[Music] i b Nation welcome back to another edition of the Irish breakdown podcast Tuesday night Edition had to get some uh some breakdowns done for the premium members at Irish breakdown boards at Irish breakdown. comom so I got a run breakdown up today we'll have some more pass game and some defense St stuff coming up here throughout the week but lots of really good stuff I felt it was one of the more fascinating breakdowns I've ever done of a run game where the raw numbers were so good and the efficiency was so bad so I break all that down I have about a 20 minute video breaking down sort of the adjustments that were made I've got I think five or six plays that go through the all 22 break down what A&M was doing that was giving their name problems what they adjusted with why they adjusted that way how it affected Tex A&M and and why it worked and so I I have that on there as well so I was working on that all day today so I'm doing a little bit of a Night Show today something unique I'm not it's more of just a reaction to the to the time constraints I had today not going to be something we're going to do regularly but I do know there's some people that are listening that don't normally get to listen so we are glad to be able to hang out with you here tonight but got a lot to talk about today and uh gonna dive first into a conversation about sort of what is next for Notre Dame what do they have to prove and then part two is going to kind of segue right into this weekend's preview which is the Northern Illinois Huskies and and what to expect and what Notre Dame has to has to do against huskys this weekend so lot going on everybody before we get started hit that like button hit the Subscribe button hit the notification Bell share this podcast have had a ton of signups to The Message Board the last couple days people are excited about Notre name so make sure that you are not one of those people that gets left out of of what we got going on at Irish breakdown so definitely go to boards. Irish brown.com and sign up for 99 a month $49.99 annually if you want to support us above and beyond the normal thing we do have a booster club option and if you sign up for one of the booster clubs you get a little free some free cool IB club stuff that is exclusive to club members so check that out as well you can find that at boards arbre down.com so everybody I don't know if you guys heard all this but Notre Dame has basically secured themselves a spot in college football playoff after they wi Over Texas A&M that's what I was told by ESPN that's why I've been told by a lot of people that just beating that one SEC team that most people pick between seventh and Ninth in the SEC means Notre Dame has smooth sailing to the couch ball playoff so there we go so we're just going to go ahead and take the next I don't know 11 12 weeks off uh since Notre Dame doesn't have anything else to prove apparently and this is sort of the arrival won't for Notre name yeah that's what they're saying but that's as as the great Nick Sabin has said that is rat poison that is them trying to build build Notre D up so they can tear them down at some point time later in the season this football team still has a lot to prove and a lot to improve and and there's a lot we're going to learn about this football team here moving forward and and that's really something that Marcus freem the words Marcus Freeman uses to describe the goal the best version of yourself you know you know was it one play one life you you know 12 unique opportunities all those different things that he talks about are going to be very important they get lived out here moving forward because while I kind of mock the whole and the and the funny thing is they're not really doing it in a way to praise Notre Dame they're doing it in a way to kind of almost talk down Notre Dame well you know they got this win May A&M may not be that good but you know they don't play anybody else everybody else stinks etc etc etc and so then if Notre Dame doesn't blow out every opponent by 40 they can say ah you know Notre Dame maybe not that good and Etc they beat this team who sucks and that team who sucks and they don't play anybody and all this other kind of stuff so you guys know that's what they're setting it up for but for Notre Dame the focus can't be on all of that the focus needs to be on what Marcus Freeman always says the focus is on which is you got to worry about us you know his team needs to look in the mirror and say we got to worry about us that's what they need to say because it doesn't matter who the opponent is and we've said this for a while too Notre Dame needs to focus on Notre Dame because that's the what kind of RW have we said it this weekend about Texas A&M it's definitely true of Northern Illinois it be true of Purdue and and uh Miami Ohio and Louisville and Stanford and Georgia Tech and navy and Florida State and Army and Virginia and USC I hope I'm not forgetting anybody but if Notre Dame plays their game they will win the rest of their games if they play if they're the best version of themselves they will win but Notre Dame still has to prove that they can be that on a regular basis so while everybody's excited about you know the win over Texas A&M and and the Notre Dame players should take a sense of satisfaction from that win that there's this is no attempt to try to tell them hey that win didn't mean anything it wasn't that big of a win any of that this is this is this is not that at all this is saying that yes this win was great you did what you needed to do but it was one win doesn't count for extra points because it was an SEC team you don't get bonus points because it was on the road you don't get get bonus points cuz it's a 12-0 team or I mean a top 25 team it simply counts as one win it counts the same amount as it'll count if you beat Norther Illinois one that's it and so the focus is yes we did what we needed to do that weekend now it's about getting better and taking that next step because look this like I said this is not a this is not a finished football team this isn't even close to a finished product on this football team I mean and as as you break down the film you realize that like goodness gracious I mean that there's so much this football team needs to improve upon and you know who else that's true of every team in the country has a lot to improve upon right now and so Notre Dame needs to make sure that they're not buying into the the false hype meant to distract this football team that's being stated in publicly about how you know they've they I heard somebody on the ESPN and and he was joking he he was being kind of funny but then it kind of laid into you know talking down the schedule and all this other kind of stuff about how you know Notre Dame's the first team to clinch a spot in the playoffs and again it was just another it was another you know again he was being funny and and I and I thought he delivered it well but the the point was basically saying is like this is the hurdle that they have and nobody else is any good now we'll see kind of how USC goes through the season and if they start getting a little bit more respect and some of those comments were made before USC and then I've seen comments since well they don't play anybody until USC and the reality is is that's why this Texas ANM game was so big guys look I said this to multiple people before the game I don't know if I said this in the show but it's something that that we talked about in different ways which is if you don't beat A&M there's not another game on your schedule that's going to earn you respect or that is going to satisfy noted aame fans and that's understandable you lose to A&M you're not going to get respect because you beat Louisville or Georgia Tech or Stanford or Florida State now maybe USC but that's a team that you've kind of beat consistently in recent years you've won five out of six against USC I think eight of the last 11 against USC and and so there's there's just no game that's going to give you that kind of respect so you got the Texas A&M win what you can't do now is take a step back right and and so you have to go out there and prove yourself on a on a week- toe basis and become the best version of yourself because I see Andrew Gilmore in the chat talking about Louisville I think Louisville's really good Andrew clearly thinks Louisville is very good but can we all agree on one thing you're not going to get respect for beating Louisville right you're not you you you have to you have to look good Notre Dame is now gonna have to focus on just from a they something they they're going to focus on but the reality is is in the eyes of the committee there's going to be some some Style points are going to be needed because they're not going to get that respect so it has to be internal that's the whole point the push now is about what's inside and and do you have that competitive Spirit where it's not so much about the opponent it's a much it's more about I wasn't the perfect so I can go out and get better and for Marcus Freeman and the coaching staff the reality is is you're going to have to focus on that message also but let's be honest if if this coaching staff has the wisdom that I think that they have they're going to have to find some things to try to motivate this football team moving forward and whether it's disrespect from the outside whether it's internal things that you look at whether it's you know uh setting certain goals and no matter you might have beat a team 50 to three but if you don't meet your goals and darn it it's not good enough we've got to go out and get better next week there's gonna have they're gonna have to find ways to sort of motivate