Should Riley Leonard be QB 1?

[Music] welcome to the Fighting Irish faithful show volume 123 of All Time season 5 episode 4 I am Joe at faithful Irish on the X and uh this is a uh a street fighter uh theme song not not if you can figure out which uh Fighters uh theme this is respect um but we're talking about quarterbacks and specifically uh we're going to put Riley Leonard under the microscope tonight um there's just been some sort of angst I've had and some things I've wanted to research and talk about uh look into fill in whatever scri description you got that's probably what I was uh feeling so we are going to look at Riley Leonard but we want to get everyone else's opinion as well about their excitement for him as qb1 at least that's what it looks like it's going to be uh any reservations anyone has about that um or what have you so uh come on let's go and should Riley Leonard be qb1 that's basically what we're going to title this thank you very much we are still part of Dos leprechaun's media and we are proud proud to be podcasting with them all right well I don't have my co-host red snapper so we'll just move on with people I see Lynch Mob there he's on on mute what's up Lynch Mob what's up what's up yo welcome to the Fighting Irish faithful show season five episode four actually even though last week was well I guess it felt like episode one but it was very very stat heavy last week and I think I set the bar very high for what people will expect this this week so wook's wondering if he's in a video game but you yes you are sort of I don't know you have three lives wook yeah Lynch Mob what uh what's your thought about uh qb1 R Riley Leonard I think I think we're in a good place I mean I don't know that we're in I'm you know just optimistic I think we're in a better place maybe with Riley than we were with Harman um and then along the lines of like I think we're way ahead of where we were with Jack con maybe interesting okay you know it's funny you mentioned that did you look at my notes my spreadsheet did you get a copy of my spreadsheet beforehand I did not okay so it's funny you mention that so so I just like you now now let let me back up how did why did you mention Hartman and con transfer quarterbacks the transfer curse or the I guess not necessarily a curse but I would rather see us develop our own player but okay I guess in this day and age it's what it is well you and I think true on all accounts there and that's exactly how I felt and I think a lot of our fan base feels that way as well it's like this is now the third lap of taking in a grad transfer from an uh well not not all of them are ACC I should I'll back that up con came from Wisconsin but point being uh our third of taking a transfer quarterback and you know having him be part of the team and it's like well why have we not developed anyone internally um and there may be multiple reasons for that I will touch on that briefly number one we all know Brian Kelly could never transfer quarterback so this is probably the most Brian Kelly bashing will do tonight and uh so so the reason to bring in Jack cone you know like we didn't have anybody really after um you know wimbo Bush obviously was not developed it's kind of disappointing that someone with so much talent was not as accomplished at Notre Dame that he was uh Ian book probably the most quote unquote accomplished and developed quarterback under Brian Kelly arguably I mean deshun Kaiser was great um there's special places in our heart for ever goson but let's face it they didn't uh improve as the years went on and really Ian book kind of did kind of didn't you know it's kind of Jerry's out on that um but it's kind of a moot point so clearly clearly kelly didn't set us up with this you know Legacy of good quarterbacks or this string of good quarterbacks and before anyone throws rocks at me and say well wait a minute Kelly just had a Heisman Trophy winner technically he was developed by ASU so you know I don't want to put too much and you could even argue Den Brock had more of a hand in that but regardless now we're going in with a new transfer quarterback and so I think naturally we're kind of scratching our head a little bit and kind of like doing that one thing like where you kind of squint one eye and you're like I don't know and you're like well wait a minute we had con now we have Hartman now we have Riley Leonard um and and we will talk about that a little bit later in the show um but yeah I think that's a very natural reaction for someone right now entering this 2024 football season yeah I think so I think and jelly might should have had a little more chance but I don't know that last year I think we were just too too stuck on Hartman maybe but Ang in the bowl game did exceptionally for what we had to work with yeah and I'll talk a little bit more about Sam and kind of some of the buzz and excitement of him coming in you know I mean he took advantage of the co year you know he also had an injury in there so you know he's like Van Wilder if you take into account you know his time in college um not quite Van Wilder but you know he's he's got the got the flowing hair and the whole bit so um but yeah no I'm I'm really I'm really curious to see and and don't get me wrong I know it sounds like I'm I'm talking smack or downplaying the positive impact that Riley Leonard can have on this football team that I do not want to leave that impression however as a data oriented show that we are we're of course going to let the spread sheets form our opinion we're not just going to read stuff and see you know fun you know highlight reals from fighting Irish digital media of you know Riley Leonard making the sign of the cross the wrong way on the you know play Like A Champion Today song maybe he's Eastern Orthodox I don't know and that if that's the case then okay fine uh but regardless you know respect I I don't there's a lot of unknown still with him where I honestly felt that with Hartman and con there was a little more well-known right right I agree yeah so hey Lynch Mob I'm GNA put you on mute here we're gonna go to someone else who I know probably has to work tonight um so we'll go over to this uh fine gentleman here um and this is going to be this the the kind of the I've kind of thought about doing this and then I was like well maybe it's kind of cheesy I don't know but then simultaneously I'm like no as cheesy as this show is or as cheesy as I cheesy as I can be I'm uh I'm a fan of walkup music you know like anything from baseball players or you know guys in the NBA or whatever um I'm excited um to be able to develop and grow the show in certain ways so uh a loyal supporter of the show has requested that he has his own WKA music here so yeah wook that's a theme for you to to accept the the thing here right invite The Wookie to speak uh he has his walkup music here that we're going to roll in with right now so now maybe he's just listening he jumped on the John I don't know we'll come back to you man you're just [Music] listening all right you're go you're not coming put you on mute it's fine um before we go any further we're going to um oh Jay Jay says oh hell yeah that means Jay knows what that is Jay by all means jump on if you know what that is um I know Adam Dowling works early Jay you guys work early so we want to try to give um some preference to our people I know it's late you know we're you know get nipping on the heels of 10 p.m. um not everyone can sleep in a little bit like I can so uh but hey Jeff wants to speak so we'll just bring uh Stak in here Jeff what's up man man did you hear do you have the same walkup theme as the wook oh what's the wook's walkup them uh is it still playing or did I pause it hold on bear with me sorry oh no it's still going here here it [Music] is love it yeah W's a bad dude man wi is a bad dude that's right yeah his body slamming people and um I don't even remember all the all the stuff like that's like that like takes me back to eighth grade right there I'll tell you what Jeff what what what what should we say about Riley Leonard you know are you excited for him or should we like be skeptical like I am you know I I think you have a very good reason to be skeptical because his track record has shown he's injury-prone but I I think we have a lot to be optimistic about because he provides something that Mike denrock is very familiar with from a schematical standpoint where I think Steve and jelli is as well CJ Carr but I think Riley gives us that extra unique option that is kind of in between angelli and CJ car skill sets where I think what did what did we say last week that RI who said that Riley Leonard was gonna have what seven rushing touchdowns I don't recall the uh specifics of who said that I don't think that's in my notes there there's a lot there's like four five six other pages of stuff but not that one sadly yeah I I well I mean that's nothing to be said but I mean there's not too much to be that that's not an unrealistic number for him if you've watched him throughout his years play I mean the kid's a playmaker I I'm I'm excited for him he had a great you said rushing touchdowns right yeah yeah yeah absolutely he had a great he had a great showing at that Manning Passing Academy so I was I was pretty I was pretty excited to see him healthy and him throwing the rock because everyone's always taken him as the kind of Gunslinger slash I'm gonna tuck it and run yeah and what's interesting you know the the number you put out there is not far from the truth um maybe it's actually a little underselling him um you know and it depends on how many games of the season but so last year he had four rushing touchdowns and that was in his first four games that he accumulated those um don't go into the specifics there um but his last two games after oh that's in first uh four games obviously he played a total of seven one against Dame and then then FSU and then Louisville he left early with an injury but the point I'm making is um he had four so he's he's not far off from um you know being able to eclipse the uh seven rushing touchdowns for the season now me personally I don't know if that's necessarily the strength that he can bring to the new Den Brock offense I guess what gets me excited and we'll go about a little bit more of this in details near the end of the show um but since you brought it up about his strengths I do believe I'm getting Vibes of Malik zier under Mike Den Brock and his ability to be a dual threat quarterback which Den Brock has shown that he can Embrace yes that and I I think that's spot on because we have the the multiac ism Malik Zer but we really got to relish his true talents in that year under dun Brock where I mean he made plays with his legs Time After Time After Time and then I mean I'll never forget was it him to was it him to Miles boyin no that was that was book that was book in 2017 but no the uh I mean I will say this about Malik zier as a starter undefeated yeah never lost the game as a starter yeah you know no that's not the case with Riley Leonard you know I don't have that in the spreadsheet but I also know that for a fact because well he lost another Dame last year so yeah um and uh they uh they were not undefeated in his breakout year his good year of 20122 they went 9 and 13 but that was also elco's first year so um you know hey it is what it is well Jeff we're going to move on to uh to Adam here real quick he's on mute and I know he's got to get up early in morning uh stay on stay on I don't want to kick you off but I do I genuinely do want to hear Adam's dowling's opinion about Riley Leonard and what his thoughts are and no Adam I'm not trying to trick you so I can you know shoot you down later with spreadsheets but Adam if you wish to speak by all means please come on mute I am interested to hear your opinion obviously we've talked about him in the off season etc etc please Adam Dowling if you can what's up guys how you guys doing welcome Adam to 2024 well I guess we've been in 2024 for eight months but episode 4 fighting ours faithful show how's the summer how's the summer going for you the summer is well uh we I don't know how it is up there in Northern Indiana But Central Indiana the humidity has left and it feels like California weather so yeah it's been cool which is kind of concerning because I've looked at the uh future uh weather for college state is showing like 100 the whole week of the game yeah that's okay it's just weather deal with it just deal with it anyway are you going to the UN unseasonably cool really yeah now Adam it's like the goad it's like the best best weather any football player could ever ask for Camp right now up here I miss the best weather for me mowing my lawn right now I mean it's so nice outside I mean it's like damn it this These are times where I wish I was not an engineer you know and I was not working in a you know building all day and you know all that kind of stuff um I do not get outside you know now on the weekends you know like I some days I work from home like Monday Friday or whatever you know and then I cracked the window here in the studio but that being said um no the weather's been great and and the cooling off Adam do you get kind of more of like a fall kind of football Vibe or like me personally I'm like that's that's reserved for like late September we should have like you know deep oppressing humidity and heat and you know heat stroke risk and all that like that's my opinion of of you know fall Camp I'm like a I'm a summer guy to where I never complain where it's when it's too hot yeah so when I start feeling like these cool mornings like in early August I'm like oh no that means it's going to be really cold I hate that so I can wait for the fall feeling if you know what I mean yeah no I'm with you I'm with you now are you sure that's your feelings or is that uh Mrs dowling's feelings rubbing off on you no those those are my feelings wants to be on his Adam wants to be on his if Adam could be on his boat every day every hour and every minute he would yeah so I peg him as a summer guy my perfect day is to like golf it 7 a.m. to 11: and then go on the boat nice nice excellent excellent so Adam um what's your what's your I I do genuinely want to get your opinion of Riley Leonard I get a vibe from uh the shows we did at the end of last season you know and in the spring that that you were um I don't want to speak for you and say you were convinced he should be qb1 but you seemed very