The NFL season is finally here, so make sure you're ready with NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. It gives you the most live NFL games all in one place, exactly what you need to make your Sunday's more magical. Sign up today at youtube.com/Sundayticket. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket for Out-of-Market Games excludes digital only games. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row, as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linkedin, the place to be, to be. [Music] BK's last brain cell. Who has graded out the best on the O-line in your opinion? It hasn't been any other O-line in close. Well, for me, the guy that's graded out best so far was Billy Shrouthe prior to his injury. And then Emil Wagner was next. Billy graded out. Emil's a little bit more consistent than Billy was. Billy had more flashy plays than Emil had. He had more dominant plays than Emil had. Ashton Craig was third, even though the two penalties really bothered me. Sam Pendleton was fourth, and Anthony Napos' fifth. The ironic thing is I have Sam Pendleton fourth, and Sam has had some issues in his tenure where he's got some bad pass pro snaps and he's missing some guys at Run Game. But the thing about Anthony and Sam, but especially Sam, is you could argue that if you looked at the ten best blocks of the season, just the ten best individual like, "Wow, that guy had a good block." I'd be willing to argue at least half of them were Sam. If you looked at the offensive line as a whole and said, "These are the ten best blocks for any Notre Dame offensive lineman so far this season," I would seriously, and I'm not even being hyperbolic. I'm just thinking off top of my head, I'd have to go back and look at this. But I'd be willing to bet that at least half of them were blocks made by Sam Pendleton. But that's great, and that's why he's in there, but the reason he grades out lower is because it's really inconsistent performance, and he's going to have to get better. And he needs to improve in that regard in order to grade out higher. Now, the reason, and this is what I've always said, I will live with that for my guy like Sam Pendleton. I will live with the inconsistency this early because whenever he gets in, this is going to be an issue. Whether you wait until next year or senior year, early on as he gets his feet wet, there's going to be some ups and downs. But you live with it because when he's good, it's really, really good. And some in the chat, Stephen B said that Sam Pendleton made that explosive run play against A&M happen. Stephen, I would argue he had three blocks in that game that sprung guys free. I believe he had a key block on both the Jadari and Price's long runs, one of them came back, and I'm pretty sure he had a great block on the touchdown run from Jeremiah Love as well. So, Sam's had a lot of those kind of blocks so far this season. He just now needs to clean up some of the other snaps. And as he, you know, it's like the high level plays are here. And as he kind of gets those, you know, the low level plays become less and less than his game's really going to take off. I mean, he's done some really good things. Anthony Nap on the other hand, it has been really wildly inconsistent and it's been one way. He's, you know, all young linemen are going to have misses in the run game. He's actually graded out pretty well in the run game. He's been, I would argue, their least effective pass blocker so far this season. And that's, that's not good. When it's your left tackle, he's going to have to get a lot better there. And, you know, but so that's how I'd rank him so far is I would rank him Billy, Emil, Ashton, Sam, and Anthony Nap is how I'd rank the five offensive line. All right. And, and there's the comment down from Stephen B, Anthony Nap can't go three inches. I don't care if Anthony Anthony Nap's plenty tall enough to play left tackle Anthony Nap is, is plenty long enough to play left tackle. I mean, Georgia had a left tackle when they beat their name in 17, who I think was a first round draft pick and played. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong. They played tackle in the NFL and I'm trying to remember what the kid's name was. I thought, give me a second. I'm going to find it here real quick. He was a left tackle. He got drafted by the New England Patriots. And they'll be 2018, I believe. Isaiah win. And they'd, he was, he was a guy that was a six foot two left tackle in college and people thought he'd play guard in the NFL and he stayed a tackle for at least a while. I haven't watched him in a little bit, but he certainly stayed there for a while. And he was six too, but he had really long arms and he was nimble and athletic Anthony's got those traits to play left tackle. The problem is Anthony's got two issues when it comes to playing left tackle one is he's light. And I know these got a lot of good upper body weight room strength, but he doesn't have the lower body strength yet to play that position. And then the second thing is not so much a negative. It's, I don't know that he has the demeanor to play left tackle. And, and, and that's not a criticism because it's in the similar fashion that I argued that I didn't think Quentin Nelson had the demeanor to play tackle in college. Quentin Nelson physically could have been a dominant tackle in college. He could have handled pass pro in college. He's not a tackle in the NFL, but in college he could have been a very dominant tackle. But he had the demeanor of interior player. He wanted to come off the line and destroy you. And that's more, in my opinion, more of an interior type of demeanor. And Anthony to me has some of that. And that's partly why I think moving inside down the road would be ideal for him because that demeanor benefits him more inside than it does a tackle. And, and so it's not so much the, the, the height or the length that's the problem. It's the lack of girth. And it's the demeanor, but he's going to have to kind of clean that up because right now he's their left tackle. And until that changes, he's going to, he's going to need to show a little bit more patience, show the ability to anchor a little bit better in the past in the past pro, because they're going to need that part of the game to improve. Certainly need them. And, and, yeah, I'm not going to say that because I don't want to make it sound like I'm making excuses for the quarterback, but he's, he's going to have to get better. No doubt about it. