Andy & Ari On3 - Inside the Irish: Can Notre Dame RETURN to the CFP?

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Last year, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish finished their incredible season just short of a national championship. After falling to the Buckeyes in Atlanta this past season, Notre Dame is looking to make a run back to the College Football Playoff. As CJ Carr is expected to enter the helm as QB1, Marcus Freeman and the Irish have a lot to look forward to this season. Watch here as Tyler Horka from Bluenadgold.com joins Andy & Ari to break down everything involving the Fighting Irish. More news on the Fighting Irish here: https://www.on3.com/teams/notre-dame-fighting-irish/ Follow Tyler Horka here: https://x.com/tbhorka (0:00-1:53) Intro: Notre Dame(1:54-8:25) Tyler Horka Joins(8:26-12:40) Expectations of Notre Dame(12:41-19:59) CJ Carr ready to go?(20:00-23:53) Offensive weapons for the Irish(23:54-25:39) Jeremiyah Love, the best RB in CFB?(25:40-31:40) Biggest Change in CFB that has benefitted ND?(31:42-33:43) Conclusion: Notre Dame's Schedule Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://www.youtube.com/@On3sportsInterested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail]  

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. Our week of deep dives continues in this time. It's a team finished last season in the national title game and was into the season expecting to go pretty deep in the playoff. The Notre Dame fighting Irish. You were a believer all last season Ari. I'm a visionary. What can I say? I don't know.

I'm wrong enough when I'm right. I need to lean into it. I nailed that. I nailed that good. The one thing I'll say about Notre Dame going into this season that I think is something that we always need to make sure we go out of our way to represent when we talk about a team in the offseason, when they've made a seismic shift in program stature and program reputation, right? Notre Dame did not win the national title last year. They came close, they did not. But the way that we as a country collectively view Notre Dame, in terms of taking it seriously and giving them the

flowers of a team that actually can compete at that level, I think is a seismic shift in their brand persona that was around three, four, maybe even going into last year. Yeah, it's not the Notre Dame team that would make the 14 playoff and then lose a semi-final and thanks for playing. Like they played against Georgia right off the bat in the Sugar Bowl and beat them. Like it, you know, they beat Indiana, they go to Georgia or they go to New Orleans, they beat Georgia, they beat Penn State.

Like they earned their way into the national title game. And I see no. Let up in terms of talent in terms of roster acquisition. Let's but let's let's get deeper into this version of Notre Dame. From blue and gold on threes Notre Dame site, Tyler Horka joins us. How are you doing Tyler? Good. How are you guys? We're we're very excited about, I'm always excited about a team that can, and I know I've said this a million times on the show, but I, it is a fascinating stat for me. Two offensive linemen who started the national title

game had to transfer because they probably weren't going to start. Like that is, in terms of what you bring back, that's pretty good. Yeah, that's reality. Obviously Pat Coogan going down to Indiana is a interesting dynamic as a part of that because he was really the rallying force of Notre Dame's offensive line last year. Like when it got to a point where you knew that Notre Dame's offensive line

was Joe Moore awards semi-finalist good, you were like, okay, that's because Pat Coogan came in for the injured Ashton Craig at center. And this guy is not only playing super, super well on the field, but he's an emotional leader as well. I think we all, anyone who went to a Notre Dame playoff game down the stretch last season, you saw those fiery speeches that he was giving that are not PG 13.

Like I don't even know if they were R rated, man. They were from a different stratosphere and universe, but you lose that guy because yeah, Ashton Craig is going to be healthy and I think he's gonna be a full participant in fall camp. And then just the way that Notre Dame has recruited the offensive line, you've got some really talented freshmen,

like a guy like Will Black is coming in. You don't even know if he's gonna play. Gerby Lambert's gonna be a sophomore. Does he does he even have a spot on the field right now because you look at what Notre Dame did last year with Anthony Knapp and Emile Wagner at the tackle positions and basically everything that we heard throughout the spring was yeah, we love those guys

there, which was very enlightening and shocking to a lot of us because you thought Charles Jagasaw was going to be one of those. Yeah, I thought Anthony Knapp would get moved to guard and then you know, Jagasaw moves back to tackle, but it sounds like Jagas is going to stay at guard. And I realized we're very going very deep in the offensive line here, but like this stuff matters. Yeah. And look, Marcus Freeman came in three years ago and he said, I don't know much about being a head coach, but I do know you need a really good offensive line. You need to be really good up front

