Vince, Trevor, Shaun and Ryan break down the big 66-7 win over Purdue. The guys give their thoughts on the Irish offense in the overwhelming victory.
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That's LinkedIn.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. All right, fellows, let's talk about the Notre Dame offense today. This should be a fun talk. When we're not talking about injuries, obviously we don't know the status of, you know, a couple of guys that went down on the offensive line. I mean, you want to talk about a stretch of bad luck for Notre Dame from the injury front. Holy cow, it just seemed like they were just going to keep coming and keep coming. But let's talk offense. They put the ball in the end zone a bunch, obviously. I could, obviously, I can pull up the drive chart. But I mean, it was an impressive day for Notre Dame offensively. It's easier to count the drives where they didn't do anything. One punt, two punts, they had four punts. In this game, every other possession they had was a touchdown or a field goal. And obviously, there was only one field goal. So lots of points got scored today. Trevor, thoughts on the offense. And then we can kind of start at the beginning of the game and work our way through. But thoughts on the offense as a whole, what you saw, what you liked, what you didn't like, all that and we'll start bouncing it back and forth. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You can turn $10 into a thousand dollars. I'm a Bears fan, so this one gets me really excited. One Caleb Williams passing yard gets you one win on prize picks every week in September. That's right. 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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 US Wendy's 100% so much different than the narrative of what happened last week with the offense I talked about it when the show first started but the issues that needed address from last week for the most part not every single one of them, but a good amount of the issues had gotten addressed. We talked about it throughout the week about how Mike Denmark needs to diversify the offense a little bit from multiple different standpoint from personnel groups to finding different ways to getting Riley Leonard in a rhythm and getting number four and number 24 the ball and he made a point to do that on the first drive right on the second play of the game you know you motion out a receiver roll like Riley Leonard out of the pocket you get him in for a I think it was like a five yard dump off past the Collins in the flat right on the third play of the game you had Jeremiah Love and Jadarion price on the field at the same exact time it was awesome it was awesome to see that some of the criticisms that the team had heard throughout the entire week were being addressed now. I think that the common theme of today is going to be we like where we're at we like where the team is at but a lot needs to be improved on still let me just say this as loud and as clear as I possibly can Riley Leonard is not a finished product as the starting quarterback at Notre Dame can we all agree on that is that is that a pretty common thing I would think so okay while he was in in the first half he had a five play 75 yard touchdown drive an 11 play 82 yard touchdown drive a 7 play 68 yard touchdown drive a 10 play 77 yard touchdown drive and I will count it because it was awesome to watch a one play 70 yard touchdown drive to cap off the half right just because he didn't do it by passing the ball for 300 yards does not make it a less effective drive right like I feel like I'm not crazy in saying that we went from watching a team that had yet to score multiple touchdowns in one quarter put up 28 points in the second quarter and some of the narrative is we're upset because he didn't do it because he didn't do it through the air if you can't stop the run you can't stop the run guys right and why why would a why would a coach put the ball in the air if you don't have to I mean to be perfectly honest why would you if you don't have to not I'm not it is an issue that they need to address there there's no doubt about it there it's an issue they need to address and it will get better as they go okay but today they didn't need to they didn't need to that that's all I'm saying sorry to interrupt Trevor no totally and and I agree with you 100% now there will be games in the schedule where Riley Leonard will have to be effective as a passer 100% but that didn't have to be today clearly right the the the chat just got highlighted rushing touchdowns count the same as passing touchdown yep and let me be as clear as humanly possible I'm not saying that he's a finished product and we don't have to pass the ball at some point in in the season right Notre Dame is gonna have to find ways to push the ball down the field vertically not just relying on Riley Leonard breaking three tackles on a 38 yard touchdown run or Jeremiah love doing the same on a 48 yard touchdown run but it's almost like there's this narrative that sometimes people don't want to see the team do as well as they should because it doesn't fit the narrative of how they think they should do it and I think that's ridiculous well some people some people pray on negativity man like I was I was talking about something today I forget what it was oh it was it was Caleb Williams right so it was from a Notre Dame fan who's a Chicago Bears fan and Caleb Williams didn't have the greatest debut in the world but they won and the guys like oh man I'm really worried about Caleb Williams I'm like you know we play one game right like a single football game and we're overreacting to that stretch so I think people just bask in negativity honestly Trevor like what everyone has seen Riley Leonard now for three games and they just assume that's all Riley Leonard ever could be when in actuality there's just like there's one progress it needs to be made two time that needs to be had and three a philosophy that still needs to adapt a little bit like I still think there's a lot of conversation pieces to that but yeah sorry to cut you off but like yes some people do bask in negativity and they wait for it to be honest that's true totally totally and I and I agree and look it's not it's not everybody right and I am very bullish on the fact that Riley Leonard does have to develop and get better as a passer 100% no doubt but he wasn't as effective of a passer this game and Notre Dame still won by 59 points that chocks me up as a pretty happy guy overall there are more improvements not just for Riley Leonard for the offense Anthony Knapp had a very true freshman starting left tackle game today he had some plays where he was really good and he had some plays where there's a lot of improvements to be made right I think overall from a 10,000 foot view the play calling today was fantastic there were hardly any if any calls that I'd seen that really left my head scrunching you know I think the game was called with great tempo used multiple different personnel groupings today which I thought was fantastic on I think it was Thursday on the keys to victory we talked through a lot of hey you got to use motion more and use motion more they ran 40 plays in the first half 19 of those plays had very thought out