Irish 365 2025113 Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs Pitt Panthers Football game preview

Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs Pitt Panthers Football game preview

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 game
preview. Little different tonight,
Jordan, it's you and I. I know, Big Week brought me in.
Yeah, Full disclosure, Carter was on this podcast and take

(00:24):
one, someone had some technical difficulties and got a great
video and no audio. So we're going to reshoot the
podcast. Carter's phone died, so he can't
he can't rejoin us, so he's missing out all the fun.
Great conversation. So we're going to relive it
because it was so fun. We're going to do it a second
time. We're going to call this Iris
365 after dark. But there was a time when was

(00:46):
you and I talked Notre Dame football.
Carter didn't exist, so it's oldschool.
Exactly. Pretend it's late 90s.
Yeah, and you know, I, I'm here in the studio and Carter was
doing it remote from home and you're obviously in your home in
Carolina. And it's just like last year we
didn't have heat in the studio. And in Indiana it's been cold
like down in the 30s at night. I was having to go into like

(01:09):
Studio B 'cause we got A, we gota little area that's kind of a
set up, a man cave that does have heat, but it's not really
the studio. And I put heat in the studio
this summer, like in some free time I had, I put some heat in
the studio and it's like coolingand heat.
And it's like, this is nice. This is nice.
I'm out here just like I got a hoodie on.
I might be a little too warm buthey, no complaints.

(01:30):
No complaints. Life is good.
So anyway, we got we got Pit coming up this week and I know
you're a huge fan of Mr. Narbisi.
Yeah, Mr. Pad with his dumb, youknow, cut off short sleeve dress
shirts where he wears a tie. It's terrible.
I feel like. And I saw a picture because he

(01:50):
does like a weekly podcast and that was the picture of him on
that. I'm like, could you have a more
terrible, terrible look? It just makes me want to once
again give him a nice punch so. It was like the Purdue social
media, yeah, before the start ofthe season, where they were
showing video of receivers dropping passes.
Is like, is that the best you could come?
What, 30 seconds you come up with in two hours of video?
Exactly. Irish 6365 is not here to give

(02:14):
fashion advice, at least not this guy.
If Maddie was on here, she couldgive you all the fit advice.
I'm not the guy, but if it's short sleeve, you don't wear a
tie. That's just, that's the rule.
So but yeah. And then he made some.
I don't know. Again, I think it was some
comments he made where he was trying to like maybe I thought

(02:35):
he was trying to rally his team with the comments that this game
isn't a must win game. It doesn't matter if they lose
110 to 10. And I thought, is he just trying
to lull Notre Dame to sleep? You know, and it's kind of this
old Lou Holtz thing where, you know, we're terrible, we can't
win. You know, that was the way it
went. And then by by Sunday, you know,
I knew we were going to win the whole time kind of a thing.

(02:55):
And I thought that's the way he was going.
But I don't think it was. I just think it was misspeak or
unprepared to speak. Yeah, he was just speaking off
the cuff, like, you know, true from the heart that he was like,
hey, I'm not really focused on this one.
You know, we're focused on the other ACC games and, you know,
if we lose by a lot. Noel who?

(03:16):
Cares. Yeah.
And that's not the message. I think a coach wants to send it
into the team to any game. Like, you know, I've coached a
lot of rec soccer, rec football,rec sports, even when I knew the
other team was a whole lot better than me, I never once let
my team think we couldn't win. You know, like that was never a
thought in my head. So this guy's getting paid a lot

(03:37):
more than I ever got paid to coach.
So I don't get it. And then he doubled down.
I saw an ex today where he's like, well, if it's a must win
game, if you want to say that. And I'm like, Oh yeah, you
clearly weren't coach speaking. You were trying to like, you're
trying to back that. Like that was terrible.
So yeah, absolutely. So it'll be interesting and I
think we talked about it in the season preview as we went

(03:58):
through the opponents. We talked about Narduzzi and
like how they started off 7 and O last year and then finished
seven and six. And we predicted like a seven
and five season for them this year.
And here they are 7 and two. They've got Notre Dame, they've
got Miami, they got Georgia Tech. 7 and 5 is a real
possibility for them. Absolutely, Because if, if Notre

(04:19):
Dame is able to, you know, go inthere in a hostile environment,
which I think it's going to be early and get a win, then they
could easily lose the next two games after this.
So. Oh, yeah.
I mean, I could see a scenario where losing this game, the team
like, gives up on the coach a little bit, and yeah, then they

(04:39):
turn around and lose to Miami, which I think Miami's a winnable
game for them. Yeah.
And I think Georgia Tech's a winnable game for them.
But I also could see the collapse.
I mean, I think the Notre Dame game is winnable, but it's
probably, I don't know, a littlemore of a stretch of a win.
I, I predict they're going to lose the next three, but I think
they could win the next three aswell.
I'm not going to say there's no way they could win the next

(05:00):
three. So so that'll it'll be
interesting to see how they do or what they do if they do over
the next three weeks. And I think that kind of sets up
the whole college football landscape, which we can talk
about maybe after we after we breakdown Pitt a little bit.
Because what do you like about Pitt coming into this game?
If you're a Pitt fan, what are you excited about?
So I think for them, you know, they started off the season 2

(05:22):
and two and then they made a quarterback change when they
played against Boston College and that's kind of really
energized them. They throw the ball really well.
You know, I had a few numbers down here.
They are 11th in points per gameand 30th in yards per game.
And a lot of that is behind their quarterback, Mason

(05:43):
Heinchel. I'm just going to call him Mason
because I'm not going to be ableto get that last name out.
He's had several big games since, you know, he's taken
over. He can turn the ball over.
But I watched the NC State game and he threw for 423 yards, 3
touchdowns, no picks. And that's really what, you

(06:07):
know, they, they got playmakers on the outside as receivers.
So I think what they're going todo is try to move the ball and
just put up points. And but their defenses good.
You know, kind of like when we talked about the beginning of
the season, you know, you said where are we strong at our
offensive line and our defense? And then it kind of flipped.

