We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search "match" with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busy work. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster, leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day. Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences, so the more you use Indeed, the better it gets. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/bluewire. Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com/bluewire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. I was frustrated with the way the defense played against Northern Illinois. By the way, I can't wait till I can stop saying the words Northern in Illinois. I don't know why I can't say that phrase very well or that word very well, but I don't say it well and I can't wait to stop talking about it. And that's part of the reason I get so ticked off that they lost that game is because I have to keep saying Northern Illinois. But that's where we are. I was not happy with how the defense played in that game, but they didn't lose that game primarily because of the defense. The defense played a role. The first bad thing to happen in that game was the defense. Think about it. The offense got the ball, went down and scored a touchdown first drive. Special teams pinned Northern Illinois at its two-yard line. Defense gives up a 98-yard touchdown. The defense got the bad crap started and the defense kind of finished it by your offense has a horrible interception. Doesn't take anything away from how bad the offense was. But they got the ball with almost five and a half minutes left, a little or five and a half minutes and then you didn't get the ball back to less than a minute and they went down and kicked the field goal. You had multiple chances to stop them from scoring and you couldn't do it. So the offense was a bigger culprit, but the defense absolutely played a role. But at the same time, they did only up 16 points. The biggest issue for Notre Dame in a lot of these games has been the offense. The defense had its chances to win the martial game, but it was winning in spite of the offense. The defense had chances to win the Stanford game of 2022, but it would have been winning in spite of the offense. The same with the Ohio State game last year. The defense had a chance to win the game at the end, but it would have been a win in spite of the offense. The same thing about Louisville last season where the defense, I mean, they battled as much as they could, but it just got to the point in time where the offense was so useless that the defense couldn't hold a Jeff Brom coach team down for four quarters when you're getting nothing from the offense. So at the end of the day, this is primarily not exclusively in offense of problem. There is an energy level. There is a focus. There is a lack of physicality that has been prominent from both sides of the ball. At least it was against Northern Illinois, but it's the offense that has been the driving force behind a lot of this frustration. And so that side of the ball is going to have to figure it out and they're going to have to play a lot better. If Notre Dame is going to be more steady and consistent, this side of the ball is going to have to step up and continue to play well. And this is a game where they should be able to play better and keep things rolling. Right now, Miami, Ohio is a better team on defense and they are offense. And they have two guys on their defense that I had on my preseason all opponent team. And that would be their inside linebacker Matt Salapek, who makes a ton of tackles. He's got 19 through two games, which means he's been low his pace from last year, because he was over 10 per game last year at 143 tackles last year. And then they also have a defensive end named Brian Oogu, who I think is a good football player. He was on my second team as well. He was a kid that last season for the Red Hawks had 62 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and eight sacks and had, I'm trying to remember what the pro football focus numbers were, but they had him down for, I think it was over 50 pressures last season. He's got nine so far in two games this season. He's a kid that can put a lot of pressure on the quarterback last season. They had him down for 64 total pressures, 18 hits or sacks on the quarterback. So they've got some good players, but overall their defense is scrappy. It's a well coach unit, but it's not super talented. And Notre Dame should be able to have success in this game. And if they play well, that's going to be where Notre Dame is going to have to be able to go out and have some success. And so, those are things that we need to see. We're going to learn a little something from this football team on Saturday. We're going to learn a little something about this offensive football team on Saturday, because it's an opponent that if you're not locked in, here's the thing. We saw a Notre Dame offense against Northern Illinois that completely perfectly summarizes the Schizophrenia we've seen from Notre Dame in 2024, because Saturday we're seeing motion shifts, misdirection. We're seeing all this creative stuff, moving the pocket, play action, all these things we've been begging for. A week before we saw a very stagnant stale offense against Northern Illinois. If they came out with that same