this football team for the next three games especially this next up this upcoming game Beyond just we have to get better that's got to be the foundation but there needs to be a little bit more to it than that uh because that's I mean that that's what that's what we're gonna have to do and so when you look at this football team here's another aspect of it as well of what this team has to prove and what what's left on their their slate moving forward including this weekend against Northern Illinois is this team this this team went out this week and did something that that a lot of people including Notre Dame fans didn't think they could do or I should say that that may not be a right way of saying it even people that thought they could and would win still recognized that it was the kind of game that Notre Dame hasn't won in the past or a more rational view is it's not a game that they've consistently won or won enough they clearly have won games like they like they had against Texas A&M but it you had done against an SEC team on the road because you hadn't really played one since George in 2019 and before that I I think the last Road game against an SEC team that no a played in the regular season I think it was 04 I mean Mike gouby was like a team captain on that team I I I believe that that that team that Notre Dame that gouby played on uh back in 04 Brady and those guys was I think the last time Notre Dame played on the road against an SEC team prior to the Georgia game of 2019 and then of course this weekend's game so you know you you had that opportunity and and what Notre Dame proved this weekend not only do they prove they they can win games like that but they also proved that they can handle some adversity they proved that they can go on the road in the heat I said I said Road game guys they've beaten lots of SEC teams and they've beaten SEC teams away from home they beat LSU twice in bowl games I said Road games regular season Road games South Carolina was in played in the State of Florida and it was a bowl game but the point is what this game showed me is that this team can handle adversity this team can handle being the underdog they can handle being disrespected they can handle going on the road in a tough environment against a very well- coached football team a very talented football team a competitive football team and fall behind right you fall behind early you tie it up they take the lead again you tie it up you take a lead they tie it up and then you go down and handle business and put a team away and there's an expression that we've used a lot here before in the P or I should say a lot that we Us times in the past and the expression goes like this it's you've got to prove that you can handle adversity once you've done that you then have to go prove that you can handle success and what this nerding football team is entering into right now until some level of adversity hits and I don't know that that's going to be possible for the next month until Louisville comes to town is You've Got to Now prove can handle success you've got to prove that you don't have that well we got that big win so now we can kind of Coast for the next three weeks now look we've said this right on our end these are getright games for Notre Dame we've said that and that is true but you as a football team can't play practice like that you can't think like that you can't focus like that the coaches can't focus like that you've got to go out and say hey look yes we got this big win that's great but can we build on it can we make sure we don't lose this momentum that we have from this can we go out there and stay focused stay on track keep pushing ourselves you know I want to see a guy like Riley Mills be excited about the win and then look at the film and say hey I I got to get better here I want to see Howard cross do that I want to see Xavier watts do that I want to see Benjamin Morrison say hey I only give up one completion for a yard five attempts I don't want to give up any completions for any yards I want to see Christian Grace hey yeah I made some plays but I got to use better technique there I've got to make sure I do a better job of of playing the ball here and and I want to see Jeremiah Love say hey I did a great job there but I've got to do a better job you know here and and this missed opportunity here and and I want to see that across the board to where yeah they're happy with the win but they're going to look at it and say man I got to get better right that that that might have been good enough for this but that's not that's that's not the best I can be and that's sort of Marcus Freeman's Mantra like we'll say here in this show you know that's not going to beat Georgia right like that's not going to beat Ohio State you proved what you do when you play that way can beat Texas A&M you prove that as a football team Notre Dame prove that but can they go out and then say okay but you got to take it to another level when you play the Bulldogs or the Buckeyes or you know the Longhorns or the Crimson Tide you know teams like that is that performance from Saturday good enough to beat those teams the answer is no it's not but you can't say that as a football coach you don't want to talk about Georgia because you've got Northern Illinois it's and that's where I think Marcus Freeman's Mantra of be the best version of yourself really holds right it that matters because you now have set a Target in front of you that's honestly it's it's un it's really hard to attain it you may do it for a game but there's a lot you got to look at and say even even when you have great games say hey I I can do better here I need to do better there and when your focus is on Perfection there's always room to get better and that's going to have to be the focus and where leadership is really going to come into play now I'll be honest I'm more confident that the leadership is in place to handle that because of how impactful the leadership was going down to Texas A&M and what everything that they went through down there so you know it's like um and and you know it just it gets to the point where the great teams never get satisfied Christian Gray shouldn't be satisfied with the game he had on Saturday Don Schuler should not be thinking about man I'm I'm the dude I had a pick I made a bunch of tackles I was laying dudes out I had a really good game he needs to be saying God how did I miss that play I should have had another play there I should have had a tackle for loss there I got to do better there I shouldn't have given up that completion I'm I got fortunate that that guy didn't have situational awareness and field awareness and ran out of bounds short of the sticks I didn't do that he did that I got to do better there you need to see both colins say hey man I made that great catch and that's all great but man I I can't and I had a really nice crack block on Jay Love's 29 yard run but I can't miss the first crack block I can't drop that one ball that I dropped I can't misrun this route I've got to make sure I'm doing a better job and that's got to be across the board and and that's where leadership comes not just from a captain standpoint but in every room to say guys good job this weekend but we can and we will get better and that's what team has to prove because if they can have that mentality then you'll still see them on a on a steady growth and let's be honest about something else right Notre Dame proved against A&M that they can beat a team like A&M which in my opinion they have done before I I've said this before I don't I don't think A&M is that much better than NC State last year I don't know that this A&M team is that much better than 2022 North Carolina that won 22 game or won nine games they're better on defense but are they as good on offense as that North Carolina team was that's very questionable so I I think they've beaten teams like this before I do think the magnitude was different the environment was very different but what they haven't done is do it consistently and we're now about to enter a period where Marcus Freeman's got to prove something as a football coach and we've talked about about this with Marcus Freeman we've talked about this with Al golden we've talked about this with Al Washington the coaches that are in kind of year three yes you had success in year two great success in year two for certain guys Al Washington did a great job last year Al golden did a great job last year year one not so good Marcus Freeman did some good things last year proved as a coach that he can get his team ready to not only play but to dominate infer opponents like they absolutely prove that last year noted aame against teams that were definitely beneath them dominated they won 10 games last year only one of those games was by less than 21 points that was on the road against a ranked Duke team which is similar to Texas A&M in my opinion in certain ways you dominant you beat you beat Navy by what 46 Texas state by 53 NC State by what 20 24 beat Central Michigan by 24 you beat trying to go through the schedule USC by 28 you beat Pit by 50 was it 56 can't believe I'm already forgetting some of the scores from last year it's unacceptable by me what was the final score is was it it was a 50 of of the pit game it was 58 to7 so 51 you beat wake for you beat NC State by 21 you beat Wake Forest by 38 you beat Stanford by 33 and you beat Oregon State by 32 great job but is that who Marcus Freeman's team is from now forever or are they similar to the team in 2022 that played way down to their competition at times are they the team that battled Ohio State for 60 minutes but then didn't battle Marshall a week later Northern Illinois is not that far