(06:28):
And I think it's kind of the same for them.
They thought their defense was going to be really good, which
they still are statistically ranked high, but still they've
been given up a decent amount ofpoints too, which has been
interesting to see against teamslike Stanford and NC State and
things like that. So if I'm a Pit fan, I'm saying
we're going to throw the ball and try to put up points and

(06:51):
stop the run for Notre Dame so. Yeah, and I think that's kind of
interesting. I mean, you know, we talked
about like Notre Dame didn't play well the first couple of
games, not as well as we're playing now.
And we can talk about, you know,there was that bandwagon of
Chris Ashe needs to be fired. And three games in, I was on
that bandwagon and I've cooled on that talk a little bit, like,
OK, yeah, Al Golden struggle a little bit too, 'cause I

(07:12):
remember cover zero against OhioState.
And the the Pit fans, like, theyknow their defense has been
decent, but it's underperformed.But they've not been healthy.
And I think they think like, oh,now we're getting healthy and
they're feeling really good coming into this game 'cause if
you look at social, the Pit fanshave been, they've been
chirping. They, I mean, their confidence
is high, much higher than Narduzzi's confidence has been,

(07:35):
that's for sure. So I, I think that's kind of
interesting. But I also go back and I think,
OK, well, if you're a pit, you probably haven't watched any
Notre Dame this year unless you watched game one against Miami
because it's an ACC game. It was that Sunday night,
Memorial Day weekend, like, or Labor Day weekend.
Like it was the only game on it was it was it?
If you're a football person, that was your game.

(07:57):
And our defense looked terrible.Our offensive line looked
terrible, like our running game just didn't produce because the
RPO was all bubble pass, bubble pass.
Like CJ Carr played well, but hemade some bad decisions.
He didn't didn't play terrible, just made bad decisions.
And he's playing so much better now.
Yeah. So much more comfortable.
Yeah, if you're PIT, you're thinking this Notre Dame team's

(08:17):
beatable. And I and I get like, if you
haven't watched us since Miami, why you would think that You've
seen block score maybe, but you you really don't appreciate like
how good we've got and how much better we've gotten since then.
So I get that sense of security and, and, and, you know,
confidence coming out of the pitbase.

(08:38):
I'm just not so sure they understand what's coming in.
You know, they think they can stop the run.
I think our running game is muchbetter than anything else.
They face this this year so far,Pitt.
Yeah, they've not seen a back like Jeremiah Love yet.
Yeah, or price or price, Yeah. And I will go as far as saying
Neus Williams is probably a better back than what they've.
Seen. Absolutely.

(08:59):
And, you know, and that guy looked phenomenal last year.
And just because Snyder's come in and he's kind of changed the
rotation, you know, he's not. Williams isn't getting as much
carries. He's kind of like, he's really
good. So yeah, I, I think that kind of
all plays into it and all makes it kind of interesting.
And I think it gives that false sense of security to Pitt.
The other side of it is Notre Dame.

(09:19):
Usually when we play Pitt, we'relooking past Pitt.
And usually when we struggle with Pitt, it's because there's
AUSC game coming up on the horizon and it's a big USC game.
Well, now when we look past Pitt, what do we got to look
forward to? Syracuse, Stanford.
And this isn't, this isn't Andrew Luck Stanford this Well,

(09:41):
Andrew Luck is at Stanford, but not quarterbacking.
He's he's general managing. So and Syracuse was much more of
a challenge when Steve Angele was a starting quarterback.
They've fallen back a little bit.
So we're not looking past this. I mean, this is college game
day, noon, kickoff, prime game on ABC.
We're the game at noon. And this is our last chance to

(10:03):
make a statement to the CFP witha ranked team.
Jeremiah Love is going to have all the Heisman talk on him.
And you know, there's going to be there's going to be hype for
his Heisman campaign on the ESPN.
They're going to do special on him and talk about him how he's,
you know, borderline autistic orhe's low on the spectrum or
whatever you want to put that. And, you know, kind of there's

(10:23):
so much to talk about him, let alone just every time you turn
around. He's a human highlight.
So I think we're going to come in focus now.
The only fear I have is it seemslike sometimes Den Brock likes
to likes to highlight or key players.
And it just seems this year whenhe's trying to highlight or key,
you know, Jeremiah love, it's it's worked out worse instead of

(10:45):
better. It feels like what Jeremiah love
is just it's just part of the game plan.
It's just natural. He does amazing things.
We're trying to force the situation.
It feels like he struggles a little bit.
So if there's anything that worries me about it, that's not
Pitt being so good. It's us forcing a bad situation
early in the game. So.
Yeah, and I, I'm interested to see because I completely agree

(11:05):
with that point. Like there's definitely times
where the offense just feels stagnant because it's the plays
are being forced. You know, that's why I really
liked last week with the Navy game, just to see love kind of
get out in the passing game. You know, they did a good job of
of getting him out, getting him the ball in space and letting
him make plays. And I'd like to see that again

(11:28):
because I think that they'll have an opportunity to throw the
ball and use Jeremiah Love in that sense, too.
And like you said, there's goingto be a lot of eyes on him and
hopefully he can kind of go out and show to make a push for him
for his Heisman campaign. Yeah, I mean, when when it just
happens in the course of the game, I feel like he's dynamic.

(11:51):
And here he's got oodles of justdays of YouTube, Instagram and
social media clips of 2030 seconds of just something
amazing hurdling, jumping, knocking somebody over.
I mean pass pro like a stud. I mean, you know, the the fall
spin, get up and run away from the Navy guys.
I mean, it's Navy, yes, they should have wrapped up.