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to 100 times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You can turn $10 into $1,000. 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. Only one yard gets you an automatic win every football weekend in September. Four weeks of free W's. Don't miss this deal on prize picks because it's gone when September ends. Think Tyreek Hill get more than 90.5 yards in week one. Aaron Jones runs for more than 66 and a half yards. Cook up hot takes with your friends and win real money this football season when you and your crew run your game on prize picks. Prize picks also has college picks all ready to go for you as well. Get in before game one hits and you can predict how many passing yards your favorite college quarterback will hit. For me, I think Riley Leonard's going to go above 2,550 and a half yards. So I'm going to take that one and I'm going to combine it with Quinn yours to throw 2,999 and a half yards. Put those together and bang, bang, boom, baby. I'm going to be a winner. You just wait and see. I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of depositing my first $10 and I received an instant $10 bonus. If you have the skills, you can play for a shot at turning your $10 into $1,000. Download the prize picks app today and use code Irish for a first deposit match up to $100. That's code Irish on prize picks for a deposit match up to $100. 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 7 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. I didn't banami has there been a different interior defensive line scheme this season or the same scheme just lack of effort for the productivity. I don't want to say lack of effort. They're just not getting off blocks. The, you know, I don't know that I could chalk it up to scheme per se because they're not doing a whole lot of things different, but it really comes down to this from the standpoint of they're just not everything is deliberate. There's nothing that's aggressive with the veterans it's just all kind of stagnant and even the twists and stunts are just kind of slow developing and there's no rhythm to it and then there's just no aggressiveness there's no. There's no block destruction really happening with the kind of consistency we saw last season, especially from Howard. So if they, if they, you know, if they, they're just, it's really just about effort and I don't mean effort from the standpoint of like, oh, they're soft. It's just, it's just a hunger. They're not playing with any fire. I don't know if effort efforts not the right word. They're not playing a lot of fire. And, and hopefully that can kind of, can kind of get figured out. And like I said, you know, this isn't, this isn't new. You know, we kind of saw this a little bit last year from Howard Cross. He was more effective last year than he was this year. There's no doubt about that. But, you know, he didn't, he didn't. I mean, he was, I thought he was pretty good against Tennessee State. He didn't have any sacks or tackles for loss. He didn't get his first tackle, but you saw, you saw early in the season, some, some production from him that we're just not seeing so far from him this season. And, you know, maybe it's the hamstring. I mean, it could be a lot of different things, but he's just really not playing good football right now. And, and they're going to have to figure out why and, and get it fixed because it's just, it's been very disappointing. They're very disappointing from them so far this season. And they're, they're going to have to find some answers. There's no doubt about that. Got a super chat from Beezer 12 washing beard who has recently signed up for the message board, by the way, so I appreciate that. Great shows this week is always have you had a chance to create a playbook on CFP 25. We'd love to have Notre Dame run coach D's game plan. I actually do have a playbook on CFP 2025. I actually have not played that game since the season started. For a set, just no time to play it, but yeah, I did. It's funny. I was Vince and I were talking after because we went and bought our PS 5s together and then we ordered the game together before it came out. And he was talking about we were just kind of on the phone talking about our teams and he's like, have you played? How many games have you played yet? I was like, I haven't played any games yet. He goes, what do you mean? He's like, you told me you've, you've been playing the whole time and say, yeah, I'm on the game. I'm not playing yet because I was going through and making my playbook. And yeah, so, but yeah, so I was that guy. And my wife just kind of looked at me. Just was like, are you serious? She's like, how many plays do you have to make? And I can't. I think I like 300 something like that. She's like, are you serious? And I was like, yeah, my wife's opinion of me just went down a little bit. So, but yeah, I do. I do have a playbook on there. All right. I also made an IB uniforms on there and Vince actually