Today's Rapid Fire topics include:
* Fill-in the blank...After three games, Riley Leonard is BLANK.
* We hear comments from Marcus Freeman on the Irish offensive line and ask: On a scale of 1 to 10...What’s your confidence with the Irish offensive line?
* From a listener: Buy or Sell Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler both staying at Notre Dame next year?
* We hear comments from Freeman on Jordan Clark having a podcast and share our thoughts on players hosting podcasts.
* Fill-in the blank...It’s BLANK that Notre Dame alum Brandon Aubrey has hit an NFL record 13 straight field goals of 50-plus yards to begin his career.
* Which game this weekend interests you more: USC – Michigan or Georgia Tech – Louisville?
* Fill-in the blank...Adrian Wojnarowski retiring from ESPN to become GM at his alma mater St. Bonaventure is BLANK.
Fill-in the blank...It’s BLANK that after their 1-8 start to the season the Indiana Fever are playoff bound with a 20-19 record and Caitlin Clark has set the league rookie records for points and assists.
Shop for Irish Breakdown gear at our online store: https://ibstore.irishbreakdown.com/
Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com
Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/irish-breakdown/id1485286986
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishbreakdown
Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/irish-breakdown-newsletter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all new Prolog EV, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the class leading passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com/ev to see offers. Brian Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th mint commercial…no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 and what. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim-blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com/save, whenever you're ready. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month, new customers on first three month plan only, taxes and fees extra, speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of seat details. Jesse, are you ready for rapid fire? Let's do it. Fill in the blank. After three games, Riley Leonard is blank. I hesitated on whether or not to even use this question after it's been happened earlier today. I know. After three games, Riley Leonard is good at what we know he was good at, right? We know he was good at running the ball. We knew he was going to be iffy in the past game and maybe a better word is unpredictable because in the first game, he did enough to win the second game. Obviously, he played bad in the third game. He dominated. I think the better word that I've convinced myself is really unpredictable at this point. What version of Riley Leonard are you going to get? The Riley Leonard that is super focused and determined on doing whatever it means to win the game or Riley Leonard who shut down when things weren't going his way against NIU. Riley Leonard is, at least the Riley Leonard that we've seen so far, he is a little bit of a running back playing quarterback. I repulsed at hearing that at the start of the season, but the more we've seen in the last three weeks, it's like, "Oh, it actually does kind of look like that." You look at what he was doing against Purdue last week, making place, but I do think that he is improving, so that's what I would go, improving as a passer. It is coming along. It's not at the rate that anyone would like it to see, and I mean, there are obviously some who would just as soon set it all on fire and get out of there, but I think he is improving and it's going to continue to get better. I have to think that it's going to because, again, it was less than two years ago, the guy finished the season where he threw for almost 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns. I just don't think that completely evaporates in two years. He's more than just a runner, so I think that he can be more than just a runner. Here's Marcus Freeman's thoughts from today on his offensive line, which now, of course, includes Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler starting. As I look at it, big picture-wise, we're going to continue to progress. Those guys are capable starters. They're ready, they've been prepared, it speaks to the maturity of those two, at any moment they knew they were going to be thrust into action, and we picked up right where we left off and they did a great job and had two really great days of practice this week. I think there's a chemistry between centers, guards, and tackles that will continue to progress as we move forward. I don't play that position, but I know that there's a comfort, obviously, knowing that guy who's inside of you if I'm a tackle and obviously the communication between the center and the guard. That is something that there's nothing that can expedite that process but time, but the progress of our entire offensive line. It won't stop. I think it just picked up right where we left off. So scale of one to ten, Jess, your level of confidence in the Notre Dame offensive line right now. I'd give it a solid eight and a half out of ten, and the only reason I'm not more worried about it is I think this offensive line naturally started. I think they had an idea of who the best offensive line was going into camp, but that was before seeing Riley Leonard play with the offensive line. I think Riley Leonard introduced a need for an offensive line to be more agile ability to move, and I think I would say that's Rocco Spindlers, one of his biggest downfalls essentially, and Pat Coogan, guys who are more heavy-footed, like Riley Leonard needs a pocket that can move, a mobile pocket, guys who can block downfield more of that stuff. So I think naturally, these offensive line men are a little bit less agile and athletic than Billy Shrouth, and I can't think of the other guy that got hurt, but guess what I'm getting to is if Notre Dame runs this kind of Ashton Craig, if Notre Dame runs this kind of power run scheme that we've seen, that fits in well to someone like Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan because they can run block really well. So I have to stick with the 8 out of 10 because these guys are still very physical in the run game. Prize picks is America's number 1 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 2 to 6 player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. Lead 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 4 correct picks. You can turn 10 dollars 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, 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 will get more than 90.5 yards in week 1. 