of the ball. And he nail Notre Dame does not get t last year. Ironically, wi guys that you just saw in Coogan and Rocco Spindler Andy, I think Notre Dame be very, very good upfron snap, it's Wagner, Craig,

guys. Billy Shroud is the only other projected starter that we haven't mentioned. You take those five, and I think any team in the country takes those five and says, I like my chances. No matter what system we're running, I like my chances with those five guys. I will say this though, and I don't know if anybody agrees with this, but like Pat Coogan, like you could just look at that guy's face and know that he's like meant to be a Notre Dame guy. I'm kind of sad he's gone. Like he looks like a Notre Dame guy, doesn't he? Physically, like that's a Notre Dame guy right there. He's like Chicago Catholic school kid. Like he's, he's everything. Yeah.

He's, he's Joe Alt. He's Patterson from recent years. He's Josh Lugg. Like you look at him and you see all of those guys. And yeah, he was everything for Notre Dame last year. Like I said, without that guy, and you can say that about so many different, and we're probably gonna get into a lot of it, but so many different guys that stepped up for Notre Dame to get there last year, which is,

it's a little bit worrisome for me because it's like, how many things can go right to get you to the right spot at the end of the season in back to back seasons like you're going to have some things go wrong this year does enough go in response to that to get all the way back to where they were last year. I'm not sure. But on the flip side of that, just like last year, I think you're starting from a really good starting point and you like who you have before all the injuries and before all the decisions that you have to make. So, yeah, Notre Dame is in a really good spot offensive line and on through the rest of the roster as well. Well, I think that's so interesting. You talk about going stuff going wrong. And one of the bigger knocks against Notre Dame in the Brian Kelly era and until last year was they just couldn't build the depth required to compete deeper into the season against these really good teams. But if I had told

you at the beginning of the season, Notre Dame is going to lose Ashton Craig and Charles Jagasaw pretty much right off the bat. Benjamin Morrison is not going to play the whole season and then Riley Mills will get knocked out in the first game of the playoff and they'll still win two more games. Like, would you believe me? No, probably not. But I think you mentioned Benjamin Morrison,

the cornerback position is no better. There's no better example than that of the depth that has been built in the Marcus Freeman era because you go back to the Brian Kelly tenure and your cornerbacks to begin with, I'm not gonna name any names because it would be wrongful of me to do that to those guys. But you saw what happened against Clemson and those really good wide receivers.

You saw what happened against Alabama and those really good wide receivers. Now, Benjamin Morrison goes down. You got somebody who Benjamin Morrison literally said at about the same time last year, it was fall camp, he said Leonard Moore is going to be better than I have been here in my Notre Dame tenure. And everyone couldn't believe that because you're like, Benjamin Morrison, you had six picks as a true freshman,

freshman All-American, like you're gonna be a first or second round NFL draft pick, which he was even coming off of the hip injury. And somehow, yeah, it seems like Leonard Moore comes in and he's just as good. He's a big reason why Penn State had no wide receiver catches in that orange bowl. If not for Leonard Moore getting matched up against Jeremiah Smith in the national championship game and look, Ohio State did an awesome job moving him

around, but like if Notre Dame doesn't have a Leonard Moore in that game, it's it's probably even worse of a final score than it was, and it's more than a 24 point deficit at the worst in that game So he's a dude. I think Christian Grey at his best, you know, he struggles with some consistency and confidence pieces But at his best he's a guy that Notre Dame didn't have during the Brian Kelly era Evers either so Like the depth at the corner position is basically telling of everything else that's going on on this roster too. Cause like you said, Andy, you lose Riley Mills, you lose all these other guys. And there's Notre Dame in Atlanta playing Ohio state for the national championship.