played with him at one point time. It's pretty funny, but I thought they looked sharp. Looked a little bit too much like the Seahawks though. I couldn't get the green right. The only I like this fluorescent green, which I was not happy about like on the uniform, but it is what it is. Aiden Regan through three weeks is Jeremiah Love being the normal back. Where would you rank him among the running backs we've had in the last 10 years. I mean, it's way too early for that. Right. Like, it's, it's good that he's played well so far, but it's, it's so hard to rank a guy that's that's played three games and isn't even averaging 100 yards per game. It's good as he's been isn't averaging 100 yards per game and then compare him to, you know, to what guys did in past seasons. I mean, let's not forget last year through three games. and he had a game where he averaged 8.9 yards per carry against Tennessee State and then 9.6 yards per carry against NC State last season. So, you know, through three games last year, Audrick was averaging, let's see, 43 carries. He was averaging 8.0 yards per carry, which is higher than what Jeremiah Love is doing. So, you know, look, there's, it's different circumstances, different offense, different circumstances. There's, it's different circumstances, different offense, different offensive line. But let's just, let's let them kind of get to the season a little bit before we kind of start comparing them to the guys that had 1300 yards like, like, Audrick did last year, guys that had back to back 1000 yard seasons like Kyron had or a guy that had a 1400 yard season like Josh Adams or just the dynamic season that Dexter Williams had in 2018. I mean, in 2018, let's not forget when, you know, Dexter was unofficially suspended for the first four games. His first game back he went for 161 on national TV against Stanford and the next week he went for 178 and had a 97 yard touchdown run to get on the road against Virginia Tech. And, and that same year also went for over 200 against Florida State. So like, let's see Jeremiah, let's let's let's take a break. Enjoy what we're saying. Let him develop. And then as he puts together a whole season, then we can compare him to other backs because like right now, as well as the kid is playing, he's doing some great things. He's still, like I said, he's got he's had one 100 yard game in three games. Now that's not his fault. Right. I mean, he should have had over 100 yards against Northern Illinois. But, you know, let's just let's let season develop a little bit and let's let him continue this improvement and grow and develop. I will say this, however, because I don't want to completely dismiss your your question. I would absolutely love to see if he continues what it develops the way I think he will, then this conversation. Let's say if we have this after like this like Aidan, I would love it. If you brought this question back for the mailbag after the USC game, and then say hey let's let's compare it now, a full season now to what we've seen. And I think it's going to stack up very well. I just want to I just want to see it continue over a period of time because like look, I could go back and find stretches of Tony Jones Jr. having more production than what Jeremiah has had so far. I mean, you go back and look at 2019 and how you know the stretch that that Tony Jones Jr. had a three game stretch against Virginia Bowling Green and USC. He had 131 yards against Virginia. He had 102 yards on only seven carries against against Bowling Green. And he had 176 yards against USC had 409 yards in three games and an average 8.2 yards per carry. Right. I mean, again, that's better than what we've even better than what we've seen from Jeremiah. So again, let's let it, but then he got hurt and he couldn't continue the season. So let's let the kid get through the whole season. I think he's going to continue doing what he's doing. But let's evaluate it then and I'll have a much better feel so aid and hang on to this question. Bring this baby back in November the month, the week after we do. Because what we might do is we may do like a mailbag earlier that week since the season's over with and just kind of get into that stuff. But next the mailbag after the regular season is over, I would love to be able to look back at this question and compare what he's done so far. All right. Great question so far, everybody. It's just been an elite show because you guys are bringing elite questions and I appreciate it. John A1, Jane Thomas got to run a reverse versus Purdue, then Brock is called pop passes to Harrison and love. But why not use Mitchell or Smith for reverses instead of Thomas has Thomas shown more capabilities of playmaker with the ball in his hands in practice or was it a Tennessee breaking type of thing. I think it's that John. I think that's where it comes down to. What's the one guy that you're not expecting to run a reverse. It's Jaden Thomas. And, you know, I'm more, I'll tell you this, I'm more comfortable with that reverse than I was when they used to call jet sweeps to Jaden Thomas. Remember that. And, and I think that to me is like, that's more of a playmaker type of thing. This is where you're just trying to catch somebody. To be honest with you, I think it's more of that than it is. Hey, we're in a because I believe, let me go find the play. Because I believe they were in a 12 personnel look on that particular play, but I could be wrong. Let me just pull up the old 22 here real quick and find that particular play because I do believe that they were that that's, that's what I just said was correct. And so in that 12 personnel alignment, you would have seen Notre Dame in it. You would have seen Notre Dame or seen Purdue play them a little bit