The NFL season is finally here, so make sure you're ready with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. It gives you the most live NFL games all in one place, exactly what you need to make your Sunday's more magical. Sign up today at youtube.com/Sundayticket. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket for Out-of-Market Games excludes digital only games. [MUSIC] I've been Asian Sports Talk, up rolling on a Tuesday. Glad to have you with us on the show today. If you're watching live right now, you can see that there's a, I mean, probably a familiar face-to-face to at least, you know, like if you're watching other shows, including the one that just ran for almost three hours this afternoon, as well as the Ivy Post Game Show as well, a special guest host sitting in today. Trevor Truebridge, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me on here. Had to do a little wardrobe change from the last show. It was getting a little chilly in here, so. Had to, but we're still repping Notre Dame, so not to waste, but thank you for having me on here. I like that you kind of Carolina blue look that you've got with the Notre Dame pullover there. I don't think I've seen that anywhere. Where'd you find that? It was online at the bookstore, so they dropped this coaching line and it was a golf quarter zip and I golf a lot, not well, but I do it. And so figured, might as well look the part while I'm. Sit every goal forever, right? Right, so I thought I might as well look the part and be a little comfy while I'm out on the course. Well, in addition to Trevor, we've got a special guest who's going to be popping in in just a little bit. Len Clark is going to join us. He's got a book out, an Notre Dame related book that he's going to talk about. He's got a couple of book signings coming up later this week ahead of the Louisville game. So Len will tell you all about his book and where you can find it and all that kind of good stuff. But oh, before I forget, we had a super chat come in yesterday. Literally, I hit the end button on the show and as soon as it ended, the super chat popped in. It was from Joe. Thank you for the super chat. Joe and Joe said, okay, so I go off the handle on social media times, but I actually did see progression with Leonard last week. I'm just passionate. Go Irish. So, all right. Someone, someone at least admitted to seeing some progression from Riley Leonard. I'm going to be quite honest, things didn't get up as stirred up in the show yesterday as I thought they were going to be. So maybe, maybe Riley Leonard won more than just Joe over, at least for a week, anywhere, at least for a half. Anyway, yeah, things are starting to turn around for our boy Riley taking steps in the right direction and I know I know Brian just put out a good like passing game breakdown from last week that I think put a lot of people's minds at ease, at least for now. I haven't read that yet. I did see the headline today as I was working on some other stuff so I do need to, to jump in there and check some of that out. Okay, before we get into some nuts and bolts noted aim stuff before Len Clark comes on Trevor. Like we officially met maybe what 12 minutes ago. So we need to do a little bit of speed dating before we get into this here. So I'm going to throw a few things at you as we get in before, like I said, we jump deep first into the Notre Dame talk besides Notre Dame. What's your favorite team. Yeah, I mean, gosh, favorite team any sport I'm probably going to have to go with the Cincinnati Bengals. My wife is from Cincinnati. Okay. And so where I grew up in Elkhart, it was, it was a little weird because you had Colts fans you had Bears fans. I guess you had some Lions fans but when I was growing up the lines were not good. They were not the lines of today. So, correct. I wasn't that I wasn't that into the NFL. I watched it because I love football, but now kind of by association, I would say the Bengals because it's the wife's team. So, rough one last night. I still, man, like, is Jaden Daniels really going to be that good? Is Joe Burroughs has he officially back slid right now? There's just so many different directions to go with that. Yeah. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, when you average six and a half yards a carry and the offense looked as good as it did. I mean, Jaden Daniels, the commanders, they haven't punted in two straight games. So they're on fire. Now, looking forward to that being a fan of a certain team in the NFC East that I don't have to mention their name. When you're not watching football or sports, what are you watching? I'm a big movie guy. So my, my favorite director is Quentin Tarantino. So anything like that, anything related to that. So I was trying to figure out a way to work a Tarantino question into this. But I think that's, that's already like, if I had a bell, that would be a very good sign. Like my wife and I back in our, this would have been, I guess we were already married at that point. Like a couple years into marriage, Pulp