very intentional pre snap motion on it I think it's fantastic I'm not saying that Mike Denmark or Marcus Freeman sat down and listened to the Irish breakdown podcast be cool if they did but I'm not saying that that was the case but a lot of the issues that we had touched on in the shows we saw corrections to almost immediately which is which is promising to see what I wanted to see overall from the offenses look at the mistakes that you did from last week and correct them this week against Purdue not just continually run the same things and hope that it gets better because the execution should be better and today they also executed well for the most part right so overall overall view on the offense I was I was very happy today in the second half you know Steve led three straight scoring drives Kenny Mincey went on a scoring drive CJ Carr got in the game it was fantastic to see a lot of the young guys the young O line played really well the young tackles I thought played really solid it was a really good game for the offense from top to bottom I want to piggyback off what you were talking about from a play calling standpoint and a you know formationally and all of that and Brian texted this to me and it was in his first half analysis that he wrote but I want to highlight it here because this is the run pass breakdown from a personnel standpoint okay so eleven personnel and this is all from the first half obviously okay with one Riley Leonard was in the game so eleven personnel thirteen runs eleven passes that's almost fifty fifty twelve personnel seven runs seven passes exactly fifty fifty twenty one and twenty two personnel combined they did it three times total one run two passes that's about as balanced of a play call you know a play calling half as you can get and they obviously had success with it throughout the entire first half considering how many points they put on the board right and Trevor brought it up but when they went twenty one personnel I believe it was twenty one on the third play of the game I was like oh here we go you know and they literally ran you know the quarterback on that play so it's like okay we talked about that throughout the week you know these are the things that you've got to do to get Riley Leonard back on track and what he wants to do and all of that and and they did it and he was balanced and you're right they were they didn't use motion as much as they did I think in game one but they used formations more in game three than they did in game one in game two and so you saw kind of the offensive genius of Mike Denbrock and what he wants to do to formationally challenge a defense and I think one of the reasons that they didn't do a lot of motion and everything else is because they were basically playing a five two there's not going to be a whole lot of movement from the defense if you're just you know shifting and motioning and things like that it's they're going to adjust based on what your formation is and they're pretty much going to stick to it and so and that's what they did right and so they were kind of selling out defensively and Notre Dame made them pay I'm more more times than not right they Riley Leonard from a passing standpoint yes he missed some stuff down the field that I would have liked to see him hit but a lot of the stuff that he did hit that's all he needed to do to keep moving the chains keep the drives alive and do all the and those those throws are right where they needed to be right and so I think I want to say I had it pulled up at one point so I don't want to be wrong but I mean yeah he so he was 69% you know throw in the football yes those are those are you know check down Charlie numbers or whatever you want to call it okay fine but it was what he needed to do to keep drives alive there were third down conversions in there that he got with his arm there were third down conversions in here that he got with his legs right and we'll talk about what Steve Angeli did and we'll talk about what Kenny Menchie did in a minute but like in the for where we're focusing on the first half right now when the ones were in they did what they needed to do they got right Leonard where he needed to be hundred yards on the ground you know I want to read this stat that you know one of our premium members shared with me but the Notre Dame PR team is the one that put it out on Twitter Riley Leonard is the first FBS football player with a hundred plus passing yards a hundred plus rushing yards three plus rushing TDs in a first half since September 9th 2016 is anybody know who that was that didn't read the stat already I don't I don't uh 2060 Brandon Winbush Lamar Jackson oh okay there he comes up that's pretty good company to be in I'm not saying he's Lamar Jackson so anybody that thinks that's what I'm saying couple years before Winbush there right yeah just a few it's all right it's all right I mean when you're in the same company as a Heisman Trophy winner for what you did on the field I think that's saying something so just wanted to put that out there yes his passing game can get better but as Brian said I believe you said it in the check because he's he's kind of monitoring things for us right now this is a step towards confidence with Riley Leonard his confidence was completely shattered last week there's no doubt about it this is a step in the right direction for Riley Leonard and what he's able to do you weren't going to be able to fix everything that ailed Riley Leonard from a football playing standpoint in one week right he's got a ton of confidence now I mean when you can throw that headset on at the beginning of the third quarter because of what you did in the first half your confidence is going to be through the roof so I think I stepped all over everything that you wanted to say Trevor there so if you've got more to add by by all means but if not Sean take it away and as you just said someone's very interested and I've been very focused on this situation based upon the things that happened after he was enrolled in Notre Dame I just really started to point it out to people throughout the summer like yo you need to relax on the expectations right I thought the injury was a wrench I thought missing the spring parts of it was a wrench right even though he would spend a time with the receivers over the summer not being named the starter and just getting the both like get him ready like get him ready he's the dude get him ready if that's the case let him ride out get him comfortable and when you don't do that how could you really find out what he needs and then you come into the situation once again I asked this question last week and I think it was confirmed for me today I do think this offense would be undefeated Charles Jacksaw's in that attack I think it would be a do I think in past pro it would be some more opportunities because yo like today he literally should have had a touchdown in both comments because Anthony can happens getting pushed right back into his lap and he's got no ball though you know that's not Charles Jacksaw he's getting pushed back into his lap I don't think he is and so as my new as that is it plays a factor into his ability to be able to make plays and do things so you know there's a lot on this plate from the coaching staff Riley Leonard