Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:01):
Recorded at the WNBA to 16 News Now Studios. This
is the South Bend Tribune's pot of gold Notre Dame
football podcast. Here are your hosts, columnist Tom Knoy. Notre
Dame football beat writer.
UU (00:16):
Mike Berardino and Wndu S Jackson Neal.
S2 (00:22):
We are coming in hot on this pot of gold
because we're coming off a bye week, so we should
be fresh, right? Bye week. No football last week. No pod,
no game day. No nothing. Stanford Notre Dame, Stanford two
and three. Notre Dame four and one. The Cardinal have
been outscored their last two ACC games, both losses at
(00:42):
Clemson and at home to Virginia Tech, 7121, kick off
just after 330 at the stadium. NBC and Peacock. What
do we need to see? Mike Berardino that's Mike, that's
Jackson sans tie, as usual. Keep it casual. Mike Berardino.
What do we need to see from Notre Dame coming
off this bye week and heading into this next three
(01:04):
game stretch? Stanford, Georgia Tech, Navy starting Saturday with Stanford.
S3 (01:09):
What do they need to see this Saturday? Why don't
we just confine it to this Saturday? No messing around,
no messing around. Start fast. No. A good start would
be not fumbling away. The opening kickoff to start with that.
S2 (01:21):
That would be nice.
S3 (01:22):
To start with that building blocks and then try to
try to carry over some of the offensive efficiency that
you saw at times, not throughout, but at times. And
try to, you know, basically dispatch a Stanford team that's
begging for dispatching.
S2 (01:40):
Are they begging for dispatching? They're begging.
S3 (01:42):
For it. They're not saying it out loud, but with
their performance, I mean, they did win at Syracuse.
S2 (01:48):
Which seems like a month ago.
S3 (01:50):
Yeah. I, you know, and some quarterback uncertainty. You don't
know if you're getting Ashton Daniels who's pretty solid or
the guy who went to Ian Brooks High School.
S2 (01:58):
You don't need that. That's just how he's referred to. He's.
He went to Ian Brooks High School.
S3 (02:03):
That's all I'm recalling.
S2 (02:04):
El Dorado, California. Jackson, this is a really bad Stanford team,
isn't it? Yeah. It's not a good.
S4 (02:09):
Stanford team really at all, like you mentioned. Especially. No.
Ashton Daniels. I mean, then that's kind of.
S3 (02:14):
I think he will play. He was available the other day.
S4 (02:16):
Yeah. They're saying he's available, but still, I'm.
S3 (02:18):
Happy to take a one sided loss at home to
Virginia Tech. Yeah, that's kind of where they're at.
S2 (02:23):
They were happy about it. They're happy.
S3 (02:24):
They're fine. They didn't bring Ashton Daniels into the game
although he was available.
S2 (02:28):
Yeah they better bring. They better play. Ashton Daniels he's
one of my top four guys to watch. Because if
they don't have Ashton there there's they've got no chance.
S3 (02:36):
Mosley five.
S2 (02:37):
There you go. Maybe. Yeah. Or Rick Meyer's son Charlie.
S3 (02:42):
Huh. A lot.
S2 (02:43):
Of Notre Dame connections.
S3 (02:44):
I believe. Third string. I don't know. Third or more.
S2 (02:47):
Is he a walk on?
S3 (02:48):
I don't know what he got. What do I got? Yeah.
What do you got? I'm sorry to interrupt.
S2 (02:52):
Oh, yeah. This is. This is how Stanford views its football.
All right, I'm going to bang on Stanford here for
a few minutes. I went to the Stanford website to
get some stats off of the website. Yes. Has not
been updated since week two. Wow.
S3 (03:04):
That's not week two. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, the stats.
S2 (03:08):
The stats. I'm looking at stats.
S3 (03:09):
I saw notes, you know, I've. I've seen their notes.
S2 (03:12):
Their notes have been updated.
S3 (03:13):
Notes. I kind of like their notes. They, they they
stray beyond just the football gostanford.com.
S2 (03:18):
I went to stats PDF file. It has the game
against TCU and the game against Cal Poly. And after
that nothing else has happened. Stanford football wise I'm surprised.
S4 (03:27):
No Syracuse. They thought you would want to keep that. No.
S2 (03:29):
Get that win in there. So no Syracuse, no Clemson,
no Virginia Tech. Maybe the notes have updated stats, but
the stats section of the of the Stanford website has
not been updated.
S3 (03:41):
I don't know what you're talking about. I, I.
S2 (03:43):
Look, look, I'm looking at see that. You see that
right there?
S3 (03:46):
Yeah. Well you see this? No, I don't want to
mess mine up. But I went through now I went
through it. Could be the portal you're using. It might
be the portal you might have jumped in I in
the portal.
S2 (03:54):
My portal.
S3 (03:55):
In this era of portals portal, portal. I used the
college and this year I've just made a big switch.
Jackson I don't know if you do this, but I
finally decided it's just easier to, uh, to grab and
hold on my. You know, I have every window possible open,
so I have college press Box.com, uh, through my subscription
(04:16):
to the Football Writers Association of America, and it's really usable.
It breaks it all down, but I really want to
give them a shout out. There you go. Can we
have the guy, the voiceover guy do that shout out
and um, we'll look into that. They do a nice job.
And so this is where I can tell you that.
What do you want to know about the, uh, Stanford situation?
He's the starting quarterback. You're your point was, what do
they really think about their football at this point? 36,277
(04:40):
officially witnessed that, uh, Virginia Tech 31 seven home loss.
S2 (04:45):
And that stadium holds, what.
S3 (04:47):
50? They keep downsizing it by the day.
S2 (04:49):
And it's still not it's still not enough.
S3 (04:51):
Yeah. It's, um I was disappointed in my my son
now lives in Palo Alto and he's right down the road.
He's in grad school at, uh, at at Cal. He's
a Berkeley guy, so he really could have done a
double header that Chuck Culpepper did, and I was on
him about it. I was, you know, do that. Make
sure you get one of those games. He went zero
for two and that's where Stanford is. He could have
just ridden his bike down the road and and walked
(05:14):
in for free. No interest. Yeah I mean no interest.
It's a shame.
S2 (05:18):
Stanford football.
S3 (05:19):
ACC baby.
S4 (05:21):
He keeps throwing me off.
S2 (05:22):
We are in the ACC swing Stanford is an ACC school.
And that will that kind of brings up one of
the topics that we want to talk to. Talk about
what happens in this series next year. You know, how
Notre Dame always wants to go to California and end
the regular season in California? They do it every other year.
This year they'll be in Los Angeles against Southern California
(05:43):
next year. The odd years it's usually in Palo Alto
against Stanford. That's game is not on the schedule for
next year, which is.
S3 (05:54):
At the moment.
S2 (05:54):
At the moment, how much.
S3 (05:56):
Room they got. He had a couple slots.
S2 (05:58):
I believe Notre Dame has one room for one game.
S3 (06:02):
Yeah. And you have to think the ACC kind of
making this up as they go. The natural rival you
got within you know for not I mean I don't
do you think Notre Dame fans care if this game
goes off the schedule. Probably not. If, if uh you
know but it is my kids there. I want to stay.
S2 (06:19):
You want to go to Stanford?
