October 9, 2025 • 35 mins
Review of Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football game against Boise State and a look ahead to the Irish playing against the Wolf pack of North Carolina State.
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(00:01):
It's the moment you didn't know you're waiting for.
He is Carter, he's Chad, and this is the.
Irish 365 Podcast Welcome into the Irish 365 Podcast.
Hope you're all doing great, getting ready for a lovely NC
State game and recapping a little bit of a Boise State
game, right? Yeah, hey, man, this is just
like playoff time, right? Yeah, for the Irish, it's
(00:22):
playoff. Time black and little.
We've been enjoying some football.
Just just like last year. Yeah.
After game two, it's playoff time, Yeah.
Definitely not how you always want to be.
We'd love to just be undefeated and enjoying life.
Ranked his number one team in the country.
Don't don't play the what if game because I drive myself nuts
with that. Right now, yeah, exactly 1 play.
Here in Miami, one play here, you know he's.
(00:43):
Got to have one last touchdown like each game, right?
Yeah. I mean, the, the, the
interception opportunity in Miami that yeah, still the catch
in between two guys. Like, yeah, same with A&M
interception there. But yeah, this one's an
interesting one because yeah, we're after this week.
You're halfway through our games, right?
This is This is Game 6. Yeah, game six, halfway through
(01:04):
the schedule, Yeah, so. Which is crazy.
It's flying by, Yeah. So we're going to get a little
bit into Boise State review, then we'll get into the NT.
Yeah. Apologize, busy lives.
We didn't get a chance to recordthe Yeah.
Post game, we're here with some action with it now.
But yeah, it's important now. It's important now.
So anyway, yeah, let's let's recap Boise real quick.
(01:25):
I think highlights, I think at the large level is defence
played a lot better. 7 points. Is that a reflection of defence
improvement or is that a reflection of ineptness on the
Boise State side? I don't think Boise State is
that bad, so I I'm going to pretend that that's a lot more
to do with. Hey Kochwell, playoff team last
year. Right, they don't have Genti
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and. We just have to make a positive.
Yeah, I know. But let's be real estate, right?
Let's not, let's not spend it. So I, I think that, yeah, I
think we played really well defensively.
And even though it wasn't maybe,you know, a powerhouse Miami
offense we were going against, the one thing I noticed was our
defence wasn't like unsure of where to be.
(02:07):
They seem to be understanding the assignments and where to be
and playing quicker. That was kind of my take away
that I think that they're community.
Had we played Boise State and Arkansas before going to Miami,
before going to A&M, it'd be interesting to see how those
scores would have been right? Had Purdue been the first game
of the season and then Boise State and then Arkansas and then
(02:29):
go to Miami and and A&M games like how would we would we be
undefeated right now? There's an argument to be said.
We might be, but. Also, I think we got to talk
about this from the Notre Dame schedule standpoint.
How many people have already forgot about those two losses as
you at least the poll rankings, you know what I mean?
Like if you lose the A&M and Miami later in the season.
It's gonna hurt you big time. It's gonna hurt you big time.
(02:50):
But losing those two games, there's so much under recover.
You're already back in the whichI know the customer playoff
polls hasn't came back. The API think is gonna be a
little more forgiving. Yeah, because Notre Dame is
something the writers are comingaround to again.
Like the writers used to love Notre Dame.
Then they got to the point wherethe writers hated Notre Dame,
and now I think they've warmed back up because Marcus Freeman's
(03:10):
made us cool. Coach's poll is going to be less
favorable. Yeah, only because as a coach,
the last thing I want to do is recruit against a good Notre
Dame with a coach that's likable.
So I think you're going to get knocked down in the coach's poll
more than anything else. How much does that influence the
AP voters from a regional standby?
Like overall, because there's enough AP voters, you're going
to get a good coming next, but there's some like guys on
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Twitter that you know. You'll see, yeah, Some you like,
they put out the AP votes like you can go see who voted for
what, and it's pretty hilarious because you'll see, yes.
Some of them are clearly biased.It's like you've never watched a
game or you're just voting on who you hate or who you.
Like, exactly. Because, yeah, you'll see some
people that in their conference who have, I mean, like, Penn
State ranked like 15th. After this weekend, you're like,
(03:53):
what the heck? Like what are we doing?
Yeah, yeah, you're a Big 10 guy or SEC guy, and you know you're
promoting whoever's like Arkin Stall's number seven in the
country. Yeah.
And also, did you see someone post?
I didn't vet it to see if it wasactual, but I saw someone
posting what would have been theBCS calculation.
Yeah, yeah. I didn't like in front of Miami.
It's like, I don't think that was probably.
Rude. But yeah, I was like, I didn't
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go back and check that I said no.
Heck, somewhere. Which I know BCS is a
combination of a bunch of things.
A bunch of different polls and rankings and stuff but but
again, I think the CFP committeeis going to be somewhat
favorable to Notre Dame. Now there's the conference tie
insurance and things of that nature.
They're not going to get us in athey're not going to get us into
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a first round buy no desire to do that because they still feel
like we've got this advantage bynot playing in a conference
championship. Although I'm hearing a lot of
Big 10 coaches, Riley Franklin talking about how terrible his
travel is. Welcome to Notre Dame coast to
coast. Last year we didn't complain
about travel. We just played, but and they
(04:57):
really don't want us to have a first round home game like so I
think the CFP is licking their chop saying we're going to get
Notre Dame in because that'll sell tickets, that'll draw
interest, that'll keep their ratings high.
But we don't have to give them ahome game.
So no one's going to have to go to South Bend and play in
December and they're not going to go to first round buy, which
they would technically qualify for.
(05:18):
So I fully expect no matter whatour record is, we're going to
end up somewhere in that 9 to 12spot.
If we go 10, if we go 10 and two, we're 9 to 12.
And I'm OK with that. I.
Mean that's where we vary because I think there's going to
be teams in front of us that lose and it's going to fall to.
Us, I know, but many, many, manyyears of just feeling like Notre
Dame doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.
I'm jaded. I know you are, but I I'm more
(05:39):
positive over here on this side of the room.
So yeah, I think Notre Dame is going like obviously we got to
win, take care of it and comfortable play us a long way
away. We haven't got any of those
rankings yet, but just. We can't lose, right?
I mean, we're in, we're in playoff mode now.
We can't lose. But anyway, so we can kind of
get into this week college football just because big game
USC, Michigan this week, which we I know we don't know when we
talk about games that we're not playing in, but Michigan's
(06:02):
ranked out of us in the Bulls. USC is probably a win away from
a if they beat Michigan. We need SC to win that game.
Probably gets ranked and then wehave a rank.
Can hopefully get a rank to win so.
Yeah, let's, let's put a bow on Boise State.
Let's take 5 minutes and put a bow on that.
And then let's go into that conversation on the USC,
Michigan and then tie that into the Notre Dame, North Carolina
State perspective here because my take away is defense played
(06:26):
better. We talked about that offense
struggled a little bit and it's like, can we not have nice
things? Can we not have it seemed like
for years? It seemed like for years, you
know, early Brian Kelly air, Charlie Weis air, great offense,
struggling defence. Then we get the Marcus Freeman
air. We get defence coming around and
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the offense has struggled. And then we come into like games
one and two of this year. Miami A&M offense is looking
good. Defence is kind of struggling.
We're like OK, but maybe the defence will figure it out.
Maybe we fire Chris Ash. Whatever it is, defence is
figuring it out and it's like the offense struggled like a
wide open freaking it. It looked like a Raleigh Leonard
pass. I would say the I, the offense
(07:08):
didn't look as sharp as they had, but it was more just
couldn't get it in the I just missed opportunities left on the
field like finishing. I think they look good still,
but just finishing off drives iswhere it's struggled, which is
just. Unusual I know, but the one pass
was a walk in touchdown if CJS hits the.
Guy, yeah, that's what I'm saying.
But he looks good on the whole drive.
Up until that point, it was finishing the drive.
And there was a couple of those fade routes he through earlier
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and you and I are like, man, he throws a.
Great ball. I think that's what I'm.
Saying placement's phenomenal. I don't want to say the offense
played bad because I don't thinkthey played bad.
I think no, not finishing, finishing drives, which they've
been very good at this year. I just haven't seen this be a
complete team. Yes, I.
And and we as as much as the defense looked better, the
offense had a fall off not not that it was Oh my God, the
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offense could have cost us the game.
I never felt like the game was really in doubt after we took.
Even when they were up 7. 7-6 yeah, yeah, I even 76 I'm like,
we'll be fine, I'm with you. But it was just, it was just
kind of interesting and all that.
And I think couple of things to talk about 1 is I'm, I find it
very fascinating. There's a lot more people coming
(08:11):
around on the CJ car. This guy is potentially a number
one overall. Draft not just not ain't people.
I think you're talking like nationally.
Just nationally, he's getting that that, which is exciting.
We haven't had that kind of talk.
I haven't seen first first. Overall, I have someone earning
it and yeah, like first round draft pick.