off for Marshall in certain areas and that same team went out and lost to a three and9 Stanford team at home Northern Illinois is a better football team than that 2019 2022 Stanford team was they struggled at home against UNLV this Norther Illinois team is better than that Purdue is better than that Miami Ohio is better than that so in year three coach Freeman needs to prove that his program is in a place where they don't look down their nose at teams and they think they're just going to roll the ball out and go play I you the hope is is that they have enough veteran leadership to kind of pull the young guys along because when you work you tend to worry about that when you have a lot of young guys on your team you know because young guys don't quite have that maturity of you know like hey we got to bring it every day there's a there's a level of hey we've arrived you know and so the veteran leaders ship needs to make sure that that doesn't happen and so what else is there to prove for Notre Dame what does a game like Norther Illinois mean well it means a lot when you're talking about big picture trying to look at who this football team is and will they be able to go in and say Hey listen we're gon we're gonna we're gonna blow that team out because yes they did that last year sure great I'm glad they did that last year let's be honest the teams they played last year were not very good and I don't just mean not good like they came from a smaller level what I mean good is they just were pretty bad Central Michigan was a 5- seven football team last year that was coming off of a three-point win over New Hampshire and lost by 24 to Michigan State who was not very good last year they lost by Buffalo they lost to Buffalo by the same amount of points they lost to Notre Dame so yeah they got to get better the last couple times notame has played a team like this that was good they got they got they either got beat or it was competitive Marshall beat him two years ago Toledo almost beat him the year before that at home and that was even a great Toledo team that's too team went seven and six so you do have to prove as as if you're Notre Dame that we're we're past TW the 2022 stuff that's in the rearview mirror this is now a team that shows up against those teams that are not that good and just or I shouldn't say not that good because I do think Northern no is a good football team but clear clearly inferior to you and handle business that's what Notre Dame is going to have to prove uh this weekend and I think that's something that's at stake for them this weekend is to show that they can be that kind of team I also think that a game like this is very important for program development and and one of the things that drove me nuts about the previous coaches regime was there were so many games against opponents like this where they just kind of just let teams hang around way too long and then they'd kind of run them off the field in the fourth quarter and so then you couldn't get your younger guys in the way you needed to I mean you look at 2021 for example you you you had you were blown Florida State out you're ready to run them off the field one more stop and score and you can get some of your backups in and they kind of took their foot off the gas and let Flor State come back game goes overtime they hung around with Toledo should have blown them out you know there are several teams at your USC they should have blown out you know Navy they let hang around a little too long you know Stanford they kind of let hang around a little bit too long they ended up getting some young guys in those games but they just let them hang around too long look at 2020 yeah they let Duke hang around way too long they let florid State hang around way too long they just you know they didn't blow out Clemson or Georgia Tech the way that they should have they didn't blow out Syracuse the way that they should have they just they never put teams away the way in the ways they needed to and and and it kept kept them from getting some of the work in that was needed this needs to be a game where we see either Kenny MCH or or CJ Carr right this because that's got to happen after Steve Angeli gets his time and and so the these are games where that's important as well and I don't know how you emphasize that to your veterans but like you know somehow it it needs to be understood that hey we somebody in the chat Ball State a couple years ago it's another per Vanderbilt that same season that was 2018 that was a playoff that was a playoff team for Notre Dame that beat Ball State by eight think about that a playoff team at Notre Dame who beat Michigan by seven the week before followed that game up with a eight-point win over a Ball State team that finished that year 4 and eight and lost to Indiana by 28 points the very next game lost to Ohio by 38 points and Toledo by 32 points and Miami Ohio by 21 points Notre Dame beat them by eight week later Notre Dame beat a Miami beat a vanderbelt team that finished six and seven by five and was an alohi Gilman strip at the goal line of potentially losing that game those were the things that were so maddening previously and it was maddening in 2022 under Marcus Freeman last year they they pretty much contr you know they maybe they could have done a little better in the first half against some of those teams fair fair but they got to show that they can go out there and be that football team they can go out there and just bury a team early and then you know let those guys get behind you I'm not saying you need to beat Northern noo by 50 I'm not saying that I mean you do need to win convincingly though and I like this Northern Illinois team we're going to get into Northern Illinois here in a little bit and I'm GNA kind of give you uh talk about some of the things I like and I'll I'll dive more into the matchups tomorrow and and and and talk about some of the things that I like about this team and and what they what they can do and all that kind of stuff so we we'll talk plenty about nor Illinois including tonight but this is still a team that when you're a top 10 team you should beat and beat handily I'm just just being honestly so that's obviously another aspect of what noted Dame has to prove that this weekend right and continue to show that you're that 2023 version of yourself don't make it and and I'll say this too it's even more important now I meant I wanted to to get into this part as well it's always been important to kind of beat those teams the way you're supposed to to get opportunities to get Reps for younger players I I I don't think this staff did a great job of getting guys in as early as they should have last year enough maybe I think that'll I mean they're already getting some of those guys in now but this is especially true now in the 16 game playoff era which is what Notre Dame has to play to win a title you have to be able to take 15 20 snaps off of Howard cross's legs and Riley mills's legs and Jack Kaiser's legs and Riley Leonard's legs and you know all Xavier Watts's legs in a game like this you need to keep their snaps in the 30s and 40s for the skill players and hopefully in the 20s for your defensive lineman it because like look what does Jack Kaiser have to prove in a game like this nothing but you also just can't not play him until you've got that game in hand same with Riley Mills Howard cross guys like that some of the veterans like an RJ Obin maybe I would say I'd want to leave in them more just to get them a little bit more acclimated but some of those other guys you don't have anything to prove in those games and so this is a great opportunity for not only team development but also load management when you're thinking about projecting to a 16 Game season and if you don't put a team away then you've got to stay and play the Reps and do what you got to do win that football game and that's another aspect where going into games like moving forward if you have a step back mentally if you have a step back from a focus standpoint if you have a step back from an intensity standpoint a chip on your shoulder standpoint like I want to see this team play ticked off all year I want to say this see this team kind of takes even some of the quote unquote respect they're getting and be like man you guys are giving us backhanded compliments which some people are not everybody but like I heard Joel clatt talk about I mean Joel clap was very impressed with what he saw from not day other people kind of gave him a backhanded compliment like yeah you beat A&M but maybe A&M's not good and the rest of your team rest of your schedule sucks and so whatever like okay we we got something for you guys but it's also about you've got to do this to make sure that you're not playing an unnecessarily High number of snaps in games where you just shouldn't be playing a high number of snaps and that's something else that n's going have to prove not just in this game but really over the next three games uh four your next five games really if if you want to be honest about it when looking at Stanford is kind of that way as well so those are different aspects of it of what I want to see from Notre Dame and when it comes to what this team still has to play for there's also specific things that that you have to still prove as a team and I'll be honest with you if Notre Dame would have beaten Texas A&M the way they could and should have hit some of those early plays don't have those misses you know win this game 34 to 13 something like that I don't know that I'd feel great about the offense coming in this game because I don't know what it is but offensive teams sometimes when they come off really good games kind of Sleepwalk the