Irish 365 20251014 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football vs NC state review

Review of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football vs NC State

Episode Transcript

(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.
You got another good one for youtoday as they always all right.
Absolutely. Another another banger, as the
kids say. Wow, is that still a thing?
They still say that. Don't hear it as much, I'll be

(00:22):
honest, but why not bring it back?
I, I won't, I won't say it slapsthen I think that may be a more
relevant term. But hopefully that one's a die
game. I'm not a big fan of that.
Never been a big fan of that terminology, but.
Yeah, so we got an Irish victoryto go over.
Irish beat the NC State Wolfpack36 to 7.
And maybe we'll get into a little this be a little teaser.
Did Notre Dame get another coachfire this weekend?

(00:45):
Maybe. I don't.
We'll get in that later. Yeah, I don't.
Well, we'll see. Coaching carousel this offseason
is going to be bananas is all I know.
Yeah, so. And has little teaser for Jordan
there so hopefully he enjoys that one and we'll get into that
one a little bit towards the endof the podcast.
Let's get into the Irish. The Irish hosted the NC State

(01:07):
Wolfpack, and I think it was theIrish ended up covering this
game at that 22 to 24 point spread.
But there's definitely moments where NC State held their own.
It was a tough game like we thought it could be.
I felt it's a team that always plays the Irish well, I feel
like. Yeah, I felt it was going to be
a closer game than you did coming in.
We both knew that NC State was going to play Notre Dame well,

(01:29):
and they they did. But I also feel like Notre Dame
was self-inflicted on some of the performance.
Like what do we have three tripsto the red zone without a score?
Yeah, I think so. A couple couple 4th down fails,
yeah. And then a fumble by, yeah,
uncharistic fumble by running back in Price.
And it was just like what? Which turned into the safety.

(01:52):
So we didn't quite lose the seven points or three points.
It would have been 7:00 on that one, but we still got two of the
seven. So that wasn't so bad.
But at that point, I wasn't so sure if the safety was going to
be held up or not. But that's a whole other, that's
a whole other conversation. We talked about it last week.
We're getting the discount bin refs.
We don't get the best of the best.
And that was just. Noticed this week, right?

(02:12):
It just it just it just was on full display and I saw some
other games, I think I sent you one where the guy had from the
pylon can had Cam had and the Georgia game had crossed the
goal line and they said no touchdown.
I'm like. You got the pylon cans.
There is a timeout call on that game that Kirby Smart then says

(02:34):
they were clapping. I didn't call timeout and this
is his clap. Yeah, it oh, it was so poor.
Refereeing isn't isolated to theIrish.
It happens. And these people, these people
are humans. I expect them to make mistakes.
Boy, when you've got the assistance of video replay, like
some of the calls the Irish havehad, they're not reviewable.
Whatever to live with it. And we I think we talked about

(02:55):
that the game we don't like, obviously it sucks when they
missed a call at the game like live, you're like, gosh Dang,
that's like, how did they miss that?
But it's just even worse when they go to like video review and
you're like, you saw it in slow motion 10 times that ball at the
ground. Like, I mean, how, what, what do
we? There was the NCA, the NC State
catch that like the ball clearlyhit the ground and you're like,

(03:17):
I get it, in real time, you're going to have to make a call,
good, bad and different. But like you go to replay and
you don't overturn. And I'm like, how?
And then on the same time, therewas the interception by Notre
Dame. And again, he called no catch in
real time. And I get it.
You could have saw an elbow and thought it was, you know, going
down and thought it was the ballhitting the turf real time, hard
to call. But when you go to replay and

(03:38):
it's like, I don't know how you don't overturn that.
But anyway, it is what it is. We survive, we advance.
So let's talk. Let's talk about the game and
kind of how it went. I I thought the Irish started
off really pretty decent on offense until they got to that
last 15 yards. Yeah.
And it was like, OK, yeah, we'rerolling, feeling good and.

(04:00):
Yeah. And.
I feel like that's back-to-back weeks.
You've said this for the Irish, you've struggled kind of.
I don't think We definitely havea struggle moving the ball.
We finished with 485 total yardsin the game.
We didn't struggle moving the ball.
It was just that finishing, finishing aspect.
Like you control the game, you've done everything right,
but you're just having trouble getting in trouble getting in
the end zone. I think we kind of talked about

(04:21):
this a little bit. It's almost I I want to be
careful while I phrase this, butforcing Jeremiah love the
football when it's not in the flow of the game.
Yeah, I think that's. Something.
That's my yeah. So and it's not necessarily in
the red zone, but it's in other aspects of it because it's like,
does he Yeah. Is that the best spot?