Fiction. Yeah. And we saw it in one of these, you know, like these little, you know, it's an independent movie, basically kind of starting off. And it was in like one of these little independent theaters and, you know, like all that kind of good sign, Tarantino. I like it. I like it. Where your head's going? All right. Yeah. Multiple choice TV shows, Breaking Bad, Lost, Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul. Do you choose any of those? All of those? None of those. I'll choose, I'll choose some of them. Love, love Breaking Bad. Okay. Start to finish. I thought the show is fantastic. Lost in Game of Thrones kind of started to lose me towards the end. If I'm just being 100% honest. That's, that's a lot of people were, were like that. Yeah. Lost. Lost was fantastic until they started to be able to like travel back in time that that that lost me. No pun intended. But, you know, it wasn't too bad. Game of Thrones seasons one through six were fantastic. And then, you know, what happened happened. But if I were to go with any of them, that's a loss. That's a loss thing. Whatever happened happened. You're getting your shows combined or confusing. Yeah. Fair enough. It's all starting to blend together. But that was around the time of the time travel where they started to say whatever happened. Yeah. But yeah, Breaking Bad for me is definitely the winner. All right. Okay. Like, you know, like I said, I, Game of Thrones and Lost, I'm one of those I had stuck with it and was interested enough up into the, to the points where everyone else, you know, kind of considers, or not everyone, but you know, many people consider kind of their, their breaking point. So, sure, I stuck with them until the payoffs at different levels. Game of Thrones was like the way they landed that plane. I think a lot worse than the way I stated it. Yeah, landing theirs. I saw. Price picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members. Price 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 $1,000. I'm a Bears fan, so this one gets me really excited. One Caleb Williams passing yard gets you one win on prize picks every week in September. That's right. Only one yard gets you an automatic win every football weekend in September. Four weeks of free W's. 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Download the prize picks app today and use code Irish for a first deposit match up to $100. That's code Irish on prize picks for a deposit match up to $100. Prize picks run your game. You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs takes the crispy and spicy nugs that you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey BBQ, garlic parm or if you're a real heat seeker, try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. Darya, that's 7 delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's at participating US Wendy's. Have you seen, you said you're a movie guy, have you seen either the original Top Gun or the Top Gun Maverick sequel? I've seen both. And thoughts? Look, man, I mean, come on, this could be make or break right here in our in our speed dating profile. Oh boy. Well, look, if I'm just being 100% honest, like, I love the original Top Gun, but in Top Gun Maverick with just watching F-18 fly off of an aircraft carrier to danger zone by Kenny Loggins to it, that was worth the price of admission from being in and of itself. You know, so if I'm, if I'm being 100% honest, that was, that was fantastic. So I'm gonna have to air on the side of Top Gun Maverick. Good enough. Good enough. I can take it like I accept that as a response. That's good. What's your favorite sports movie? Ooh. So sports movies are tough for me because I'm a sucker for making sure that the like the sports in it don't look too fake. Mm hmm. If I'm being 100% honest, so from. It's a tough beat sometimes. Yeah. Sports guys watch sports movies and it's like, you're trying to sell us that that that's actually real when there's no way it's real. Yeah. I mean, I, okay, so mine's going to come a little bit out of left field. So I love to golf. And one of my favorite sports movies is the greatest game ever played with Shia LaBeouf. Okay. So that movie's really good. If we're going football, I mean, from a pure football standpoint, the longest yard with Adam Sandler, like the actual choreography of the actual way the game is played is awesome. But remember the Titans is a classic. So remember the Titans. Good. Good call. Good call. I don't think I saw the Adam Sandler. I don't think I saw the name of the movie. Again, I'm drawing. Oh, the longest, the longest yard. Thank you. I don't think I saw the Adam Sandler longest yard just on the grounds that like I'm old enough to remember the original and original to me with Bert Reynolds was so good. I didn't want to. I didn't want to ruin it with a remake basically. But so I can't come in. I don't think that I've seen the greatest game either. I might have to check that out. So I'm not a big golf guy though. Yeah, it's in, it's set stage in, I think it's