next week and I always think about the Virginia game in 2015 where you go out in the opener and you just destroy Texas and I mean play about as perfect as of a game as you can play I think Malik Zer went something crazy like 18 of 21 for over 300 yards and and three or four touchdowns and and they ran All Over Texas I mean they played in a lot of ways not Flawless but about as close to a Flawless as you can get in an opener against a team you know like a brand like that and then came out the next week against Virginia and they just kind of let Virginia hang around and they had some misses of things they shouldn't have missed on and just didn't play the same fire and focus they did the week before uh against Texas and that same team that that absolutely annihilated Texas in the opener 38 to3 kind of hung around with Georgia Tech you know you have a lead then you let him get a couple onside kicks and then you you I think wasn't the UMass game something like 28 to 20 with like I think a minute two minutes to go in the the um the first half and see I'm actually looking that score up now I think CJ proide or CJ Sanders returns a punt for a touchdown yeah it was 28-20 no it was 21-2 notame was winning 21- 20 against UMass who was 0 and2 coming into that game who was terrible coming into that game it was 21 to 20 with uh three over three minutes left UMass punts CJ Sanders runs it back 50 yards makes it 2820 and then Notre Dame scored his touchdown with six seconds left to go up 3520 and then they rolled in winning 62 to 27 but you had CJ prise you know scoring a touchdown in the third quarter like that game that game should have been 42 to seven at halftime but you let them hang around because you weren't low focused you weren't locked in you weren't doing the things that you needed to do you basically just beat them on Talent you know I mean will Fuller who just dominated people that you only had four catches for 57 yards against UMass right I mean those are just things where you you weren't locked in you weren't focused the way that they were when they played some of the better teams on their schedule and that's going to be something where this team won't be able to kind of have that sort of sort of uh mentality so you you I kind of look at it from a I didn't love what we saw from the offense from a execution standpoint an efficiency standpoint there's a lot of things they got to clean up penalties wise and timing and Tempo and all that kind of stuff but it's kind of a bling and disguise when you're projecting forward because they're not going to be in their like the old Line's going to maybe feel good about themselves for like a day because of how they finish that game but then when they go and they probably did this yesterday if not yes I mean uh Sunday if they didn't do it then they did it Monday they're going to go through the film and realize oh my gosh we got to get a lot better same thing with Riley Leonard same thing with the running backs and receivers so there's there's going to be a little bit extra something behind the coaching staff this week about hey yeah we did what we needed to do to get to win and that's something you guys deserve to be praised for but guys fellas this ain't good enough for what we're trying to get to you guys C can and should play a lot better than that so I I think I actually feel like they're going to have a chance to kind of come out clicking this week but you kind of need to because there's a lot you got to get better at you know as a team you need to show more discipline with the penalties and that's certainly true on offense but Notre Dame's offense has to get better in a hurry because you know they're they're certainly a better team than Purdue but produ no slouch this year and yeah you've got a couple you know three get right games here two get right games and and then a game against Purdue which is a game you should win but you know not a game you can Sleepwalk through and and win convincingly but you got a team coming into town and the end of September it's gonna be a really good football team that you're not gonna you know if you score I mean you scored 20 against them last year and lost by 13 you're gonna have to you're going to have to be able to score and put this team away and so they're going to have to get better in a hurry and and there's some area obviously there's some areas where they have to get better the offensive line still needs a lot of work from a chemistry standpoint uh there's a lot of work needed from an execution standpoint this is yes they almost doubled their career starts from last week but they still only have 11 you know there's a lot of room for improvement there timing in the P game is really needs a ton of work Riley Leonard and timing is is kind of twofold timing is the quarterback's press progressions going through the pocket Riley was way too fast going from read to read last week and I felt like there were times where if he would have stuck to the read for another second he would have had some guys coming open that he could hit for big plays and so he's going to have to that's an area for of improvement for him that he's gonna have to focus on this week receivers gonna have to do a better job winning at the line of scrimmage this week they're going to have to do a better job being a little bit sharper having a little bit more sense of urgency as route Runners they're going to have to do a better job of consistently consistency and blocking that's some really good blocks on Saturday some really bad blocks on Saturday and and then timing is also you know H Riley getting a better feel for okay when and how to get the ball out and and where to put the ball and those type of things so certainly a lot of a lot of Need for for that they have to be more aggressive in the past game I want to see that this upcoming week I want to see them find some vertical aners so that's certainly something that Notre still has a lot to prove here over the next these next three games efficiency in the Run game I'm going to show you guys something so I'm just going to give you a little taste here uh the breakdown I did for Notre Dame's game against Texas A&M so this is a just a small sample there's four graphs like this plus about a 20 almost a 20 minute video breaking it all down but I broke down every play and and type in all the data and I break the game down and as you look at that sheet right there the I included jadarian Price's 37 yard run in that I took out the hold that Cooper Flanigan had and I explained there in in the break down but here here's the deal when you look at those numbers the raw numbers are great 29 carries 204 yards 7.0 yards per play uh per carry two touchdowns along a 47 but then that final number is the efficiency numbers those are basically plays where you win a good performance not a great performance but a good performance is when you're at about 60% efficiency Notre aame was at 37.9 efficiency in that game you look at their success on first down yeah the numbers look great 17 carries 134 right but then look at the efficiency 41.2 that's not where you need to be third down 0 for two on third down one of two on fourth down you need to be perfect on fourth down now you and I would argue that uh they got that fourth down spot but that play could have been blocked a lot better and not been put in the hands of the officials certainly certainly could have done that and that's something that Notre name's going to have to get get better at so while there was a lot of there was a very good step in the right direction these numbers show that not Dame has to get a lot lot lot better so I did want to give a little sample this is just to let you guys know this is premium board member stuff only I'm just giving you guys a little bit of a taste here to back back up the point that I'm making but this is a much more thorough breakdown and as I said there's also a 20 minute video with with Clips all 22 clips from the game and all that kind of stuff so that kind of shows you what I'm talking about though right I mean that that shows you the the the air they the airs they just they got to get better and they're still a lot of work to be done and that's what the focus needs to be on this for this football team and and here's the thing too they show that they can start they can finish really well Notre D controlled the like I was talking to somebody uh they asked me about how the environment was at m i it was great environment I mean loud crowd into it the chants are kind of weird but it's also partly you love you love the excitement they have and and and I mean the Press Box was shaking the whole game I said well it wasn't shaking the whole game it was shaking for the first 54 minutes of the game and wasn't shaking for the last six minutes because the last six minutes no a dominated and now you need to show that yes you can do that but you got to learn to start faster as well offensively because yeah it worked against M but it may not work against Georgia it may not work against Ohio State may not work against Texas may not work against Alabama may not work against Louisville may not work against USC so they're going to have to be a much better team in order to be able to dominate the way that that this team should and could dominate offensively so there's a lot to get better on that get better at on that side of the ball and then finally defensively you know look it's a good early win they played a really well in a lot of areas but three areas that I want to see this team still get better at when you talk about what can they do to improve and and and get better as a football team and continue to make a big statements number one get better