Notre Dame Rundown - O-Line Issues, Captains Announced, Depth Matters

he [Music] IB Nation welcome to another edition of the Irish breakdown podcast I am your host Brian Driscoll joined today by all of you you guys are my co-host today and we are going to talk some Notre Dame football we're less than two weeks away folks from the kickoff the Notre Dame kickoff of the 2024 season we're less six days away from college football kicking off overall it's six days from now I don't know about you guys but I'm either going to be sitting here talking to you guys with the game on the the screen or I'm just going to be sitting on my couch watching Florida state Georgia Tech so we are six days away from college football kicking off actually you know what now that I think about it I'm I'm wondering if there might not be like a Thursday game or something like that the way that they schedule games nowadays but I believe Saturday is the official kickoff yep there's four games on Saturday Florida state Georgia Tech at noon Montana state New Mexico at 4: SMU Nevada at 88 and then Delaware State and Hawaii at midnight so college football is right around the corner I'm excited I know you guys are excited but still lots to talk about about this Notre Dame football team and we're gonna dive into several very interesting topics today as we get ready for this last week of noname prep shows so we'll talk obviously about more big picture stuff a little Texas A&M this week but next week Monday is when we will dive into our our our breakdown of the Notre Dame Texas A&M game we'll release our new lineup kind of what the shows are going to be what we're going to talk about just how everything is going to go so I'm excited about that still putting some finishing touches on some things but uh gonna be a very very fun season I just can't wait for it to get there I mean for me it's just one of those things where you know I look at this season and and there's such high expectations for who this what this team can be and you're at the point now where we've kind of talked it to death in certain areas you just want to find out who this team is going to be and one of the the good things about the kind of team that nerame starts the season off with is you get a bit of an idea of of okay you're you're not going to know for sure who Notre name is in the opener good or bad but it certainly gives you your first taste and we get a chance to figure out who this team is going to be so today we going to talk about some interesting topics for today at least I think they're interesting number one we're going to talk about captains the Notre Dame released their uh list Rec least five captains on on Sat Sunday and so we're gonna talk about that and then after we talk about the captains and then just leadership in general some of the you know things that that I'm I like about the leadership structure some of the questions that I still have about leadership for this football team I'm going to next dive into the offensive line lot going on there and I don't know that I've been able to kind of properly dive into it with everything that's kind of going on last week and and dive into just the latest news what it means you know just just a lot of the you know why why are we seeing what we're seeing good and bad gonna dive into that as well it's going to be very interesting and then the last part is there was a lot of talk on Saturday after the Jersey scrimmage uh and by the way I want to talk about the Jersey scrimmage tweet here in a second too but Freeman talked about it and Al golden talked about it and Mike denrock talked about it and then we've seen it in practices and I've told you guys look stop worrying about who's going to start somebody asked me a question about starting at a a thing I was speaking at this past week and I said look unlike in the past like you got to get out of your head who starts or who doesn't start it really doesn't matter as much anymore it's who's going to play because you're going to be going past one player at most positions outside of o line and quarterback and so we're going to get into that conversation and and talk about depth you know just kind of some of the comments that have been made about it and why it matters like why is it important Beyond some of the superficial things why does it matter that Notre Dame plays a lot of players where does it help Notre Dame to play a lot of players what are some of the potential pitfalls of playing a lot lot of players and how to make it work and then I'll talk a little bit about some of the positions where you should uh play a lot of players positions where you know may maybe you need to be a little bit concerned or at least be smart about it and then positions where I just don't think you should do it and then whether or not this plan is gonna GNA work out well for Notre Dame so that's the topic of conversations today gonna have fun with it gonna talk about some fun things tomorrow as well one of the topics tomorrow and I'm hoping to have Trevor Trowbridge on the show with me tomorrow but I'm gonna I'm going to pose the question tomorrow is Notre Dame entering a golden age of running back play have they already entered a golden age of running back play and uh another topic I'm going to have tomorrow is going to be very interesting I believe and that topic is going to be it was posed a question on the message board uh yesterday to me and not by me but to me and I thought this was a great topic of conversation to have for a show so actually I'm GNA I'm GNA look that up real quick and and try to find who that was because I want to give that person a shout it was Jimmy McGill is the person who who posed the question and I'm gonna turn it into a segment on the show and and basically talk about where is Notre Dame better right now than they were last year were they not as good right now based on what we know right now compared to last year I'm going to kind of look at a couple different ways is number one it's where are they better now where are they not as good right now based on what we thought of the team going into last year but then also where the team actually was during the season so it's gonna be very interesting conversation so uh shout out to Jimmy McGill on the message board the premium board for that posing that question and got me got me thinking about like hey this would be a really fun topic to talk about in the segment and then we may do a biso hold tomorrow I'm not quite sure if we're going to do that tomorrow or Wednesday because I would like to get Trevor in a bell hold but I don't want to do it Thursday because then that's right up next to the mailbag so we'll see I'll let you guys know and and if we do it I'll put it on the message board so that's going to be the uh topics for tomorrow so GNA be a fun week I think guys I'm I'm ready to rock and roll and uh let's get this thing going with uh with today's topics real quick um Trevor is one of the new hires yes and so uh we we did a mic check with him last week he was supposed to be on the show Thursday but then everything went crazy with Rita so he has not been able to be on the show yet but we are gonna we're g to get him on this week uh I think you guys are going to really like Trevor really sharp guy he's gonna most likely be part of the postgame production and and we'll talk more about that next week but um it's uh it's going to be good but before I get into the topics too I did want to kind of talk to you guys about something and I'm looking for some good feedback today in the chat so I'm hoping you guys are able to stay on topic a little bit today and uh did you guys see the video that Notre Dame put out on Sunday from the Jersey scrimmage uh gosh I gotta tell you I don't normally I don't normally get too fired up about that kind of stuff but man man watching so many different I mean just they look so athletic and but the did you guys see KRON young absolutely destroy a Don trer like like and that was like two plays after they're showing anas Williams like making people Miss like that was kind of one of the things that sparked my my thoughts about the the running back conversation for tomorrow but just watching some of the stuff you're like man this is going to be a fun year I don't know how good this team is going to be but this is going to be a really fun year and some of the things I you know I haven't been told a lot yet about the scrimmage but you know there's a lot of excitement about how things looked in the in the scrimmage on Saturday so getting close man I just but I just wanted to see if you guys saw that like that was and oh the last thing too for those of you in kind of my age group they're playing epmd's strictly it's not not um what you're saying which and they referenced the Strictly Business album which came out and song that came out the previous year strictly B Strictly Business came out in 1988 the song that they recorded what you're saying it came out 1988 I'm just saying I'm I mean I'm just saying y'all that's all I'm saying great video great track came out 1988 I'm just saying I'm just saying I don't know who else is drawing that parallel but me but I'm just saying and I'm that that's where my head is at right now today so I hope some of you picked up on that as well and had the same excitement that I did maybe it's just me maybe it was just me you know I'm just saying so we we'll see how all that plays out so for today's show let's dive into topic numer Uno Notre Dame released their list of captains on Sunday Notre Dame was talked asked Marcus notame head coach Marcus Freeman was asked about the captains on Saturday and he said that it would be released released soon soon ended up being the very next day Notre Dame released a list of five captains for this week and that's this season and that's always kind of one of the questions is okay how many captains were will there be there's been years where they've had one years they've had three five there was years they had more than five which I think gets to be a little too much but you you know you you had five captains not a ton of surprises couple little surprises that I'm going to talk about but overall I think this is a really quality group of captains I'm going to go through the five captains uh you I'm going to list Jack Kaiser was named a captain Xavier Watts was named a captain Riley Mills was named a captain Riley Leonard was named a captain and Benjamin Morrison was named a captain so I'm going to go through those five guys talk about those five talk about maybe some of the surprises that that maybe based on what we were thinking kind of over the summer gonna get into you know is it a concern that there's more defensive guys than offensive guy should they have done something to make it a little bit different that's another part of the conversation and then also the difference between leadership and being a captain and you you need one to be the other but you don't you need to be a leader to be a captain but you don't have to be a captain to be a leader and I'm going to talk about that and and get into that conversation as well so uh looking at the five number one begin with Jack Kaiser I'm going to go oldest to youngest from the class the class that they're in and number one Jack Kaiser was named a captain this is expected Jack Kaiser came back as a sixe senior Jack has played a lot of football at Notre Dame he's been a starter really since 2021 has played a ton of snaps and he's also been very productive during his Notre Dame career as well as as we've talked about last season Jack tied for the team lead in Solo tackles and was third on the team in total tackles despite being 12th on the defense in snaps think about that he was tied for the team lead in Solo tackles third on the team in total tackles and yet he was 12th on the defense in total snaps last season that that a lot of production Jack is also someone who's been a special team stalwart and stalwart in his career has played over 1,00 snaps during his Notre name career on defense has played over 800 snaps in his career on special team so you're talking about a guy that enters the season with over 2,000 care snaps so not a big shock that Jack Kaiser was named the team captain for Notre aame and also it's just a guy that you look at as sort of a leader type of player and someone that you think I think most of us for his work on defense and his work on special teams somebody said you know why don't they have a special teams Captain this year I was like well they they kind of do it's Jack Kaiser you know what I mean because you know yeah he's a starting linebacker but with the rotation that they're going to use it doesn't there's no reason that you should take Jack off some of the Special Teams where he's at his best and I think that'll continue so Jack Kaiser was probably there were two guys that I was most certain of there were other guys I thought would be Captain some were some weren't but there were two that I was absolutely locked in and thought no doubt would be captains and Jack Kaiser was one of those players the second captain that we're going to discuss is also someone that I fully anticipated being a captain that's Xavier Watts you know it it's been such a it's such a great story Xavier's story is so is is great came in as a three star kid by National Services we had him as a top 100 caliber player or I did as a top 100 caliber player starts on offense you know we hear great things from other players and parents about how good he is but then they don't give him a shot to play and they start moving him around back and forth he's playing both ways first they move him the linebacker then they move him to Nickel then they move him to safety and it really wasn't until last year that he got the a a 100% defensive player for the entire year even in 2 2022 he ended up not playing uh receiver but he practiced it a decent amount in in the spring and fall camp and you know got his first real taste of being a regular on the in the defensive rotation last year breaks out first Year's a full-time starter monster year for Notre Dame leads the nation ties for the nation lead led the nation through the regular season in inter interceptions he ended up having eight turnovers last Force last or eight turnovers last year seven interceptions and then a fumble recovery all eight of them ended up in touchdowns and this from a guy that has now twice decided to stick it out at Notre Dame the first time was when he was getting and I'll just be honest I'll just say it I said it to people at the time I probably said