(04:42):
Like is it the best? Is the defense in the best spot
for a run play right now or giving him the ball and he can
still go make things happen? That's not a doubt about it.
But it's just like, is this the best?
Is this the best time to give him this ball in this position?
So yeah, obviously you got to play make it like that.
You want to get him the ball as much as possible, but it's like,
was that the best time right there?
Yeah, I don't know. So yeah, I mean, just finishing

(05:03):
in the red zone, which is interesting thing.
And then obviously we got to talk about 3rd or just in short
positions in less than 3 yards. We are struggling to pick up
first downs. It seems like we're picking up
more first downs from 5 yards plus than under 3 yards.
Which? Which, yeah, when you think
about it like in the Miami game,our running offense wasn't

(05:26):
great. Like the the run blocking wasn't
great from the line. But I thought that was a lot of
the RPO where they have to, theyhave to basically pass block
and, and, and but A and MI thought our run offensive line
like was much, much better. And I, and again, I think NC
State has good defensive athletes, but you can't tell me

(05:46):
that they're better than A and MI won't accept.
I I like better than Purdue, I'll accept that better than
North Carolina or Boise State, I'll accept that.
But I'm I'm not going to accept better than A&M.
Like just not. And and so, yeah, I don't, I
don't understand kind of how that like funk and rhythm.
But again, I think some of that is, you know, just it's we can't

(06:10):
be consistent yet. We're good, but we're not
consistent. And that's the good thing is
when you're when you're complaining about some of the
things we're going to talk aboutlike didn't go well, but you're
like, we left 21 points on the board, but we still scored 36.
We still covered, we gave up seven.
Like I'm I, it sounds nitpicky to me.
It's like I'm happy with the win.
Exactly. And that's, yeah, I thought it
was. Going to be a closer game and

(06:31):
I'm happy with it so. Yeah.
And it's one of those things where it's nice to have these
little things to complain about because last thing you want to
be we can't believe we beat NC State 7 to 10.
Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's nice to OK, we still
won 36, seven, like covered a 24point spread, 22 points spread,
whatever you want to have it at.And yeah, we look good.

(06:53):
And and also, I don't want to play a complete game of football
Week 6, right? You don't want to walk away from
a game in Week 6 and like, we'rethe greatest thing ever.
We're not going to make another wrong move.
It's nice to see rooms where it's like, OK, we played a very
good game of football, but there's things we're going to
get better at throughout the season.
I it's, it's nice to have, but it's definitely a thing where

(07:15):
you can't leave 21 points on theboard.
No, that's this. Weekend.
Yeah, no, you, you, you. We'll talk about it in another
pod later this week. But yeah, you look forward to
USC and we're going to have to be more complete in that USC
game than what we have been the last couple of weeks.
But I I thought about this and Iwas going to throw this out at
you. I'll just throw it out now.
Do you think we've adopted the make em bend but don't break on

(07:38):
offense in the first half? I mean, we always joke about the
Notre Dame defense being bend but don't break.
Is did our offense adopt the bend?
But yeah, but don't break. We're going to, we're going to
go all these yards. I mean, it's insane.
Like, I really didn't realize this.
CJ Carr had 342 passing yards. And that's that's a good day.

(07:59):
Yeah, he he he is anything but our problem.
And and the running game is not really our problem per SE.
But I'm I'm with you. I think it's, you know, that
conversation we had. It just feels like and den
Brock's always done this highlight a player, you know,
you got a star, let him be a star.
And I feel like when they're trying to key on like it's

(08:20):
almost obvious that Jeremiah loves getting the ball and the
defense can keel would have just.
Become I was a little disappointed not to see him more
in the pass game this week. That was the one thing where
it's like if you want to keel onhim, get him the ball in
different spots. But yeah, he he was not involved
in the passing game. I'll think he had a catch.
I don't recall the catch. I didn't.
Look at the status of the box real quick.
As terrible as NC State's defense was in the secondary,

(08:43):
you'd love to see him on a wheelroute or something.
Yeah, he didn't have any catches.
Eli Raritan a heck of a game. Will Pauling is shown out like
we kind of were on in the first couple weeks.
But yeah, Eli Raritan 7 catches one O 9, Pauling 4 for one O 5.
Like both those guys. Heck for performance.

(09:04):
And yeah, it was kind of one of those things we talked about.
The NC State secondary has not been great, but yeah, that was
the one thing with Jeremiah was like, I understand when to get
him the ball. Like I am all for that.
Like I've been for that for the last two years.
Like, get that dude the ball andgood things will happen.
But again, if team's going to stack the box at six, slip them
out on on a like out of the backfield, get him over that

(09:25):
first defense alignment and he can make a lot of corners and
guys miss. Yeah.
So, yeah, So as you go through the first half, I mean, the
offense was sluggish. The defense had really a good
game. And I think we talked about
this, what we, what we saw earlyin Miami and even A&M was the
defense was like throwing up their hands, not sure what to do

(09:48):
communication for in the last few games that's, that has gone
away. And it's so I, I keep worrying
in the back of my mind because it's like, OK, are we that much
better defensively or is it justthe quality of the offenses
we're going against is down? Yeah, I think it's both.
I I really come to the conclusion it's both.