tackling this nor Illinois game is perfect for Notre Dame because yes it's a game you could control but there's there's two to three kids on this Illinois offense that are legit good and I'll dive into it when when we get into the Norland breakdown but there's some kids at running back they got a kid at receiver and they got a kid at tight end that are good football players really good football players and not just Mac level players like not would I have him transfer their a no but they could play for a lot of teams in the power five level and they're going to put you in some stressful situations schematically so this is a great game to get better at tackling and they're going to need that for the you know for next week against Purdue and they're definitely going to need that against Louisville and USC down the road so that's this is actually a great opponent for you to improve on the thing that you were probably worst at on Saturday which is tackling and the reason I say this is a good opponent for that because when you play a team that's just not athletic and not very good you can get a false sense of security on on who you are you we tackled all them but but they're not very good the reason it matters that you know ororo Brown and and the kids that they have Trayvon Rudolph and guys like that for Illinois are good football players that make you work is because if you're shut them down you kind of had to do something that then builds for what you've got to do against even better opponents down the road so that's a very very important thing in my opinion for this notame defense they also have to obviously the linebackers still need to continue to grow and develop more consistency needed tons of Flash plays like if I took the 10 best plays that we saw from the linebackers you know jayen need flying out to the flats Jaylen need crash in the backside on a goal line Play Drake Bowen blowing dudes up Kings cama ASA making plays in space blowing dudes up Jack Kaiser being where he needs to be Jaden allsbury blowing things up you'd be looking at linebackers they they played great that's okay well now let me show you the 10 worst plays of linebackers and you like man they got to get a lot better and that's a good place to be guys when you hold a power five team that's a legitimate top 25 team to 246 yards of offense and only 33.6 yards per play and you look at as many things that n name's got to get better at that's imp I mean that's a great place to be but you still have to get better and so the linebackers have to get better and then I want to see the dline make more plays this is a very experienced Norther Illinois offensive line it's a very good Mac offensive line and you're going to have to work you're not just going to be able to walk out there and and say hey let's let's go do our thing and just roll the ball out and they're just going to they're going to you know cower to you this they've got some size on that o line at certain spots and they're veterans I I think four returning starters uh they're they're a good Mac offensive line one of the better Mac offensive lines in 2024 so the D line is gonna have to be on top of their game so when I look at Notre Dame and you ask what's there still to play for you know what do they have to prove everyone's anointing them as they're they've locked the playoff ber and all kind nope they're not there yet you had a great win but you've got to have 11 more which means there's a lot of lot of room to get better A lot of need to get better if this team is not only going to make the college football playoff because here's the deal guys the goal is not to make the playoff the playoff is a means to an end you can't get to your ultimate goal if you don't make the playoff that's kind of that Focus you got to get there but what you're building towards is not to get to the playoff it's not you know that you know ladimer from the program you know starting defense place at the table you know smash your head into a window because that's the moment you've quote unquote arrived it's like okay well you've arrived but now what are you going to do and the whole thing that we've all talked about no name goes 12 and0 and loses in the first round of the playoffs are any of you really feeling hey this team turn a corner no we've seen we've done that before we've seen that before right we've been down that road with no Dame went 12 and0 in 2012 got their butts kicked in the postseason went 12-0 in 2018 got their butts kicked in the postseason went 10 and0 in the regular season in 2020 got their butts kicked twice in the postseason that year right so it it getting to the to the playoff isn't the ultimate goal for not Dame that might be what everybody's talking about now but but even if Notre Dame does have an A much easier path to the playoff than most top teams and I think that's fair to say I think Notre Dame's path to the playoff is is probably cleaner than just about every team in the top 10 but that doesn't mean a that it's easy or B that you can just kind of roll the ball out and win all of them because if you win 12-0 go 12 and0 just CU you're better than everybody else but you don't actually develop as a team then you're going to find yourself falling short once you actually get to the playoff and and getting a home playoff game is going to be great but that's just step one towards the ultimate goal it's not the end all Beall and that's why you need to improve you can't rest on what you did against A&M it just was a step and that's going to be a big thing and that's what not certainly what notame has to prove and that what is what the focal point should be for Notre Dame this weekend when they go to play Texas A&M or excuse me when they go play Northern Illinois so I'm going to get to speaking of Northern Illinois I'm going to get to a breakdown of the huskys next we're going to dive into into their season and kind of who they are and what they've done and going to pull up some stats here of of uh this football team and and talk about kind of what I like and some areas where you know just give you an overview of who they are and and uh you I'm going to use last year's stats to kind of show what they did last season talk about you know what they do offensively and defensively and get into those type of things and little about their personnel and of course tomorrow during the midweek rundown I'll dive even more into that with some of the stats breakdowns and different things tomorrow so we'll dive even deeper into it but here next I'm going to give sort of an introductory look at n name's next opponent which is the Northern Illinois huskys so this Saturday Notre Dame is home for their first home game of the 2024 season I'm excited to get back into Notre Dame Stadium I know all all of you that will be coming to the game are as well very much looking forward to you know seeing what the home environment is going to be and although the opponent you're about to face is not a juggernaut but he stretch this is a quality football team Notre Dame comes in obviously one and0 ranked fifth in the country in the AP poll you have the Irish are a 28 and a half Point f the over under is 44.5 that is actually down from what it was earlier in the week when I actually did the so when I do the depth chart for Notre Dame I'll put the line in there and and as of yesterday Notre Dame was a 30o favorite and and the over under was 46 and a half so that has already dipped a point and a half uh but Notre Dame is still obviously a four touchdown favorite in the game and kickoff will be 3:30 in the afternoon will be on NBC and also on peacock northern illo northern Illinois is coming off of a 54-5 win over Western Illinois uh so that that was their opening win obviously Western Illinois is a FCS team and they handled business you know it was a little bit of a sluggish start it like 63 at the end of the first quarter but they really poured it on in the second quarter and it wasn't just like you know short Fields I mean they they were doing some stuff and ripping off some big plays in that game against Western Illinois Western Illinois is a is a uh how do I say this they're really bad and and it's not meant to take anything away from it but they're very bad they went 0 And1 the year before uh they lost to Indiana State by 21 points last year to give you a sense of of of um how bad Indiana state is Indiana State lost to Purdue last week 49 to nothing Indiana State the previous year went 1- 10 and their only win was over Western Illinois so uh not they're not a very good football team but still they did what they need to do in that game and got the win and so uh 54 to 15 got a lot of action for their backups in that game Northern linois is a team coming off of a seven and six season their head coach is Thomas Hammond Thomas Hammond was actually not some of older folks like me probably remember Thomas Hammond I'm gonna pull up a stats real quick but he was a really good running back at Northern Illinois and and uh when you look at his give me a second I'm going to pull um pull up his college stats here real quick and give you a sense of uh of what he did hold on one second excuse me it's Thomas hammock is his name so it would help if I spelled his name correctly to get to his stat line but Thomas hammock is a running back at Northern Illinois from 1999 to 2002 ended up ended his career rushing for 2,432 yards he only played one game in his final season I believe he had an injury rushed for 172 yards yards in that game as a sophomore and as a junior he rushed for 1,083 yards in nine games in 2000 rushed for in 16 touchdowns and is a junior rush for 1,96 yards and seven touchdowns uh for the Huskies back in 2001 in in 