and everyone else that's gone into you know what we've seen in the disappoint but for the first time Riley Leonard has gotten the blame that's never happened to do even if they lost people were kind of like man Riley did this thing just look at what he's surrounded by he needs help that was always in there that's nothing that and I'll go that's why he took that big exhale after that first started Texas ain't him at the end because he realized like yo this is kind of a bigger deal than I than I thought and then he really found out after the game last week like hey you wearing that helmet at that position a my man that's as much love as we had for you mm-hmm you're going to catch it you're going to count and from our we should yeah from Marcus Freeman before you can talk to the team on Sunday sit down there and say son we're gonna find a way to get you right we have to find a way to get you right I thought that spoke volumes to what we've been talking about Marcus Freeman hit the right button this week like we were worried like was he going to be able to hit the right button to have his team ready doing that helping that young man out and letting the coach staff know like whatever we have to do to get him right let's do it forget what the big picture plan was because obviously they had a big picture plan it seems like whatever they I think Trevor pointed out what they did against Texas A&M they came out of that game feeling like if we just execute better man we're going to be good and it's like no you didn't see what the problem was he's not comfortable get him comfortable and build him up to possibly being able to do some of the things that you want to do big picture down the road and they kind of found that this week and that's a really positive sign it really is a positive sign offensively I think the offensive line came out they set the tone they absolutely set the tone double R what have we been saying for the past two years number four different I've seen a lot of good running backs and though he was number he was number 12 before Sean but he's number 12 number four is different he's different right he gets in the hole miss block on the counter hole offensive lineman doesn't do his job and he just it lose two tackles right there no and he's over the a yard he's just different man and you have to find a way even if he's the perfect decoy like you said in 21 best help let him be the decoy because if he's on the field they have to pay attention to and as he continues to produce teams are going to become even more aware of him so now going to your tricks with the motions the formations having defenses on their heels now my Denver I could really have fun now and thank you Notre Dame is known for the tight end thank you thank you finally let the tight end show up in the passing game thank you man maybe maybe beside the Mitchell Evans finally being healthy maybe maybe that was the issue I mean you got all three of them the right show which is great I mean so you live rarer didn't have a big game you had super flying in obviously with the touchdown from Stephen Gelly to get things kicked off when he came in so like yeah the tight end position was great real quick on Jeremiah love and then I'll circle back to Riley Linner because I know that's the main talking point Jeremiah loves probably going to be a first round pick in the 2026 NFL draft I mean guys enjoy him while you can you want to know what a big time NFL running back looks like that's number four there's no doubt he's he's different man there's not a lot of running backs even in the NFL that you could say go play in the slot we'll give you a jet we'll give you a jet pass we'll give you an endarounds we'll run you just routes out of that field and then just yeah and and now Vince he's two hundred ten pounds and he's moving the pile more too right so like yeah that guy's really really good obviously I need to share one more rest of this year and one more year enjoy it enjoy it so someone said RB one 2026 and they were talking about 2026 NFL draft and someone someone thought he meant like the 2026 season and they were like dude he's not gonna be here in 2026 we're like oh we know trust me yeah man I need to share with you guys a funny text I got about Jeremiah loves the other day by the way but yeah he's he's a freak man there's no doubt now but like with the Riley Leonard conversation here's the likes here's the dislikes okay one he's a great runner you remember a hundred yards and three touchdowns and a one half of football against a power five team like leaven carries like nine point one yards a carry or something like that right like dynamic runner I thought in the passing game shorts short intermediate I thought he looked more confident today like the ball came out of his hand faster which was great because honestly I feel like he didn't have any confidence the last week like it just didn't seem like an especially didn't have confidence coming out of this week I don't know if you guys heard him after the game talking to the talking to the sideline reporter but he was just basically like this week sucked like it was not a fun week at all for anybody but he still did it with a smile on his face right which I think is a good thing I think that he's taking it in stride he understands the expectation at Notre Dame which is great now the biggest thing that Riley Leonard needs to improve on by far in my opinion by far because we can talk about playing in structure and all that type of stuff and we will talk about it I'm sure but my man when he breaks the pocket or he's extending needs to keep his eyes down the field just needs to right because if he does he finds I think it was Jeremiah Love at the five yard line for a big touchdown and then we stopped talking about the vertical passing because he could just lob that buddy up because he was wide open at that point right if you improve that aspect just that aspect I'm not talking about five three five seven hitch vertical passing from in the pocket I'm talking about simply when you're out of structure keep your eyes down the field just give them open keep them down there and then I think that some explosive plays will happen just based upon that fact which is not a lot to ask of someone it's really not I'm not talking about extreme footwork issue I'm not talking about those things I'm saying when you're out of the pocket keep your eyes keep them because you would have found that one pretty easily okay that two-place sequence in the third quarter that people are going to or second quarter that people are going to hyper focus on okay one was that play the next play the bow Collins miss dude that's not on Riley Leonard if you're in here saying Riley Leonard's fault guys Anthony Nat planted him on his back as he's releasing the ball it was the most phantom weird play I've ever seen that would get me touched down you can say Riley Leonard isn't this rather than or isn't that I could have made that throw so I know Riley Leonard could have made and even even though he was getting pushed back he still had enough oomph on it to get it out there it's not like he under threw it by ten yards or whatever like happened last week right so we can I think we can cancel the he doesn't have a strong arm and all of that stuff right