[MUSIC] >> This episode is brought to you by Microsoft Azure. Turn your ideas into reality with an Azure free account. Get everything you need to develop apps across Cloud and hybrid environments, scale workloads, create Cloud-connected mobile experiences and so much more. Discover what you can create with popular services free for 12 months. Learn more at azure.com. That's azure.com, and sign up for a free account to start building in the Cloud today. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance. Uncover opportunity and move upward at Mossatoms.com. [MUSIC] >> Let's talk about the run game for the Notre Dame offense. That is, I mean, look, we're going to get into the past game and why it needs to improve and can it improve and how it can improve and all that kind of stuff. But the reality is Notre Dame's success this season on offense is going to be driven first and foremost by its ability to run the football. And that isn't even about the past game or Riley Leonard. That's what Marcus Freeman has said every time he talks about his offense from the minute he's been hired. We're going to run the football, we're going to run the football, we're going to run the football. Okay, well, this is one of those years where, yeah, you need to be able to run the football. Especially early on, why your past game finds its way and it hasn't done so yet. You look at the two, it is funny, Notre Dame has been way better against power five teams this year than they were against the Mac team. Notre Dame only ran for 123 yards against Northern Illinois, 4.4 yards per carry. Against Texas A&M, they ran for 198 yards, 5.8 yards per carry and against Purdue, a big 10 team, they ran for 362 yards and 8.2 yards per carry. And went for such six touchdowns. It was Notre Dame's best offensive performance since the Stanford game late last season. And it was, if you look at the last, going back to 2021, going back to 2020. Let's see here. It was 2019, so 2018. So since in 2018, Notre Dame ran for 365 yards against Florida State. Since then, the two best rushing performances that Notre Dame has had from a yard standpoint was against Stanford late last year with Audrick and then against Purdue last weekend. Ironically, the next best performance was against Florida State also. So if you look at Notre Dame's four best rushing performances from 2018 to now, two of those four best performances came against Florida State, which I think is kind of funny. And if Florida State doesn't get a lot better from now until November, it could be another one. But this part of the game is going to have to continue to carry the team. And I think there's been some encouraging things we've seen so far that have you excited about where this rushing attack is and the first one being, obviously, great talent. And we thought that this unit had a chance to be really good coming into the season, right? We thought that Notre Dame had a chance with Jeremiah Love, and Jadarion Price to come out and really take it to people with their talent. And I have to be honest, and I'm curious what you guys think because you all know, you all know kind of how excited we were about the running backs coming into the season. I know a lot of you were excited about it as well. Here's my question for you guys in the chat. It has the production, not the production, has the play of the running backs. And I'm talking about the primary and the top two, Jeremiah Love and Jadarion Price as a duo. Has it been as good as you expected, better than you expected? I mean, if it's not been as good as you expected, then I would just say that your expectations were incredibly high and probably unrealistic. But it's OK, well, this is what I expected or a little bit better than what I expected. I'll be honest, and I'll give you my opinion, while you guys are responding to that question in the chat because I am genuinely curious. It's actually better than what I expected because I knew that they would be able to make big plays. But they're making big plays at a rate even better than what I thought. When you look at the opener against A&M, I mean, you talk about Jadarion Price rips off a 47-yard touchdown. That's just not something that they do a whole lot. Then he has another big run that gets called back. And that puts Nerdame in a, what was it, like first in 20? And the next play, they run for it again. They run again and Jeremiah Love goes for 29. And then, of course, they put the game away late. And so they're making big plays at a rate even greater than I expected. I mean, it was almost-- it was literally comical because I told you guys on Sunday night that I was literally laughing in the press box. And I swear some of you are just very hard to please. But I'm watching in the press box on Sunday and Jeremiah-- Jadarion Price, who somebody thinks should be better than he is, despite the fact he has a 47-yard touchdown run that was vitally important to success against a win against A&M and ripped off a 70-yard touchdown last weekend, didn't really get the ball the week before. But it's like they're trying to run the clock out. And he makes a guy miss behind the line. And he makes three people miss in the open space and he runs for 70 yards. And you're like, OK, this is just ridiculous. And then, of course, Jeremiah Love has two runs of over 20. So I would argue that the explosiveness is even-- well, I don't know if it's better than I thought it would be. It's happening quicker. I thought they would eventually get there. But the part that's been the bigger surprise for me is how efficient Jeremiah Love has been as a runner. And he hasn't been perfect by any stretch of the imagination. He's had some missed cuts. And I think early against A&M, he was rushing a little bit. And since then, I think he settled down. We saw it in the fourth quarter of that game. He really settled down, you know, sticking with his reads. And we saw it against Purdue. What I loved from him against Purdue was he was OK, just sticking his foot in the ground. And I'm going to get four. And that's when you know a running back is kind of matured and said, hey, listen, you understand what the goal is here, which is efficiency first, explosiveness second. That's the key. And I think Jeremiah Love is doing that. He has got to do a better job of early in games, seeing some of those holes. But again, better and better and better. 