differently. So I think part of it was just trying to catch them a little bit. So just give me a sec here. It looks like they haven't uploaded that. There we go. Notre Dame offense versus Purdue. Let me find that that minus two, but that's kind of what I'm thinking, John, on that particular play. Did he gain to or it was a minus two yard gain right me find that here real quick. Okay, let me go to my play sheet and see where that play was. And then that'll help me find it a little bit because I'm trying to find it here. It was definitely in the first half, right. So it would have been before the second quarter. So was it a two yard gain or I thought it was a minus two. Was it a plus two. All right, here's the game sheet. Let me go find the reverse to Jaden Thomas. All right, so it was play 31. There it is. Okay. They were in on that play. They were. Yeah, they were. I was right. They were in 12 personnel. So you had two tight ends in the field. So it was a thing where that was your tent. You all game. You had him there. And I'll be honest with you. If you go back and watch that play. If Ashton Craig blocked somebody on that play. Jaden might might have something. I mean, Ashton Craig ran right by that guy. I'm actually going to take a little screenshot of this and kind of show you guys what that play might have looked like. If he would have blocked somebody because he might have had something because Purdue played that sucker. They overplayed that sucker big time. So let me pull this play up here real quick and I'm going to show you guys this particular play. I'm not going to have it's not going to be drawing on it because I literally just took the screenshot. But let me pull up this play real fast and you guys are going to see what I'm talking about here. So if you look at this play Ashton Craig if Ashton Craig blocks this dude. That might that might that sucker might go. Here we go. Give me second. Look at this particular play. I'm going to bring your question down so that way people can see it. But John look at this. If Ashton Craig doesn't run right by that dude right there. You guys see that if he doesn't run right by that guy. Look at all this room and he's got a lead blocker. Like he might have been able to do something with that play. So again, even though I would have loved to seen it with Jaden Harrison and. You know, or Jeremiah Love or something like that boy I got to tell you what even even with Jaden Thomas running it. If Ashton Craig doesn't whiff on that block and this guy right here. This guy right here ends up making the tackle. If Ashton Craig blocks him like you supposed to. I mean, look, you got Eli Reardon and Jaden Thomas and it's going to be Jaden Thomas in space against one of these two guys and they had been having some pretty good success making those guys miss throughout the game. So I think it was a Tennessee breaker, John. I do. I think it's and it's also like, look, this is where you're at. You're in 12 personnel. This is your 12 personal alignment. You got a 12 personnel and all of a sudden you've got Jaden Harrison in the field that may say, hey, listen, number number two be alert for number two because they've seen you do that a lot with him. So far this season. So that's, that's what I would. That's what I would do. So yeah, but you'd like to see some of those guys get the ball, but I understood what they did. And Jaden Thomas isn't fast, but he's a, he's a good athlete. He's just not fast. Hey, Irish Breakdown listeners. It's Urban Meyer. This fall, the game changes. Join me. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week. We will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines. Let us guide you through a new era of college football. Watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Hey, Irish Breakdown listeners. It's Matt liner. I've got a podcast called Throwbacks with actor J for R 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 team. So subscribe to throwbacks on YouTube, Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Muhammad Abi with a question. Brian, do you worry. Freeman's conservative nature will always be susceptible to lesser teams as it leads to smaller margin of error as coaches say two most important stats that leads to wins turnover margin. I do, but I don't think it's just reserved for those games. I mean, we saw it against Ohio stayed a little bit last year as well. We saw it a little bit against Clemson early last year as well. This isn't, this isn't just reserved for. I mean, there's been some big games or no, I mean, like Notre Dame comes out in big games and they're ready to play emotionally and physically, but the game plan is still a little bit too conservative. And I would just like to see coach Freeman to say, listen, you hired an OC that you trust, stay out of it, let him run the offense. That's not your, and he says, I'm, he's literally said this in interviews. I'm not a quarterback guru and I'm not an offensive line expert. And it's like, well, yeah, exactly, you're not, you're a defensive guy and you're great at that. And I think you've got a great vision for the football team as a head coach and they give a great vision for the offense. But when it comes to offering up personnel packages and making suggestions about this or that or the other thing, be limited with that stuff because there's always value to a defensive coaching. Hey, listen, they're doing this. I think you guys can do this, but that should be more about big play opportunities, not regular role. Let's just run with this personal package or let's go with this player. Or, or, you know, let's, let's pump the brakes on this or slow down this, that type of thing. It's like, let him roll. And I would certainly like to see more of that, but