I mean he got it out there as he was getting hit and going backwards it just didn't have the accuracy on it because he was getting hit so yeah completely right and while you're building up the in pocket stuff hopefully every we can practice which will hopefully get incrementally better sure if he just does the one simple thing of keep your eyes down feel keep your eyes down feel when you're breaking the pocket that will create explosives so I think that there was positive steps with Riley Leonard I think that we saw a lot of good I think we just still saw a couple of things that like they need to get better like they just flat out too because this will this performance from Riley Leonard plus the offensive performance will be maybe everybody on this schedule okay it has the potential to if they have good days but when you do get go against Ohio State Georgia like those types of teams if you do end up making a playoff birth like we'll see if that happens that's when it needs to be a lot more consistent or else you're probably going to become one dimensional and probably not win that football game that is a conversation for 10 games into the future right yes that's when we'll have that conversation for now positive step after an awful week and I know people I saw someone in the chat earlier say well on and I know now that Northern Illinois is better than Purdue BS guys be it's nope 9 out of 10 days 9 out of 10 games per do would beat Northern Illinois you just played an awful football game last week and you played a good one today ultimately right this was a difference of you your mentality your approach you decided who won this football game today you decided who won that football game last week okay Northern Illinois gets the credit for what they did but ultimately you didn't come to play you didn't play your game you you know what in the bed like you did all that to yourself right so it was incrementally better but it needs to keep getting better and if he does that one thing that one thing I'm telling you man if he does that one thing the offensive explosives in the passing game will begin to happen I wish that that that one I think it was a deep corner to Great House at the end of the second second quarter I wish that would have stood man because the staff line would have looked a little bit better that would have been one of the explosives that we're talking about that was a really good throw that was one of his best moves that we've seen it's a race a race for a very questionable coldy call that one by the way that one was a little bit ticky tack but either way I think that we saw progress but it needs to be needs to be a lot better moving forward 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 spot-of-fire or wherever you get podcasts hey Irish breakdown listeners it's Matt Liner I've got a podcast called throwbacks with actor Jay Farrar we'll be talking all things sports but also so much more we'll give you the behind the scenes stories from my days as the quarterback on an iconic college football team to Jerry's days as a star on an iconic TV series so subscribe to throwbacks on youtube apple podcast spotify or wherever you get podcasts look fells offensively you know we're we're kind of still talking about the first half obviously when when the starters were in we'll get to what we saw from the younger guys in just a second but let me see here I know there's a way to break this up but you know look the the run game in the first half was obviously exceptional I mean it just was right they they played exceptionally well in the first half here we go so total yards in the first half four Notre Dame 390 okay they had 112 of those were passing yards and so 278 of those were rush yards they rushed the ball 24 times for 11 for an 11.6 yard average on the ground in the first half when you are running the ball like that and mind you two starting offensive lineman went out at some point during the first half they had to bring in backups and they were still able to run the ball 24 times for an 11.6 yard average for 278 yards in the first half alone right they possessed the ball for almost 20 minutes versus 10 minutes for Purdue let's see here they punted twice for 36 yards but here's the other key they were five of seven on third down five of seven on third down okay they were awful on third down last week okay awful on third down last week so they absolutely dominated offensively in the first half they were running the ball at will and when that's the case you don't need a downfield passing game okay something they're going to need to work on no doubt about it but they completed you know they converted some of those third downs with the passing game and with the running game so they did what they needed to do to continue to be successful as Trevor mentioned the play length of plays I mean I'm excuse excuse me the drive length in plays and yardage was impressive it was impressive though they weren't it's not like the defense was giving them a bunch of short fields in the first half defense played great we're going to talk about them in a second but the offense was putting together drives that lasted right these weren't the only drive that was a quick strike drive was the last one I believe right because it was a it was like a one-play well technically it was a one-play 60-yard drive because the first play was a penalty for 10 yards right and the play didn't count so technically it was a one-play 60-yard drive for 37 seconds but they had a five-play 75-yard for two minutes 11-play 82 yard for five or almost six minutes they had a seven-play 68-yard drive for over three minutes they had a 10-play 77-yard drive for five minutes and then the one for 60 so every one of their scoring drives was over was almost 70 yards or more so 68 yards is the lowest 68 or more on those touchdown drives so look this offense was putting in work they were doing what they needed to do I was impressed with the offense in the first half guys they Mike Dembrock called a tremendous game in the first half he kept Purdue off off-kilter they they didn't really know what was coming and then the guys executed it so all in all I think the first half was a success do you guys have anything else you want to add about the first half offensively before we jump to the second half start talking about some of these young guys I mean just quick shout out to the offensive line sorry try writing me to cut you off but like just quick shout out because I wanted to make sure I did like a little post on just like Riley Leonard and the running game after the game and I just want I just want us to not forget that the offensive line also struggled last week as well right like they did not match the physicality in order they're in Illinois and it's a young group still I mean you they flashed the screen again we're like you know you have Billy Schrauth and Ashton Craig who both got injured during this game that six career starts and they're the ringleaders in that conversation right we have guys that are three other starters that have only coming into their third start in their career and I think they handled themselves at a very high level and it was early on in this game I mean I joked about like at first I was about the I made a post and I deleted it where