positive and pleased that Riley Leonard was potentially and most likely going to be qb1 yeah I mean I think he's obviously the most talented of the group and he brings an aspect that we haven't had at Notre Dame um earlier but like Malik zier to where it's a it's a run threat who can which I think we really need now with the offensive line ISS isues with jasaw going down having that threat to run will hold up defensive ends from rushing up field so um just his god-given talent and ability and being 64 you know 215 pounds guy that can outrun corners and safeties and still throw the ball is something we haven't had so yeah I mean I'm I'm happy he's there I mean he's probably the most you know you know with the god-given ability uh Talent the best we've had in a long time I agree with that no so so you're going with his build his size his height his weight you know the presence he brings um do you know his 40 time because I personally don't but I mean I mean we can watch film and and look at the you know the Notre Dame Duke game or whatever and watch his speed right I mean I've heard from stuff from Camp that he's out running our safeties and Corners to the edge so I mean where did this Speed come from I guess other than Jesus I mean if you if you watch remember the Clemson game when he played early in the uh last year when he was out running people too he basically won that game by himself yeah that's debatable but I mean what the the Clemson game where he had uh let's see he had one rushing touchdown in that game and then did he have any passing touchdowns negative Ghost right he just had the one rushing touchdown he was uh one touchdown uh for 98 yards on eight attempts but he did account for 33% of Duke's touchdowns and then you got to go back to how many first downs he keeps the lives with his legs and stuff like that so sometimes his stats can be a little bit misleading I think and I was kind of preparing myself for this because I know you're going to throw him at me his completed percentage probably isn't great yeah I mean but how often have I but well hold on a second how often have I been like the you know waving palm branches at completion percentage I haven't I haven't a little bit but his leg a little bit a little bit but you know he's he's actually not too far off the mark from from you know the the uh the metric that you know you know that I always like to use but but his legs are different so it's it kind of you know if you're Sam Hartman you don't move very much complete uh comple s percentage is a big deal you gotta put the ball on time you know on the on the mark move the sticks but this guy this guy can move the six with his feet too so it's a little bit different yeah yeah no and that's something that is not in my spreadsheets is a third down conversion um or you know kind of that impactful athlete go to um Moxy that ensures that the team can keep the chains moving keep the drive moving conversion on third down kind of stuff that stuff's a little harder to do uh um you know unless you break down film or you go play bypl of you know you know you know the stat sheet that's published online um you know then if that's the case then you know sure fine um but yeah no it I I don't doubt for a second that his his biggest um advantage and skill set is his his dual threat ability specifically on the ground now I have a rebuttal for that which will get too later um but but I do agree with you that he is a presence he is an athlete and I I also let me say this because this is kind of like an echo of my brother at red snapper who's not on I'm not sure why you know everyone by all means go on X here and uh DM red snapper and be like where the hell are you there's a show and you're not around what I will say this about Riley Leonard is he does have the ability to move the ball um and you know I I don't object to Marcus Freeman taking someone with that skill set and inserting him into the quarterback room um I would rather have more options available to us where we're like well we got this guy or we have this guy or we have this new freshman or we have and then then put yourselves in a situation we like well wait a minute maybe all this you know you know Scrooge McDuck riches that we swimming in here in the money bin maybe that's you know discouraging recruits like Duce knight from coming in you know like and and I've seen those arguments and I know you guys and gals have as well and and those are all very valid I'm just saying maybe it's better to have an abundant of riches that you have to just like you know put together the best thing you have have rather than piece together what is left over if that makes sense so oh go ahead I think I think it's over after this year I think it's I I hope so I don't know if I could deal with a fourth transfer yeah so I I think that this was and we kind of all talked about this like back last September when Notre Dame was playing du I guess if clay Kade Club Nick is like you know what I'm going to get a grad degree at Notre Dame like okay well maybe you can come on I don't know no if if you can remember recruiting back then he actually wanted to be at Notre Dame but Tommy ree did not want him the club Nick thank God he doesn't coach here anymore but yeah yeah what's he doing now do anybody know I don't even know what Reese is doing not that a tight tight ends coach a tight ends coach for the Browns yeah for the Browns yeah oh that's a career that's going to flourish over there in Cleveland do anyone here from Cleveland I think I think it's done after this year after Leonard it's uh we we have some even if du Knight drops out you know you still have Minch have car and then you and J I think still has another year of Eligibility so he'll probably stick around you know why not let's he transfers who knows where's he gonna go I I thinkale or Villanova no Ruckers or why so you can get pounded in the Big 10 no so he could so he could play maybe I don't know yeah but I mean look you know what Angell Angeli might turn into like the next like freaking like Mark Sanchez or something and not play at all in college or or literally play very limited and end up on an NFL team because he's he just provides he provides a lot and he just hasn't had the the fair end of the thick I mean let's be real we brought in we brought in two I I would call them chip quarterbacks one was very underwhelming in Sam Hartman but I I mean the the poor kid just has never really gotten a shot and when he did get a shot he performed so you guys find it weird though that we will talk about that for sure the angelli last year Wild Card like last year everyone was so stoked about Sam Hartman because wait for us this year I was too this year it's almost like nobody's talking about Riley Leonard but if you actually look at the two quarterbacks Riley Leonard is a has way bigger upside when it comes to any pro Scout that recruit that looked at either of them they would be like I'll pick Riley Leonard in a minute over Sam Hartman yeah in a are you sure yeah why 100% why six 64 over 6 foot uh two 190 over 220 a guy that can run probably a 4 six4 five a bigger arm all that yeah but but what's he doing on the field yeah but is he putting up touchdowns yeah but he played this is this is this is rough was going to get at you I mean I could I could go find a 64 guy on some rugby team for the New Zealand All Blacks you know who who who checks all those marks that doesn't mean he's a good quarterback in the NFL well get guess what uh who was Duke's number one receiver uh when Riley Leonard was there it was the guy he beat out for quarterback he had nobody yeah that's who it was it's true it's 100% it's true that sounds like Notre Dame receiving core in the three years so and Riley Leonard barely played quarterback in high school he was a basketball player so he I did know he's like yes he's he's he's the potential is off the roof that's what I'm saying like if he wanted to go to basketball school he should have gotten a Gonzaga that's all but the potential the the what what my argument was a pro Scout is going to look at the athletic ability the arm strength the size the the the upside is much higher than Sam Hartman but Harman put up amazing numbers Adam are you a Bears fan yep how tall is Caleb Williams 61 and he looked like a [ __ ] next to uh and he is a [ __ ] yeah okay like a [ __ ] you see that I'm fracturing your argument here as we speak here all right but maybe the Bears are just dumb and they they just pick quarterbacks that are gonna suck like I'm so conflicted no disrespect to the bears but I I do not like Caleb Williams someone asked me at work about this and my response unwavering unhesitating was I think he's a terrible human being and that was my response I was just like I don't think he's going to be good for the Bears and that's it you know anyway uh we don't need to give any more attention to that fool uh actually we will mention that a little bit later um all right Adam we're going to put you on pause here let's go to wook cuz I'm sure he's actually working right now but he's going to squeeze in some time here um Adam by all means stay on wook I see you're on mute here uh we'll roll in here finally with your theme here we [Music] go [ __ ] Michigan what's up y'all what's up W welcome to the fighting hours faithful show in season 4 happy you are part of us yes definitely glad to be here how we doing y'all we're doing great and I'm very thrilled that we are using a walkup theme music whatever with you uh some of our other regulars we need to give them a a walkup walkup theme walk up music here well you know this is about to be a special year okay I mean it's my first time being back in South Bend IN 14 years and I'm going October 12 to Stanford that's right that's right exactly it's on baby it's on it's on I I'm I'm happy you're coming up you know this is a good opportunity to get a diagonal slice of all of our friends from X from um you know this podcast from our friends podcast 5 foot nothing pod whatever uh Del leprechaun get everybody who is loyal to Notre Dame together regardless of creed race age do you know fill in the Blake all the all those all those things and um know we're here to support Notre Dame and and hang out with our friends drink some beers you know party in the north lot and uh yeah go to a game so it's I'm happy you're coming up it's fantastic and uh What uh you know floor is yours sir um you know we're all talking about the quarterbacks and and everything um that is tonight's you know me I just want the quarterback to grip it rip it throw it all the way down the line bomb digg bomb all day let's see what he's got come on nice nice yeah no and that's exactly what we want you know we want a quarterback to um be a president to be a formidable foe um we thought at one point that Hartman may be that guy um obviously um it kind of he fell off it did fall off you know and I think that was I I think the louville game was was the one that really shook people's confidence quite frankly you know uh I don't want to bring up those stats you know I may I have them here you know but don't but no I mean I want someone that has a completion percentage closer to 2/3 I want someone that's going to throw 230 yards a game I want someone who will average over two touchdowns passing in the air per game I want a touchdown to interception ratio of 6.4 yeah exactly I want somebody to just [ __ ] throw the ball and make completions I know you guys are put on the shirt [ __ ] throw the ball and make completions I'm writing that I know you guys are all run the damn ball I'm acquiring quotes I got like three t-shirts coming grip it and rip it w grip grip it and rip and rip it baby that's not my favorite though wi what's my favorite quote by you take this ship by storm baby we Ship by storm take Ship by storm that one's that one is my favorite quote of yours so yes we're going to win a championship B what did you say [ __ ] throw passes and what f [ __ ] throw bombs and make completions let's go I love it it's time [ __ ] running the ball no no Bomb Diggity bomb bomb bomb no fast fast and den Brock has shown that he will not do that Den Brock we we talked about this a little bit last week historically he's a 54% run percentage I wish it was higher I wish it was closer that 55 uh 60% uh now I have to look this up it's buried in the spread sheet here um oh too far all right line 243 it's actually column BK uh row four uh run percentage of national champions over the last 10 years is 56.4% Den Brock is closer to 54% so um however he's within the the 10e average standard deviation but usually the teams that are less than that 56% we're talking 2020 Alabama 2019 LSU uh 2018 Clemson 2016 Clemson these are people who have Transcendent quarterback play and I'm not saying that Riley Leonard cannot be Transcendent but when look everything Adam dling was talking about a lot of it had to do with on the ground now talking about some of his size his build you know his physical attributes you know he sounds like a boxer here yes Johnny I see you we'll get to you in a second but but my point is like you know he's not a model he he needs to like and I do not want to quote Mark May but I feel like I'm doing it every single show now look as an evidence-based show that we are which I am you know I'm an engineer whatever sue me I live in Excel that's my brain you know same yeah exactly um I I I want to be have an A I want to have an A formed opinion about the football team I love and I was so pissed back in the day when Notre Dame was not doing well and I'm like why the [ __ ] are we not doing well and I'm I'm like why do we suck yeah it's not so much why we suck but I mean that was that was 2016 4 and8 which was clearly Reflection Point for probably many of us but I took it seriously and I was just like I am so [ __ ] pissed and I was reading more stuff and doing more things and looking at stuff I don't have kids at the time so I could spend more time you know drinking scotch and and you know getting into my psycho space here in the spreadsheets which by the way this spreadsheet is out of control I don't even know how many tabs on here I need to seriously like to prevent this file from crashing I need to like Arc iive I need to create a separate file that archives the old stuff and just has the quote active stuff but anyway now I'm just talking too much you know copy it onto an external hard drive there you go I do have that that's for everything on on