it in shows he got screwed as a wide receiver he flat out should have played a wide receiver for Notre Dame he got screwed he got jerked around people weren't honest with him uh wasn't coached up in a way that he should have been coached up and instead of leaving he said I'm going to stick it out I made a commitment I'm gonna stick it out and no and and he wasn't happy about things that were going on they asked him to move the defense he's like hey I'll do whatever I need to do moves over the defense Ultimate Team player time finally comes he gets his chance to go make an impact and he makes it he could have easily unanimous All-American n leads the nation in interceptions you Bronco nersi Award winners the nation's best defense as hot as he could be as a prospect he could have gone to the NFL and said hey I'm gonna take my chance NFL I'm gonna get my money I'm gonna start my professional career and and he says Nope I have some unfinished business now yes part of that unfinished business bu unfinished business is there are things he knows he needs to improve on as a player but the other part of it is there were things that mattered to him winning a national championship improving his game but also being a captain and one one of the things like Xavier's a a naturally like he he's not shy but he's quiet he's not a super talkative guy but this off season he's taken on a big leadership role talking to people inside the program very different player still not a Non-Stop you know you're not going to confuse him with Jaden Mickey you know guys like that at all but a much more of a of a vocal leadership role on top of being a leader by example so from the things I've heard about Xavier Watts this offseason I would have been absolutely floored shocked stunned if he wasn't a captain so him being named a captain makes total sense and he's absolutely earned it Jack earned it Xavier's absolutely they've all earned it but Xavier watts is a testament to why just because you're not happy in the moment doesn't mean you should jump in the portal because who knows how things would have turned out for Xavier if he would have jumped in the portal sometimes it's okay to to kind of work through things that aren't going well for you instead of just cutting tail and running which is what we've advocated for in college football nowadays hey if you don't like your lot in life if you're not getting paid enough if you're not getting enough playing time as a freshman or sophomore just go ahead and leave go somewhere else and Xavier watts is one of many examples of you s look and say hey maybe that's not always the best thing and and you know Xavier Watson Benjamin Morrison being captains in the same year is evidence that there are a lot of different ways to become a star there's a lot of different ways to become a Captain one guy the day he arrived was a a dude I mean just the day he arrived and then the other guy it took three three four years before him to really become a factor but now going into 2024 they combined to form one of the best secondaries in college football and they're both captains got their very different paths and I just want to remind young people of that don't no one for in college sports just any young people listening to my show there's a this is common Xavier Watts's story is a lot more common than the other and you may not like like your in life but keep pushing forward keep working stay focused believe in yourself and your time will come and Xavier Watts exemplifies that another guy that that has been someone who's been kind of moved around a lot during his career is Riley Mills who's also named a captain this one was a little bit of a surprise for me not that I don't think Riley has leadership ability and things that we were told this offseason he certainly took on more of a leadership responsibility but but I just I didn't see Captain being the end result for his off season and it's cool that it is and and and I'm not upset about it I don't think it's a bad thing it's just being honest it was it was not on my you know predictions per se for who were going to be team captains I thought it' be Riley Mills that was sort of the lead by example guy not necessarily Captain but he was named a captain and you know just another guy that you look at and say big things are needed from him this season you know as a player and then now obviously after being named a captain as a leader and it's going to be very important that he continue to to make those strides as a leader but also the play has got to follow and that's a big thing as well and what you see from these first you know the there's four returners that are captains and then one newcomers that that is a captain the good thing about the four guys that are captains is they're all really good football players there's nobody who was named a captain and you're like ah great kid you know but but you know not not one of your best players these guys are your best players you know but for the most part not not entirely but for the most part are your best players and I think that's always an important part of being a captain so Riley Mills is a captain you now your first three on defense as we talked about you really have a well and and actually I'm gonna talk about Riley Leonard last I'm gonna go to Benjamin Morrison next just so we can I can make a point but Benjamin Morrison is another guy that I I kind of thought was going to be named to Captain uh you never know because he's just a junior would he kind of foll in the Kiren Williams and the Kyle Hamilton and those type of guy type of players role as a junior Captain he obviously was was named a captain he's always been a very mature player uh you know what you heard about him when he first showed up was very focused kid very business-like in his approach you know just just very driven just this is the goal in front of me and I'm working towards it but this offseason has taken on more of a vocal role now not so much the raah raah guy but more involved more leading more being willing to talk to people encourage people demand things from people and I think those things all play into why Benjamin Morrison was named a captain I don't from what I've been told about Benjamin this off season I do not believe this is a situation where hey let's get our best player a captain role which we have seen in recent years this is something that I believe was a combination of our best player arguably our best player has emerged as a leader and it makes sense to make him a cath even though he's just a junior that's my understanding of where this one came from or at least my my uh what I believe have happened based on things that I've been told now I also think that this was based on a vote the players vote the head coach has ultimate a say on it I don't know which of these were these are just I mean it could have been these are the top five vote Getters it could be a situation where maybe there was three that were above everybody else and two that they lifted up or four or five I don't know but I think this was going to be a a situation where Benjamin Morrison was going to be a captain whether his teammates voted on it or whether the coach has assigned it because you just want your best player who has who is an example for how to go about your business every day as someone you can kind of lift up and say that's an example of what a leader is in our football team and and Xavier watt certainly exemplifies that and and so those are the four returners that were named captains for Notre Dame in 2024 now there's one player that was is not a returner that was named to Captain that's Riley Leonard the quarterback and this is an interesting one you know so I'm making my notes before the show and I'm like looking at my notes because I'm I'm trying to stay you know kind of on schedule and not not get you guys know how I can get right I can kind of go all over the place if I don't have some structure to what I'm doing this is one that that so for each guy like expected expected bit of a surprise expected this one I I put I didn't know if I it was expected or hoped for and and those things are kind of similar uh feelings right is I would say if I had to be honest and really think about it I I'd probably say that that Riley Leonard being a captain was more for me hoped for than expected a quarterback does not need to be a captain to be a leader we talked about this back in 20121 with Jack con but it's even better when he is and and you know then you think okay will he be able to emerge as a leader when he doesn't really have the spring to to practice and prepare and all these other type of things and and you know Steve angelli is a really well-like guy and is that gonna and from what I've been told it created no issues Riley Leonard showed up a lot like Sam Hartman did last year hey I'm one of the guys I'm not going to Big Time people I'm gonna work my butt off and and just really was embraced quickly in the locker room that was true of Sam last year in the offse season it was also true of Riley this year so it's not a surprise that he was named a captain but it's it's it's still encouraging nonetheless to have your quarterback be a captain for your football team and and and to have be a guy that kind of came in late meaning senior year lot of hype around him money deals being thrown at him you know lot of lot of rumors about how much money he's making all this kind of stuff you know potential high draft pick all the and he just has come in and said hey I didn't come here for all that I came here to work I came here to win and and it's it's a great opportunity for him but to to emerge and grab that Captain's role right away I think is very big for Riley Leonard and it's interesting too I was I was thinking about this as I was prepping the show and when you look at this Notre Dame football team I believe this is the this is the first time since 2021 that Notre Dame doesn't have a two time actually you know what uh let me because Avery Davis was a captain in 2021 and 2022 so you definitely had a two-time captain in 2022 you had a two-time captain in actually you had two two-time captains 2022 you also had Jarett Patterson and then I believe Kurt heines was a two-time captain at Notre Dame as well I believe I could be wrong on that one but I believe this is the first time since 2021 that Notre Dame has because I I actually I don't I don't think think that Kurt hinish was a two-time captain I think about it I know he's a captain in 2021 but I'm not sure about 2020 I'll have to look that up actually let me let me work on finding that while I'm I'm making this other point but this is the first time since at the very latest uh 2021 that Notre Dame goes into a season without a a an established Captain already on the team and obviously last year you had JD bur ran and this has actually happened quite a bit for Notre Dame in in uh in past Seasons where they have had a lot of multiple captains on their football team and and you know you think of like Robert hanesy and and Mike mcglen I believe was a two-time captain but this this is not something that's necessarily been um a a prominent thing for n you Robert Kurt hinish was not a two-time captain but in 2020 you had Robert hanesy was a two-time captain so you know you've had multiple years where you've had two-time captains on your football team so in the last years this is just the second time that you've had a a group of five where you didn't have someone who was a two-time captain so L new leadership is emerging and it it can be good it can it can have its drawbacks but it also I think has a lot of good things especially when your previous team maybe didn't live up to the expectations that you had it's almost a little bit as if it's like a bit of a fresh start and and so those are your five captains the only really big surprise that I had of a guy that wasn't named a captain just for me is I I kind of assumed that Howard cross was going to be a captain now Howard's not a real vocal guy he's a lead by example guy and I just kind of thought he'd be that D tackle that was kind of stepped up not that Riley didn't deserve it or that I'm shocked that Riley Mills got it but just more like if I was Voting or I mean if I was predicting the voting I would have probably predicted that it would have been Howard cross as opposed to Xavier Watts you know there's other concerns about you know there's only one of the five captains as an offensive guy and that's a new guy that's actually not at all surprising you know we've talked about some potential Captain type of guys on offense I I don't view Mitchell Evans as a captain I think Mitchell Evans is a really good player I don't view him as a guy that's Captain material not that he's anything negative just not every good player good person as a captain also with his injury history I would be a little nervous about making him a captain then look at other guys that have Captain traits I think Jaden Thomas certainly has Captain traits Pat cougan I believe has Captain traits but they're not top players and they may not even start for no name this year and and Jaden Thomas will play no matter what but it's not it it's just one of those things where you know Pac hugan may not start you can't have a backup offensive lineman be named a t a captain you just it's just not what you want to do because you know and and it's a good time to to talk about this because we were just I just was asked in the chat like what what are the things that got to go into being a captain and there's a lot of things that go into being a captain number one there's obviously in games you're there for the coin toss when there's a an issue on the field the ref goes to a captain a designated Captain so if there's like three guy four guys on defense there's one that he'll go to in the middle of a game you know there's different aspects of of leadership involved in addressing players accountability in the locker room captains are at the end of the day held responsible for is are is are we as a team doing what we need to do are you making sure that the culture of the program is where it needs to be are you holding people accountable if you're a captain and you just want to be liked by everybody you're probably not going to be a very good Captain if you're not willing to maybe say and do some hard things at times you know there there's different obligations when it comes to Media meeting people talking to people you represent the university Beyond just you're a player at Notre Dame or starter at Notre Dame so there's a lot of things to