I've heard a couple people like,you know, Jimmy Clausen had a
lot of hype from Bino Cook before he ever played.
But Bino Cook, as much as I lovethe guy, was pretty much pro
(08:34):
Notre Dame in the sports media and that's all he ever was.
Lou Holtz was on ESPN doing gameday and he was pro Notre Dame.
And like, but CJ, like Carr has earned it with play on the field
where Clausen was capable, but he was getting a hike before he
ever showed him on the field. So I think that's exciting.
And I mean, he showed like he's shown some next level moves.
(08:55):
He still has to know. Look, pass.
Yeah. Then he showed us this week the
pump fake. Yeah, which was beautiful, like.
And all those people, they're like, what?
Kenny Minche's The Athlete and CJS got their arm and we kept
trying to tell you like, no, they're both.
They're both both. Can do both, they both can do
both. One, yes, they might be a little
better at that, but CJ Carr is clearly.
Athlete, it's A1A1B situation with those guys.
(09:16):
When you talk about athlete, this is his passing ability.
Like 1 might be 1A on passing and 1 might be 1B but they're
they're both. It's not yet Kenny Minche's The
Athlete and CJ Carr's Peyton Manning back there like no, no.
No. It's not he can move.
Yeah, it's it's much better thanthat.
So, yeah, I thought that was fun.
I mean, to see CJ continue to get comfortable in the offense
and get command of the offense. Like he made that play, he got
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the pump fake, and then he wisely got down and didn't take
an unnecessary hit, which is like drove me nuts with Riley
Leonard. It's it.
Why you loved him and. I loved him and hated him.
Right. Like, dude, you're going to kill
yourself. Are you trying to get Steve
Angele on the field? And at the point I was hoping
they were like, Riley, you just get hurt and see.
And Angele, no play, but yeah, so I thought that showed a lot
(10:00):
of maturity from the CJS perspective.
And I thought that, you know, ashe goes, the offense is going to
continue to get better if he starts making those wide open
throws and Den Brock's going to get into that.
I I saw somebody, I think it was, gosh, I can't remember who
it was. I heard someone talking about
(10:21):
Jeremiah Love and actually how maybe Jeremiah Love is was
different this game and trying to be a little more patient and
they thought that was a little bit more he was trying to be a
little more more like Bryce because early he'd been so
trying so hard in some of the early games.
He wasn't hitting his block or wasn't running his wasn't
running his like following his lead.
Like on the Wildcat in this Boise State game, had he
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followed the CJ Carr lead block,he probably scores, but he jumps
off of that. And you're like one, I don't
know if I like my quarterback being the key to making the
block to spray my running back. But at the same time, if that's
the if that's the way it's set up, man, love, be a little
patient. Follow your blocks.
You, you, you're having a great season, which could be even
(11:05):
better, right? And, and so, but it's
interesting. I think that's where him and
Price are bouncing off and, you know, studying each other's game
and, and, and I think that's interesting.
Defensively, what what can we say, man?
We look so much better defensively, right?
And I think the only other 4 picks, I think the only thing
you can complain about, yeah, don't throw it.
Leonard Moore, he was targeted Ithink 6 times and two picks.
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Tate Johnson looked like looked like a little Xavier Watts back
there playing center field and being in the right place at the
right time. I think the only other thing you
can talk about is just the flags.
I know a lot of people were all over the flags.
And I mean, and we've had it allyear long, right?
There was there was flags at Miami both ways.
There was flags at A&M both ways.
Now stop and think about it. And this is the one thing that
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Notre Dame's going to struggle with.
You're not in the conference, soyou're going to be renting
conference refs. If you're renting Big 10 refs,
you're renting ACC refs, you're renting SEC refs, whatever it
is, right? And the whole reffing hierarchy
in the world, the best refs get assigned to the best games.
(12:12):
The NFL doesn't send their worstrefs to the Super Bowl.
College football doesn't send their worst refs to the CFP,
Right. Like, if you think about last
year, there were some terrible calls all season long.
And when we got to the playoffs,the calls were really pretty
good all through the playoffs. And when you're going to the
Mountain West or you're going tothe SEC or whoever, they're got
their refs and they're going to sign their best refs to their
(12:33):
best conference games. And what's Notre Dame going to
get the leftovers, right? So you just have to expect like
you're going to get some inconsistent, less than ideal
calls for and against you. And we did.
I think there's a there's felt like a lot more this game
against us than for us. I mean, you know, like.
But there's a lot of flags for both teams.
(12:55):
I wouldn't go on this on the refs.
You're coming in telling, telling them that one of the
teams is the highest penalized team in the nation.
Yeah. What are you doing as a ref?
Like if you're consciously or not consciously, I got to.
Subconsciously, you're going to call.
Yep, there's another one. No surprise, right, Like that's
just subconsciously not you're not intentionally trying to do
that, but you're coming in. You're, you're refs do scouting
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too. Like let's not you don't They
don't just show up on the game. They're like, all right, well,
time for a game. What's what's who, who's playing
today, right? They're doing their research.
They know what they're looking for.
OK. This team, yeah, number #3 he's
got a loud mouth, you know, or whatever.
Oh yeah, you know what I mean? Like.
You know how it is. They're people at the end of the
day, they're people and whether they consciously or
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subconsciously, they get influenced by these things.
You know, they hear about this, but but we're also not getting
we're not getting the best. These guys are good, but they're
not the best of the best in their in their conference and
we're just not going to get that.
So at Notre Dame, you got to keep that side in perspective
and you just got to hope that weif we do things right, the
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referees will not cost us a game.
You can say, oh, the referee cost us this game at A&M.
If you'd like to talk about a terrible whole call that wasn't
called on Heinich. But honestly, should that game
have ever been that close? They shouldn't have been A1
score like it should have been A1 score game at that point,
right? I mean, it shouldn't have been
that situation. So anyway, I just think that's
something I've seen a lot of on social and it's just like put it
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in perspective. I'm not saying it's never
criticized the ref, but it's yougot to expect it.
And again, if calls are going both ways, it's just going both
ways. I you know, I think we say that
every game, but there was calls that I didn't like for us and
calls that I didn't like againstus.
So anyway, so anything else on the Boise State side of things?
Any other? Nope, nothing jumps out at you.
(14:39):
Not a nothing all. Right.
So let's talk about this Michigan USC thing.
Let's go back to that because I find find that absolutely
exciting for us. Yeah.
I mean, it's at Michigan OR. It's at USC.
It's at USC, so yeah, that helps.
Which I think favors the Trojans.
Yep, and it's it's basically a pick em I can get official.
But yeah, I mean, Michigan's thethe ranked team at USC.
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But yeah, Michigan's one spot out of us in the AP poll and
then US CS unranked. And yeah, everyone's saying no
name's not going to be ranked win on the schedule.
But if Michigan can lose this week, it's looking very, very
likely that USC probably makes it back into the AP.
Poll, yeah. And I think it's a real strong
case. Even with a loss to US, USC
(15:23):
could stay ranked, which is which would be really helpful
for us, right? Oh yeah, it depends.
It would be good to have USC ranked when we beat them.
It'd be even better if they stayranked throughout this
throughout the season. USC is now a 2 1/2 point
favorite. Yeah, and USC plays so much
better at home. And now I know Michigan's going
out and they're going to be practicing in the San Diego
(15:44):
Chargers facilities. Yeah.
When you know, what was it? Sharon called it at Michigan
West or something like that. But maybe Connor Stallion is
going to be out there giving himsome USC signals.
I don't know what the plan is there, but yeah, I think that's
an interesting game and it has alot of Notre Dame tie in.
I'm rooting for USC. V1 is again, USC is a rival, but
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I respect them. Michigan is only less annoying
to me than Ohio State. Like if Michigan loses, I'm
happy. Like the only time I want
Michigan to win is when they play Ohio State.
And I just because I hate Ohio State because I can't beat them.
Like at some point Notre Dame's got to beat Ohio State.
This is the year. So anyway, I think that's
interesting game, but that ties into this like Notre Dame and
(16:30):
you look at NC State this week and you look at our next two
weeks, right? This is probably the week 1 and
2 are the most critical weeks tous for winning now.
I think week 6 and 7 become the next the second most critical 2.
Weeks and seven, yeah. Yeah.
So we not that like North Carolina State is a big, I mean
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we're what, 22 1/2? 3 1/2. 23 1/2 favorites.
Opened around 21 1/2. They've got one good win against
the ranked Virginia team. They've and that's Virginia's
only loss and then they've got they got some losses to like
Virginia Tech and Duke and you're like, what?
This isn't the Elko Duke. So but I think you got to beat
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NC State and you got to do it with some style points and then
you have to beat USC and then I think you're looking pretty good
going to that 10 and two run, right?
I mean this is this, this is like week 1 and two were the
were the most critical now like game 6:00 and 7:00.
So week 7-8 or like. And we've said this NC State
team always plays Notre Dame tough like this is they do they
(17:36):
they, they beat us. If you die like this is this is
not an easy game. And this it's hard to say
there's a trap game on the schedule when you know you're at
bachelor and Salon, you got to win every single one of them.