stagnant stale stuff against Miami-Vohio, because they're quote unquote "working on stuff," then we'll get a somewhat similar result. It'll be better than it was against Northern Illinois, because I don't think this defense is as good as Northern Illinois's. But it won't be pretty. And so, this group needs to come out and play better. This is the unit, and I'm curious if you guys all feel this way, but when I think of the concerns I have about Notre Dame's up and down play, the defense is still going to be a little up and down. Everybody's that way. Nobody plays locked in every single week. I don't care who you are. I don't know that I've ever seen a defense in my lifetime anyway, that just every single year just goes out there and just destroys everybody they play, and the defense plays elite every week, and they never have any struggles. They never give up points. They never do any of those things. Well, I don't know that I've ever seen that. I mean, heck, even BAM in 2011 is probably the closest I'd come to that, but I remember watching them struggle in the first half against Georgia, stopping Georgia Southern that year. So even they had a game. You think of the LSU offense in 2019, they struggled against Auburn. They scored 23 points in that game. They moved the ball, but they couldn't score. So you're always going to have, and I don't want to say bad game, but a game where you're not at your best. The concern is when that happens to the defense, Notre Dame can lose to a lot of people in her schedule based on how the offense is played, because the offense just may flat out not show up, and that's what happened in Northern Illinois game. And so, yes, the defense absolutely played a role in that loss, but if the offense was just average in that game, Notre Dame wins by at least a touchdown if not by 10 or more. And so that's the side of the ball that I'm most concerned with, and that's the side of the ball that this game is going to mean the most to me, because can they keep that same hunger that they had last weekend and really come out in a barrier team? That's going to be a key. And now they're going to have to do it with one of the biggest question marks on the team is now an even bigger question mark. And that is the offensive line. And obviously we got some news yesterday. Notre Dame's offensive line is going to be down two starters for at least the next game, possibly next two games, likely next two games. Hopefully after the break, if there's no setbacks, hopefully you can get Billy Schrauth back. But for right now, he's out for this game. Ashton Craig is out for the season, and obviously the Nernan's already lost Charles Jagasal for the season. So now you're going to have a much, much different looking offensive line. That the disappointing thing is, we started to see this line kind of come together early against Purdue, and they were playing at a pretty high level, and you would have liked to see them get a chance to build on that. That's the unfortunate part. The fortunate part is that you now have an often, you're not replacing those guys with unproven players. When win Ashton, when Billy Schrauth went down, they inserted Rocco Spindler at right card. Rocco Spindler was a 10 game starter last year. Rocco Spindler, when he was on his games, pretty good player last year, he's got to not be so inconsistent, but he was steady against, against Purdue. I need to see him bend a little better at the knees. I need to see him not, he has a tendency when he hits. He kind of stands straight up, and that's when he can lose his power. I want to see him drive through contact a little bit better. That's been a consistent issue for Rocco. But if Rocco's on his game, they're going to be okay at right guard. And then you have Pat Coogan coming back, or stepping in at center for Ashton Craig. You know, Pat Coogan's Pat Coogan, right? He's going to compete. He's going to battle. He's a smart kid. I think center does a better job of masking some of his athletic ineffectiveness or inefficiency or deficiencies, I should say. It masks some of that, and he gives you a veteran player there. You know, I feel a little better about making sure protections are set and calls are set now, but you are losing talent. But now you step, you go into the game where, you know, let's say Notre Dame's offensive line has gained 15 starts. You had the six they had from last year. Notre Dame would have been going into the Northern, the Miami, Ohio game with 21 career starts from their offensive line. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You can turn $10 into a thousand dollars. I'm a Bears fan, so this one gets me really excited. One Caleb Williams passing yard gets you one win on prize picks every week in September. That's right. 