go into it you're extension of the Notre Dame coaching staff in a lot of ways and and so you've got to be guys that have some maturity to you you've got to be guys that have some some willingness to to speak and address things at times and it's like I remember talking to a notame offensive lineman and they were talking about what kind of Captain Quinton Nelson was and they were like you know Quinton wasn't a captain because he was in front of the room given rahr speeches Quinton was a captain for two reasons number one great great worker great player like he set the example of that's how that's what greatness looks like from a work ethic standpoint that that that was number one but number two Quinton wouldn't talk like all the time like he wasn't like Mike Mike mcglinchy was the talker Mike mcglinchy was the inspirational speaker and the guy that stood in front of a room and hey guys and Quinton Nelson was the guy that when you weren't doing what you needed to do Quinton was going to be in your face and you didn't want that there's lots of different types of leadership but it all goes down to you are responsible for the character and the culture of this football team almost on the same level as the Notre name coaches it really is that that it's that to me important as a captain to be that and if your captains aren't ones that are leading and how they go about their business every day then your team is going to struggle and and so those are things that that I look at that are important for captains and and it's hard for me to say like well that guy's going to be an effective Captain when he's not playing like how can you be a leader on the field when you're on the sideline the entire time you know it it's just there's different aspects to it now you know some guys can be like special teams like Bo Bower was not a starter of the year he was a captain but he was still a captain why because he was basically a starter on special teams and and the other thing I'm I'm seeing some comments in the in the chat guys this isn't a this isn't a a seniority award okay if you don't understand the difference between one guy's been here for a year and the other guy's been here for four years why is this guy a captain because he acts like a captain because he is a captain because he is a leader just because you've been here four years and you're a talented player doesn't mean you deserve or you are a captain caliber player some guys just need to go play that's it some guys just need to go play doesn't mean they're bad guys let me you need to be a c you got to earn that and not every guy that's a senior earns that and not every newcomer should be denied that simply because he's a newcomer there's a reason the players voted on this and there's a reason why fans don't and shouldn't have a say in this it's about the culture of the football team and if the players look at a newcomer and see the work he puts in and the attitude he has and all the things that he does as a leader and they say that's a captain then we should respect that as fans and say they might know a little bit more than we do about what's going on in that locker room and this guy has earned that captaincy not every transfer has become a Captain Jack con was not a captain doesn't mean he wasn't respected because he was he was just a different kind of guy he was more quiet he was a lead by example guy Sam Hartman was different Riley Leonard is different what matters is that the players respect the play guys that were named captains and any you talk to anybody around the program and they'll tell you that Riley Leonard is absolutely someone who acts like a captain conduct FS himself like a captain and is respected as a captain and that's what was needed so now flip side of that is it a concern for me that you don't have more captains from the offense it's not a concern that you don't have more captains because as I said most of your veterans are not your best players the exception of Mitchell Evans okay and Mitchell is a dude just do your job you're good just you know get healthy go do your job a lot of the other veterans are guys that aren't guaranteed to be starters and and then then the other situation is a lot of your more experienced starters are also transfers at other positions you've got Paul Collins who could potentially start you've got Chris Mitchell who's going to come in and start outside of that your starting lineup based on what we s again this may not be the starting lineup I'm just going to use from what we most recently saw you have a senior quarterback a sophomore running back who's going to be onea 1B with a junior running back a senior tight end who we've talked about hasn't played more than what eight games each the last two years because of injuries you have your receiving core is fifth year transfer sophomore senior who's going to rotate a lot with maybe a senior transfer your offensive line left to right is going to be freshman red shirt freshman red shirt sophomore red shirt sophmore red shirt sophomore you're this is a young this is a overall a young offensive team team with the exception of a couple transfers there's only one as of as of Saturday based on what we saw again a lot could change but based on the most recent availability there's only one vet senior in the Notre Dame starting lineup that's not new and that's Mitchell Evans so I'm not surprised that there's not more than one captain on offense be nice if it happened but I'm not surprised by it what what I do think needs to happen happen however is we do need to see some more leadership emerge on offense because here's another piece of this you have your captains who kind of serve their rols over the top over the whole team and then also their side of the ball but every single room needs leadership you need someone to emerge as a leader on at running back doesn't have to be Jeremiah lover J Darian price it'd be nice if it was but it maybe it's Devon Ford you know receiver same thing who's the guy that becomes the leader in that room yeah Jaden Thomas may not be a starter at wide rece or a captain at receiver but that doesn't mean he can't become the leader in the receiver room whether he's starting or not playing a bunch or not you know who becomes that guy could it be a guy like Jaden greous who's a younger player I don't know offensive line there's no no one in the offensive line should be a captain right now nobody because all your veteran players Tosh Baker's a fifth year senior Pac hugan and Rocko spinler seniors they may not even start but somebody's got a lead is it Ashton Craig is it Billy schra is it Emil Wagner you know is it is it still Tosh or cougan even though they're if they're not starting can they still be leaders those are those are all questions need to be answered now on defense you've got a captain at corner Captain a d tackle Captain a linebacker and a captain at safety it's kind of easy the other nice thing about the defense too is you've got the four captains but you've got another guy on defense that we thought should was going to be a captain in in in Howard cross and you've got two other guys on on this on this team that are going to start or at least play a lot that were captains be previously so when you look at Jordan Clark he was a captain last season at Arizona State when you look at um I'm drawing a blanket Rod herd he was also a captain last year for um Northwestern so you have guys that were that were leaders that were captains at other places that also bring a lot of experience and a lot of leadership to the depth chart on defense now obviously don't have as much about saying that on on offense but that's what's going to be a NE somebody's gonna have to step up this season on offense within each position group and and sort of become leaders of that room who's setting the tone in the weight room who's who's making making sure that guys are locked in and prepared in the meeting room because like here's an example of what a leader does not a captain but a leader you're going into your film your your film session right and and I don't know maybe they ask guys to take notes I don't I don't know what the technology is like I haven't coached in a decade so I don't know if but we always had guys had notepads a leader in the room makees sure that he's there well before it gets there he demands his teammates be there early and when everybody sits down he's like everybody got your pens or let's say they have their everybody got their their pads you everybody got their you know whatever has everybody got this did everybody get this taken care of all right we're good all right coach let's rock and roll and you're ready to go really before the the coach gets going he coach shouldn't have to do all that a coach shouldn't walk in to a position group say okay everybody got their pads everybody got their pens everybody got their playbooks whatever whatever you need that's something the leadership needs to be part of the leadership needs to take that over and say hey we are going to hold each other account for this you it can't be Lauren Lando and his staff that are getting on guys in a position group for not putting in the effort of the focus or not putting weights away or doing just even little things you're supposed to do the like you know you've got great leadership when I was a coach I knew I had great leadership when I didn't have to really do a lot of that self-discipline of the little things hey man you just finished with that rack take the weights off put them back where they're supposed to go no those are tens you put it on the tens like those are things they may not seem like a big deal but that attention to detail you know you're you're the guy that that you don't need to coach to find out a guy was late to class or a guy's not paying attention to class you're pulling that guy aside saying hey man I'm hearing this what's going on get your head out of your you know what this is what we're trying to do don't don't be a stumbling block to that and or something POS hey man look I know it's tough I was there freshman but you got to do this you got to do this hey go see such and such person in in the in the acade MC thing they'll help you out they'll do this they'll do that type of thing right you you need to have that that's what leadership is and and that has to be established beyond the five captains that's something needs to be established in each and every room and that's going to be the final piece of leadership that we need to see and Al golden had a quote on Saturday that I thought was interesting and he said this he says look there's going to be some captains but we have way more leaders than captains everybody has the potential to lead even when I try to send notes to the defensive guys that are part of that leader group it's a big number and it's not just seniors there's guys that you're grooming that are sophomores or Juniors that have a chance to be leaders again there's leaders of great teammates as long as there's no third parties we're going to be in great shape and and that's the thing is like you love to hear that because you you see them not focus on the present but you're also seeing on focus on the future and that's very very important but leadership is needed Beyond just the five captains and the more guys you have that are leaders but understand their role so if I'm herd yeah I'm a leader on this team but when it comes down to who's talking in the room if Xavier's talking I'm gladly taking a back seat because he's a captain but Xavier can't always be everywhere so I'm gonna step up too so there's all those type of things that go into being a leader as well and just because Riley Mills is the captain doesn't mean he has to be the one that's always doing there's going to be a leadership role for Howard cross and how he's going to be asked to do so th those are all parts that go into making a football team that go beyond what's your height weight 40 bench experience level production level and the best teams in my opinion especially the best Notre name teams are teams that have great leadership and that and great leadership goes beyond just the captains and that's going to be the final piece to this puzzle that we're going to see emerge here over the next several months is who is that leader there was no leader in the receiver room last year partly because your coach wasn't a leader and and kind of neutered some of the guys that maybe could have had that role we've seen guys in the position groups in the past where there really was no leadership in that room if you don't have that you're gonna have big problems and those big problems are going to end up costing you football games because if you think that you cannot have attention to detail in the wait room in the locker room and your dorm and and all these type of things about certain aspects and then you're just going to flip that switch on when you play Bama you're sadly mistaken it's got to be more of a permanent part of what you do and how you go about your business every day and you've need more than five captains to make sure that that's going on in the locker room and that so that's why I was very encouraged by some of the free coach Freeman comments and coach Golden comments about hey look captains are great but leadership goes beyond captains and that's something that we're going to see it's still an evolution of this football team to see how that goes especially now that captains are named and certain guys okay I was not named to Captain this is my role I'm going to embrace it let's get ready to rock and roll or does somebody kind of their feelings and and all those typee of things can be a can be an issue as well from what I know this team I don't believe that's an issue right now but we'll see how it kind of plays out as they go along is who are the who steps up as the leaders in the room Mitchell Evans may not be a captain but they need him to to to be a good example in a leader in that tight end room or is it somebody else that steps up and sees that role always going to be an interesting thing that but you need leaders in every room and it can't just always be the coaches so I and I think that's especially true on offense it's not a problem on Def defense in my opinion it could it needs to be something that evolves on offense and I'm curious to see who those guys are so that's going to do it for segment one folks do me a favor hit that like button hit that subscribe button hit the notification Bell share this podcast give us a Fest star review on whatever platforms you guys are are are listening