S3 (06:20):
Yeah. Yeah. It's an easy way to check in and
yell at them, but, uh. Yeah, it's. I kind of
hope it stays on there. You know, it's one of
the rivalries at this moment where they get trophies, you know?
And if you lose, it's a trophy game over the trophy.
Trophy game. And so Notre Dame at this point still
in possession of all the trophies in the rivalries. And
(06:41):
a couple more will be on the well. One more
will be on the on the at risk with Navy
in a couple of weeks.
S2 (06:48):
Some quick hitters here before we get to our guest
Boubacar Traore Try. As we kind of feared and figured
out for the year, torn ACL might be a little
more serious than that. Some of the rumblings coming out
of Notre Dame. So he's gone. The second Viper to
be gone for the season. I saw Jordan Botelho limping
out of the GUG after interviews on Tuesday night. He's
(07:10):
he was hurt in the Purdue game. So they're down
to their third string Viper defensive end who is junior Tuihalamaka.
There you go. It's easier to say it than spell
it playmaker.
S3 (07:21):
He's been a playmaker.
S2 (07:22):
Yeah a playmaker.
S3 (07:23):
Had that interception down in the in the deep red zone.
And you know that Josh Burnham may be back. And
he can kind of play both sides. Even though he's
beefed up to 250 plus pounds. And then there's Logan
Thomas which is interesting. He's he's number. He's you know
he's climbing that depth chart with a bullet because the
people there's opportunity.
S2 (07:44):
So Troy gone for the year questionable for the Stanford
game Cooper Flanagan with a foot Gabe Rubio. We have
still not seen. He's been out for the season after
foot surgery. Billy Strauss they list him as questionable, I
don't know with the high ankle sprain that he suffered
against Purdue. I don't know if if this week is
the week to get him back. So those players are questionable,
probable Jordan Faison, who we thought might have been lost
(08:08):
for a couple of weeks with the ankle against Louisville.
Josh Burnham, as we mentioned, he's back. And then also
Christian Gray who missed the Louisville game, which we will
touch on very briefly with Leonard Moore playing, what, 73
snaps against Louisville in his first career start as a
true freshman in place of Christian Gray. I believe.
S3 (08:28):
He played all 7676 snaps.
S2 (08:31):
For a freshman. Just incredible. You haven't done anything all year.
Go play 76 snaps against Louisville.
S3 (08:36):
Well, he did have the opportunity to get out there
a little bit against Purdue. That was helpful.
S2 (08:41):
I think you and I could have played five snaps.
We could have.
S3 (08:44):
Held. We could have held him down there. That's why.
That's why Graham Harrell is in the portal.
S2 (08:49):
I think Jackson could have had a couple of like
three pbus against the Boilermakers, especially in.
S4 (08:54):
The second half there.
S2 (08:54):
Come on. They are not a good football team right now.
S3 (08:57):
No. Yeah. Let's. In fairness to. Yeah. Let's just be
specific there because I have a I have a spreadsheet.
The Leonard Moore got the 27 snaps at Purdue. He
got 23 against Miami. They've been ramping him up. And
that's where Jaden Mickey kind of sensed the situation. And
and and is in the portal or will be. And
(09:18):
then Leonard Moore bumps up to being you know because
Christian Gray was out. They expect Christian Gray back this week.
That would be helpful. Um, but you know, you got
to see Jordan Clark's versatility. And he was in the
news quite a bit here. Uh, both the social media
way and then of course, the traditional way here and
handled it very well, I thought speaking of Chris Bell,
(09:40):
the wide receiver from Louisville who has been given, you know,
a couple of opportunities by their media, I believe, and
and other people in his circle that I've reached out to,
and he's been silent on this. So we can only
assume that what Jordan Clark has said, that he, this fellow,
spit in his face and punched him. That was added
(10:01):
to it. Yesterday we had a punch, a punch. And
that's how you ended up with the 15 yard penalty
and and a teaching point.
S2 (10:09):
And how did Jordan Clark handle that? He was one
of the 4 or 5 players that we talked to
on Tuesday. You talked with Jordan Clark. Yeah, yeah.
S3 (10:15):
I thought he handled it very.
S2 (10:16):
Well. He knew it was coming, so he knew he
was going to have to address it. He was was
upfront about it.
S3 (10:21):
He's a you know he's a podcaster. So as.
S2 (10:24):
He's coming after Jackson's job.
S3 (10:26):
As fellow not as.
S2 (10:26):
Writer guys, he's coming after the TV.
S3 (10:29):
Not only is he a podcaster, but it seems like
they're eating ice cream every time he does a podcast.
So can you work on that?
S4 (10:34):
Yeah, we should work. I think we should work on that.
S3 (10:36):
Yeah, something. Some smoothies, maybe brought to you by milkshake or.
S4 (10:40):
Something like that.
S3 (10:40):
So we're just sitting here, you know, I got some water,
but no, he he was very good on it, and
but it is a you know, just fascinating case because
what where is the line? How far? What can you
when can you respond? How do you respond? What's what's
appropriate response to just fly off the handle within the
confines of a within the white lines? Uh, that's pretty egregious.
(11:04):
That's about I mean, there are levels perhaps, maybe beyond that,
but it's just about as far as you can go without, like,
breaking the law. And although it's kind of assault if
he punched him, but, uh. Uh, yeah, Jordan Clark's very,
you know, he's sixth year guy played almost 2100 career
snaps and and it made him snap a few play
(11:28):
a few plays later a different series. But after a
quick three and out, as we noted in the South
Bend Tribune today, as we kind of deconstructed it, he
had a little time to think about it. It wasn't like, boom,
you know, you're the front. The assault happened and you boom,
you do this? No. You had you were on the
sideline a little bit. You had some time to think
about it. It was premeditated, and I don't believe he'll
do it again.
S2 (11:49):
Wrapping up some Stanford talk here. Uh, history. Notre Dame
leads the all time series 23 to 14. First meeting.
I know Jackson remembers this one. 1925 Rose Bowl, Notre
Dame 27, Stanford ten. And the last meeting, the last
Irish win. Mike Berardino was out in the aforementioned Palo Alto, California, 2023.
(12:09):
Notre Dame won 56 to 23. That was the game
where every time Audric Estime got the ball, he looked
like he was going to run for 75 yards and
they trailed in that game, right? Remember Marcus Freeman said
on Monday at one point in that game, early in
the first half they were trailing Stanford and then they
hung 56 on them.
S3 (12:27):
Yeah, they had a hard time. They had a hard
time holding on to the ball. Hartman fumbled early on
the first series and at the end of a run,
I believe, and of course, they had a goal line
fumble that led to some sideline, um, exchange between Audric Estime,
Marcus Freeman and Dylan McCullough. but all was good. Always
love teaching points. We have teaching points. There was just
(12:48):
I think it was just like, hey, I'm right here.
I'll be turning pro soon.
S2 (12:53):
You might want to give me the ball.
S3 (12:54):
I'd like to opt in on the goal line. Yes, please.
And and that didn't happen. That was how they ended
up trailing longer than they should have. I remember Jack
Kaiser had a big interception in return. And and then
it got silly and it should get silly pretty early
this week, but we haven't. We said that before.
S2 (13:11):
We have said that before. And I'm not going to
say it again, because I think the last time we
said that for a home game was Northern Illinois. Yep.