I was like it's not even going to run for 300 yards in the first half and then I took a step back and I was like that can't possibly happen well they were 278 at halftime so like it was nuts right and that's because Anthony Napp in the run game was moving dudes Sam Pendleton was doing work Ashton Craig and Billy Schrauth before getting injured we're doing a good good great job Emil Wagner was doing his thing as well at right tackle and then even when you want to talk about luxury two of your starting interior offense lineman got hurt and you became more experienced yeah think about that for a second you became more experienced that's what I don't think about that is true the offense line was inconsistent in 2023 but what it did was it allowed you to create depth I mean how many teams could lose two stars and say like hey 10 game starter Rocco Spindler go in and 13 game starter Pekugan go in right so good place to be offensive line wise obviously you never want to see injuries which we saw today with those two guys but ultimately Notre Dame's offensive line grew up tonight like they did we talked about them growing up down the stretch of the Texas A&M game they had a bad outing last week and they said forget that like tonight is our night and they dominated what again will help Jeffrey Imba couple guys I think we're gonna play in the NFL by the way and they made them look like they were not even in the same atmosphere as them not even in the same ballpark dominated offensive line shout out to them sitting a tone early no doubt Trevor I was gonna say the exact same thing you want to know how good the offensive line played today your fourth string running back in the knees Williams came in and ran the ball on third night and got the first down by two yards like that's that's just a day where again yeah not to not to keep harping on this but you don't have to push the ball down the field like that when you can just gouge another team in the running game 278 yards and half 390 total yards of offensive half five rushing touchdowns you can't draw it up better than that you just can't it's awesome yep no doubt that's our offensive breakdown for oh no that's we're still on the first half let's go to the second half fellas so they they brought in Stephen jelly to start the second half I don't know how you guys feel but to me that was absolutely the right move right Leonard had done everything right Leonard needed to do he went out on a high super confident putting the headset on all things are good at that point that's time to get your your next guy some work that next guy with Stephen jelly Stephen jelly to his credit three was in three drives that goes down and puts three scores on the board uh look good while doing it they the play calling absolutely catered to at least early on catered to what he does and he was successful at it and and the the one play or the the one pass that he had to Harrison was an absolute dime I mean absolutely beautiful throw beautiful throw then we kind of saw you know it was like with a real Stephen jelly please stand up then we we kind of saw kind of what he doesn't do very well uh but all in all I thought Stephen jelly played played his game he Steve angeli played his game that's the best compliment I can give to Stephen jelly he played his game led the team on scoring drives made guys around him better what are your guys thoughts Sean you you lead off on this one yeah you said it perfectly and I think you know the offensive line in the depth that double I talked about yeah I think that was one of the keys I led to the decision I remember when they made the decision to go with the two freshmen I said it makes sense right because your veterans have more versatility they play more positions so of injuries do take place you're not coming in with freshmen that are pretty much locked into one position you have guys that have started something to develop that can play center they can play both guard positions it gives you a lot of flexibility and we saw that you know be beneficial for Notre Dame today so you talk about Stephen jelly he did what we expect him to do we get what we expected to do and for me the thing about Stephen jelly is I don't understand how you could be left or right with Stephen jelly I'm not talking about any conversation including rather than he's this we saw him together when he first got to Notre Dame he's markedly better oh 100 percent he's about a night and day he's literally right now the poster child for the back development at Notre Dame because we don't have anybody else into the youngsters play and getting off to me he is the quarterback of recent history that has gotten markedly better since he arrived at Notre Dame well and that by the fan base should be celebrated let's get the conversation about right now that's that young man should be celebrated for the work he's put in to become who he is and heaven forbid the Robbie Leonard twisting ankle in a game and he has to come in you know I feel comfortable I mean if that's my quarterback is going to be able to operate the offense like that he just doesn't he just having the doesn't have the legs that Robbie Leonard has okay fine and we can bring you in Kitty Menchie who show he can run some of the same place that Robbie didn't go in packages if that's what you want to run in certain situations it is you know one of the biggest um there's numbers for me man I just don't understand the vitriol that's thrown and I don't understand the vitriol and the heights of it that's thrown towards Robbie Leonard I just think you know it's unfair it's just certain things that are just unfair certain things yes they deserve the critique but then it's other things it's like come on man we're doing way too much you just doing way too much and so what I saw in the second half is you know Stephen Jelly is who he is yeah yeah he's great on what he does and what he does absolutely he's celebrating man for the work that he's putting in as a young man and that's just that's simple for me I don't expect him to come in I laugh like he comes out he oh first of all I'm like why are you keeping the ball just get the ball to the running guy what are you about to do on the outside I mean you really tried to shoot somebody are you kidding me you see what happened right like dude just put your hand down to get two yards if you're gonna pull the ball because that's not who he is like that's not who he is don't be somebody that you're not we talk about Riley being Riley and allowing him to be him like yes that's not who Steve Angeli is like if he ends up being your quarterback for whatever reason you've got to adjust what you do offensively right yeah no doubt completely and I think you saw the amount of respect you know on the first drive they scored a touchdown you saw the respect that the players have for and the loves that they have for them but shout out that other big room when you broke the tackle I have to give credit on that now I didn't expect that I did not expect them to see that that was the last thing I expected so he was probably his favorite player of the day if you ask him like I sure have some wheels but no other than that man I do think that there was a lot of focus spoken about the blocking that wide receiver and I think they