(10:08):
I don't know what your thought is on that.
Have you put much thought into that?
100% both. But again, if we played a Miami
or an A&M now when this defense has confidence that that's the
difference between this team, I think it's the same talent.
They just didn't have confidencewhat they were running.
And confidence, confidence is such an underrated aspect in the
game of football. Like if you, yeah, if you

(10:32):
believe in what you're doing andyou know it, I think our guys
know what they're doing. But there's a new someone new
calling it. Not just Al Golden not calling,
but Drake Bowen's now calling the defense, right?
It's a different, the guy on thefield called.
He's he's saying a little different.
He's saying a little different time.
It's just getting used to all that aspect.
And Drake's obviously more. He seems to be playing a lot
more confident these last few weeks.

(10:52):
He's been crushing people out there.
Yeah, I think it's it's all that.
If we play one of those teams again, I don't think this, which
I can't even say, Miami didn't score that much on us.
Like we didn't get stops when weneeded to, but they didn't score
that many points on us. But I I think Miami scores 1
less touchdown if if they beat us again today, Yeah.
And I think A&M the more. 3 and outs and we get off the field on

(11:14):
3rd down. And I think A&M scores at least
one less touchdown and and in both cases that's a win.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think that's a huge point you made that I don't want to
just gloss over. But yes, Al Golden's gone and
Chris Ash is calling the D But even more importantly, Jack
Kaiser is gone and and Drake Bowen I think is a super smart

(11:37):
athletic freak. But.
But he's not a fifth year senior.
He wasn't a 12 year grad studentMed, I think.
I think Kaiser was a grad student.
I don't know. He was six year.
Yeah. I mean, like just that's a ton
of college experience and you know, he had a couple years
under the golden. And Drake, Bowen's 100% more
talent in him, but that doesn't like it.
So the leadership, he's got to learn like you can't just snap

(12:00):
your finger and have the leadership like.
Yeah, well, yeah. And, and again, it's the
cadence. He he may be making all the
right calls, but it's it's a communication stuff.
The other thing I think that's big is, you know, Tay Johnson in
the back, he's stepping up and Ithink he's getting more vocal
from a safety. Your linebacker is your first
guy to communicate, your safety is a second.

(12:21):
And so as he's gotten more comfortable and he's become more
vocal and, and so I, that's, I think the defence is truly
improved with those two guys being keys.
It's not going to be highlighted, but being keys to
the communication thing and everybody's getting kind of
comfortable in the rhythm. I still think in the nickel, the
corner area, we're a little unsure.
There seems to be just moments. I mean, Carson Hobbs had an

(12:42):
interception. He's he's, I'm big on Carson
Hobbs. I expected great things out of
the kid. He's not played great to point,
but he got a pretty good game yesterday.
Dallas Golden, the true freshman, has looked pretty good
in his time. But you know, we have Devante
Smith, which came over from Alabama and he's been her.
He's not been like the difference maker we were hoping

(13:04):
for. Yeah, granted, maybe Alabama's
not the Alabama of old. And you know, where they had
three deep of every position that was a five star.
At least it felt that way. And, you know, but he's still a
high ranked Alabama kid like youexpected.
To be yeah, he expected go underthat umbrella.
So, yeah, I think obviously lastyear we thought so highly of our

(13:26):
defense and I think anywhere to look back on last season and say
last year's defense has proven so much more than this year's
defense that could all turn thisweek.
Is it like USC torched our defense last year?
Like torched made them look likemade them look like no one made
them look last year? Like this is definitely like

(13:49):
that defense doesn't have many teams that they can go back and
say that that team made us look bad.
We need like we're we're scheduling that game.
We got to show something next year like that.
USC six and six, USC crushed, and I don't want to get your
head on that. It's just hard not to it.
It's USC week, right? Oh yeah, it's hard not to get.
It's hard not to get into that game, but 'cause it's always
throws it on the calendar. Yeah.

(14:10):
So let's talk about that. We talked about the Irish in the
first half and I think, I think it was a first half play call
that we got to talk about with the fake punt.
I think if I remember incorrectly it was going to be a
first half play call and then a timeout.
Occurred. That's right.
We we, that's right. We motioned into Tyler Buckner
behind center and they called a time out and then we broke it

(14:31):
out in the second-half. So you're right, the first half
was, you're right. The first half it was we flashed
it, they timed out. We would did something
different. And then we went to it in the
third quarter, I just confirmed.Yeah.
But yeah, it was Tyler Buckner, which we when you want to get
into it. Let's let's go into that play.
I yeah, third quarter cause whathalf time was 76?