And some knucklehead me picked Notre Dame to win 44
to 3.
S3 (13:24):
Oh yeah. Everybody picked Notre Dame to win that one.
And uh, but uh yeah they're going to play the
game ACC uh scheduling partner and uh, perhaps a future
rivalry game or not. That hasn't always been.
S2 (13:41):
That remains to be seen. And speaking of games, before
we take our take a break here. Let's let's also
throw in the fact that the Notre Dame Georgia Tech
game from Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The kickoff has been announced. October 19th.
That is the following weekend after the Stanford game. It's
Notre Dame and Georgia Tech from downtown Atlanta, not midtown,
(14:01):
at 330 in the afternoon. ESPN has the the telecast.
There was talk that maybe it might start at noon.
Doubtful that it was going to start at 8:00 because
they have to flip that stadium back for a Falcons
game the next day. So Mike Berardino will be flying
solo in Atlanta next week with a 330 kickoff.
S3 (14:21):
All you know, weather events willing. We think about the
people in the southeast who are who've gone through it
and are about to go through it again with Milton. Yes,
I know my way around the hurricane, so no fun. But, um, yeah,
it should. That's. I've been in the old Georgia Dome,
but I guess. What did they knock it down and
(14:43):
did they? They knocked the old Georgia Dome down to
build this new.
S2 (14:47):
No, I think they left it.
S3 (14:49):
Is it still there?
S2 (14:50):
Well, they left it. They built Mercedes-Benz. They left the
Georgia Dome once Mercedes-Benz was finished, I think. Then they
they knocked down the Georgia Dome.
S3 (14:57):
Georgia Dome was perfectly fine.
S2 (14:59):
Right. Which was like how.
S3 (15:00):
Old they had Super Bowl in it in the 90s.
He would do SEC championships. It was fine.
S2 (15:06):
It was, it was it was nothing.
S3 (15:07):
No, there were no problem. Wasn't even leaking. And but
they just must have so much extra cash to throw
around Arthur Blank and all those people. And they got,
they got a new stadium. And now Notre Dame likes
to go into pro stadiums and tends to do pretty
well in the pro stadiums. There you.
S2 (15:24):
Go. So after these messages we will touch on Irish Rewind.
So we'll be right back. Pleased to be joined now
by Mark Spindler, the father of Notre Dame offensive guard
Rocco Spindler. Notre Dame back off a bye week. What
does a parent do during the bye week? Did you
go like apple picking or something like that last weekend?
S5 (15:46):
Well, I actually went to, uh, one of my big
hunting ranches up north in upstate New York, big time whitetails. And, uh,
got back early enough to go to my ranch and
spend some time with Rocco over there. We just we
love the outdoors. We love to just, uh, you know,
just enjoy it when we have the opportunity to do it, when.
S2 (16:05):
He wants to get away and not talk football. What
do you guys do besides hunting?
S5 (16:10):
Well, what does he do? He just goes to the farm.
He hangs out there? Yeah, he has a new puppy. So, uh,
he and he and his puppy, Paulie spend a lot
of time together, so, you know, that's what I would say.
What he really does is he stays away from me
when he doesn't want to talk football.
S2 (16:25):
Because all you do is talk football with him.
S5 (16:28):
No, no, I actually, you know, contrary. I really don't
talk too much football. I just try to manage his
mind a little bit. Um, in certain circumstances and situations.
I mean, really outside of, you know, this Notre Dame
you know stint that that he's he's involved in for
the last four years. You know football really I don't
(16:49):
want to say it was such a big part of
my life, you know, for so many years that, you know,
I just find other things so much more interesting, you know,
contrary to what some people might believe. So football is
really not a big portion of my life. And if
it wasn't for him and what he's involved in, I
would probably just spend some Saturdays and some Sundays, you know,
(17:09):
just checking in to see what's going on so I
can stay, you know, a little bit abreast of the situations.
S3 (17:15):
Hey, Mark, tell us about this. The this program through
Duke Cannon that that you guys are making promotional appearances for.
And this is part of what brings us together today.
We're fortunate to have you with us. Um, but the idea,
I mean, I watched the the documentary series that was
it was basically hard knocks on on focusing. Episode two
(17:37):
focuses almost exclusively on your boy. And really pretty cool.
I mean, how did how did that come about? How
did you hear about it initially? And what and what
do you think of the finished product?
S5 (17:49):
Well, I thought the finished product was was absolutely excellent.
I mean, there was I believe it was four different
offensive linemen. And you know, I believe Duke Cannon, just
a company that really they just get it. And you
know and no one embodies the product more than, you know,
big rough and burly, you know offensive lineman. And when
you know I think we all have an understanding that
(18:10):
really the lowest glory getters on the totem pole are
offensive linemen. And I was a defensive lineman. You could really,
you know, make your own cake or make your own
hay by sacking the quarterback or making a big play.
And you stand out where offensive linemen, they don't get that.
But yet when you talk about what really embodies, um,
you know, big, strong, fast selflessness, um, you know, team player, um,
(18:34):
you know, and big and burly. I mean, there's no
better or better than an offensive line. So I just
think the product, both physically as well as it goes
with the offensive linemen, just go hand in hand. And
so when they, you know, Rocco actually brought, you know,
the deal to my attention. And you know I'm not
going to say I signed off on it. But I
just thought it was a great opportunity to get some exposure.
(18:55):
And then, you know, reviewing the product and the product
lines that they have, I just thought was outstanding.
S3 (18:59):
I mean, we're talking about the five offensive linemen in
this series. I guess each one pretty much gets to
be the the star of one episode. And of course
they kind of intersperse. We see Rocco in more than one. Um,
but University of Alabama Tyler Booker, Texas's Kelvin Banks junior,
Arkansas Addison Nichols, the center, and Clemson's Tristan Lee and
(19:20):
Rocco Spindler is pretty cool. Um, and these guys make
Duke Cannon, which is a great name for a big
burly guys, creators of premium men's grooming products made for
hard working men. So I would imagine you guys never
have to worry about going to target again or anything
like that. You you are good to go.
S2 (19:40):
You're always smelling good grooming products.
S3 (19:42):
Is that how it works? Where do you keep all
these grooming products?
S5 (19:45):
Well you can well, I mean, there's a lot of them.
So you have to have your own shelf, I think.
I think Mrs. Spindler starting to, you know, start to
think like, you know, if it wasn't for the product itself,
she might just start to call me like that old term,
that metrosexual. But, you know, you know, the big guys,
the big fellas. We want to we want to look
good when we need to look good as well, right?
I mean, absolutely. About the outdoors. It's just not about
(20:07):
being sweaty on the football field. I mean, after a
hard day's work, we want to come home and we
want to. We want to look good for our significant
other as well. So no better way to do that
than get yourself groomed up at the Duke. Canon products.
S3 (20:20):
Jackson probably would like some Duke.
S4 (20:22):
Yeah, I was gonna say that sounds for a TV guy.
That sounds like a perfect thing for me. Yeah. Mark.
S3 (20:29):
Jackson, what do you got?
S4 (20:31):
All right. Mark, I'm just interested, you know, as a
former player yourself, just, you know, we kind of mentioned
you talked a little bit with Rocco. You know, you
don't always talk about football, but I'm just wondering off
the field, where do you kind of help? Where do
you notice you can really help him out now in
his college career?