definitely started J.D. Thomas and both columns they definitely started DICE if they knew we're going to be their best blockers at wide receiver without question that was clear like we're going to use these tight ends we're going to motion formations quick passes and these wide receivers are going to block us we're about to run the ball like crazy this first this first half a second half and then going to the second half wide receivers even the backups continue that excellent blocking it was a focus on that shout out to Mike Brown but I'm going to be honest man Anthony not slowly but surely might be opening the door if Sullivan Abscher is practicing well it's okay Sullivan Abscher can move by he's just like him in the run game he was a little bit better and pass pro today in my opinion because remember Purdue didn't pull their starters they played the status the entire game absolutely the entire game absolutely so you start talking about inconsistency um which goes to hand Notre Dame it's just locked and loaded at the offensive line position the three they have coming in and coming from the clash playing yo this offensive line the next two years is about to be absolutely insane it's really going to be insane but after three games there's three games too much Trevor double R to say we feel pretty comfortable that Charles Jagger saw us probably if he comes back healthy he's probably going to keep that left tackle position to start off um yes wait wait we'll ask the question one more time no no is it safe for correct after watching Anthony Nat for three games did you feel comfortable saying Charles Jagger saw it's probably going to be the starting left tackle when he comes back oh yeah yeah yeah i i think the great thing about Anthony Nat is that his body type and his play style allows him to play multiple positions so i think that he should absolutely be in the conversation at different spots to potentially play but yeah i mean Charles Jagger saw his left tackle a long term in my opinion i mean look you just don't have guys that are six seven three hundred and twenty five plus pounds that move the way he does that have the length he is i admire Anthony for what he's doing and i think that he has had a lot of great moments in three games and i do think that he's a part of the future of the offensive line room for sure i'm just not a hundred percent sure we'll position that's at man like maybe that's maybe that's on a guard spot maybe it's a center like i don't know maybe he's a guy that you are just slow and slow a little bit and maybe he is a future at the tackle but maybe you just kind of you know keep developing him and build on him and the early baptism by fire is great for him but like i think he's a part of the long term without question but yeah if Charles Jagger saw comes back sometime later in the season which i have no idea what the timeline is i think that he is certainly still your left tackle in the future yes i do since you've got the floor ryan i will let you discuss uh your thoughts we were talking about uh steve angeli and kind of what he did when he came in and you know three drives three scores and uh and then i i said you know then we kind of got to see also why he's a great backup and probably not your starter right so your thoughts on on steve and and what he was able to do in the second half yeah i thought i thought steve did a great job for what he was asked to do man like a hundred percent that the one ball to was jayden harrison that that was kind of a bucket throw it was a great ball great ball i mean yeah it was tremendous the touch and i think still the anticipation because jayden wasn't really open open on that play but he threw it to a perfect spot that allowed him to just kind of ease to the football which was great to see and i think that he's a very he's obviously a very confident kid with everything he does right like he he thinks it's funny i don't know if it's watching riley a little bit but like shawn i thought he was kind of like trying to be super man a couple plays kind of extending right where i was just like i don't know if that's your game that's a sterile labor i like i don't know if that's you but he throws with good i think his touch is very good i thought he throws a very catchable football i think he's confident in his heck and i do think he's a a little bit of an underrated athlete i don't think he's a great athlete but i think he's underrated enough that he can do something for you like that one uh that one run where he broke a tackle went down the sideline like that was awesome that was great to see but i do think that there's a couple of plays that do show some of the limitations at times and specifically a sax that he took like again like what's the name of some riley lendor and steve and jellie well riley lendor breaks out of all of those pretty much like he's going to be able to extend plays a lot or doesn't even let one of those guys hit him even yeah right i think steve showed great stuff though and if steve is pressed into a football game at some point earlier than when you're up 42 nothing i have confidence that steve is going to come into a football game and be good enough to help you win a football game like i believe that very very at the core of my being like i do believe that so especially with four and four on either side of them like yeah man i i think when steve comes in steve gives you a little bit more consistency as far as i mean just alternative to riley lendor like throwing the ball with touch i think that he's better than that at riley right now right like i do which is a testament to him being what's he he's a year younger right because he's a junior now on college he's a year younger than right yep so he he throws a better touch i do think he's obviously not as good of an extender he's not as nearly as good of an athlete so like that's the differentiator but i think that steve is a great backup quarterback like at very at least like maybe he's a starter at some point in his Notre Dame career but if we're talking about just like baseline baseline man he is he's a great backup quarterback there's no question about that Trevor you're up i think what the second half showed me is what i've been looking to see and was hoping to see last week we've heard nothing about how deep this team is and i can't tell you how many previous Notre Dame teams that i've watched that if one guy gets hurt like that's it like that's that's the season man yep you know like if if will fuller goes down in 2015 what's the receiving core looking like you know what i mean if josh adams goes down in 2017 what's running back room looking like what if what if tony jones goes down in 2019 i mean i mean but seriously man yeah like i i think that's what gets me the most excited Sean you touched on this earlier about how deep and how young and athletic this team is right now and it's really awesome to see i know Notre Dame is in a position to where in previous years injuries completely handy captain team it was everybody has to stay healthy and if not there was a huge drop off i didn't see that big of a drop off when the second team came in with you know 13 minutes left in the third quarter still ran the same offense right guys still had effective place steve angeli it went three