George Clooney and Brad Pitt's new movie, Wolfs, is on Apple TV Plus, September 27th. That's where I want you to be now. So if you want to see George Clooney and Brad Pitt, go to Apple TV Plus. You got to start the story there? Or if you want to see Brad Pitt and George Clooney, go to Apple TV Plus. I am enjoying the show. And if you want to see their new movie, Wolfs. You can't do it, win help yet. I can do it. Do it. Definitely go to Apple TV Plus. The minute is cool. Okay, fine, it's very cool. Wolfs, streaming September 27th on Apple TV Plus. We are. At King Super's Pharmacy, care is making it easy to get vaccinated. Care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID, and RSV. Seasonal vaccines are available 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 Super's Pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King Super's, a world of care is in store. Visit kingsuper's.com/vaccines for more. Restrictions and exclusions apply seaside for details. I be nation. Welcome back to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. That's Trevor Trober, John Brian Drusko. And we are going to get right to it, Trevor. We got a big week of shows coming up, a big week of content coming up. And the reason why is because Notre Dame has a big game this weekend. Notre Dame climbed up a spot in the AP rankings to number 16 after their 25-point win over Miami, Ohio. Louisville won a game this weekend over a Georgia Tech team. That was ranked a couple weeks ago and gritted out a win. I think Louisville definitely could say that. It was not their best performance, but they absolutely did what they needed and came away with a 31-19 win in a game where it was just two good football teams. Two good well-coached football teams battling it out. And Louisville was able to come out with a win. So they're 3-0 and they jumped all the way up to number 15 in the AP ranking. So it's number 15 versus number 16, big, big weekend for Notre Dame. And a lot to discuss about this matchup. So we're going to be doing shows all week breaking down this matchup today. We're going to begin talking about some of the news yesterday from Notre Dame with Jaden Mickey and Cooper Flanagan and what that means for Notre Dame and how they kind of handle those departures and losses for different reasons. Then we'll dive into what this game means for Notre Dame, Trevor. Because this is a huge, huge game for Notre Dame in a lot of different ways, both from a micro, macro level, short-term this season, who this team is, big picture, all these type of things that they have to. It's just opportunities that are in front of them for this game. And then, of course, after we talk about that for a while, we'll then dive into, hey, let's talk Louisville. And today we'll give you guys an introductory level class into Louisville. We'll be back tomorrow to dive deeper into the matchup before the buy so holding them. Of course, Thursday, we'll talk keys to victory and make our predictions for the game. But Trevor, man, we'll get started here in a second, folks. But before we do, do me a solid hit that like button, hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, share this podcast, give us a five-star review. And when you get a free minute today, go over to Irish Breakdown, the premium lounge boards at Irish Breakdown.com. There is an hour and six-minute-long video. I promised you guys on Sunday night that I would do a full breakdown of the past game. I did that. I did everything except the shovel pass and the tunnel screen, which are not really plays that had any impact or evaluative to what we're discussing here. But every single pass play, scrambles, sacks, throws, misses, makes all of it, to say, hey, look, here's the film. Go into it with an open mind. Here's every, I break down every play, what went right, what went wrong. And you can kind of get a glimpse of why I felt the way that I did coming out of that game, breaking down the past game. So you're definitely going to check that out. Again, that I said I would get it done last night. Technically, it was done last night, but it took forever to upload into Vimeo. So by 4.30, I was like, okay, I'm going to bed, and I'm just going to do this in the morning. And so once that got done, got it up this morning, and I think you guys will enjoy it. And again, it's no spin, because it's every single play, all 22, every single play, breaking it down, where the quarterback did well, where the quarterback didn't do well, where the old line did well, where they didn't do well, where the receivers did well, where they didn't do well. And my takeaway was I think this past game is still a work in progress, but it's a lot closer than maybe even what I thought coming out of the game, watching it live. So you'll get a chance to check that out at boards on our breakdown.com. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You can turn $10 into a thousand dollars. I'm a Bears fan, so this one gets me really excited. One Caleb Williams passing yard gets you one win on prize picks every week in September. That's right. 