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 2550 and a half yards. So I'm going to take that one and I'm going to combine it with Quinn yours to throw 2999 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 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 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 seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's at participating U.S. Wendy's. Now you're going into this game with 32 career starts from your offensive line, because you're inserting two players that have 23 combined starts with the three guys that now have nine in Pendleton nap and Wagner. But the scary thing is, is that we talked a lot about coming in the season like we thought learning would be okay on the offensive line because you're bringing back every guy that started for you in the bowl game and the guys that played for you down the stretch. And so when you look at the last three games, four of those five starters are coming back, or three of those five starters were coming back, and then you had both starters coming back from the bowl game. Now you go into this Miami, Ohio game, and literally you have one guy coming back that started any of those three games, and that's Pat Coogan. And he's not at the position he played last year. Your left tackle is different, your set, your left guard is different, your right guard is different, and your right tackle is different. Because yes, Rocco started the first 10, but Rocco didn't play in the last three. He didn't play in the bowl game. So there was a soft, there was some kind of comfort in that knowing it's going to be an inexperienced offensive line. There was a comfort level in saying, "Hey, listen, you've got Jaggis all back, you've got Coogan back, you've got Spindler back, you've got Craig back, you've got Shralph back, you've got Baker back, you know, let's see what these other guys can do, and now a lot of those guys are gone, and the guys that are playing are the guys with the lowest ceilings." And so that adds a little bit of concern to the conversation. I thought Rocco looked great in a spring game. I thought Rocco did some good things against Purdue. Can he be more consistent? And that was an issue for him. That was an issue for the entire offensive line, unless you're for everyone, not named Joe Walt, was consistency. So we'll see if Rocco kind of has that. Where's his mindset at? Does kind of getting quote-unquote beat out in fall camp? Did that impact his attitude negatively? Did he stay hungry? Did he stay mature and focused? Hey, if my time comes, I'm ready to go. I'm leaning towards that as being where Rocco's head is, just based on some conversations I've had. But I think that's, you know, you're losing Shralph at stinks, but not a lot of people can lose a guy like Billy Shralph, an inserted 10-game starter who's got some ability into a spot. Not many people can lose a Nash and Craig, and to put a 13-game starter in there to replace him. So you're not going to have as much talent, but you're going to have more experience, and now we've got to see if this group can come together. That's going to be the next big question. Can they come together? Can, how quickly can they get on the same page? Well, this is a perfect opponent, because in a lot of instances I said, I don't know that I would want to play Louisville this weekend, because I feel like you'd get a confident note or name team, and a focus note or name team against Louisville. But offensive line-wise is the one position where I'm kind of glad they're not playing Louisville, because it might be a problem. Because you want to get a game of this group of five together before you go play Louisville next week, and it was a very good front seven. And so that's going to be a focus for Notre Dame, is this my Ohio game is going to have to be a get-together game for this offensive line. You know, Coogan's communication, Rocco in a meals communication. It's going to be about, you know, now you're, let me think about it, the left side of your line, which is a freshman and a red shirt. Freshman is your most, you know, experienced group this season in working together. And obviously that's a bit of a concern. So it's going to look a lot different, and they're going to need this group to play well. And I think one thing that we can all agree on is that what we have seen from Notre Dame, the first, each of the first, including Northern Illinois, is if the offensive line is just solid. That's it, just solid. This offense can run the ball on just about anybody. And the reason I say that is, is because they have dynamic players. So I have my run game breakdown at ours breakdown, and there's six plays that I, well, six plays that I broke down, five I broke down more than the last one. The last one was just kind of showing off, just how talented this team is. And on a couple of those plays, I say, look guys, these are not like dominant blocks. These aren't Notre Dame coming off the line and driving guys eight yards off the ball. This doesn't look like, oh, that's a vintage 2017 Notre Dame football team right there. Like when you look at the numbers, and they're named Rushford on Saturday. I mean, they look like a 2017 Notre Dame squad, right? I mean, that's what they look like. 362 rushing yards, 8.2 yards per carry. Looks exactly like they did. They're not great stretch from BC to Wake Forest that year. I mean, 515, 10.1 yards per get per play, 333, 5, 8.5, 341, 6.0, 377, 8.0, 318, 5.9, 380, 8.3. Very much in line with that type of performance. But what it wasn't, was the same kind of dominance that you saw from the 2017 offensive line. Where they just were just, and they would just destroy people. I mean, there's physically destroy people. I mean, they basically got USC to quit. It hasn't been that. And actually, it's kind of a good thing. What it has been, it's a young group that's still making mistakes. But what it is, is it's a young