So I like to do this, Andy, and you know this about me. I like to do the broad brush because I know we're going to get deeper in, but from your perspective, people on your board, people who, who read your stuff, true and true Notre Dame fans, where are they at in terms of expectation of this team now? Have they shifted in your point of view? I think they have, and it's a little bit scary because Notre Dame fans, as passionate as they are, they can be a little pessimistic at times too, or just real. They can be realists because a lot of the national narrative, yeah, the true fans, the guys that are there every single Saturday, they feel it too. They knew that Notre Dame hadn't won a big bowl game, a major bowl game, however you want to define it, since 1993. Like it had been three decades, but then you do it against Georgia, as Andy mentioned, in the sugar

bowl. You do it against Penn State In the Orange Bowl and all of a sudden I think these fans are truly believing that Marcus Freeman and this fighting Irish team can do it every single year and the beauty Of the playoff is like more of those games matter now So winning a sugar bowl in a quarterfinal like that that meant something and it mattered But winning a sugar bowl in a four-inal, like that meant something and it mattered, but winning a Sugar Bowl in a four team playoff year when it wasn't a part of the playoff, like I think people, you know, sometimes you can forget about those types of wins, but Notre Dame fans have not forgotten

about that Sugar Bowl. They have not forgotten about that Orange Bowl. And yeah, to answer your question, Ari, I think it's a run it back type of attitude that these fans are taken in the 2025. They feel like the Irish can be there again. And quite honestly, they won it all this time. Because as we mentioned, as great of a season as it was, they didn't win the whole thing. And now I think these Irish fans truly believe that that's the next step. And it's actually an attainable one. I mean, I think they're probably pessimistic to a certain extent because they went 20 years or whatever it was without winning a major bowl game.

So, like, seeing it with your own eyes, I think it's proof that it can be done because I think if a Notre Dame fan was being honest with itself, I'll be honest with myself. I would wonder if Notre Dame's limitations as a university in terms of, you know, their admissions and their culture made it impossible for them to compete at the highest level. And it looks like the sport, they've gotten better, no question, but the sport has also become more manageable too. And the hope for Notre Dame is the next time they get into that position,

which could be as soon as this year, they don't have to play in Ohio State team. I don't know that that team is going to exist anymore. Notre Dame has always been in that unique position where it knows it can be good every single year. You're still going to get good enough recruits just on brand name alone and who you've been for 100 years. But like you said, in the last couple of decades, there's been some limitations there where the Ohio states are able to keep their distancing

themselves from the field more than a Notre Dame has. Now Marcus Freeman is maybe leveling the playing field more than ever. Maybe the house settlement could help in that regard too with like who knows what that looks like but NIL might not be what it was in 2021 or 2022 where in those seasons Notre Dame still had a thing where it's like okay we can't outbid these boosters for some of these players at SEC schools and Big 10 schools are getting. Now, like the recruiting, I think we all know with Marcus Freeman is top notch. And whatever happens in terms of the way this landscape shakes out. And part of that is the playoff. Right.

Like, and that's been beneficial to Notre Dame. And it's helped that Notre Dame has had athletic directors in the rooms making these decisions that Notre Dame has said hey yeah we like the way that this is written up it actually helps us out so we're gonna go with it pretty much every single time that anything has come out with the playoff Notre Dame's been completely fine with it and we just saw a Notre Dame run in a playoff where they get all the way to the very last game so with all these things kind of shaking in Notre Dame's favor and with that guy, Marcus Freeman, leading the way,

I think you can shift from maybe more of a pessimistic to an optimistic view. Maybe Notre Dame is finally turning a corner that in 2005 it definitely was not. And maybe even 2015 in the middle of the Brian Kelly era, it still was not because you still felt like Notre Dame was lagging behind a little bit Biggest question mark going to the offseason was quarterback now

We know one thing it is not going to be a one-year rental after Sam Hartman and Riley Leonard the past two years It's going to be somebody who's been on Notre Dame's roster. So We're all assuming CJ Carr Nationally, are we wrong there or does Kenny Minchie have a shot at this thing? There's more nuance to it than we thought, obviously, because a lot of us didn't think that Kenny Minchie would be here right now.

Quite frankly, I don't even know if I did. And I was one of the higher guys on the beat on Kenny Minchie. I saw his game and I said, that could work. That could work at Notre Dame and that could work somewhere else. The fact that he's still here, I think says a lot about him and you need to kind of quell those worries like, hey, is he just the complete outcast in this? I don't wanna say Steve Angelli was, but

obviously Steve Angelli was not the answer either. But I say all that and I still go back to CJ Carr and I say, it just feels like the right time to start a sophomore who just sat through a 16 game season. He saw what that looked like from Riley Leonard in terms of being the starter from the start to finish. Has he started a game in his college career? No.