(14:53):
I mean, it was lethargic or was it?
We got a field goal 10-7 at the half. 10710 Seven at the half
right. Yeah, not not feeling, doing
great. Feel pretty similar to boys.
You're like, I don't feel like the game is out of control, but
I don't feel great about the waywe're playing.
But then coming out and we went 3 plays, no yards, quick three

(15:14):
and out defense goes same thing for them.
But. And you're not winning the,
you're not winning middle late at this point.
Yeah. Or you kind of won the middle 8
with the three, but you're not like feeling good about it.
I mean, cause at the end of the half, you know, we, we were just
trying to get a field goal rangefor the 47 yarder, which, OK,
we, we know our kicker's range was 47 1/2 or whatever it was,

(15:34):
whatever the distance was at 1/2yard.
And that was his range. Yeah, barely so.
But at least we knew his range and we got inside it, yeah.
Exactly. So.
So anyways, yeah, under 10 minutes.
Here it is Tyler James and Dale was in punt formation.
We motion out to him on the right hand side, Buckner's in
and it's literally just a shotgun snap.

(15:58):
I I don't remember who was next to him.
Was it Love 'cause I know Love'sin on some of these punt things,
but they also have another #4 that plays special teams I.
Don't think it was love on that one but.
Yeah, but anyways, Tyler Buckner's in shotgun with
someone on his left and just takes the snap and I think it's
4th and two and he just goes andgets 3 or 4 yards.
Like Wildcat style. Yeah.

(16:20):
So that was that was awesome. And the best part about it was
we get up to the line and go quick.
I love that that was the wrinklethat I asked.
'Cause you still got their punt unit on.
We didn't sub so they can't sub now.
The really unfortunate thing is the ref spotted the ball and
what they said was the wrong spot so they gave God free time
out basically. Yeah, I mean, they killed it.
The referee killed what would have been an excellent play

(16:44):
because we. Really been interested in what
we do. We just sling it with Buckner
because how awesome was that? A bit of Buckner just slunk like
because, you know, Faison's on. Yeah, no substitution.
They've got to do something withtheir punt team now.
Have to play some sort of defense.
Tyler's good enough to throw theball.
Yeah, but we just stand in Faison on a fly route like over
the what do we got going on here?

(17:06):
I yeah, I just that was a momenton.
I think the average fan may not appreciate the coaching
brilliance of that play called that sequence right there and
it. Got taken back so much because
the ref gave basically a free time out there because I think
they called time out on the field and then like didn't even
it wasn't the 4th time out it was just spotted the ball wrong

(17:28):
is what I remember the broadcastsaid later going back to it.
They called a time out and then they said no time out's charged.
And we're like, what? Like, you know, you're sitting
there standing going what how doyou call a time out and then no
time out. But it was the referee spotting
the ball or it's like, but yeah,that would I would have loved to
see that next play call. But I do love the fact that USC

(17:50):
or whoever going forward is going to have to be on the
lookout for this. And, and now the great thing
about us not running that play is that's still out there.
They they could go into this no huddle.
Yeah, you know, quick, quick snap.
Like you gotta, you know, so we're going to force some

(18:11):
timeouts. And, you know, that was huge
last year in the Sugar Bowl, forcing Georgia to have some
timeouts like that. That could come out very
valuable, especially in a tight game late in the game where you
force team to not have the timeouts to make that final
drive post 2 minutes. Yeah.
And we've and we've been very good on the fake punts.
So it it is a thing where teams are going to have to use
timeouts to make us actually punt the ball or we're going to

(18:32):
come out and we're going to justactually do it.
But I mean that that's a touchdown Dr. that kind of like
we went down and scored yeah, after that.
So we capped off that drive and kind of got the momentum going
there and made it 17-7. And it was kind of, I think we
scored on every other drive besides the fumble and then the
Neil, the two fumbles. Yeah.

(18:53):
And then? Kneeling down at the end of the
game. So here was yeah, here was my
thinking, though. And yeah, we got some Kenny
Minchi victory formation. I want to see a little more
Kamenci this game and not victory formation.
But here's my thinking. Going back to that play, right?
So you run that play and you gotBuckner back in, right?
And you're going to run that quick play.
What if the pass from Buckner went to Rendell?

(19:15):
Former rugby player. Running down the field, Yeah.
I mean, they were bringing him down.
Who's 'cause? You know, normally you, you
don't have your best tacklers. You have a, you have a return
guy back there who's a good widereceiver.
Yeah. Could Rendell just run somebody
over? We need to look up his rugby
highlights, I guess. Was he running guys over?