the PC here but but no it's it's not so much that it's like it's become a situation where it's like I'm I'm sorting through tabs in Excel to find what I need and it's like look I should have the rtdb tab I should have the stats of CH Champions tab I should have Notre Dame stats tab I should have Notre Dame scores tab our production from last year the quarterback tab we made a Riley Leonard tab tonight and uh you know etc etc you know so and then of course we'll have our our head-to-head uh things from last year and this year you know kind of the usual stuff we roll out but my point is this the spreadsheets is getting off the hook there's a lot of old stuff in here which I'm not gonna delete you know why the [ __ ] would you do that you know I'm a I'm a pack I'm a pack rat when it comes to spreadsheet tabs put that on a t-shirt um no don't don't put that on a t-shirt No One's Gonna buy that you look at fighting IR you look at Joe's uh one drive and it's all spreadsheets you know you know that like what is it it's like it's like a bank Banker visor like the green clear visor you know what I'm talking about yeah like that would be me if we didn't have Excel I would be like leaning over some like bench with a like one of those green Banker lamps which I own by the way and and I would that would be me but doing this on paper and recording this you know not on live on X did you just say paper oh I do have an actual notebook which my sister-in-law got me for Christmas a few years ago it actually had is leatherbound and it's got the uh got the Notre Dame monogram on it it's really great that's awesome it's I'd say we're about about 60% of the way through it so all right W before we get we got a we got a ton of stuff we have not gotten to yet we got a ton of people we got Johnny Box Thing ready to go any last thoughts here uh I'm not kicking you off but I want to make sure you get your piece in before we move on or we could just play your your intro outro the whole time you know whatever you want you know what play my outro again my it's going to be the same as my intro grip it and rip it baby let's go nice and I unfortunately closed the tab so I'm not going to be able to bring it up so my bad you failed that tab no I know it's it's fine I thought we were done my bad wook thank you so much for being part of the fighting ARS faithful show I really appreciate your loyal support and your support of do leprechauns and uh yeah we're excited to meet you finally in October with a bunch of other people who are on tonight thank you Wookie and go Irish Johnny W boxing oh actually it's you've changed your Twitter handle excuse me X handle at Johnny Wilds 503 54 that's a lot of numbers has speaker what's up Johnny you out there live on the west coast you're on mute my friend pink button lower left hand corner hello I can hear you Joe are you you had you had the M the the mute on like you wanted to speak Johnny welcome to the show what are your thoughts of quarterback for Notre Dame this season well first of all thanks for having me on um it's been too long and um it's a pleasure to speak with you and the rest group uh looking forward to October I cannot wait might be living in Granger by that point but we'll see oh yeah brother uh you know um I don't really have an opinion on quarterback but I wanted to ask you um first of all what are your thoughts of pivot tables to start extrapolating that data and then second question is is could you run a quick grid on the last five national champions uh quarterback uh completion percentage yards Etc yes I I can do that if you keep talking it's not it's not pivot table esque um why is this like this that's weird I must have had this reorganized um all right so that all right so the last five national champions are JJ McCarthy uh let's see stensen Bennett which is odd and then Stenson back again good Lord Mac Jones ma Jones is a really high Watermark and then one two three four Joe burrow so the last five years is technically four quarterbacks do we want to go five men or five years because that's not necessarily the same thing five years five years all right so let's see here we've got a percentage of 72% 68 64 ma Jones Mac Jones is really high uh 77 and Joe burrow was 76 so the average of uh that sucker is 71% completion percentage okay and then on our roster it seems extremely high um maybe there's an outlier with Mac um but I'm just trying to figure out what we can mirror and I don't have the answer to that I won't pretend to yeah I wish Excel gave me a standard deviation at the time now grant that would be less than you know 30 samples obviously so it's not a statistical population but um for all the math people out there they're just shaking their heads like yes yes you're you're speaking truth but no um no you're 100% right you know and and the percentage I roll with is kind of a more historical over the years um I probably should limit it to the last 10 national championship teams um I have not refined that particular tab with that information like I do with the normal stats so we'll make a note here to refine Natty Cube be numbers last 10 years yeah I think that's fair just to kind of like compare and then we can see kind of what we should be shooting for um who that answer is can't give you any value there um it's good to be on I'm looking forward to the October uh event um it'll be fun so um I'll go on mute and listen to the rest and then I may have to to log off here quickly but we'll go from there no worries Johnny I really appreciate you jumping on man really excited to to seeing you and actually meeting you p face to face like the wook like even do leprechauns like Adam here who's on Coach Paran uh I've met Adam Dowling Justin Rous Mike Sloan tons of people who are loyal to the show uh friends of ours on X here uh formerly known as Twitter very happy we're getting a bunch of people together for the Stanford game um it it it is a weekly discussion at some point with myself and the doc uh friends of ours who live local who are huge Notre Dame fans they've got little kids too so we hang out with them um I I cannot describe the joy and the excitement in my heart to go to Notre Dame stadium and to meet with our friends people that I value uh their their input their time and and quite frankly their's support of my Endeavor here you know this is season five of what I'm doing I remember my first season doing this show and it was all scratchy uh the the desk was not nearly in the state it was now quite excuse me the studio um we got two monitors now we got a mixer we got a legit you know microphone this that and the other and a partridge in pair treat now we're still drinking Scotch we have always been scotch in spreadsheets and tonight we have a monkey shoulder which is fabulous uh and which which sucks cuz last week we had this great show and I never mentioned what we were drinking we were drinking dears last week so okay it's nothing crazy fancy but hey that's what we had and we usually talk about that but we didn't last week weird that being said uh Stanford is going to be awesome and really excited to meet our friends and see everybody okay so wait I'm excited I'm excited Johnny as well thank you so very much and go IR ish be Aggies um we won't go too much at all quite frankly into the agies other than potentially the uh comments about how Mike El Elco uh developed Riley Leonard or did Riley Leonard develop Mike Elco to be great in his first year interesting Ponder on that one chew on that one um we'll find out as as uh he does well I mean it was clearly the case with Jimbo Fisher Jimbo Fisher was made by jamus Winston he goes to Texas A&M where you quite frankly give him more resources and a hell of a better recruiting uh pool and he does nothing with it now Grant he's in the SEC you know so I won't take that away from him but that being said I'm like this dude's smoking mirrors and he probably should have been fired you know a year before he was now ELO's there El is the new coach we will have tons to talk about with Texas A&M in I was doing a little bit of recruiting research with Texas A&M and trying to like figure out stuff if anyone saw and let let me be very clear here about something okay if people are on X and they see me what appears to be throwing rocks at John at always Irish let me be very clear here I respect him very much what he does is phenomenal now we may have differing opinions about the content that we put out and when we put our content out but he has his place and I have my place and I'm perfectly fine to agree to disagree but I do not throw rocks at him personally if anything they're kind of more like short underhanded shovel passes okay I'm still throwing a small stone at him but it's more ingest it's nothing personal you know but anyway um he had some comment about you know having anxiety or being anxious about the Texas A&M game and and I can see his opinion it's a big time opponent SEC school night game you know Notre Dame tends to historically not do well oh wait that's Ryan Kelly who has not done well historically um and they have good players they have great players over at Texas A&M now I have not done the breakdown we will do that in two weeks breaking down the players from their number one recruiting class and this plethora of five-star players they got you know how many of them are still there how many of them actually have snaps under their belt you know who this that the other I don't know um but I can't ignore it that that's the case and I also can't ignore the fact that some people may be anxious over that and that's fine um this is year three of Marcus Freeman and we should be a little I don't want to say antsy but we should be um expecting something different um the time is now the time is now for something different so if anyone sees something on X not that anyone's ever thrown anything my way but if you see something you know it's it's nothing personal it's just you know just fun social media banter it's nothing personal if anyone takes a personal you know what grow some thicker [ __ ] skin okay and you know you know can you actually eat hot peppers and drink Scotch you know whatever okay you know that's fine okay at least I actually eat seafood you right John it always Irish doesn't right people who know what I'm talking about are laughing right now okay let's move on um let's actually talk about Riley Leonard that's kind of the focus of the show I can't believe we're in this far tonight just 15 minutes man I got I got a burn here we will keep this under two hours okay what what gives me anxiety with Riley Leonard Nolan's laughing his ass off appreciate it buddy here's the deal is Riley Leonard injury prone and he's just going to be there for a little bit and pave the whatever for Angeli or Carr or somebody else to come in I don't know and I hope not I never want one of our quarterbacks to be injured I really don't ever want anyone to be injured maybe Caleb Williams but but quite frankly most times no I I I don't want someone to physically be hurt however Riley lard um obviously had a really good season in 2022 go check out the stats it's the one that jumps off the page it's not hard to to do and then uh you know Duke is undefeated they beat Clemson last year they play a total of four games and they play Notre Dame and then in the last series uh that Riley Leonard played in that game after we had taken the lead uh Dukes uh attempting a comeback and Howard cross rolls up on his leg uh giving him an injury okay and he was in noticeable pain uh when that happened it was it was it did not look good the way it happened it was awward you know this that not quite Joe thyman awkward but it was still like you know pretty bad that being said um he come he sits out for a week and he comes back plays two more games against Florida State and Louisville we'll talk a little bit more that more about that later and he doesn't play the rest of the season including the bow game against Troy where our former offensive coordinator is now the head coach stat random stat people wanted that and then okay he transfers another Dame and then oh [ __ ] it's March and oh he's got some ankle fracture and we have to repair the plate that's in his leg his foot whatever look I'm reading the tea leaves here all right this is two injuries three injuries the same injury just re regurgitated it's not exactly that but I think if anyone is reticent about Riley Leonard because of the injury thing and that it's very difficult to come back from that um I think those those feelings are warranted Justified and supported historically um you know I guess if he has some Robo knee brace you know that's a different story you know but that's not exactly what has happened um ankle injuries are tough they take a lot of weight on the foot um there's a lot of flexibility you have to have the knee is meant to bend in One Direction across one axis your ankle is not your ankle is meant to move side to side forward to back up and down a little bit right there's a lot more going on in the ankle so if you have an ankle injury it's significantly harder to come back now Adam Dowling has just told us that R Leonard is strong and he looks good to NFL Scouts and I 100% believe him but my point is if he's not performing on the football field or he's physically hurt I don't want him to play I want the guy that's going to give us the best thing so if anyone has concerns about his injury history and how that may impact 2024 well I I I I don't I'm not going to say you're smoking dope like I I think you're you've got a legit opinion if that's what you say at least that's my feelings I think a lot of people feel that way as well um I'm just going to go on a limb no one's giving me a thumbs up but that's fine maybe it's just crickets but um that that is that is a concern and that's something that will be in the back of my mind and I think in the back the mind of the Fighting Irish faithful fan base when they enter this season and they're kind of like doing one of those things where they like please don't get hurt we believe that you have a ton of upside Riley Leonard and quite frankly so does Sydney Sweeney as well so um is that a real thing I mean respect if it is but like I don't know she's from the same town as the as the doc I will say that so you know all right so why is Riley Leonard popular why why why did we even give him a look if he he he got injured in a game against us and he sat out basically half the season so 2022 