11 games so he was a really good College running back and he's obviously now the head coach of his Alma moer has done a has done obviously a good job with that football team last year the uh the huskys made a bowl game and I'll be honest with you there was a lot of people that that that liked their their quarterback I was not a big fan of their quarterback to be honest with you but you certainly have seen growth uh he went n and5 and 2021 they had a bit of a Down year in 2022 they went three and N but he did a great job bouncing back last season and and uh and getting them going he actually won the MAC in 2022 uh the year that they 2021 the year they went nine and5 they actually beat Kent State in the mack Championship That season and that year they beat Georgia Tech at Georgia Tech to start the season that year so this is a team that has had some success against Power five teams obviously Georgia Tech wasn't that good in 2021 Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech by 55 points that year but they still beat Georgia Tech and and obviously this is a team that has experience playing Power five football teams uh they played Vanderbilt last year they played Kentucky last year only lost to Kentucky by eight last season so certainly a team that had or that was two years ago and then last season they played Nebraska uh and Boston College Beat Boston College last year in overtime so nor Northern Illinois last season won a regular season game on the road against a power five team that made a bowl game so they're not going to come into the stadium afraid of Notre Dame oh gosh you know what are we going to do they're going to come in battle and you're going to have to be ready to to be at your best because um you know yeah this team is this team is certainly going to B so a little bit more about Northern Illinois as I said they went seven and six last season actually got off to a pretty rough start they beat Boston College in the opener then they lost to Southern Illinois lost to Nebraska lost to Tulsa and then lost to too by two points but they rallied and won six of their final eight games with l a six-point loss to Central Michigan and a three-point loss to Ball State uh they also beat Eastern Michigan beat Ohio beat akan by 41 beat Western Michigan by 24 beat Kent State on the road and then won their bowl game over Arkansas state to finish the season uh with a seven- six record obviously won their their game the opener 54 to 14 as I mentioned so let's look a little bit at the stats from Northern Illinois last season to give you a sense of of who they are these are their National ranks and what you're going to find is their offense was not very good last year and their defense was actually pretty good in a lot of areas so especially their P defense and so they obviously they finished 81st last season in total offense or scoring offense 77th and yards per play they were a pretty decent running team last year they finished 37th nationally in rushing yards which shouldn't be a huge surprise when you consider their head coach was a running back uh but uh certainly a team that's got a shot to be a very good running team again because their running back is back this season that would be our our antario Brown if you guys are regulars on this show you will uh you will remember you should remember the name antario Brown because I talked about him before uh when I did my all opponent team last month antario Brown was my second team uh all opponent team running back the only guy ahead of him was Jamal Haynes from Georgia Tech who you guys have seen is off to a pretty good start this season so that was obviously a a a player that's a that that some of you will be familiar with uh and he's a really good football player he is and and he's one of those guys I was talking about earlier where you know you look at where Notre needs to improve as a football team defensively one of those things is tackling and with antario brown you're going to have to be good at tackling he's a short Stout kid he's 510 216 pounds it's actually kind of funny because he's very similar to the size his college coach was when he was in college and uh which which I kind of find actually kind of funny but I I believe Thomas hammock was about the similar size uh as as um as uh anio Brown so I just I just kind of find that find that pretty F I'm actually looking up Thomas hammock yeah he was F he was listed at 5'8 211 and this kid's listed at 510 216 and I don't know that he's 510 but he's got really good Vision he's got really good he's got a thick lower body he can bounce off tackles he's got really really nice contact contact balance he's got really good agility changes Direction well runs with really low pad level not a burner you know so he's not going to he's not going to rip off a lot of 50 yard runs he's not a guy that's a threat to house it if you unless you just completely just don't do your job but he's a guy that can just just keep turning out yards turn a minus two into a plus4 you know turn a plus4 into a plus 10 plus 15 plus 20 and and those are all things that he does well and so if you're going to bring this kid down and stop this kid from running you you're against a an offensive line that that returns four starters four starters from last year's offensive line and an offensive line that when you look at their their size their left tackle is not real big he's listed at 66 298 but the rest of their offensive line is 65311 63305 64 321 and 66 312 so their offensive line has some good size and as I mentioned has four returning starters so they're going to do their best to give him room to run and their quarterback's a a somewhat mobile player as well uh and and uh not a guy that's going to run a ton but has some quickness and Mobility does they'll do a lot of boot legs and roll outs and things like that that get him on the move and you know are gonna mean you're gonna have to be disciplined you know look one of things they do offensively and they have a new offensive coordinator and actually one of the reasons I think their offense is actually gonna be a lot better is they have a new offensive coordinator that does a lot of stuff that I like so you can't just they're not just going to line up and run power o at you with their running back or just inside Zone a million times they do a lot of pre-nap movement they get their receiver move receivers moving on a lot of jets you gotta worry about Trayvon Rudolph who's a really Dynamic Athlete of 510 187 cam Thompson's a good football player they're going to do a lot of movement stuff they're going to do jet sweeps they're going to do uh they'll go under Center and do a a traditional Jet Sweep or just kind of open up and hand it off they'll do shovel passes uh they did something this past week got a shotgun where they kind of fake the Jet Sweep the quarterback starts running and uh one of their guys comes behind and they do a little shovel pass broke wide open for a touchdown had a guy come wide open out of the back field for a touchdown they had another big play where they ran a real quick post snap switch got a guy open vertical uh do a lot of boot their first touchdown pass was on was on a bootle quarterback got out of the pocket so they do a lot of stuff that messes with your eye discipline they do a lot of things um that that are going to allow you to um they're they're going to force you to really be locked in if you're not locked in to what they're doing you're going to run this way and you got the balls going that way you're gonna have to really be focused and so this is going to be a great test in my opinion for the nodame linebackers which is what I want to see I want to see them uh perform well they should be able to handle the receivers relatively well trade Rudolph is more of a quick game guy they haven't thrown him a ton of deep balls so I I you know I I don't know that he's that kind of player he had four for 104 last week but like one of his big plays was on a uh like a just a little shovel pass you know and he had another play where he kind of got open on a little bit of an over concept and was able to get free he's not a guy just throwing bombs to all day but again they do a lot of that stuff off action they'll do play action pass they did a a a play where they faked fake the rever fake the handoff fake the reverse and the quarterback drops back and and you see that a lot in college football but because they do so much action if you're not disciplined the times that they do that you know you might find yourself getting beat I actually like this quarterback a little bit more than the kid they had last year everybody talked a lot about the the kid they had last year but I think that really just came down to the fact that he was from Michigan State and I I was not I I've never been like a really big Rocky Lombardi guy you know passed for 2274 yards last year 11 touchdowns seven interceptions he had seven rushing touchdowns and people act like he was he's going to be hard to replace and I I just don't see it I think this kid Ethan Hampton is a just a good college quarterback you know quality athlete decent arm accurate smart went 18 of 20 for 328 yards and five touchdowns in the opener and a guy that I think just he's a veteran player knows where to get the football and he's a guy that you've gotta you've got to be prepared to to have a game plan for and um you know those are all things that that uh that I want to see this team do and I think that that between Trayvon Rudolph between antoro brown between all the action that they do pre- snap and post Snap movement this is a game where it's going to force you to be locked in and that's certainly something that's going