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And one of the things about Notre Dame is you've got to worry about yourself first. And part of worrying about yourself is you're going to be down a couple players that have played a decent amount of snaps this season. And so yesterday it was announced and this one move was not surprising. Cooper Flanagan not playing in this game. I had kind of heard that on Sunday that he had a little bit of an ankle issue that was going to need to get worked out. And you know, it kind of comes an interesting time, which we'll discuss during the show. But you had that news, which we expected in the news that I didn't expect wasn't completely shocked by but didn't expect it was that Jaden Mickey was going to red shirt the rest of the season and then transfer after the spring where he got his degree. That was the best news of yesterday was that Jaden is actually going to stay here through the spring to make sure he leaves Notre Dame with his degree. I am absolutely confident that is something his mother would have been very supportive of no question about it. So we'll dive into what that means from a football standpoint. I don't really care to give commentary about whether I like the decision or not. It is what it is. It doesn't matter what I think about it. We're going to talk about how it impacts the football team and where Notre Dame goes from here. But that's that's two quality football players that you're now not going to have on top of Billy Shrauth, Ashton Craig, Charles Jagasau, Jordan Patelho, like the injuries are starting to pile up a little bit, Trevor. And now Notre Dame is going to have to replace a guy at tight end who was your leader and snaps through the first four games. And then, of course, you're going to have to replace your, you know, one of your rotation cornerbacks. And so let's first start off the tight end position and what it means for Notre Dame now that they won't have Cooper Fland again for this matchup against Louisville. Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I'm excited, man, get to talk about some top 20 matchup in South Bend. It's as fun as it is to go and prep about and talk about the Purdue game and the Miami of Ohio game. This was a game that was circled on a lot of people's calendars. So very excited to start diving into it this week with you, Brian. But yes, losing Cooper Fland again for this game, I think impacts the offense in a handful of different ways. One, like we've talked about before, one of the easiest ways to start getting your quarterback into a rhythm early is getting tight ends involved. And with Mitchell Evans coming off of an injury from last year, looks like he's slowly starting to regain a little bit of the confidence in the knee and the confidence of the offensive coaching staff to where he's seeing more snaps. But it was very much almost like a tight end by committee room from Mike Denmark in the offense, right? So Cooper Fland again, he's made impacts in the running game, run blocking game, and he's also made impacts in the passing game. I think the first touch the first passing touchdown for Notre Dame all season went to Cooper Fland again, when Angeli threw it to him in the third quarter against Purdue. So it's just again, it's it's looking at a less of a talent impact coming into the Louisville game. It's one less target for Riley Leonard to throw to. And Cooper Fland again is slowly starting to prove himself as a reliable ball catcher. So that one definitely hurts going into this week. He also had the he also had the excuse me game ceiling run block on Jeremiah loves touchdown run against Texas A&M. So it is a loss for Notre Dame's offense. I don't want to make it sound as crucial as what it is, but it is a loss. Nonetheless, when you look at what Cooper Fland again is is has done, you know, he's a solid pass catcher. He hasn't been like an impact guy. You know, the touchdown reception he had that you mentioned that that came against actually came against Purdue's first team defense, actually, and they had run that play earlier in the game. And it was more of a design handoff where they showed that action and then they came back to it and read it because they knew how Purdue was going to play that. You know, but it's not like he was out here ripping it up in the past game because as you mentioned, they hadn't really thrown to the to the tight ends as much. He did have three catches for 53 yards, but here's where Cooper had was bringing a lead two for 25 called a nice corner route against Texas A&M. Not that he wasn't performing well in the past game, he just wasn't getting a lot of targets. But what he was doing was was blocking pretty well in the run game. And he was their best run blocker at tight end so far this season, which you were discussing. And right now your team is built around running the football. And so that's a loss. Like I would be less concerned about this loss if Mitchell Evans hadn't played the way he had on Saturday. Yeah, I thought Mitchell Evans had the best blocking game of his career against Purdue. Saturday against Miami had a couple nice blocks, but some really bad blocks and some bad effort plays and his body language was a hot mess at times in that game. Like I was very disappointed with his performance in the game. And I was as disappointed in his performances. He let everyone in the crowd know about his disappointment with the ball being thrown his way. So he let everybody know how disappointed he was in the throws coming his way. So I'm gonna let everybody know how disappointed I wasn't his play as a route runner and blocker on Saturday. And Eli Reardon has not been the same blocker last two years since his his knee injury that he was as a freshman before he got hurt. And so that's something that also I look at and say, hey, you know, this is a loss. This is a loss from that standpoint because you've lost your best, your best so far your best run blocker of the day is or of the season is out. And your team right now is built around running the football. So they're going to need Mitchell Evans to be the guy he was two weeks ago as a run blocker against Louisville. No question, because you're gonna have to be able to have your edge blocking is going to be crucial in this game. And that's where not having Cooper Flanagan makes me a little bit nervous about that part of it. So yeah, that's a concern. 