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. Lead 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 is 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 Ears 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 ten dollars and I received an instant ten dollar bonus. If you have the skills you can play for a shot at turning your ten dollars into a thousand dollars. Download the prize picks app today and use code IRISH for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars. That's code IRISH on prize picks for a deposit match up to a hundred dollars. Prize picks run your game. You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs takes the crispy and spicy nugs that you love and turn them up to eleven. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey barbecue, garlic parm or if you're a real heat seeker try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Take 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 agree with what indie sailor is saying here still as good as they were but the depth is gone. Like in terms of the front line starters my confidence level in them is an eight. I think it's still a really good line not an excellent line. There's still some things to work through primarily you know let left tackle has to continue to grow and progress but you know again this is a true freshman who came in in the spring and opened up some eyes and got himself out there on the field as a true freshman it doesn't happen very often in college football and it sure doesn't happen very often at Notre Dame so his his goal just like Leonard is is to get a little bit better every week and you talked about that moving pocket and the the need for agility they have that with both tackles they have right now so very confident I think Kugan and Spindler it's it's not very often where you can have two really good starters get hurt and you bring in two reserves and all the sudden your offensive line becomes 23 games more experienced you know in terms of starting experience them what you just lost from your starting lineup so very confident in the group Josh with a super chat he says by herself both Kugan and Spindler come back next year he he said he asked the question in the mailbag yesterday but they didn't get to it any thoughts on what you think happens there I mean we're kind of guessing at this point. Let's say out I think one of them like we were talking about earlier once you've got that degree and you still have some remaining years you can go on get some NIL money get some more you know recognition put some more tape out there and essentially have a better shot you know to make it on to the next level so I do think one definitely one of the two will be gone. Yeah I got to sell as well I think one of the two would go it's just you know in a transfer portal era where you can just pack up go someplace and potentially start or right away and you brought up that example with what Zeke Karel did I mean that was a starting center and he kind of got ushered out because of Ashton Craig's emergence but you know again they got bigger and I think better there at center and I think Kugan is going to give him some pretty good play but I think it's it's pretty it would have to be pretty doubtful that both of those guys come back next year just like when you look at the way camp played out this year. So something else Marcus Freeman talked about today Jordan Clark he's got a podcast that he started this year you know that's a part of you know hopefully the entice me to come to Notre Dame is that you're going to be able to utilize this huge platform that we have and you know we want our guys to be well-rounded individuals and to when they have time be able to do some things that are outside the interest of being a football player and so I'm glad Jordan is able to capitalize off of that opportunity and still get everything in terms of football that we asked him to do completed and I think it's important understand these are more than just football players you know these guys understand at some point this game be over and they're capitalizing off of the opportunities that they have here to utilize all the resources that we have but also that they can truly capitalize off of. So that podcast by the way is called the Irish Scoop with Jordan Clark and I was just looking it up he's done a couple of episodes so far he had Jeremiah Love on about a week ago and before that he had Benjamin Morrison on as well. So what do you think about players college players having their own podcasts? Yeah I mean it's it's not a surprise that Jordan Clark has a podcast I mean look what his dad does he's a he's a national TV personality I'm sure that you know that's something that Jordan would like to get into himself once football is all said and done right and so that's kind of what Marcus room was going into is you got to realize that like the 1% of the 1% go on to the NFL like you have to have you know some sort of career backup plan