is Riley Leonard's breakout year his his really only impressive year can I say that uh total of 13 games we played a full season you know his freshman year uh only played seven games you know um he threw for 381 yards his freshman year but 2,967 total yards in his uh sophomore year that's kind of cool okay uh some of the things that jump off the page here uh 63% completion percentage that's pretty good um 30 attempts per game wow that's really high um he averaged 228 yards in 2022 he threw for 20 touchdowns H not too bad does anyone know how many uh passing touchdowns Sam Hartman threw crickets crickets crickets Sam Hartman last year for Notre Dame through 24 passing touchdowns Riley Leonard in 2022 through 20 now here's the fun part of that do you guys know how many rushing touchdowns Ry Leonard had in 2022 13 this dude is proving that he's a dual threat quarterback 33 total touchdowns it's pretty good pretty impressive and not not pissed about that at all now is that National Championship level we'll come back to that but but there's some good stuff here uh 13 rushing touchdowns uh a touchdown to interception ratio of 3.3 nothing crazy sexy it's about half of what natties do natties are 6.4 um but but pretty respectable um and it's better than what Sam Hartman was at Wake Forest so um not too bad so if he can be at that level or better I'm I'm not too shabby I'm not too unhappy um especially as you know I think the we don't have proven receivers I mean I guess we've got great house and faon and and some of these other guys you know but like we don't have you know a Marvin Harrison kind of guy right now you know we don't have a Chase Claypool Golden Tate you know like and I'm not trying to be disrespectful to our receivers that is far from the case I think there's opportunity for one of these guys to break out and be great uh can Riley Leonard deliver the ball hey if he throws the ball you know 63% of the time on completion percentage you know that's pretty good um it's not 67% which is what national Champions tend to do but hey whatever so there's a lot of good stuff to take from 2022 that Riley Leonard has given us that we've kind of like taken the taken the drug we've taken the like oh oh look at this you Circle it in red pen here and you're like yeah check this out yeah that's something to be excited about but that was not last year okay which leads to something that I have been thinking about all season and we finally got around to doing this analysis today Riley Leonard has lots of momentum okay he ends up taking Duke to a pretty decent 9 and3 record in 2022 and that's elco's first year all right to go N9 and four in your first year wait that sounds familiar isn't that what Marcus Freeman did in his first year hey my point is this I wanted to know how did Riley Leonard do in 2022 that momentum he had as a good quarterback did he carry that into the beginning of 2023 where REM let me remind you duke was undefeated the week they played Notre Dame Notre Dame's on the road we go down to Duke they had already knocked off Clemson in week one Grant Clemson kind of shot themselves in the foot but I don't want to take any away from duke we'll just you know Duke won we'll give that credit to Riley Leonard so you have 2022 momentum an undefeated record before playing Notre Dame then the Notre Dame game happens where he gets injured sits out for a week and then plays two more games last year what did those last two games look like post injury and then he's done so it's a lot I talk to took at you so we're kind of going to take you on a story we'll give you the averages here all right clearly Duke's undefeated Riley Leonard was averaging 24.8 attempts per game prior to playing Notre Dame in those four undefeated teams that was Clemson Lafayette Northwestern and Yukon now Northwestern isn't Yukon forget about it Lafayette that's not near Purdue it's probably Louisiana or something and then Clemson everyone knows Clemson okay so really Clemson's the only really like quot good one 24.8 attempts 16.8 completions on average so he was averaging a 73% completion percentage in those first four games but only 194 yards less than 200 so he's dropped off from what he was averaging the previous year 228 yards per per completion 11.8 versus 11.9 okay he's on Pace there no problem averaging only 0.5 passing touchdowns per game H that's one that concerns me okay because national champions throw a lot more passes per game than that it's like closer to three okay but he had zero passing touchdowns in Clemson only one against Lafayette a team I've never heard of zero against North Western a team that is not good and only one against Yukon another team that is not good so in three teams that are not good he has two passing touchdowns okay attempts per touchdown he threw zero in two games so we don't count that but he's averaging between Lafayette and Yukon Lafayette and Yukon 23 passing attempts for every passing touchdown sorry Adam Dowling this is the things that I I I can't agree with you on now zero interceptions that that's fabulous right hey he's taking care of the ball he's taking a play a page out of the JJ McCarthy Playbook okay fair enough and by the way I I appreciate all these people that are listening tonight what is there's 12 plus three 15 all 15 of you hey if y'all if anyone wants to speak by all means just you know hit the button and I'll let you on here I keep looking down at the phone but no one wants to talk that's fine y'all are just listening to the stats that's fine but I don't want to just monologue the whole time I appreciate the interaction now rushing rushing touchdowns he is averaging 7.3 attempts over those first four games last year um I don't have attempts per game which is disappointing here so I'm not prepared um but yeah no he's averaging uh 59 yards a game okay yards per carry 7 .6 that's actually better than what it was in 2022 so he's kind of coming out as a runner I guess but even then if running is his major skill set his major contribution you how many is averaging in those first four games one one rushing touchdown per game one versus Clemson Zero versus Lafayette I don't know if they had a good rushing defense last year probably not didn't bother to look at that two rushing touchdowns versus Northwestern okay that's more like it but only one versus Yukon no I didn't look at the rest of the team and some of this other stuff okay fine but then his rushing attempts for Touchdown 6.2 okay that's fine that is significantly better than what national champions do by the way so you know okay if every six attempts you run for a touchdown okay I'm I'm okay with that all right so so that is a silver lightting um and it is better than what it was in 2022 that was it was 9.5 but then here here's where it gets interesting so he plays Notre Dame and you know I won't go into the details of that stat the that game obviously they lost but then here's his average stats the last two games that he plays Florida State and Louisville now granted one of these teams n Dame lost to I.E Louisville and Florida State was undefeated and they got stubbed out of the play playoffs Now Grant they got smoked in the face by Georgia in the bll game uh but point being um that's kind of the point I want to understand how a transfer quarterback someone with quote experience someone with upside someone who's been there done that hey he's going to bring a lot to Notre Dame he's got a lot of value to him that these younger guys just don't have here's a deal you played three good teams Clemson Louisville and Florida State last year and Clemson kind of you know H you know say what you want about that and Louisville even the same but even Florida State you lost both games against Florida State in Louisville now maybe there's a bit of the injury bug here right we've already talked about the injury thing okay fair enough but my point is you had the two two of arguably the best teams on your schedule and you didn't win you didn't perform and it's a noticeable drop off with that and so what I see as a Notre Dame fan selfishly is look obviously Notre Dame's playing Northern Illinois we're going to play Navy we're going to play army right we're gonna play Stanford who's actually a [ __ ] team this year my point is I am not yes I want you to win those games but I'm more interested in how are you going to play at Texas A&M how are you going to play when Florida State comes to town and they most likely will be undefeated how will you play in the Coliseum against our rival at the end of the year and how will you play in Notre Dame's first playoff game at home against a very good team anyone see that LSU coming to Notre Dame talk that was kind of fun to think about that'd be kind of poetic just Justice if LSU came to to uh South Bend for the first playoff game but I'm very interested in Riley Leonard or any quarterback we don't have to you know pick on him too much but how will you do against quote good teams and that's what I'm interested in and unfortunately with the test you had last year it was not good Grant you're at Duke there's there's a b bunch of other things going on you know with talent and you know whatever um I mean I don't think Duke has Under Armour so I don't think they can they can make that a scapegoat like Notre Dame can but anyone who knows me knows I've been uh on that train for a while dump Under Armour just pick up Nike it seems like everybody who win [ __ ] that didn't do uh any uh Stein sign stealing was wearing Nike yes I'm talking about you Michigan you cheaters okay Flor State Louisville obviously both are losses his attempts go down passing attempts go down on average from 24.8 to 19.5 completions drop significantly his completion percentage drops from 73% in the first four games to 44% versus Notre Dame hey we had Al golden good job Al golden but then against Florida State and Louisville it's 41% h yards drops even more averaging 194 yards a game down to 134 against Notre Dame to 95 less than a 100 yards passing is that what you want against a good team no yards per completion okay it's kind of in the in the ballpark 11.8 11.2 11.7 but it doesn't [ __ ] matter if you if you have like I don't care about yard points I care about points points on the scoreboard touchdowns Riley Leonard had zero passing touchdowns against Florida State and Louisville in fact he had zero rushing touchdowns as well against those two teams also so if rushing is his skill set his dual threat ability he didn't show it against state in Louisville granted maybe he was injured I don't know but does that mean he's injured now I mean he didn't play in the spring game I don't know here's something else that's interesting Z he had he was averaging uh let's see here in 13 games in 2022 he had six interceptions thrown so less than half an interception per game he threw zero interceptions the first four games last year cool one against Notre Dame and one in both Florida State and Louisville so he's literally averaging one interception a game now obviously that's that's not terrible but if you I compare it to National Champion averages they average 04 interceptions per game which is closer to what he was in 2022 again maybe he can get back to that level I would hope so since he is probably going to be our starting quarter qub back and then rushing touchdowns drops significantly you didn't have any rushing touchdowns right so my point is this from was was the Notre Dame game some sort of inflection point was it some sort of moment in his career at Duke where whoa like shit's changing here you're getting to the meat and potatoes your ACC schedule you play Big Bad Notre Dame Howard cross rolls up on you and you're never the same I hope not but I do find the irony in the fact that we are kind of the team responsible for him to not perform well the next two games he plays and and and then he's injured and he's out the rest of the season now is the injury or whatever happened in Louisville you know dependent upon the events the the last you know his last series against Notre Dame I don't know um because I don't have his you know medical chart in front of me and nor am I a doctor so but I was very curious to see okay what happens before Notre Dame during and after Notre Dame and it's the I don't like the trend that's all I'm saying okay you're injured that's fine like it would be one thing if Florida State he was putting up these great numbers even numbers of 2022 I would prefer numbers that are closer to what national champion averages are and then like oh Duke's defense sucked or Florida State just has better talent and they just won okay that's different but that's not what's happening I'm looking at you the quarterback the commander of the offense someone that I am hoping is a playmaker someone who is an ace takes care of the football delivers the football well and does well on my stat sheet and I'm not seeing it so again I'm not trying to hate on Riley Leonard here but I'm kind of scratching my head like well why did we get this guy and and that s that sucks that sucks to say why did we get Riley Leonard and we'll come back to to why I think he's on the team I I don't want to end the show on a downer and I don't want people turning this off I mean I want people to listen to it all the time obviously but I also don't give a [ __ ] if people subscribe and you know like and share and ring that Bell I don't give a [ __ ] about that right like look I do this for fun but I do want him to be successful as an individual and I clearly want Notre Dame to be successful as a football team and a program in 2024 and then I asked myself well why did I bring this guy on I don't know questions comments concerns nobody everybody's listening it's cool if anyone wants to talk Justin Rous Mark William missum Zoom Mike Sloan coach DJ no one nope nope everyone's listening cool we're g to move on it's like podcasting old school style there's lots of comments here let's make sure I don't miss anyone he has a one leg on the defense knows it two games on one leg ma Jones had a disgusting wide receiver core I agree but it's not the worst October North Lot yes Adam dling we are going to be in the North Lot in October wi's going to bed Jay Layman is talking bionics and Mike Sloan is calling out red snapper saying where the hell are you at I don't know Mike Sloan you've been invited to speak welcome to the show good sir pink button lower lefthand corner what is going on my brother yo sir welcome to the