to Irish breakdown on we would greatly appreciate that as always sign up for the message board at boards IR breakdown. comom got some great stuff going on great conversation and and uh you know our our content package is going to be a little different this year uh during the season I'm going to produce a little less front page content and I'm going to produce more uh me me premium members content only so you're GNA want to make sure that you're are part of that by signing up at boards. Irish breakdown. comom no Dame's offensive line is a big topic of conversation this year obviously and no Dame's offensive line honestly is always a big topic of conversation and should always be a big topic of conversation but it's the question is what's it a big top what what is the topic of conversation and right now I'm goingon to say something and almost when you say it it's kind of like this is weird but the biggest question mark at Notre Dame this season is the offensive line now that's that in itself isn't weird that's true for other teams that's arguably the biggest concern that Texas A&M has but Notre Dame's kind of like right don't we all pride ourselves from you know o lineu that type of thing and and the biggest concern for o lineu going into the season is the o line and it's been an interesting year for for sure like like I don't know that I expected both Joe Al and Blake fiser to go pro after last year if Blake fiser doesn't go Pro we're not worried at all about the offensive line right now in my opinion anyway and and then you have Charles Jaga go down and there's just been sort of some tough breaks when you look at the for for this team it's great for Blake that he went got drafted the second round obviously great for Joey went in the top five but not necessar great for this team especially when you lose Charles jagas you look at yourself where a lot of your your your older players aren't necessarily your most talented guys because your most talented you know like you say well you know Jeff Quinn did a bad job recruiting Because you know his senior class doesn't have anybody that's really a GameChanger well it it's because two guys left and went pro and were taking number five overall number 48 overall like you know what I mean like uh it's not so much bad recruiting it's just you know you you don't expect to lose two true juniors in the offensive line of the NFL draft it just just it's not usually what happens but in this case it did and and there has been some recruiting woses which can happen or some misses that can happen when you when you struggle at times in a class when you only bring in two guys in a class which is true for the fifth year senior class that was the bigger recruiting mistakes was that class and some of the guys you missed out on in that class more so than than necessarily 2021 where you know you've got two starters last year from that class actually four of your five starters last on the old line were all from the 2021 class two are battling to start again two of them went pro and were taken in the first two rounds and then after that it's a bit of a younger group right and and you you go into this season your 22 class is starting to take over a little bit more now your your 22 class is going to have at least three starters in it right now and you could potentially have a guy from the 23 class and a guy from the 24 class starting this year so it's a younger group and it's a concern and and as I talked about this summer you do not want to be in a situation where you are incredibly Young on the offensive line it's not ideal can you win that way sure you can but it's not ideal I'd actually have to go back and do some research and find like who are some of the younger offensive lines that have had success and and and say you know which semi-in what final four teams what championship teams were able to win despite having going into the year with a lot of a lack of experience in the offensive line I I don't know who that would be so that's a big concern and then potentially your two most experienced guys aren't going to start and and so that's a look it's a concern it's a concern that o that o line is an issue for o line U and it's G to have to get fixed really quickly and this is especially true for the 2024 season and there's always the Mantra of what you know NES always needs to be good on along the offensive line all right cool I agree no name should always be good on the offensive line but let's be honest Hest there are other years where it's even more important than than normal and this is one of those years because when I when I look at when I look at the the schedule and you think about okay what are the parts of the of the opposing team opposing schedule that that prove most concerning there's obviously teams but are there any themes are there any patterns well really good dment is a pattern on Notre Dame schedule for 2024 and I'm looking at you know the preseason AP All-American list and I'll have an article about it after the show but first of all I I almost had almost went off a little bit because I'm going through the list and I look at the safeties for the first team it's Malachi Starks and Caleb DS then I look at the safeties for the second team and I'm like it's Dylan dynaman and Billy Bowman like did they seriously not have Xavier then okay Xavier watts is that listed as a defensive back so he was a preseason first team All-American but I'm looking at it and you see two defensive lineman from notame opponents that are on the um or you two yeah two two defensive linemen on the all opponent list it's Nick scouton from from uh Texas A&M is is on the second team and Ashton gelot from Louisville's on the first team you also have Patrick pton at Florida State and Marvin Jones at Florida State they're gonna be a very good Duo you know and obviously Nick scouton is not a onean show just like ashon gelott is not a oneman show USC should be better along the dline this year not just with some guys coming back but you've got better coaching now along your dline there's a lot of things that that go into like looking at the schedule it's like it's con Miami's got a really good defensive end Miami of Ohio has a really good defensive end that was on on my second Team all opponent team Florida state has the two Edge players but they also have Josh Farmer at D tackle and then they've got a a big nose tackle it's like 320 330 pounds that they got from Miami last year they got hurt before the season and he's healthy now so it it's in in Oregon State's top defensive end from last year the the Simone kid who who Notre Dame went against the bowl game he transferred floor said he's part of their dline rotation so that's why it's an even bigger concern for me is because not only is it a concerning troubling area for Notre Dame because of the lack of experience and uncertainty and size it's also concerning because that is without a doubt the the the best part of your opposing schedule is the dline and so you look at two things working against Notre Dame's offensive line number one lack of experience based on what we saw in the most recent practice I'm only using this as an example I don't think the offensive line has been set I don't from the people I talk to I do not believe it's been set that doesn't mean the guys that we did saw in the last practice won't be starters I'm just telling you it's it hasn't been said it hasn't been said at left tackle hasn't been set at left guard but let's say that is the starting offensive line so it's Anthony knp left tackle true freshman Sam Pendleton left guard red shirt freshman Ashton Craig Center red shirt sophomore Billy shr Right Guard red shirt sophomore and you have Emil Wagner right tackle red shirt sophomore you have zero career starts zero career starts three career starts three career starts zero career starts so if that lineup is in fact your starting lineup going into this season then you're talking about a football team that goes into the year with six career starts among them that's cons there's no way to spend that that's concerning that is a that is a negative the other part of it is you have you have two tackles that are listed right now in the N debt chart at 290 Pounds you don't see that very often the Zack Martins and the Robert ha are are kind of rare to what we've expected in the past that's the downside and and that can't be ignored it also have to look at the fact that at the most if that group starts you're going to have three weeks of that group working together if that's not the starting lineup then you have less than three weeks of that group working together and going into a game where they're going to face one of the best defensive lines that they're going to face all season and in a group that in my opinion is an easy top 10 to 15 uh offensive line now let's talk about some of the the the issues for this because I'm going to start off with what's the bad news and then we'll get into what I think is is the good news and what all this means when you have a group that hasn't played together a lot whether they're inexperienced or veterans but they haven't played each other a lot communication could be a concern communication on the offensive line results in mistakes not blocking a three technique I thought you had him you thought I had him I thought we were working together you didn't think we were working together next thing you know I'm attacking the inside shoulder of a guy thinking I got help outside I don't have help he Powers right through me and makes the play now I may have been right he may have been right reality is if we're not both right somebody's making a play you know you talk about the cohesion the timing hey we know we're both know we know we're working a double team together but the more you do double teams together the more your timing works it's like pick and rolls right like if you're a basketball fan pick and rolls man like man people that been played together for a while and those pick and rolls man they are rocking and rolling you know they are they're setting picks I mean there's just I know whether to bounce it throw a dart lob it up are you gonna are you GNA dunk it I mean it's the same P first day that they were doing pick and rolls together probably didn't go that well right it takes time to get that I mean timing down to where that feel of hey I know when to leave and go to the next level I know when to leave to get off to that linebacker sometimes you leave too soon sometimes you leave too late and in a matter of in football if you leave a second too soon or a second too late that could be enough to blow the play up that's why there's a lot of concerns about why a young offensive line and a and a group that hasn't played together a lot is a concern and you know you see that in the opener against the team they're going to face it's a problem it's certainly a problem now on the flip side let's talk about the good number one this is still a talented group yes it's undersized but it's talented you start with Anthony I'm going left to right start Anthony knap now I had Anthony knap graded as a three and a half star player last year coming out of the season I believe Ryan hadam high is a top 300 caliber guy a three and a half star for me is like that low fourstar not ranked in the top 250 kind of fourstar my upside grade however was four and a half 4.5 star which is that of a a top 50 player now I didn't think that he was going to play tackle because that's not what they recruited him to play uh but there's there's a guy that's got some Talent I'll just kind of read you what my evaluation of him last year was said I wasn't high on nap when he originally Comm in under her name but his senior film was more impressive nap is an athletic lineman there's no doubt about that and he showed me a lot more physicality as a senior that plays with an edge and he will battle in the Run game is under sized and that's my biggest concern and why he grades as as the lowest ranked player in the offensive class his overall skill set is good which is why his why his upside grade is high nap does have really long arms for a guy who isn't that tall which combines with a strong athletic profile and quickness to make him an effective Edge player and pass protection I just want to see him Bend his knees a little bit more and so uh there's a lot to like about him but the size was a concern and he's still at 290 it's still a concern but the upside was high you knew that if if the if the weight doesn't become an issue this kid has a chance to be very good that's almost identical to my evaluation of of ail Wagner I had a meal as a four-star top 250 player with a fstar upside grade and you know you talk about the talent and the athleticism and the P the natural power the concern was could he get big enough to hold up but a five-star upside guy no doubting the upside let's go to left guard and the player that I had left guard this past season actually let me just make sure that I that my that grade for an Anthony nap was updated actually I believe that it was yeah three and a half star four and a half star all right then we go to Sam Pendleton who had great senior film graded him as a top 200 recruit coming out of high school four-star player four and a half star upside grade guy that was I I was very high on a guy that I liked quite a bit coming out you he his athleticism popped more as a senior he was always powerful I thought thought he struggled at Center he just wasn't able to play with the power at Center that you needed him to and the one thing that I said the first day we saw him at guard is he looked so much more comfortable at guard than he does Center because at guard he can just come off and play Big Boy football and I know he's just a red shirt freshman but Sam penlon is strong and powerful for a red sh freshman he is a guy that is is is like I'm not concerned about Notre Dame's uh size inside right I that's not one that I'm overly concerned about I'm not concerned about Sam Pendleton's size it's the tackle position where I'm concerned about the size you know Sam Pendleton by Notre name is listed as 64305 he may be a little bigger than that but he's a strong player that's a lot more mobile when he's playing guard you know but again another guy with four and a half star upside coming out of high school then you move to Ashton Craig another guy very similar profile to to Anthony nap I graded him as a four-star top 250 player four and a half star upside again that of a top 50 player and he's a guy that I again the question was going to be could he gain