you know prepared and I think that it would be kind of dumb of Jordan Clark not to capitalize on his situation at Notre Dame because it gives you the opportunity gives you the stage to kind of go into something like this and get your name kind of you know more out there essentially right and it's kind of like the NIL but of kind of the podcast world at the end of the day so I don't mind it as long as it's not a distraction as long as you're not like going on there you know saying crazy stuff about your teammate or you know leaking disclose information or you know what I mean just keeping it to a certain kind of narrative or a certain kind of dialogue is more so what I would be concerned about but you know what these guys do in their spare time is completely on them like they have a professional life to be developing at the same time well I mean I think with NIL it's kind of the perfect situation you you're actually putting out a product and you're getting paid for doing the product and what are you doing well you're talking what are you talking about the thing you do every day yeah with your teammates like you're going to be sitting around talking with your teammates anyway so why not make a little money out front of you yeah that's right have a little fun with it and like you said can I get you ready for for maybe what comes next because when you know when you look at where Ryan Clark Jordan's dad is at ESPN and all that stuff you know maybe that helps him out down there and Jordan Clark by the way is a pretty good talker himself you know like a very similar personality to his dad you know so like you can you can see that so I think it's great you know and obviously Kyle Hamilton had the podcast a couple of years ago with Cam Hart and you know Rad again and I'm trying to think of who the other was DJ Brown in there was he part of it as well you know they had the inside the garage thing and I think it's great I think you know again because like it's I'd rather see them doing something like this where they're actually doing a little bit of work for what they're getting for the NIL money that they're getting you know rather than you know just get basically a blank check for doing whatever so I think it's pretty cool I haven't had a chance to listen yet I'm kind of surprised they've only put out a couple of episodes though listen I haven't watched you come the Irish since they lost to NIL so well you know they're not putting them out during the season so you don't have to worry about that the next episode doesn't drop until early December so you don't have to worry about that sometime so a couple of different people asked about this Andrew put it up what do you think about this Mel Kuiper Junior wanting to get rid of the the too deep safety you know Tampa to defensive stuff was gonna make a lot of people mad but I love that this is teed up for me okay go ahead ha ha yes so the Mel Kuiper right now is honestly a lot of Notre Dame fans at the end of the day Mel Kuiper has been spoiled by these air raid offenses and the show that's put on by these offenses and a lot of passing yards and deep touchdown pass you know passing touchdowns big explosive plays and that's why these defenses have gone to the too high safety that or the cover to shell they don't want the big plays they don't want Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid hitting these home runs right and so what is this force you to do it forces you to be a better running team and also to get your running backs more involved in the past game because if you're running too high safeties you're probably running man underneath and so you can get a mismatch you know running back on a linebacker it's a great situation and so I think that the cover too high look emphasizes the need for good running backs in a good run game and again you like we've been so spoiled by these past heavy offenses there's nothing wrong with the good old fashioned running back getting close to 30 carries a game and going for 100 to 150 yards on the ground and again I equate that to Notre Dame fans because you can't be mad how you get the yards as long as you get the yards what does it matter as long as you you're beating these teams yeah you know what does it matter and that's why we've seen some low scoring you know not a lot of passing yards out of these quarterbacks so far is because it's been more no run heavy run dominant at the end of the day yeah I mean look they've they've dumbed down offenses so much we've talked about this before with these young quarterbacks coming out of college they've they've dumped it down and you know added more of the RPO stuff that that didn't even used to be a thing in the NFL probably what 10-12 years ago or something like that they've they've already changed things so much to try to get these young quarterbacks to come in and have success right away you know like Sloppy Joe says it's reminiscent of the end of Major League Baseball banning the shift if they need to ban certain defense just for their offense to flourish the offensive schemes are flawed respectively I don't completely you know like I know what you're saying but at the same time like everybody in baseball went so overboard with the shifts and I think that the game has come back a little bit since they've done away with the the drastic shifts Anthony says absolutely ridiculous defenses are already handicapped enough and that's the thing you know they all these rules are in favor of the offense you know like the offense just needs to to figure it out you know if you can't if you can't throw a deep quite as often figure something out I mean that's what it comes down to to me but I think you teed off on it pretty well I just I was I was shocked when I saw that Mel Kuiper is coming out we don't need two deep safeties anymore it's just ludicrous yeah