100% I'm going to be interested to see how much maybe David Sherwood gets in the game as almost like that H back full back type of role that he's been in in before in previous offenses. Who knows because then Brock scheme is a little bit different. But there are some blocking alternatives that you can have if Mitchell Evans comes out and has a game like you did last week, which like we've talked about, he can't in a game of this magnitude, you can't lay an egg. So, but there are some other options potentially, not the ideal state, but regardless, the loss of Cooper Flanagan is going to be huge in the run game. So when you look at the loss, look, the nice thing about it, though, Trevor is you know what the answers are primarily, you know, maybe they trigger Davis Sherwood as a number two. I mean, the reality is when you've got Mitchell Evans and Eli Redden, you shouldn't have to go that route. You do have Kevin Baumann, who perhaps you can maybe trigger a little bit in some of those rent situations. He's a he's a bigger guy, you know, that you can kind of put in there. And so it really is going to come down to 88 and nine need to be better. It's as simple as that if they play to their ability, then the tight end is is going to be absolutely fine for Notre Dame, absolutely fine. But but again, that's that's got to be me and they got to like, I guess that's what I was so frustrated by last week is you kind of get some of the inconsistency with some players. You're talking about a senior who's played a ton of football at Notre Dame, who's on preseason all American lists, you kind of expect him to just play with a little bit better, more consistent effort and be just be better. But overall, the tight end blocking was really good against Purdue. It was not that great in this game. They're going to need to be on their best against Louisville. There's no doubt about 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 Podcasts, 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 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 Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. So let's talk about the other side of the ball, Trevor, and Jayden Mickey is going down. And this is the response to this to me has been a little bit missing the boat. And people have said, well, they're going to be fine because, look, they've got Leonard Moore was already passing him up, which is kind of true, not entirely true because Leonard Moore was mostly playing boundary corner. And Jayden Mickey is not a boundary corner. But you could play him more there. Jayden was your rotation guy at the other at the second corner spot. He was playing over 20 snaps a game. I believe he has over 80 snaps so far on the season. You say, well, they're going to be fine because they've got Leonard Moore. But here's the reality with Jayden Mickey out, Trevor, your two backups, your two primary backups at cornerback right now are true freshmen. You do not have any scholarship cornerbacks after that. Because now not only is is Jayden out, but Christian, I mean, not Christian Gray, because I don't believe that those rumors are true. Chance Tucker is also out because of the knee injury he suffered. So Notre Dame is getting into a position now where as long as everybody stays healthy, they're going to be fine at cornerback. But you're only in game four, and you're already in a hopefully everyone can stay healthy mode now, because you're down to four scholarship corners. And I know that what coach Freeman said about Rod Hurd, no, you're putting Rod Hurd in a cornerback, it's going to be a problem, in my opinion. So they are now at the point now where I don't I mean, they can't suffer another loss of cornerback, or they're going to be in trouble. They're going to be in big trouble because you're now down to scholarship cornerbacks. One of them by injury, it happens. The other one because the kid just decided he wasn't going to finish what he started with his teammates. I mean, for whatever reasons, you know, whatever, I'm not trying to get into that, but that ultimately is the decision he made. And there that puts him in a tough spot with and you haven't really played a dynamic pass offense yet. You know, you're I would say the two best pass offenses you're going to face this season, maybe the top four pass offenses you're going to face this season are still on your schedule. And one of them is coming to town on Saturday. You know, so it's a it's a loss. It is definitely a loss. Now, are you losing the starter? No. Was Jayd Mickey playing great football? No, but he's still a veteran player that's that's that's that's proven to a degree that can bring value in certain aspects of the game that you no longer have. And yes, even if Carson Hobbs and Leonard Moore both play great as backups, you're