(12:12):
But the fact that he was able tokeep his balance, keep that
play, keep it going says a lot about him.
And and again, it's just anotherhighlight play for him.
So if we don't try and force it,we let it happen naturally.
He will do amazing things. And I think, I think I'm excited
to see that. And I think that'll make it
difficult for a Pitt because coming into this game, what are
we talking? I think the point total, the
over under is 53 1/2 and I thinkNotre Dame's 12 1/2 point

(12:35):
favorites. Yeah, So.
So yeah. And that's interesting that 12
1/2 because I did see that, you know, they were talked about
after obviously the A&M game. Notre Dame has won I think every
game by double digits, which maybe isn't surprising based on
who we've kind of played. But still, even the game with

(12:57):
Boston College where it was, we were a little stagnant.
It was still close. I mean, they still ended up
winning by double digits. So that kind of, I wouldn't say
it surprised me that they were 12 1/2 point favorites against a
a good pit team. But that's a big number, I
think. Yeah, if you're looking to bet

(13:17):
that. Yeah, see, I, I think it is
coming in, but, but I feel like Notre Dame can hit that number
and, and twofold to this right one is Notre Dame has to score
points and they and they've got to do, they've got to, they've
got to pass the eyeball test to the committee.
So there's a there's an urgency.Winning the game like we did

(13:39):
Boston College isn't enough. We need to, we need to win and
win big. I think Boston College, we were
looking past Boston College, we were looking at Navy, you know,
we were looking ahead to pit maybe like we were looking past
Boston College and it caught up to us.
We played sloppy, we didn't do well.
We cleaned it up against Navy, 0penalties, played much better.
There's no doubt about it. This is our biggest game left on

(14:01):
the schedule. There is no looking past it.
We've got to play well. So I think I, you know, my gut
initially was lower scoring, notcovering the spread.
And then I kind of talked myselfout of that.
So let's let's talk real quick. We'll talk keys to the game from
Notre Dame, keys to the game forPitt.
And then we'll then we'll hit score predictions and I'll try
to remember what Carter's score prediction was.

(14:23):
I'll get it somewhat close. So keys the game defensively for
Pitt. What are they going to try and
do? What's your take?
So yeah, I think they're going to try to stop the run.
They statistically they're, because I wrote down here,
they're, they're 27th against the run, but they're 101st

(14:45):
against the past. And so their secondary doesn't,
they got their secondary doesn'treally scare us.
I think they're going to try to stop the run and make CJ Carr
beat them. But you know what, Like I think
we're comfortable with that because we know CJ can make
plays. I mean, look at fields, look at
polling, you know, reared in face on, we face on like we have

(15:10):
so many guys that are stepping up in the passing game that, you
know, if you're just going to let CJ try to beat you, I think
he can pretty he can do that pretty easily.
And I just think that I, I don'tknow if they're going to try to
sell out to beat the run, like if they're just going to, you

(15:31):
know, rush 4 and have a bunch ofguys back if they're going to
try to bat with their defense. So I'm interested to see kind of
how they play it. Yeah, I'm with you.
They got great linebackers. Their front 7 has been pretty
solid for them actually. So I can see where this game
plan strategy for them is. Yeah, let's see if we can stop
the run get and get some pressure on the quarterback,

(15:52):
right? Let's see if we can make CJ
uncomfortable in the pocket. I don't think they're thinking
their corners are going to beat our receivers.
But if C JS going to throw the ball early and he's under
duress, he might make a mistake.He still is a freshman
quarterback. He's not playing like a freshman
too much. But I I can see that game plan
for them and I think that's their best shot, right?

(16:13):
They're they're not going to stop.
They're not going to say we're going to let let your running
backs run wild and and you know we're going to take our chance
of stopping you from throwing onus.
I I think that's their plan. So offensively, if you're Pitt,
your game plan's a little different.
You're feeling really good aboutyour freshman quarterback and
you're like, hey, he's good and he's mobile.

(16:35):
And I think from that standpoint, they're kind of
thinking like Notre Dame will gointo that man and and they'll
be, we'll struggle a little bit,but that's when the quarterback
can run, right? If we go to that man and our
defensive backs turn their back to the quarterback and there's
an opportunity he can run so he can get some big chunk plays.

(16:56):
But then they go back and they say what they know is we've seen
Notre Dame play the zone terribly or almost no zone.
I, I think that cover zero that we played against Ohio State a
few years ago might have been more effective than the, the
zone we played against Miami. I mean, Oh.
God, yeah. Just just blows my mind.
I still go back to the the the Miami catch in the end zone
between two of our guys. You're just like letting him

(17:17):
catch the ball, like just challenge that and that hell of
a catch. But he doesn't catch it if if
he's just challenged. So I I can see that like game
plan. If I'm offensively, I'm thinking
I'm I'm going to use use the legs of my quarterback.
If Notre Dame is trying to run and they're trying to like go go

(17:39):
man coverage and they let my quarterback hopper to hopper
news run, I'm going to have him run.
I'm just going to try encourage him to slide and not take
unnecessary hits because if I'veseen any trade tape of Jake
Drake, Jake, I can't say Drake Bowen for some reason that name
escape is hard for me. If I've seen any video of him or
Kingston Vilasa like hitting people, I'm telling my

(18:00):
quarterback don't take unnecessary hits, but get those
get those chunk runs when you can and I think you can make the
game competitive. I, I think it's a, they should
feel like they have a shot and there's going to be all the hype
in the world. The fans are going to be into
it. You know, the, the pit campus
isn't that far from the, the Steeler Stadium, so it's not
like they're going to be completely without that crew.

(18:22):
So yeah, I I think the hype's going to be there and it's going
to, it's going to run so. And if they can keep like the
early momentum, keep drives sustained, keep Notre Dame's
defense out there and they move the ball, like that's just going
to give them more confidence as they go along.
Like I think they can't, you know, they got to sustain
drives. Because if they don't, then I

(18:43):
think they're going to, you knowthat because that's what Notre
Dame's going to try to do is getthem off the field on 3rd down.
So. OK, yeah, I'm with you.
So all that being said and done,here's how I I guess we'll go in
the score predictions. I think Carter when we asked
him, his score prediction was, Iwant to say 412140.