for three on scoring drives that's fantastic to see out of your backup quarterback you know like having that and then you have kenny minchi lead him on a scoring drive and to be honest if time wasn't expiring and Notre Dame wasn't already winning by 59 points that would have been a scoring drive right with with car yeah yes so it's really awesome to see the state of how deep this team is we hear so much about how great of a recruiter Marcus Freeman is and he's he's building up this team to be deep and fast and athletic and we got a little taste of that today which was awesome to see the whatever offensive lineman you plugged in today they were effective no matter what running back you put in the game i mean arguably i know their def chart reads like you know so-and-so or so-and-so but kedron young is arguably their fifth string running back and produce starters wanted nothing to do with it Trevor i'm literally i'm literally writing an article about basically how ridiculous is it that kedron young is the basically the fifth string running back for Notre Dame and he would be a starter unlike i don't know there's 138 fbs teams right so like 90 i don't know i mean definitely would have started for perdue i mean there's no doubt about that literally and i think that's what gets me so excited about not just today but what we're going to see moving forward from this team and it gets me really used to see the spot that they're actually in because let's call a spade a spade here Riley Leonard is you could label him his injury prone i think that's fair dude has a torn posterior labrum and had three ankle surgeries in the off season and banged up just by the style of play that he has i have full confidence especially now because sun bull was one game but it was a good game for steve and then he comes in today with the ones and goes on three scoring drives like we've all talked about Notre Dame can win a lot of football games with steve angelia quarterback and you kind of got to see the tail of two different quarterbacks from the first half to the third quarter really you have one who is just a dynamic runner i mean can't be touched he's breaking three tackles he stiff arm and people produce defense doesn't want any part of them and then you insert steve angeli and his first throw is essentially a long handoff to jate and Harrison and it's really really cool to see um my wife actually she she made a joke she's like what if they just combined into one guy and i was like well then that i mean that would be pretty uh that'd be pretty interesting but uh but no overall i thought it was great the second team came in the third team came in arguably the fourth team came in and the results were still relatively consistent um they were able to move the ball down the field i appreciate that mike denbrock still called his offense with the young guys in because it would have been very easy up by that much to just hand it off hand line up in you know line up in 13 personnel and hand off the ball 30 times to close out the game and he let outside of cj which i understand uh let all the quarterbacks throw the ball and let it loose a little bit and and i appreciated that so very excited about what i saw in the second half yeah for sure let let's let's expound on our second half thoughts fell is uh i know steve angeli was kind of a big talking point that's why i wanted to focus on him at first uh but overall second half thoughts boys uh you know but another day put up 20 plus in the second half still you know like it's like you know steve angeli let him on three scoring drives can he mention you let him on a scoring drive you know the depth that offensive line is ridiculous frankly uh not much of a drop off as as some younger guys were getting in and again as we've pointed out perdue did not take their starters out of the game uh which was definitely a choice uh i don't know that's a choice i would have made but i think the coach is trying to send a message to these guys but uh you know he didn't take the starters out and so Notre Dame just kept playing and and kept calling the offense as Trevor mentioned mike denbrock didn't really take his foot off the gas until really cj car got in the game uh and and it was obviously just a couple of clear just hand offs with the middle but even kenny menshey got to run the offense a little bit you know what i mean got to throw the ball a little bit obviously they put the ball in his hands let him score that touchdown and so i i thought the announcer's made a great point they're like look at this point you know Notre Dame's not doing anything amazing offensively it's just perdue's not stopping them they don't have a problem with them scoring there because perdue it's their job to stop them and they're not doing it so thoughts on the rest of the offense guys in the second half outside of you know angeli that we already talked about uh yeah thoughts in the second half i mean i i thought that the offensive line that i already hit on a little bit you lost two starters and they were just consistently doing what they do so like again shout out to Joe Rudolph he had not five guys ready to play he had like eight or nine guys ready to play which was pretty wild to think about and you saw obviously the depth of that position without question i think that you saw that the running back room we've hit on i mean he drew young just carrying dudes in the fourth quarter you're just like and again it's it's not second teamers like they let the starters in for the most part on both sides of the ball so like he's carrying first team perdue players so just kind of the depth of the running back room is fantastic we talked about the tight end position a ton i just thought overall that they got a little bit more they got even more run centric in the second half for the most part because like you knew that they were i mean it was basically a running clock in a second half like oh it wasn't what you wanted it to be right i mean you wanted to keep the clock running as an offense i mean that's so you you were you were massacre in them up front and you were running the football at will i obviously we talked about steve kenny i thought like the ball comes out of his hands beautifully he has to throw that one ball down the sideline earlier and he has a chance for mikea gilbert to potentially make a touchdown but he showcased that he can run a little bit as well with his russian touchdown i just thought overall and we're going to talk about this a lot when we get to defense the depth of this team is crazy dude like it really is i mean we're talking about in garbage minutes here comes mikea gilbert's right we're talking about a garbage minute here comes girby landbert we're talking about in garbage minutes kydrin young's on the field like it is a barrisman of riches that is why people have been excited this off-season about market streamings recruiting classes now entering year three of seeing what now 2023 and 2024 together can be because there's a lot of talent and a lot of athleticism and i saw that you saw the depth of this team on offense and on defense is it's pretty good there's a lot of there's a lot of future there's a lot of positivity that can happen in the future because of all the young guys that you have on this football team