(19:37):
I yeah, he was 6 freaking six, £300 rugby guy or whatever.
Yeah, we're. Running somebody over?
Yeah, even up, could we get a? Fucking lateral off it.
You think we put a Buckner to James Rendell and then a fucking
ladder? Yeah.
I mean, and then you got a return guy back there who's 6.
For him, if you're on the line, you should be taking some notes
here, right? You know, yeah, if he's on hold

(19:57):
already, he should be taking notes.
But I'm just thinking, oh, I wanted to see that ball go to
Randall and just, you know, see a six 650 LB returner trying to
tackle Randall and open the old.Like if you're just give me that
a special teams coordinator, what's the last person you're
saying we need to make sure we're covering the punter,
right? Right.
We don't have just a punter. I mean, we've got we've got a,

(20:20):
we've got a guy that could probably carry the rock.
So he'll like luckily the football leprechaun.
So anyway, I just want to throw that out there.
I hope we see that at some point.
That would be hilarious. You know, and if it's against IU
in a playoff game for 100 yards,that's even better, right?
I don't think it'd be maybe 50 yards.
I don't want to see us doing a fake punt with 100 yards to go.
But yeah, anyway, So anyway, I just want to come back to that

(20:41):
thought. And like, what if?
What if that was, and I think this is under appreciated by a
lot of people, Marcus Freeman, is he not becoming one of, if
not the best coaches in college football in game situation?
Like we saw some struggles in the 1st.
Games feel like just he feels a gamer like, and that's such an

(21:02):
underrated quality for a coach. I mean, when we had he's he's
high character guy. He gets Notre Dame, he's great
recruiter. He he cares about the kids.
He wants them to graduate. He wants what's best for like
he's checking all these boxes and I'm like, he's not going to
check something like he's going to struggle somewhere.
And and we saw some of these struggles early, you know, and

(21:23):
and you're like, you know that that he's not.
Is he going to get it? And after NIU last year, you
felt like is he going to get it?And he turned a huge corner last
year. And I just it's a just it's next
level chess move. He's he's he's playing 3D chess
right now at times. And I I love what they're doing.
So anyway, I just want to highlight that one, give props

(21:44):
to coach and two, I just get themind working a little bit on
that. What if because it was awesome.
So anyway, go go back to the post play.
We get the unfortunate time out.Not a time out.
Some of the referee choices I didn't love, but hey, so be it.
That's how it goes. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I think just I don't have a whole lot more to

(22:06):
say about this game. Just they're didn't we we didn't
play a complete game, but we played well.
It's definitely room for improvement, which you like to
see. And yeah, I mean, here my love
guy is price was a little price didn't play as much this game,
which I thought was an interesting whole thing like we
didn't see in the whole first quarter love got the first two

(22:26):
or three drives, which usually they just back and forth coming
in and out. And yeah, so I thought that was
interesting, but I mean, nothing, Nothing crazy.
And then, yeah, I mean, defense made plays, 3/4 turnovers is
always nice to see. A lot of three and outs, a lot
of four or five plays, right? For NC States, which is yeah,
their offense wasn't getting in any rhythm whatsoever.

(22:48):
NC State has a good offense. Are they better than A&M?
Are they better than Miami? No, but they're probably the
third best offense we've seen. I mean, yeah, they, they, they
put up 2435343321. They put up 56 against Campbell
the week before. I mean, I know it's Campbell,
but they still put up 56. So it's a team that has shown in

(23:08):
the other quarterback was not very MO IQ was not running down
like. Yeah, but clearly the third best
offense, they'll slide to four after we play USC next week.
But like, yeah, one of the better ones we found.
Smothers 46 yards on the ground is and they only had a 10 yard
long. CJ Bailey obviously sacks takes
this down which we talked about this before the game. 14 -, 14

(23:31):
yards rushing along of 10 yards.Yeah, but there's been multiple
mobile quarterbacks that we've faced, even an A&M that we've
taken the mobile aspect out of the game.
So we can complain about some ofthe things from Chris Ash.
And I think the the fire Chris Ash talk has died down much like
the fire Marcus Freeman act. You know, fire Marcus Freeman

(23:53):
was acting up right after NIU and it it calmed down.
Ash is settling in and you got to remember we had some
struggles when the early out golden year his first year back,
but that conversation has died down.
But we have not given up. I mean, Carson Beck's not a
mobile quarterback. He picked us apart because we
were in zone and we weren't communicating and covering it.