But at some point, you have to start that first one, right? And yeah, maybe it would be a little bit nicer if it was against some directional school at home, Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, easy victory. But we've seen Notre Dame lose those games too. And like the same Riley Leonard who went down to Texas A&M College Station in that rowdy environment last year is the one that lost the very next week. So against Northern Illinois at home, anything can happen. Anything can happen with CJ Carr as well. I don't think you have to protect him in any sort of way

just because he's a true sophomore redshirt freshman. I think you throw him out there against Miami and you say, hey, this is our guy, not just right now, but probably in the future as well. And you see what you got. And if you don't got something that you like in a couple of quarters or that entire game, maybe you do start Kenny Minchi at some point, but either way, I think Notre Dame, like you said, Andy is in a spot where you've got a homegrown guy in either one of them. And, you know, that's a pretty cool thing for Notre Dame because three of the last four years you haven't had that you've gone to the transfer portal. Now they're

going to start one of their own. Sometimes I wonder if having a homegrown quarterback is a sign of program growth. And sometimes I wonder if I'm just full of crap. Like, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, if you nail a one year rental from the transfer portal, that's a good, that's a sign of good program growth. Ohio State last year. Ohio State last year.

I was literally just about to say it. Everyone was like, oh my gosh, they're going to go with Will Howard. Yeah, who's laughing now? They win the national championship. And quite frankly, Notre Dame is an example of it too. Riley Leonard got Notre Dame to the national championship game.

Would a true freshman CJ Carr have done that? Would Stephen Jelley have done that as a junior? I'm not sure. But to answer your question Ari, I think a homegrown guy who is clearly the guy, that's a sign of of program positivity and a sign of a program that's in a good spot. Because if you miss on CJ Carr swinging a miss and you whiff on Kenny Minchie, then all of a program that's in a good spot. Because if you miss on CJ Carr, swing and a miss, and you whiff on Kenny Minchi, then all of a sudden you're like, okay, how good are we at this actually? Like, where is our program? Because neither of these guys are going to get us to where we want to go. Yeah, and I think that's the part, it seemed like the confidence of CJ Carr. Like,

I go back to when Deuce Night decommitted and started looking around again. That seemed to be the signal to me that Oh, Notre Dame thinks they know who they have for the next couple of years. Yeah. And if you read between some of the lines and the interviews that Marcus Freeman has done, that there was one, I can't remember if it was a national thing or who he said it to, or maybe even said it to us in a press conference on the beat. But there was a point where CJ Carr was not very far into being on campus and being on this Notre Dame roster. And all of a sudden, Marcus Freeman starts saying stuff like, yeah, we've got the quarterback of the future on our roster.

He could have said that at any point when Steve Angelli was here for three years and Kenny Minchi was here for a whole year longer than CJ Carr as well. But then Marcus Freeman goes, yeah, we got the guy. He didn't say it was CJ Carr. But again, read between the lines. It's pretty easy to tell that as soon as that guy stepped on campus, there was a little bit of a seminal shift, if you will, where you're like, okay, yeah, like Deuce Knight, that sucked. You thought you were going to get a top-five quarterback in the country, but you still got this guy, CJ Carr, who's

going to be a redshirt freshman. He's probably going to be your starting quarterback and be a really good one. How much practice do you guys get to watch? It varies based on the spring or the fall. For example, we'll go into this fall, and we'll be crossing our fingers and hoping that the schedule says 10 practices.

Because I remember the days. I think the spring was six or something. But in every single big schedule, so the spring or the fall, we will see one full entire practice. And it's usually pretty late in the game. And that's when we're taking all of our notes and we're really getting a good glimpse of who you got to see that in the spring. Yep.

Did CJ Carr do anything that made you go like this, like Kevin McAllister? I don't know if it was that, but like in a bad way, like, oh my gosh. No, no, in a good way. Like, oh wow, he has it. You know, I feel like the open practices, like when I was a beat writer, like we're like stretching. Like we never really got to see for the most part. There were times where I remember seeing players do things

in practice that made you think, wow, I think that this guy has it. Like I didn't know if you had a moment like that with either of them. I'm glad you kind of filibustered there because it brought me to something. The open practice that we had in the spring, the very last throw of the game, so a lot of it was the defense one, and I don't think you guys would be shocked to hear that Notre Dame's got a really good defense. Whoa breaking news. But the very last play of the scrimmage it was a full-on blitz. So Krish Ash is doing his best Al Golden right and sending everybody. I want to say it was like jailbreak seven or eight guys. Man on the outside. CJ Carr obviously

recognized that, diagnosed it and and just threw up a, you remember that throw that Quinn Ures had against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, I think it was the 2023 season, where he dropped it in a bucket to Xavier Worthy in the back of the end zone, and Matthew McConaughey was standing right there, I think he might have been on the cast at the time, and he was like, oh my gosh, I'd never seen a ball come down like that. CJ Carr did that to Elijah Burris, who is Paxico Burris' son.