and keep the weight and play at a higher weight and obviously Ashton showed last year did that so four and a half star upside four and a half star upside four and a half star upside and then you get to Right Guard and it's the best play of the bunch I gred Billy shra is a top 100 recruit coming out of high school and I wasn't alone Rivals and on three also both ranked him as a top 100 player coming out of high school guy that's got everything you want he's got size he's got power he's got athleticism no name list him at 65 315 she's a shade under 65 he's probably 6'4 and a half 315 moves well his quickness pops he plays different than other guys and and is another guy that when you look at your two guards you've got big physical get after it run game players a guard if Sam penon is that guy if Rocco's that guy it's the same thing but Sam the difference between Sam Pendleton and Rocco and Pat cougan is Sam Pendleton's more athletic than those guys Billy's significantly more athletic than those guys and then at right tackle you've got Emil Wagner who I gave a festar upside grade to so the con is you're young you're inexperienced that's a huge con the the pro is that yeah but you're talented there's a lot of talent there which of those dominates as the season goes on is going to determine how good this line can be flat out but here's the other thing that that's that's you got to talk about when we're having this conversation and and you look at it and say why is Notre Dame making this decision what was it that we criticized Joe Rudolph for last year Well I I'll speak for myself I don't know what you guys did what was my biggest criticism of Joe Rudolph last year on the offensive line and there were several that I lobbied his way lobbed his way it the biggest one was I don't think he had real competitions I think he went into the season and just said we're gonna start the veterans we're gonna start Rocco we're start cougan even though I thought by far Billy stth was their most talented offensive line we're gonna start we're gonna start Zeke Carell at Center we're start cougan and and uh um Rocco at guard because they're veterans they're juniors they know what they're doing they know the offense better than Billy schra and Ashton Craig and the other young players they know it better right and and I hammered them for it all year and I complained about I said you need to have a plan you should had Billy St working in ETC ETA ETA that was the beef right and then all offseason we I said again I'm speaking for myself I said I don't care who starts as long as there's an honest competition that's all I care about my fear is that he was just going to plug the veterans in there again and play right when when when jagas saww went down and it was assumed that Tosh Baker was going to be starter everybody's fired up well you're just putting in the veteran why aren't you doing this why aren't you doing that well isn't Joe Rudolph kind of giving us what we wanted or at least what I wanted and maybe people who felt the same way that I did look we we were pissed at him last year for just playing veterans that maybe weren't that good you can't then get pissed at him again when he's just playing a bunch of young guys who are just way more talented than the veterans right you can say well maybe there's a happy medium but there really isn't on this roster there really isn't a you know um there isn't that okay well let's just go settle for the red shirt junr or the red shirt sophomore that is better than this guy well that's not the case this is where we're at because if you're not going to play one of the two seniors at guard your options are two red shirt freshmen well really three red shirt freshman Sam Pendleton Sullivan abure or Christopher T that that's it unless you want to play a true freshman so when I look at it it's like isn't this kind of what we wanted or at least what I wanted I know some of you didn't agree with me on that that's fine and we'll find out but my whole thing was play the the the if it's close play the more talented player now if it's there's a huge gap you play the veteran who gets the job done but if it's close you play the younger player that's kind of what I wanted play the talent and that's what he's doing he's playing the if this is the route he goes now for all we know you go out there against Texas A&M and starting offensive line is Tosh Baker at left tackle and Pat hugan left guard that guys that could very well happen and and then we'll be complaining about well you're not starting the more talented player and and that's just kind of where we're at with this so I'm actually somewhat encouraged by it I I had a bit of a different take when I saw Pendleton and Anthony knp out there my my take was more of oh wow like they're just kind of going with the guys that that they think are more talented you know and and you know I I look I've done some digging on this and I'm I'll share it in the chat I won't even just say this for the for the message board but when I I asked several sources like okay is Anthony knp battling because Tosh isn't playing well or is Anthony knp just playing that well and the answer was this has nothing to do with TSH not do TSH has done everything we expected him to do Anthony's playing that well he's been far more consistent than you would expect the Freshman to be and I was also told this by someone close to the program he's one of their already one of their three strongest offensive lineman which shocked me shocked me like you can watch film and see that Anthony nap has some strength to him but I was three strongest offensive linemen on the roster already which is kind of surprising and and it's not because other guys don't throw weight around but it's more so he is exceptionally strong which you look at him you wouldn't expect it he doesn't he's not like huge upper body but I was told he is very strong and he's picked it up very well and we always knew is athletic and then you look to gerby and his situation is look he's starting to come along he's not there yet he's coming along I asked about this is gerby not what you hoped he would be he like no gery's doing really well the difference is Anthony had a whole spring and winter spring and summer to kind of get this down gerb's learning this all new but he's made great strides in the first three weeks so he's coming along he's now working with the twos exclusively at right tackle maybe there comes a time when they've got to move one of those two guys to left tackle if Anthony knp can't get the job done but for this reason right now I think I do believe Anthony knp is a legitimate Contender left tackle and from what I've been told now again I'm just telling you what I'm told I don't know if this is true or not because I'm not there I'm just can tell you what my sources tell me and the sources I talk to are people that I've known for a while that I trust that usually shoot me straight and and that is it's not really a negative against TSH it's just he's been that good they started tinkering with the O the inside they wanted to get Pat cougan some crossover reps and so they wanted to get him some Center reps because he you know originally it was viewed and this is what I I love about this it was originally viewed as you know Rocco cougan and shra are sort are your your three guards and then you've got Ashton Craig at Center that four is your most ready to play group right now and Sam Pendleton was well behind where he needed to be to help you at Center so they started cross trainining Pat cougan at Center and when they would cross Trin Pat cougan at Center they would then put Pat Santa penon in a guard where he was cross trining a guard and he looked really good he looked really good at guard and so it's kind of like okay we were doing this maybe for a different reason but this kid's playing really well let's give him some more snaps and the more snaps he got the better he looked to guard now I I won't be shocked if Sam and Pat are still both cross training a little bit because for you need to do that but it was kind of interesting to see that because what I was told coming into fall Camp was that if a young guy wins you know beat some people it's Selvin Abshire I've been told selvin's playing just fine and he's moving around and they're trying to find his comfort spot as well and he's he's still in the battle also the other thing too that I that I that I believe to be true I was not told this but I believe this to be true reading Between the Lines Just because these guys start in game one and Marcus Freeman said this but that's coache I was I'm also kind of getting this impression from conversations just because guys St start game one doesn't mean they're going to start game five or game 10 I'll be honest I had I had another negative thought when I heard that that nap was going to start I I'm be honest I'll share my an honest negative feeling I had my BK PTSD kicked in and I started thinking like here we go another coach that's G to play his guy because what's the one o line recruit that was only recruited by Joe Rudolph it's Anthony nap and so I'm like here we go again he's gonna play his Guys these are Jeff Quinn's recruits or Harry he stand's recruits he's goingon to play his guy left tackle you didn't recruit the guy to play left tackle and you're gon to start him left tackle as a true freshman here we go again just another one of those guys I'm gonna be honest with y'all that was my first reaction so I reached out to some people that would shoot me straight on that and was told no it has nothing to do with that like he's played really well which made me feel a lot better because like I said that was my initial gut reaction it's not fair to Joe Rudolph because I don't know Joe Rudolph I don't know that he's that way but again it was more of just what we've seen at their Dame over the last 15 20 years that's kind of the how it went but a lot of this is just how well Anthony nap's playing now I don't know if he can continue this can he do this for 15 16 games will he still start will he be a number two will they rotate like I wouldn't be opposed honestly if they went out against A&M and and maybe Tosh started or Anthony started and they kind of rotated the way that we saw Tommy Kramer and and Robert hanesy in 2017 I mean Harry hean didn't didn't I I can tell you this with certainty Harry hean wasn't sitting there going in a spring ball thinking okay how can I force Robert hanesy into the lineup That was not the conversation Robert hanesy played for one reason and one reason only he earned it Liam mikenberg was ranked higher Aaron Banks was ranked higher they were bigger they were stronger Robert was barely 290 actually to be honest I know someone in his family really well Robert hanesy was not 290 Pounds when he was a freshman under name he was sub 290 he could barely hold on to 295 as a junior and a senior right so he was smaller guy that rotation worked really well right and and but here's the difference and and and you know people well the rotation against Louisville didn't work so well number one they were told they were going to do that rotation on game day number one number two is you are doing that at a guard which is a little harder if you don't have a plan you have to rep it that way the reason it worked for Harry hon in 2017 is because they practiced every single day with that rotation every day they knew when a goty I mean this is I was told this this is the rule you rotate every series if we go two-minute drill no matter what happened the series before Robert goes in if we're in four-minute offense which is your run to ball delay offense Tommy goes in now it was still communicated but they all knew the rules the Right Guard Alex bars knew exactly who was coming in who he was gon to be working next to the ne that next series you have to have a plan and practice it every day I don't know if not is going to do that or not I'm just saying it it wouldn't be a terrible idea to see how it goes for two reasons one is there's going to be some matchups where Tosh is gonna maybe be your better option if you're playing somebody a little bigger uh maybe there's games where you're playing someone more athletic Anthony's more of a better option so you kind of have that ability and then also the big reason is if Anthony knp is ready to start it kind of you know maybe he the first four or five games you do the rotation until you're really certain that he's kind of caught up to speed that may take 150 snaps off his legs for a 290 pound freshman and then maybe by midseason you go to Louisville game maybe now he's ready to take those are all just things that I that I would at least consider if it's close if it's not close you just ride to Young Buck and say hey we're gonna put our talent out there so the the the key for not Dame is whatever you do on the o line you've gotta survive the opener you got to survive the opener if you can survive the opener you can take a deep breath say okay the next three games aren't going to be easy but we can we're going to be okay we got through the A&M game we got the W it wasn't pretty maybe it will be pretty I don't know I'm saying we got got the W may not be pretty but we got the win so now we got Miami Northern Illinois Purdue and Miami Ohio coming up again not cakewalks main stretchy imagination Road game against a power five team two Mac teams that made bowl games last year and one of them has a defensive end that was a really good player last year but their games you're clearly the more talented team and now you're left tackle you're left guard your Center Your Right Guard your right tackle can have some of those mistakes and while it may hurt you to where maybe you don't blow a team out the way you should you're getting some very valuable reps and you kind of work on that so now maybe when Louisville comes into into play right or comes into to South Bend which will be what on the 28th of September when they come in the 28th now sudden these kids have 200 to 250 plus snaps under their belt individually and then working as a unit you you're now a little bit more prepared to handle that so I think the schedule works out real nicely in that regard to where if you can just somehow survive the opener you're you're G to be okay because like I said there's there's some there's some reasons to be concerned folks I'm not going to sit here and tell you you know hey guys it's going to be okay they're going to be phenomenal this is actually a good thing it's good that they might go into the first game with only six career