(19:04):
No, I. Think he didn't have him cover?
He didn't. Have him cover.
I think he was he. Was and he had 3524. 3524 he
didn't have him cover. And you know, again, I think
that feels that feels kind of right, like it, it feels kind of
right that that's a good score. What did you have?
I had 3827 I so that 38 I got uskicking a field goal.
I'm I'm trying to put good, goodvibes on our kickers, get the

(19:28):
get the confidence up. So that's 11 that's still not
covering, but I think that that will be a decent, decent score.
Yeah. And again, that kind of feels
right to me. That's where I started at as I
was thinking through this. And then ultimately, I, I, I had
this pivot this afternoon where I'm like, you know, I think it's

(19:49):
going to be a tight game early I7 to 10 in early second
quarter. Like it's, it's going to be a
close game. I feel like Notre Dame's going
to probably score in the last four minutes of the game and
Notre Dame's going to score in the 1st 4 minutes, last four
minutes of the second-half. They're going to score again in
the, in the 1st 4 minutes of thesecond-half.
And like, you know, we're going to win that middle 8 and I think

(20:12):
we're going to pull away a little bit.
And so that's kind of where I'm getting the score up there.
And I'm thinking Notre Dame's going to, I hate to say it, but
like third. 3810 is kind of where I'm at.
Like I'm I think defensively we're going to give Pitt a lot
more challenges than they expect.
I I expect to pick 6 to come andplay.

(20:35):
I think the quarterback's going to probably throw a ball.
I think we're going to do enoughto get pressure on him.
I think we're going to be able to stop their run game.
I I think their defense is goingto have a lot of energy coming
in. I think they're going to carry
that. But when the adrenaline settles
down and the game gets real and we've we've prodded, we've poked
and we've tried to force it to Jeremiah Love.
And then we've backed out of that and just let the natural

(20:55):
happen. I think second-half we kind of
pull away. I don't think we're going to see
Kenny Minche in the second or inthe third quarter, but I think
we're going to pull away and we're going to have a fairly
comfortable, like, I think it's going to be a little tight the
first quarter and a half. I think it's going to be fairly
comfortable the entire second-half.
We're going to feel like, yeah, this game's ours, just keep the
foot on the pedal and go. So that's kind of how I see it

(21:15):
playing out. We'll we'll see.
I'm hope hopefully I'm right andyou guys aren't.
But since I'm a little off kilter, you guys are probably
closer to right. It's probably going to be a 3538
game and we're going to be a nail biter.
And I was going to. Yeah, because I definitely think
about, you know, talking about maybe some old, older pit games.
It's like talent wise, I think Notre Dame is clearly the more

(21:36):
talented team. They don't have a Larry
Fitzgerald. They don't have a Lashawn McCoy.
They don't have, you know, an Aaron Donald who they're
supposed to, they're going to honor, you know, retire this.
Weekend, right? Yeah.
So it's like we've gone into these games in the past where
Pitt has, they've had really good talent, not to say that

(21:57):
they don't, but they just don't have any superstars.
I think Notre Dame should be able to make enough plays with
the talent that we have. And, you know, we kind of joked
about it, but the guys that are have rested for Notre Dame off
playing last week. So, you know, having those guys
fresh on defense should help too.
Yeah, Boutique Carreori was rested last week.

(22:17):
He wasn't a good fit scheme wiseagainst Navy.
I don't know how that is, but you know, Christian Gray has
been banged up and he's got rested.
So yeah, I think we're going to.We, I don't think either one of
those guys were setting out thisweek.
I think we're going to be, we'regoing to be full strength.
And I think that's going to playto play to us as well.
Because Christian Gray will sometimes get baited into doing
something silly, getting a little handsy, what have you.

(22:38):
But when, when the back's against the wall, my man makes
plays. He makes plays exactly.
Yeah, and I and I. You take the good with the bad.
Yeah, because he he makes big plays in big moments.
So I hope he gets more consistent on the good side.
But yeah, so I think that's kindof where I see it.
So we need to talk about a contest here.
So key to the game, I think, forus is Notre Dame being balanced.

(23:02):
Notre Dame kind of like control the line of scrimmage and Pitt's
going to want to stop us. So, and this is it.
We talked about this. This is college game day.
They're on campus. They're going to do a highlight
piece on Jeremiah Love. They're going to talk about him.
This is our last top 25 matchup of the year.

(23:23):
It's going to be all about Jeremiah Love.
Yeah, it's it's it's. So we were talking about what
we're going to do for a contest.So here it is.
If you want to win two tickets or if you want to be in the
drawing to win two tickets to Notre Dame versus Syracuse and
get yourself an Irish 365 shirt.You've got a comment on this
post on X total number of yards for Jeremiah Love in the game.

(23:45):
Total offensive total yards, anyyards, any yards.
So it can be running yards, passing yards, catching yards,
whatever he does. Just how many yards is Jeremiah
Love going to have? Total yards?
Get it right, get in the contest, and then we'll be
announcing the winner of the twoSyracuse tickets live on the

(24:06):
podcast in the post game. So there you go.
Good luck. And wouldn't.
That be great if he ripped off like 250 yards, you know?
Totally. Yeah.
Oh, awesome. I could see that.
I but his his yards per game hasgone up week after week after
week. He's having these big games.
So would not surprise me. See, Jeremiah Love do something

(24:26):
extraordinary. And and we talked about this,
Carter and I have talked about this.
I'll get your your take on it. The Heisman Trophy has always
been a stats position. And if you go back to like 50
years ago, you couldn't watch all the football games.
All you could do was get the boxsquare out of the paper, right?
So it was it was talking to other writers and hearing how

(24:48):
great somebody was and then seeing the box score in the
paper. Then it became kind of this
quarterback, you know, award really the last, you know, 20-30
years. But now I think it's shifting.
And at some point it's going to shift.
It's going to come back to who has the, the, the, the, the, oh,
wow, Bo Jackson type clips on social media.

