Andy & Ari On3 - Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola looks ready to SHINE | Is this the deepest Notre Dame team in years?

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

The hype train for Nebraska freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola is leaving the station, and Andy climbs aboard with Sean Callahan of On3’s Husker Online. Raiola’s spring game performance got the Nebraska fanbase pumped for the future. So what happens next? How does coach Matt Rhule handle the quarterback situation going into preseason camp? And who will help Raiola on offense when fall arrives?(0:00-4:29) Intro(4:30-13:49) Leaders Discussing Settlement of Antitrust Case(13:50-35:14) Sean Callahan from Husker Online Joins(35:15-40:28) Spring Transfer Portal(40:29-1:03:53) Tyler Horka from Blue and Gold joins(1:03:54-1:06:50) Conclusion - Draft Ultimate Teams tomorrowBefore that, Andy breaks down the news that the NCAA and major conferences have engaged in settlement talks in the House v. NCAA case. Why does this matter? Because any settlement likely involves the schools promising revenue sharing with the athletes going forward. That would change how the players are compensated, and it likely would lead to collective bargaining.Speaking of which, there was news on that front Monday out of Trent Dilfer’s UAB program.Also, a few more players jumped in the transfer portal ahead of its closing on Tuesday. Alabama freshman safety Peyton Woodyard entered on Monday night. Oregon is the favorite to land him. Nebraska edge rusher Chief Borders also has entered the portal. So has former Washington QB Sam Huard, who spent 2023 at Cal Poly. Offensive lineman Andrew Dennis, the highest ranked signee in Illinois’ 2024 class, also entered the portal.Next, Tyler Horka of On3’s Blue and Gold joins to discuss Notre Dame coming out of spring practice. The Fighting Irish got a good look at their quarterback room with presumed starter Riley Leonard recovering from ankle surgery, and the depth — and lack of QBs jumping in the portal — should inspire confidence. So should the performance of the receivers in the spring game. Notre Dame didn’t have anywhere near its full group, but the way the available players performed suggests that the passing game should be much more dynamic than it was last season.Want to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE on YouTube, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/iEzOKN7GSHs

Welcome to Andy Staples on three and it's a hype train edition. That's right. We are going to climb aboard. Although climbing aboard is probably, this is, this is one of those, you know, the old movies where the train is going by and the guy just jumps into the box car. That's what we're doing on the Dylan Raiola hype train because it is definitely left the station. Probably left the station when he signed with Nebraska. But when he played that spring game on Saturday,

it got people very, very excited. So we're going to talk to Sean Callahan of Huster Online about Raiola's performance, what it meant, what's around him, also what it means for the rest of Nebraska's quarterback room. Nebraska is in a good spot right now. They're feeling pretty good. And I realize Nebraska gets a lot of sunshine pumped in the off season. And I'll let you guys in on the secret. Nebraska people love to talk about Nebraska football. I know that sounds shocking that people who've sold out

their stadium a billion years in a row love to talk about Nebraska football, but they tend to reach for good news in the offseason. I don't feel like they're reaching right now. I don't. The defense is very good. The schedule is advantageous. As draws go, because remember remember big 10 schedules look completely different this year. Some teams cough, cough, Michigan, cough, cough, got really tough draws. Some teams cough, cough, Nebraska, cough, cough did not. So Nebraska is in a great spot. So you're saying, I know what you're saying, Andy. It's April. It's almost May. You're just pumping sunshine here.

That's all you're doing. Yes, a little bit, but not entirely. This is justified sunshine. You notice there are some teams that we have not necessarily reached to find the positive for yet. Because it might not be very positive once the season starts and I don't want to get everybody's hopes up and then it's just boom comes crashing down and Nebraska fans understand that because that's happened to them over and over and over again the past few years but I do think they have legitimate reason to hope and And I'll be honest, I was surprised at how good Dylan Raiola looked. I knew how big he was.

I knew what his arm looked like. I'd seen videos of him throwing the ball before. But the level of comfort in the offense, that's not something you can fake. It was very interesting. Later in the show, a little more on the hype train, but this time for Notre Dame. And this is a little more subdued hype. This Notre Dame has massive expectations going into this season. We look at their schedule. We say, okay, this team, 10 and 2 is like the floor for this team. This team needs to go 11-1. This team needs to make the playoff.

But Marcus Freeman's third Notre Dame team, probably his deepest and probably the deepest Notre Dame team in a while. And the fact that Riley Leonard, their quarterback that they got from Duke, was injured at the end of spring practice and recovering from ankle surgery, really to repair the injury he suffered against Notre Dame last year while playing for Duke. It got them a chance to look at some of their young quarterbacks and I tell you what, they look pretty deep there. Their receiving core, such as it was for the spring game, looks good and you know they're getting more help back because one of their guys that they're expecting stuff from is Bo Collins, the transfer from Clemson, who is still finishing classes at Clemson.