you hired a coach to do a job, let him do a job. And I think eventually I hope that Marcus Freeman figures out that it's okay to turn your offense loose. Like Ryan was talking about this yesterday, like his view of complimentary football is we're going to be great on defense and we want the offense to compliment the defense. And my thing is like, you know, complimentary football is, is not that. It's not, okay, we're going to be great here, but let's just not get ourselves beat over here. Like Lincoln Riley had that view of the defense and that's what hurt him at USC with the defense was like, look, we just need a defense that compliments us and can make a couple stops and that that got you beat a lot, especially in big games and Lincoln Riley didn't win a whole lot of big games out of conference during his tenure. And that was true to Oklahoma as well. So I just compliment her football means we're going to be really good on both sides of the ball and at times and games we may say, listen, we need you guys to do this because we're kind of worn out and we got to make some changes that's fine. But complimentary football means we're great here we need to make sure that we're great over here that's how you win titles. And that's what Kirby smart recognized that to it took Kirby couple years to recognize that did. And then he went out and hired Todd monkey and said, okay, go run your offense. And we saw Georgia go from being a very, a dull stagnant offense prior to Todd Monkins arrival because what was Todd Monkins first year, let me go look that up because I know he was not there. In 2017, where he was a, I think his first year George was 2020. Right. So no name didn't face him the first two years. And the, the year before he got there the average 30 point eight points per game it jumped up to 32 point three during the COVID year then it jumped up to 38 six and then 41 point one. And you look at the total offense the year before he got there they average 408 point one yards per play or per game and 6 point one yards per play. In 2021, they jumped up to 442 point nine and seven yards of play in 2021 and then in 2022. They jumped up to 501 yards per game and 7.2 yards per play. And guess what Georgia also had those years great defenses being that Georgia getting really good and really explosive on offense took nothing away from the Georgia defense, nothing. And in fact in 2021 when the offense had its first breakout season, the defense of Georgia actually went from 12 point six and 19 and 20 and 20 points in the COVID year down to 10 point two the first year they won the title. And they jumped up to 14 point three the next year. And, and, you know, it didn't, it didn't take anything away from their defense and coach Freeman he's to understand that as well. And if he does, then he's going to win a lot here. He's going to win a lot. And this does, there's a difference from being aggressive and explosive and, and being risk taking those two things aren't don't always go together, or, or being unsound. You can be a, you can be a team that runs the football, you can be a team that, that believes in winning in the trenches and still be a high octane score points, explosive offense that also values efficiency. And way too many defensive coordinators think that you can't be that, and, and still score a lot of points, you can, and way too many defensive coordinators focus on hey we need you to be more of a time of possession team, and not so much on a score quick team because of how it affects us as a defense well that's fine, but you know what else affects you as a defense us scoring a lot of points because it makes your job a lot easier. And with the type of, with the type of, of, like athletes that no name has on defense from a depth standpoint, you're better position now to handle an offense that scores a little quicker because you, you've got waves of players you can throw people. And, you know, take advantage of that, and, and hopefully coach Freeman eventually figures that out just completely turns a loose. Muhammad I'll be also asked explosive plays are lacking. So I would rather see earlacker out there than herd losing patello by far was the worst loss of Purdue are male as a big boy so these are some observations would rather see Kennedy earlacker out there than herd I mean, it's one game but he certainly looked a lot better in the game. So yeah, well I mean I'm not saying to do that because I don't think we should ever make those type of decisions off of one game but it's one of the things where I would, I would be constantly keeping my eye on what Kennedy is moving forward. I agree with you that losing patello was the worst of those losses there's no doubt about that and yes our mouth is a big boy he was okay against Purdue I want to see our mouth moves feel a little bit more he kind of hits and sticks. I would see him moves feel a little bit more Hulk strongest. Hey Brian, what are your impressions of SC and LSU after three weeks. Well, as we've only seen twice, I thought they looked really good in both games. I thought LSU a USC was a really good football game. And, and I thought USC's defense looked really good I was not as impressed with what Lincoln Riley was doing in the second half. And there's, honestly I kind of thought USC was was going to give that game away in the fourth quarter but he might text me that turn the fourth quarter he was like dude they're trying to give him this game way and I'm thinking the same exact thing. They came out against Utah State in the second game and, and, and smashed him you know beat him pretty convincingly but I, you know we really don't know what USC is just yet we'll learn a little bit more about them this weekend but so far. I thought they would be an offense