S5 (20:44):
I really think it's it has always been the mental aspect.
I mean, the physical portion will take care of itself
if you put your, you know, you put people or
you put your children in a place where you know,
you believe and you trust the process with the coaching staff,
some of that will just take care of itself. And
although I can help in certain areas with that. Um,
I think it's about the mental aspect not only on
(21:06):
the field, but off the field and trying to coach,
you know, Rocco, through certain situations because of the experience
that you have. You know, it's one thing I tell him,
experience we have as parents, right. I'm going to be
55 years old. And I told him, that's one thing
you're never going to catch me with is age and time,
you know? So, um, you know, you have to, you know,
(21:26):
use those experiences as a parent, as a friend, you know, um,
as a mentor to be able to help expedite some
of these learning curves that some of these younger individuals
go through today. It's not, you know, let's face it.
It's just it's not I'm not going to say it
was easy in the past, but there's a lot of
distractions that are out there in 2000 and, you know,
(21:47):
24 for these younger individuals and to help try to
keep them on track and try to expedite some of
these situations for them. You know, I think it's a
responsibility of, of a parent or a mentor to be
able to help with that. And that's that's what I
try to do.
S2 (22:01):
Mark, what experience did you have either at when you
were playing collegiately at Pitt or in the NFL as
far as dealing with injury and what Rocco had to
deal with late last season?
S5 (22:10):
Yeah, I unfortunately I'd been there. I mean, I was
there in my, my last game of my college career and, uh,
you know, I tore my I tore my ACL, and
I went from the first round to the third round.
Humility and adversity. You have to have the ability to
be able to overcome it. And then when I was
in my contract year, my first year in the NFL, um, Ironically,
(22:33):
I suffered a significant high ankle sprain that took me
out for about 8 to 10 weeks and cost me,
you know, a significant amount of income at that time.
And so what you do is you just try to
keep your mind mentally in the game and say like,
one moment or one game or one season is not
going to define who you are. And if it did
or it does, then you're probably not the person that
we raised you to be. And so you have to
(22:55):
really keep the mind space, the head space going forward, saying, look,
now's the time. You have to double down. You really
have to take care of yourself more so than ever before. And,
you know, you take the, you know, the last several
weeks of the season, um, and go into the off
season and you have to have a plan. The plan
has to be clear, concise, compelling, and it has to
(23:16):
be 100% committed to get back on track. And, you know,
I was really proud the way that he responded and
got himself ready, you know, for spring ball, I thought
coming out of the spring that he I didn't think
I mean, coming out of the spring, I thought he
was their best offensive lineman. I thought he played extremely
well in the spring and I'm not quite sure what happened,
you know, in fall camp.
S2 (23:35):
I don't think any of us are.
S5 (23:37):
You know, certain circumstances happen for certain reasons. And what
I told him was, uh, look, how this thing is
going to start is not going to be how it's
going to end. And that's all I can say.
S2 (23:48):
You talked about the distractions of a college football player
for someone who played collegiately, and now you have Nil
and the transfer portal and all the nonsense that goes
on with college football. Do you recognize college football anymore?
S5 (24:02):
It's it's just one big word. It's a business. It
had already had had always been a business, but now
they just let the other half participate in it. And
it's definitely a it's I, it's a it's a different
game from one aspect, but clearly it's the same game. It's,
it's played between the lines and you have to line
(24:23):
up and you have to play. But from the distraction
aspect of it, it's something that I myself have a
hard time associating with because, you know, we had distractions
back then, but I was so laser focused, the way
that I ate, the way that I slept, the rituals
and habits. And, you know, we didn't really have these
things yet. I had like, you know, I had this
big Wolfman walkie talkie phone that was here that you
(24:45):
didn't even want to pull out, right? And so, you know,
every single aspect of social media or media and what
is being written, what's being said and what's going on
is just right there, you know, instantly in your hand.
And so I believe you have to really manage. And
the great ones have the ability to be able to
(25:06):
manage through those distractions because we're talking, let's face it,
some of these higher, you know, um, you know, athletes
that are in the college game, they're getting millions of dollars. Millions.
It's it's it's it's totally crazy. But I support it 100%.
S2 (25:20):
What kind of NFL deal would you have had if
you when you were at Pittsburgh? Uh, like a deal
with Primanti brothers. Besides.
S5 (25:29):
I I probably, I probably would have had a pretty
darn good one. I mean, you know, off the record,
I had a pretty good deal to begin with. Wow.
That's right.
S3 (25:38):
Number one recruit in the country.
S5 (25:40):
Yeah. Listen, rumor rumors have it that some of the
deals that were done prior to Nidal deals were bigger
than nil. Deal. I'm just saying, guys, you're not saying.
S2 (25:50):
But you're saying. Yeah.
S5 (25:52):
Hey, maybe it was the reason why he didn't go
to Notre Dame.
S3 (25:55):
Well, that's a that's a no doubt. That's a good
segue though, because one of the things, you know, that
the that the Duke Cannon documentary series does so well
is pay tribute to your dad and, and give you
guys a chance to talk about George Spindler and what
Notre Dame meant to him. And, you know, it's a
story that that we've had a chance to it's been
written here in this area. But for the nation to
(26:17):
see that and I and I encourage everybody to check
it out on YouTube, it's episode two and just type
in Duke Cannon and Rocco Spindler and you'll find it.
But what do you think? Your dad's. He's been gone
for a few years now, but can maybe explain to
people again what Notre Dame meant to him. What how
that led to Rocco, uh, ending up at Notre Dame
and and what would your dad think now?
S5 (26:40):
Well, he he he had always been this huge Notre
Dame fan all the way through high school. My high
school years and as it, you know, came to the decision.
I mean, he clearly knew that, you know, through my
grumblings that Notre Dame just wasn't the place for me.
It just didn't seem to fit. I seemed to want
to gravitate more towards what was a city type of
campus and a little bit more, you know, outgoingness, we'll
(27:03):
leave it at that. And so he finally said, look,
it's your decision. You do what you want to do.
And ultimately he allowed me to go ahead and do that,
and I respect that. And then, you know, but, you know,
every single chance that he had to send a zinger
my way, he sent a zinger my way, you know,
all the way through college when we, you know, when
(27:24):
Notre Dame won, you know, the national championship and all
the way through. When I was retired in the NFL
and the two offensive linemen went in the first round.
I still have that call on my cell phone. You know,
his message that I listened to today and he really said,
you're going to be making a really big mistake if
you don't send your son there. You know, not only
(27:44):
for the athletic portion of it, but for the academic
portion of it. And, you know, that was something that
gravitated with me. I didn't want to push Rocco with that.
But clearly Rocco and his grandfather, you know, um, had
a bond that's probably beyond description. And I'll just remember,
you know, I knew my dad was sick, and I
decided to go back to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and I asked
(28:06):
Rocco if he wanted to join me because I had
a funny feeling that this could be, you know, the
last time I see him. And there's nothing like, you know,
you know, you're looking at your dad for the last time, going,
I think this is gonna be the last time I'm
going to see my dad alive. And we spent the
week with him. And then when we were leaving, I
walked out thinking my son would be writing back at me.