He's a true freshman wide receiver at Notre Dame. And it just fell right into the bucket. And Burris to his credit beat his man, but you couldn't have placed the ball any better. And yeah, Ari, I was looking around at people like, nobody else threw a ball like that all day. and I'm not sure for the rest of this year Anyone that wears a Notre Dame uniform is gonna throw a ball like that if his name isn't CJ Carr So yeah, he's got a little bit of an it factor there and we saw it on that play

Well, let's talk about the guys he throws to you just mentioned Burris, but you know, Jayden Greathouse Definitely during that comeback in the national title game. I think Jayden Greathouse was was the one that everybody's like, oh, wow. OK, this this could be different. And then you've also got Jordan Faison, who, you know, double double sport guy lacrosse superstar to and then will Pauling the transfer from Wisconsin, I think is really interesting because I feel like he was Wisconsin's most reliable guy when he was healthy. because I feel like he was Wisconsin's most reliable guy when he was healthy. Yeah, so Great House will start there. Everyone thinks he can be a wide receiver one. And if you watch the Orange Bowl or the national championship game, you saw a wide receiver one. He was the best wide receiver in a game with Jeremiah Smith. That doesn't happen very often. I'm just talking about what we saw that night. Yeah. And I know Jeremiah Smith ends up winning the game as well and that's probably the best play of the game but like Jayden

Greathouse was on that level and we have to remember that this is one of the best Texas high school wide receivers of all time like he played his ball right outside of Austin. So, you know, the Longhorns would have loved to get this guy. Anybody in the SEC would have loved to get this guy. Notre Dame got him and I don't want to say he's been a project but like you look at his statistics in the first couple of seasons and you're like,

is this all he's gonna be? It's funny, I'm doing a feature on him for our blue and gold preview magazine. And I actually talked to his mom and his mom told me like, she asked her husband, is he just like not good at the college level? Is everything that we saw in high school, not what like I thought that was going to translate.

It finally did in those last two games, 13 catches, 233 yards, three touchdowns. Is he going to have that every single two week stretch of his junior season? No, but I think he's going to have more games like that. And he didn't have any games like that in his first two seasons. It's an explosiveness and a can take the top off the defense or create a huge play out of a small play that I feel like Notre Dame has had a hard time with the last five years, no? Yeah and Greathouse at his best is going to give you that like he literally put a Penn State defender on his fanny just sitting on the field there at Hard Rock Stadium.

You don't see that too often between teams of this stature, if you will, Notre Dame and Penn State. So he can give you that. Jordan Faison literally got injured in the first game of the year at Texas A&M, rolled his ankle, was never the same the rest of the year. If you looked at him, he was wearing heavy, heavy tape on his ankle every single week, even sat out a few games never got right. We talked to Mike Denbrock for our preview magazine recently as well, one on one with blue and gold. And he said, a

healthy phase on is going to be a problem for a lot of defenses. So you've got two guys right there who I think are they're both true juniors. They're both going to be taking that next step in their career. And I think you're going to see the best of them that you've ever seen. But then the interesting part of that is that next step in their career. And I think you're going to see the best of them that you've ever seen. But then the interesting part of that is you got two dudes right there, and then you bring in Will Pauling and Malachi Fields. I don't think like Notre Dame's been trying to get this wide receiver transfer thing right for years now.

It just hasn't happened. You look at Chris Mitchell last year, Bo Collins. And Collins gave you some things here and there. But if Malachi Fields is the same guy that he was at Virginia, just catching passes over the backs of dudes, like over the helmets, like the best you just got most type of stuff that you see every single week. He was doing that at Virginia. If he does that at Notre Dame, that's something that they haven't had. And then Will Pauling is just like the depth that you've never had at the wide receiver position because he he's gonna play the same spot

as Jaden Greathouse a lot of times. But if you take out Jaden Greathouse and you put in Will Pauling and he's the same guy that he was at Wisconsin, that's a swap that you never had at Notre Dame. Like Notre Dame was just relying on its starters and its starters weren't very good for years and years. Now you have depth at the position.