But this is one of them. Like, this is textbook.
You got your rivals coming to town next week.
And maybe the last time, like all that drama and all that
crap, you got an NC State team that showed flashes of being
(18:00):
good. They haven't shown they've got
athletes. Yeah.
But. And they're coming to town.
Yeah. Looking to play upset?
I mean, they got a quarterback. So it goes by CJ.
Yeah, I mean, that seems like a good deal to me.
And the running back, one of theone of the best names I think.
Hollywood's is it? Smothers is that.
Hollywood Smothers, Yeah, I mean.
(18:20):
That's their guy. So yeah, let's let me let me
read some stats off to you here for NC State.
I mean, they're 31st in the FBS in passing, 447 yards a game,
26th in rushing. Or it's my bad, 447 total yards
of offense is not passing per game, but that's 31st in the FBS
and they're 26th in passing with282 yards per game.
(18:41):
So they throw the rock. Yeah.
I think the interesting part wasthey they had seven or eight
guys between 15 and 30 catches, tight ends, running backs at
Smothers writers ears. They had a little bit like no
one. They had a bunch of guys that I,
I don't know if you had someone that stood out to you and that
you've heard or seen, but they just had a bunch of.
(19:02):
Just talking to Jordan, it sounds like their quarterback is
mobile enough to make you respect the run and he
distributes the ball to whoever's open.
Yeah, I had, yeah. And so now are we going to see
the Notre Dame defense that we saw earlier in the year that
wasn't quite in the right position, didn't know their
assignment? Are we going to see the Notre
Dame defense, we've saw the lastfew games where they're starting
to get things figured out. I think that's going to be
(19:24):
interesting as part of, you know, and it again, what's the
NC State game plan going to be there?
It's going to be interesting. And Hollywood, some others.
Gosh, I love that name. Hollywood, you know, he's, he's
like one of the top backs in yards after contact. 100
carries, 693 yards in five touchdowns.
Yeah, and a lot of yards after contact, he forces people to
miss tackles. And again, we saw some missed
(19:46):
tackles earlier this year from the Notre Dame defense and that
doesn't doesn't give me a warm fuzzy comfort feeling.
You know, I know we're 23 point favorites, but it's like there's
some things that NC State does well that this game doesn't
necessarily just line up for that 23 point favorite.
So. Yeah.
And what I wanted to talk about,it's hard to like if you go on
ESPN, just look at their quarterbacks rushing yards, You
(20:07):
also have to count in Sachs, take the away.
So he's averaging like 2 yards acarry.
Yeah, but it's also Sachs, takeaways, rushing yards.
So you got to remember that whenyou look at it, kind of a little
deceiving, but yeah, he's done 4interceptions.
So he has turned the ball over alittle bit.
So yeah, it'll be interesting tosee if the Irish defense can, if
we have another three or four pick game.
I'm feeling a lot better about this then.
(20:28):
Oh yeah, if we win the turnover battle, I like this.
I like Archie's in this game a lot.
So yeah, I think that's got to be the key for NC State
offensively, keep the ball. I think boys did a decent job of
going on a little bit of they weren't scoring but a few
sustained. Drives, yeah.
Yeah, again, a couple first downs.
So that's big. And then if we can talk about
(20:50):
their defense, their average, their their past events has not
been good. The rush events hasn't been
good. I know you've been big on yards
after contact. Oh, they're terrible yards after
contact, which I love. Which is 243 passing yards of
games with their averages 101st in the FBS and then 131 rushing
yards and that's 57th. Now, the big stat I like that I
found is they're one of the worst teams in the country at
(21:13):
letting up third down conversions.
They're letting up 44% completions on 3rd down.
That's a big It's not great. Yeah, that that's we're.
Leaving you on the team. Favorable for the Irish, right?
They they can't get third down stops.
You got to like how that favors us in that respect.
So so yeah, I as I think throughthat, it's like, OK, how do I
(21:34):
see this game playing out? I mean, if I'm Notre Dame, I'm
offensively, I'm coming in balanced.
Like that is my thing. I'm coming in balanced.
I'm going to try and say OK, we're going to be able to pass
the ball as we like, we should be able to run the ball and
Price and Love are not easy to tackle and this is a team.
(21:54):
I feel it's not easy to tackle. But this is a team on the
running game that doesn't tacklewell like they I.
Don't know if it's just running.I think it's just corners can't
tackle. Like even on wide receivers.
I'm saying yeah. So if I'm Notre Dame, I'm like,
we're going to dictate what we do offensively.
We're not going to, we're just going to, we're just going to do
what we want to do. State balanced.
I so I like that for the Irish, offensively, defensively for the
(22:16):
Irish, I think it becomes a little bit of a trick, right.
OK. We, we got to take Hollywood out
of the game and we got to get pressure on the quarterback.
Yeah. Can we do that?
Can we can? And we got to tackle Hollywood's
hard to tackle. We've shown that we're not
always good at tackling. So can we be solid tacklers?
Can we get pressure on the quarterback like we did?
(22:38):
Yeah, that's a big yawn. Like it was a big yawn.
Am I keeping you up? Yeah, I guess so.
I. Guess so late.
Late, late night shooting this podcast at Yeah, I don't even
say the time. Yeah.
I don't Even so anyway, I, I think from the defensive
standpoint like OK, Notre Dame, I'm going to probably do some
run blitzes and I I'm going to try and maybe spy the
(23:00):
quarterback. It's kind of how I would
approach it. Any any thoughts differently
from the offense or defenses? Yeah, it'll be interesting
because the past defense looked a lot better.
And we've talked about this is the past defense better or we
just get pressure, which makes the past defense look better.
But this is a week where you can't lock in on one target out
if they drop back to pass, right?
Like there's five or six guys that clearly are gonna catch the
(23:22):
ball for them. So what's that going to look
like for our defense? Are they going to I, I agree
with what you're saying for whatour game plan needs to be, but
I'm curious to see what our execution is and do we get yeah,
how how we play against this? Because I think it's a good
test. Yeah, because I don't think you
can compare the Boise State passing and running offense to
NC State at all. But I look at Arkansas Mobile
(23:46):
quarterback, yeah, they, they were one of the top offenses in
the country prior to US playing and we didn't give up a ton of
points to Arkansas. No.
So now I think, OK, again, Arkansas is not Miami.
Arkansas is not A and M, but Arkansas is good.
I I might even argue Arkansas might have a better offense than
(24:07):
A and M, but I think A and M is a better team.
But you know, we are defense struggled against A and M more
so than they should have struggled with Miami more than
they should have. I think we actually played worse
than A and M defensively than wedid in Miami, which just blows
my mind. But I think we're figuring
things out. So do you think that, you know,
do you think that Arkansas is offense is better or worse than
(24:28):
North Carolina State? That's the question.
Yeah, I mean, I think we could Arkansas's offense be a better
guess, but we call Arkansas on awe, we made them look silly so.
Right, but but running quarterback good thrower.
Yeah, I think, I think this guy's a little less mobile, but
a little better arm. So it'll be, I think, or what NC
State is going to be trying to throw the ball on us, yeah.
(24:49):
But they've got a solid running back, and I could see a scenario
now if I'm NC State, defensively, defensively, if I'm
NC State, I'm gonna make CJ try and beat us.
I'm gonna probably sell out on taking it out the run and make
CJ try and beat us with his arm,which I think is risky because
CJ's looked pretty good. Yeah, and he had a few off
(25:10):
throws this past week. But I'm I'm going to sell out
defensively. If I'm NC State, I'm going to do
everything I can to stop the run, make you beat us with the
arm. And the reason I'm going to do
that is because I'm going to, I'm going to try and shorten up
your possessions offensively. And then if I'm NC State on
offense, I'm probably going to try and lean on Hollywood, like
(25:34):
Hollywood Smothers. I'm going to try and control the
clock and I'm going to try and lean on him and I'm going to try
and do a lot of short passes that are easy completions
underneath, not hard throws. Get guys, you know, in space.
I'm going to tell my quarterback, hand it off on, you
know, on RPO's, but just throw it enough that if it's an easy
throw and it's there, take it. If it's not there, run with it.
(25:55):
I, I, I think I expect a lot of running both quarterback and
running back while he's out of NC State, even if they're not
scoring, if they can get sustained long drives, keeping
our offense off the field, wearing down our defense to have
opportunities in the second-half, I kind of expect
that to be the thing. So, well, how do you see it?
Anything different? No, but I think we got to get to
(26:15):
the point everyone's been waiting on our breakdown on
special teams, right? Let's go that's.
I think that's everyone. 'S in games.
Games are won and lost in the special team category.
Yeah, so interesting. NC State.
I was listening to one of their pre game podcasts for this game
this weekend. They were trashing their their
specialist basically. It's not good when you're
podcasting. Yeah, I was going to say and
(26:36):
they they weren't happy about how their special teams played.