And he wasn't. When I looked back over my shoulder,
(28:26):
he was leaning over the bed and he was whispering
in his ear. And I'll never forget that. He shook
my son's hand. And he was, he was he was like,
doing this here. And I'm like, I don't know what
that's about, but I'll never ask him until this day.
I never asked him what that conversation was. And until
that Duke Cannon promotion came out, that was the first
(28:49):
time I heard this is what they had actually discussed
and or actually what he had told them. And I guess,
you know, he wanted him to know, and he must
have sensed in his heart that he was probably wasn't
going to be around for much longer. And he told
his grandfather that, look, I'm going to fulfill your dream
and your wish, and I'm going to go to Notre Dame.
And I gotta tell you, you know, it just gives
me chills, can bring tears to my eyes to understand.
(29:12):
A young man made such a big decision because he
wanted to fulfill, you know, a promise that he had
made to his grandfather when he was a little boy.
S2 (29:21):
How much closer do you feel to your dad when
you're here or on a on a football weekend, like
is there is there something around campus that that you
look at and it, it, it brings up a memory
or something where you're like, you know what, dad, this
is kind of cool.
S5 (29:40):
Yeah. It's really it's it's bittersweet to be, to be
perfectly honest with you. I mean, you know, I know
he's there in spirit, but I just would have wished
that he had that opportunity to sit right next to
me and and be able to watch his grandson, you know, from,
you know, run out of that tunnel for the first
time when he knew he was going to start. But,
you know, every time I get on that, I get
(30:01):
on that campus, I, I bring my father's Notre Dame
hat with me everywhere we go. So I bring it
to every single home and away game, you know, and after,
you know, they play the national anthem and they play
the kickoff song. You know, I look up in the air,
you know, I say a little prayer, give them a
little fist pump. And I say, come on, dad, you know,
(30:22):
be with the kid today, man. Give, give them what
it takes. And so you know, it's hallowed ground. The
grotto is such a special place. Um, I'm not going
to say that. I think people that have been around
that for a long time take it for granted. But
for those who are on the outside that have the
opportunity to go and visit that campus, that place, how
(30:42):
clean it is, how special it is, the tradition, the history. Um,
it's just something that's really it's what I love most
about Notre Dame, to be frank.
S3 (30:52):
We'd be remiss if we didn't ask about your three daughters.
Your three daughters are quite accomplished in their own right,
and you can let's brag on them a little bit.
You and your wife, Rochelle.
S5 (31:03):
Uh, I really.
S3 (31:05):
Tell us about.
S5 (31:06):
That. Yeah. So the matriarch, Rochelle, I mean, nothing, nothing
happens without her. She's the linchpin of this entire family.
She's her son's biggest fan. And I could tell you,
you know. You know, she she is absolutely camera shy.
She would never do this. But, you know, none of
us could do it without her. Uh, his oldest sister, Gabriella. God,
God love her and God bless her. I mean, she's
a captain in the army. She's a two time assistant
(31:28):
to the general. She's stationed actually right now in Detroit
for the first time in eight years. She was overseas
for that time. And just think about this. Uh, two
Sundays ago, she got an airplane with a general. Yeah,
she flew from Detroit to South Korea, spent a couple
of days there doing inventory from South Korea. She flew
to Japan, spent a couple of days there. Japan to Australia, Australia,
(31:50):
back to South Korea, South Korea to Hawaii and to
Hawaii back home to ensure that, you know, all of
our inventory is in check just in case something, you know, goes,
goes awry here. So that's who she is. And all
while she was doing that, she has her, you know,
graduated from West Point, an officer married to a West
Point cadet. And she has her master's from Georgetown, and
(32:10):
she's probably get her PhD, possibly from, uh, from Notre Dame.
You know, my second born. She left home when she
was 18 years old, right after college, and she's a
full time model, started off in Chicago. She walks the
runways all over New York City, lives in Manhattan, and
she's living, you know, the lifestyle of the rich and
famous and just having a great time. And my youngest, Isabella, uh, she, uh,
(32:34):
she she graduated from she graduated high school early, graduated
college early, has two master's degrees. And she presently works
for me. Um, and I can tell you, she is, uh,
if I would never say she's our top employee, but
I can tell you she is. Uh, yeah, she is very,
very good at what she does. And, uh, you know,
(32:55):
she's a big pain in the butt at times when
you work with one of your own. It's it's challenging.
But I have been blessed beyond, um, anyone's wildest dreams from, uh,
everything from my my youth growing up with humble beginnings
to where we are now with a massive company that
myself and my wife own, uh, to four beautiful children
(33:18):
that are healthy, happy, You know, hungry and humble. I mean,
that's our motto. Stay healthy, stay hungry, stay humble. And, um,
you couldn't ask for more than that.
S2 (33:27):
So how does a guy from. How does a guy
from Scranton, Pennsylvania, handle Midtown Manhattan?
S5 (33:34):
Not well. It's not your. It's not your pace. Where?
I've been in Clarkston, Michigan. Really not? Well, that's my
daughter's thing. You know, when I go there, it's a
hit and run. She's like, you don't love me like
you love the other ones. You don't come and visit.
I'm like, honey, let me tell you something. Oh, there's
not enough pizza and wine in that city for me
(33:56):
to come and spend more than two days to get
out of there.
S2 (33:59):
Two days is like the max. Like you get in there,
and then I got a headache. I gotta get back
to Michigan, where it's a little quieter.
S5 (34:05):
We're going twice this year. Really? I mean, we're going
to go Army. We're going to go Navy. Right? So.
So I'm going to be there more than I've been
in probably the last ten years. But we're going to
make a little event on it. We're going to go
over to the I think the Army game. We're going
to head over on a Wednesday. Um, we're going to
do a pizza tour. I'm a big pizza guy. So
we're going to do a lot of the pizza reviews,
and then we're going to go to the Navy game and, uh,
(34:27):
probably do a lot of the same. So it's exciting
time for Notre Dame. It's an exciting time to be
a fan. It's an exciting time to be a father.
We just got to, like I said, stay healthy, hungry,
humble and hopefully Notre Dame does what they're supposed to
do and win out here and find our way into
the playoffs and see where that takes us. All you
have to do is get in, guys. Remember that. Just
(34:48):
have to get it.
S2 (34:49):
That's best college football road trip for you and your family.
Where would it be where you're like, all right, we
got to go besides Dublin.
S5 (34:57):
Well, that thing was outstanding. I got to tell you,
I have some Irish, you know, uh, in my blood.
And so that was just absolutely incredible. But where I mean,
you know, I guess it all depends on what you're
what you're what you're really what you're looking for. I,
I'm glad that I had the opportunity to see what
transpired down at Florida State when we were down there
(35:18):
and seeing the tomahawk chop and then Virginia Tech enter
the Sandman. I mean, there's there's been a lot of great, I,
I really love the bowl game when we were out
in Arizona. I mean, that was fantastic. I mean, you
there's not there might not be a better, better scenery
in the land than. But you know, if Notre Dame,
you know, wants to pack up and they want to, um,
(35:39):
you know, book a game over there and Canada because
that might be one of the most spectacular, uh, scenes
in the world. So if they can get a game,
you guys can arrange something over there. Um, over near
Lake Louise. I'm in 100%. I'll stay, like, probably six months.
S2 (35:56):
Mike. Michael, go talk to Pete Vivacqua and we're done.