that's geared more around spreading the ball around I talked about this yesterday and our breakdown with, with, with Bill. But, I mean, I, I kind of expected this from USC. I didn't, you know, I don't know how good some of those wins are yet I've not been impressed with LSU, you know LSU's two and one they they got out coached and outplayed by USC in the second half of that game. And then they went out and really kind of struggled against nickel state honestly. That was just a game where they just had better players than nickel state. I mean they only rushed for 68 yards in that game. I mean that that's that's gave up 100 they gave up gave up 150 yards. And that game to nickel state they gave up nickel state have 382 yards of offense and 6.5 yards per play. And, you know, actually that was that was what LSU did in that game they gave up 4.9 yards play 295 yards 150 rushing South Carolina had 6.5 yards per play 398 yards and I'm going to tell you right now South Carolina would have won that game if Lenore Sellers doesn't get hurt. I wholeheartedly believe that they got out. They got out played that game they just had some better athletes and spots and so I've not been overly impressed with LSU. However, it is still early and they are learning a new defense and and there's some definitely been some changes on offense as well. And we'll find out if those work and they've got a lot of, you know, guy stepping in a new role. So even though LSU has not looked good to me so far it doesn't mean that that's going to be who they are. You know, I expect them this this next game to beat UCLA. Next week's game against South Alabama just got a little bit more interesting, not that I expect us to lose they're not going to lose, but that's South Alabama offense has been scoring points. They've they lost Ohio 20 to 30, 20 to 27 to 20, but their first game they lost to North Texas they still scored 38 points and a 400 582 yards of offense. They beat FCS Northwestern State 87 to 10 had 620 yards and then last night, they destroyed Appalachian State at App State. They went for 472 yards and 7.0 yards per play they've run for over 300 yards each of their last two games. That's definitely a vulnerability for LSU. So it'll actually be a good, in my opinion, a good test for LSU because even though it's a team that you should still be able to beat them, but they're going to do some things to use schematically. And they're going to they're going to do some things with personnel that will allow you to to get a good look at them and this is the same South Alabama team that beat Oklahoma State last year 33 to 7 at Oklahoma State. So I think it's a really good test for LSU's defense before the by getting ready ready for their SEC schedule to play a team like that that can run the ball and it's going to do some things schematically with some gimmicky type of stuff that can give you problems. And you get to test yourself a little bit and say okay how much improvement have we made since the South Carolina game because honestly, I don't think the UCLA game is going to be a test. I don't I think LSU is going to destroy UCLA. And they're just they're just not very they're not a very good football team they're not talented. Their scheme is very dull. They should just overwhelm UCLA I don't know what you're going to learn about LSU from that game. South Alabama game I think you can learn something about the LSU defense if they've gotten any better at all or if South Alabama moves the ball and scores a lot on them even though I expect you LSU to win. It's still going to say okay you got some you got some holes that you got to work out during this by week before Ole Miss comes to town. So I actually think that's a good placement for that game. To be honest with you and then we'll see we'll see we'll see what they can what they can do and how they can develop because they were fortunate and blessed to come out of that South Carolina game but you know what that's how it works sometimes. Sometimes you get outplayed and but you make enough place to go win the game or you catch a break guy gets hurt whatever and you win the game that that's part of football. And they got the win and now they're two and one and and they should win their next couple board play Ole Miss so it's going to be a very interesting to see very interesting see. All right. 87 points was against a really bad football team though a really bad football team there has been plenty of games where Notre Dame could have scored 80 if they wanted to. And they didn't because it's just there's no point in that in my opinion, Northwestern State was a team that last year went 0 and 6. They had five games can't why did they. They had a death. Oh that's right they had a player shot that's right but they they canceled their season because a player there's got shot and killed but they were 0 and 6. And they were not very good. They lost to Eastern Illinois lost by two touchdowns Lamar two touchdowns to South East Louisiana. They got beat by 30 by Louisiana Tech 2022 they were four and seven got beat 64 to 10 by Southern Miss 47 nothing by Montana. They're not a very good football team lost 66 to seven to incarnate word. So yeah Northwestern State's not a very good football team and they're all in three so far this year they lost a Prairie View and and Tulsa beat them 68 to 28. So yeah, in Prairie View and it's really awful as well so they're they're not a very good football team. Next question from Dub Doug Nimkey. I would like to talk about telling the ACC in Miami because Miami canceled the 2024 game their name is requiring Miami to come south end of 2025 or Notre Dame will cancel. I hadn't. Are you saying that's what Notre Dame is done. Doug. Or are you saying that's what Notre Dame