So he wasn't playing this spring. And then another one of their receivers who should be a big contributor in the fall is playing on Notre Dame's lacrosse team. So we'll talk to Tyler Horker from Blue and Gold about that. Again, it's not a case of blasting sunshine at you just because it's the spring. In this particular case, it feels justified. It feels like Notre Dame should be very excited about what they saw this spring. So we're going to talk about all that very shortly. First, a very interesting piece of news that came down on Monday. Pete Dammel and Dan Murphy of ESPN reporting that NCAA leaders, conference leaders have met with the plaintiff's attorneys in the House versus the NCAA case and are talking about a settlement. They've engaged in settlement talks. Now we've told you about this case multiple times on the show, going back

really since the show began, because the case has been going on since before I started working here. And this is the one that will create the biggest set of changes. So what this lawsuit is about is former college athletes suing the NCAA and the conferences for back pay, essentially, that they should have been getting NIL pay for all those years that the schools colluded to not allow them to get NIL pay. And the schools, the NCAA, the conferences, they know they're going to lose the case. They do not want this thing to go to court. It's scheduled for trial in January. So right now they are talking settlement. We knew they were going to settle, but they had not yet engaged. Now they have engaged in settlement talks. And what does that mean? Well, it means that

what you've got is a potential multi-billion dollar settlement because if they lost the case, it would just be an astronomical figure, trouble damages in an antitrust suit. Like they have to settle this case. Part of the way they plan to settle it, at least we've been told, is that they will promise revenue sharing with the athletes in the future. And that's going to change a few things. It's probably going to bring the compensation of the athletes in-house for the schools. Instead of this NIL system where it's separate, there's a collective, you're hitting up donors, double, like the collective hits up the donors, and then the athletic department hits up the donors. For all practical purposes, that comes in-house. It's going to have to. And you see things like

the Virginia state law that just passed that allows that to happen. Other states are going to pass similar laws. It's going to make it more streamlined for them to do that, which makes more sense. It's kind of stupid. No, it's not kind of stupid. It's really stupid the way they do it now. They were trying to come up with something where they didn't have to pay them directly through the schools and it just didn't work. It's not sustainable. So they're going to have to come up with something for that. There's going to have to be a framework built around that. And Dan and Pete's story said that the number they're going to hit is probably $20 million at the higher levels of

college football, the schools that, you know, big 10 SEC type schools. There's not, I don't know that you can put a minimum cap number on it without also essentially creating a super league, but that's the other part of this. If there's going to be a super league and there's probably going to be some more consolidation and more changes. And this, this gets back to what we're talking about yesterday with the group of five and whether they would do their own playoff or essentially form their own subdivision. This may force that there may be no other choice. And you know, I've always been saying that the people in charge of college sports, they have an idea that this is where it's headed, but they don't actually know what's going to happen. Now they're going to start getting a little better idea of what's going to happen as they hammer this thing out.

And remember, the plaintiff's attorneys still have a massive advantage because they know they're going to win if this thing goes to trial. So they're going to ask for a lot of stuff. Now, the schools would prefer that even if they share revenue, that they just get to still make all the rules and impose them on people. That's not going to happen either. They're not going to get any sort of antitrust exemption from Congress. They're going to have to collectively bargain with the athletes. They've got to figure out how that works too, whether that's part of the settlement or not, or just a result of whatever happens in the settlement that's coming to, which brings us to another piece of news from Friday, or excuse me, from Monday, the entire UAB football team signed up with a company called athletes.org. Essentially,

there's a bunch of groups that are trying to figure out if they can get in on representing college athletes in any sort of coming collective bargaining. Never doubt the power of college sports to pay the middlemen. There's a bunch of middlemen that are trying to figure this. Honestly, they've been trying to figure this out for like 10 years. There have been groups circling around this for about 10 years. But this particular group, Athletes.org, signed up the UAB football team on Monday. Trent Dilfer, the coach, obviously former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer, said that he feels like this is something that's coming anyway. So he wants his players educated

on it. And he wants to, I believe the quote to ESPN was pour gasoline on something that's going to happen anyway. So all of this is happening at once. And what it means long-term is there's going to be kind of a dollar amount set. Probably if you want to participate at the highest level of college sports, particularly college football, you've got to be able to pay for this. You've got to be able to afford this. Anybody else is going to be in a different division or a different subdivision. That's what will actually happen. When will it actually happen?