See what? What he can.
S3 (36:00):
Handle. Yeah. Well.
S2 (36:01):
Let's see what you can pull out.
S3 (36:02):
We. You know, we'd be remiss if we didn't. We
had a couple mentions in New York. We, you know,
we could ask you about the pizza, but the Jets,
of course, fired another coach. And you played people. I've
seen references to. Oh, the this is the worst coach ever. No,
I'm pretty sure Richie Kotite was, But I'm not going
to ask you to pile on the poor guy.
S5 (36:19):
Let me just let me just tell you about Richie Kotite. Listen,
I went over there, you know, and things weren't going well,
and I wasn't starting, and I could tell you I
was a different cat, unlike my son. I mean, trust me.
And I'd be sitting in those meeting rooms. And when
someone made a bad play, I pointed it out. I like,
you know, when they made multiple passes, I pointed it
(36:39):
out because I wanted to play. I felt I should
be starting. And so my frustration level, this is legendary.
I mean, got to the highest level. And a really
good friend of mine who played offensive line, his name
was Matt O'Dwyer. And northwestern, right? Yeah. He was he
was a beast. I mean six five, 315, 320, benched £500,
(37:01):
had shoulders as wide as King Kong. And and he
was a good friend. And it was like after Thanksgiving
practice or something and you know and I used to
just go 100 miles an hour because I wanted to
get on that field and I'll never forget. And I
was legendary, tough guy, and someone said he was the
new king of the ring and gave me a couple
shoves afterwards. And, uh, and I really I walked back
(37:22):
to the huddle and this is I honest to God,
this is what I said. I said, I cannot believe
he wants a shot at the title and and and
legendary status. I mean, the next play, we got into
it and he started to shove me back, but I
was a wrestler and, uh, and I'll bring it back
to Richie Kotite and I flipped him over. And this
is true. You can read this. I ripped his helmet
(37:43):
off and I smashed him over his own head with it.
I mean, really, really hard. And then I went to work. Right.
And so and so. This is so crazy. So not
that week, but the next week, Richie Kotite is in
a meeting and he says he goes and let me
tell you, we're going to do this and we're going
(38:03):
to do that. He gave his, like, best Newt Rockne
speech ever. We're like, we're like two and 12 at
the time. And he goes, he goes, uh, and you
tell him the most important part of a fight is
the first punch and I end up starting the rest
of the year. So you got a promotion out of it?
I got a promotion out of smashing one of my
teammates over the head with his own helmet. But that's probably, though.
(38:25):
And Richie Kotite had the best cigars ever in his office.
He used to say, never got a chance to smoke him.
S3 (38:32):
No victory cigars.
S5 (38:35):
And so I would go in like I would leave
the meeting room, literally leave the middle of the meeting. Right.
And I'd go down to his office, I'd knock on
the door and I'd sit down in there, put up
the humidor, and we'd get a cigar and a cigar about.
A meeting was going on. And he knew I loved cigars,
and I knew my business. So, you know, Richie, although
(38:56):
he wasn't the best coach, he was a legendary tough guy,
I think a Golden Gloves boxer. And, uh, you know,
one and 15 and three and 13. Folks, I gotta
tell you, you gotta have some toughness just to be
able to get through that.
S2 (39:09):
Okay, I don't know where I'm going to go with this,
but I'm going to try it anyway. We were driving
home from the Purdue game from West Lafayette a couple
of weeks ago, and somebody in the back seat of
the car threw on a mark Spindler, uh, postgame rant.
I believe the founded on YouTube, where, like every other
word was f this and f that. And I forget
what the question was. And you went on for like
(39:31):
8 or 9 minutes of just saying, f this and that. Dude,
do you have any idea what I'm talking about?
S5 (39:37):
I know exactly what you're talking about. That's that's like
a that's a legendary interview back in the Motor City.
And really, I think it made ESPN Fred who. At
the time, um, he came in and you know how
it goes. I mean, you know, you have maybe 10
or 15 reporters around you and they're all asking pretty
(39:57):
much the same question. Your frustration level gets to a point,
and they all walked away and you think you're done.
And then Fred came in. He asked, like pretty much
the same question, but he knew exactly what he was doing.
He said, he's like, can you put a finger on
why he'd come out and you play? So flat. That's
so much to play for. And I and I just went.
I just went ballistic. And he knew he had something
(40:19):
really good there. And you want to talk about just
poking the bear? Oh, he just kept poking the bear
and poking the bear, and I just kept. He was
throwing the bait out, and I was just swallowing it down. So,
you know, I, um, I actually recently reached out to him.
He sent me that so I can have it because,
you know, I just felt it was apropos to be
able to share with my children, you know, going, hey,
(40:41):
look at just remember, every now and then the lion
needs to let the jackals and the hyena know who
he is. I might be a good guy now, but
let me tell you, I still have this inside me somewhere.
So you got to be careful.
S3 (40:55):
You know, Rocco is just getting warmed up. We don't
get to talk to him as much as we'd like
a few times over the years, and should be more.
But he was four minutes into his interview and we
the other day last week, he had just been asked
about the Louisville loss a year ago, and he was
asked whether it had pissed him off, and he agreed
that it had pissed a lot of guys off. And
(41:15):
then suddenly tornado warning, here they came. All the handlers
like not just him, but everybody had to evacuate because
a tornado warning had been. And I'm I don't know
that we we never saw it. We never saw it.
I just know that your boy was just getting warmed
up and in four minutes and and. Boop! Poof. I
don't know when we'll get him again. I'm looking forward
to it, though, because he's a straight shooter like you.
(41:37):
And and he's. And we got, you know, he's been
through a lot. Like Tom said injury late last year.
Usually you lose. You can't lose your job to an injury.
But in this case temporarily, it's it seems to be
that way. Um, but, you know, there's more than one. Yeah, yeah. So, uh,
there's that another. Well, a couple of things and we'll
(41:57):
let you go. But thank you so much for doing this,
Duke Cannon. Thank you as well for for hooking, for
hooking us up. But, um, NFL dads, we've written about
that from a few different perspectives. But I wonder, as
a as an NFL dad on a team just with
a good ten or so, uh, every year, every roster
seems to have a few, but it just seems to
(42:19):
have really amped up on the defensive side, especially now.
What is it like? Do you guys ever get in
a room? The NFL dads, uh, and talk and just
kind of share thoughts on why how this has happened
at Notre Dame? I know every program would love to
get sons of NFL players, but these here, it seems
(42:40):
to really be a pipeline.
S5 (42:42):
Notre Dame is really recently you know you know having
a pretty darn good run. Do we get together. No
I did spend a lot of time with uh you know.
You know, John Allen guy. And let me tell you,
when you want to talk about a nightmare to play against,
maybe the only worst guy to play against was him
is probably going to be his son now. Because, you know,
(43:04):
when we would go out and we would play in
Kansas City, I made sure it was a point that
I lined up on the opposite side of the ball.