show what's going down well quarterbacks and we're not con I am not convinced if Riley Leonard should be the guy I don't know what what do you think I'm with you I mean when the news broke that he was coming in I think well my my first reaction along with everybody else probably was like minute is this the guy that uh is this the guy that got hurt I mean break his leg like what is this like a we're we're sorry we broke your leg here come over nerd in we'll make it feel better yeah no doubt but you know just like anything else I mean time will tell um I think his biggest test is going to be week one to see how he can handle that environment Prime Time game day agreed uh you know it's going to be a ranked game week one see how he can handle everything and go from there I mean that's you know my concern really more than than him is yeah he may have some you know stats and all and everybody's praising him and hyping him up but do we have any Playmakers on offense that he can deliver to you know I don't care how good you can throw the oh you've got to you've got to be able to hit somebody with it amen yeah and that's interesting you know like I I saw a I don't want to give too much credit to this person because I think sometimes they're kind of a jack hole on X but someone was making some comment about how our how our best receivers are from the lacrosse team and he's not wrong but it's the way he said it just really rubbed me the wrong way um but I will say this you know I I there is some truth to that just like good comedians you know have an element of Truth in their skits um in this particular guy's case he's not necessarily wrong like we don't have a Marvin Harrison Golden Tate you know kind of guy out there waiting to catch a pass from Riley Leonard or steveen jelly or you know dece well it won't be Duce Knight this year but you get my point yeah so so I'm not I'm not sure you know who he's going to throw to um we we do have we did have lose some of our guys but we got great house and we said you know the cupboard is not bare I think the cupboard is just untested right you know like like we don't have like we don't have Michael Floyd like oh Michael Floyd clearly number one you know what I mean like like we don't have a a household standup guy that people can be like oh next year after this year this guy's going you know first round NFL like Marvin Harrison like a like a Michael Floyd you know what I'm saying and and I think that that in today's era of and make it maybe it's fantasy sports maybe it's just you know the hyper recruiting and the the NFL draft and nil or pick pick your poison I don't know if fans are being um anxious over this or or maybe it's just the fact that you know passing ing touchdowns or the receiving you know the passing game in general is a little more sexy can I say it that way um so a lot of people are talking about it people refer to it as a modern offense I don't really know what that means but people people do look highly on passing which they're not wrong as they look at that I just think it's maybe just a little shortsighted I don't know Mike what do you think I don't want to get on my rtdb rant here tonight I definitely need uh need to be able to move the ball and you know run it will when you need to but it is nice to to look Beyond throwing three and four yard chunks over the middle I mean you've got to be able to hit the Deep ball you know not at will but you you've got to have guys that can create separation and can get open and when they are tested at least you know on the 50/50 balls you've got to have playmakers that can pull it in yeah and you know who who knows who these guys are this year that's going to step up but it's a good opportunity for some of the um lesser knowns to to go out and make a name for themselves but you know my concern pretty much for the season is you know with the expansion of the playoffs I mean there and the schedule we have we absolutely have to make the playoffs this year amen you've got to go in week one I mean I mean you know foot to throat and not let up and go in and and try to make a statement because you're you're in you know you're in their house they they definitely want to take you down um that's going to help their I think where are they at like 20th or something um yeah I don't in all fairness I don't pay too much attention to the preseason polls just because I I mean my my brain always goes back to 2012 where USC was right preseason number one and the end of the season they just were not at all um and so I I'm just like H preseason you know there's a whole lot of guessing going on and and that's not my not my bag here but but you're not wrong in in the how do I put this Texas A&M is a big name um it's an SEC school it's I clearly wanted to go to the game I could not get tickets without spending [ __ ] tons of money and I wasn't going to do that um uh well-known Traditions there fabulous recruiting class from a few years ago my god um and and a coach that's fresh fret new and I imagine that fan base is pretty [ __ ] pumped to have Elco returning at after he was whoa okay sorry Windows after returning to uh you know where he was a DC under under Jimbo right you know they're like get this guy out of here bring Elco back he's being paid a [ __ ] ton of money um they've got a good quarterback they've got all sorts of like the stage is set for for a showdown in College Station uh at Calle field a place that's still in my bucket list a place I would love to go to I would love to go to the game um I just can't I can't afford it at this point um and it's not even so much the tickets it's like where the [ __ ] am I going to sleep there's like all the hotels are sold that but I agree with you that that the first game is huge from from like and I don't want to say the it test so I'm not going to but but in the Optics of of fir first game of the year um you know games like you know this team versus this team and and people with something to prove or a fan base or whatever it is you know I I think Texas A&M fans are unsatisfied with what they got sold to with Jimbo Fisher because it never really panned out I mean they had a couple big wins I guess but you look at their win percentage over the years it has been nothing great they've had some good really good recruiting classes but again the win win percentage and you know trophies in the trophy case doesn't really prove it uh I think they're they're hungry for something Beyond just Johnny Football and they want to make a splash a team that's never made the the college football playoffs uh Etc you know and and I think that they can get there I just hope that Notre Dame beats the [ __ ] out of them you know oh yeah well you got to think too it's um you know that game is going to be hyped up um leading into it for one I mean the players are going to be jacked ready to get the season started the fans are are going to be jacked days hell yeah yeah game day is going to be there it's the first game of the year the first game of the season um prime time slot National TV I mean they've they they're going to have something to prove and uh you know also I mean hey it's Notre Dame coming to town so it's it's definitely going to be you know on their to-do list to beat us and um Freeman's going to have to get these guys ready you know not take anybody light uh don't have another Marshall incident which you know granted is not Marshall but you know it's uh I I think that this year's there there's a lot that needs to be shown about who the team is uh the direction they're going um I'm not sure if uh you know the same rhetoric of the defense always saves us always bails us out um I feel pretty confident that the defense is still going to be pretty pretty damn good it it's what I am most excited for about this season if anyone missed last week's show go back to last week uh the number one most important thing I'm excited for is our defense next year absolutely I couldn't agree with you more Mike I got a quick question for you is Riley Leonard that guy that can make Notre Dame defeat Texas A&M in College Station honestly I think that it all depends on the rest of the offense like I said I mean I look at it like every player regardless of how good you are um whether you've had injuries that you're getting over and you know you you've had time to heal on them you're One play away from anything happening so you know two snaps into the game he could get hurt again nobody knows I hope not and then and jelly trots his Jolly ass out there yeah I mean is he the guy I mean on paper possibly but again Poss we've got to have playmakers that you know make him look good you can throw the ball all day and everywhere but you've got to have the guys that can make the plays amen amen no I I think you're spot on there uh well Mike hey we got a bunch of people still that want to comment on this and I've got to do some comparison to Riley Leonard and his uh now he's entering a uh what do I say this a legacy I don't know uh a group of individuals he's part of the transfer quarterback uh you know portfolio here at Notre Dame so Mike Sloan really appreciate you joining us coming back to us yeah man just wanted to hop on for a minute uh let you know appreciate the what you're doing and look forward to seeing you guys uh at the Stanford game can't wait looking forward to it glad to meet you soon at Mike Sloan 01 on the X really appreciate it thank you much sir go Irish all right Justin Rous coach PR seasion coach I'll get back to you real quick Justin Rous real quick uh two minutes go Justin Rush on mute pink button lower left hand corner pink button pink button there it is yo what's up brother how are you man yo what do you think of Riley Leonard well you know obviously I only saw him handful of times I don't follow Duke that much uh for good reason but uh what I wanted to bring it to point is what you were just talking about that this this you know constant transfer quarterback thing that I'm personally not a huge fan of is Riley Leonard our best quarterback right now probably maybe I just in in in the deepest of me he has the most experience can I say that correct yeah because that that that is a a factual statement he has been the starter and played more games as a starter than anyone else on this football team right and I think and that carries weight like I don't want to downplay that absolutely but let me ask you this what do you how much of a decrease based on our schedule of this year how how much of a decrease in percentage of making the playoff with CJ's Carr as the starter wait say that again you threw a lot out there if CJ Carr is the the starter what are our chances of making the playoff versus Leonard how the [ __ ] should I know that I'm just throwing it out there I don't know I'm kind of I'm kind of a fan of of starting a young guy I for [ __ ] sakes Tyler Buckner had fabulous statistics in in college I'm not trying to be rude or mean but but this is we will talk about this later Tyler Buckner had had very good statistics in high school and it was a highly rated recruit and that doesn't necessarily give me a worm fuzzy that because of Tyler Buckner we're making the playoffs now CJ Carr you know I did see him you know throw some stuff in the spring game or whatever and and that's cool I did not see Riley Leonard because he just come off surgery sure okay which doesn't help his case um I mean look look you want my opinion start in I was just try I'm just trying to think think oh there you go I mean I'm just trying to think outside the box since we're talking about Riley Leonard he's gonna start you know hopefully he's the Savior right like hopefully he is the guy that I also don't want to belittle you know guli Freeman and den Brock because they see these guys in practice every every day okay yeah if they're watching Riley Leonard versus Sten jelly you know and listening to the the input from Adam dling who was on earlier you know maybe Riley Leonard does it's it's it'll be on podcast for you can check it out but my point is they see these guys every day I don't I don't have press access I'm sitting here in Central Indiana outside of Indianapolis and I'm running a show and so a lot of my input comes from the internet okay which frankly most other podcasts do because they just seem to focus on recruiting all the time theing and super chats which we don't have but that's that's fine all I'm saying is I I don't know if Riley Leonard is like the Ace in the Hole can I say that I don't I don't feel like oh man Notre Dame is in such a better place because we got Riley Leonard like n I'm kind of more like okay look you brought in Steve and jelli granted okay look uh we will talk about recruiting a little bit he granted he was a three star you know 89% composite whatever you know he was ranked 43rd nationally as a as all quarterbacks in his class in 2022 okay fine but my point is like how can he develop under guli if he doesn't start I mean and jellies had one [ __ ] start it was the sunbowl to which he did really well we'll talk about that later but I'm just like uh like like did we really need to bring in a new guy I I'm not convinced that can I say that I don't think Riley Leonard was necessary for the success of the team I'm not saying take or leave him I'm saying it's like all right you took him on you you you took a scholarship away from someone else for him and I'm saying that's a bad thing but it's like this guy is injury prone this guy was on a after he played Notre Dame was on a downward trajectory which we just already talked about in this show tonight and you bring him in why because he has some sort of like weird insight into Mike elco's like like philosophy [ __ ] we played him last year that should be all we need I don't know like I mean maybe it's a good thing Mike Elco developed that guy for us I don't I don't think that's the case either because he's a defensive-minded coach I sound like such a hater you're coming off as one a little bit and I and I I'm not trying to downplay but am I like like like nothing is jumping off the stat sheet I I am purposely leaving something off I'll talk about at the end we we will end the show on a high note Build It Up well either way I don't I don't just like end Doom and Gloom unless I really mean it but like in this particular case I'm like I don't know there's really only one thing that's an upside and even then Sam Hartman was better at this in 2021 than Riley Leonard was in 2022 I don't know like