no doubt john and we still haven't seen cam Williams you know we still have jack larson who i'm sure i know today is going to develop into a really good tight end it's like you said it's an embarrassment of riches and i just want to point out like coasting on the cover of his well worth whatever he's getting paid more because it is obvious whatever the standard is in every room they are all living up to it he's like okay this is the standard and if you get that opportunity to come in you better use because everybody's playing so take advantage of your moments and i think there's a clear a lot of people remember i think a lot of people for the season were like choosing sides like some people were like Jeremiah loves a guy some people were like man i think you're jadarian price is the guy and i think now it's like i think they're both really good bats but one is just a little a little more elite in a few areas that's that's not to say anything bad about jadarian price it's just like yo fours it's just different in a couple of ways and that is absolutely one's the last time we haven't had that since probably the days of little holes when you were running out you know ricky waters and tony brooks and like okay bring tony out put ricky okay take ricky out let's put rocket in the back field like this is very reminiscent of those times where it doesn't matter who comes off the field the offense is still just as dangerous and that's going to pay dividends down the line because i haven't played you guys play ryan you play when you see the best player go off the field you have a tendency to say especially in basketball it's like oh okay i don't have to stick him for a while not get my rest to kind of maybe go do some things on the offensive wing and it's like yo there is no rest for the weird you know there's no rest for other differences you know wear them down and i think no one ain't played into that and i think they miss the opportunity last we get into the game to play into that right you have this team on the ropes yeah theoretically second and one midfield theoretically that's a great call play actually take the shot but in this situation for what what reason dude they're on the heels they're ready to give up throw up the white flag and i think no today just didn't they saw no reason to take their foot off the gas today there's like one moment they went out there and they realized oh we threw a smack these dudes up and down the field it didn't matter who came in that was the mentality destroy these guys crush them embarrass them make them feel what we felt last week transfer it to them yeah it was great to see well shawn why did they leave why did why did Perdue leave their starters in because they weren't having any success and they're like eventually no name's going to put in their second and third trigger so we'll have success right jokes on you and that didn't happen at all it actually kept just kind of rolling right so it's a little bit debilitating i think to perdue to be like dang we thought we were going to have some good moments again second and third stringers and we didn't like again estimates in their name depth it's pretty wild to think about it's a man you remember this i'm sorry it's very quick basically you know what it feels like right you talked about 12 and writing at halftime you walked out there with somebody pitching and like you know i want this kid to leave a confidence i could let him stay out there and see if he could get through this fifth inning but you know what we're up seven giving up one run now let me let me take him out let him leave with some confidence right then you go to the second half and it's like you know what on the flip side Ryan Walters is like no you're going to eat this one kid i'm sorry yeah you're you're the middleman we're down 10 yeah i'm not putting anybody else in you have to eat these innards up and that's what he may be both offensive defenses for perdue dude eat these plays up you're not bringing up you're not going to be sitting on the sideline laughing drinking gatorade point to your girlfriend's in the stand like no no no take take these plays and you know that's that's the decisions you have to make as a coach i'm sure he did it for obvious reasons like no you need to get ready for the rest of the season could tell or if you look at their schedule i don't it's good as you think they can be i don't know if they win three games he is in that's on that schedule that's just tough i don't know and they could be playing good and they still might not win three games in that schedule so yeah it is uh it was really a tale of two coaches in the decisions they made oh yeah you know what players it really was forever just going to say you kind of got to feel for the perdue coach just kind of taking taking the repercussions of what happened to the boys last week tough to see just you know putting we were talking a lot of just about the depth and and i was just thinking being a player and you know you're on perdue's defense and you're thinking thank goodness the fifth string running backs coming in and it's six foot 230 pound keydron young and that's yeah yeah i mean and it's not right it's not a guy that's a walk-on it's you know baby estimate like and that's that's your guy and your fourth tight end that comes in is kevin bowman who's like a fifth year senior shout out to him by the way i was so happy for the kid i tweeted about it i mean he's been through the ringer with injuries in his career right but like he was a former four star recruits who can't get onto the field as a fifth year because he's just been banged up so brutally throughout his career but like yes against the depth that's like your fourth tight end jack larson is your fifth tight end on this team like just think about that type of stuff man it's wild no doubt about it fellas so uh let's wrap let's wrap up the offense here any any final thoughts offensively that you guys want to get off your chest uh before we move on to the defense just build on it yeah for sure yeah for sure there's still plenty of room for improvement maybe we can all agree on that we we love the fact that they put up a bunch of points they scored on a ton of their drives it's all good it's all very very good it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and as we always say it's always easier to go to the film and nitpick when you come out with a W right especially when you come out with a convincing win like they had today so you know they're going to throw the film on there's plenty there's plenty to nitpick believe me there's plenty to nitpick no matter what room you're in offensively plenty that they can fix that they can clean up and we'll see if they do that you know moving into next week but that'll be the plan i'm sure moving forward and again it wasn't perfect but it was still what 59 points offensively so yeah it doesn't have to be perfect when you score 59 so you know that that's where i'll leave that so folks make sure you hit the like button the subscribe button the notification bell share with your family and friends and of course jump on the boards boards at hours breakdown dot com all kinds of good stuff it's going to be over there uh we're going to 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