group that understands, I don't have to be Quentin Nelson. I don't have to be Ronnie Stanley. I don't have to be Joe Alt. I don't have to be Liam Ikenberg. I don't have to be Mike McGlinch. I don't have to be Alex bars. I don't have to be that guy. I don't have to be him. I just have to do my job. That's it. I just have to get a body on a body and do my job. And we've got to do our job together. Because if we just do our jobs, it's just simply just do your job. Number four, number 24, number 13. Heck, even number 20, number 21. Did you guys watch "Kydron Young" in Saturday? I mean, Notre Dame's fourth or fifth running back would start. All five running backs in Notre Dame played on Saturday, in my opinion, are better than anyone that Purdue has. We got dudes back there. That's what you're saying to yourself. You're not in my offensive lineman. I just got to be the guy that doesn't screw it up. What that film breakdown showed is the same thing as showed against Northern Illinois, and the same thing it showed against Texas A&M. Which is if you can get this group of backs and quarterback into space, onto the second level, there's not a lot of people who can stop them. There's just not. And this offensive line is, I think, figuring that out. Joe Rudolph, I think, knows that. And that's what the focus has to be. Guys, I don't need you to come out and be Quentin Nelson. I don't need you guys to go win the Joe Moore Award tomorrow. All I need you to do is do your job and do it hard. And if you do that, then you get let the backs do their thing. And we've seen what happens. And football, a running back, is always going to have to make somebody miss. And this running back room is filled with guys like that, and they have a quarterback that can do that. And so they just got to do their job. And that's all that's needed. It's kind of interesting that we're talking about how Notre Dame doesn't need a dominant offensive line for this team to be successful. They just need a good one. That's it. And we're going to find out if this team can be a good one. And the Miami-Vohio game is important for that because you do now have two new starters. That's really where you're at. You get two new starters that are, and when you talk about offensive line, it's not just about plugging two new starters in. It's now there's a different level of communication that has to happen, not different level. It's a new communication that's happening with the offensive line. Because you start to kind of develop a rapport with guys you play with every day. And now you're putting a couple new guys in there. Like great offensive lines. They only have to talk sometimes. They just kind of look at each other and they both know. I'm seeing what you're seeing. We got this. And when you've got two guys that haven't played this much together, it's like, hey, I'm seeing what you're seeing. And the other guys are like, I'm seeing what you're seeing, but they're not actually seeing what each other's seeing. And that's how like, oh, I thought you were going to do this. Well, I thought you were going to do this on three techniques. Just ran through untouched and got to tackle for loss. So we're going to need to see this offensive line really come together and build on the run game success. Now the good news is on Saturday is that we saw this offense make some big plays in the run game after you're starting offensive lineman got hurt. And obviously that's a bit of encouragement, in my opinion, to see that is to see like, OK, yes, it's nice. It had been nice to go out there and have a big day and keep all your guys healthy and all that. But you didn't. And so can you say, well, yeah, we had all this success, but two of the guys were driving force behind that, it weren't there. Well, Billy Schrauth went down in the first quarter. I mean, he was there for the first couple of big runs, but several of the big runs later in the game, they had Rocco Spindler in the game. And they had Pat Coogan in the game. And they were still able to make big plays. If you go back and look at the 34 yard touchdown run that Riley Leonard had against Purdue in the second quarter, you had Rocco Spindler at right guard. Ashton Craig was still in the game, but you had Rocco Spindler at right guard. When you look at one of the long runs that Jeremiah Love had, when you look at the 70 yard touchdown run that Jeremiah Love had, or the drawing price had at the end of the game, Rocco Spindler and Pat Coogan were both on the field at that time. They weren't as dominant in the second half running the football, but they didn't have the same, it was just different for a host of reasons. So they did okay. Now they need to build on it and see if they can kind of keep that going for here these next six games. And if you don't know, I do have an all 22 run game breakdown where I broke down six plays in the board, you guys can go check that out here after the show is over. You can go take a peek at that because I break down six plays from the game and talk about it. But we're going to have to find out if this offensive line can get there. Light it. Hey Irish breakdown listeners, it's Urban Meyer. This fall the game changes. Join me, Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week. We will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines. Let us guide you through a new era of