should do. I'm curious about that so let me look at the Notre Dame 2025 football schedule. I do not have that memorized. So next year Notre Dame has to play at Miami. They have three, four, five, six learning Marty has seven home games. So are you saying that Notre Dame is doing that. Or are you saying Notre Dame should do that. I honestly, I don't know that you have eight home games I don't know how that's going to work but but I would I would consider doing that honestly because I still think it's bad look the way that they canceled that game. Because now Miami basically gets a couple extra years to build their program before they've got to come to Notre Dame knowing that they get Notre Dame at their place next year so yeah I'm with you on that. I would try to play some kind of hardball maybe what they should do Doug is even if you're not going to get them to come to your place, make it a neutral field game. You know maybe maybe play a little hardball with them in that regard. That could be that could be something that they do as well. Hey just a real quick heads up to everybody. We're getting storms here right now. And since this is a solo show if I lose my connection the show's kind of over. So hopefully it won't in fact we haven't had any light flashes or anything like that but you just never know in this area sometimes when we get storms we get we lose our, our, our internet will go out so hopefully that doesn't happen but just to give you guys a heads up in case that it does. Matt M. Brian do you believe. Do you believe what you have seen so far right later the day to draft acute quarterback or more of a Sam Hartman day three practice what guy showing how the NFL loves physical trades. I mean I'm not a draft guy so I can't I can't tell you what the NFL is going to see but if I can just tell you what I see if I'm if I'm an NFL team. I'm not seeing a guy that I would draft right now. He's a really good runner. But the thing we've he's never been a guy with great, great arm talent like he didn't have a big arm he's got a good arm. It's not a great arm he's he's a playmaker. But what I'm seeing on film right now is a guy that struggles to read defenses. And that to me trumps a lot of different things and he doesn't have the big arm that you that NFL teams have fallen in love with that masks that. Right now I would see him more on draft day in the same Hartman mold that I would. A guy that could be a day to draft pick based on what we've seen so far is what you've said is what you've seen so far. And that's what I've seen so far now I think Riley can get better. And if he improves in that regard they'll give him a pass for some of that a new system new teammate you missed all spring etc etc but. At some point time that the the level of play has to improve and improve dramatically if you're going to kind of boost your draft stock in that regard. Mark Avalon. How do you think Joe all is feeling prepping to go against TJ want this weekend. Well if Joe walks the competitor that I think Joe is he's probably excited about it I mean when you're an elite talent. You want those challenges you want to go against the best you want to be challenged by the best player so you can sit there and say hey listen. You know this is where my game is that I'm a great player to or you know what TJ what taught me some things and I'm gonna have to go improve my game so if if Joe's the competitor that I think he is. He's fired up he's on he's locked in this week of practice because elite players want that elite challenge I mean Michael Jordan was at his best when he played against birdness Celtics and the Pistons and the Lakers because you want a Dominique. Dominique and Jordan had some great battles. You know Dominique and bird had some great battles magic and bird had great battles because great players want to be challenged they want to go against other great players. They want to win or certainly want to do that. And so I would imagine Joe's pretty fired up this week. Don't regret is happy Friday and your analysis why is it taking Riley so long to return to his 2022 form. Is it a system thing lingering effects of energy time with receivers lack of confidence in OL etc. I mean don't I think it's a little bit of all of that right you kind of answered your own question with the second part of your question. Those things all pile up it's not one of those things it's all of those things. And it's up to him to, it's up to him to fix it right and some of it takes time some of it says hey oh I need extra work man we need to sit down and practice we need to stay 1520 minutes after practice and work on this I need to get in the film room and work on this. Hey receivers you guys stay with me a little bit extra after on Tuesday and Wednesday and we're going to get a little bit extra work in. And to make time to get up caught up on those things but I honestly think it's a little bit of all of that stuff. All of it. I didn't banami do you agree with Sean Davis that Riley Leonard was below average at throwing in a little bit of spring and fall camp. I don't know what Sean said I didn't hear it Sean said and I don't feel comfortable responded to something that you're telling me what he said because, you know, so I don't want to push back on that I don't I'm so my answer to my question is not. Back on what Sean said I'll just tell you what I saw and what I saw was not a guy that was below average at throwing in a little bit of spring and I was actually at all the practices in the spring and fall so you saw some days where he was off and we talked about this. And there were days I thought he threw well. So no he was not below average there were some drills were him and Angeli both were not hitting throws or an RVA but overall he was