Probably sooner than we think. Because again, this case is scheduled to go to trial in January. They have to settle it. They cannot afford to lose it. It would cost an enormous amount of money. Zach in the chat, there doesn't have to be a Super League. There doesn't have to be, but there probably will be. But it might be the top four conferences. You know, the Big 12 and the ACC might say, hey, look, we can afford it because they can't. Like they can afford probably the numbers we're going to be talking about. They're just going to have to deal with the gap between themselves and the Big Ten and the SEC. So we'll have to wait and see

what they come up with. We've seen a few things. We saw that one concept that the group that was back by private equity that had the number two in the NFL and had the 76ers owner, they talked about this stuff. It was an attempt to keep everybody together, to keep the FBS together. Noble attempt, but probably not something that's going to work. The SEC and the Big Ten didn't work to create this revenue gap to just give it all back or to share it equally with those conferences. So we'll see what happens going forward. But that's where they're at right now. They're engaged in discussions. And it's going to cost, even with the future giving of revenue sharing, of potential collected

bargaining, even with that out there, it's still going to cost a lot of money because the courts have been very clear on this since the Alston ruling that the schools were colluding. They were operating a horizontal price fixing scheme and it was illegal. So everybody's trying to get paid right now. But the current system will be in place at least for this year, maybe for next year. We'll see, but at least for this year. And so everybody's got to learn to deal with it. One of the coaches that's had to learn to deal with it is Matt rule at Nebraska, who came back from the NFL to a world that looked completely different from the one he left when he left Baylor to go coach the Carolina Panthers.

And he's dealing with all this stuff. We talked to Sean Callahan from Husker Online about Dylan Raiola, about the weapons around him. One thing in this interview, because we had to record earlier, Sean mentions the transfer portal and what Nebraska has or hasn't lost. At that point, point and lost anything. One note, chief borders, edge rusher has entered the transfer portal from Nebraska. He was probably going to be a backup at defensive end, but he'd had a really good spring. So it looks like he's probably looking for a place to go start. So that's the update to this, but everything else very current, including the excitement about Dylan Raiola, which is palpable in Lincoln, outside Lincoln. Heck, Matt Rule was up on stage with Zach Bryan in Omaha on Monday night, probably got the biggest cheer. And that's probably because he's the one

who signed Dylan Raiola and brought this new hope to nebraska let's talk to sean we welcome sean callahan of husker online and sean i i can't even do it like i i want to poke holes in the dylan raiola thing i can't he looked really good in the spring game he looked awesome i get why nebraska fans are so excited yeah you compare that to like arch manning's spring game debut a year ago i mean i've been around a long time here and i can't recall ever an incoming guy especially with the hype that he had not only live up to it but exceeded in a lot of respects. I mean, he started the game 15 of 21 for 239 with two touchdowns. He had a pick that went off the jersey of a receiver and it bounced in the air.

So you really can't pin that on him. But everything about it, the way he managed it, his comfort level at the line of scrimmage, his touch on the deep ball, his ability to throw the ball in the tight windows. I mean, there's a lot to be optimistic going forward with Dylan Raiola running this Husker offense. My favorite is where I think was the first touchdown throw where they're into the corner of the end zone, leads the receiver perfectly, but puts it right where he can catch it

with his feet inbounds. And it was because that's what I was wondering is is this is a younger guy he's been to a bunch of high schools is he going to look like he needs to be in an offense for a while to to really grasp it and he looked incredibly comfortable I think that's the the word you used is exactly right yeah and he's got different arm slot angles I mean there are some in the backfield where he I mean he trains with mahomes is a quarterback coach down in kansas city sometimes and he said he's going to work out with mahomes a little bit in the month of may if he can when he's down there and he's got those different arm slots and angles and he has a baseball background people don't

realize that dylan raiola probably was a division I baseball player, too, if he wanted to be. I mean, he was a really good catcher down in Texas. Then when they moved to Arizona, he stopped playing. But that baseball background, you could see it just with some of the way he has that arm angle and the different slots that he can throw a football. And, I mean, the deep ball that he threw to Jalen Lloyd, it hardly looked like he put any effort into that throw. He just kind of flicked his wrist and was down the field field 50 yards now we're really going to turn up the hype machine sean do you you know which quarterback was was a catcher growing up right um matthew stafford tom brady oh tom brady oh was matthew yeah matthew stafford was a catcher too though

for clayton kershaw there you go that was a heck of a team but but yeah no brord was a catcher too though for clayton kershaw there you go that was a heck of a team but but yeah no brady was a catcher too that it's interesting because that is what it's probably the most cerebral position in baseball but it also requires some of the the strangest physical skill set that of any in in sports and i i'm so it's weird that we just, both of us just rattled off quarterbacks who are catchers. Yeah. I went, I thought the Stafford Kershaw one was the all-time. I didn't realize, I didn't realize Brady was that good of a catcher too. So you're right. That baseball background, Mahomes, his father, he was a great baseball player.