college football. Watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. Hey Irish breakdown listeners, it's Matt Liner. I've got a podcast called Throwbacks with actor Jay Farrar, where we'll be talking all things sports, but also so much more. We'll give you the behind the scenes stories from my days as the quarterback on an iconic college football team to Jerry's days as a star on an iconic TV series. So subscribe to Throwbacks on YouTube, Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. There's more though, and there's a very strange conversation happening on our breakdowns board right now. I don't know if this is happening on other platforms, but it's definitely happening on mine. And it's a little frustrating to be honest with you. Because there's a segment of the fan base that is unwilling to enjoy what they saw on Saturday. Because I think they're still upset about what happened the week before. For some people, for others, it's okay. But this notion in your head of if they're going to beat this team, they got to do this, and that's all fine and dandy. And so they'll just say, hey, Saturday wasn't good enough. Purdue just sucks. And even though this is the worst Purdue loss in the history of their program, it's nothing to be excited about because they didn't complete passes beyond whatever yards with the certain quarterback. And then there's another side of the fan base. It's like, no, if you play like this every game, you're going to beat everyone by 50. And that's not true either. I believe that if Notre Dame simply repeats the performance they had on Saturday in every phase of the game, that they will beat every single team on the rest of their schedule. But that's not the standard. The standard isn't beating those teams. It's beating those teams. And then going, having postseason success. When you play the Bama's, you play the Georges, you play the Texases, the Ohio states, the teams like that, you're going to need to be more balanced offensively. There's no question about that, no question about that. And what I don't understand is why some people are just unwilling to say that's true. And this is true on both sides, but it's more so on the people that are not enjoying the game because they're so hyper focused on that one part that they think, if you say anything good about anything else, then that means you're ignoring that this part still needs to be better. And I reject that because you need to be able to do two things at once. And one is to say, hey, look, is Notre Dame a finished product yet throwing the football? No, not even close. At least I hope they're not. But you can also say, but hey, we saw steps on Saturday, certainly saw steps. We saw steps schematically. Notre Dame was able to do things in this game to get guys free by play design. It wasn't just blown coverages by Purdue. It wasn't just it was the blown coverages were happening because of things that Notre Dame isn't that Notre Dame was doing in the game. And that's a good thing. Now, the next step is is going to be building on that. Here's a simple reality. They didn't need to throw the football down the field against Purdue. Purdue wasn't doing anything to take away the things that Notre Dame was trying to do. Nothing. And so I don't know that there was a need. And if Notre Dame doesn't have a left tackle jump into the lap of the quarterback, Riley Leonard has an easy touchdown pass. And a lot of his conversation is not being had. The reality is, is this. If you aren't willing to look at the positives that we saw from the past game on Saturday and say it was a building block, then I don't know what to tell you. You're just you're not having an honest conversation about what they did on Saturday. On the flip side, if you're not willing to say, yes, it was a step, but it was just a step a lot more is needed, then you're also not having an honest conversation. And that's where this game comes into play is Notre Dame took a very big step in the past game on Saturday. Your quarterback was on pace for 400 for 224 yards passing and 200 rushing yards and six touchdowns against a power five team. That's pretty good. You may not be able to replicate that against future teams. And that's why another step is needed. And they're still going to get Riley need to get Riley Leonard in a position where there's more of the vertical passing game. And what I mean by vertical passing him, I don't mean just don't bombs hit the slot fade. That's part of it. It's also about sticking with your reads long enough to find the backside dig to hit that deep end cut to hit that deep under route to hit the corner route more consistently. He's hit one corner so far this year. He hit one deep out cut on Saturday. They got called back from a penalty that I'm hoping is a sign of things to come. But yes, he hit the one back shoulder against Texas A&M. Yes, he hit the one corner route against Texas against Texas A&M. Yes, he hit Jaden Greathouse in the hands on a slot fade against Northern Illinois. But when you can point two in three games, like three or four throws and say, see, he can do it. You're not really making the point that you think you're making. It should be three or four of those things per game. And that's where Notre Dame needs to get to thrown the football. They're never going to be a team and it shouldn't be a team. Mike then