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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 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 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 U.S. Wendy's. When you look at Jadarion Price, he's had, he's been a victim of bad luck a little bit at times where a lot of the tackles for loss that have been given some of the free run throughs have happened when he's in the game where he's getting a hand off and as soon as he's getting a ball, he's getting hit like price. He's had a couple runs where he's got to make a better read on it, but he's also shown big time home run ability. And I think right now with Jadarion, I think he's playing very well. And, and if you're going to tell me he's not playing very well, then, then we're just going to not agree and we're just have to disagree to disagree and move on when you're, when you're doing the things he's doing as a runner, you're playing well. He's got 154 yards in three games and he's not even there's, they're starting back. He's averaging 7.7 yards per carry. He's got two touchdown runs of over 45 yards. He's playing well. I think he's the guy that can can be even better. So if you're going to say, hey, I think Jadarion can be even better, totally agree. If you're going to say he's not playing well, I think you're mistaken. And what Jadarion's got to do is listen, you're not going to have 15 carries a game. Most likely, right now you're five to eight. And then if you're hot, they may ride you a little bit more, but you've got to do some of the little things better. That's, that's the key. You've got to do some of the little things better. And, and if he can do that, that makes him even more dangerous. But right now he's in the game. Five carries a game with the thought of he's got to hit a home run, right? And he's, or he's going to hit a home run and he's playing too much to that, I think. And that's causing him to make a couple cuts that aren't quite there, but he's still playing at a very high level. And as a, as a duo through three games, Jadarion price and let's say I'm going to add it up. It's two 79 plus 154 Jeremiah Love and Jadarion price through three games have combined for 433 rushing yards and five touchdowns. So if you kind of push that forward to for an entire season, that's 1876 yards between the two of them, which is about a hundred more than what, what. Audric Estimae and Logan digs combined for two years ago, because they were, they were at, they were, I think, 17, I think it's like 1780 1790 something like that. And so when you look at Jeremiah right now, Jeremiah is on pace for. Okay, let's see here. Jeremiah is right now and when I say on pace, it's, it's the 12 plus one situation. He's on pace for 1200 and nine rushing yards. And Jadarion is on pace for 667 rushing yards. So, and he's going to have some big games coming up here as well. So I'm surprised at how good they've been. And the fun thing is, I think the run game can get a lot. And of course, Riley Leonard's providing a lot in the run game. He's got 179 yards through three games. If you, if you look at what, what he has done so far this season, Riley Leonard is a runner. He's on pace in a 12 plus one situation to run for 776 yards. So yeah, Jeremiah love on pace for 1200 yards. Yeah, Riley Leonard on pace for 776 yards. You have Jardarion price on pace for 667 yards. Like, that's a pretty good three game stretch. Now, here's the, here's the key for moving forward. We're just talking run game right now. The key moving forward is going to be this. It's making sure that your run game is always evolving. That's absolutely essential to what Notre Dame has going to do in the run game is you just can't come out every week and say, this is who we are. This is what we do philosophically, you can. But the specifics how you get there have to be willing to evolve and adjust. And one of the most encouraging things to come out of the Purdue game was not that Notre Dame ran the ball effectively against Purdue, which was a surprise. You know, I thought they had a shot to run well. I did not see 300 plus yards coming against a Purdue defense that's an entire game plan. I mean, think about their entire structure defensively. The only reason they line up and play the way they play is because it's geared towards stopping the run. And they had one bad game last year early against Syracuse and after that they were pretty good at stopping the run. And, and that's the entire premise of who they are what they are what they try to do. And Notre Dame did something to them that that hasn't been done to them since I think it was 2019. Yes, most yards they've given up since 2019. And, you know, this team just came out and, and really took it to Purdue. That's, was encouraging sign. But it was a lot, you know, talent and all that kind of stuff. But here's, here's what got me in this game and here's what