it is so hard to already stop offenses and you're gonna say you can't play a certain sort of coverage come on yeah Kenny wants to know SC or Michigan Saturday who you pull them for oh USC because I want USC to be undefeated by the time the end of the regular see or by the time that last game of the season comes up a stronger you know more highly ranked USC just sets up Notre Dame for a better stage if they can pull off the victory absolutely you got to pull for USC because if you're you pull for every team on your schedule outside of when you play them if you're Notre Dame you need USC to be sitting there at worst a 10 and 2 team going into that final weekend in Los Angeles obviously assuming that Notre Dame takes care of its business on the way up to that fill in the blank it's blank that Notre Dame alum Brandon Aubrey has hit an NFL record 13 straight field goals of 50 plus yards to begin his career it's pure dominance is what it is he's he's the best kicker in the game right now hasn't missed over 50 can probably hit from 70 and I think he's missed like one field goal overall he's completely dominating and it's it's it's fun to see because he's going to be a weapon for the Cowboys and I think it's something that's going to be a difference maker in a couple games this season yeah it's it's just amazing like when they run him out there on the field like we'll be texting during games it's like just get the ball to midfield and let Aubrey try to kick it you've got complete confidence then it's going to go in we were there in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago and we thought we were going to get to see what was it a 69 yarder before Mike McCarthy chickened out yeah didn't let him try it just let it fly and they do that stupid Hail Mary instead I know the guy is so money and like he just drills him too most of them you know there've been one or two where he's like just kind of put it in the right upright but he's got just such a such a big leg and such and such such accuracy to go along with that big leg it's it's been pretty amazing to see him every week so I guess I should have saved that last one because which game interests you more USC Michigan or Georgia Tech Louisville probably Georgia Tech Louisville considering you know those are two teams that are in near proximity on Notre Dame schedule I want to see how those teams really are and it's a good time to kind of scout both of them because they're playing each other right I anticipate the the USC Michigan game comes down to can Michigan run the ball and control time of clock and not allow USC's offense to pull the way because if USC gets a multiple touchdown lead a game's over us or Michigan's not built to kind of come back with the offense that they have and so it's it's got to be Michigan being able to run the ball and USC being able to stop the run but again I know Louisville and Georgia Tech isn't as you know sexy on paper but as a Notre Dame fan that's the game I'm more keen in on yeah I mean after this game this weekend against Miami, Ohio Louisville and Georgia Tech are two of the next three opponents Notre Dame will face after that so to get them playing each other and I think we're gonna find out a lot but we're gonna find out even more about Louisville in this game because they they've essentially played a couple of Patsy's so far you know they played Austin P and they played Jacksonville State okay you know so I want to see what Louisville is really made of how close to last year's team they are so I'm much more interested in that because we've got a lot you know like I'm still interested in USC Michigan because it's a much more marquee game but we've got a lot more time to go before Notre Dame actually sees USC so pretty interested to see how that Georgia Tech Louisville game comes out. Hey Irish Breakdown listeners it's Urban Meyer this fall the game changes join me Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week we will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines let us guide you through a new era of college football watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple podcast Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Hey Irish Breakdown listeners it's Matt Liner I've got a podcast called Throwbacks with actor Jay Ferrar we'll be talking all things sports but also so much more we'll give you the behind the scenes stories for my days as the quarterback on an iconic college football team to Jerry's days as a star on an iconic TV series so subscribe to throwbacks on YouTube Apple podcast Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Fill in the blank Adrian Wojnarowski retiring from ESPN to become the general manager of the men's basketball team and his alma mater Saint Bonaventure is blank. It's awesome I think that's so awesome that a guy gets to kind of you know step away from a career that he's been so successful at and in his words pursue something at this time that he's more passionate about something that he kind of wants to get back to and so again I think it's it's really cool that he's able to kind of you know kind of divert and shift his attention at this point it's kind of like honestly what I'd love to do with with my life is you know be an engineer for as long as I can and then go on and maybe coach like a high school football team you know in the later years of my life. Late career shift just do stuff you know. Again I know like coaching and stuff is stuff that I would be passionate about but it's just it takes more time it's not what I went to school in for put a lot of money into right and so it's like you got to you got to do what's going to pay the bills and pay off those loans before you go into something like coaching so I see that more as I I've joked with a lot of people that's kind of like a retirement gig is just to go off