They muffed 2 punts last week, 1recovered, 1 not and it was
against Colgate and I think theyplayed the nobody that played
last week. They ended up switching their
punt return guy and he broke offa return but then got called
back for holding but then decentreturn later in the game I
guess. But they've played, they've
kicked two different kickers combined 3 for six on field
(27:00):
goals. They've been pretty solid on
extra points, but their longest kick made has been under 40
yards so that I think that that plays into the South Bend.
Don't break, keep him outside the 20 basically, and it's a
pushing a 40 yard field goal. It'll be interesting.
Yeah, they're like your odds. They're over 2 on kicks longer
than 40 yards this year. Yeah.
So yeah, I think that'll be an interesting thing.
(27:21):
I'm assuming they ended up switching their part return guy
after the guy missed muff 2 lastweek, but would not be a bad
week for a Notre Dame special team score right?
Yeah, I would love to see everything except the James
Rendale punt. Yeah, this week, you know.
So yeah, that's the special teams breakdown for this week
I've got. That sounds pretty special.
Yep. So yeah, I think stuff there.
I think that's interesting. And so now you get into the the
(27:45):
prediction of the game, right? Yeah.
You're taking some field goals. What are we doing?
And yeah, is are we going to be healthy at the kicker position?
So sounds like it over under is 23 1/2.
The spread is 23 1/2 over under.Yeah, over under is 58 1/2.
Wow, that's it. That's interesting.
(28:05):
I've got my prediction and I'm I'm, I hate to go on the under.
That's what I'm leaning this week.
See, I feel the under as well. I which which means it's going
to go over. Yep.
And and and here's where I'm struggling in the whole game.
Is this going to look like an A&M Big 12 game?
Like you know, is it going to bea high scoring defense struggle
(28:27):
offenses are putting up points kind of game or is it going to
look is it going to look a little more?
Yeah, and I think momentum's just a big thing for this
defense. I said that back.
I don't think our defense is terrible, but they don't have
any momentum like, and now we'restarting to build that momentum.
They're starting to. They're not doubting what
they're doing. So yeah, I do.
You want score prediction? Hit me with it. 4210 Irish. 4210
(28:51):
Irish Yep, I like that I. Still is going to be on the
under, Nerdy will cover but and I hate going the under because
we're a team that could put up 60.
Yeah, and I'm close to you in inmy head, I don't think we cover
this game which we normally cover.
Yeah, I'm, I'm thinking like 1731.
Oh wow. OK.
(29:11):
Like, I, I think to me it feels like the offense is taking a
little bit of a step back and that may be that the offense is
played very well. And, you know, trap game, if you
will, maybe maybe Boise State was a trap game.
They thought they could do whatever they wanted and they,
they fell off because they weren't focused.
And maybe they'll get refocused.I hope they do.
That's that's the right I'm taking, I'm taking.
But I'm, I'm so I, I think I, I need to see the offense step
(29:35):
back to where they were. That's why I've gone 31 and
which is still good, but it's not 40.
And then defensively, I saw one decent game against a decent
offense, which is Arkansas. Yeah, I saw a good game against
Purdue. I saw a good.
Game. No, Not a good game against
Purdue. Not a good 30.
(29:56):
Yeah, a good game against Boise State.
Yeah. And I'm like, I'm not quite sure
I completely am sold that the defenses I hope.
Yeah. I'm hoping the defenses turn the
corner. I'm just not sold the defenses
turn the corner yet. So that that's why I, I'm, I
think 17 because I think, I think the, the whole NC State
thing is going to be trying to control the clock, slow the game
(30:18):
down, keep it low. I think we're going to probably
have a special team score in there, punt return, kick return
something, maybe a block punt. Maybe a fake punt.
Something in there. I think it will be a special
team score in there. I think the offense might
struggle a little bit early and and I think that like you might
have one or two big plays, like just, you know, missed tackle
(30:41):
Malachi Fields goes for 30 yards, you know, missed, missed
tackle Love Price goes for 40 plus yards, right?
So I think there might be some big plays, but I think it's
going to be condensed. So I think the scoring
opportunities are going to be limited to the Irish.
They're going to get them. I won't be surprised if NC State
doesn't win time of possession this game.
Lose the turnover battle and lose the game by, you know,
15.16. So my take is how much film on
(31:03):
CJ Carr missing throws his den Brock in we have this year.
Not a lot. Yeah, until this past week,
right. I mean, it's been technical, all
right? We can't be taking sacks here.
We can't be throw. Yeah, taking delay or there's no
groundings? Here's the thing.
What is the what is the passes? He's missed the wide open pass.
(31:27):
Yeah. And what's what's NC State do
terrible at doing covering the receivers?
But I'm just saying. Accidental.
Yeah, this this is the week where Den Brock said like, OK,
we've been missing through like he can be on about this other
stuff, not just the game management.
It's about all right, you got tomake the play.
So I think I think it's a big, Iwant to say bounce back week
from CJ, but I think he's going to, he's going to have a big,
(31:50):
we're going to have a big scoring week.
This week, yeah. I'm hoping den Brock goes in
there and if I'm den Brock and CJS playing well and and maybe he
was a little too confident goinginto the, you know, into the
game last week against Boise andthat's he didn't, I don't know,
wasn't as sharp or wasn't as focused because he felt like he
just had it under control. I'm going to bring him down a
notch, not destroy his confidence, but bring him down a
(32:11):
notch and I'm going to light himup the 1st 30 minutes of film
review with all the missed throws.
This guy's wide open. Yeah, this guy just, I'm not
going to show him those beautiful balls he threw.
Back sort of fades. Because he threw some beautiful
balls. Like I, I don't want to sit
there and say, oh, CJ played terrible.
He didn't play as good as I thought he's capable of.
So yeah, if I'm den Brock, I'm going to motivate him a little
(32:32):
bit and say, you got to be clean.
You got to be sharp. You can't let all this media
hype go to your head. You know, go talk to Brock
Leonard's mom. She'll tell you you suck, you
know, that that kind of a thing.And I joke because Riley
Leonard's mom told Riley he sucked before every game.
So it wasn't that Riley Leonard's mom made CJ.
But I mean, it's, it's one of those things where, yeah, den
(32:53):
Brock can motivate that. And if he does it and CJ takes
to it, well, you know, yeah, we could see CJ take his game up
another notch. And if there's anything I know
it's Denbrock knows how to get the most out of the quarterback
in his system. And I think he's shown he's got
a lot of CJ and I, I'm trusting he's going to get more out of
him. Just is it going to turn the
corner this week is going to take another week.
(33:13):
I need to see it at USCI need CJon his game.
I need the defense on there. I need to sit on all cylinders.
Nothing better than me is winning the NC State game by a
couple touchdowns plus. And I really love to see us win
it by 4 touchdowns and then turnaround and and beat USC by a
couple of touchdowns. I mean like, you know, a ranked
USC team. You'll be heading into the next
(33:35):
by feeling a lot better than youdid the last by.
Absolutely. It it won't seem, it'll seem
like a it'll seem like a long two weeks for a different
reason. I'm ready to see us play again.
Not because yeah, we need to play again, yeah.
So all right, let's get into thecontest for the week.
Contest. Yeah, let's we back again for
another contest. Shocker, right?
We were following us. I hear people love the Irish 365
(33:58):
swag and if they happen to get some tickets to the Syracuse
game, that's a plus. Yeah, so that's going to do it.
If you'd like to win two ticketsin Notre Dame versus Syracuse on
Senior Day and a sweet Irish 365T-shirt, all you got to do this
week is correctly predict narratives.
Rushing yards. Total rushing yards.
Are they following us on X? Follow us on X.
Comment under this post. Comment on the post.
(34:19):
Just that easy. So if you're listening to this
on YouTube, Spotify, whatever, yeah, go find us on X, comment
and follow and win. Yeah, it's that easy.
I think we had a guy within two yards last week or something.
Crazy yards. Yeah, crazy good.
It was very well. And yeah, we got to get a couple
of T-shirts sent out. I think we back two weeks, but
we'll get those sent out here soon.
(34:40):
Yep, we just got the order. In we got.
We got, well, the 11, some guy won and he's like sweet.
And it's like, well, give us your size and address.
Yeah. And then we got it the.
T-shirt will be the T-shirt willbe your size.
Yeah. So yeah, now I got to get the
production department fired up in the manufacturing area.
But yeah, yeah, but. We got that, we got people.
So we got those coming out soon.So yeah, they'll be checking
(35:01):
their mailboxes. But yeah, let's let's have you.
Yeah, you listen right there. You win this week, right?
Why not? Why not you?
Someone's got to. That's right, Hashtag, why not?
You all right? Anything else you want to cover
on this? Pod, I got nothing.
I got nothing for the people except beat the Wolf Pack all.
Right. I know it's late.
You're tired, We're running out of time.
(35:22):
So apologize. Marcus Freeman.
We can't have you on today. We'll try, and we'll try and
keep you from waiting next time to get you on.
Yep.
It's the moment you didn't know you're waiting for.