I don't know I I I'm just like perplexed over was this necessary are we truly establishing some sort of development of our quarterbacks that we recruit and let me go to that if that's the case then why even bother recruiting quarterbacks I mean that seriously if you're gonna build in a [ __ ] transfer every year or every other year from the ACC or wherever Jack Cen from Wisconsin fine yeah he was really the first so I don't want to throw too many rocks at Jack but because he had I'm tired of the cycle of this see that's my point like I I'm fatigued I'm I'm fatigued Justin I'm fatigued and and I'm not trying to be a hater I I'm just like was this necessary I a I don't think so and B how can we ever [ __ ] develop a guy if he doesn't see the field which was the point of my at the very beginning was ask this isn't like like like I mean this is a probably an improper comparison just because of the the wealth of time between now and and our last National Championship in 88 but Tony Rice like like look Lou Hol recruits him brings him in he plays he but but 8 was not his first Tony Rice's first season right so my point is like he had to bring him in develop him you know nurture him whatever you want to say and then okay fine now he plays and it's like yeah that's why we were also successful in ' 88 is because we actually developed a [ __ ] guy you know like everything else like like when we thought we would have that maybe 2014 with gon maybe 2020 with um Ian book maybe 2016 with deshan Kaiser which went completely sideways it's not necessarily Kaiser's fault all I'm saying is like like you think you're going to you're developing a guy in the program in the system and you expect him to get better that doesn't happen a lot of that's Kelly but now that Freeman's there and and he doesn't get a passcard anymore he's not new anymore his is year three okay and furthermore this is magical year three at Notre Dame we expect something out of you I'll just put it there I'm not going to say what I'm just saying we quote expect something out of you all right so I don't know sound thanks for thanks for having me on man I look forward to meeting everybody it's gonna be great same here excited to meet you Justin Rous and uh yeah the whole crew we we are really looking forward to the Stanford game getting everybody up everyone from across the country stev the Irish and Ireland people in Oregon California Arizona Texas I went through the whole uh laundry list of where everybody was from uh last go around yeah it's exciting Co Sean I see you there we'll invite you to speak um I think you will agree with this next bit here coach where we compare line by line Riley Leonard to the other two transfer quarterbacks Jack con and Sam Hartman coach I hear you there welcome to the show like you I do not think Riley Leonard is is the guy I don't think he should be the starter and I do not think he's going to take us to the promised land so to speak sure now why do you not think he will take Notre Dame to the promised land in year three well I'll start this way if you are supporting Leonard from a standpoint of you know he's obviously gonna be the starter we don't have much of a say in it you know you're you're supporting the starting quarterback as a Notre Dame fan get it understand it and I don't fault you in the least for it it's the best we can do however the pessimist in me from being a Notre Dame fan and a two-time national champion coach thank you it it's the the pessimist in me just wants to scream from The Mountaintop we've seen and heard this before we have seen and heard this before with Ian book who collapsed when it mattered again not all his fault he had Brian Kelly at the helm calling place but yeah he collapsed when it matter that's a handicap that's for sure Jack con who I think arguably results wise probably did the best of our three transfer quarterbacks so far yeah yeah yeah you're setting me up here I appreciate this keep going keep going um no in a good way set me up and then we had the I'm trying to think of the best word to describe him the didn't quite live up to expectations as we had hoped in Tyler Buckner and then we had Drew Pine who should have rode the pine the entire time and held a clipboard yeah I need to find a statistical piece where like like look let me talk about this because this has been on my mind I have to find it but I'm probably GNA have to go back and listen to an old show to find this because it's I don't know where it is in the notes I just I agree with John Kennedy at always Irish if you cannot see over your offensive line you have no business being a quarterback that that is that is a problem um what I will say about Pine is I everyone remembers him from the Wisconsin game which Grant I love that game it was exciting Tyrie game of his life the only Tyre I mean should we play it I mean we won't but we could I'm all I'm If people really want me to play it I will but it's the Gus Johnson thing just because I love Gus Johnson the the thing with Drew Pine is a lot of people remember the Wisconsin game and I remember doing a deep dive analysis of what he actually [ __ ] did in that game and it wasn't anything too spectacular I think people remember the Tyrie thing he threw a touchdown pass and remember him doing the Swagger walk which is cool don't get me wrong I'm it's 100% gangster cool I'm just saying from a statistical convincing oh yeah you're the you're the you're the man no not at all now coach you've kind of set me up here because you're talking about Sam Hartman and con and Riley Leonard here CU they're all they're all kind of at this point going to fall into the same I think uh image that Notre Dame fans are going to remember all three of them they were all transfers and two of them were both from ACC schools okay I I was looking we could go into the deep dive of this but I I I will cut to the chase here Jack con had concrete feet Sam Hartman did was better Riley Leonard is significantly better than both of them from a Mobility standpoint and the real proof of that is in the rushing category however I am not bringing you in as a [ __ ] quarterback to rush the football all right unless Mike denrock is running in some [ __ ] triple option you know [ __ ] which isn't [ __ ] it's it's actually pretty cool and nasty if it's done right which he may do he did it with Malik Zer in the the Music City Bowl hi Wes I see you there hello but you know where I'm going with this if it's a legit to like pronged offense of run the football pass the football with an RPO kind of thing with Riley Leonard yeah it could be pretty [ __ ] impressive intimidating and effective but does that necessarily mean you should be playing quarterback I don't know the answer to that and so when I look at statistically and isolate the passing you know nuggets of Riley Leonard's best year which is 2023 versus the best years quote unquote of Sam Hartman and Jack con Riley Leonard's not even close to these other two guys for example wind percentage all right let's just let's just go straight to the top the number one most important thing that matters is Win baby win Jack con has the best record in 2021 okay 84% then Sam Hartman in 2021 believe it or not at Wake Forest it's actually better than last year slightly we went 1013 last year but he didn't have anything to do with the bowl game because he decided to sit out so maybe I should have changed that number but and then Riley Leonard's at 69% like okay fine attempts per game um Sam Harman threw the most R Leonard's about on par with Jack coh you know his his last year at Notre Dame fine completion percentage don't really care about that yards per game okay moving the ball down field Sam harman's the best in 2022 when he his last year at wake 308 yards um Ry Leonard 228 in 2022 Jack con 242 and 220 2021 um attempts per touchdown this is kind of an efficiency thing Riley Leonard's not even close 19.6 passes attempts that's not completions that's attempts 19.6 attempts per TouchDown for Riley Leonard in 2022 Sam Hartman was 12.5 last year his best was 11.3 in 2022 Jack Cohen was 15.4 in 2021 at Notre Dame so still better than Riley Leonard okay touchdowns per game Sam Hartman's blowing everybody out of the water 3.2 touchdowns at Wake Forest in 2022 two flat last year Jack conen 1.9 his last year at Notre Dame Ry Leonard one and a half touchdowns per game passing okay now touchdown to interception ratio right is your volatility coupled with your productivity if I may say that both con and Hartman are bet well Hartman's not better but con was 3.6 Jack con Believe It or Not took care of the football better than any of these three guys both at Wisconsin and at Notre Dame 3.6 RI Leonard's 3.3 Sam Hartman 3.2 Wake Forest three three flat last year now if I jump over to rushing there's no comparison between the other two guys and we've already talked about this so Ry lonard is clearly about a rusher but it's like I'm not bringing you in to be a rushing guy again unless the the the offense is designed around that skill set which may be what Den Brock is doing now I don't recall the timeline of who was brought in first did did Marcus Freeman and the administration reach out through the transfer portal to get Riley Leonard prior to signing Den Brock or was it the other way around I honestly don't know the answer to this and I didn't do this research you know through articles or whatever of who what happened first now if Den Brock happened first and then he brought in Riley Leonard that to me seems a lot more significant about where we're going with all of this then the other way around where it's okay we brought in Riley Leonard this guy who we injured in the nerd a Duke game and we're going to bring him in because of his rushing ability and His Ho Hum passing ability I don't know and then oh we'll bring in Den Brock because well why not right you know and there there's a lot of ink to that I don't know well I struggle to understand why we bring in these transfer quarterbacks the very same year that they either play their former team or we play a good chunk of the teams from their conference Jack con struggled against Wisconsin his transfer year in 2021 where he came from I think there was an injury element to too but but but you're not wrong necessarily right and then we get Sam Hartman who in his collegiate career was usually dominated by Louisville Louisville fans ran their mouth the entire week leading up to the game and we couldn't even do anything all he did was justify their arguments the entire week and we've got a guy who Mike Elco knows very very well why do we continue to do this what what is it about these quarterbacks from Smart schools who we always end up seeing to either play their former school or we meet their former coach within the next season why do we continue to do this and shoot ourselves in the foot or at least set ourselves up for potential embarrassment disappointment well that's an that's an interesting point I hadn't thought of it before so so let me get this straight Mike Elco a former defensive coordinator at Notre Dame for a year a defensive coordinator defensive-minded coach at Texas Texas A&M then goes to Duke de quote unquote develops Riley Leonard understands his Tendencies his skill sets understands him probably better than Marcus Freeman because he had him for two years can I put it that way yeah and now he's our quarterback and now we're gonna go to Mike oo's house at College Station and attempt to roll Riley Leonard out to beat him interesting that's an interesting take I had not thought slard before and I think it's interesting that well maybe this is we're sandbagging ourselves here because why would we roll out a guy who we already know what his strengths are is that what you're getting at now yeah now obviously Freeman and Company have I'm sure they've taken that into account but I think if Notre Dame beats or dominates either one A&M it's going to be on the defense not so much Riley Leonard but that's just my opinion yeah yeah well and I think that is going to be the pillar of this footb I think Leonard will I think in the end he will do enough to get Notre Dame across the finish line but it's majority going to be because of the defense yeah yeah yeah that's interesting that's interesting no doubt no doubt now a lot of people like talking about recruiting and this is a little bit of a sidebar thing I don't know if this really means a whole lot but I was curious about this something spoke to me about where did Riley Leonard end up as a recruit SL transfer relative to Sam Hartman and Jack con so Riley Leonard a transfer is considered a fourst star Hartman was a fourstar transfer Jack con a three star so 92 94 85 uh composite per 247 uh respectively for these three men uh as they transfer from their previous institution into the University of Notre Dame now nationally ranked Sam Hartman was seventh last year as far as transfers go Riley Leonard was 44 and 83 as a transfer um and Sam Harton was the number one quarterback transfer from last year's class Jack con was number fifth in the transfer class a quarterback Riley Leonard eighth that means there's seven other guys that are better than Riley Leonard in the transfer portal per 24/7 that in theory we could have gotten which we didn't and I don't even know who they are CU does that take into account academics well okay so so all right here's the deal and we we will talk more about the highlevel macro stuff next week next week show it's going to be a little different it's going to be very macro a little less scotch and well it will not be less Scotch but it'll be a little less spreadsheets it'll be very macro about Notre Dame we will talk about academics and things of that nature because I me it's one thing if if Jaden milro enters the transfer portal he's probably not getting accepted to the University of Notre day but yeah I don't I don't know I can't speak to anything about his uh his transcript at uh at uh the University of Alabama or even what he did in high school but what I find interesting is if I even jump back to high school okay and forget the the 247 composite score CU that's kind of normalized within your recruiting year I kind of wanted to look at where you ranked relative to other people in your position or just in general Riley Leonard was nationally ranked 682 as a as a senior right going into college Sam Hartman seven 67 sounds like a jumbo jet not good either Jack con 468 he's actually the best uh within