to help this team and last year stats wise their pass offense was terrible and I think that's going to get a lot better this season I I think number one it's going to get better because teams are going to be so far focus on stopping antario Brown that is going to open up some ACT you know some play action opportunities that certainly did against Western Illinois and I just you know they're not going to like the world on fire as a pass game I just think they're going to be a lot better than what they were last year and so n's have to be prepared for that for that look from their offense their defense is a 425 uh it's not a a super super complex defense they just they're smart they got a lot of guys coming back I think four of their five secondary three or four or five of their secondary players from last year coming back have decent size in the secondary uh you know surprisingly they're when you look at their defense they've got their cornerbacks are both six feet tall Javon bird is 191 pounds their safeties are 61 192 and 63202 their Nickelback is 511 187 so they've actually got pretty decent size in the secondary they're not great athletes but they're very sound they're smart football players they're experiened football players and and so you know you're going to have to work a little bit when you look at their stats from last year and you look at their passing stats from last year their rushing defense was not that good last season they only finished 62nd in college football last year but they finished 23rd in yards per game and a reason why it's because of how good their pass offense was and when you look at Northern this that Northern Alois team last year they lost a game by three a game by eight a game by two a game by six and a game by three meaning they didn't do do well in pass yards because they kept getting blown out a lot and they were able to keep yards down because teams were running on them and they weren't throwing late because they were down and and so they were legitimately that good of a pass defense last season in in almost all instances and when you look at kind of how they fared against the two power five teams that they played last year Boston College went 17 of 38 168 yards only 4.4 yards per attempt Nebraska last year went 14 of 24 for 58 yards 6.6 yards per attempt Tulsa only went for 5.1 yards per attempt they held akan to less than five yards per attempt Ohio less to five yards per attempt Eastern Michigan less than six Ball State less than five Western Michigan less than six last season so and the most yards they gave up in a game last season passing was Toledo who went for 281 they only allowed three opponents All Season to pass for over 200 yards last season so uh throw stopping the passing game is an where they certainly got a lot better the year before they were not a very good pass defense in 2022 they gave up [Music] lineman is out he uh he he was injured early in the season he or in the I don't know if he's hurting camper in the offseason but he missed last week's game he's not listed on their depth chart for this game that's certainly going to help them they actually have pretty decently pretty decent length on the on the edge of their defense their two ends are 64 286 and 66 251 uh they're they got decent size up the middle 62 293 62300 their top backup is 6238 they have a couple other guys that are 285 plus so their defensive line actually has some size and as I mentioned their secondary has some size but they just don't they don't have great speed and great overall athleticism so this is a team that nerame should be able to move the ball on but they're gonna have to earn it and they're definitely GNA have to earn it in the secondary so we're g we're going to see these the nerame receivers get tested a little bit more than you might think against a m team this weekend and and if they can step up and perform at a high level that'll be considered a success because this is a quality defense uh there's no doubt about it a very a very quality defense and and uh in the opener they gave up 17 of 29 uh 204 yards and only one touchdown 7.0 yards per attempt and if you watch that game they got a decent decent amount of yards in the throwing game uh after they were up big and they held Western Illinois to 94 rushing yards only 3.2 per attempt so um that's just kind of that's that's kind of where they are at this point time so um it's a it's a quality football team this is one of the things I hate about doing solo shows because when you guys start going at each other in the chat I just it can be very distracting ing so can you guys just stop arguing with each other in the chat please okay people allowed to have difference of opinions I don't know why uh the conversation about about Riley about Riley Leonard is happening right now since we're not actually talking about that but stop arguing with each other okay all right so getting back to this game in this matchup uh as I said before Notre Dame is going to have to they're going to have to bring it this weekend for a host of reasons and if you do pound this football team then you get better and I know I know this what drives me nuts about games like this is fans Who come out say just run the ball run the ball run the ball I don't know what coming out and just running of the ball on a team that's in fear to you really does when it comes down to actually making you a better football team and right now Notre Dame needs to come out and improve their pass offense their pass offense has to get better it's not going to get better just because you go out for the next three games and just run the ball down the Thro of teams who you are far superior to so no just coming out running the ball does not it may it may work it may they may win the game it may allow them to win by 40 or 50 points but I don't know that that necessarily makes them a lot better but I also don't think this is a game where you get into a situation where you just come out air to every down either you have to both aspects of your offense need work it just can't be a game where you just come out overwhelmed them with size and run for 350 yards and throw for 150 and and feel like you got better I I don't know that that necessarily does that so they will have to come out and and find ways to improve their pass game against Northern Illinois and if they do it's it's going to have to be earned because as I mentioned this is a pretty decent this is a pretty decent secondary very experienced secondary coming back and they have pretty sound scheme and that's one of the things that works for them is because they don't they're not running these crazy exotic things at least I haven't seen a lot of that and and so they're just kind of letting their kids play and and teaching them sound fundamentals and and it's allowed them to to reach their full potential as players because I I don't think the town is great and uh that's certainly something that they're going to have to to to to continue to recruit better but I do think they're coached really well I I think the ham the higher that Thomas hammock made for zoc at least in the first game I was very impressed with what he did in the first game I'm not at all familiar with what he did beforehand but I'm just telling you what I saw against against Western Illinois I was very impressed with all the stuff that they do they they're they're going to put you in a lot of stressful situations that you got to be prepared for so I'm very very much looking forward to seeing that so again this is a quality football team this is a team their name should beat and beat soundly but this is a team that will test you this is a team where you're gonna have to be locked in you can't Sleepwalk through this game they have a they are they are more Toledo than they are Bowling Green right because remember Notre Dame didn't really they weren't really locked in BG in in 2019 and they beat him like was a 59 to nothing because they were just way better than Boston College and then you come out against Toledo and you're not locked in and they've got really good scheme and they're doing a lot of different things and you're turning guys loose and you're Los you're you're blowing coverages letting guys run in for long touchdowns you couldn't defend a quarterback and next thing you know you need Jack con to Rally you back in the last minute of the game to beat Toledo y'all that was three years ago that that three years ago I mean obiously was a different head coach then but the fact is is the principle is the same you know 2018 Notre Dame earns a huge season opening win over a really good top 15 Michigan team beats them controls the game for 60 minutes you come out the next week and you only beat Ball State by eight points and that was a bad football team Ball State was this is not a bad football team this is a good football team for their level it's a quality football team for their level so for Notre Dame it's it's going to be about don't let them hang with you they shouldn't hang with you this is a game that n should win convincingly I'm not saying here trying to tell y'all that if no Dame only wins by 14 you should be happy because Northern ill is really good I'm not saying that what I am saying however is if you try to sleepwalk through this game if you don't have a focused week of practice if you're not going out there trying to get better this could look a lot like Toledo in 2021 I don't think they have the athletes Toledo had but you get the point they certainly have better players than what Ball State had when they took a Notre Dame team that went 12-0 and took them down you know it was a competitive game for three quarters the Notre Dame pulled ahead I