But Dylan his maturity level is what really jumps out at me. I just think when you normally see a freshman come into college, a high school kid, really, they're just, as Bo Pelini would always say, they're swimming in it. They just, you know, they don't even know how to get around campus, let alone run a Division I major offense. And here's Dylan Raiola acting like he's been here for years, and all the pressure, all the spotlight on him, and he still did not look pressed or under kind of high-stress situations. Granted, he had a green jersey on. There was no contact for the

quarterback and really no major pass rush. They kept a lot of their top defensive players out of the spring game, like Ty Robinson and Nash Hutbacher, Isaac Gifford. But it wasn't, I mean, he was still making throws. I mean, it wasn't like they were just letting him throw the ball. Well, I said this on the show yesterday. You know, if Nebraska had had all of its number one defense in and Matt Rule had said to Tony White, hey, flip the switch, shut this down. They probably could have, but Matt Rule's not stupid. He knows what's going to get four months of positive buzz,

and it's Dylan Raiola and also Heiner Karberg and Daniel Kalen looking pretty good. Yeah, and I think the genius of Matt Rule's spring plan, he took his basically eight or ten top players and you know the guys that have logged a lot of snaps over a thousand snaps he said in their careers and he didn't play them in any of the three major scrimmages so what does that do it kind of slots up number two guys to the ones it takes three guys to the twos who are you most worried about going into the transfer portal guys that are twos and threes a lot of times. Sometimes ones will go in, but by feeding those guys with additional reps with the ones and the twos,

giving them more looks, those players were more engaged, in my opinion, throughout the spring, got more opportunities to develop and possibly break through. And you know those eight or ten guys that didn't play, they're going to be the key players on this defense. And even Jamal Banks, the Wake Forest transfer, he didn't play they're going to be the key players on this defense and even jamal banks the wake forest transfer he didn't play really in the spring game so uh i i like the idea of matt rule because you've got to be worried about the transfer portal um losing some of these guys if

you don't give them the playing time they want in the spring well and that's the thing every coach has to figure out a strategy for this because this is new to everyone. And Matt Rule, interestingly enough, was not working in college when all these rules changed. He was in the NFL. He comes back to a completely different world, but I kind of think he got a chance to look at it with fresh eyes more than anything else. And it's more of an NFL philosophy of, you know, you don't have to give the veterans that many reps because they have tons of reps, and you kind of do want to see what you have toward the bottom of the roster to figure out what you need.

But also, in this day and age, those twos sometimes have to be ones in October and November. You better know what you have. And you're bringing in so many more younger players too. I mean,aska had 23 early enrollees and transfers on the spring roster that's the most i've ever had in the history of the program so you had a lot of young faces and look jacory barney a freshman wide receiver out of miami had an outstanding spring game and he nearly ran a kickoff back the funny story about

that andy is he had an easy touchdown he thought the kicker was one of his teammates oh no he ran at the kicker almost to kind of celebrate with him and instead the kicker tackled him because you know the jerk the different jersey colors and whatnot but he had an easy touchdown um if he wanted to and you know those were the kind of guys that emerged over the spring uh that we didn't see. Now, they had two major injuries, Demetrius Bell, a wide receiver, who was probably a top six rotational receiver. That was fairly significant, and he was carted off,

does not look good for him. Their other was Bly Hill, a transfer corner, the son of Leroy Hill, former Clemson ACC Player of the Year, played 10 years for the Carolina Panthers. Bly Hill was slotted to potentially be a starting corner. He too went down with a knee injury, and we don't know really the outlook on Bly, but it didn't look good either. And Matt Rule said that after the spring game was over. Well, and that's depth will get tested even now. So what you mentioned the receiver position, which the passing game essentially fell

apart last year that you know, the idea was that Jeff Sims was going to come in and and he would be that guy, you know, an NFL prospect with big arm and all that stuff, but couldn't stop turning the ball over. And then all of a sudden, Nebraska was effectively a they weren't an option team again but they were pretty ground-based now it feels like they they can do more because they're going to be deeper at receiver and then they have the QBs and give them the ball yeah they had so many injuries on the offense I mean their top two running backs went out with injury and then Jeff Sims we know

his problems were well documented and And the receivers, they lost a couple of their top guys there. So they had a significant amount of injuries at receiver and running back. And then the quarterback play was a complete bust on top of that. The offensive line through all things actually was improved. That was maybe the most disappointing thing. But Matt ruled us how to kind of create a survival offense create an offense that gives us a chance to be in every game and pull some out in the end and he gets nebraska at a five and three heading into november you're like all right he's gonna get him to a bowl and you know he's just trying to figure it out with what he has and then they went oh and four november that was probably the most disappointing part is all they had to do was beat a bad Michigan State team in East Lansing, win an overtime

at Wisconsin, close it out at home against Iowa where Chubba Purdy was driving to win the game, throws a pick. I mean, they had so many close calls in that final month. Even the Maryland game was a walk-off field goal where they should have won that game too. So they were close even with as poor as their offense was and in my opinion andy i think they've got a easier schedule this year at least on paper as we look at it today in late april yeah i mean those look like games they should win but so who are the skill guys that we need to watch out for in the fall like who who who's who are they handing the ball