had me encouraged and I would. If you're a board member and you have not watched the run game breakdown yet, watch it because you'll enjoy it, I think, not just even if you put me on mute and you just watch it. You'll see the, the, the, the plays from an all 22 standpoint. But I break down on there some things that they did motion wise and leverage wise which was really good. That was good to see. But they had run game wrinkles in here that I thought showed me that they had a very specific run game plan to attack Purdue and it wasn't just. Okay, we're going to run these plays let's just find some formations to run them out of. It comes down to, here's what, here's what you did against this team that said hey, we wrote down the film, we think we found a whole. Let's alter what we're doing to get there so Notre Dame likes to run counter we know they like to run counter they ran it several times against Texas A&M. The game clinching touched or the game winning touchdown at the end of the game was on a counter play, where you take the backside guard, he comes forward he kicks out or logs depending on what the edge does. And then you have the tight end coming around on a wrap block you'll either go around the log or he'll hopefully ideally pull up through the hole inside of the pulling guard and lead the running back through the hole counter play. Well they ran counter against Purdue quite a bit, but they changed how they did it, because they realize that teams are keying on our tight end they see the tight end pole and they're crashing hard, because we're going to either do that we're either running inside zone because here's the thing about the counter pull it it's no names to best runs the tight ends going the same exact way of where they want the ball to go. So if I'm running inside zone to the left, the tight end is a lot of times going to go backside to the right. You want the ball to go to the right so even though it's an inside zone to the left, inside zone is primarily called to cut back behind the line so it's a it's a it's designed to be a cut back run now Notre Dame will stay frontside on it some teams runs on which I like, but it's designed if it's blocked up perfectly and called perfectly inside zone is going to cut backside towards the tight end. So the tight ends sort of leading you to the ball. If you run counter and the tight end does the same thing he's leading you to the ball because you're countering to where he's going. And so when Notre Dame ran counter against Purdue, the tight ends stepped down. Well, when the tight end steps down like that, it's normally backside of inside zone. And so you see him step down you could see the safeties and the linebackers stepping down and they're seeing the tight end they're thinking okay cut back, but it wasn't a cut back it was a counter. But instead of running the normal counter with the G pull or the G kick and the tight end wrap, they did an old school counter tray, where they blocked down call side and then you had a kick out. Or log to kick out but if the technique is if the guy comes shallow you log and which is exactly what Sam Pendleton did on the touchdown run by Jeremiah love. And then instead of the tight end pulling you had the tackle pulling, and he was that he was the lead back. And so it was it hit a little quicker than it had in the past but it also was a tendency breaker. And Purdue was not getting to it so when Notre Dame just bouncing hit net counter play and then of course Notre Dame did it with the quarterback as well. They got two pure counters in the game, and they ran four counters to the runner to the quarterback blocked up exactly the same way and and I'm pulling up the numbers from the game. It's this is in my, my breakdown on the board again if you're not, if you're not on the board you're missing out but Notre Dame ran counter some variation of counters six times in the game. They went for 84 yards, and all six runs were efficient. That's amazing success you had 14 yards a carry, they had three runs for 25 yards to the left they had three runs for 59 yards to the right. They had four carries of 66 yards out of 11 personnel, one for five out of 12 personnel, one for 13 out of 22 personnel. They had three counter runs on first down for 26 yards, all again all efficient and a touchdown. They were incredibly effective on the counter plays in this game. 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 our will be talking all things sports but also so much more. I'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. So then that to me made inside zone a little bit more effective in this game because you again some of the keys like okay well this doesn't always mean the balls coming here so, and then inside zone in the game Notre Dame had seven carries for 155 yards it's a little But even if you take the touchdown away that's 85 yards on six carries on inside zone which is 14.2 yards per carry. So your two best runs you went for over 10 yards a carry, and you did it with some tendency breakers. And, and I thought that was great that showed me that this staff is not going to just go out there and say hey we're going to do what we do. Last year I felt like Notre Dame did way too much of just say we're just going to do this pin and pull stuff. It doesn't matter if we have the personnel for it doesn't matter if it makes sense in this game plan this is kind of what we do. This game showed me that they're going there at least for this game that they're going to be able to go out there and say look we're going to find some wrinkles that are going to attack the opponent uniquely that require us to teach something. It's