Now you have versatile playmakers from six, four fields to five ten phase on and I Think you finally have like a national championship caliber wide receiver unit Which you didn't even have last year playing in the national championship game. And by the way, we haven't mentioned Maybe the best offensive player roster Jeremiah love so who did not have the best national championship game, but Was pretty damn good the rest of the time. Yeah, and he was pretty dang injured in the national championship game You got to remember that

Got hurt against USC in the regular season finale Never was the same the rest of the year Like I don't know if he had more than nine carries in any single game in the playoff and he still scored that fantastic miraculous touchdown against Penn State, which there's not many guys who can have a 98 yard touchdown in the playoff and that not be their best touchdown of the playoff because that two yarder against Penn State. The two yarder was way better. I was there for that.

It's like Abdul Carter just whiffed on this guy. That's when you know you're something special. So yeah, that guy right there is one of the most talented players in college football. And he's not going to get the Heisman buzz because of the reason that I just mentioned, even when he is healthy, he's not getting 20 carries, 30 carries like an Ashton Jinty did last year. But boy, does he make the most of his carries and he's electrifying and I think that actually kind of helps him like Notre Dame is on to something where hey let's just give this guy the ball 15 to 20 times in a game, rushes and catches

included and he's probably gonna do something really really cool with those 15 to 20 touches no matter how they come or when they come because like he jumps over guys too. Like that's a really cool thing he does too. He doesn't just run away from them or run through them. He literally jumps over them. The hurdle at USC was fantastic. So yeah that's that's a centerpiece and that's a guy that's got to stay healthy because there's not a whole lot of people like him in college football. The thing that I want to get to and I don't know if we can quantify it as we're nearing the end of this, Andy, you help me. Tyler, you're the guy. What do you think is the biggest systematic change in college football that has benefited Notre Dame the most?

That's a tough question. But do you think it's the expansion of the playoff? Do you think it's an IL? Do you think it's the transfer portal? Like what was limiting Notre Dame in 2017 that is freeing them up to then to the next level from like a roster construction standpoint? You're mine. Yeah, I'll go through it quickly. It's definitely not the transfer portal because as selective as Notre Dame is and like efficient with it, you're still only bringing in five to eight guys. Like I think they brought in eight this year or last year and that was the most that they've ever brought in. Whereas you can completely overhaul a roster at a place like Indiana and get yourself to the playoff, right? So it's not the transfer portal because the admissions thing is just killing Notre Dame on that front still.

Like Riley Leonard was three years at Duke, right? He didn't get all of his classes to transfer to Notre Dame on that front still. Like, Riley Leonard was three years at Duke, right? He didn't get all of his classes to transfer to Notre Dame. Like there were things that he took at Duke that didn't count at Notre Dame and he had to start from ground zero in some points. That was kind of crazy and shocking to me. So it's not the transfer portal. NIL, I think, is a bigger plus for Notre Dame than people make it out to be. Like people make it out to be. People make it out to be a negative.

But Jeremiah Love bought his mom a Porsche, and he was kind of public with that. He's like, yeah, I was able to do that because of NIL. So Marcus Freeman always says, if you're good enough at football, you're going to get paid at Notre Dame. You're going to be fine here. But I go back to something I mentioned earlier in the show. And it's the playoff, man,

because like Notre Dame was able to enjoy that awesome ride because it played games that, you know, it can win up to the point of playing Ohio State in the national championship game. And again, I said earlier, those are games that Notre Dame did not win for years and years and years. But like when all things are going right and you got a Notre Dame team with Marcus Freeman at the helm that's recruiting at a really good rate and recruiting has been by and large the same.

I know NIL has changed it a lot in that way. But like Notre Dame is still kind of recruiting the same now as it did 10, 15 years ago. It's just got a better guy who's leading that operation and you're seeing that on the field. But with the playoff, you hosted Indiana and you won by 10 points. You were up by like 20 points in that game. You got the confidence from that and you went down to the Sugar Bowl and beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and you beat Penn State in the Orange Bowl. So expansion of the playoff and Notre Dame's access to it, that's the buzzword that they like to use in South Bend. Like the playoff is totally accessible. It's accessible now more than ever

with Notre Dame being able to get a top four seed and a first round bye. I think they really liked the home game and they wouldn't be the maddest people in the world if you saw another game in South Bend in late December, but with this playoff, I think a lot of people hopped on the Notre Dame bandwagon and it was an excellent thing for Notre Dame.