like the 1800s and it's like the first time an amateur won the US Open. Sloppy Joseph's for Love of the Game is the greatest sports movie ever. I don't know if he's saying this because he knows we've ripped it to shreds on this show before the actual baseball part of for Love of the Game is one of the best sports movies ever, which could basically be done in probably what about 40 to 45 minutes. It's the rest of the movie where that movie falls off the rails. So, um, Wade Garrett Ozark, his favorite that it's I'm glad you brought that up because I totally forgot about Ozark. Another good show on Netflix, obviously. Just a few years back. Final question. Have you ever sat in your lawn chair in your yard and yelled at either the class? Or are you called at either the clouds or at kids to stay off your yard? Well, right now I live in an apartment, but there is, if I had the ability to, I probably would. I think. Okay. All right. I think that that puts you right on track with, you know, one of the other co hosts of this show. We can just call you Vince Jr is what we can call you. No, we'll just, we'll just go with that. You got it. Before we get into rapid fire. We came into this show planning on talking about some Notre Dame confidence, like some confidence in some different aspects of Notre Dame football. So we're going to rate each of these things on a scale of one to 10 in our confidence confidence that we have in them right now after four games heading toward Louisville. This weekend. Let's start with the Notre Dame offensive line. What's your confidence in the offensive line? Six. I give, I give Notre Dame six just because maybe call me a victim of just like buying into the O line you thing. But I'm somebody that really dating back. You hear about, you know, we had Zach Martin and Zach Martin was fantastic. And then Notre Dame loses Zach Martin. Then enter Riley Stanley. And then you just started this pipeline of fantastic offensive lineman that have came through the school. So I'm, I don't want to grade them any higher because there's still a lot of room for improvement that the offensive line needs. But I wouldn't rate them any lower because for it being so far a season with you lose Charles Jaggis ought to start the season and you're starting a true freshman left tackle and you have two backups already at center and right garden. I think they've done pretty well with what they've gone through so far this year. Yeah, I mean I'm seeing sixes of five. DK B and DK with his 10 in there. I'm right around that same like I'm in the range you are I'm closer to a six. I do wonder what my confidence would be if Charles Jaggis saw hadn't gotten injured a week into training camp and even if Ashton Craig and Billy shelf like how dominant potentially could that offensive line be. I think that pass protection is the biggest issue and specifically over on that left side where Jaggis saw is gone I mean Anthony napp is, is doing the best he can you know there's only I think so much that you can expect from an undersized or a true freshman at this point he's doing a solid job but I just I don't think it would be I don't think it's near the same like as if Jaggis saw were still out there and they're they they're doing a nice job with run blocking it's just it's the past blocking aspect that the you know that knocks them down a couple of points basically. I agree I'm right there with you I think if the past blocking continues to improve I think that number starts to go up for me, but it's just hard to grade him above a six right now. So DK DK clarifying a little bit he says seven these young guys like a fight stymie is out of seven Joe five passing six running I probably bottom up to like maybe a seven running five you know and like five passing and then my my average is the six, maybe right around there. But I like the split like that Josh says six seven. If they improve and there is still room for improvement I thought they played better against Miami last week. You know, maybe it maybe it helps in your quarterbacks running for almost 150 yards but. Yeah, yeah fair enough I mean Riley Leonard definitely adds a little bit of like I think he's definitely improving the grade for the offensive line because he's not taking as many sacks as a mobile quarterback wouldn't right. And you know he's definitely helping open up the run game because he himself is taking two guys out of run fits for defenses because they have to account for him. Yeah exactly and that was one of the questions that came up for Marcus Freeman after the game Saturday night was with the offensive line that you've got and the fact that you've got three starters out there who wouldn't have been the you know the starters back training camp do you need a dual threat quarterback to kind of counter some of that and I think I think at least to some degree you do. I don't think that you could have just a pure pocket guy back there or it might look you know like if you had Jack Cone back there for example. I think it could look a lot worse just