interesting because I got a I got a text from, I won't say who but it was a parent of a player and he mentioned to me he's like look, he said talking about practice because I was trying to find out how practice went and things like that and he said look I heard it went fine. But he said that they were working a lot on counter and he tells me these things because he knows I'm not going to go out there before the game and say hey guys guess what Notre Dame worked a lot on counter today this week, because I'm not an idiot. But I was I wanted to I'm not going to lie I want to be really hey guys be aware of maybe looking for some counter today. And of course that's exactly what we saw and it was incredibly successful so I was encouraged to see that and it's that's not just Mike Denmark that's Mike Denmark that's stealing McCullough that's Joe Rudolph. That's the whole staff kind of getting together saying hey this is what we do now let's go practice and rep it because it's one thing to say okay on the chalkboard this looks good I think we can do this. Clearly they repped it enough to where the offensive lineman felt comfortable executing it. And then obviously the backs and quarterback felt comfortable repping it and reading it and and they certainly had great deal success so that's something that needs to continue moving forward. This Miami team is a very unique test for Notre Dame because I actually think that although Miami Ohio as a team is not very good I do think this defense is a quality group. And you know the numbers may not show it since an ad he had 215 yards in the game they had a couple big runs in the game they held Northwestern to 150 in the game they haven't been great stopping the run so far this year but they are a overall a pretty decent run defense at least on the perimeter. In my view they're a team that has two very good inside linebackers and tie wise and Matt Salapek I'd Matt Salapek on my second team preseason all opponent team. This season he had over 140 tackles last year that Brian Oubu was a very good defensive end although he's a pass rusher first, but he also is a guy that that makes a lot of disruptive plays the pass game and if you look at his production last season, which I've talked about he's a kid that from a sac standpoint had eight, eight sacks last season which is pretty good. But then you looked at his production in the run game ended up with 12 tackles for law so you know four, four obviously stops in the run game so you know they present a unique test they're under sized up the middle. That's the big concern if I'm Miami Ohio they're not very big on the up the middle. So one of their defensive tackles I think weighs in the two sixties, I'm actually going to pull that up. So I got an opponent preview on the board and are on the side of our strike. You can always check that out, but they're starting defensive tackles are 63 254 and 64 269 that's been an issue for them. And then of course their edges are 278 256 and then they're back up defensive line or 290 and 264 so they have a 290 pound guy that's see 26 pounds heavier than anybody else that's starting to be 21 pounds heavier than anybody else that's listed on the two deep defensive tackle. So that I think good on the edge but small up the middle, and that's put their linebackers in some tough spots so I want to see this offense come out and obviously take advantage of that, which is great but I want to see another week of scheming to use what you do well to attack what the opponent But there's a little bit more to it than that. I want to see the offense continue to evolve the run game. So far this season has been a lot of inside zone and a lot of counter, which is good. It's worked. I want to see them continue to find some wrinkles to get the running backs the football. You're doing some pin and pull stuff. I would like to see the outside zone, maybe be featured a little bit more. You've had some success with it. You had a 29 yard run with it in the opener against Texas A&M. I'd like to see that bit evolved a little bit Mike then rocks outside zone is more of an off tackle play than a true stretch play. So I think they need to find something other than jet sweeps to attack the perimeter of the defense with the run game. I could see something along the lines of, you know, maybe some pen and pull stuff where you run like a buck sweep type look maybe can run it off of a pure sweep action Maybe you run it off of a toss type of action. Maybe you run it off of a pistol type stretch look. There's a lot of like the G scheme that that Chip Long used to do. There's a lot of different ways you do it, but I would like to see a little bit of an evolution in that regard and I would like to see a little bit more misdirection from the run game as it continues to evolve. And now what I mean by misdirection is not counter. Because Notre Dame's counter play is not really a true misdirection because of how they run it in the backfield action. It's more of a step down followed. It's almost like a, I mean, it's counter because of how it's blocked, but it's almost, it's almost more like power than it is counter. You know, it's, it's not blocked the same way it's power, but it kind of hits similarly. And it, and, you know, that power encounter or, you know, power, old school power. Oh, you get a front side kick out down blocks front side kick out. Your guard is now your rapper. And then your backside tackle kind of has a gap hinge block right protect the gap. Nothing comes. You, you, you make sure you protect the outside. And so it's a kick and a wrap. Right. Well, that's what counter is counters a kick and a wrap. It's