Brock's team at LSU wasn't this way. They were very good throwing the deep ball. They didn't throw it a ton. Right now, Notre Dame not only doesn't throw a ton, they're not good at it. And they need to be better at it. And there's a lot of different reasons why it's not happening. Sometimes it's been the quarterback. Sometimes it's been the receivers. Like we saw, we saw that, right? We saw Riley not make a couple of reads on Saturday. We saw Riley not make a couple of reads on Northern Illinois. We saw Riley not make a proper read on a burst corner route against A&M where both cons would have come open for a long play. That's on him. We saw Jaden Greathouse drop a ball in the slot fade that last week that would have gone for a big play. We saw some guys break their routes off or not run their routes real slow. And Riley was looking at them. We saw a play where the receiver ran it correctly. It was a great call. quarterback sees it. He's about to throw it in the left tackle jumps into his chest and hits him as he's throwing the football and the ball dies. Like there's been some, there's been times when Riley was going to, had a read that the pressure got there too quick. All parts of the offense right now. And then I thought it was a very poorly designed game against Northern Illinois. Every aspect of the offense is factored into why the past game is not where it needs to be. And it wasn't where it's needed to be in the second. I think the fact that people are so overreacting to one throw from Steve Angeli says a lot about the frustration and concern that people have about the lack of a vertical passing game from the other offense. Because there was a lot of misses from, there was actually, there's three misses from Steve Angeli on that concept in the second half. He badly under through KK Smith on a ball where KK smoked the corner off the line. And then there's two other times we had a vertical read that he didn't go to. And so it's, it's, but that's, oh, it's a deep ball. Oh my gosh. So no, there's a lot that needs to happen. That should be a normal thing. And it hasn't been. And so, yes, Jaden Gray now needs to make that catch last week. Yes, Anthony Knapp needs to make that. But then there's other times the quarterbacks not making the throw or not making the read and that's got to get better. And so when I look at this Miami, Ohio game, you saw steps against Purdue. You got the running backs involved. You got the tight ends more involved. That was huge. That needs to continue. We started to see a lot more movement that did things to get guys free. That's a positive step. The receivers did some good things in the game on Saturday. I'm very curious to see if they can get Chris Mitchell going. If they can get KK Smith going, that's going to be something that I want to see. There's a couple of those fast guys. But we need to see more from this pass offense. There's no doubt. Do they need to go out there and throw for 350 yards? No, they don't. And because I don't believe that they have to throw for 350 yards a game or that's hyperbolic to have a great and lead offense. But they have to be better than what they've been. That's absolutely true. And that's the sweet spot they've got to find. What is the proper pass game balance that you need to hurt people? And then if teams do overload you with the run game, you need to be able to throw for 300 plus yards. Right now this team is not capable of that. I don't know that anyone should argue otherwise. Like I feel that's as absurd as an argument to say, as just like, oh, I learned nothing about the pass offense on Saturday. Well, like, okay, well, that's just not accurate. Or maybe that's a you problem. But to act like, hey, you know what? Change this one thing and you're going to throw for 350 in the next game. Look, there's going to be a game where they need to throw for 300 yards a year to win. That's going to happen. Run game is going to be struggling. O-line is going to be getting whooped. Defense is going to be struck. Something's going to happen whether it's a regular season game or whether it's a playoff game. You're going to have to have a game. We're going to have to throw up for 300 yards. I haven't seen anything through the first three games. It tells me that this offense can go out there and do that. You know, I mean, I just, I haven't seen that. I haven't seen that. And so they're going to have to improve on that. And this is a great game for that. And so what does that look like? Keep doing what you're doing with the tight ends and the running backs in the past game. That was great. I love seeing that. You know, do a lot more of the things that we saw on Saturday with the move pre snap movement and doing things to kind of gain leverage and get guys free. Teams are going to have answers for that. You've got to have answers for that. So, you know, at some point in time, you hit a couple of little slide cuts. I want to see Notre Dame run a reverse pivot. You know, where they overplay that, you come back inside and boom, you're running underneath. Clear out that, you know, have like a, like you guys saw the motion that they went trips like a bunch like this. And they brought a guy in and motion and they would run that little slide route or a quick out cut. And then they did the route with Jaden Thomas where he ran in and then pivoted out, got him