(24:13):
We're much better in zone than we were.
We're much better than men than we were.
So even then, I don't think Miami, Miami is a good team, but
I don't think they're as dominant over us as they would
be or they they would have. I, I again, I, we can talk about
the what ifs. Maybe we'll get a chance to play
Miami again later this year. And you know, that would be
awesome, yeah. We have probably a week coming
up where I'm sure we'll get intoa lot of this stuff after USC.

(24:35):
But a lot to be a lot of goodness to be said, you know,
about the defense and how they're playing and the play
calling and the comfort and like, yeah, so USC is going to
be, you know, I look forward to breaking down USC later this
week because I think that's going to be an interesting game.
It is, yeah. It is the most important game
we've got left on our schedule now.
I think you pointed out Navy could be ranked.
Yeah, Navy could be undefeated and probably ranked about 2223,

(25:01):
Yeah, if they come to South Bend.
And also to know, I think we've got two more games, USC and
Boston College. And then I believe after that
Boston College game, is that first actual rankings that
matter from the customer playoffcommittee?
Yeah, the first weekend there inNovember, So, yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, I'm all hopeful that Navy is ranked.
And for us, I again, I don't think we're going to get, we're

(25:24):
not going to get in top four. That's out of the question at
this point. I don't think we'll get top 8,
but I'm pretty confident. That's where we also, that's
where we differ on that one. I'm at the point where I'm like,
we're going to be in the town. We're hosting a playoff game
again. I hope we are.
I will be there. Again, cultural playoff
committee, I, I don't think it'ssurprising either of us if we
come in 19 in that first rankings.

(25:44):
I'm not like the eight people has shown that it could be
different from the cultural playoff committee.
I don't think that's going to bethe case.
But what is completely shocked me now.
Yeah. And we'll talk about in the bye
week before that posting. Yeah.
I think there's so much talk thelast couple years about quality
losses over quality wins. Yeah.
And if A&M and Miami are top four, yeah, no one has better

(26:09):
quality losses than Notre Dame. Yeah, people are saying Illinois
has two losses not right. Yeah, they lost to Ohio State by
two scores and lost to Indiana by by halftime.
Like that's not the same 2 losses like I get it's.
Are they quality losses? Yes.
But when you quality. Teams, yes, but not quality
losses. They didn't.
Look at the scores. Yeah, look at the scores.

(26:32):
They weren't by 4 total points, they were by 50.
Like it's or 70 or whatever it is.
It's like you can't compare. It's not apples to apples.
Like I understand they lost to two good teams that are ranked
top four. No one's saying that, but you
can't. If they would have lost to both
those teams by a point or in three points, it would be a
completely different story of Illinois.
Got an argument? Yeah, I think you can put Notre

(26:53):
Dame wherever you want. Illinois just needs to be at
least one behind them, if not 2 and they're.
Not ranked right now. That's where people are mad.
But I know I'm just saying like you, you could, you could say
Notre Dame's 14, they should be 15.
I, I would accept that argument.I wouldn't necessarily agree
with it, but I would say you gotsome validity.
But you can't say they're betterthan Notre Dame.
And that's what I've heard. They should be ahead of Notre No

(27:14):
because one like not to get too far off from the landscape.
But let's go into that just for 2 minutes here, right?
The landscape of college football.
NC State Are they going to fire their coach?
NC State I didn't say that I wasteasing Penn State.
Yeah, No, they're not going to fire their coach.
But Penn State, they fired theircoach, right?

(27:35):
Yeah. And.
I was going to say and where didthis all start?
I mean this dude James Frank wasliterally on a drive to win a
comfortable playoff semifinal and Gerald or threw a pick.
Marcus Freeman broking. Yeah, I mean, literally on a
drive under 2 minutes, every coach is dream to go win

(27:57):
customer. Like your quarterback, your
offense has the ball to go win the game.
So yeah, as Julian saying, they're trying to say he lost to
Oregon, then he lost at UCLA. Who would have thought that?
And then Northwestern, but it's just under $60 million buyout.
It's going to be an interesting one for the coaching carousel.
Yeah. Who?
I have no idea who they're goingto get, but you have to imagine

(28:20):
this Penn State didn't just fireJames Franklin with no, like, no
intentions of somebody. Yeah, I haven't even heard of
the interim is at this point. I had someone on the staff I I
haven't. Heard.
I, I don't it was, it was the only person that's on James
Franklin's original staff, whichis ironic.
Like he's been there 10 years. Whatever.
Franklin's been there. And yeah, and you think about

(28:41):
where like Penn State was when he came over, like he was in
scandals. Yeah, he was.
He was to Penn State what Brian Kelly was to Notre Dame.
Like they historically great program that had struggled with
the last couple because there was O'Brien, another coach
between Joe Paw and he came in and kind of stabilized and

(29:02):
improved it. Yeah.
And. Yeah, I forgot about Billabre.
Yeah, but I mean, just, I didn'tsay they did more for Penn State
than what Brian Kelly did. I mean, he won a Big 10
championship. He he won some playoff games.
Like I know people. Did we not win an ACC title?
Nope. We won.
We. Lost the championship.
We we won a regular season ACC title though we were regular.