still better off with them and Jayd Mickey. And that's that's a much bigger loss than I think people are talking about, especially if there's another another injury. It's a loss in the short term and the long term, right? Long term. We've talked about it all season long. The goal is to make the playoffs. This is going to be a longer season for Notre Dame, ideally, and I don't want to get into the playoff talk right now, the specifics of it. But in terms of depth, it's going to be huge for the season, right? You want to start using and getting deeper into your bench when you have those games, like the armies and the navies coming up on your schedule. And with the loss of Jayd and Mickey, that kind of puts you with the two deep and that's it. And Notre Dame has been rotating their corners a lot throughout this year to keep people fresh and which is why we've seen the emergence of Leonard Moore. It's why we saw Carson Hobbs at the end of the game last week against Miami of Ohio, which is really exciting. But to your point, Brian, I look at this like when Logan Diggs transferred out after the 22 season. And it was kind of a polarizing topic of people. They were either team auditoric or team Logan Diggs. And for people like you and I, we're team Notre Dame. Whatever makes the team better, I am on board for. And sure, you might not have been playing the best football right now. But to your point that we're Notre Dame is one injury away from having to start a true freshman with the bulk of their difficult games ahead of them on the schedule. And that can be kind of an uncomfortable feeling. So losing Jayd and Mickey in the short term, it's going to ask Leonard Moore and Carson Hobbs to grow up significantly quicker, which it sounds like they have been more has clearly more clearly has. I mean, Leonard had already passed up Chance Tucker by the time when Chance got hurt. Like that had already happened. Leonard was having a great off season. Now Carson Hobbs had, he had not passed up, Jayd and Mickey. And people can spend this all, you know, he saw the writing on the wall. He was going to get passed up by by Carson Hobbs. No, he wasn't. Carson Hobbs was playing nickel. Like that this, this was not a situation where he was getting passed up by someone at field corner, right? And, and, you know, so it's, it's, it's, like you said, Trevor, there, I think you nailed it, these freshmen are going to have to grow up in a hurry. Because like, you know, I've talked, well, I've talked about this a bunch and you and I have never talked about this on the show. But I've always believed Trevor and I want to get your thoughts on this. I have zero problem playing freshman. I like playing freshman when they've earned it. I never want to play a freshman because I have to. And Notre Dame is an injury away from having to play a freshman at cornerback out of necessity. And if they want to go more than beyond the starters, they have to play a freshman. And to me, that's a concern. That's definitely a concern. It is. It's a scary thing to look at, right? Because when you're a true freshman and you've earned that shot to play to the coaching staff, that means you are ready. Whereas if you have to play at a necessity, that conversation quickly goes from you've earned it and you now are ready to now you have to be ready. And there's a very short window of time to get that player ready. Because I mean, going through a week of a football program, I mean, you're going from having to take second team reps, you rotate in a little bit with the first team to now your entire world changes. And you're starting to take first team reps and you're getting different looks. And on top of everything else, you now become a focal point for an opposing offensive coordinator to target, especially if you're a true freshman. Now, there are instances where that's what bred Benjamin Morrison, right? Clemson comes into town. They are, I mean, weighing your options of, hey, we're either going to start picking on Cam Hart or true freshman Ben Morrison. I know which one I'm going after and Ben Morrison rose to the occasion. And then here we are. But ideally, Notre Dame doesn't get into a situation where they have to start playing true freshman, because that is it's a it's a daunting thought. Yep. So that's kind of where Notre Dame is at now in the quarterback position. You're in a very tight spot. And, you know, we're going to see how it plays out. Hopefully we don't have to have a conversation about, well, what do you do now that one of your starters is down? But, you know, you're also means that that your starters are going to have to play a little bit more snaps now a corner, which we'll kind of see how we'll see how it plays out. But, you know, Jaden Mickey was a guy that had played 82 snaps. I see some of the comments. I was buried. He was on the bench. He was on the bench. He was averaging like 20, he was averaging 20 snaps a game. He was on pace for almost 250 snaps this season. You know, and so when you take that out of your lineup, that's a loss. You know, that that's certainly a loss to your team. And your team is better with Jaden Mickey on the field than not having him on your team at all, in my opinion. So we'll see how he we'll see how he's able to overcome that. But but certainly you're getting this in positions now, Trevor, at multiple spots where the depth charts getting a little bit concerning. You know, it's getting