and maybe teach like a high school math class and coach a football team or something. Yeah there you go there you go I could see that I could see that in your uh in your future yeah I mean in that like that life being that you know the Wodge bombs and all that stuff and and having to be you know they're literally competing for seconds sometimes you know like him and Shams over at the athletic you know for like who's getting pretty hostile for a while there yeah and like they they it's funny because I guess I was just reading yesterday I didn't realize they actually worked together for a little bit at Yahoo before Wodge went to ESPN and like he's actually from um like the Bristol area but grew up never really even wanting to be at ESPN but ultimately they offered him so much money that he couldn't turn it down and you know that's the big thing you know like he's walking away from millions of dollars by staying at ESPN doing what he was doing you know to to basically just have a change of lifestyle get you know take some pressure off him I mean he's gonna go it's it's Saint Bonaventure you know it's it's like it's not like he's even going to Saint John's or something like that with with Rick Petino and there's a whole lot of pressure on him so good for him I mean the guy's still only in his mid 50s so he's still got a lot and I'm sure there'll be a lot less stress for him so power to him fill in the blank it's blank that after their one and eight start to the season the Indiana fever or playoff bound with a 2019 record and Caitlyn Clark has set rookie records for both points and assists this season I think it's electric and it's going to continue to electrify the women's basketball game um and it's it's again it's kind of plays into the whole you know Caitlyn Clark effect and it's funny because you know before Angel Reese got hurt there was serious debate which shouldn't have been about who was rookie of the year and you know that sort of stuff it's like you could almost make the case that Caitlyn Clark deserves you know to be in the MVP type discussion right because if you take her out what's the one thing that changed from last season yes I know they got a new coach and you know one that they got Caitlyn Clark as well but you know they were still the worst team in the league last year now to go on and be a playoff team I again I just think it's it's electric and I think that there's definitely more to come in terms of the Caitlyn Clark effect I think she's just kind of scratching the surface um and to do this in her in her rookie years just really tremendous and I mean all the Geno talk and all the Tarasi talk and all that different stuff about oh she you know she's she's not going to make it in our league and you know you've still got all the the Cheryl Swoops and somebody brought up the Cheryl Swoops up a couple weeks ago and I hadn't really seen it but with the there's been kind of more attention because the the regular season's getting ready to end this weekend and then the playoffs are going to start it's just you know but but there was all this oh look at she's one and eight look at how bad this team is and you know like what can she do what kind of difference can she make and then there was the Olympics debate and all that different stuff I really think she liked that that Olympic break really you know and I said it going in it did her well to just kind of sit and rest and kind of get re-energized a little bit after playing a full college season and then you know jumping right into the W NBA I mean it's it's pretty amazing you said it at the start of the season no one has seen a phenomena in women's basketball like the Caitlin Clark phenomena and I just think the Indiana fever is just going to keep getting better every year so it's pretty fun to see you know like again everyone was was ready to just write her off and and write them off and there were a lot of questions about the coach and all the different stuff at the start of the season when they started off one and eight but to see them rebound and come back around they've beaten pretty much everybody you know in the league at least once this season so they've more than proved themselves she's obviously proved themselves with a record that she set as well so it's pretty cool for the player who was like you know oh you got to change that shot and you know oh she's not going to be physical enough to handle this league and to set rookie records in both points and assists right away and to see you know not just record set but to see the team pretty dramatically improve as well says quite a bit obviously yes it does all right well that is going to do it for this show thanks for being here on the Thursday thanks for all the great we-in-we-out questions um tomorrow of course we record the iby count down to kickoff show and then we drop it had it up I think pretty much before seven o'clock the last couple of weeks so look for it both on youtube as well as your podcast platforms and uh you will find the iby count down to kick off for one final show before Notre Dame in Miami, Ohio on Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium if you're in town welcome to town enjoy the game this weekend of course they've got the post-game show afterwards we'll be back next monday as well we'll talk to you then I've been Asian Sports Talk [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a king supers pharmacy care is making it easy to get vaccinated care is helping you stay protected from flu covid and rsv seasonal vaccines are available seven 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 supers pharmacy so come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you king supers a world of care is in store visit king supers dot com slash vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply sea site for details.