(29:25):
But he won. He won Big One championship.
He won the championship game, yeah, but he didn't make it to a
national championship game. Brian Kelly.
Made, I guess Brian Kelly did, Yeah.
But that was too, yeah. So but it's apples and oranges,
right? But he is saying fans know like
what Brian, you can hate Brian Kelly for leaving in the middle
of the night and everything elsein his family.
But if you don't respect that Brian Kelly took us from a bad

(29:48):
spot to a continual 10 win program in a good spot, then
you're not being honest with yourself or paying attention to
the details. And that's what Franklin did for
Penn State. It's it's amazing they kicked
him out. But Minosa 3 bad losses. 03
Horrendous. 2 bad one, one loss and two bad losses.
But it's just a situation where it's like I'm just surprised

(30:11):
from the recruiting standpoint. Booster is obviously wanted out
bad, but that's the ginormous buyout.
It crushes recruit. I mean, you're already seeing,
we don't keep talking about recruiting, but you already see
guys that have decommitted visits to Notre Dame and other
places like a mass like a 2027 number one overall running backs
are already decommitted coming to the USC this weekend, which
is fantastic. But it's just like they could've

(30:34):
negotiated to buy at the end of the year, like they it's just
shocking. And yet they're not firing James
Franklin and think they're goingto go get the Next up and coming
offensive coordinator that's nowa head coach.
Well, you're like that's. You're you.
You're at Penn State. Your expectation is high.
And the the two names I've seen come up the most have been

(30:56):
Signeti, which what No, and NickSaban.
Yeah. Nick Saban's going to be able to
go wherever he wants and write the check.
I don't know what would make Nick Saban say Penn State is the
job with the with the exception that the Big 10 might be easier
to win than the SEC like. If if I'm Nick Saban, he's such

(31:20):
an SEC guy. I know, but if I'm Nick Saban,
I'm not going to want to go to the SEC where I I'm going to
recruit SEC style players someplace else.
So the, the only thing that would make Nick Saban think
about Penn State would be do I have the NIO money, which they
appear to have? Do I have, do I have the
resources? I've got this historical

(31:40):
program, you know, like I've gotall these things in place.
And it and it doesn't feel like they're that far.
If he thinks he could go for three years and win 2 national
championships then he he makes it.
I just don't see him being a 5 to 10 year old.
Who? Does he got to beat Ryan Day?
Nick Saban could beat Ryan out coach Ryan Day without even
without even showing up the practice 5 days.
I mean like literally he could he could probably take most high

(32:03):
school teams and compete with Ryan Day.
I mean, I joke, I joke, I joke, but I mean just as far as a
coaching ability goes, I mean Ryan I and I struggle because I
don't like Ryan Day. I don't like most Ohio State
annoying fans I know, but I lovethe Ohio State players.
Like I think those are a lot of class guys and like good
athletes. So I struggle with that one.
So I'm going to always going to throw shade at Ryan Day because

(32:25):
I'm not a fan of his and his dyed beard and taking shots at
Lou Holtz. But anyway, I'll get off that.
Interesting name I saw there could be a sleeper which I don't
think he fire James Franklin to go get this guy by a lot of
people are saying no Clark Lee of Vanderbilt would be an
interesting 1. James Franklin came from
Vanderbilt would be an interesting one and but I think
on the reverse side it's going to be very interesting to see.

(32:47):
I don't think James Franklin if he wants a job, I think he'll
get one pretty quickly and getting fired middle of the
season. I think by next year he could
want, and I mean A-Team. I don't think Arkansas will get
him. But I mean what a UCLA, like
you're telling me UCLA want to take what James Franklin had at
Penn State? 1010 wins every year.
Make it the playoff. Oh yeah, I think UCUCLA makes

(33:09):
the most sense for him. And if Clark Lee does leave for
some other job, maybe he's back to Vanderbilt.
But I mean, it'll be interestingbecause I think he's yes, he
definitely sure. And I'm a Jane Franklin.
I don't like the guy, like he didn't like the crap out of me.
But at the same time, like he he's going, he's not going to go
be 3:00 and 9:00 somewhere like he'll a lot of programs will pay

(33:29):
to get a dude that's going to gowin 10 games to be OK with.
It yeah, he's going to need to go somewhere where championships
aren't the expectation, but if he can win 910 games a year,
he's going to be celebrated. And I think UCLA makes sense
because he could he could recruit well.
He's got a lot of things going for him, you know, And again,
I'm with you. I was indifferent on James
Franklin and really the like theonly thing I really knew about