because you've got a guy who's just not going to move nearly as well. I agree I mean it's that's why I think what has helped open up Notre Dame's run game so much it's no it's no mystery that Notre Dame's main goal is to get the ball into the hands of number four and number 24. And if they didn't have the dynamic runner that they did it quarterback I think it'd be a lot more difficult to spring those guys loose. But how about pass rush scale to one to ten your confidence in the pass rush right now. Honestly right now I'm leaning more towards a seven boob a car trioria shown me something. That guy that guy is a playmaker man I mean what Notre Dame has been lacking I think especially in the defensive line over the last couple years has been a dominant pass rush like really since Isaiah Foskey left that consistency at that. Bryce Young they're starting to come into his own and unfortunately Jordan Battello his knee injury is unfortunate. But even he was having a really good season before he got hurt. But next man in mentality I think boob a car is doing great things Josh Burnham's about to come back healthy. Bryce Young is going to start coming into his own and now if we can just get RJ open starting to play there a little bit in that field. I think that number starts to bump up for me but I put him somewhere around a seven. And that's I'm like high seven I'm even pushing eight what knocks it down is without Burnham you know they've got some nice things from Bryce Young so far. They're just not getting much from RJ open right now and that's that's that's a big part of that we saw Howard Cross get his first sack last week and we'll talk about the interior line specifically here in a second. You're right about Battello it's like the guy was finally coming on and then he gets injured. The only you know from a team aspect like oh now boob a car or he has taken off as well it would be fabulous if you could kind of see both of those cuz there were there would probably be a lot of times where you could have seen both of those guys out there together doing some different things that Battello stayed healthy but just just where they are right now. I'm a seven and especially if Burnham does come back this week like that's that's what we need to see is is getting some more from that strong side as well. But I feel pretty good about it. Yep I'm in the same boat. And USMA 87 is open even playing. That's the rumor. Let me look at his snap count here real quick if I can find it. I know he's obviously been out there but I want to tell you exactly what his snap count has been so far 31 against A&M dropped to 11 against Northern Illinois 18 against Purdue played 35 snaps. He played all season against Miami last week. Okay but again it's like a little bit in witness protection just based on the production. Then unfortunately we haven't seen from him. Yeah exactly. Exactly USMA I think we're on the same page. How about interior defensive line. What's your confidence in that group. My confidence up to this point or I mean. Look man you know you can be honest you can be you don't have to be brutally honest if you don't want to know you're going to you know you can be a little diplomatic that's okay. I'm going to put interior defensive line at a five. The reason why is because I think they still have the potential to get better. You have veterans at that position. Riley Mills and Howard Cross came back for a reason. Jason onier has been playing fantastic. I think they need to do a little bit of different things schematically with Donnie Hynish. But I'm not going to grade it any higher because I think compared to the expectations that they had coming into the season. In my opinion they've kind of fallen short of that. So I'm putting them right at a five because there's a lot of room for improvement but I would say no more below because if I look at the interior defensive line as a whole. There are some good things happening specifically with Jason onier. And I'm looking I'm trying to find Riley Mills okay Riley Mills has 10 tackles through four games he's got a couple of pressures but that's it in terms of his disruptives. Howard Cross a little bit more productive with 10 tackles three and a half tackles for loss a couple of sacks and no other pressures again you know like Howard Cross finally got you know he got he got one of his sacks last week. So you're putting it at a four especially considering as you just what exactly what you were talking about what the expectations when you had these guys come back. You're like these guys are coming back to hopefully help anchor a team that's going to make a deep push into the college football playoff be you know be tough be disruptive. Because all these different things and unfortunately we just have not seen the production so far and it is mystifying considering you've played, you know, three of your games are against Purdue and a couple of Mac teams. They like this is when they should have been at their most productive and they haven't been so far and that's why I've got