starts in the offensive line in a starting lineup oh it's wonderful guys don't worry about it they're still going to win the Joe Moore award I'm not going to lie to you but I also don't want to sit here and act like you know everything is awful they're gonna suck the offensive Line's going to draw you know be a problem they can't win at all this year because the offensive line I'm not going to say that either the truth right now is somewhere in the middle the the thing that's going to determine how good this team is going to be is which direction does it go does it tend to to go more towards it's a problem like it did for the first month of the season in 2021 before they finally found a a rotation that worked for them because remember the old line was terrible in 2021 for most of the year it got better late when they put Andrew choic in a left guard and put Joe Walen the left tackle when they put those two guys in the line it still wasn't a great line but it solid it solid they were able to play more consistently they weren't dominant they played more consistently if you remember in 2014 coach TST started the season off I believe had Steve Elmer at right tackle and Christian Lumbard at Right Guard I believe was the lineup and then you have Nick Martin at Center and then they were trying different guys at left guard didn't work real well and and yeah it was 2014 and then kind of as the season went on you had some issues with the o line early they made a change they put in Matt hegerty at Center they put in actually was kind of early they put Matt heger at Center moved Nick Martin a guard and then flipped uh uh Elmer and Lumbard put Elmer back in the guard Lumbard and then the old line started playing better you know so so there there may be some mixing and matching of this line it may not be like coach said this may not be what you see all season but that the the nice thing is if you can survive that opener you've got kind of three games to work out some Kinks before the schedule really heats up and and then if you can get out of Louisville you got a couple manageable games before it heats up again so I do think the schedule sets up pretty nicely for this group to if they can survive the opener but the final piece here is this has always been a big year for Joe Rudolph it got even bigger the task in front of him because of losing Charles J like losing Charles jagas sent all of this into kind of flux and and you get into that situation and look it's not all your fault because you are only here year two and and there's some you know it's not your fault that that you know you and Harry hean did a good enough job develop and and you know John Al did a good enough job developing Joe Walt that he left as a true Junior it's not necessarily your fault as the old line coach that Blake fiser left as a true Junior as far as I know I haven't heard anything about that you it is what it is but this is the this is the card youve been delt and you've got some very talented players Harry he stand's one recruiting class was extremely talented I I did not think much of Jeff Quinn as a position coach as an o line coach but he did a pretty good job recruiting you know that that 2022 offensive line class had some pretty good players in it you know Amil Wagner Billy stra Ashton Craig you know so your 2021 class was an issue Roco spinler is still a guy with some ability so you're gonna have talent right lots of talent it's now your job to figure out as best you can to kind of bring it together and get them to play as one and as fans we have to embrace fact that there's going to be more mistakes from this line than you expect from a low from a a group that is more experienced but as long as they as as long as he does one thing way different with this line than last year's line I think they're actually have a chance to still be an overall better unit than they were a year ago they're they may not be as talented as a t well they're not as talented as a tackle especially left tackle but I think there's way more talented up up the middle it's you've got to make sure that for all the issues you have all the issues you have you got to be tougher than last year's line was if this unit's willing to battle then you can live with some of the pay they they they left that double team too quickly the three Tech came off and tackled Jeremiah love because if the next play those kids play their butts off and they play physical they're talented enough that they're going to open up enough run lanes for Jeremiah Love and jadarian price and kedin young and anas Williams to go through and exploit they're going to open enough run Lanes to let Riley Leonard do his thing there's going to they're going to make enough plays to allow the talent to take over at the skill positions as long as they battle as long as they're more physical week after week after week not look great one week and then next week you get your physically get your butt kick I can live with turning the guy loose on the running back of the quarterback I don't like it but I can correct it what you can't live with is games like Duke and Louisville where they just physically get their butt kicked for 60 minutes that has to change if coach Rudolph can change that and get this unit to be more physical week after week series after series play after play then I actually think they're going to end up being okay it's going to take a little bit for this group to come together but if you play the most talented guys and you and you kind of have some stick to itness to it you know it didn't work out against A&M so blow the whole thing up like well what' you expect you had six C starts in the lineup against A&M if it if it doesn't play may play well but hey let's see it through you got a plan see the plan through because the more this group plays together the better they're going to be then hopefully by the time you get to the playoff you're in a position where they're they're playing at a high enough level to where the talent can really then take over right so that's really where you are when you talk about what's in front of Joe Rudolph the better job he does this year the better this team is going to be it really does come down to that in my opinion is the job Joe Rudolph done is the Ultimate key to how good this team can be there's talent but they're young which one wins the day I don't know the answer to that you don't know the answer to that but that's ultimately what going to determine where this thing goes so that's the final piece to the offensive line discussion I'm going to talk overall depth next which is a I think a very interesting conversation I'm looking forward to having that but um when we get to that we'll talk a little bit about a little bit about the o line but mostly stick to other things but uh before before we get there do folks do me a favor hit that like button hit the Subscribe button hit the notification Bell share this podcast give us a fstar review and if you have not done so please sign up for the message board at boardre down.com so I think you guys will like what we got going on over there we can continue this conversation and I think we're gonna have a little bit of fun about about what this team is going to be in 2024 all right final topic for today we're going to talk about depth at Notre Dame this is not a general okay is Notre Dame a deep football team or not this is about a shift that we're seeing happening at Notre Dame right now and why I think that's good and why I think it's necessary but also that there's some potential pitfalls like with anything if you don't apply it correctly it won't have the benefits that you hope right and and so that's going to be kind of where we're going today and looking at this a team and listening to comments from Marcus Freeman listening to comments from Al golden listening to comments from Mike Den Brock and just watching practice you realize they're gonna play a lot of guys this isn't this isn't like the past where it's like okay this is our our three to fourman rotation at receiver and that's what we're rolling with I mean Marcus Freeman said something like seven or eight guy I think he said seven or eight that he wants to go into every game with you know you're going to see three Running Backs play every week if not four you're going to see five linebackers play they've already made that clear they're going to play at least three corners at least three safeties if not four and I think coach coach demock or coach gold might have said something like that Al Washington's got like a 101 man rotation he plans to play with it is a little like it's just a like they went from like this Lane to like all the way over to that lane when it comes to depth on their football team and and there's a reason there's a lot of reasons why it's happening and there's a lot of reasons why I think this is going to be beneficial and and so some what are some of the the reasons that this is happening and what are some of the benefits of it number one in my opinion you you look at it and say Hey listen this is about keeping players happy in this day and age you can't ignore the notion of okay guys can just jump in a port whenever they want we've got to make sure that that some of our younger players that they have talent that we find a role for that's number one one that's at the bottom of the concern list okay so I'm going to go least important to most important in my opinion number two Marcus Freeman and his staff have recruited extremely well in my opinion and we've talked about this before a lot of your best athletes are in your freshman and sophomore classes not all of them I mean Benjamin Morrison's not in that class right Chris Mitchell's not in that class jarian price isn't in that class Riley Leonard's not in that class there's Xavier Watts isn't in that class but a lot of a lot of your best just Elite athletes are freshman or sophomores there are some BigTime football players that have come to their name the last couple years on both sides of the ball and so now by playing a deeper depth chart you now are in position to where you can utilize more of your talent I remember sitting there in 2018 and and people talking about you know I think the receivers are wearing down a little bit and the conversation was yeah but you know that's the best you got and I'm like hold on a second you got Kevin Austin and Braden Lindsay and Lawrence Keys just sitting over there on the bench not doing anything you can't you can't find a role for them to play 15 20 snaps a game you can't you can't find a role to to get BR Lindsay the football the way chip long did in 2019 like like come on now Like You Got Talent use it and and so when you've got young Talent use it how do you justify going into a game and saying okay Jack Kaiser and and bone and jayen Seed are our three starting at linebackers all right cool so you're just going to leave Jaden allsbury Kingson vama Assa just sitting over there just twilling their thumbs all game because they're not starters you know let's say Drake let's say that Christian Gray and and and Benjamin Morrison are your starters a corner you got Jaden Mickey sitting over in the sidelines or flip Jaden and Christian Greg Jaden starts he's gonna leave him over there because he's not a starter this isn't 20 years ago you know like this is this is a different era but also Beyond just the era you have a loaded football team Lou Holtz played a lot of guys in 1988 go back and go back and watch games they play like five running backs in 1988 and and so when I look at this team it's like look you have to play this many guys because you you have too much talent not to use do you have to play Bryce Young no you don't have to play Bryce Young from the standpoint of you don't need to play him he's talented and I mean but you've got RJ Obin you've got Josh Burnham you've got Jordan Junior uh Jordan tell you've got buba cartor you've got J you don't have to play him but you're going to play him because you need you've got to find a way to get that Talent on the field and when you have the talent Nim has and and the unique players Nim has you have to find roles for him you you otherwise you're wasting talent and I think that's a big thing too and then also you get into the more important part of the modern era which is you now are in a situation where to be a champion at Notre Dame you've got to win 16 games that's a lot of games a lot of games and you're also in an era where you look at this team and say it's I mean this game and say it's not just about the number of games that you play but it's also about the number of plays that you now run and you're in this era now where you're you just even with the new rule changes you're still seeing a lot of plays being run you're still seeing situations where you look at your football team and you say man like we're you know to to to win now to to to get through a game nowadays you're you're facing you know thousands of plays a year and to get to 12 games now you got to play 16 games and it's just it is it is just a lot more taxing in my opinion from a play standpoint and back in the day you'd have some air raid teams that get over thousand plays but now it's like it's much more common for you to be that way the pace is so much quicker than it used to be and so to handle that over the course of 16 games you have to be willing to go and play a deeper roster the counter to that the the other part is you have to have a deeper roster to play and and so to me this is where noted aim is you have a deeper depth chart you need a deeper depth chart you've got to utilize a deeper depth chart and I think it's it's important I think when you've when you've got unique specific talents Drake Bowen very talented Jack Kaiser very talented jayen sne very talented King ofili also very talented they're all four very different players from each other some guys have strengths in other areas than that compared to other guys utilize it this guy is better at this than this guy is utilize it and and that's really where Notre Dame is yes Notre Dame could win a lot of games if it's only Chris Mitchell and Jaden greous and Bo Collins and Jaden Thomas and Jordan Faison are the only receivers you use you can win a lot of games that way but why not find a role for Jaden Harrison why not find a role for KK Smith why not find a role for one of your freshman Micah Gilbert cam Williams If Logan salate Prov himself ready why not utilize their skill sets you don't have to do it 30 snaps a game but why not utilize it yeah okay back in the day was you had your number one