their state obviously it's different states we're going to skip that but nationally as a quarterback Jack con 16th best quarterback in his class Sam Hartman 21 in his class Riley Leonard 58 there are 57 quarterbacks better quote unquote per 247 entering you know senior year whatever that are better than Riley Leonard as far as recruiting goes that doesn't that's not that doesn't I don't put a whole lot of I don't put a whole lot of stock in that because look at gunar Keel and not wrong when you say that okay but listen to this and and maybe Riley Leonard got a raw deal because of the other quarterbacks in his 20201 class number one Quinn eers Quinn Quinn eers number two Caleb Williams [ __ ] that guy guy uh I'm I'm I'm kind of jumping around here number four was Drake May number six JJ McCarthy just won a title asteris number eight Kyle McCord number 14 Jaylen mil milro coach you just mentioned him 37 shadur Sanders just kind of that's more of kind of a you know the media kind of hype Riley Leonard was was 58th in his class as quarterbacks there's 57 other guys in fact there was another guy who was recruited as a quarterback who came to Duke that was higher ranked than he was now it didn't pan out because I don't think he played or whatever you know so I'm not going to read into that you know I don't even know the whole story but here's what another thing I wanted to say who is another notable quarterback in 2021 coach hint he was number 10 second hint he went to Notre Dame and is currently enrolled at Notre Dame Ty Tyler Buckner oh did he win oh Tyler Buckner was R he was number 12 when he was quarterback though well per per no no no his rank in in the class oh rank okay rank in the class Tyler Buckner was number 10 in the 2021 class and this dude's going to be playing [ __ ] receiver for us and Riley Leonard is gonna be starting so I thought that was kind of interesting I was like where does he WR recruiting wise and I'm like I'm going through and looking through the the list I'm trying to find him and I'm like wait a minute I just scrolled past Tyler Buckner oh [ __ ] it's the same class so well if he can finally if he can keep from getting hurt playing lacrosse then maybe he can finally keep from getting hurt just wrap him in bubble wrap it'll be fine yeah no I mean Tyler Buckner's fast as [ __ ] and I I'm not saying he should be quarterback maybe there's a double pass out there somewhere who knows um Flea Flicker I'll take a Flea Flicker on a on like a Jet Sweep reverse kind of thing and then it's like a Statue of Liberty Tran horse plate yeah I'll take that you know yeah I'm done with that um but yeah I I thought that was very very very interesting about where um where Riley Leonard was a as a recruit relative other people in his class which is not good um and Grant there's some there's some studs on on this list and and notable people um but it kind of also feels like this sounds shitty what I'm about to say but it kind of feels like we're just like getting getting the leftovers here I mean it feels like there's can I say that I know it sounds really negative but it's like I nothing even the recruiting thing doesn't make me excited to have him well it it almost feels like the last couple of years there's not really been a high-profile just stand out God this guy's transferring from where he was kind of quarterback that I can think of at least well and how many are there because like it look if you're transferring you clearly lost your job to someone who's better than you or you got injured or you have some sort of like personal thing with the administration right and like like it's not like when when jayen Herz transferred and was picked up but it's not like when he entered the transfer portal there's not been anybody of that c that I can think of or Caleb Williams just going over with r Lincoln Riley right yeah no I'm with you what there's not a standout uh DJ OU angal is still in he's still playing he's he's still playing Drew Pine I believe is still playing somewhere Pine is still playing [ __ ] man that Co year really throws throws things off yeah he had he was leaving Arizona I saw that earlier this spring that's wild I don't know the I don't want to be negative about having Riley Leonard but at the same time nothing's really jumping off the page now I do want to make a case for steveen jelli okay since we're talking about quarterbacks this what I want to talk about and Co you're welcome to stay on and I think Nolan or Mark or somebody wanted to wanted to speak so by all means please jump on guys I'm sorry I missed you but we're we're deep diving into what I knew Paran would be wanting to discuss which is the transfer thing and the specific comparison about Sam Hartman and Jack con I want to give a little bit of credence and shed some light on Angeli now what I'm about to present is statistically flawed it is a sample size of one however it is the one opportunity in which Angeli was the starter because he hadn't been a starter prior to too in fact he was a starter in a bowl game which okay say what you want about Bull games guys transferring entering the portal opting out you you know okay Bull games don't matter unless it's the playoff or even a New Year's six and even if you're Marvin Harrison apparently that doesn't matter either but Nolan I see you we'll invite you to speak hello um with Angeli he played [ __ ] phenomenal in in Oregon State Nolan am I right or am I wrong you're right yeah I agree with you yeah I mean you can disagree if you want you know no I agree I absolutely agree he look like the guy but if you go back and look at and and again this takes nothing away from his performance and you kind of just noted on it but if you go back and look at how many players they had sitting out on the defensive side it was almost like ridiculous I think they like no false false false false false false false I remember yes I remember doing this analysis for say I don't have the numbers in front of me right here but if you really want look I challenge anyone to to fact check me on this one I remember doing this analysis leading into the game post game whatever I was looking at Oregon State's roster and the guys that were making tackles this side or the other were these people that were fresh and new and coming off the bench and now we're starting no Oregon state was primarily depleted on the offense but not on the defense their defense was primarily intact with most of their starters and if you recall their coach who's now over at Michigan State [ __ ] you Sparty I don't like you but and I also don't like Oregon State by the way even though the Platypus trophy with between them and Oregon is pretty dope um Oregon State's defense was halfway intact and more than halfway it was I'd say 90% intact okay I got confused I knew it was I I just remember it was one of the two yeah well and and and you're not I'm not trying to put you on blast I'm just saying the that is not an uncharacteristic opinion or people like well there was a bunch of people that opted out D and like that is definitely the trend which I'm I which I'm happy and thankful that the playoff committee like at first when to let me back up the playoff committee playoffs all that is going to 12 teams at first I was like man 12 teams that just seems stupid but in the context of the current ERA that is college football and people sitting out opting out declaring for the draft transfer portal whatever it's nice to see that 12 teams is better than eight and if you have 12 teams that are vying for a viable National Championship that's four more teams than eight and four more rosters of of good players on good teams that may not uh opt out for the opportunity to win a National Championship so I'm going to go on a limb with that now back to this Angeli Oregon State thing Nolan like you're talking about and jelly did pretty well right did yes absolutely he did he did did a really good job I mean I'm not sure his stats on the game but just from watching it I mean he was slinging and if I I think we you talked about this last week the they primarily ran the ball most of the game right which open passing game up a lot uh I do have this bear with me uh make sure we're looking at the light thing um man it's been a long time since I looked at this um I remember you saying high percentage of them running the ball extremely high we ran the ball 71.6% of the time in that Oregon State game which is funny because we didn't have estimate right because he opt it out we had 48 running plays 19 passing plays holy mother of Lord um 236 rushing yards um and averaging 4.9 on the ground and we had uh 232 yards in the air yeah and the running game opened up the passing game a lot in that game and you could tell absolutely that was that was game that was are really fun well and it's like and that's kind of my ammo it's like look if you can run why the [ __ ] would you pass you don't need to pass like like like passing is fun it's sexy but it it is more risk adverse right there's technically less control of the football as it's flying in the air for 30 [ __ ] yards you know what I'm saying like go ahead and just hand it off put it in someone's belly and let him hold on to the points with two hands and run through the [ __ ] you know between the guard and the tackle like that that's my emo like all right I'm getting the juices flowing of rtdb but we're talking about quarterbacks tonight and we're talking about why they're there not just to stand there in the two seconds between taking the ball from the center and handing it to a running back okay we do want them to do something creative with it I.E throwing it or depending on what coach is calling are you doing an option are you doing a pitch are you passing are you you know this that or the other and Je oh go ahead I'm sorry no you're all right I just wanted to um kinda I I want to talk about Riley Leonard can we talk about it yeah whatever you want man go for it I I'm different from you and coach on on Riley Leonard I I am I have debate love it yeah I I I love the numbers that you bring up he was ranked this in the class we gotta remember he didn't start playing football till late he was a basketball guy he wanted to play basketball you know what I mean okay so he wasn't that that takes away a little bit of the high school ranking that we were talking about that that is my hoping I guess that's fair and the transfer portal yeah Cohen was the whatever he was I think you said seventh or something transfer portal quarterback or whatever it was um you we we both know it's so different and this year the transfer it was is it really I mean we're only talking like like three years difference I think from maybe not Hartman's obviously but I think from now I mean Harman was just last year yeah yeah but I think I think from Co out way different personally um I think there this year it was a very quarterback heavy portal okay there was a lot of lot of lot of uh good quarterbacks that were in the portal but we also I I also am a I was a big Hartman guy but I truly believe and I might get some hate for this I think Parker absolutely ruined Hartman if he would if he would have went he I mean he was he was projected like a fifth round pick when he went to when he was gonna leave Wake Forest and and it essentially got way worse at day you know what I mean yeah I don't think you're wrong when you say that I mean the I mean I mean I I I appreciate the the comparison I appreciate the comparison to Riley Leonard and I am aware of his basketball uh prowess and and skill set um but at the same time it's like look the whole point of college football is ranking teams specifically in Dame to other teams week to week and so I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility or even um the probability and appr riess to compare Riley Leonard to other quarterbacks at his same level at that time that being said if I'm doing a comparison of this transfer quarterback from year to year maybe the OC is different like you're kind of talking about and touching on there with Parker and Hartman and and I will be the first to admit that I think Riley Leonard is blessed with having the most competent offensive coordinator between con and Hartman right I mean con had Rees Hartman had Parker give me a break um now you have Den Brock in there as someone who actually I am confident will use his skill sets to the best of his ability so so I will give I will throw you that that I do think Riley Leonard has the best opportunity to be successful because I think he has the best coaching afforded to him all I'm saying is if I just compare his numbers of what he has done previous and maybe he had [ __ ] coaching him before I don't know but that doesn't change the fact that on paper his numbers are not nearly as good at all as far as passing the football when you compare him to Hartman or con that's a fact yeah and it is and and that's and it's obviously excuse me this is obviously having a little bit of hope that I well I personally I pick I I would rather have an athletic quarterback than a pocket passing quarterback personally and that's why I'm super high on Leonard and I truly believe that and I know we we differ in that but I truly believe I I don't necessarily differ in that because like like like go back to go back to look I want Notre Dame to win a title I want Notre Dame to to be successful how many you know dual threat quote unquote quarterbacks have been successful lots of them you know [ __ ] you know I mean these are the Elite of the elite guys you know the Cam Newton the jamus Winston's the Vince Young's you know like like go down the list right you could even argue Caleb Williams you know as much as I don't like him he was athletic um is Riley Leonard that guy maybe maybe I hope so I really want him to be just like you do I I'm saying is that in addition to like his physical build and the quote unquote look he has as a intimidating you know dual threat guy you've got to put it on the [ __ ] field and on the stat sheet for me to really sign up and hitch my wagon to this I'm with you I mean he's gotta prove it I just I'm super hopeful because I'm a huge Den Brock guy and and I mean if we want to be completely me too me too Jaden Daniels wasn't [ __ ] before Den Brock and I'm not saying Den Brock's fully responsible for him being an absolute stud I'd rather say that Den Brock was over Kelly absolutely that's that's my point I think we both kind of know it wasn't Kelly