you know my fore might even be a little bit generous now. They did kind of kick it into another gear around them you know like mid October last year I don't know if maybe that's on the horizon like if that's coming up, but we need to see it sooner than later because like this like this week specifically it's a Louisville team that's run the football pretty well so far. I agree it's starting to come up to the point where I think the coaches need to start looking internally of like we need to put the best four out there. And if you're not going to go and be productive I think that's something that you're going to have to look at as a coaching staff right so going to be interested to see how they go moving forward but I do think you're right they started to really catch fire towards like that October mark of last year. So, who knows I mean Howard Cross is coming out game last year was against Duke. So, which I, which I do believe is kind of lining up with where about this time last year. Yep. So, for me, a lot of what I want to see from them on the field is not as tangible as like looking at a stat I just want to make it I just want to see that they want to be there man. I mean Howard Cross got a sack against Miami of Ohio and he got up and he looked like he just got done working in office nine to five. You know like I need to see a little bit of excitement like what the sophomore class is bringing and I think that'll start to change this week. And I think I'm most disappointed with Riley Mills though right now you know like just because like look at how this guy is built and like we finally saw an elevation in his play last year. You know it was a little bit like Patello we were waiting we were waiting we finally saw it and then it's like oh man and this guy is coming back this year. And again it just it just hasn't been there yet and it's it's really mystifying and and they need that like now. Yeah, they need a presence in the middle and he can be that guy he's six five two ninety six. I mean you can go be that guy it just just waiting on him. I'm with you. How about wide receivers not named Bo Collins your confidence. Mmm. Gosh. I'm going to sound like a broken record here I'm also probably going to put that at a five to be honest I mean Chris Mitchell last game started to come into his own. I don't think the stat sheet quite reflected how good of a game he had he was open on a few and he drew a defensive pass interference. On on that deep poster out. So I do think Chris Mitchell starting to come into his own. I know we're all kind of waiting for for Jayden great house to kind of come into his own but wide receivers not named Bo Collins I'm putting it into five right now because wide receivers a tough position to grade out because part of their job is reliant on the facilitator. Quarterback's gotta yeah quarterback's gotta get him the ball and you know like that that nice little that diving kind of low. Cat you know that low throw that Riley Leonard made to Chris Mitchell you know to kind of you know piggybacking like he really started to show. Some good things like as a as an overall wide receiver last week and I think that that's something that he wasn't really asked to do at Florida international you know like. Yeah, no I agree I think the wide receivers are owning their piece in the blocking game to which okay do you know what actually that's what I'm going to I'm going to raise it up. I'm going to go six because I always a lot of people think of wide receiver play is just pass catching and catching touchdowns. But I had a former coach who was big on wide receivers on the big play in the pass game and in the run game. So I'm going to put that I'm going to put him at a six because downfield blocking for them over the course of the season has actually been pretty solid. No that's true that's true you know if you're going to factor the blocking in there I think that I'd still put mine. At around a five you know it's just it is so hard like Riley Leonard has it him slowing down his reads and actually seeing these guys and you know if he was actually. More consistently distributing the ball that would give us a more clear picture. And just it does feel like though two years in a row we have hyped the heck out of this wide receiver group and then we just haven't seen production on the field. And I would say that one thing that I would like to see more of is like you know they did like a you know like a shuttle pass to Jaden Thomas a couple of games ago for example and he's got a kid like I would like to see more appropriate guys you know doing those kind of things like I don't want to see Jaden Thomas you know end around and take and shovel passes and stuff like that I would rather see Jaden Harrison Jordan phase on even Jaden Great House. You know doing some or Chris Mitchell for that matter you know so. It's it's almost a little bit of an incomplete but at the same time Riley Leonard has obviously shown that he has confidence in both columns and he's able to find. How much of that is