to who are they throwing the ball to the running back position is a wild card because they have three different guys on this roster that have started games uh Gabe Urban Jr. has won the starting job now twice in 2021 for Scott Frost and in 2023 for Matt Rule he's been injured uh twice now with a knee and a hip he'll be back in the mix. You would think he's in that picture. You have Ramir Johnson, who in 2021 made plays all over the field when Nebraska nearly beat Michigan in Lincoln. He's been an accomplished player. They love him. He's a former four-star in New Jersey in his sixth year. Ramir Johnson is a name

to watch. then Emmett Johnson who stepped in when those two backs got hurt last year. He kind of came on and he's the most logical ball carrier that's going to be in that mix. Then Dante Dowdell, they brought him in from Oregon and the reports were mixed on him, but he had a really good spring game, had the longest run in the game, the only run in the game that was over 20 yards. And the quarterback's not going to really run it. I mean, you'll see those occasional scampers, but that QB run game option, probably not a part of it, unless Heinrich Harburg could be involved in some sort of special packages, if that's the direction they want to go. The receiver position, Andy, they brought in two transfers, Jamal Banks and

all ACC second teamer from Wake Forest. And then Isaiah Nayor from Texas, who was at Wyoming where he was an all Mountain West player, got hurt and then never really materialized at Texas and left. But those two guys are set. And then Jalen Lloyd, I really like what he's done. He placed at the Big Ten indoor meet in both the triple and the long jump. He's a 50-foot triple jumper and a 25-foot long jumper. Extremely explosive. He's run 10-4 in the 100 in high school. That's the speedster, and that's a classic Matt Ruhle recruit there. Nobody was offering Jalen Lloyd a scholarship for football out of high school. Matt Ruhle was the only person that offered him a scholarship.

In fact, Matt Rule, when he knew he was taking this job, they began evaluating players. When Evan Cooper was still with the Panthers, Evan Cooper called Jalen Lloyd. He goes, hey, you're probably not going to believe me, but I'm coaching right now for the Carolina Panthers, getting ready for a game, but I will be going to Nebraska with Matt Rule and we're going to offer you so it was quite a story and now Jalen Lloyd he tied Marvin Harrison Jr. for the most receptions over 50 yards for touchdowns in the

Big Ten last year he had three of those last year and and had a big catch on on Saturday in the spring game so it it is interesting and like Isaiah I remember when he transferred to Texas that he was considered one of the bigger fines in the transfer portal that year and then the injury takes away the whole season and then obviously they were pretty loaded last year and didn't didn't need much else but that is it it feels like a completely different scenario than what we last saw from Nebraska when they were playing against Iowa. Yeah, their receiver situation late year was really dire.

I mean, Billy Kemp got picked up as a rookie minicamp invite guy, not even an undrafted free agent, and he led them in receiving. Alex Bullock, who was probably their second receiver last year, he was a walk-on from Omaha, and he'll play a little bit too, but they didn't have much. Isaiah Garcia Castaneda got hurt again. Second year in a row he's been hurt. And then they had to try to play all these freshmen,

Malachi Coleman, Jalen Lloyd, and then Jaden Doss. But now they've upgraded with more transfers and developed more guys in the program. So that position, in my opinion, will be as improved as any on this football team, along with quarterback. And we've talked about the offense so much. What's interesting is the fall, we're going to be talking about the defense. Like this is, this is a group that was good last year. They bring back almost everybody. Tony White did not get a head coaching job though. He will at some point, you know, one of these cycles coming up,

but it feels like that side of the ball is set. And it's just a matter of a slight improvement on offense makes a big difference. Yeah. Can they run the ball and get it done? And, you know, the offensive line has to figure out their guards. They've got a center and Ben Scott, a left tackle and Teddy Perhaskan, a right tackle and Bryce Benhart. They've got two guards on the roster with starting experience in the program, Henry Lutosky being one of them, and then Justin Evans. But then they brought in Micah Mazzucca from Florida,

and this is his third Division I school. He is one of the most experienced linemen on the roster. He had a little bit of a boxing form when he squared up on that dude after a play last year. I think he got suspended for that. And he looked really good in the spring game i mean some of the earlier big runs were on his side i think it's more just getting him engaged to the matt rule way of life the talent is not the issue mizuka probably will

start at left guard if everything goes right so defensively they feel good i would imagine that so good that they could just hold a lot of these guys out for sure I mean Nash Hutmacher and Ty Robinson are NFL level D linemen Jamari Butler is an experienced guy Cam Lenhart was one of the better freshman pass rushers until he got injured last year in the Big Ten MJ Sherman will take a step forward Chief Borders is a guy that had a great spring. I think the question, Andy, is do they have edge players that can beat Big Ten tackles with four-man pass rushes? You've got to be able to win with four to get it done in the Big Ten. You can't always blitz, and Tony White is really good

at creating four-man looks where you don't know where the fourth guy is coming from. We'll see how creative they can get and how much of a jump those guys can make. They brought in a couple transfer players. Stephon Thompson will probably be a depth guy that will play a little. Then there's a freshman linebacker, Vincent Shavers, out of Miami. The Hurricanes actually filled up and dropped him in December.