(25:10):
And Jeremiah Love has to be leading a lot of guys in that
category. Absolutely, yeah.
You know, everybody, every. I think he's beyond the casual
sports fans. Like I think people who are
casual sports fans know who he is.
Not just die hard football fans and not just Notre Dame fans.
I think a lot of people know there's this guy, he leaps, he
jumps, he runs over people. So I think we're getting into

(25:32):
that, that we're going to be entering the error soon.
If we're not there now where people who can put together
highlight clips on social media,can go viral on X or Twitter or
Instagram or whatever, those aregoing to be the people more
likely to win Heisman trophies. It's not going to be about gaudy
stats or necessarily quarterbacks.
It's going to be about making big plays and obviously

(25:53):
quarterbacks making good throws,big moments, big plays can
obviously win. But, you know, in the context of
the game, all eyes are on you. Everybody's watching.
But I think in the social media realm that we're going into, I
think Jeremiah Love's got a really good shot to be that
first guy to win it based on social media hype.
I mean, I still see videos of him running against, you know,

(26:13):
Penn State in the Orange Bowl last year.
And, like, do people understand that's not this year's season?
It shouldn't count toward this year's Heisman vote.
But yet it might sway someone's opinion on whether they vote for
him in the Heisman or not. Like, oh, yeah, this guy's been
doing this for a while. It's a, it's a sustained
activity, right? He's got the Navy play from last
week. He's got the big breakout

(26:35):
against Boston College, that 90 yard, you know, where he's
looking at the sidelines, You know, I'm slowing down, you
know, talking, talking trash or whatever, you know, like that's,
that's the kind of stuff you gotto put out.
Yeah, like he's looking he's he's actually looking on the
Notre Dame sideline, which is. What?
He's talking to his buddies. And he's he's yelling at the
coach. Well, I don't know if you heard

(26:57):
this, but like the running back coach, said Jeremiah Love.
I don't think you can break a 90yarder.
And he's like, yeah, I can. And then the coach says, well,
if you do hit the Heisman, so hebreaks it like right after that
and he's yelling at the coach, should I do the Heisman?
Should I do the Heisman? So like, that's the legend of
the story, kind of how it comes together, which is which is

(27:18):
hysterical because he comes to the end zone and he he hits a
little bit. He didn't hit it hard, but he
hit a little bit of the Heisman.Like, so like, yeah, nice.
So, yeah. But those are the kind of things
that like, you know, it, it hitssocial media, it it goes viral.
There's a big post. I mean, I put a post on X for,
for our account just to the run of the Navy and it's 10,000 plus

(27:39):
views in a couple of days. I mean, it's just, you know, and
we're not a we're not a big social media presence with, you
know, tons of followers. I mean, and you know, there's
people talking about those clipsand, you know, the much more the
bigger sports personalities are getting clips and talking about
him and getting viral. So yeah, he's in, he's in the
conscious of the sports world. So I think this is a big weekend
for him. So we want to see how many yards

(28:01):
he can put up. I think the whole viral clip
thing is only going to help his 'cause somebody's going to win
the Heisman at some point, not because of gaudy stats, but just
because of being viral. And he's a guy that can do it.
And a name like Love, Why not, right?
Everybody loves Love. Exactly.
So yeah, so other games this weekend, and I think we talked
about this a little earlier. It was a much better

(28:22):
conversation. So we'll see how Take Two goes,
but there's some big games this weekend and when you go into the
College Football Playoff scenario, we there's always been
a little bit of a chaos theory thing that goes on.
There's always been this like, and I was during the BCSI always
prayed for chaos and and it and it always kind of it it like I
was wanting six teams to go undefeated and them have to

(28:43):
figure it out and it just it just work itself out.
The chaos went away and there were there was upsets and things
that went that happened and it just, it just the chaos happened
during the season and it didn't force the committee to have to
make bad decisions or tough decisions.
And I always go back to that 2011, 2012 season or Notre Dame
setting at 3 going into like, you know, the toward the end of
the season, next thing you know,Oregon loses, K State loses and

(29:08):
it's Alabama, Notre Dame jump from 3:00 and 4:00 to 1:00 and
2:00 and we're in the BCS. Now again, in hindsight, I'm
really wishing K State would have pulled off that win because
we could have played K State fornational championship and won it
instead of playing the all worldAlabama team that I don't know
how they lost the game earlier in the year.
I still didn't go look that up. But like, how did that team,
which is you think about all thegood Nick Saban Alabama teams

(29:31):
and that may have been the best.I mean, it just blows my mind.
But so chaos always seems to happen.
And I think there's there's kindof this thing, right.
We've got Texas playing Georgia and you got Oklahoma playing
Alabama, and like, Notre Dame has to be Pitt.

(29:53):
If we lose to Pitt, none of that's relevant to us, but
there's chaos. But let's assume we beat Pitt
close, right? If Texas and Oklahoma find ways
to win, they could jump us. Absolutely.
Because yeah, I don't how does. Because those are two quality,
you know, top five, five type six wins.
Yeah, and they're just behind us, you know, in the rankings.

(30:17):
So having those two wins, we'll see what they they, how the
committee treats them. But yeah, those are two, those
would be two quality wins that they could easily jump Notre
Dame. Yeah, hard, hard to argue.
Like I would be disappointed, but it'd be hard for me to argue
that like Georgia, Alabama should fall behind us and those
guys shouldn't jump ahead of us,right?

(30:38):
I mean, I would love it to see us move up two spots and, you
know, get moved from 9:00 to 7:00 and then Georgia, Alabama
fall behind us. And like, I, I would love it.
I just don't see that happening.But yeah, so I think that's a
potential chaos scenario this weekend that could occur.
I I think more likely you're going to see.

(31:02):
And I thought about this, I saidthis earlier, I, I think Alabama
and Georgia both win. I'm going to back off that
statement as I thought about this.
And, and since we're in take two, I think there's a, there's
a better chance of Texas beatingGeorgia.
I don't see Alabama. I, I just can't see Alabama
losing. So we're going to beat Pitt.