definitely not below average in my opinion. He wasn't letting the world on fire but we also said I also said, and Vince also said that in each of those practices the two guys that threw the ball the best was CJ card Kenny Mitchy. Even when Riley was having a good day. But here's what I saw in fall camp that we need to see from Riley. There was a play in practice where they ran a slot fade and Riley threw a ball and missed it. And then brought gave him some correction. The very next time he went out there he threw that same ball and it was perfect. And so you saw guys bouncing back learning from his mistakes taking correction and bouncing back and making a play the next time. That's what Riley's going to have to do is look you're going to make mistakes you're going to have misses okay get in the film room see the mistake. Rep it out and then next time you get that chance make that play. So I broke down a couple plays where he missed reads on Saturday against Purdue. He needs to get that correction. He needs to see it he needs to visualize going through that play again they need to rep things like that this week those reads. And then this week you know make those improvements because at some point time he needs to he needs to start making those reads. So I can just tell you what I saw. I don't care to get into to to push him back on what somebody else says that's their observation. You know so but it's also not something about agreeing because if I don't agree with that. That doesn't mean that I'm wrong or he's wrong people can see to see the same thing and evaluate it differently. And I did definitely did not see a guy that was below average throwing in fall camp. John a one after the first quarter of the season who are Notre Dame's top three linebackers. I would say the guys see here's the thing it's it's the guy there's flashy guys and the guys that are doing things that that doing their job effectively and I would say the top three linebackers I've seen so far. Probably are Jaden Osbury Kingston and Drake Bowen is probably the top three linebackers that we've seen so far Jack was a lot better in this last game and hopefully that continues but he was not very good the first two games. So those would be the three that I would say so far have been their best linebackers. Muhammad Abdi Brian do you think Notre Dame's ceiling is not as high as predicted coming to the season due to lack of an explosive passing game hence making explosive run game essential for any hope of salvaging the season. I mean let's pump the brakes a little bit on salvaging the season Notre Dame is two and one in a top 20 football team so the season doesn't need to be salvaged. This isn't their own three Florida State. Does the pass game need to get better. Yes. A lot of you are focusing on the explosive part like like big plays and that's fine. Give me some efficiency first then we can get to the explosive piece but I still think they're sealing is just as high because the difference between me and I think a lot of people that are asking questions like this is I'm not assuming that Notre Dame after three games is a finished product. I'm assuming that Georgia is not going to play the rest of the year the way that they did against Kentucky. I'm going to assume that that's factual right I mean or are we assuming that Notre Dame is the only team in college football that is a finished product after week three. I mean is that where we are. You know I mean of course not that's not where we are. And so do they got to get better yeah they got to get better that's obvious everybody knows that but they need to come out and make improvements in that regard but they're not. They're not a finished product I'm not as panicked about some of the stuff as some of you are they got to get better. There's no doubt if they don't improve then yes this becomes a major problem the ceiling is not as high. If this is who they are the rest of the year then the ceiling is definitely not high. Definitely definitely not high as high as it was but it's still a very good football team. And we saw that on Saturday and because again I mean talk about salvaging the season they've already beaten one of the best teams are going to play all year on the road by 10. So the south northern game sucked it did. The other two games were really good. They need to make sure that we don't see that team that we saw but again Notre Dame didn't lose to northern Illinois because the passing game wasn't explosive enough. They lost to northern Illinois because they had no fire they had no heart they played with no passion and they were clearly unprepared to win in that game. They couldn't run the ball on northern Illinois outside of two plays. They couldn't stop the run against northern Illinois. They couldn't stop some crucial third downs against northern Illinois. We're putting all this on one part of the team and that's what frustrates me is we're acting like everything else is just going swimmingly and if the pass game was better we'd be. Yeah the pass game is better they'd probably be 3-0 right now but you know what else. If the run defense was better they'd probably be 3-0 right now. So those are all aspects to it. [Music] [Music] [Music] At King Super's Pharmacy Care is making it easy to get vaccinated. Care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID and RSV. Seasonal vaccines are available 7 days a week with evening hours. Care is giving you a shot at staying healthy this season. Walk in whenever is best and get multiple vaccines in one visit at your local King Super's Pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King Super's a world of care is in store. Visit KingSuper's.com/vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply seaside for details.