(33:52):
him was he was a good coach, nota great coach.
I know he's on like the peely Keely and Peely skit like thing
and they're like, you know, likeI was OK with him.
And then he's tried to like Big Brother Marcus Freeman and press
conference the Orange Bowl and Ijust lost all respect for him.
And so I the other name I saw someone throughout there was a
surprise and I don't think ClarkLee goes, never say never throw

(34:16):
enough money at Clark Lee, he'llgo.
But Clark Lee played at Vanderbilt.
He's a Vanderbilt guy. He left Notre Dame to go to
Vanderbilt. I think that makes sense for
him. I think the other name I've
heard, which I don't see happening, but I wouldn't throw
it out, Elko. Elko played at Penn State.
Oh, he played there. Yeah.
I didn't. I didn't think he played.
There. So if there's anything that

(34:37):
would make me think Elko might leave the SEC to go to another
place and coach is your alma mater.
Like, you know, if there's any program in the country I'm
worried about Marcus Freeman leaving Notre Dame for it's
going to be Ohio State. Like, I don't think anybody else
can pull Marcus Freeman away from Notre Dame except Ohio

(34:58):
State because he played there and that's his like, you know,
his alma mater. And I, I'm hoping that his, this
foundation is, you know what, Notre Dame's great.
And if that job ever becomes open?
You are mistaken on Mike Elko. He graduated from Penn.
Not Penn. Not Penn State.
I'm sorry. Wrong, Wrong.
Penn University then. So OK, I'll back that up.
I'm a little less worried. I was thinking.

(35:19):
I was thinking at some point he played linebacker at Penn State,
but it was Penn. Penn Yes.
All right, I feel better then. Thank you for thank you for fact
checking that. So less of a draw for Mike Elko
to go to Penn. Yeah, Penn State 'cause he, he's
a pen guy. I was thinking for whatever
reason, when he was Notre Dame defensive coordinator, there was
a Penn State connection at linebacker.

(35:40):
But. That was Al Golden.
Al Golden, OK, Al Golden was theThat's where I got my defensive
coordinators mixed up. Al Golden did play tight end of
Penn State, but I don't see him leaving the NFL for another head
college head coaching job at this point.
No, I, I, I I'd be shocked at that.
Anyways, I think that wraps us up.
Today, we want to shout out congratulations to Alex Donlin

(36:00):
on winning our contest this past.
All right, Alex Donlin got the most.
Rushing yards picked? Yep.
So he's the closest on the rushing.
Yards pick so we'll be reaching out to him first.
T-shirt size and a suite. He'll be entered in those two
night Amber Syracuse tickets andI got to mention.
I'm rocking the Notre Dame soccer T-shirt tonight because I
don't know if you've saw this, but the number one women's

(36:23):
soccer team in the country rightnow, Notre Dame.
Notre Dame. So yeah, shout out to the.
Ladies, they're scoring goals, huh?
They. They're they living?
With goals, cheer her name, as they say this year is the
mantra. So yeah, congratulations to Alex
Donlon. I know he's a soccer guy, so he
probably appreciates that. Yeah.
So. If he's not, he should be.
He probably is like, Notre Dame's got a women's soccer

(36:45):
team. Yeah, I'm sure he knows.
All right. Anything else?
Hey, I'll do it. Today.
All right, we'll get back into it for USC week all right, let's
get ready everybody. This could be the.
Last USC week ever Could be. People keep saying we're
planning. 2026, I haven't seen anything confirmed for that on
the future schedules. My understanding is it's

(37:05):
tentative. But the contracts are not
signed. So yeah, people are like, aren't
we playing there next? Year and my thing like I look on
FBS future schedules and I haven't seen anything for next
year. Yeah, my understanding is that.
Contract's not signed, so it'll it'll be interesting to see how
it goes. Yeah.
And you know, if there's anything, we'll talk about it
later. I look forward to this game.

(37:25):
I love the USC rivalry. I love USC knocking off
Michigan. Like fantastic top 20 matchup in
South Bend this week. Night game great.
Atmosphere, fall, weather, USC coming to the town like
everything you could want. And this is our playoff.
Like we win this game and then we just we should be we should

(37:46):
be able to just handle business and get the playoff.
Like if we lose this game, the playoff is out.
Like this is this is this is ournext playoff game.
But this is this is the most important game we have coming up
next. So we need we need to win it
style points don't matter. Just win this game.
Yep, all right. Well, we'll get out of here.
You guys have a great rest of a great week.
We'll be back later in the week.All right, talk to you soon.

(38:08):
Go Irish.