because Bo Collins is one of the first reads in his progression and he's not getting to the other guys sometimes that might play into it. But it's just too it's just too hard right now to give him a much higher grade than that. No I hear you and it's it's tough because the sample size is so small. Yeah like it's so hard to give a grade on like basically receiving core outside of Bo Collins that gets two targets a game per receiver so you know mine's a little bit more optimistic. I do agree with what Hayden is saying as well I do think they are getting more open this year than last year. We've seen plenty of especially the intermediate routes like you're you're seeing. You're seeing a lot of that and again. Like how much of that is on Riley Leonard how much of that is on maybe the faith that he has and what's going on to his left you know in terms of like the clock is sped up maybe a little bit. I think for him those kind of things that again they're things that you're never going to hear either Mike den Brock or Riley Leonard or Marcus Freeman say out loud but I have to think that that some of those things factor into it as well. Yeah absolutely. Depth of the Irish secondary which your confidence there. Honestly like I'm going to put it at a six a conservative six for right now just because losing Jaden Mickey is is a is a blow no matter how what narrative people want to try to spin. You're losing a kid who has a lot of game experience and who is a talented football player still scholarship athlete at Notre Dame. The talent that you have behind him with Carson hobs and the talent you have behind him with Leonard Moore is promising. The only thing that's starting to freak me out right now is Notre Dame is one injury away from having to start a true freshman. And that's why I don't rake it higher if I'm if I'm ranking my my confidence on a scale 110 from a skill set level. I would put it higher than a six but from like a comfortability type feel. I mean we we had Brian and I just talked about this in the previous show. You don't want to. I love one Notre Dame plays freshman. Because to me that shows that you like earned it and like you're ready to play. Yeah but you don't want to put yourself in a spot where you like to be ready. You know what I mean. Yeah so that's that's kind of the fine line that they're starting to walk. I agree mine is mine is a little bit higher I'm I'm right around a seven and again it's because of. In large part due to what we've already seen from Leonard Moore and let you know like when we saw Benjamin Morrison is a true freshman a couple of years ago it's like okay well you know where's this guy. Coming from it I mean then look how he ended up playing you know sure you know Christian Gray we saw flashes of him. Obviously last year but the depth is what we're talking about. But I have confidence that. That the next guys in line can play fine you know and then if we're talking about injuries after that then maybe I get a bit more concerned but I'd put it at a seven right now because I have a lot of confidence. Both in Mickens as well as the you know the the the skill that the next two guys. Sure. And then things you know again like you've got Jordan Clark and you've got Rod heard so sort of as you know emergency options as well are they going to be like Jordan Clark has played phenomenally I think so far. As the nickel like does that translate to the outside probably not as well but I mean as impressed as I have been with him so far and just what he's been asked to do. I've got to think that that he could give him something there if needed as well. So yeah I think the depth could go a little bit farther than just who's on the depth chart at corner but I just don't think that's a spot that they want to be in. But I mean I think if push comes to shove they have players that could play out of position if they need to. 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. This 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 will be talking all things sports but also so much more. I'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. Okay last one your confidence in the quarterback Riley Leonard. Seven. And I'm pretty firm on that I what how I judge a quarterbacks progression is week over week improvement. And if there's one thing that's staying constant with Riley Leonard is his ability to make plays in the run game. And that that to me is huge right so I I look at it is now the development of him in the passing game and we saw at the Purdue game right in the Purdue game he started to hit the layups and he started to hit the short throws. Little bit of lackadaisical passing when it came to anything past 15 yards. And then you almost kind of see the different thing the difference in games with Miami of Ohio he couldn't hit the layups. And he was pretty on the money with things 15 yards or farther down the field so you're starting to see that progression and him getting more comfortable in the pocket. So for me I think that my confidence in Riley Leonard right