a little bit concerning. Left tackles one of those spots. You're getting in a little bit of that spot here now at tight end. You're get because now it's like, okay, the rest of your depth chart behind Cooper is Mitchell Levens, who's had injury problems, Kevin Baumann is an injured problems. Now, the good news is is Cooper Flanagan's ankle injury doesn't seem like it's going to be an incredibly long term. And I'll say this, the timing of it is actually like you don't want him to get injured. But if he's the timing of it actually works out relatively well for Notre Dame in this regard. Number one, Mitchell Levens is kind of finally getting back into the groove of he can now play full time. You know, if this happened three weeks ago, you'd have been in a tougher spot because Mitchell wasn't at a place now where now he's kind of rounding into form and he can maybe give you 15, 20 extra snaps. Eli Reardon is getting to that point where he can give you 15, 20 extra snaps. So those two guys can easily take the snaps, the workload without putting them at risk. That's a good place to be. And then the second one is, yes, he's going to miss the Louisville game. But you got the bi-week coming up next week. So if he needs, because ankle injuries can be, it can be problematic if you try to rush him back. So now you go through the whole next week of just rehab and rest. That's all he needs to worry about next week is rehab and rest without the fear of missing a game. And so now you actually have a little bit extra time to get Cooper Black before he has to play another game after this weekend. So in that regard, Trevor, I think the timing of it, if it was going to happen, this is actually decent timing because even if it would have happened, let's say in, in this game, and he, okay, but now you don't know that he's going to definitely be back by the time Stanford comes to town. Now there's a much higher chance of him being able to do that. And that's, that's the key. So I do think the timing works out well. Yeah, the timing works out really well for, for Billy to come back and definitely going to be a huge impact when he does return. But I think you hit the nail on the head. The depth chart is starting to look eerily thin, especially when you start running through the injury report and knowing that Notre Dame is just going into week five really starts to put that thought in the back of your head that you don't want to creep in, but that injury bug. Because I know a lot of people will start talking about it. It's, we're going to start seeing, I know we talk all the time about, you know, the offensive line struggling time to see how Joe Rudolph is. I think now we're going to start to see what kind of strength and condition in coach Lorn Landau is and see how he's going to be able to handle the performance of the team. So I think all of those things combined are going to be interesting. The tough part for a coach is you still have to go out and play a physical game at 100% of your capabilities and you can't think about injuries. So, but kind of that Sunday to Thursday, Sunday to Fridays when you have to take those into consideration. So it's going to be interesting. Yeah, you can't, you can't say, well, man, if only we had Cooper this weekend, well, you don't. So focus on what you do have, man, if only we had potato this weekend, you know, like, okay, you don't. So what are you going to roll with? And that's kind of, that's kind of where they are. So that's going to do it for segment number one, Trevor, before we hit on the second number two, folks, do us a favor, hit that like button, if you have not already done, so make sure you hit that like button. And again, you're going to want to, you're going to want to get over and check out that breakdown that we have over there. I, I do think that was very good. Plus, that took all day yesterday, all day for me to put together. So, just check that out just for the, for the sheer fact of, of it make me feel better, knowing that a lot of people watched it after I spent my entire day breaking it all down, but it was actually fun doing it because it is, it is, like I said, the part of the reason I did it is because my opinion changed of his performance after breaking down the phone. You guys, we were in a group chat together. I was not pleased with the performance watching it live. Then you go back and you watch the film and you're like, you know what, this is a lot better than I thought. It's not there yet. Like somebody on the, on the chat guy that I love was like, I disagree with you. I'm like, well, what exactly disagreeing with like, he's still made mistakes. Well, I'm pretty sure I said that in the breakdown that there was definitely some things that need to get fixed and corrected, but there's some other things. And no, the film is not on YouTube because I don't put any of that stuff on YouTube. It is on our premium board. So you have to be a member of the board to check that out. So yeah, I think it was good stuff. That's very good stuff. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] (upbeat music)
Notre Dame will be without tight end Cooper Flanagan and Jaden Mickey on Saturday against Louisville. Flanagan will return after his ankle heals, but Mickey’s Notre Dame career is over. Bryan and Trevor discuss the impact their losses have and what Notre Dame can do to overcome them.
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