(31:23):
Hopefully we beat Pitt by we cover the spread, we get some
style points. It's not an issue for us.
And then if Alabama takes care of business away, anticipate no
problem with Oklahoma and Texas beats Georgia.
Could Georgia fall behind us? I mean, potentially Georgia has
played with fire a little bit. I mean, I watched the Auburn

(31:44):
game where they got a lot of help and so bad that like, you
know, one of the refs, I don't think he's reffing anymore, but
you know, there's they're a slowstarter.
So and, and Texas has been getting better.
You know, not this, not to try to compare them to like Notre
Dame, but you know, they looked terrible against Ohio State at

(32:07):
the beginning of the year and then they followed up the next
two games against, you know, point is that they should have
blown out that they barely won by.
But then, you know, and they lose to Florida, but then they
beat some other good teams. So it's like they're maybe
hitting their stride and playingbetter too.
I completely agree. I don't think that Texas is as

(32:27):
good as Notre Dame. I would love to play Texas in
the CFP if it worked out. I wouldn't.
Wouldn't concern me. I mean, it's a team I think we
could beat. But yeah, I think Texas is
obviously playing much better atthe end of the season than they
were at the beginning of the season.
There's no doubt about that. They've improved.
But, you know, there was a lot of talk, a lot of distractions.
You know, Arch Manning's the next great Manning.
And, you know, he didn't come out hot and didn't play well

(32:50):
and, you know, a lot of pressureon him.
And I think he's kind of settledinto that.
And so, yeah, I I can see Texas beating.
I don't think Texas beats Georgia, but I could see that.
And of course, you guys both know.
And Carter hates it when I say it, but I I've been calling it.
I think there's a shot. Michigan beating Ohio State and
I'm still going to stand on business and say I think Purdue

(33:11):
can speak up on IUI. Don't.
There's no reason Purdue should beat IU and that's the reason
Purdue beats IU in my opinion. I think Signetti is good at
being the hunter. I'm not sure if he's going to be
good at being the hunted and Penn State gave him a scam and
and a Penn State that lost a UCLA that doesn't have a coach
that had no business in that game.

(33:33):
Not that Penn State doesn't haveathletes, but but I think
Purdue's gotten a little better and Purdue's played well.
So we'll see. We'll see.
And again, that's chaos scenarioone O 1.
If one and two and everybody's like saying, hey, they're on a
collision course for the Big 10 championship.
If they both lose the final weekend of the regular season,
there's your chaos scenario because now you've got Bama,

(33:55):
you've got A and M1 and two. You probably have Georgia at 3.
The SEC people are freaking excited, you know, And then Ohio
State, False 4, Oregon gets in there.
Maybe Oregon jumps ahead of IUI.Yeah, it gets, it gets all kinds
of chaos. All I know is we just got to get
ourselves to a home game now. I think we should.

(34:17):
If we take care of business, we should not have too much concern
outside the craziness of both Georgia and Alabama losing this
weekend. We shouldn't have too much
concern about us being a home playoff team or us being in the
College Football Playoff. Now it's can we move ourselves
up to that home playoff game? Because that's a huge advantage.
I mean, give me a Southern team has to come to Notre Dame IN in

(34:40):
the middle of December when it'sgoing to be cold, potentially
snowy. And you know, that's just,
that's just that's leverage for us, right?
And you guys know how raucous ofan atmosphere it was last year,
and it's only just going to be that much better, you know?
And it's one of those things like Notre Dame has always been

(35:00):
kind of this staunchy wine and cheese crowd.
No offense to the Notre Dame wine and cheese account on
Twitter. He's not a wine and cheese guy.
That's parody. But there's always been kind of
this like staunch, you know, don't get too rowdy.
And that has changed so much. And like that College Football
Playoff game last year was electric.
I mean, inject that into my veins.
Give me that. Like, it was, I mean, that was

(35:23):
like drinking, you know, 3 energy drinks, a cup of coffee
and, you know, just it was, yeah, it was wired, man.
It was, it was something else. So yeah, we huge advantage for
us in that environment. I always go into my conspiracy
theory here. You know, I say first round
games are on campus. CFP wants to make the most
amount of money. They're going to figure out how

(35:43):
to get the biggest stadiums intothose games.
So you know, Tennessee, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan,
Notre Dame, like all the bigger stadiums, No one wants a first
round game at Texas Tech like Texas Tech.
I think the stadium seats 40,000.
I, I, it, I don't know how big it is, but I've seen pictures of

(36:04):
it. It just doesn't look like it's
that big. So I just don't think people
want first round games at 40,000person stadiums.
They want them at 7080 hundred thousand person stadiums because
that's they're going to get $300a ticket.
And I've done the math, $300 a ticket at 100,000 is a whole lot
better than, you know, $300 a ticket at, you know, 50,000 kind

(36:26):
of a thing. So and you know, they got to pay
the refs, the teams and everything else.
But I also got my 10th foil hat.And this is one thing that does
scare me a little bit about the the pit game is we're going to
have ACC refs and ACC refs are inconsistent at times.
And can Notre Dame survive some less than desirable calls?

(36:46):
Because if you're the ACC and you can get two teams into the
College Football Playoffs, there's a whole lot more money
to be had than if you have 1. And so how do you get a second
team in Pitt? Could be that second team.
I mean, if Pitt can beat Notre Dame, follow it up with a win
over Miami and a win over Georgia Tech, I mean, they, they

(37:10):
could be your ACC champion. Plus Pitt could be your, you
know, those could be your two teams.
So we'll see. But I'll get off that conspiracy
theory. For now.
I'll keep my tinfoil hat off. Well, that's what I'm waiting to
see, you know, because we alwaysjoke like we're getting the the
5th best ACC. You know, we're getting the
bottom of the bottom when it comes to these reps.