Nebraska picked him up, and he's been really impressive for a true freshman here and it was just a guy that they kind of fell into so and their secondary is deep they have they have five or six guys returning even without Bly Hill that have starting experience on the back end of the defense it's it's gonna be fun it's gonna be fun off season now you guys have to have to manage the hype around Dylan raiola as the guardians of the Nebraska hype train. But I will say, like watching Dylan Raiola, listening to him in interviews, he definitely understands what he's dealing with

and knows what buttons to push. Here's a clip from the postgame the other day. It was emotional. You know, I fought back tears walking out the tunnel for the tunnel walk. Growing up as a kid, that's what I knew, and that's what I watched. So being a part of it, you come out of the tunnel

and you hear the song, it just got heavy for me. So I'm just thankful for the fans coming out, and it was a fun experience. Did you get a breath before that first step? Yeah, absolutely. I don't really remember. I kind of blacked out. But after that, I was just playing ball, and I had fun.

How were you able to look as comfortable as you did when you had those kind of butterflies and nerves going on in your first appearance here? Yeah, I have great coaches that prepared me for this. You know, great teammates that make plays. So, I mean, I was just getting the ball to my playmakers, and they made me look good, honestly. that prepared me for this. Great teammates that make plays. I was just getting the ball to my playmakers, and they made me look good, honestly.

O-line blocked up great. Running backs ran hard, and receivers made plays. They made me comfortable once they made plays. I would say that's how I was comfortable. He definitely understands like acknowledging how special nebraska is touching on all those you know nostalgia buttons but he definitely looks like he's been doing this a long time yeah and i think he's been trained for it i mean he's got his father's background with the 14-year career in the NFL, but he's also obviously one of the best offensive here. I'll never forget when he showed up as a freshman in high school to a football camp here.

And he was just a JV quarterback at that point because at Burleson, I believe it was John Kitt and his son was the quarterback, and he had to back him up. And still that summer, he got offers from Georgia and Nebraska and USC, you name it, and just watching him throw the ball you're like wow this kid is special it was one of the best young quarterback throwing sessions i've ever seen in in the years i've been doing this and and you knew he had it and you know there's a reason why kirby's smart and um guys like lincoln riley and yeah you know ryan day

he was their first choice i mean you watched the draft those guys know what they're doing and this was the guy they wanted to be um the their quarterback and nebraska was able to kind of fall into this situation and you know they've been waiting for a break to help this program turn the corner and this might be it so if you're matt rule how do you manage these next few months with with your whole whole quarterback room? Not just Dylan Raul. to Steve Sippel. It's kind of like you get your brand new car when you're 16 and it's this super nice Honda Accord. You're really proud of it. Then the neighbor across the street, they pull up in the Ferrari with their son. I mean, that's Dylan Raiola. I mean, and no matter how good Harburg is, he just doesn't have some of the tools and talents of Raiola. But Harburg still is a very good athlete he's a you know high level guy that has pro skills

whether it's a quarterback an edge a tight end a ball carrier whatever it is he can do a lot of things i think that's matt rule's job how do you keep this room together with these three scholarship guys and will they entertain potentially a transfer just to bring in a fourth scholarship guy to that room. It is. That's the tricky part. Trying to figure all this out. It seems like Matt rules got a pretty good handle on how to keep guys engaged. But yeah, that, that quarterback one is, is the most political, the hardest to deal with.

And now he's going to have the, the just unfettered hype for Dylan Riella going into this season. Sean, thank you so much, and we will certainly be in touch. Yeah, I'm sure the hype train will continue throughout the summer. Thanks, Andy. Chugga-chugga-choo-choo. Yes, the hype train is going to be out of control for Dylan Ryle if I have judged how Nebraska fans handle optimism. But that's okay. That's all right. That's the fun part of this. And again, if he hadn't looked so good on Saturday, I'd be saying, guys, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, calm down. Give the guy a chance to settle in. But I do think Nebraska is poised for improvement.

We'll find that game against Colorado week two should be a great litmus test because we saw against Colorado last year, the things that plagued Nebraska for most of the season were on full display. Crippling turnovers, inability to get the offense going, all of that stuff they had to deal with. I do think that defense is going to help everything be easier because when you have a dominant defense, you don't have to ask as much of your offense especially when you've got a young quarterback and it doesn't matter who's playing quarterback it's going to be a young quarterback so we'll see what happens but let us talk now about the transfer portal because it is almost closed tuesday night is the deadline for undergrads

to file their paperwork now remember the schools have up to 48 hours to put the names into the transfer portal, so we're going to still see a little bit of news trickling out over the next couple of days. Also, the NCAA has allowed grad students, they're going to get one extra day, so they have until Wednesday night to get their paperwork in. So we will see news of people officially entering the portal up to Friday night, but this spring window is almost closed. It has not been the massive cataclysm that some initially feared. It's basically been a lot of guys for the most part who went through spring practice, didn't like where they were on the depth chart and are looking for somewhere else where they can play.