I did. I didn't want nothing to do with him
because he was a nightmare terror. But, you know, so
I had a lot, of lot of talks with him,
made him laugh. Um, and really, you know, because he's,
you know, he's just not like I am right now
(43:24):
going like this and charismatic, but but in his own right,
I would tell him about some of the stories, you know,
from our perspective about playing Kansas City and how great
of a player he was and how revered he was
as a player. Um, but yeah. No, I think it's
it's something really, you know, to, to build on. And
if Notre Dame is smart, you know, they, they kind
of use, they use some of that stuff to say, hey, look,
(43:45):
you know, not only, you know, are we recruiting, you know,
great players. They're great players of of great players. And so,
you know, in this day and age, you know, outside
of the the Nil money, you know, which you know
is definitely, you know, you need to be able to
understand how to use it. You know, you can use
any slight edge or small win that you can get
(44:06):
to separate, you know player A from school B and
Notre Dame really should you know I would suggest that
they use some of that because you know, you start
to think of some of the players that are coming
to town, let alone that have been through this town,
that have dads that played in the NFL. You talk
about pedigree. Um, they're coming there for a reason. And
(44:27):
part of it is, and I think I would be
remiss if I didn't say this, you know, you know,
Notre Dame is one of those places that is so
it's so unique. And when I think about this and
maybe you guys can help me with this, you know,
I told my son and I always said this to myself,
that Notre Dame is one of very few places that
you can win a national championship in the classroom, and
you can win a national championship on the field. And
(44:48):
when you think about that, you know, Michigan, you know,
they they're pretty prestigious academically, right? You know USC somewhat
prestigious academically as well. Not easy Penn State you might
throw in there. But clearly they're still not Notre Dame right. Um,
you know, northwestern, you know, you're probably not going to
win a national championship on the football field, right? So
(45:09):
so when you think about that, you know, you catch
lightning in a bottle, you know, because you can win
that national championship in the classroom. And if things fall
the right way, you win a national championship on the
football field. You know, there's not many, uh, you know,
not that I'm aware of. You guys know of anywhere
else that you can go and do this.
S3 (45:26):
Vanderbilt.
S4 (45:27):
Maybe after last week.
S3 (45:30):
Uh, I went to North Carolina. I'm not. I'm not
even going to start on that one. But I know
you make a great point. Hey, you guys, I you know.
S5 (45:39):
You mentioned tearing down the goalpost here at Notre Dame
and running through 80th Street. And those things are heavy
and drop.
S2 (45:47):
Yeah, dropping them in the Saint Joe River.
S5 (45:48):
That thing in the river.
S3 (45:49):
If it happens, though, I'm putting I'm going to say
you're behind it. That's a surprise. It didn't happen after
the Clemson game.
S5 (45:57):
I might need my £400 to help pull it down,
because I don't think those things. I don't even think
they came down anymore. No, I thought.
S2 (46:03):
They were cement. But, Mark, we've kept you way too long.
But I got one last question for you. For for
somebody who who had who spilled so many blood, so
much blood and sweat and tears at old Pitt Stadium.
Doesn't it break your heart a little bit that there's
a basketball arena in that spot now?
S5 (46:20):
Yeah, I mean, my motto growing up was I would
have rather wrestled and lost than to have played basketball.
So I'd really just, you know, tears at my heart. But,
you know, walking up that, you know, walking up that hill,
that Heartbreak Hill into that stadium and you know, how
nostalgic it was. And when you talk about tradition and history,
there's been some great teams and great players that went
(46:41):
through there. And I got to tell you this, guys
and you guys have been around a long time, you know,
and I had an argument with Lou Holtz and you
know recently and he, he, he kind of, you know,
I don't know just didn't remember. I said, look, you know,
in 1987 he came to town. And, you know, we
just we just beat you up and down the field. And,
you know, fortunately for you, I told him, and fortunately
for all the Irish fans out there, Uh, myself and
(47:04):
my good, my good friend, uh, Burke Rossman. We knocked.
I think it was Tony and Jack. Uh, um, out
of the game. Broke his collarbone. And then came this
guy by the name of Tony Rice. Right. And the
rest is history. But in 1988, when you guys came back,
back to back, he argued. No we didn't. We pounded
you in that game as well, and we fumbled the
ball twice, once going into the end zone with no
(47:26):
one around and once like first and goal from the
one yard line. And here you guys go on to
win a national championship. And look at my hatred for
the Irish prior to that was was enormous. After that,
that little leprechaun guy, I actually tried to take a
shot at him before on the football. It's just he's
too fleet of foot to to be able to, you know.
(47:48):
And now I sit right in back of the offensive
line bench and that little guy, he walks back and
forth on that ledge. And I gotta tell you, there
are times where I have little PTSD about going down
there and just, you know, maybe drilling him off their mark.
S2 (48:03):
Before we get out of here. Plug the cannon one
more time.
S5 (48:07):
Well, look, it's it's a great opportunity if you're a big,
burly guy and you want some outdoor products to be
able to take care of your hair and make yourself
slicked back, look good, dude wipes all those type of things,
go to Duke Cannon and, uh, really let them take
care of your needs.
S2 (48:21):
Mark, that's it's been awesome to visit with you. We
told you it would be 15 minutes. It's been more
like 30. We could spend like, an hour and a
half with you. We really appreciate the time.
S5 (48:29):
Whenever you need me, give me a call back. I'll
be here for you guys. You got.
S2 (48:33):
It. That's Mark Spindler. We will come back. Wrap up
this edition of Pot of Gold right after this. Back
on edition of Pot of Gold like no other. But
if we haven't, we have a session like this every week.
I'll take this every week because Mark Spindler, on a
scale of 1 to 10. Mark Spindler was about a 15.
(48:56):
So we kind of we kind of moved some things around.
We scrapped some some sessions of the show because Marc
Spindler was just too darn good to limit to 15 minutes,
so speak up. Question of the week comes from Shane
from White Deer, Texas, and Shane says, I was wondering,
do you think now that teams have to cross the
(49:18):
country for their new conferences, they will find out what
Notre Dame already knows? Traveling that far week after week
is tough. Do you think this will affect some of
the teams as the season progresses, or is this a
non-factor for these young guys? Exhibit A, University of Southern California.
S4 (49:37):
Yep, that's the first thing I was going to go
to that game against Minnesota.
S2 (49:40):
Just well they've they've come east twice. They went to
Ann Arbor lost to Michigan. They went to Minneapolis. They've
lost to Minnesota. They have to go to College Park
and play the University of Maryland before they even get
to Notre Dame at the end of the season. So
if there's an exhibit A for the conference realignment, it
might be USC. It didn't. It didn't help Stanford last
(50:02):
week when Virginia Tech went across the country out to
Palo Alto, and they win 31 to 7.
S3 (50:07):
But Sammy beat Cal, came back from 25 down to
beat Cal at Berkeley. But um, in general it's it's
tougher to go west to east with the time change.
A lot of those early in the afternoon kickoff, their
bodies are still on West Coast time. Um, yeah. That's good.
Good question. Good point. Uh, now it's not really going
(50:28):
to affect the SEC because the they added Texas and Oklahoma.
And that's still, you know, pretty close to where they
were anyway, their footprint. But some of those the Florida schools,
you know, maybe Florida State's going to experience some of that.
And um, you know, then there's SMU didn't hurt. I mean,
of course that was more central SMU to Louisville. But
(50:48):
it's something to watch and air miles, no doubt. And
listening to Mark Spindler talk about his oldest daughter, who's
in the Army with all the air miles she had.