back okay Jeremiah Love let's say he's number one back or jarian Price number one back okay but why not use the other one why not use kedrin young who's very different one of things I'm going to kind of joke about in the show tomorrow is you know 2022 you had a really good two-man rotation with with Diggs and estimate it was kind of thunder and thunder right you you the oh thunder lightning there thunder and thunder well now you look at the 2024 group and it's like it's kind of lightning and lightning but you still got some thunder in number 21 who you can use if you need to use them there and and so like why not use it and so for me I I I think it's smart that they're doing this very smart that they're doing this it's needed also it's not just smart it's also you have to do this but the issue is it can be done incorrectly like with a lot of things you can do it incorrectly at times last year they actually played a lot of skill players on offense the problem was they would literally rotate after every play and not even Personnel grouping not like okay a tight end comes off and a third receiver goes on or you know a third receiver goes off and your second tight end goes on your second back goes on I even talking about that that's part of the game I'm talking about after a play you'd stay in 11 personnel and you'd run three receivers off the field and bring three receivers on right and then after that play two receivers would come off and then two two new will come on the field that that's not the right way to do it there were times in 2022 when they'd come out in games and you'd have literally six or seven of your second team players on your front seven on the field together and then your shock that the other team goes right down the field right like there's a right and a wrong way to play depth and it's not the same for every team this year I may not be as concerned if six of the seven guys in the field are second team defensive lineman and linebacker it's a different situation there's not as big of a drop off this year as there was last year and and so you but you've got to make it work and so the the big concern for me that I have when I think when I hear about this team playing eight receivers or 11 D linemen or five linebackers in in theory none of those things bother me four running backs doesn't bother me three tight end doesn't bother me good use all your talent but it's got to be done right and it's got to be done in a way where you're you're not limiting your players from getting into a rhythm you can't change a cornerback spot every series there's a lot you have to learn about your opponent that you can only get by having some sort of Rhythm in the game if you want to rotate offensive an offensive lineman every series I get it it takes work to get it there but you can't do it like in the middle of a series you have to have some continuity to what you're doing you have to have some certainty to what you're doing now that can happen in two ways and I'll get into that the other part is the concern can be if you're using certain players and when they're in the game you have very clear tells so when this guy's in the game he only plays eight snaps a game but when they do that they're in this coverage every time they're going to react to motion this way every time they're going to run this concept every time they'll never run this concept when that guy's in the game and after three four games you can get into situations and say okay as an opponent I'm picking up on these tells when number 55 is in the game at defensive end they run this when number seven's in the game at linebacker they're going to do this this is the only two blitzes that they bring and they bring it a lot okay well now I got a plan for you Seven's in the game I'm up top I see it I know exactly what play calls we're going through it's on my sheet all right right my my big old play sheet when seeven you know seven package right Seven's in the game we're going here here here and here right because I you've developed some tells with what you do so there is there is a level of you've got to use guys to do what they do best without getting obvious tells and this is true on both sides of the ball so those are the two potential pitfalls to playing a deeper depth chart guys don't get into a rhythm you know receivers are running on and off the field which can wear you down right so all the all the energy I save from not playing as many snaps I lost because I'm constantly running back and forth off the field 30 40 times a game I'm running off you know back off the field four or five times a series I'm running on and off the field as a receiver or a running back or a DB or a d linan like no that's too much it's like dude I'm doing more running to come off the field than I'm doing when I'm playing so you've got to be careful there you've got to be careful there those are the two potential pitfalls so how do you make it work how do you go into a season and say okay we're going to play a lot of guys what's a right way and a wrong way to do it number one have a plan whatever your plan is you've got to have a plan whether it's series to series whether it's you guys are my 12 Personnel like here's an example at receiver okay so I got eight receivers I'm gonna play how in the world that have earned it they they eight these eight guys have earned a chance to play okay how do I make this work well part of it is going to be just a hey you know you know I'm going with you next series at X okay that that's part of it the other part of it is is going to be you've got to think about is it better for for us is it better for our players at receiver is it better for our quarterback to say okay we're going to use these four guys for this package these four guys for this package and so these four kind of work together over here and they run more stuff out of this package these guys kind of be over here and they run more of this now there's some crossover but in 12 Personnel I really like this group so when we go 12 unless told otherwise you two know you're running on the field 12 personnels one back two tights two receivers so when we go 12 Personnel you guys have to jump on the field you guys have to go right and then if we're going to rotate you otherwise we rotate you otherwise and when you look at at you know that's an example of something you could do when we go as an offense you know 11 personnel this is our base 11 personnel package but we're going to have our 11 big Personnel we're gonna have our 11 speed Personnel so teams use like NASCAR jet heavy whatever 11 heavy 11 whatever that means okay it's m Gilbert I mean it's it's Bo Collins Jaden Thomas and say Micah Gilbert are in the game together I'm putting jayen Thomas a slot Bo at boundary Mike at Z or something like that right like that's our heavy 11 personnel I may say I wanton 11 speed Personnel when we're in 11 speed it's G to be uh K Chris Mitchell or KK Smith at z uh actually let's let's have some fun with it we're going to go KK Smith at Z Chris Mitchell at X and we're putting you know Jaden Harrison or Jordan Faison in the slot right we're going fast when I go 20 big 20 heavy okay I'm going kedin young and jadarian price when I go 20 speed it's it's Jeremiah love and jadarian to where there's some there's some consistency to it because when you have those type of packages it's a lot easier to practice okay we're going to run 11 heavy we know in practice whenever we run 11 heavy or we 11 11 speed you know who's on the field and then of course there's some normal rotation out of our base and and so I think that's something that you could consider doing when you have unique skill sets to say Hey listen and you may not do it for all of it there just may be a couple packages like listen Micah Gilbert is only gonna play 10 15 snaps a game but we really like him let's just say hypothetically Micah Gilbert's emerg as a really strong blocker and on top of being a good pass catcher so you know what Bo call and Jade Thomas are ahead of him in our base package but man in this 12 look I really like Micah because he can give us great blocker but he's a guy that can also go out there and win one-on-one he's a good enough route Runner he's got enough speed he's strong enough even as a freshman that he can help us so he may not play a bunch in our 11 set but he's going to get a ton of reps when we go 12 Mike is a starter on our 12 Personnel package so he's out there with whoever else you want to put out there you know you may say Hey listen this guy's you know jayen Harrison is not maybe as good at some of the regular stuff that we do as Jaden gr or Jordan FaZe on but there's some stuff that we like to package with him so we may communic say look we're just going to put him in on the series and run this package or may be like hey he's really good in this set because out of this set we run more of this stuff so maybe he's a starter in that set that's a way to do it and and this is true on defense as well and I think this is something that we've learned from we've seen from Al last year is like look J Jaylen Sneed may be a guy that's not ready to be an every down linebacker but when they went to certain packages he was going to be on the field that that that's where he was going to be a and so you you can have some Hey listen when we're in dime you're a three technique that you're a starter when we go when we make this dime call you're a starter you run out on the field unless we've told somebody otherwise and and so that those are important things that you have to do but the re another reason you have to practice it is because players need to know where they are they need to know what they're doing on offense the quarterback needs to have a good sense and a good feel for hey when we're in this Personnel I've run a million plays with this group out of this I've run a bunch of plays with this group out of this it can get very confusing for your quarterback when it's like okay Micah Gilbert runs this route a whole lot different than Bo Collins how do you know that unless you've thrown it to him a bunch of times getting those reps in practice and and or or or KK Smith's better at this route than Chris Mitchell is or vice versa so I know he likes to win this way those are all things that you look at and say quarterback's got to know that from experience how do you get that without work when you have that many guys it can be difficult to work if you don't have a plan in place and so they need to have a playing last year receiver it just it was just like I don't know what they're doing it's like you took that guy off the field to put that guy in to run that route that's the dumbest thing I could you took whatever you think it's a bias Maryweather you took him off the field to run a go route against Louisville Rico Flores Rico does a lot of good things running go routes ain't it guess what happens interception right like that was dumb there's no purpose to it it made no sense there was a lot of that last year this staff has to avoid that this staff has to avoid sort of the the issues that they had last year there was no Rhyme or Reason and no continuity to what they were doing that can't be the case at receiver it can't be the case at DB it can't be the case at linebacker even dline you've got to have some level of we know what you're good at we're going to put you in these situations and then there's also the the the normal rotation stuff the last piece to that the more guys you use the more risk you run of having too many or not enough guys on the field your communication has to be excellent so if you don't practice it during the week your coaches and resp that are responsible for personnel changes and that that happens every game whether it's analysts gas or full-time coaches there are coaches that are responsible for making sure this is on the field Al golden as a d-coordinator for example is responsible if you have 12 or 10 people on the field in regard to you didn't have a plan in place he's not responsible in my opinion for when a package goes on the field he's looking counting he's got to be locked in on what's going on making his calls being ready for what's comes next he needs to communicate to his staff they need to be responsible for making sure that things are going wrong going right and make sure the right people are on the field that you have 11 number one and that you have the right 11 okay if you don't practice that Monday to Friday it's a whole lot harder to have Flawless execution because one one mistake of not having the right people on the field can result in something like I don't know you don't have you have 10 guys on the field for the final two plays of the Ohio State game where you lose you have a 12th guy on the field against Navy in 2016 he has to run off the punt team he doesn't get off in time the punt gets made instead of it being your ball they get the ball they go down the field on a long drive and score and you lose by a point you guys remember that when happened in 2016 right mistakes like that can prove very costly and if you're not repping it Monday to Friday then it can hurt you on Saturday so when I see it prac Notre Dame doing a lot of this rotating doing a lot of this stuff where they're putting kind of wholesale waves of people I'm like you know what they have a plan now it still needs to be tinkered with and worked on but I like the fact they have a plan I don't know fully what it is yet but it's very clear that they're doing it so you have to rep it every day you have to have some purpose to what you're doing and what you're saying you have to be able to say Hey listen uh if you're not like if you're not doing it with intentionality it can create more problems than it helps that's that's a big key the other things is you know you need to make sure it's not too frequent you can't be subbing every other play we saw that last year I don't like that it doesn't work I just it it it it can't just be a consistent thing just it can't be can't be a consistent thing the other part is you've got to make sure that when you're putting guys in the game that you're not asking them to do things they're not necessarily good at that's where the intentionality comes from as well look I have to have purpose to who I'm putting on the game because I'm not gonna ask Micah Gilbert as a freshman to do this thing that I may ask Jaden Thomas or Boon to do as a senior or I'm not gonna ask Bryce young to play this Advanced thing the way that I asked 60e senior RJ Obin right or hey Bryce is really good at this so I'm not going