That's not everybody, though. That's not that's not what where everybody falls in. In fact, you're seeing a couple of cases of people who signed with the school early enrolled. And now they've decided to go elsewhere. We saw a couple of those on Monday. Peyton Woodyard, the Alabama safety. He was a top 150 recruit in the class of 2024. He signed with the Tide. He went through spring practice. He's now in the portal.

According to our Pete Nacos, Oregon is the favorite to land Peyton Woodyard, who's from California originally. Usually a lot of times you go back to the original recruitment, but in this particular case, he flipped from Georgia to Alabama. Remember the SEC rule says if you were at an SEC school this spring, you can't transfer to an SEC school and play immediately. So the SEC is out for him. He's going out of the conference. Oregon is the favorite to land him. Also offensive lineman, Andrew Dennis, who is the highest ranked signee in the Illinois signing class. He has entered the portal as well. He's from Mount Pleasant, Michigan. We'll see where he winds up. Another really interesting name I saw in the Illinois signing class, he has entered the portal as well. He's from Mount Pleasant, Michigan. We'll see where he winds up. Another really interesting name I saw in the portal,

and this is somebody that I was just, I was randomly talking to somebody about this guy the other day, Sam Huard, son of Damon Huard, nephew of Brock Huard. Remember he was a five-star quarterback signee for Washington a few years ago. And he ended up transferring to Cal Poly. You know, usually when you're that big of a quarterback recruit, you transfer, you end up going to another power conference school, but he went down to Cal Poly, had a really good year there. He's now in the portal. I would assume looking to move back up because he had a, he had a good year down there and got some seasoning.

So we will see where Sam Huard winds up out of the portal. That was one of the more interesting entries on Monday. And remember, there's still some teams that need quarterbacks out there, whether that's a backup quarterback or whether that's somebody to bring in to compete with a starter. So that one, I would watch Sam Heward because again, the tools were all there coming out of high school, didn't work out at Washington. The unusual step of going to Cal Poly, but it did allow him to get playing time and really get comfortable operating an offense and he was effective. So be very fascinated to see where he winds up.

Another fascinating situation in South Bend because they bring in Riley Leonard, second straight year that Notre Dame has brought in a quarterback who is a veteran quarterback from the ACC. It was Sam Hartman last year. He'd been at Wake Forest forever. Leonard's a little bit different case because Leonard, true senior, not a COVID guy. He didn't have the extra year for COVID. He'd been good at Duke. He definitely is one athletically that the NFL folks are very intrigued by. But remember remember he got hurt at the end of the game against Notre Dame last year. And the lingering effects of that injury have been pretty rough on him. So didn't really get a chance to show what he could do in the spring game, but that allowed Notre Dame's other quarterbacks to play a little bit. You got to see them with Notre Dame's receivers such as they were in the spring.

There's more coming there. This is a very intriguing year for Notre Dame because this is a very deep team for Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman, when he got the job, said, hey, we've got to improve depth. We've got to improve competitive depth. And it definitely feels like they've done that. So you look at a schedule, which Notre Dame's schedule on paper normally looks harder than this. I still think there's a chance this schedule is not as easy as people realize. I think Louisville could be pretty good. Georgia Tech, I think, could be very tough.

I think Texas A&M is going to be better than people believe. But realistically, yeah, Notre Dame should be 10-2 or 11-1. If we are to believe that the guys they've signed over the last few years are as good as they're supposed to be, this should be a 10-2 or 11-1 team. So let's talk to Tyler Horka of Blue and Gold about the Fighting Irish coming out of spring, heading into a year where there are massive expectations. Joined now by Tyler Horka of Blueandgold.com. I'm going to talk Notre Dame.

They finished spring practice like a week and a half ago. We were too busy talking about the weapon Joe Alt and where he was going to go in the draft, and Blake Fisher, and all these other Notre Dame players. But Tyler, we got to talk about what Notre Dame learned during spring practice. It sounds like they learned quite a bit, even though Riley Leonard, the quarterback, transferred from Duke, was not playing because he had follow-up surgery on the ankle injury that he actually suffered against Notre Dame while playing for Duke last year. And then also somewhat limited receiver.

You got Bo Collins from Clemson, not done at Clemson yet. You have Jordan Faison scoring goals as a middie for the Notre Dame lacrosse team. But it feels like the guys who got to play in the spring the Irish figured some stuff out yeah for sure it was crazy the blue gold game felt exactly like what Notre Dame has had or has not had at wide receiver for the past I don't know two or three years there's just been not a lot of numbers in there not a lot of playmakers there. So Notre Dame goes into this blue-gold game with five healthy scholarship-wide receivers, and you're thinking, oh my gosh, who are these quarterbacks? Riley Leonard not among them because he was not playing in that scrimmage.