He is Carter, he's Chad, and this is the.
Irish 365 Podcast Welcome into the Irish 365 Podcast.
Hope you're all doing great, getting ready for a lovely NC
State game and recapping a little bit of a Boise State
game, right? Yeah, hey, man, this is just
like playoff time, right? Yeah, for the Irish, it's
(00:22):
playoff. Time black and little.
We've been enjoying some football.
Just just like last year. Yeah.
After game two, it's playoff time, Yeah.
Definitely not how you always want to be.
We'd love to just be undefeated and enjoying life.
Ranked his number one team in the country.
Don't don't play the what if game because I drive myself nuts
with that. Right now, yeah, exactly 1 play.
Here in Miami, one play here, you know he's.
(00:43):
Got to have one last touchdown like each game, right?
Yeah. I mean, the, the, the
interception opportunity in Miami that yeah, still the catch
in between two guys. Like, yeah, same with A&M
interception there. But yeah, this one's an
interesting one because yeah, we're after this week.
You're halfway through our games, right?
This is This is Game 6. Yeah, game six, halfway through
(01:04):
the schedule, Yeah, so. Which is crazy.
It's flying by, Yeah. So we're going to get a little
bit into Boise State review, then we'll get into the NT.
Yeah. Apologize, busy lives.
We didn't get a chance to recordthe Yeah.
Post game, we're here with some action with it now.
But yeah, it's important now. It's important now.
So anyway, yeah, let's let's recap Boise real quick.
(01:25):
I think highlights, I think at the large level is defence
played a lot better. 7 points. Is that a reflection of defence
improvement or is that a reflection of ineptness on the
Boise State side? I don't think Boise State is
that bad, so I I'm going to pretend that that's a lot more
to do with. Hey Kochwell, playoff team last
year. Right, they don't have Genti
(01:46):
and. We just have to make a positive.
Yeah, I know. But let's be real estate, right?
Let's not, let's not spend it. So I, I think that, yeah, I
think we played really well defensively.
And even though it wasn't maybe,you know, a powerhouse Miami
offense we were going against, the one thing I noticed was our
defence wasn't like unsure of where to be.
(02:07):
They seem to be understanding the assignments and where to be
and playing quicker. That was kind of my take away
that I think that they're community.
Had we played Boise State and Arkansas before going to Miami,
before going to A&M, it'd be interesting to see how those
scores would have been right? Had Purdue been the first game
of the season and then Boise State and then Arkansas and then
(02:29):
go to Miami and and A&M games like how would we would we be
undefeated right now? There's an argument to be said.
We might be, but. Also, I think we got to talk
about this from the Notre Dame schedule standpoint.
How many people have already forgot about those two losses as
you at least the poll rankings, you know what I mean?
Like if you lose the A&M and Miami later in the season.
It's gonna hurt you big time. It's gonna hurt you big time.
(02:50):
But losing those two games, there's so much under recover.
You're already back in the whichI know the customer playoff
polls hasn't came back. The API think is gonna be a
little more forgiving. Yeah, because Notre Dame is
something the writers are comingaround to again.
Like the writers used to love Notre Dame.
Then they got to the point wherethe writers hated Notre Dame,
and now I think they've warmed back up because Marcus Freeman's
(03:10):
made us cool. Coach's poll is going to be less
favorable. Yeah, only because as a coach,
the last thing I want to do is recruit against a good Notre
Dame with a coach that's likable.
So I think you're going to get knocked down in the coach's poll
more than anything else. How much does that influence the
AP voters from a regional standby?
Like overall, because there's enough AP voters, you're going
to get a good coming next, but there's some like guys on
(03:33):
Twitter that you know. You'll see, yeah, Some you like,
they put out the AP votes like you can go see who voted for
what, and it's pretty hilarious because you'll see, yes.
Some of them are clearly biased.It's like you've never watched a
game or you're just voting on who you hate or who you.
Like, exactly. Because, yeah, you'll see some
people that in their conference who have, I mean, like, Penn
State ranked like 15th. After this weekend, you're like,
(03:53):
what the heck? Like what are we doing?
Yeah, yeah, you're a Big 10 guy or SEC guy, and you know you're
promoting whoever's like Arkin Stall's number seven in the
country. Yeah.
And also, did you see someone post?
I didn't vet it to see if it wasactual, but I saw someone
posting what would have been theBCS calculation.
Yeah, yeah. I didn't like in front of Miami.
It's like, I don't think that was probably.
Rude. But yeah, I was like, I didn't
(04:14):
go back and check that I said no.
Heck, somewhere. Which I know BCS is a
combination of a bunch of things.
A bunch of different polls and rankings and stuff but but
again, I think the CFP committeeis going to be somewhat
favorable to Notre Dame. Now there's the conference tie
insurance and things of that nature.
They're not going to get us in athey're not going to get us into
(04:35):
a first round buy no desire to do that because they still feel
like we've got this advantage bynot playing in a conference
championship. Although I'm hearing a lot of
Big 10 coaches, Riley Franklin talking about how terrible his
travel is. Welcome to Notre Dame coast to
coast. Last year we didn't complain
about travel. We just played, but and they
(04:57):
really don't want us to have a first round home game like so I
think the CFP is licking their chop saying we're going to get
Notre Dame in because that'll sell tickets, that'll draw
interest, that'll keep their ratings high.
But we don't have to give them ahome game.
So no one's going to have to go to South Bend and play in
December and they're not going to go to first round buy, which
they would technically qualify for.
(05:18):
So I fully expect no matter whatour record is, we're going to
end up somewhere in that 9 to 12spot.
If we go 10, if we go 10 and two, we're 9 to 12.
And I'm OK with that. I.
Mean that's where we vary because I think there's going to
be teams in front of us that lose and it's going to fall to.
Us, I know, but many, many, manyyears of just feeling like Notre
Dame doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.
I'm jaded. I know you are, but I I'm more
(05:39):
positive over here on this side of the room.
So yeah, I think Notre Dame is going like obviously we got to
win, take care of it and comfortable play us a long way
away. We haven't got any of those
rankings yet, but just. We can't lose, right?
I mean, we're in, we're in playoff mode now.
We can't lose. But anyway, so we can kind of
get into this week college football just because big game
USC, Michigan this week, which we I know we don't know when we
talk about games that we're not playing in, but Michigan's
(06:02):
ranked out of us in the Bulls. USC is probably a win away from
a if they beat Michigan. We need SC to win that game.
Probably gets ranked and then wehave a rank.
Can hopefully get a rank to win so.
Yeah, let's, let's put a bow on Boise State.
Let's take 5 minutes and put a bow on that.
And then let's go into that conversation on the USC,
Michigan and then tie that into the Notre Dame, North Carolina
State perspective here because my take away is defense played
(06:26):
better. We talked about that offense
struggled a little bit and it's like, can we not have nice
things? Can we not have it seemed like
for years? It seemed like for years, you
know, early Brian Kelly air, Charlie Weis air, great offense,
struggling defence. Then we get the Marcus Freeman
air. We get defence coming around and
(06:46):
the offense has struggled. And then we come into like games
one and two of this year. Miami A&M offense is looking
good. Defence is kind of struggling.
We're like OK, but maybe the defence will figure it out.
Maybe we fire Chris Ash. Whatever it is, defence is
figuring it out and it's like the offense struggled like a
wide open freaking it. It looked like a Raleigh Leonard
pass. I would say the I, the offense
(07:08):
didn't look as sharp as they had, but it was more just
couldn't get it in the I just missed opportunities left on the
field like finishing. I think they look good still,
but just finishing off drives iswhere it's struggled, which is
just. Unusual I know, but the one pass
was a walk in touchdown if CJS hits the.
Guy, yeah, that's what I'm saying.
But he looks good on the whole drive.
Up until that point, it was finishing the drive.
And there was a couple of those fade routes he through earlier
(07:29):
and you and I are like, man, he throws a.
Great ball. I think that's what I'm.
Saying placement's phenomenal. I don't want to say the offense
played bad because I don't thinkthey played bad.
I think no, not finishing, finishing drives, which they've
been very good at this year. I just haven't seen this be a
complete team. Yes, I.
And and we as as much as the defense looked better, the
offense had a fall off not not that it was Oh my God, the
(07:50):
offense could have cost us the game.
I never felt like the game was really in doubt after we took.
Even when they were up 7. 7-6 yeah, yeah, I even 76 I'm like,
we'll be fine, I'm with you. But it was just, it was just
kind of interesting and all that.
And I think couple of things to talk about 1 is I'm, I find it
very fascinating. There's a lot more people coming
(08:11):
around on the CJ car. This guy is potentially a number
one overall. Draft not just not ain't people.
I think you're talking like nationally.
Just nationally, he's getting that that, which is exciting.
We haven't had that kind of talk.
I haven't seen first first. Overall, I have someone earning
it and yeah, like first round draft pick.
I've heard a couple people like,you know, Jimmy Clausen had a
lot of hype from Bino Cook before he ever played.