you know what I mean just from past him at Notre Dame right right so I would like to give BR a lot of props on that which is which makes me super super hopeful because I mean he really Daniels wasn't [ __ ] at Arizona State so I don't know man there there's a lot of unknown right now going into this season about and and to me personally about Riley Leonard it is his ability to stay healthy have the surgeries that he has uh undergone gone been successful has he healed up proper does he have the strength the speed the athleticism and the the just the ability to be his best self for Notre Dame um in a gold helmet when he runs his ass out there in Kyle Field I don't know the answer to that and and I really I want him to be very very successful right I I don't think he's better than Angeli granite and jelly I'm looking at a sample size of one but let's look at what Ang jelly did in one game as a starter against Oran State Grant a sample size of one but Oregon state was not a [ __ ] defense last year they weren't the best of the best but they weren't terrible and jelly was a 78% completion percentage okay he threw three touchdowns he accounted for 60 perent of all the touchdowns that Notre Dame put up okay uh his attempts to touchdown ratio is really really high 6.3 well it's actually low you want a low number your efficiency 6.3 attempts and you throw a touchdown that's better than any of these guys by far con Hartman Riley Leonard Etc um and he was halfway decent in rushing you know he got 3.4 four yards per carry now Riley Leonard's better last year even 6.1 so that's cool my point my point is like Angeli has been a a loyal foot soldier and not that we should reward loyalty that's not what I'm saying all I'm saying is you you called on Angeli to rise to the occasion in the game one game and he did it convincingly um and Notre Dame did it convincing and now you're going to ask him again to sit on the bench behind Riley Leonard I don't know like look I think Angeli's smart enough to know to just stick it out do his thing be a good teammate be a good player and be part of a winning program um and that takes maturity and that takes humility and I respect that about anelly absolutely I respect the hell out of him he hasn't I mean he he is he jump ship year a year ago you know um but in which I I kind of I I think it's kind of unfair to him I get loyalty thing too I really do well it's hard to not to with you know human nature and this that or the other now uh we're getting really late here and it's approaching the we hours of midnight here noan there's something I want to talk about I don't do I'm not kicking you off and I see William here William we'll bring you on invite you to speak um there is something I want to end on in a positive note that Riley Leonard does bring which I purposely haven't done I've kind of hinted at it a little bit here but nothing too crazy but it is I think one thing that I think separates Riley Leonard from the others and that is his ability to be an impactful player what do I mean by that in 2022 Riley Leonard had 20 p passing touchdowns and 13 rushing touchdowns so 33 total the team as a whole in 2022 Duke had 54 total touchdowns what is the most important stat I talk about national champions on average the number one important thing total touchdowns scored and Riley Leonard in 2022 accounted for 61% of every touchdown either through the air or on the ground with his feet accounted for 61% of every touchdown now I haven't done the break breakdown of what national champion quarterbacks do on the on the ground and and through the air right I I haven't done that analysis this is something that I thought of today and I did the analysis with Riley Leonard and I was like aha maybe this is why we've brought him on in 2022 is significantly brilliant quite frankly now it drops off significantly on average in 2023 and in the first three games uh or excuse me four games Clemson Lafayette Northwestern Yukon of last year he accounts for 30% on average of all their touchdowns at that point in the season so he's dropped off from 60% to 30% you know and then and then after that it plummets right uh I guess it 50% in the Notre Dame game but that's one game uh but he didn't get he didn't get he was not responsible for any touchdowns at all his last two games at Duke Florida State and Louisville but if Riley Leonard can return to his impactful performance and account for over 60% of all of Notre Dame's touchdowns dude sign me up okay that's the one thing that I think this guy can bring because quite frankly the other guys the other transfer quarterbacks that Notre Dame has had is not not even close to what these other guys had while they were at Notre Dame Sam Hartman was 40% responsible for 40% of all touchdowns at Notre Dam last year Jack con was 46.6% at Notre Dame so Ry Leonard if you can return to your influence of producing touchdowns like you did at Duke in 2022 60% 61% of all touchdowns hey I'm there man I'm cool I'm cool well we got a bunch of people on mute a couple people invited to speak Nolan's giving me 100% thank you um that's what I got man I've I've kind of broken down right Leonard is one of those things where we break down and we build you up at the end look I he's the qu if he's most likely the quarterback in Notre Dam I support him in the role and I wish him nothing but success I have lots of criticism lot of skepticism over where he is relative to some of these other guys and um his ability to come off of nursing an injury but I also believe he is impactful and can account for most of Notre Dame's points on the offense like he did in 2022 and maybe that's what Den Brock sees as he watches film looks at his physical abilities his traits his stature and he says Hey the offense I'm trying to run this guy gives us the best chance to win at least that's my hope that's all I got men Nolan coach bar CJ and William if anyone wants to speak by all means unmute yourself hey real quick uh just gonna say a couple things and get off here um that's all right it's really interesting you made a good point about what came first the chicken or egg with h Den Brock and Leonard you know who how what came first you know was it I have no idea Leonard or Leonard I'm gonna go on a limb and say it was Leonard first but I don't know think so too but uh I think the coaching staff uh Freeman especially has and the athletic director you know have a lot of pressure on them to produce and maybe that's why they don't didn't have faith in angelli I'm I I see your points on Angeli all the way and I was very interested in seeing him do more even with Hartman in last year right so I I don't think they gave him enough time and agreed I would love to see more more film more stats more data on angelli right the Oregon State showed that and your stats that you pulled up reinforces it I think I think maybe they know that maybe the coaching staff knows that well we don't have a developed offensive line or a standout offensive lineman like we did in the previous years so we need somebody to be more mobile and I don't see to their point I don't I don't would not calling jelly a mobile quarterback can he move no it's his no not really he's a pocket guy is is he a statue like uh our uh God can't what youall it was hope not yeah like con no no not at all I think he does move a little bit better than con but uh he's not he's not in jelly I mean he's not do you know how many yards uh con accumulated in 2021 at Notre Dame I want to say it was negative yardage it's negative 100 yards yeah I knew it was negative but I I didn't want to go I didn't want to throw dirt on somebody you know and uh no it's not throwing dirt you're reading numbers on a spreadsheet it's not negative it's just fact that's what it is that's I I'm sorry people think it's negative no basically is a negative number do you see that where the point is is like maybe they know that okay we have a very I mean I think the most amount of snaps any of the offensive linemen have had the most one is like 10 yeah I mean 10 like 10 games at the most it is a younger offensive line that's something we did not talk about in the influence of that and and how can we right you know you got a new quarterback you got a new offensive coordinator uh you've got new new lineman you know jelling whatever um new scheme we don't know the details of what's going on and how the quarterback and the o line are going to be a cohesive unit and let's not leave out the uh wide receiver I mean that whole room has done 180 from you know basically all these kids walking out to where now we we got almost a whole new room and it might we don't know that's a big question mark of how are they going to play how are these yeah I mean it's not it's not completely Barren I I would say the rushing room the running back room is a little lot more Barren with the whole that ese leaves but I mean there are 60% of all receptions returning um 56% of all yards 68 of all touchdowns are returning so it's not trash it's not terrible um you know but I think it's maybe some of the things where it's like look Holden's days Tyrie Merryweather Flores those are really the notable departures from last year in the receiving room um there's there's a handful of receptions right from the running backs right but but that being said um if we just look at strictly receivers and and tight ends um it's not terrible as far as what's returning is it possibly is it possibly the coaching staff feels that the overall grasp of the game is not and Jelly's strongest maybe I don't I'm trying to understand why I don't know I mean I he didn't start but I also think that Angeli gets a lot of credit for being behind Sam Hartman and and being able to observe and and go through progressions and and see this experienced guy because he clearly was um but but when I when asked to rise to the occasion I.E sunbow you know he does very well he did yeah he did very well I wish I had more than just one game of a sample size you know against a Bull game that quite frankly doesn't matter right like I'll be the first to admit that but I I don't know enough and and maybe the coaching staff wanted to go with a more known quantity over someone who had sign ific anly more starts um so again my my analysis on Angel is statistically flawed because it's a sample size of one game right whereas the Riley Leonard stuff I think is a lot more grounded in the sense that there's way more games to compare to and much other people who have you know said number of games equivalents or or whatnot so you don't skew the stats in one way or based off of one game right um but this is all I have in front of me because the Angeli didn't start and he didn't play a whole lot last year even though you know he looked really good in the spring game a few years ago and then he looked arguably the best quarterback in this last year's spring game right I mean like he looked better than minchi he looked better than Carr um he he's calm in the pocket he doesn't look like he's panicking freaking out I'm not saying that riy Leonard is gonna do that but I need someone to be a cool cat operator back there and I because of being behind Hartman and being able to see the progressions like you said that's exactly why he was able to look like he how he looked in the spring game so to your point that's 100% right well it's a spring game he knows he's not going to get you know leg rolled up by Howard cross you know what I'm saying like like there's there it's not quite the same as as an a live game you know down in College Station right so so let's not you know mince words here but but I think your points are valid I really appreciate it man and we we will see you know what happens look I want nothing for Riley Le to be successful and to to take Notre Dame to the next level level whatever that is um did I think he was necessary to do that I don't know I don't think so and I and I think most people would argue and what I showed tonight is that was not necessary for Notre Dame's ability to remain viable if anything it just muddies the water and ticks off the quarterback room to the guys that are already in the system or and and do leprechaun isn't on here tonight but he's going to come if he was on he'd say CJ Carr is the man get that guy as many reps as you can now as a freshman and a lot of me doesn't say he's wrong for doing that so we don't need to have turn this into CJ car disc have time discuss we don't have enough time I need to get my ass to bed we're almost two and a half hours right yeah hey well I look forward to a lot of good football talk to the rest of the season and you're going to be here for me throughout so I appreciate you guys do good work and uh go Irish thank you go Irish thank you I believe that was William williiam a Frasier on the X thank you so much uh Jr rash gives us 100% up thank you I'm glad we're getting an A+ on the show uh I'm cutting it Loose guys it's over two hours in almost a person two and a half hours and I got to get my butt to bed publ this sucker and put it up on Spotify thank you everyone for joining the fighting faithful show tonight a big big deep dive into quarterbacks a lot of Statistics a lot of comparison lot looking at what is out there what is is the grass green is the grass dying I honestly am not 100% um but either way I'm I'm happy that we do have Riley Leonard I do think we can be successful with him I just don't know if he's the guy I really don't and uh that's all I'm going to leave you with I really don't know he could be but the numbers I'm not going to [ __ ] you guys it doesn't look like he is convincingly trending in that direction and that's all I'm going to say um do I think he should be the starter it's hard to see because I am not in practice so I can't actively watch him versus angelli but if he wasn't there I would definitely say Angeli should be the starter so I'm GNA just hitch myself to angelli because there's no injury element here again I don't see him in practice so so ah it's hard for me to say I know it's a very pontious pilot of me there washing my hands of this but you know hey it is what it is all right we're going to end with old school stuff thank you everyone for joining us volume 123 season 5 episode 4 of the Fighting Irish faithful show thank you so much and good night [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is more of a defensive type track right this always plays in NM Stadium when the defense is out there [Music] [Applause]