(37:31):
So are they going to are they going to give us a decent crew?
You know, it'll be interesting to see how they officiating it
works this game. I, I think they're going to have
to give us a good crew and part of it is going to be 1.
This is a big game. This is a big game for Pitt and
they're going to want to put a better crew on there because
even if I joke, I, I, I don't really believe the ACC is going

(37:56):
to try and put refs in there andinfluence them to try and, you
know, cost us the game. I just think we, because whether
it's Miami or Georgia, like A&M,like there were bad calls for
and against us. Like it, it, it, it just went
both ways. And even at Boston College,
there were some bad calls against us, but there were some
bad calls that were for us. I felt like it was a little more

(38:17):
against us than force at Boston College.
But you know, I'm also biased. I I admit that.
So I think we're going to have abetter ref ref crew because they
know that this is going to be a high profile game.
There's been a lot of shots taken at referees this year.
I mean, I just I still can't getover the one game.
Like I saw where the pylon Cam, the guy was in the end zone and

(38:41):
they still like did give it a touchdown after.
It's like I get in the heat of the moment, you get the call
wrong, but when you got the benefit of slow motion replay
and you still get it wrong. What the heck?
So I think we'll get a better, better reffing crew.
And I actually see somebody postthis.
I don't know if you saw the the IU come back against Penn State
or the highlights of that. Yeah, I saw it, Yeah.

(39:02):
But I actually seen someone shoot out a shot like, Hey, you
got to give the referee that waslike the back judge a lot of
credit because he called a hell of a good call in real time that
stood up under review. Because when I first saw the
review, I thought, oh, he didn'tscore.
And then I saw the second time, I'm like, Oh my God, he got 2
feet. That's a that's a Sunday score.

(39:23):
That's not just a Saturday score, that's a Sunday score.
So shout out to that referee because he did a great job in
real time getting it right. So, and that's not an easy job.
I mean, you know, you're you're making boom, boom, boom
decisions. So yeah, I think we'll get a
better referee crew. I don't expect to see the
egregious terrible calls, you know, but I'm optimistic.
I'm always optimistic. Even even though I criticize the

(39:45):
refs, I still give them, I still, I still give them my my
optimism. So.
All right, So anything else in regards to just General College
Football Playoff? I mean, so I've been looking at,
you know, kind of looking ahead after we were speaking earlier,
you know, we got USC, Iowa. And we, we think USC because I

(40:08):
believe I was looking, they got Iowa this week and I believe
they still have Oregon to play as well.
So that'll be interesting if USCcan run the table and be Oregon,
which that's a, that helps NotreDame in two ways.
One, beating USC, getting, you know, a better strength to
schedule from that and knocking Oregon down.

(40:30):
So that's one thing I've been looking for.
And then also, you know, I was joking with you guys about Ole
Miss playing Florida, you know, so looking at these teams ahead
of us, like, is there any way that Florida can somehow finagle
a win to get in lanes head to pull one off here and knock Ole
Miss down too? Cuz that would really help.

(40:51):
Yeah, I mean, we joked about this earlier.
Did Lane Kiffin get a call from his new boss, the athletic
director at Florida, and say, hey, there's an extra 0 in that
check if you guys give us a win this weekend?
So give us a dub, yeah? 'Cause, you know, if you lose
now, Lane, you could kind of quit and come over here and get
on the payroll earlier. I mean, you know.
Start recruiting. Start recruiting like bring over

(41:12):
your guys from from Ole Miss, right?
Call up Deuce Knight, tell him to hop on, hop on the next train
to Gainesville. It's beautiful down here.
Come to the cocktail party. So, yeah, I but I think that
distraction and it's interestingbecause the way Lane Kiffin's
approached that he hasn't like just killed it.
And I, and there's always that thing, right?
There's people that just kill those rumors instantly and

(41:34):
you're like, oh, they killed toofast.
And there's people that don't kill them at all.
And you're like, well, that's a bad sign.
Like, like the whole Lincoln Riley conversation, you know,
and someone showed a clip like right before he went to USC
where he's like, well, you guys know where I've sacrificed to be
here, you know, at Oklahoma. And the next thing you know is
like almost the same language He's using it like, you know

(41:55):
what I've sacrificed to be here at USC?
And it's like, wait a minute, where are you going?
And so, yeah, Lane hasn't closedthat door.
Now I can see Lane not closing that door simply because he
doesn't want to leave Oklahoma. And he or Ole Miss, he wants to
give his agent some leverage to get a a contractor, right.
And I think it's interesting because Marcus Freeman shut it

(42:17):
down pretty quick and he says, I'm not even going to talk about
it because my name comes up for every freaking job.
I'm not going to talk about it with with the team or anybody
else unless it's there's something to talk about and
there's nothing to talk about. So like he's kind of killed it,
but not in a way that makes you say, oh man, he's gone.
But also not in a way to make you think, well, wait a minute.
He's entertaining it. And, and I hope his agent is

(42:40):
doing whatever he needs to do tolike make sure Marcus is getting
paid. And I can't believe Pete
Babakawa is not making sure thatMarcus is paid 'cause there's,
I've said it before, there's only one school that scares me.
And that's that scenario where Michigan somehow beats Ohio
State this year. And I think Michigan's good
enough to do it again. And Dave Port in a way is going
to be annoying his health. That happens.