I wanted to say then I'll say now I could
see Tom was getting pretty jealous because of all the
all the perks he could have gotten on his United
account at Marriott.
S2 (51:06):
Marriott. Oh, yeah.
S4 (51:07):
Good. Good combo right there. Travel.
S3 (51:09):
Travel master.
S2 (51:10):
I thought I saw something or heard something on one
of the national podcasts where they were looking at teams
from the Big Ten and how they've been able to
handle the cross-country flights, whether it's Washington or Ohio State.
Has to go to Eugene, Oregon this weekend. We'll see
what happens with that. They said the teams that have
made the cross-country flight from the Pacific Time Zone to
the Eastern Time zone, eastern or central time zones, I
(51:32):
think they're a combined one and eight this year. Oh,
and the one team that has successfully navigated a cross-country flight. Indiana,
when they went to UCLA and beat the Bruins in
the Rose Bowl. Good point. So the travel is is
I don't know if you can you can kind of
look and see what what's happened to it. Now. I
think by the end of the year you're going to
(51:53):
see teams like USC, obviously, maybe a team like Michigan
that has to maybe make another cross-country flight, I don't know.
I think they may be done, but you may. You
may not see it or be able to quantify or
visualize it until the end of the season.
S3 (52:08):
I was surprised in the Stanford notes, which are readily
available at college pressbox.com. Look at you mentioned.
S2 (52:15):
For college.
S3 (52:15):
Prospects. They mentioned that I'm hoping for a freebie. They
mentioned that they were flying. Their travel day was Thursday. Uh, not.
But did they normally come in two days before a
game here?
S2 (52:29):
Well, yeah. When USC comes in, they usually fly in.
They usually charter into South Bend International Airport on Thursday night.
They do.
S3 (52:35):
Okay.
S2 (52:36):
All right. But Notre Dame and Notre Dame, when Notre
Dame goes out to USC, they usually leave after Thanksgiving
dinner on Thursdays. Yeah.
S3 (52:42):
So I thought that was a Thanksgiving thing, but I
just figured Stanford might just come in the morning of,
you know, just get real early, just kind of, you know, shout,
no shower. Just get right back on the plane.
S2 (52:53):
Take take a redeye.
S3 (52:55):
They got they gotta, they gotta save the dollars for
the professors.
S4 (52:58):
Yeah. I mean, if they were doing that, I really
think that would really show they weren't caring about the
football team too much.
S3 (53:03):
That'd be great. Just like a high school game. Just
get it. Just get on the bus, get going, get
on the airplane, and everybody's still in their pads.
S4 (53:09):
Yeah, good on the on the plane too. And the pads. Yeah.
There you go. Right, right from the tarmac. Right to
the field.
S2 (53:14):
There you go. So, yes, the rest of college football.
Welcome to the world of what Notre Dame deals with,
like this year, where they're going to have to go
to New York City in late November, turn around and
go to California. That's crazy. So the travel, the travel
that a lot of these teams are used to bus trips,
especially in the Big Ten. Notre Dame has done this
(53:35):
year after year after year. There was one time, there
was one year where they played. Didn't they play at
San Diego in 2018?
S3 (53:42):
Yeah, they went. When I got here.
S2 (53:44):
They went to San Diego, then they went to New York,
then they went back to Los Angeles. That's right. All
in the span of like four weeks. So that's that's
college football the way it is. I'm not complaining for
Notre Dame because I'd rather go to LA than West Lafayette,
but that's just me. Am I wrong?
S4 (54:01):
There's some stuff to do in West Lafayette.
S2 (54:03):
I guess not go watch the 66 to 7 game
or whatever it was. What was the final score of
that game?
S4 (54:08):
That's right, 66 seven.
S3 (54:10):
I still can't wrap my brain around that. Or that
we might only have one person on hand at the
Coliseum if that game is all that. But we'll see.
There's time. There's time. I hope to join you. I
hope to join you. I should be there as well.
You should, if I can avoid deer. But that's another story.
What do you got?
S4 (54:28):
Story after.
S2 (54:30):
That? Uh, let's do pot of gold. Let me see
the pot of gold. You can't wrap your head around that.
But try to wrap your head around this. Give me
a hot take and a prediction for the Stanford game.
Either 1 or 2. Either one of you go.
S4 (54:46):
I'll go first. All right. Riley Leonard rushes for three touchdowns. Again.
My stat for this a QB has rushed for a
TD against Stanford in four of their five games. Only
Cal Poly didn't.
S2 (54:56):
There you go. And how about a prediction?
S4 (54:59):
Notre Dame 34 seven.
S2 (55:01):
Mike Berardino you want me to go since you're still
probably compiling?
S3 (55:04):
I have my prediction.
S2 (55:05):
I wanted to go fast.
S4 (55:06):
I wanted to go fast to see if you were ready.
S2 (55:08):
I can see he's not ready. Just messing with you.
Obviously you're not ready. Well, put him on the spot.
I heard that.
S3 (55:14):
Stanford has allowed a rushing. What was it?
S4 (55:18):
I think it was. It was 4 or 5.
S3 (55:20):
For some research I've done. No, I, uh, well, I'm
just going to say more more turnovers. More, more takeaways.
Notre Dame finally got its first fumble recovery after you
know it never fails after you go around asking, well,
why aren't you recovering any fumbles? The fumbles are just
falling out of the sky. I would expect more more
(55:41):
fumbles available and interceptions available. I'm going to say Notre
Dame plus three in the takeaway take over a turnover
margin this week. That's the hot take. And 52 to 6.
S2 (55:52):
Whoa!
S3 (55:53):
52 to 6. I just I'm just not feeling, uh,
the the the love for the Troy Taylor regime. I
just think I watched his post game. It was. It
was the most depressing.
S2 (56:04):
Of what? Virginia Tech.
S3 (56:05):
Yeah, it was just, you know, how they. First of all,
you've seen it. They come, they they take him out
like on a little veranda type thing and like, you know,
there's like four people there and it's, you know, it's
open air and everybody just wants to get out of
there because it's so much nicer everywhere but right there. And,
and he talked for about seven minutes and he wasn't
(56:25):
into it and the questioners weren't into it. And and
I'm imagining that's why I suggested they just get on
the plane in full gear and get right back on
the plane. Full 52 to 6, full gear.
S2 (56:36):
In the middle seat. San Francisco.
S3 (56:38):
The taping back in and everything. Keep the plane.
S4 (56:41):
Running on the tarmac.
S2 (56:43):
All right. My hot take. Darian price, one of my
guys to watch this week. Jordan Price runs for over
100 yards. We'll see if that happens. And my score
prediction I'm not going anywhere near 44 three or whatever.
Mike said 52 to 66.
S3 (56:57):
I don't allow any touchdowns.
S2 (56:59):
I was going to say, is that two field goals
or one touchdown and p-a-t and I'll go 3110 as
Notre Dame rolls to its fourth consecutive victory. Goes to
five and one. And we were going to talk big
today about whether or not the College Football Playoff is
still an option. We'll save that for next week. But
for now for Jackson Neil for Mike Berardino, I'm Tom Neu.
(57:21):
This is pot of gold. We will talk to you
next week after Stanford, before Georgia Tech.
S1 (57:29):
This has been the South Bend Tribune's Pot of Gold podcast,
your home for insightful Notre Dame football coverage and analysis.