But Bino Cook, as much as I lovethe guy, was pretty much pro
(08:34):
Notre Dame in the sports media and that's all he ever was.
Lou Holtz was on ESPN doing gameday and he was pro Notre Dame.
And like, but CJ, like Carr has earned it with play on the field
where Clausen was capable, but he was getting a hike before he
ever showed him on the field. So I think that's exciting.
And I mean, he showed like he's shown some next level moves.
(08:55):
He still has to know. Look, pass.
Yeah. Then he showed us this week the
pump fake. Yeah, which was beautiful, like.
And all those people, they're like, what?
Kenny Minche's The Athlete and CJS got their arm and we kept
trying to tell you like, no, they're both.
They're both both. Can do both, they both can do
both. One, yes, they might be a little
better at that, but CJ Carr is clearly.
Athlete, it's A1A1B situation with those guys.
(09:16):
When you talk about athlete, this is his passing ability.
Like 1 might be 1A on passing and 1 might be 1B but they're
they're both. It's not yet Kenny Minche's The
Athlete and CJ Carr's Peyton Manning back there like no, no.
No. It's not he can move.
Yeah, it's it's much better thanthat.
So, yeah, I thought that was fun.
I mean, to see CJ continue to get comfortable in the offense
and get command of the offense. Like he made that play, he got
(09:39):
the pump fake, and then he wisely got down and didn't take
an unnecessary hit, which is like drove me nuts with Riley
Leonard. It's it.
Why you loved him and. I loved him and hated him.
Right. Like, dude, you're going to kill
yourself. Are you trying to get Steve
Angele on the field? And at the point I was hoping
they were like, Riley, you just get hurt and see.
And Angele, no play, but yeah, so I thought that showed a lot
(10:00):
of maturity from the CJS perspective.
And I thought that, you know, ashe goes, the offense is going to
continue to get better if he starts making those wide open
throws and Den Brock's going to get into that.
I I saw somebody, I think it was, gosh, I can't remember who
it was. I heard someone talking about
(10:21):
Jeremiah Love and actually how maybe Jeremiah Love is was
different this game and trying to be a little more patient and
they thought that was a little bit more he was trying to be a
little more more like Bryce because early he'd been so
trying so hard in some of the early games.
He wasn't hitting his block or wasn't running his wasn't
running his like following his lead.
Like on the Wildcat in this Boise State game, had he
(10:43):
followed the CJ Carr lead block,he probably scores, but he jumps
off of that. And you're like one, I don't
know if I like my quarterback being the key to making the
block to spray my running back. But at the same time, if that's
the if that's the way it's set up, man, love, be a little
patient. Follow your blocks.
You, you, you're having a great season, which could be even
(11:05):
better, right? And, and so, but it's
interesting. I think that's where him and
Price are bouncing off and, you know, studying each other's game
and, and, and I think that's interesting.
Defensively, what what can we say, man?
We look so much better defensively, right?
And I think the only other 4 picks, I think the only thing
you can complain about, yeah, don't throw it.
Leonard Moore, he was targeted Ithink 6 times and two picks.
(11:28):
Tate Johnson looked like looked like a little Xavier Watts back
there playing center field and being in the right place at the
right time. I think the only other thing you
can talk about is just the flags.
I know a lot of people were all over the flags.
And I mean, and we've had it allyear long, right?
There was there was flags at Miami both ways.
There was flags at A&M both ways.
Now stop and think about it. And this is the one thing that
(11:52):
Notre Dame's going to struggle with.
You're not in the conference, soyou're going to be renting
conference refs. If you're renting Big 10 refs,
you're renting ACC refs, you're renting SEC refs, whatever it
is, right? And the whole reffing hierarchy
in the world, the best refs get assigned to the best games.
(12:12):
The NFL doesn't send their worstrefs to the Super Bowl.
College football doesn't send their worst refs to the CFP,
Right. Like, if you think about last
year, there were some terrible calls all season long.
And when we got to the playoffs,the calls were really pretty
good all through the playoffs. And when you're going to the
Mountain West or you're going tothe SEC or whoever, they're got
their refs and they're going to sign their best refs to their
(12:33):
best conference games. And what's Notre Dame going to
get the leftovers, right? So you just have to expect like
you're going to get some inconsistent, less than ideal
calls for and against you. And we did.
I think there's a there's felt like a lot more this game
against us than for us. I mean, you know, like.
But there's a lot of flags for both teams.
(12:55):
I wouldn't go on this on the refs.
You're coming in telling, telling them that one of the
teams is the highest penalized team in the nation.
Yeah. What are you doing as a ref?
Like if you're consciously or not consciously, I got to.
Subconsciously, you're going to call.
Yep, there's another one. No surprise, right, Like that's
just subconsciously not you're not intentionally trying to do
that, but you're coming in. You're, you're refs do scouting
(13:15):
too. Like let's not you don't They
don't just show up on the game. They're like, all right, well,
time for a game. What's what's who, who's playing
today, right? They're doing their research.
They know what they're looking for.
OK. This team, yeah, number #3 he's
got a loud mouth, you know, or whatever.
Oh yeah, you know what I mean? Like.
You know how it is. They're people at the end of the
day, they're people and whether they consciously or
(13:35):
subconsciously, they get influenced by these things.
You know, they hear about this, but but we're also not getting
we're not getting the best. These guys are good, but they're
not the best of the best in their in their conference and
we're just not going to get that.
So at Notre Dame, you got to keep that side in perspective
and you just got to hope that weif we do things right, the
(13:56):
referees will not cost us a game.
You can say, oh, the referee cost us this game at A&M.
If you'd like to talk about a terrible whole call that wasn't
called on Heinich. But honestly, should that game
have ever been that close? They shouldn't have been A1
score like it should have been A1 score game at that point,
right? I mean, it shouldn't have been
that situation. So anyway, I just think that's
something I've seen a lot of on social and it's just like put it
(14:18):
in perspective. I'm not saying it's never
criticized the ref, but it's yougot to expect it.
And again, if calls are going both ways, it's just going both
ways. I you know, I think we say that
every game, but there was calls that I didn't like for us and
calls that I didn't like againstus.
So anyway, so anything else on the Boise State side of things?
Any other? Nope, nothing jumps out at you.
(14:39):
Not a nothing all. Right.
So let's talk about this Michigan USC thing.
Let's go back to that because I find find that absolutely
exciting for us. Yeah.
I mean, it's at Michigan OR. It's at USC.
It's at USC, so yeah, that helps.
Which I think favors the Trojans.
Yep, and it's it's basically a pick em I can get official.
But yeah, I mean, Michigan's thethe ranked team at USC.
(15:02):
But yeah, Michigan's one spot out of us in the AP poll and
then US CS unranked. And yeah, everyone's saying no
name's not going to be ranked win on the schedule.
But if Michigan can lose this week, it's looking very, very
likely that USC probably makes it back into the AP.
Poll, yeah. And I think it's a real strong
case. Even with a loss to US, USC
(15:23):
could stay ranked, which is which would be really helpful
for us, right? Oh yeah, it depends.
It would be good to have USC ranked when we beat them.
It'd be even better if they stayranked throughout this
throughout the season. USC is now a 2 1/2 point
favorite. Yeah, and USC plays so much
better at home. And now I know Michigan's going
out and they're going to be practicing in the San Diego
(15:44):
Chargers facilities. Yeah.
When you know, what was it? Sharon called it at Michigan
West or something like that. But maybe Connor Stallion is
going to be out there giving himsome USC signals.
I don't know what the plan is there, but yeah, I think that's
an interesting game and it has alot of Notre Dame tie in.
I'm rooting for USC. V1 is again, USC is a rival, but
(16:08):
I respect them. Michigan is only less annoying
to me than Ohio State. Like if Michigan loses, I'm
happy. Like the only time I want
Michigan to win is when they play Ohio State.
And I just because I hate Ohio State because I can't beat them.
Like at some point Notre Dame's got to beat Ohio State.
This is the year. So anyway, I think that's
interesting game, but that ties into this like Notre Dame and
(16:30):
you look at NC State this week and you look at our next two
weeks, right? This is probably the week 1 and
2 are the most critical weeks tous for winning now.
I think week 6 and 7 become the next the second most critical 2.
Weeks and seven, yeah. Yeah.
So we not that like North Carolina State is a big, I mean
(16:53):
we're what, 22 1/2? 3 1/2. 23 1/2 favorites.
Opened around 21 1/2. They've got one good win against
the ranked Virginia team. They've and that's Virginia's
only loss and then they've got they got some losses to like
Virginia Tech and Duke and you're like, what?
This isn't the Elko Duke. So but I think you got to beat
(17:15):
NC State and you got to do it with some style points and then
you have to beat USC and then I think you're looking pretty good
going to that 10 and two run, right?
I mean this is this, this is like week 1 and two were the
were the most critical now like game 6:00 and 7:00.