(43:02):
So I I like his one bite pizza reviews, but his, his pro
Michigan talk will get to me. But yeah, I could see like if
Ryan Day loses to Michigan again, despite he came off the
national championship because last year I think he was he was
like one loss of the CFP away from like, I don't know if they

(43:23):
lost the CFP last year, like Notre Dame would have beat them
in the national championship game.
I don't know if Ryan Day would have been back at Ohio State.
Like I really felt like he had to win the national championship
to get another year. So.
Yeah, losing, which is just crazy, but yeah.
But losing to Michigan and Ohio State is just That's a cardinal
sin. Like, you know, it's kissing
your sister. You can't do that.
Like it's just wrong. So I, I, I just think like,

(43:47):
that's kind of like the fragileness of that.
And he's that's the one place ifMarcus Freeman were going to
leave Notre Dame for anywhere, it's the NFL or it's going to be
Ohio State. If if he were going to leave and
I don't want him to leave. So pain whatever you want to
pain because he's won more freaking major bowl games in the

(44:08):
last year than you know what we've won the last 12.
So you know, I and I like the guy.
I like everything about Marcus Freeman.
I like his approach. I like his his swagger.
I like his just embracing the university.
So pain keeping here, right? I mean, today's world pain
keeping do what we got to do. And let's let's just hope the
Ohio part of me wants Ohio Stateto beat Michigan and the other

(44:29):
part of me wants to see Michigancreate the chaos series.
So. I don't know, I, I would talk
about that earlier too, because I'm like now I just want, I want
chaos because I want, I want to see what the committee does.
We we talked about it earlier where it was about what, what
kind of scenarios would put themin a tough, tough situation.
You know, when you got 2 a lot of two loss SEC teams, you know,

(44:54):
you got still some power 5 potentially conference champions
that are on the outside looking in.
And, you know, I thought when the rankings came out that Notre
Dame was going to be 13 and 14 and they were going to as long
as they win and then let some losses ahead of them, some chaos

(45:15):
allow them to move into the playoff.
And the fact that they started in was like, OK, you know, here
we are. We're in the driver's seat.
And now it's all just upside from here so far.
Yeah, 9 We control our destiny. Yeah, as long as we win, we
should be OK. So yeah, I'm, I'm with you.
And that's like, that's exciting.
But I also think about this, youknow, again, I put my tinfoil

(45:38):
hat on. The College Football Playoff
committee maybe itself doesn't care, but the College Football
Playoff organization does. And they want to go.
They want to go from 12 to 16 to24 to 72 to, you know, whatever
they can expand it to, right? So nothing better for that than
to having the chaos and the absurdity of teams that they

(46:01):
feel should be in being left out, right.
So that's the argument for putting Notre Dame in because,
you know, we like to say from our perspective, half the
world's for you, half the against you.
The reality is it's 2575, right?Maybe 25% of the world is OK
with Notre Dame. 75% of the world hates you.

(46:22):
That's why you go on social media, whatever, you bash Notre
Dame and you get Ohio State and Michigan fans to agree on the
one thing they agree on. We we suck, right?
Or whatever it is, right? So if you put a Notre Dame team
in, you're going to alienate another team or two or three and
you're going to have SEC Big 10 people screaming, ACC people

(46:45):
screaming. And it's going to make it.
It's going to make it easier to make that leverage to get
ourselves to the 16 team playoff, right?
Or the 2014 playoff or whatever number they're trying to get to.
And I think the other thing is, you know, people have found, I
think after last year, like the home playoff games were
electric. So we're not going to add more

(47:07):
bowl games. We're going to keep the bowl
games the way they are. We're just going to add more
games on campuses and and that'sawesome.
Everybody, everybody fans win. Like like if you're going to
expand it to 16 or 24 teams or whatever they're going to end up
at give me more home games, at least at least give me more home
games. And and I'm excited about that

(47:29):
aspect. So I could see like the chaos
really being now you're going tokeep a Georgia out or you're
going to keep an Oregon out or you're going to keep a, you
know, a, a, a Michigan out or somebody like AUSC out.
That's going to have enough of apoll that the people are going
to say, well, that's wrong. Like let's just say Miami wins
out, you know, and Miami's like,well, we beat Notre Dame.

(47:52):
Well, you lost to Louisville. You know, well, if if the
argument holds because somehow Louisville beats Miami, Miami
beat Notre Dame, but Notre Dame's ranked highest, Miami's
second, and Louisville's, even after beating Miami,
Louisville's still behind them. Like what?
At least Miami jumped us after they beat us and then they felt,

(48:13):
you know, but like in the argument, there should be
Louisville, Miami, Notre Dame, in that order.
It's like the logic if you if you apply the head to So now
there's a bunch of. The transitive properties end up
just falling apart so. So, yeah, exactly.
So that's why we need to beat Pitt and then we need Pitt to
turn around and beat Miami. So we can just say, OK, we

(48:36):
weren't great early, but look atthe end of the season and now we
got this common opponent one week apart.
Look how we performed much better than they did.
That kind of a thing. So yeah, I, I think there's some
chaos theory potentially out there.
I it's, it's going to work out in a way that there's not going
to be chaos for the committee. There's just going to be chaos
that's going to settle things for the committee where they
don't have to make hard choices.That just seems the way it

(48:57):
always goes. But I do want to see the the
committee have to be put in those hard choice positions.
I always just want to see like, how are they going to manage
that? How would I manage?
I, I, I don't think it's easy. Like, you know, you got to put
your bias aside. You got to look at the numbers,
you got to figure it out. Strength of record, strength of
schedule, you know, head to I'm not there yet.

(49:24):
It's like being a head football coach.
I always said I want to be so good at my job.
People will pay me a ridiculous amount of money, but not so good
they won't ask me to quit 10 years early and still pay me the
money. Like that's that's kind of where
you want to be. That I don't have to sue them
for $53 million like Brian Kellydoes, but I want to be just good
enough that they'll pay me $53,000,000 to go away.
I'll go Edwardron, right? Show me the door and what time

(49:46):
you want me to leave. So all right, Well, I think
we've done a good job on Take 2,so I'll I'll call it there.
Appreciate you jumping on getting to be with us.
It's good to have you on anytimeyou can talk ball.
Yeah, thanks for having me. It's always fun.
Sorry Carter, we missed you. Hope you enjoyed the podcast as

(50:07):
a listener, not a not a content provider this time.
So. Exactly get your get your get
your total Jeremiah love predictions in so let's.
Go. All right, All right.
Thanks, Jordan, as always. Go Irish.