just usually it's both coming from backside. But you don't have sort of that misdirection backfield action on the way Notre Dame counters. It's fine. It works out really well. You don't have to do it out of shock. But I would like to see something that maybe messes with the eyes of the opposition a little bit more. They did some jet sweep on Saturday that that's fine. But I want to see some wrinkles off of that. You know, I want to see you fake jet sweep action. You know, like, this is what I have to have Jeremiah. You'll be in your 21 personal have Jeremiah love fake a jet sweep and maybe run inside zone with Jadarion price or maybe run corner back counter backside. You know, where to me, that's a misdirection. It's not blocked like a mixed misdirection, but you're using Jeremiah love. Maybe he's a decoy to do something different. Like, you know, we did see a reverse this past weekend, which I would have probably picked some other than Jaden Thomas to run it. But, you know, it is what it is. But there's some different things, you have some orbit motion, some things off of that where you can maybe run. You know, to me, this isn't a misdirection, but it's just something to kind of mess with the reads of the defense. We have Jeremiah love going an orbit motion and then, you know, maybe you run read zone off of it and read that backside guy. You know, for the give poll or read that flat defender, if you're going to pull and throw it right away or whatever the case may be. But I think those are some things that I would like to see a little bit of an evolution moving forward. I'm good with what they've done so far. Just so we're clear. I'm good with what they've done so far. You can't throw everything in the kitchen sink in the first three games. It's an evolution of your run game. You have to establish your base first. I think Notre Dame has done a good job of that inside zone counter. That's their base. They're going to run a couple little things off of that. You know, you look at this past game. And you look at what Notre Dame has done. Let me pull up the run game break down here and give you a look at that. But so if you look at this past weekend's game, for example, against against per do. And you look at what Notre Dame did in the run game. They ran inside zone and some form of counter 13 times. I give these numbers. This is what they did with the first team offense. Just so you're clear. I took out what happened with the backups because I don't think that gives you a true indication of how effectively you're running that play. So they did run some more of those runs in the second half. But I don't, I didn't count those towards this breakdown. But when you look at the run game, they ran 13 snaps of counter or inside zone. They ran a kick play twice duo twice. They ran a rap play outside zone once a drawn reverse. Right. So there's a couple little wrinkles in there but it's bread and butter inside zone counter. When you go back to the Texas A&M game, they ran inside zone 19 times. They ran outside zone once they ran some version of counter three times in the game had very good success with the three carries for 25 yards and two, two quarterback lead plays in the game a quarterback draw so very heavy quarterback run game there. So you've kind of it's this is zone counters what you've been. Well, what's the next evolution off of that. What are the wrinkles you put in the run game off of that to make sure that you stay fresh to make sure people don't get a read on you. And it is going to be what we need to see. Why, why is it important. Well, tell you why it's important. It's important because the run game is is who you're is where your identity is being established right now as a football team. Number one. Number two, if you're going to have success this season, you're going to have to run the football effectively against some very good rush defenses. That Louisville coming up next week, Louisville so far this season, I was giving up 82 rush yards per game and you say okay well then play anybody. Okay, that's true. But last year they only give up 99.8 yards per game the ground. And if you remember, they kind of kicked no names but last year to run game Notre Dame ran for a whopping 44 yards on 28 carries against Louisville last year if you take out sacks from that game. Louisville in that game had five sacks for minus 37 yards if you want to add those back in the equation the Notre Dame wrapped up a whopping let's see 70 81 yards rushing against Louisville in that game. It's pretty bad no matter how you how you slice it. You look at Georgia Tech this season, their rush defense has been solid. It hasn't been great but it's been solid. On the season they gave up 150 yards to Georgia State they held Florida State the 98 gave up 131 to 134 Syracuse but only 4.2 per carry. And they completely shut now VMI this weekend so I think their rush defense has has improved this season compared to last season last year Georgia Tech's defense gave up over 200 rushing yards per game. They brought in Tyler Santucci as their defensive coordinator again it's early yet they've only played four games and none of the teams they've played so far are necessarily like the world on fire rushing teams. However I do think that what they've done is they've shown improvement. They're certainly better than what they were in past seasons and so at least so far. They've been that way and and have have done a good job of keeping teams in check so far this season so they're they're improved and they're with their run defense. USC's run defense is vet is vastly improved compared to last season and that's the area where Danton Lynn