Like you felt the palpable energy as they went through that bracket. And I'll close that by saying, in the BCS era, you got matched up against Alabama, you knew you were gonna lose to Alabama. And that was that. Clemson, you knew you were gonna lose to Clemson. And that was that. Clemson, you knew you were going to lose to Clemson. And that was that.

This was different. And I think the expansion of the playoff is great for Notre Dame and a lot of other people too. Yeah, I also think too that Andy, and we've talked about this, but I think that the transfer portal might not be their number one source of talent, but it makes other teams not as good,

which makes it easier. Yeah, it weakens Georgia. It weakens. Because George is an example of a roster that Notre Dame in 2018 probably would have struggled to compete with that kind of roster. But I want to ask you this, Tyler. How much of that is also just Marcus Freeman versus Brian

Kelly as a recruiter? Yeah, again, like I don't think the recruiting has, it's changed tremendously for Notre Dame, but that's because of Marcus Freeman. Like if Brian Kelly was doing the things that Marcus Freeman was doing, shoot man, maybe they would have had a chance against that Clemson team.

I don't know about that Alabama team, probably nobody's beaten them, but maybe you make the playoff more often during the Kelly tenure as well if you're recruiting at that rate. It's kind of crazy that he was here for 12 years and never really figured out the recruiting piece because Marcus Freeman's been here for three, four, if you include 2021 as a defensive coordinator. And even in that 2021 year, like Brian Kelly was still the head coach and Marcus Freeman was his defensive coordinator.

And all anyone wanted to talk about was the recruiting shift. And like that coincided perfectly with Marcus Freeman arriving on campus. So the recruiting absolutely has been monumental, but I do like Ari shouting out the transfer portal because yeah, like I don't think Notre Dame beats the Georgia's of old like the ones that were winning the the national titles. Yeah, 2022 Georgia. Yeah, what is that game handily? But that's right. And why is 2024 Georgia worse than that Georgia because they you know, they lost a lot of players and There were more places for players that they were trying to get to go to like they missed out on a lot of players Via the portal as well. So yeah, the transfer portal is a good show It's it's fascinating to watch because I I think Ari's right about it. It's like Notre Dame is is probably the biggest

Example of how the systemic shifts in the in the sport can change the programs for Yeah of how the systemic shifts in the sport can change a program's fortune. But the part that makes it hard for me, and that's why I asked you that question, is that all happened at the same time Notre Dame changed coaches. So at the same time, one coach left. So it becomes a chicken and egg argument but now we know let me call it the schedule because you we did a whole show on Notre Dame and USC and whether that series should continue we know they're on the schedule this year whether that continues or not we'll see but Miami and Texas A&M to open Boise State comes to South Bend and then it gets pretty manageable. Does that schedule not scream to you,

just get through those first two and you're home free. Like I get it Boise State playoff team last year, but you get them at home. And like with the Texas A&M game, you get a bi-week. Like you don't think there were people here in South Bend trying to pull some strings saying hey yeah, we'll go play Sunday of Labor Day weekend, but could you give us the following Saturday off before we host these Aggies who want to exact some revenge on us? So I think Notre Dame can win both of those games

I wouldn't be shocked if they lost one but even if you do The next ten are winnable. And we saw a Notre Dame team last year that won 13 games in a row. Is this schedule as easy? Maybe, like you never really know with some of these teams. Like USC is the ultimate wild card that you never really know with.

But I like this schedule for Notre Dame. I think it sets up to where, like I said, get through the first two and you're feeling really good about yourself. If you win those first two games, there's not another game on the schedule that you're saying, yeah, I'm worried that we're going to lose this one because you just proved to yourself that you'd be probably the two best opponents on your schedule and they happened in the first two games. Also, you can lose to Northern Illinois and make

the playoff. Although everybody on this schedule is tougher, tougher than that. So we shall see but Tyler. This was awesome. Thank you so much and Very very excited to see the fighting Irish this year. Thank you Yeah, thank you guys. You put that schedule on there and Already Happy Labor Day weekend cannot wait