolphins and bills game to a has limitations as a quarterback. Mike McDaniel's found a way to tailor what he has you know to a and the surrounding wide receivers I get he has Tyree kill and Jalen models also a good wide receiver. But I mean again to is not the greatest pocket quarterback in the NFL but they find ways to tailor an offense around him to be as potent as possible and I guarantee if someone else was a quarterback in there that offense wouldn't look the same as it does with two of their and that's kind of the approach that you have to take with Riley Leonard is yeah he might not do everything the way you want. But he has a specific skill set and what are we doing to kind of combine what Mike Denmark is good at and what Riley Leonard is good at at the end of the day to allow this offense to have as much as much confidence as possible. Yeah and I guess what was it back during training camp when to yeah it would have been since the NFL season is only a week old but to was talking about when he had Flores there as the head coach versus when Mike McDaniel showed up and again the difference in what he was being told like all Flores was talking about you're not good at this you're not there you know all these things that he's not and then he left McDaniel shows up and starts telling him dude you're a stud and you know you're. I've watched hours of your film do you remember this sexy play that you know he's watching your sexiness on YouTube and yeah all that different. That's the way you got to talk to your quarterback and so like right it feels like you know like not to be dramatic but it feels like Marcus Freeman is Flores in this instance just being like well you can't do this and you can't do that and don't turn the ball over and it's like well again what kind of confidence does that instill in your quarterback. Tom I don't know how there's a difference between a pro coach and a college coach in this instance because all we're talking about is mindset. Yeah we're talking about we're talking you know again you know like like the mental aspect you know basically just building up confidence that's all and that's whether it's a pro coach or a college coach that's that's so much of the job these days you know like we've talked to plenty of them whether it's the coaches or the players or whoever that's so much a part of the deal and that was that was supposed to be part of you know the deal with Marcus Freeman the way he interacted with players obviously in the relationships and all these different things so it just it just seems like there is just a very dynamic. Well and then too it's like this is the same Marcus Freeman that walked out with his offensive line at Texas A&M and was pumping them up and you know doing all these things to give them confidence and it's like why are you not doing that across the board why are you not doing that you know with your quarterback essentially right like it I just it doesn't seem to carry over and you know Marcus Freeman like should he be like the 49ers boom box guy you know like he's he's walking down. You know it's dealing confidence in your quarterback doesn't look like you know the guy that's yelling and getting everyone like you can do other things. You don't have to be a cheerleader you just you just have to put the right things in his ears and build the right frame of mind because the quarterback is the most important position. On the field so channeling to the positive side of his brain feels like it's just a lot more important than beating into him. These negatives that it sounds like because again like they come out in all these comments that Marcus Freeman is talking about you know I think that he thinks that he's found a way. You know to to explain a rationalized going back to the stuff was Zora Stevenson that he's talking about but it all just points the more you listen to it they all point in a different direction to me then then I think what you know the way he thinks that it's coming across. I think that's how it comes across to me anyway. Yeah. This is a good question Andrew he says what do you do what do we think about the actual offense Denmark installed isn't an offense that suits Leonard I don't know. I don't know what this offense is right now. Is this really Denmark's offense it doesn't look like what he was doing at LSU is this really Denmark's offense or is it Denmark's offense with you know specific to Riley Leonard and what they're trying to get from Riley Leonard and how much would it look different if you did have another quarterback in the mix. I mean basic answer to your question right now is it an offense that suits Leonard based on what we the results that we've seen so far. No but you know again it just it doesn't feel like this is completely the offense that that Mike Denmark packed in a suitcase and brought north from Baton Rouge to me. Well I guess the frustrating part that we thought that he did anyway. I'm just going to flat out say why is Marcus Freeman so involved on the in the offense as a guy that has a background in defense right like you can do things to kind of be like hey like here's here's maybe where we want to run the ball or where we want to pass the ball or you know getting specific parts of the field of. Hey here's what I'm kind of looking for but how they go about doing that to me should be completely on the shoulders of the offensive coordinator right like. Do what you need to do schematically do what you need to do to get our quarterback to play a certain way. Just give me the result I need of you know being able to run the ball here pass the ball here get a you know kill some clock here get some maybe a field goal here whatever it might be two minute offense. I think Marcus Freeman needs to step back and just be like okay again here's what I'm overall looking for kind of big picture. Now on a you know on a micro level do what you need to do schematically wise to make that happen. Andrew S were are all the RPO's it's interesting because you know like when we I think when we were texting during the Texas A&M game. There were. It appeared that there were some misreads that Leonard was making on RPO's right. Yeah. A lot of times where he could have pulled it and I think kept like he. Didn't see those this last week because it because I think that they. Didn't feel confident and that's yeah Irish for life ninety nine one RPO last week and I think that that's why because like he was making some misreads against Texas A&M and I don't think that they were as confident. In him being able to make those reads and again like you look at a guy like Riley Leonard it's pretty surprising that that that would be something that would be confusing him. And then again RPO's though is what it should be in the wheelhouse of the right linen offense you right because especially with the running backs that they have. I mean you can you can fake to those running backs get them passing you know okay let me let me restart. First option you can just hand it off to the running backs and we've seen that they have you know their ability to make make the run game go. You can fake it and allow the running back to also get involved in the past game. Even when you're faking it now right there and has two options I can get around the edge here. And get some yards with my feet or be I can move this pocket a little bit and going back to what we were talking about a little bit ago I get the move the pocket moving here a little bit. And now those throws become easier because the defense has to shift with your offensive guys downfield they can find you know little spots in the hole in the zone. And right there just finds the spot that he likes and he just dumps it out right like an RPO offense should should be and Ryliner's wheelhouse because it allows him it allows him to use his best attribute his feet. It allows his feet to open up the passing game which has developed a passing game and so not seeing that happen is a real frustration. I agree. Look there's a lot more quarterback stuff that's going to come in we in we out with these we in we out questions so we will get to we'll jump in to that and again we've got some CJ car stuff and more quarterback stuff coming up and rapid fire after that as well. 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