has had his biggest impact so far is like they're a much more sound run defense the two safeties they picked up on the off season have been very good coming down in the box against the run. Nine backers are playing much better against the run they held LSU 113 rushing yards 4.5 per carry and then they held Utah State to 87 rushing yards 3.8 yards per carry. And now the competition is obviously going to get ramped up a little bit but you know Utah Utah State who they held to 87 rushing yards 3.8 per carry and 303 yards rushing in the opener against Robert Morris in this past weekend and a loss to Utah. They ran for 140 and 4.1 yards per carry well we know Utah's good run defense. They shut down USC shut down them way more effectively than what Utah did in that game so USC's health rush defenses is certainly better. And then also you know so far Navy's run defense has been pretty good so far it's against Bucknell and Temple I get it but they've certainly improved. And then Army's rush defense this season has been pretty good as well they're only giving up 167 yards per game again I get it. It's not against very good football teams and Lehigh did go for a decent number of yards but they completely shut down Florida Atlantic run defense and so when I look at the remaining schedule. When you think of one of the three clinical big games it's Louisville, Georgia Tech and USC. Those are the three remaining big games. All of those teams so far this season have been very good shutting down slowing down or shutting down the run. Notre Dame is going to have to have the ability to to adjust, adapt, evolve with their run game in order to keep this going because teams. Especially if the past game doesn't show more growth they showed growth Saturday is produced. There's no doubt about it, but more is needed and I'll get into that next. If they're going to get to the point where where this team has a chance to really to take that step so I want to see more from the Notre Dame run game. I love the start so far. You're going to have to do this with down two starters well three starters but two from what you had the first three games. You lost arguably your two most talented offensive lineman arguably because I think you can make a case that a meal Wagner is in that conversation but arguably you're two most talented. I think certainly you're two best so far this season in Ashton Craig and Billy Shrauff. Hopefully Billy Shrauff's able to come back. If not then you know you're you're riding Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan the rest of the year. Well they were part of the problem last year especially Pat Coogan. I thought they handled themselves relatively well. Now it's about okay now let's take that next step you need Coogan to be better. I think center fits him you need Billy Shrauff I mean Rocco Spindler to be better thought he handled himself relatively well in the game on Saturday kind of being thrust in that moment now you're the starter. Now is your chance to kind of go out there and show hey I should have been starting to begin with I should have been the left guard start season with if that's your feeling and and now you get a chance to go out there and shine. And so you're going to need those two guys to play at a high level you're going to need Sam Pendleton to keep doing what he's doing just you know clean up some things Anthony Naphson very good in the run game so far this season. Some things to clean up and then a meal is coming off his best game the season in the run as a run blocker so certainly trending in the right direction if they can just make sure that Coogan and Spindler can handle themselves and. And got there and thrive so evolution I want to see finding ways to make sure that you're being fresh so that way your run game is going to be able to not only dominate the inferior opponents, but that you can still find ways to run a ball Louisville next week. So you can still run the ball on Georgia Tech so you can still run the ball full estate who is a hot mess right now, but if they haven't had guys quit by that time in the season that's a that's a game where some of those guys going to put that stuff on film for the NFL. And you never know what version of Florida State's going to show up for that game. They could quit or they could say hey look this is our chance to salvage something to put some some film on for NFL teams and blah blah blah blah so we'll see how that goes. But certainly talented guys there just playing with no heart right now. And then of course you've got USC at the end of the year and what is going to be a very very big game for Notre Dame so a lot to still get to as good as it's been there's room for it to be even better. And I think that it can be better certainly can be better. And also Florida State's rush defense did improve a lot against Memphis they held Memphis a 65 rushing yards this past weekend. Memphis rush for 211 the week for against Troy so at least a step in the right direction for the Seminoles defensively their offense is still an absolute train wreck. Right now just flat out just garbage right now Florida State's offense so far this season has rushed for 156 yards as an offense the entire season. Like not 156 yards per game, which would be very mediocre. I mean they've literally rushed for 156 yards combined in three games. Think about this Notre Dame's number three leading rusher, Jadarion Price only has two fewer yards on the season and Florida State's entire team through three games. That's rough. That's very rough so that's what I'm going to see from the Notre Dame run game. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