now is a seven. Mine's a seven as well there's there there's obvious things that need to improve in the passing game I think that we all acknowledge that but this is a dual threat quarterback and probably the biggest question other than is he ever going to actually complete a pass in the field you know going into last week was okay what does happen in a two minute drill because we saw it against Texas A&M. Not quite you know at the end of the game but it was it was later in the fourth quarter when he had to leave it lead a drive. He led him to a touchdown they take the lead. They never you know then you put it in the hands of the defense and we all know how that worked out but but what would happen when they were in a true two minute. He saw it. He went 81 yards in less than a minute. At the end of the first half last week and gave them time if not for a boneheaded penalty to maybe even get the ball back and get some more points after that. And you know obviously he answered the question of the pass as well by completing the pass to both Collins now. That doesn't mean that he's a finished product that like you can just look at that and go okay you'll see he can do it I'm not. Not going there it's a starting point it's all a starting point but the biggest thing with Leonard is because of the running ability that he has. He's going to make an opposing defense defend the entire field and there's there's always. And you know part of what I think makes him so successful in that situation is there is that element that this guy can take off at any time and get you 12 yards get you 15 yards, whatever it happens to be. And oh by the way he can also complete a couple of passes because now you start cheating up on that he can throw it over the top so. Yeah I mean he adds an aspect to the to the offense that the other quarterbacks in the room frankly just can. And I think for Riley Leonard some of it is going to be tailoring your expectations to what you're going to think you're going to see from him. A lot of people hear a dynamic quarterback and they think all right well he's going 25 to 32 for 310 yards and four passing touchdowns. When you have a quarterback like Riley Leonard I think you need to start looking at like his total yards and what he does in a game because to me yeah sure it's awesome if a quarterback goes 310 yards through the air, but I'm also going to take three hundred and ten total yards. I mean the last I checked that moves the ball down the field the same amount right you know, so I think that's just that's going to be tailoring expectations I'm not saying Riley Leonard doesn't have the capability to go 25 a 32 for 310 and a couple of scores through the air but he the way he plays he just doesn't have to at least not yet we haven't seen that in a game. And I could change on Saturday who knows. Because I do firmly believe that there will be a scenario in a game this year whether it's Notre Dame in the playoffs or whether it's against USC or Louisville or Georgia Tech. There will come a time where it's like hey Riley you're just going to have to drop it. And you know again, it was brought up yesterday what's our confidence if Notre Dame is trailing you know like 21 to 7 or 21 to 10 or something like that in Leonard's ability to be able to run the offense as proficiently in that fashion. Well, the answer to that question was, you still have that defense Notre Dame's defense on the other side of the ball and I think that that's part of why you can continue to hedge and Riley Leonard's favor when you, when you have every confidence that the defense with with a short field just like they did a couple of times the other day against Miami and just like they you know like even against Texas A&M they held the field goals they weren't giving up a bunch of touchdowns like you have every confidence that this defense is not going to let things get out of hand while some of that stuff is is kind of being processed on the offensive side. Yeah. Yeah 100%. I mean Notre Dame has a defense right now that's given up three offensive touchdowns in four games, you know, so that so that gives you the freedom to take a little bit more risk on the offense. Now it's just hoping that they do. So, but yeah, no confidence with Riley Leonard. I'm at a seven. I'm with you. Michael says this building up of Louisville is some super team is crazy. Are they good? Yes. Did they beat us last year? Yes. Did Louisville have a lot of things go their way last year. Hell yes. I mean, all those things are true. One, you know, one, one part of the formula that they have is just like last year they brought in a veteran transfer portal quarterback. This guy's maybe a little bit more mobile than plumber. It's hard for me to measure just exactly how good they are when they've taken on an FCS team, you know, a group of five team and Georgia Tech so far. I mean, I know they're going to be good, but you're absolutely right. I'm like, Georgia Tech is like really, you know, really Austin P and Jacksonville State. Neither one of