to ask RJ to do that because RJ just isn't physically the player that Bryce is and so I you know all those type of things so you if you're not repping it every day as a play caller you can get into situations where you're making calls that don't necessarily that may on paper and in the game plan looked great but on on third on Wednesday when we kept ripping the defense up with this look we were practicing with these three receivers but on Saturday because we weren't on the same page we did it with this group of receivers and it doesn't work as well so there there's a lot of that that has to come down to where if you have a plan it makes it a lot easier to call games and make sure that when you are when you do have guys on the field that you're utilizing them for what they do best there's no point in just throwing guys on there and just we're gonna run the same stuff no matter who's on the field why to a degree there's always truth to that but but be maybe we're a little heavier here a little more of this here without creating obvious tells that's going to be the key and then the final piece to make it work is you've got to be willing to shorten it when it's not working when the other team has a matchup advantage over a certain part of your rotation and they're exploiting it you've got to be willing to say hey we're gonna go with you more this game because you present a better matchup hey they can't cover this guy on on their defense can't cover this Receiver right now we're going to make sure that we're leaning more into that so and so has the hot hand at run back and and you've got to lean into okay we got to even though the plan may be here this guy's hot we're going to go with him we had a plan for this this rotation to DET tackle so and so's not playing well so and so's banged up this matchup gives us a better opportunity we can exploit them more over here this all works better like you've got to be willing to to you have a plan in place but when you get to game you got to say listen got to shorten the bench a little bit in this game for whatever reason it can just be you're playing a better team and so maybe there's two three guys in the back end of your depth chart that you'll play in nine games but then not the other three against the three best teams you know that stuff's part of it too it also could be in game this just isn't working for us let's shorten the bench a little bit you've got to be willing to do that to where you're not just doing it every week where you practice all these guys and you're prepared for all these guys every week and you're taking reps away from certain guys but then you're not playing those guy those younger guys or those bottom of the- depth chart guys in your rotation on Saturday it's wasted reps shorten your bench on Monday on Tuesday to Friday Monday to Friday because if that's all you're doing on Saturday but even if you are practicing you have an intention you also have to be Savvy enough as a play caller on both sides of the ball to say Hey listen this is what we planned on doing but it's not going how we thought sometimes that could be a good thing sometimes that can be not a very good thing we've got to shorten the bench because this gives us a better shot in this game and those are all aspects of of of what you need to do and then the final piece to me is where can a more frequent rot rotation be best where is it you got to be careful and where should you just not do it uh best places to do it running back wide receiver tight end on offense I think dline is it's a great thing to do on the dline those are positions where I'm just waves just throw waves at people totally fine with it you know have a plan always have a plan but I'm okay with it cornerback and safety needs to be more intentional linebacker needs to be more intentional I'm okay playing Five linebackers you got to be a little bit more intentional there's a little bit more of a need for linebackers to get in the flow of the game in my opinion than a wide receiver or running back there's a little bit more of a need of a corner to kind of see all that's happening than there is for a receiver and so I think those are all things that that that you that that factor into why those positions are just hey throw waves throw waves of people at this position this position maybe have some more intentionality to what you're doing from a rotation standpoint uh a position where I'd be really careful with it as I said is Corner that's probably the one defensive position that I would be the most careful with my rotation the other on offense it's o line I'm actually not opposed to rotating I've said this in the past I'm not opposed to rotating an offensive lineman or even an offensive side side hey we're going to have waves of the left side hypothetically let's just say hey look we're going to have our Roco Tosh Duo and our Pendleton nap Duo okay we'll see if it works but if you're going to try it it needs to have purpose and it needs to be done this is exactly how we're doing it we're doing it this way rotating every series or whatever the case may be and you got to practice that every single day they did not do that against Louisville last year yes Billy sh got some work with the ones but they weren't told until I was told this by multiple people that they basically told him on the day of the game okay we're going to rotate can't do that Harry he when Harry hean did it he said this is what we're doing we're gonna practice it Monday we're gonna practice it Tuesday we're gonna practice Wednesday Thursday and Friday and then we're gonna do exactly that on Saturday everyone's G to know who's going to be on the field to the point where I shouldn't have to tell you that you're on the field you should already know everybody should already know that's that you've got to have a plan got to have a plan if you're going to do on the o line and and you only do it in one of two cases one is you have a unique Duo there that no one's really ready to be the guy it's not ideal but you can kind of do it that way the other reason is is if you have a younger player that's just he's too good not to play but maybe he's just not ready to play 60 snaps a game and that's kind of how it was in 20124 or 20 2017 that like Kramer was really good Hy was really good I don't know that either of them were necessarily Head and Shoulders above the other where it was obviously going to play one so they're both good they both do some things this guy's better than this stuff this guy's better than this stuff so we're going to use them both but there was always a plan and they repped it every single day so I would be okay doing that at that position if you have a plan and you do it rarely and only on unique occasions like if the middle of the Season gerby Lamers is too good not to play and they got to come up with some kind of rotation okay that's fine but you better come up with that plan on the weekend and implement it on your first practice of the week and do it every single day and every single period whether it's inside run half Line run half Line pass one-on ones team Red Zone team coming out team third down team short yardage team whatever the case may be you're working that rotation in with a plan every single time to where on Saturday everybody knows who's going to be on the field and when and you've got that communication down so uh that's I would do it it there but I would not I would just be a little careful to do it and then the one position where I don't think a rotation works all his quarterback that's not going to be an issue at Notre Dame the only time I'm ever okay with it is if you have a quarterback with a very different skill set that's going to come in really with one purpose Tim TBO coming in in 2006 for FL for Florida made total sense he wasn't coming in to take Chris leak's job he was coming in because he's gonna run at you you know like how they Ed Tyler Buckner in 2021 I had no problem with that because he you knew everybody knew exactly what was happen when Tyler was in the game they knew the plan they knew when he was going to do it the times when it didn't work as well is when times when they maybe didn't have as good of a plan have a plan hey Tyler you're going in on series three and you're gonna do this you know if if if if you get Duce Knight and he signs another name you know just let's say he does and said not feeling great about that let's say he does hypothetically say hey look every third series you're going to go in and we're gonna run some this or that okay fine have a plan have a plan and everybody knew exactly what Tim TBO was going to do he knew the package he was going to run and that was his role Chris leak knew when he he was going to come in he knew when he wasn't going to come in and Tim Chris leak wasn't looking over shoulder because they had a plan in place jack Cohen wasn't necessarily looking over shoulder early eventually did because of the way they handled that situation but you've got to have a plan in place that's the only time I'm ever okay with a a quarterback playing more is if you have a situ where it's a unique athlete that's coming in for a specific purpose for a series or a play or a short yard AG hey every time we get in third down or you know second or third down and we go with our you know our power package we know we're putting our our you know young athletic quarterback in the game and and we're not going to have another quarterback in the game and we're just running that second and one play and we're going to execute these three or four Concepts and then we're going to roll we get in a short yardage or goal line and we make we make this call everybody knows we're putting so- and so in the game whether it could be I mean we see that like with running backs put an extra running back on the field don't care just have a plan and do it if he's a unique athlete I don't think they have that on the team this year so I'm not worried about that for not in this year but in theory that's something how it could work so look if this works for their Dame it's going to be huge they're gonna have a lot of talent playing they're going to have guys happy it helps in the recruiting Trail it helps with this team it's going to help keep guys fresh it's going to allow you to utilize different players it also gives some younger talented players that may not be ready for full-time enough opportunities to where if they can answer the Bell maybe they then become more full-time so I think the plan is great I hope the NM executes it effectively I think so far I've liked what I've seen and then heard about how they're going to do it there seems to be some intentionality to it but now we've got to find out if they can do it when they're game prepping it's easier to be structured with that type of thing during Camp when you're not preparing for a game because it's like hey look this is first team the second team but when you start getting in a game week then it can become if you don't do it right a little bit more challenging so we'll see how they do it the next couple weeks but you know so far I I like the plan I I think it's smart I think they have the talent to do so I think it's a necessity for this team because of the talent I think it's also a necessity for this team because of the reality of a 16 Game season if you want to win a title and you have to play 16 games then that's something that you need to do so um that's why I think the depth of this football team is so impressive it's why it's one of the strengths of this team and I love the fact that this team this coaching staff has a plan in place to say look we're going to maximize this I love Drake bone as a player and Jack k players if then I know the nerame coaches do but we can't just have kinks and vama Assa sit on the sidelines all day you can't have just Jaden Albury and Jaylen sne sit on the sidelines all day I don't care how much I love those guys why does it got to be neither or it's both play both of them and utilize them to to make sure that we're effective I think that's good for Drake I think that's good for Kingston I think that's good for Jack I think that's good for Jaden it's good for all of them if it's done correctly and that's going to be the big key if they can do it correctly this is going to be a huge thing for no name because they're just be able to throw waves of players of people and I and I especially think it could be effective in the opener because A&M's not going to know exactly who's in the game doing what and when and so there will be no tells in game one you very rarely have tells in game one especially when you have so many new faces and and that's something I think could really help Notre Dame a lot in that opener is yeah you may think you know what we do in our base defense but we're we're a little different this year because of this guy this guy this guy but what are you gonna what what is your thought when we throw this guy in the game or this guy in the game or this guy in the game or this guy in the game same thing a receiver you may think we like this concept but when these three guys are in the game we got something for you that you haven't really seen yet and we're coming at you with speed or size those are all aspects I think can be really beneficial uh for this nerame team especially in the opener and it's something that A&M is gonna have to be prepared for so that's it everybody uh that's Today's Show I'll be back tomorrow actually I do have a couple super chats real quick Anthony Solomon with his thanks for the show Super Chat thank you Anthony I really appreciate that Ryan Elliott also with a super chat thank you also Ryan I appreciate both you guys very very much uh but that's going to do it for today's show everybody have a great rest of your day hit that like hit that subscribe hit that notification Bell share this podcast give us aice our review join me on the message board at boards. brown.com we're going to continue this conversation it's going to be a a lot to talk about these next couple weeks and uh join me tomorrow one o'clock pm tomorrow I'm going to be on with Trevor trollbridge that's the plan as of now um and we're going to have some fun to talk about like so we got the two topics we're going to discuss we'll either add a third topic maybe do the biso hold we'll see about that I got to figure out a couple things but either way we're going to have a lot to talk about it's gonna be a lot of fun and we're g to get going at one o'clock so join me tomorrow on the Irish breakdown podcast have a great rest of your day everybody