So week 7-8 or like. And we've said this NC State
team always plays Notre Dame tough like this is they do they
(17:36):
they, they beat us. If you die like this is this is
not an easy game. And this it's hard to say
there's a trap game on the schedule when you know you're at
bachelor and Salon, you got to win every single one of them.
But this is one of them. Like, this is textbook.
You got your rivals coming to town next week.
And maybe the last time, like all that drama and all that
crap, you got an NC State team that showed flashes of being
(18:00):
good. They haven't shown they've got
athletes. Yeah.
But. And they're coming to town.
Yeah. Looking to play upset?
I mean, they got a quarterback. So it goes by CJ.
Yeah, I mean, that seems like a good deal to me.
And the running back, one of theone of the best names I think.
Hollywood's is it? Smothers is that.
Hollywood Smothers, Yeah, I mean.
(18:20):
That's their guy. So yeah, let's let me let me
read some stats off to you here for NC State.
I mean, they're 31st in the FBS in passing, 447 yards a game,
26th in rushing. Or it's my bad, 447 total yards
of offense is not passing per game, but that's 31st in the FBS
and they're 26th in passing with282 yards per game.
(18:41):
So they throw the rock. Yeah.
I think the interesting part wasthey they had seven or eight
guys between 15 and 30 catches, tight ends, running backs at
Smothers writers ears. They had a little bit like no
one. They had a bunch of guys that I,
I don't know if you had someone that stood out to you and that
you've heard or seen, but they just had a bunch of.
(19:02):
Just talking to Jordan, it sounds like their quarterback is
mobile enough to make you respect the run and he
distributes the ball to whoever's open.
Yeah, I had, yeah. And so now are we going to see
the Notre Dame defense that we saw earlier in the year that
wasn't quite in the right position, didn't know their
assignment? Are we going to see the Notre
Dame defense, we've saw the lastfew games where they're starting
to get things figured out. I think that's going to be
(19:24):
interesting as part of, you know, and it again, what's the
NC State game plan going to be there?
It's going to be interesting. And Hollywood, some others.
Gosh, I love that name. Hollywood, you know, he's, he's
like one of the top backs in yards after contact. 100
carries, 693 yards in five touchdowns.
Yeah, and a lot of yards after contact, he forces people to
miss tackles. And again, we saw some missed
(19:46):
tackles earlier this year from the Notre Dame defense and that
doesn't doesn't give me a warm fuzzy comfort feeling.
You know, I know we're 23 point favorites, but it's like there's
some things that NC State does well that this game doesn't
necessarily just line up for that 23 point favorite.
So. Yeah.
And what I wanted to talk about,it's hard to like if you go on
ESPN, just look at their quarterbacks rushing yards, You
(20:07):
also have to count in Sachs, take the away.
So he's averaging like 2 yards acarry.
Yeah, but it's also Sachs, takeaways, rushing yards.
So you got to remember that whenyou look at it, kind of a little
deceiving, but yeah, he's done 4interceptions.
So he has turned the ball over alittle bit.
So yeah, it'll be interesting tosee if the Irish defense can, if
we have another three or four pick game.
I'm feeling a lot better about this then.
(20:28):
Oh yeah, if we win the turnover battle, I like this.
I like Archie's in this game a lot.
So yeah, I think that's got to be the key for NC State
offensively, keep the ball. I think boys did a decent job of
going on a little bit of they weren't scoring but a few
sustained. Drives, yeah.
Yeah, again, a couple first downs.
So that's big. And then if we can talk about
(20:50):
their defense, their average, their their past events has not
been good. The rush events hasn't been
good. I know you've been big on yards
after contact. Oh, they're terrible yards after
contact, which I love. Which is 243 passing yards of
games with their averages 101st in the FBS and then 131 rushing
yards and that's 57th. Now, the big stat I like that I
found is they're one of the worst teams in the country at
(21:13):
letting up third down conversions.
They're letting up 44% completions on 3rd down.
That's a big It's not great. Yeah, that that's we're.
Leaving you on the team. Favorable for the Irish, right?
They they can't get third down stops.
You got to like how that favors us in that respect.
So so yeah, I as I think throughthat, it's like, OK, how do I
(21:34):
see this game playing out? I mean, if I'm Notre Dame, I'm
offensively, I'm coming in balanced.
Like that is my thing. I'm coming in balanced.
I'm going to try and say OK, we're going to be able to pass
the ball as we like, we should be able to run the ball and
Price and Love are not easy to tackle and this is a team.
(21:54):
I feel it's not easy to tackle. But this is a team on the
running game that doesn't tacklewell like they I.
Don't know if it's just running.I think it's just corners can't
tackle. Like even on wide receivers.
I'm saying yeah. So if I'm Notre Dame, I'm like,
we're going to dictate what we do offensively.
We're not going to, we're just going to, we're just going to do
what we want to do. State balanced.
I so I like that for the Irish, offensively, defensively for the
(22:16):
Irish, I think it becomes a little bit of a trick, right.
OK. We, we got to take Hollywood out
of the game and we got to get pressure on the quarterback.
Yeah. Can we do that?
Can we can? And we got to tackle Hollywood's
hard to tackle. We've shown that we're not
always good at tackling. So can we be solid tacklers?
Can we get pressure on the quarterback like we did?
(22:38):
Yeah, that's a big yawn. Like it was a big yawn.
Am I keeping you up? Yeah, I guess so.
I. Guess so late.
Late, late night shooting this podcast at Yeah, I don't even
say the time. Yeah.
I don't Even so anyway, I, I think from the defensive
standpoint like OK, Notre Dame, I'm going to probably do some
run blitzes and I I'm going to try and maybe spy the
(23:00):
quarterback. It's kind of how I would
approach it. Any any thoughts differently
from the offense or defenses? Yeah, it'll be interesting
because the past defense looked a lot better.
And we've talked about this is the past defense better or we
just get pressure, which makes the past defense look better.
But this is a week where you can't lock in on one target out
if they drop back to pass, right?
Like there's five or six guys that clearly are gonna catch the
(23:22):
ball for them. So what's that going to look
like for our defense? Are they going to I, I agree
with what you're saying for whatour game plan needs to be, but
I'm curious to see what our execution is and do we get yeah,
how how we play against this? Because I think it's a good
test. Yeah, because I don't think you
can compare the Boise State passing and running offense to
NC State at all. But I look at Arkansas Mobile
(23:46):
quarterback, yeah, they, they were one of the top offenses in
the country prior to US playing and we didn't give up a ton of
points to Arkansas. No.
So now I think, OK, again, Arkansas is not Miami.
Arkansas is not A and M, but Arkansas is good.
I I might even argue Arkansas might have a better offense than
(24:07):
A and M, but I think A and M is a better team.
But you know, we are defense struggled against A and M more
so than they should have struggled with Miami more than
they should have. I think we actually played worse
than A and M defensively than wedid in Miami, which just blows
my mind. But I think we're figuring
things out. So do you think that, you know,
do you think that Arkansas is offense is better or worse than
(24:28):
North Carolina State? That's the question.
Yeah, I mean, I think we could Arkansas's offense be a better
guess, but we call Arkansas on awe, we made them look silly so.
Right, but but running quarterback good thrower.
Yeah, I think, I think this guy's a little less mobile, but
a little better arm. So it'll be, I think, or what NC
State is going to be trying to throw the ball on us, yeah.
(24:49):
But they've got a solid running back, and I could see a scenario
now if I'm NC State, defensively, defensively, if I'm
NC State, I'm gonna make CJ try and beat us.
I'm gonna probably sell out on taking it out the run and make
CJ try and beat us with his arm,which I think is risky because
CJ's looked pretty good. Yeah, and he had a few off
(25:10):
throws this past week. But I'm I'm going to sell out
defensively. If I'm NC State, I'm going to do
everything I can to stop the run, make you beat us with the
arm. And the reason I'm going to do
that is because I'm going to, I'm going to try and shorten up
your possessions offensively. And then if I'm NC State on
offense, I'm probably going to try and lean on Hollywood, like
(25:34):
Hollywood Smothers. I'm going to try and control the
clock and I'm going to try and lean on him and I'm going to try
and do a lot of short passes that are easy completions
underneath, not hard throws. Get guys, you know, in space.
I'm going to tell my quarterback, hand it off on, you
know, on RPO's, but just throw it enough that if it's an easy
throw and it's there, take it. If it's not there, run with it.
(25:55):
I, I, I think I expect a lot of running both quarterback and
running back while he's out of NC State, even if they're not
scoring, if they can get sustained long drives, keeping
our offense off the field, wearing down our defense to have
opportunities in the second-half, I kind of expect
that to be the thing. So, well, how do you see it?
Anything different? No, but I think we got to get to
(26:15):
the point everyone's been waiting on our breakdown on
special teams, right? Let's go that's.
I think that's everyone. 'S in games.
Games are won and lost in the special team category.
Yeah, so interesting. NC State.
I was listening to one of their pre game podcasts for this game
this weekend. They were trashing their their
specialist basically. It's not good when you're
podcasting. Yeah, I was going to say and
(26:36):
they they weren't happy about how their special teams played.
