The Notre Dame Fighting Irish v The Texas A&M Aggies Preview | The New SEC Podcast

[Music] we have the game of the week the the new SCC podcast game of the week and that is gonna be the Notre Dame Fighting Irish heading down to Texas and taking on the agies oh yeah it's it's Mike elco's return to A&M I mean he he left A&M um to go be the head coach at Duke where he was exceptional put on a great defensive showing there ended up playing Notre Dame and there's a whole bunch of you know love triangle between these three teams that you can point a whole bunch of connections between but in his return to A&M he gets to play another school that he was the DC at many years ago and that's the fight in Irish yeah it should be a really fun one and you talked about The Love Triangle it's it's really you know Mike Elco as many know maybe some don't used to coach Raleigh Leonard Mike Elco transferred took a new job to A&M and Riley Leonard transferred from duke to Notre Dame I mean talk about an academic resume uh he transfers a quarterback from from duke to Notre Dame uh he was you know some would say probably one of the best Duke quarterbacks in the history it's him and Daniel Jones and maybe a couple others that I'm not familiar with but he had a really great season last year before going down um he's probably one of the top five best quarterbacks ever that was in the portal we talked about a couple today with with Cam Ward probably being top three and for Elco the question I wonder is is it more of an advantage for him to know what Riley Leonard can do and how he plays or is it more of an advantage for Riley Leonard to know how Elco runs his defense considering that he practiced against It All season right um those are some of the big headlines and there's a lot more kind of really to kind of digest and dive in there yeah and they were both at Duke right so and this is nothing against Duke but the resources and and the weapons that you have on both sides of the ball when you go from a Duke to an a M or a Duke to a Notre Dame is greater Riley Leonard is going to have a greater Supporting Cast at Notre Dame and Mike Elko is going to have different pieces uh to work with at A&M that he didn't have before you know they did lose their power uh Powerhouse linebacker and Edgar and James at Texas A&M so that'll be a position to to keep an eye on but they have a really strong Supporting Cast returning cast seniority there at A&M and um looking at them on paper last year I think it was um it it might look wor than it was if you're just a box score reader right um four and four in SEC play but they recorded a net 74 yards so they were winning the battle when it comes to yardage they were just losing a couple close games that they had leads in or gave up a field goal at the buzzer um so if they can small tweaks and they can uh they can turn that around big time yeah and I think that you know the stat you mention around the yards is reflected in in close games like with Old Miss where they only lost by three um and and you know the season might have went different if Conor Wegman doesn't go down at quarterback he's returning as a sophomore this year and he you know he had 16 touchdowns and three picks last year so seeing what he can do week one uh A&M's number 20 in the nation Notre Dame's number seven and yet A&M is favored so that says a lot in terms of what Vegas and what other you know leading Publications think about them and so it'll be really interesting to see kind of how that quarterback duel goes out and and really how they kind of how the first couple drives go like how they feel each other out as as teams yeah and looking at a Mike Elco defense they're they're adaptable they adjust you know his defense last year at Duke was only giving up 19 points per game and when they played Notre Dame the issue there that they had and part of the reason why they lost that game is they were giving up five yards per carry uh I don't think that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is going to be able to capitalize that on his Texas A&M defense this year they have too many weapons on on the defensive side to stop that that rush it is going to be a chess match uh I love defensive minded coaches and defensive minded games and you got two and uh you know Marcus Freeman and and Mike Elco yeah and and you talked about it earlier right it's the resources at Duke are different than A&M they're different than Notre Dame um you're G to get bigger players up front on the offensive line and the defensive line just given the funds given the The Prestige of the program uh you know A&M is a football school maybe a baseball school now with the uh the SEC or with the uh National College Ro series appearance but bringing it back to football there's bigger resources ATM and you saw that in some of the key pickups he made on defensive line you know getting uh Nico from Purdue uh you know Led Led to Big 10 and sacks and so he could potentially give um Riley Leonard Nightmares on in the game and also I really think about just you know where where is they're going to be an explosive player to show up for A&M they lost Evan Evan Neil or Evan Turner last year um at receiver he ultimately went over to Oregon so it'll be really to see kind of where they're able to fill that production in and um you know be ultimately see if they can pull out the win so although there's a lot of positive changes I think the elal era will be positive um I'm going to pick another name in this one I think you know having a veteran like Riley Leonard I would say he's going to be better than Sam Hartman I I think he just has you know one he's more mobile as a runner I think he is a little bit sharper just from his his football IQ um and and you saw him win some really key games last year beating Clemson week one um in the season and so I think he pulls his off at Notre Dame um but I do think it'll be pretty close yeah I think it's gonna be a close game I'm swinging the other way if this game was in Indiana I think the F Irish would be favored here I think Texas saym gets that home field advantage under the nightlights and College Station so give me a Texas A&M 2320 okay all right well like I said I I picked Notre Dame I guess I got to give my score um you know I'm GNA I'm gonna take Notre Dame 2814 all right big big hopes for the offense there it's going to be a quarterback battle who's going to get the yards who's going to be able to convert Downs I think we see a pretty strong defensive showing on both fronts but uh that's the that's the game of the week game day is going there we're excited to talk about it so uh and we're excited to brief it afterwards so yeah we're just excited to to really have football to talk about like I keep saying it but it's like it's here um we have football coming up in a couple days and then now we can sit down watch eat our best food you know get in front of our TV get in front of a bar go to a game if you're you're local right um if you're listening to this anywhere in the country go to a game and really be able to feel it so it'll be it'll be fun [Music] sh