them are probably, you know, as good as what Notre Dame has faced so far. No, but I don't want to start right, you know, like I always hate you like writing off who they face, you know, they've they've played. They played two really good warm ups and they got a little bit more tested last week against Georgia Tech and still won that game relatively handling. Yeah, I mean, I think for them it's, it's the eye test. They have a lot of athletes on their team this year. So they got jacory Brooks from, from Bama. Tyler Shuck, that's how I learned that's how you pronounce his last name, even though it's SHO UGH, it's Tyler Shuck. He is a very experienced quarterback. He is going into his seventh year of college football. He was an ESPN top 300 recruit in 2018. But he has, he has performed everywhere that he's gone. So I think the thing that's different with this Louisville team that you're going to see is there are a lot more athletic from a wide receiver standpoint. You're going to be able to push the ball down the field better. Running backs aren't as strong as what they were last year. And defensively, they're just very long and athletic. So I'm with you, Sean. It's so tough to tailor your expectations to what a team is going to look like when they've played that kind of schedule. And by no means am I comparing Louisville to Ohio State, but it's the same thing with Ohio State, right? They played Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall. Yeah. So everybody's like, oh, they're unbeatable. It's like, well, I mean, they're unbeatable for those teams. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, let's be honest, if you're Louisville, you've played a schedule that Louisville should be playing 100%. Like, there's no reason that they need to go out and schedule, you know, a USC or an LSU or anyone from the SEC for that matter, unless it's Vanderbilt or somebody like that. There's just, there's, there's no reason they've done what they needed to do. They've got a good amount of confidence and they'll come into Notre Dame Stadium as a confident team. DK, valid point. I get what you're saying. You said a host yesterday got mad as if Notre Dame couldn't give up a 21 to 7 lead, but a better team with a muff punt and a fumble can make you pay. Yeah. I mean, mistakes. Mistakes are always part of this, right? And, you know, like if we look at at how last year's Notre Dame Louisville game played out, just as an example, it was a seven to seven game at halftime. It took Notre Dame, like Notre Dame had to work just to get their own seven points in the first half. But what was the biggest factor in that game to me wasn't necessarily what, you know, Louisville did just a few times. Louisville did just from a purely physical standpoint, they forced five Notre Dame turnovers. That was, that was, that's how Louisville ended up pulling away by the time the fourth quarter rolled around. You turn the ball over five times, you don't deserve to win any game. Oh yeah. And that, that can obviously, you know, that, that's a, that's a different, that's a different level, a different layer, no matter what quarterback you're talking about, you know, to try to overcome or, you know, for, for a defense staff to overcome that if your offense is committing that many turnovers. Yeah. When you lose the turnover battle, you lose the time of possession battle and you lose the total yards battle. You're not winning many of those football games barring some sort of miracle. And that's just what it came down to. I mean, Notre Dame is a team last year rush for 44 yards total against Louisville. So just not going to win many of those games. No, USMA, you're right about Vandy this year. I was just throwing them out. You know, like, that would be the team that, like, if you're Louisville and you're going to schedule, they obviously schedule Kentucky as a rivalry game. But if, you know, if you're going to schedule another SEC team, Vandy would be the team that you'd be eyeing as opposed to anyone else, probably in the SEC. John is asking where Jesse is. And I think Michael might have answered it earlier. Jesse, this is the first week of his new day job. And he's got, like, all kinds of stuff going on there. So he's in in transition. So you get Trevor Trowbridge, sitting in. So Jesse's going to be out for at least a little while and appreciate Trevor sitting in today and going back to when Len Clark was here Irish 101 game day says I substitute taught in a classroom that was portrayed in Len's book. The book was written at night and things like that. Oh, this is Len. Okay. Appreciate it, John. This is actually Len. This is, this is Len. This is not, this is not someone talking about the book. Okay. And this interested that, at first, I didn't read it all the way through. So glad to have Len on once again. And Trevor's already bought the book and it sounds like the book is selling very well. Good stuff. [Music] [Music] [Music] When you need meal time 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. [BLANK_AUDIO]