think it was like 24 toh was it 24 to 10 or something like that late and then b ball state scored uh it was 2413 and they kicked the field goal I think is what it was uh later in the game but you let the team hang around you can't do that you have to be locked into this game and if you are locked in they'll win and they'll win convincingly this game will be over halftime third quarter at some point in time uh but will they be locked in that's what we're going to find out and that's what Notre Dame still has to prove so because you all know let's be real if Notre Dame struggles with this game they're going to get a lot of the same treatment Michigan got for not blowing out Fresno State they're going to get the treatment that Oregon got for not blowing out Idaho Oregon beat Idaho by 10 and they dropped from number four in the polls to number seven six in the polls or seven in the polls and Notre Dame leaped them in the AP pole which is why Notre Dame went from seven to five uh because they because not because how poorly or partly because how well their name played but then also partly because how poorly Oregon played so they're gonna have to prove that last week was that's just the beginning that's just the foundation of what this team is going to be and if they can uh play their game then this is a game that they should they should be able to dominate you know because you're playing a good football team that's coming off a game when they rush for over 300 yards they got a really talented back really good athlet at receiver very good veteran quarterback and a very experienced defense that does their job well so if n's prepared and they're locked in they're going to roll and I'm very much looking forward to seeing that I did have a super chat here that I want to get to before we get out of here uh from Judge Phillips Philip Banks 2024 speaking of young guys it seems the program has gotten away from the excuses of young guys not knowing the systems and not able to play fast I well I mean look there were times when they didn't right there were times they didn't play fast but the whole point that that we've made for years and and we talked about this in last night's show the frustrating thing is you you're going to get mistakes when you play Young Players we saw that Saturday against A&M Christian Gray made a made mistakes Don Schuler made mistakes Drake Bowen made mistakes Kingston made mistakes Jaylen Ste make mistakes Jaden Albury made mistakes um Jaden greous made mistakes Jeremiah Love made mistakes Jian love jarian price made mistakes Sam Pendleton made mistakes Anthony Nat made mistakes Emil bill I mean all the young guys made pretty big mistakes in the game but they also all made a bunch of plays because they're really talented and that's always been the beef that I've had is give these kids a chance to play because if if you give them that experience and they're going to get better and better and better and better and eventually the talent Rises to the top but they're not can you improve playing scout team of course there's value and Merit to that can you improve not playing in the year sure do you improve even more when you get opportunities to play absolutely absolutely and and so that's where you're you're going to see this team have a chance to to get better and better and better and and it's also uh why I think this team still has so much room to get better is yes they've got I mean Jack Kaiser is gonna get more comfortable playing his position but Jack's not going to necessarily get experience in the system is going to make him better but it's not like way better same with Riley Mills same with Howard cross same with Xavier wat I mean it's just do your job play great every week with these younger players you expect sort of a a trajectory upwards from their performance and their play because they're not close to their Peak as players and and so you can't you're not going to get that growth if you don't play and so all those kids that play and look there's going to be games where Don Schuler does not play well there's G to be a game this year where Christian Gray does not play well that happens with the young there's gonna be a game where Jon where Drake Bowen and Kingston don't play well it's it's going to happen that's what happens with young players but the more you play them the more they kind of go up like that and and that's why it's good and that's why I'm glad they played them but but the other thing too is I'm gonna have an article out I think it's going to probably come out tomorrow that's my hope but this is a different type of talent too let's be honest Marcus Freeman's bringing in a different type of cat Marcus Freeman's definitely shopping down a different aisle than the previous head coach there's no doubt about that so not only is it are you playing those younger players but you're doing it in a situation where you're also playing some dudes and that certainly helps quite a bit so that's going to do it for today's show Iden uh here's the schedule for the rest of the week including the mailbag I'll tell you about that so tomorrow we're I'm gonna go live at one o'clock for the midweek rundown have a lot of different topics I'm going to talk about then on Thursday it's going to be me and Ryan Roberts going over keys to victory for Notre Dame against Northern Illinois then we'll make our Notre Dame predictions um I'm Trevor's have living a married life this week so you won't see Trevor until Saturday in for the postgame show but then Thursday at 2 o'clock I'll be joined by Bill Bender he and I are going to preview this weekend's big games I believe the games we're doing is Texas Michigan we're going to do that one let me actually pull up the scores we're going to do Texas Michigan this week we're going to do Iowa Iowa State we are going to talk about Tennessee and NC State and then we are also going to talk about there's one other game that we're going to discuss and here let me find the the uh text message I sent to Bill and he'll he'll tell you or that'll have it it it's Texas Michigan Iowa State uh Iowa Tennessee NCC oh in Colorado Nebraska so we'll preview that game as well so those will be the few that um that we um that we uh are going to go over this weekend that'll be Thursday then Friday one o'clock will be the mailbag so I'll do a mailbag on Friday so the Friday mailbag that'll be sort of our normal Friday routine last week was a little bit different because we did the mailbag on Monday and then Friday I just did something different um but uh that the mailbag on Friday and yes salty we will have the normal the normal midweek rundown is I go over the different subjects then we have biso hold so that that that is part of the normal Wednesday routine so we will have biso hold uh tomorrow as well Friday mailbag and then Saturday postgame show with Vince Trevor Ryan and Shawn and then Sunday night we'll get back to our normal upon further review schedule so that is the schedule for the week and then of course tomorrow t tomorrow night and Thursday night 5:00 IB Nation Sports Talk and then Sean will publish the post the the countdown to kickoff the difference between this year and last year is we decided to publish it Friday night as opposed to waiting on Saturday partly because of how many afternoon games their name has y'all don't have as much time to listen to it when we put it up on Saturday morning so this way when sea and them are done recording it he'll get it published on the YouTube channel and on the podcast app which you need to subscribe to the podcast app also and then you can get that so 1:00 tomorrow rund down and then B so hold Thursday one o'clock we'll do uh keys to Victory predictions and then we'll have the big college football segment after that Friday one o'clock mailbag and then Saturday postgame show we'll go live It's usually the way we do it is like the first 10 minute Mark after the game so sometimes that's N9 minutes sometimes that may be you know as long as after 5 so if it's like 38 it'll be we'll do at 50 if it's at 41 we'll do it at 50 so we'll go we'll go pretty quickly we'll get that going pretty quickly and then the guys will be doing that I'm I'm not going to probably jump in this week's postgame show let the guys handle it I thought they did a great job and my thought is like I I like the kind this Frant segment was fun but I think what I'll probably do is just kind of record that more often than not and then put it up and we'll have some fun with that you know but that's why you need to be subscribed to the channel Irish breakdown. comom uh is where you can find all of our free content Irish breakdown is the channel you go to any of your podcast platforms Apple spotifi or Google Spotify whatever type in Irish breakdown you'll see our IB Logo Pop Up you'll know that that's us of course subscribe to the YouTube channel and the best stuff is always always on the premium message board at boards. arbre down.com so for the rest of my crew that couldn't be here today I had to go solo today uh because Trevor is now a married man and and kind of doing some things to get caught up on that but uh hope you guys enjoyed the show today and I look forward to seeing you again if you have not done so if you are a member go check out that film breakdown that I did there's some more coming this week but I think you're going to enjoy that breakdown and if you're not a member and you want to check out the breakdown the all 22 film and all the stats and all that stuff go to boards atar breakdown. comom definitely goingon to want to check that out so anyway have a great rest of your day everybody and I will talk to you again very soon on the Irish breakdown podcast