They muffed 2 punts last week, 1recovered, 1 not and it was
against Colgate and I think theyplayed the nobody that played
last week. They ended up switching their
punt return guy and he broke offa return but then got called
back for holding but then decentreturn later in the game I
guess. But they've played, they've
kicked two different kickers combined 3 for six on field
(27:00):
goals. They've been pretty solid on
extra points, but their longest kick made has been under 40
yards so that I think that that plays into the South Bend.
Don't break, keep him outside the 20 basically, and it's a
pushing a 40 yard field goal. It'll be interesting.
Yeah, they're like your odds. They're over 2 on kicks longer
than 40 yards this year. Yeah.
So yeah, I think that'll be an interesting thing.
(27:21):
I'm assuming they ended up switching their part return guy
after the guy missed muff 2 lastweek, but would not be a bad
week for a Notre Dame special team score right?
Yeah, I would love to see everything except the James
Rendale punt. Yeah, this week, you know.
So yeah, that's the special teams breakdown for this week
I've got. That sounds pretty special.
Yep. So yeah, I think stuff there.
I think that's interesting. And so now you get into the the
(27:45):
prediction of the game, right? Yeah.
You're taking some field goals. What are we doing?
And yeah, is are we going to be healthy at the kicker position?
So sounds like it over under is 23 1/2.
The spread is 23 1/2 over under.Yeah, over under is 58 1/2.
Wow, that's it. That's interesting.
(28:05):
I've got my prediction and I'm I'm, I hate to go on the under.
That's what I'm leaning this week.
See, I feel the under as well. I which which means it's going
to go over. Yep.
And and and here's where I'm struggling in the whole game.
Is this going to look like an A&M Big 12 game?
Like you know, is it going to bea high scoring defense struggle
(28:27):
offenses are putting up points kind of game or is it going to
look is it going to look a little more?
Yeah, and I think momentum's just a big thing for this
defense. I said that back.
I don't think our defense is terrible, but they don't have
any momentum like, and now we'restarting to build that momentum.
They're starting to. They're not doubting what
they're doing. So yeah, I do.
You want score prediction? Hit me with it. 4210 Irish. 4210
(28:51):
Irish Yep, I like that I. Still is going to be on the
under, Nerdy will cover but and I hate going the under because
we're a team that could put up 60.
Yeah, and I'm close to you in inmy head, I don't think we cover
this game which we normally cover.
Yeah, I'm, I'm thinking like 1731.
Oh wow. OK.
(29:11):
Like, I, I think to me it feels like the offense is taking a
little bit of a step back and that may be that the offense is
played very well. And, you know, trap game, if you
will, maybe maybe Boise State was a trap game.
They thought they could do whatever they wanted and they,
they fell off because they weren't focused.
And maybe they'll get refocused.I hope they do.
That's that's the right I'm taking, I'm taking.
But I'm, I'm so I, I think I, I need to see the offense step
(29:35):
back to where they were. That's why I've gone 31 and
which is still good, but it's not 40.
And then defensively, I saw one decent game against a decent
offense, which is Arkansas. Yeah, I saw a good game against
Purdue. I saw a good.
Game. No, Not a good game against
Purdue. Not a good 30.
(29:56):
Yeah, a good game against Boise State.
Yeah. And I'm like, I'm not quite sure
I completely am sold that the defenses I hope.
Yeah. I'm hoping the defenses turn the
corner. I'm just not sold the defenses
turn the corner yet. So that that's why I, I'm, I
think 17 because I think, I think the, the whole NC State
thing is going to be trying to control the clock, slow the game
(30:18):
down, keep it low. I think we're going to probably
have a special team score in there, punt return, kick return
something, maybe a block punt. Maybe a fake punt.
Something in there. I think it will be a special
team score in there. I think the offense might
struggle a little bit early and and I think that like you might
have one or two big plays, like just, you know, missed tackle
(30:41):
Malachi Fields goes for 30 yards, you know, missed, missed
tackle Love Price goes for 40 plus yards, right?
So I think there might be some big plays, but I think it's
going to be condensed. So I think the scoring
opportunities are going to be limited to the Irish.
They're going to get them. I won't be surprised if NC State
doesn't win time of possession this game.
Lose the turnover battle and lose the game by, you know,
15.16. So my take is how much film on
(31:03):
CJ Carr missing throws his den Brock in we have this year.
Not a lot. Yeah, until this past week,
right. I mean, it's been technical, all
right? We can't be taking sacks here.
We can't be throw. Yeah, taking delay or there's no
groundings? Here's the thing.
What is the what is the passes? He's missed the wide open pass.
(31:27):
Yeah. And what's what's NC State do
terrible at doing covering the receivers?
But I'm just saying. Accidental.
Yeah, this this is the week where Den Brock said like, OK,
we've been missing through like he can be on about this other
stuff, not just the game management.
It's about all right, you got tomake the play.
So I think I think it's a big, Iwant to say bounce back week
from CJ, but I think he's going to, he's going to have a big,
(31:50):
we're going to have a big scoring week.
This week, yeah. I'm hoping den Brock goes in
there and if I'm den Brock and CJS playing well and and maybe he
was a little too confident goinginto the, you know, into the
game last week against Boise andthat's he didn't, I don't know,
wasn't as sharp or wasn't as focused because he felt like he
just had it under control. I'm going to bring him down a
notch, not destroy his confidence, but bring him down a
(32:11):
notch and I'm going to light himup the 1st 30 minutes of film
review with all the missed throws.
This guy's wide open. Yeah, this guy just, I'm not
going to show him those beautiful balls he threw.
Back sort of fades. Because he threw some beautiful
balls. Like I, I don't want to sit
there and say, oh, CJ played terrible.
He didn't play as good as I thought he's capable of.
So yeah, if I'm den Brock, I'm going to motivate him a little
(32:32):
bit and say, you got to be clean.
You got to be sharp. You can't let all this media
hype go to your head. You know, go talk to Brock
Leonard's mom. She'll tell you you suck, you
know, that that kind of a thing.And I joke because Riley
Leonard's mom told Riley he sucked before every game.
So it wasn't that Riley Leonard's mom made CJ.
But I mean, it's, it's one of those things where, yeah, den
(32:53):
Brock can motivate that. And if he does it and CJ takes
to it, well, you know, yeah, we could see CJ take his game up
another notch. And if there's anything I know
it's Denbrock knows how to get the most out of the quarterback
in his system. And I think he's shown he's got
a lot of CJ and I, I'm trusting he's going to get more out of
him. Just is it going to turn the
corner this week is going to take another week.
(33:13):
I need to see it at USCI need CJon his game.
I need the defense on there. I need to sit on all cylinders.
Nothing better than me is winning the NC State game by a
couple touchdowns plus. And I really love to see us win
it by 4 touchdowns and then turnaround and and beat USC by a
couple of touchdowns. I mean like, you know, a ranked
USC team. You'll be heading into the next
(33:35):
by feeling a lot better than youdid the last by.
Absolutely. It it won't seem, it'll seem
like a it'll seem like a long two weeks for a different
reason. I'm ready to see us play again.
Not because yeah, we need to play again, yeah.
So all right, let's get into thecontest for the week.
Contest. Yeah, let's we back again for
another contest. Shocker, right?
We were following us. I hear people love the Irish 365
(33:58):
swag and if they happen to get some tickets to the Syracuse
game, that's a plus. Yeah, so that's going to do it.
If you'd like to win two ticketsin Notre Dame versus Syracuse on
Senior Day and a sweet Irish 365T-shirt, all you got to do this
week is correctly predict narratives.
Rushing yards. Total rushing yards.
Are they following us on X? Follow us on X.
Comment under this post. Comment on the post.
(34:19):
Just that easy. So if you're listening to this
on YouTube, Spotify, whatever, yeah, go find us on X, comment
and follow and win. Yeah, it's that easy.
I think we had a guy within two yards last week or something.
Crazy yards. Yeah, crazy good.
It was very well. And yeah, we got to get a couple
of T-shirts sent out. I think we back two weeks, but
we'll get those sent out here soon.
(34:40):
Yep, we just got the order. In we got.
We got, well, the 11, some guy won and he's like sweet.
And it's like, well, give us your size and address.
Yeah. And then we got it the.
T-shirt will be the T-shirt willbe your size.
Yeah. So yeah, now I got to get the
production department fired up in the manufacturing area.
But yeah, yeah, but. We got that, we got people.
So we got those coming out soon.So yeah, they'll be checking
(35:01):
their mailboxes. But yeah, let's let's have you.
Yeah, you listen right there. You win this week, right?
Why not? Why not you?
Someone's got to. That's right, Hashtag, why not?
You all right? Anything else you want to cover
on this? Pod, I got nothing.
I got nothing for the people except beat the Wolf Pack all.
Right. I know it's late.
You're tired, We're running out of time.
(35:22):
So apologize. Marcus Freeman.
We can't have you on today. We'll try, and we'll try and
keep you from waiting next time to get you on.
Yep.
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The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.