free. Love that stuff. That stuff can get you some, some key plays that did. But part of that is Purdue hadn't seen that on film yet. Well, mine people hire Will, Louisville Will, Texas Will, Georgia Will, Emma Will, USC Will. So now you've got to have some answers to that. And I don't want to give away too many answers, but you guys, you know, some stuff off of the screens that maybe you take a shot, some things where you go in an opposite direction. There's all types of different things that you can see that you want to see by that. And to say, hey, look, this has taken another step schematically to counter some things. And then, of course, the quarterbacks got to continue to make, to do a better job. They've got to find a way. Like, I don't need Notre Dame to try to turn Riley Leonard into Bonix or turn Riley Leonard into Joe Burrow or whoever. What I need them to do is to get Riley Leonard back to where he was at Duke. And that is a guy that can go through, go through his reads, go through his progressions, make smart decisions and say, hey, listen, we're going to be a team that's going to attack the outside. We're going to attack the middle of the field. We're going to attack when we need to vertically a guy that's willing and able and comfortable and confident to attack all parts of the field. Right now, and Riley Leonard throws over the middle of the field, he short arms everything. And you see it in reps before the game and you certainly see it in games. You see a guy that even in pregame doesn't have a lot of confidence in himself to throw the ball down the field. Now, the encouraging thing on Saturday was he actually threw the ball better in pregame than he had the first couple games. And so that part needs to come and you need to get Riley confident to, hey, it's okay to stick on that first read. And like I said, when you're playing A&M and you've got a backside burst corner with a slide and they're basically playing, they got two guys over there. You've got to stick on that read. And once you see that safety come down, it's okay to stick on that read and then take that one on one shot. That's the reality. And he's got to start. He's got to do that. He's absolutely got to do that. And you've got to find some things that get him going. And I think a game like this against Miami, well, how could be that? However, the old line's going to have to do a good job because Brian Oogway is not going to let actually die. Did I get his name right? I always feel like I get his name wrong. Give me a second. Yes, Oogwoo, excuse me, Oogwoo is not going to allow you to do that. He's going to try not to. He's going to try not to allow you to do that. He's a very good, very, very good, you know, edge rusher. So can they find that? Can they do that? And here's something that can help them. There's three players that you need two of them to get going for this pass game to really be the threat it's capable of. Like we're all focusing on Riley Leonard and at times the offensive line and that's fine, that's fair. But here's the deal. If Notre Dame is going to be the team that we want them to be that they need to be thrown to football, it's not just about Riley Leonard. It's also about you've got to get two of these three receivers going. Jaden Greathouse, Chris Mitchell, KK Smith, and one of the two needs to be Jaden Greathouse. Got to get him more involved in the offense. Part of this is on him. Part of this needs to be on the scheme. And him and Riley Leonard right now don't have a connection. And the thing that's concerning is when we saw Jaden going off in the spring, wasn't with Riley Leonard because Riley wasn't practicing. And we didn't get to see them do a whole lot in this fall because Notre Dame didn't give us access to much of anything at all. Riley and Jaden are going to have to get on the same page. And then one of Chris Mitchell and one of of KK Smith, one of those two is going to have to absolutely no question about it be a bigger factor in this offense. We have seen very little of Chris Mitchell. He played a decent amount of snaps. And what I mean, very little, I mean, he's not going to target it. There's really not a lot designed to get him the football. And they need to have more design to get him the football. And if he doesn't play well, he doesn't make plays, then you need to put KK Smith in there because KK Smith was running by people on Saturday. And the deep ball that Steve Angeli badly under threw him people. So that shouldn't have been a PI. That shouldn't have been a PI. That ball wasn't it wasn't catchable. It's way too far behind him. And I don't think it was PI. It was a bad ball when the guy has two steps on the DB. You don't throw a back shoulder throw. You got to lead him. And Riley Leonard is going to have to do that too. One of those two guys has to get going. Those are your two best potential deep threats. You've got to get one of those two guys going. So that's something that I hope we and that doesn't all have to happen this weekend. But those are things that we need to see. Hopefully one of them can step up and win this weekend. Right? And that's that's the reality. And so Saturday was a great building block. If you're someone who thinks this is who the past game is going to be for the rest of the year, maybe this is a game that'll kind of show you that it is not that way. Or it'll be a game that kind of shows you that it is. But at the end of the day, Notre Dame did a lot of good things on Saturday. And if this offense can play every week like it did on Saturday, they're going to win the rest of their games. I still see somebody saying, well, Notre Dame is not going to be the top 14 playing like they did on Saturday. Actually, I've seen Notre Dame, if they play like they did on Saturday, I could have seen the beat at least two of the top four teams that we've seen so far, because they absolutely would have beat Georgia the way that Georgia played on Saturday. Like again, guys, if you're going to have this conversation, you need to have the proper context of everybody and say, well, a Notre Dame's got to play better than they did on Saturday. Well, so does Georgia. Well, Ohio State's got to play better than they did in the opener as well. I've seen them not play very well. Notre Dame played the way they did on Saturday, beats Oregon, and every game that Oregon has played so far, a Notre Dame from Saturday would have beat that Oregon team. And every single game they've played, is it good enough to beat Georgia when Georgia's at their best? I don't think so. And no one's ever argued that. But is Notre Dame a better team if he plays like that? And this offense plays like that the rest of the year? Absolutely. Can Notre Dame beat a lot of teams in the playoff? Absolutely. Can Notre Dame win a championship? No, I don't think so. And they're going to have to be able to be better thrown a ball down the field, which we've said. But if your argument is, well, I don't like that they're missing this, so I'm going to dismiss all of that. Well, that's not a really a fair argument. That's not a really a good faith argument. And that's the issue that I'm having with some of you guys, right? That's the issue that I'm having. And so, and Georgia gave up 12 points on Saturday. Yeah, against a crap offense. They gave up twice as many points to Kentucky as Kentucky scored the weekend before against South Carolina. Kentucky got beat at home by South Carolina the week before. They had six points. Kentucky had 183 yards of offense against South Carolina. They had 284 against Georgia. They had more rushing yards against Georgia, Kentucky did, than they had against Southern Miss or South Carolina. Because guess what? In September, not everybody plays their best every Saturday. It's about building blocks. Saturday was a building block. I literally don't know of a single person on my message board or on my show that says if Notre Dame repeats what they did on Saturday, they're winning the national championship. They've arrived. This is the great moment where the offense is finally what we all think it's going to be. It wasn't that. No one is saying it's that. But you also have to be willing to acknowledge if you're going to have a good faith argument that it was absolutely a great step in the right direction. That's the key. Now, Miami, Ohio, it's about building on that. Keeping that foundation there, don't lose that. Don't lose what you had on Saturday. Don't lose the RPO game. Don't lose the tight end game. Don't lose the quick game. Don't lose the third down game. This is by far the best third down performance they've had schematically and execution wise so far this season. Don't lose that. Keep that. But also build on that. Take that next step. Get this part going. Get that part going. And that's going to be the key. And the more you do that, the better it's going to be for you to run the football. That's the key. And that's what I'm going to have to build on. So if they can get to that point time, then this offense is going to be very, very good. They're not there yet. But this Saturday was certainly a step in the right direction. And we'll see if they can keep that going. So I'm going to get to the defense next folks. Before I do it to me favorite hit that like button, hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, share this podcast, give us a five serve you. And if you've not done so already, sign up for the message board at boards. I'm Shrek down.com we're having some good conversation, some's not a good conversation, but certainly a lot of conversation is happening on the boards right now. And I just feel like my only my only frustration is I feel like some people are just kind of plugging their ears and closing their eyes and just assuming they think they know what people are saying and not actually having a good faith debate. And I think part of that is still the frustration from last week's game. I think a lot of that is that and that's fair. But hopefully we can kind of get back to just not always being so towards each other and just have some good conversations and and we'll get there. We'll get back there. That's that's how frustrating last week's game was. There's no doubt about it. So make sure you sign up for the message boards at boards on our Shrek down.com. [Music] [Music] [Music] When you need mealtime inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouthwatering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices plus extra ways to save like digital coupons worth over $600 each week and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points. So you can get big flavors and big savings king supers fresh for everyone. Fuel restrictions apply. You