Who are they going to throw the ball to? And all five of those healthy wide receivers made plays. I mean, Jaden Greathouse made plays. Chris Mitchell coming in from Florida International looks fantastic. The freshman, Micah Gilbert, looks really good. He caught two touchdowns in that blue-gold game. So you're thinking, okay, this is what Notre Dame had with the only five guys who were healthy and available. What are they going to have when they have 11 scholarship receivers slated to be on this team in 2024? You mentioned a couple of them. Bo Collins is going to come back.

Jordan Faison is just incredibly talented. You mentioned he's scoring goals. He's scoring a lot of goals for the Notre Dame, number one Notre Dame men's lacrosse team. So those guys are playmakers. You figure Cam Williams. Tyler, I got a kid playing lacrosse. Let me put it this way.

We watch a lot of Notre Dame lacrosse highlights in our house. So it's a, I can't pretty amazing. I can't go wrong on social media, just tweeting out a clip of Jordan phase on scoring a goal and the entire Notre Dame fan base saying, Oh my gosh, this guy's amazing. Cause guess what? He was just as good on the football field last year too. The kid truly is an athletic freak. Well, the, the, thedie in lacrosse has to do everything like they have to score. They have to play defense.

So like that's an athlete position. And then you look at Jordan Faison on the football field and he's absolutely an athlete. And he's also like every bit my size. I shouldn't say every bit, because usually when you're saying that you're talking about weapons like Joe Alt and Blake Fisher, like mentioned Jordan Faison is probably 5'10 a buck 75 and he's doing all those things that you mentioned on lacrosse field and then nobody can really cover him on the football field I think that's what we missed in Notre Dame spring practice this you know these last 15 practices month and a half whatever it was was you have to remember when that kid gets

on the field and you put him in the slot, he's going against guys, nickel corners who are literally out there solely to cover, solely to tackle. And they can't do both of those things when this kid gets in front of them. You can't cover him and you can't tackle him. So that's what I'm saying with Notre Dame's receiver situation. All of a sudden, it feels like even when you don't have a lot, you know the reinforcements are coming and you're eventually going to have a lot. So if this group stays fully healthy, Notre Dame's going to have a lot of weapons there. And you just got to figure out who's throwing them the ball because Riley Leonard needs to stay healthy.

If he is healthy, it's going to be him. If it's not, I think Notre Dame's got three other quarterbacks that you look at. And we learned a lot about those guys this spring, too, from Steve Angelli to Kenny Minchie and CJ Carr. Notre Dame's quarterback room, we said it before the spring, probably in the best position that it's been in collectively in quite some time, maybe ever. And I think a lot of people reaffirm those beliefs that this group is a really, really good one.ve and jelly look great in the sun bowl and then cj car was a a big time recruit and then minchi you just didn't know where he fell once once leonard was brought in because they you know minchi was a freshman last year they bring in sam hartman

now they bring in leonard and it pushes or you know pushes people around the depth chart but they've got four guys in the room. They've got two guys who've played in games. They've got the blue chip type recruit in CJ Carr. And it feels like everybody's comfortable with it. And normally you'd expect one of these guys, I would assume based on how things usually work as Angelli would be the guy hitting the portal, but it sounds like they're all good. We assumed it would either be Angele or Minchie. I think the Sun Bowl that you mentioned was huge for Angele. He went out there, went 15 of 19, I believe it was, for maybe 230 yards,

three touchdowns, no picks. He showed that he can start and he can win at Notre Dame. So I think maybe if he didn't have that, we would see Steve Angeli enter the transfer portal. I also know that his family just through and through loves the university. He loves the university. You get a little bit more of that at Notre Dame than you do at other schools. I think you have quarterbacks who are maybe the number two or the number three, and they say, hey, I love this place, but I could go down the road and start there. And I want to

start as much as I do love going to school here. So at Notre Dame, you're like, okay, let me just drag this out as long as I can. The degree is something that all of these student athletes are working toward. And it's a little different than getting a degree from, I don't know, Andy, you fill in the blank with whatever school. It's just not Notre Dame. One of the state schools that you and I went to. How's that sound? Yeah, there you go. Exactly. So there's a little bit of that.

And I think the same goes for Kenny Minchie. He hasn't done some of those things that Steve has in games, but he was one of the guys that was talked about. Let's just say this, Andy. They tapped him with the term gunslinger, and that was quarterbacks coach Gino Gadouli and also some of these wide receivers. When's the last time that you heard a Notre Dame quarterback

get called a gunslinger? I don't know if it's ever happened. Did Brady Quinn ever? I mean, I don't think he was a gunslinger. He was a very controlled offense. Yeah, he's a great quarterback, can throw the ball, but they're saying Kenny Minchie's a gunslinger. So I think that's the cool thing about this Notre Dame quarterback room is you have four guys and they can all do completely different things.

And they're all kind of out to prove that they can do it at Notre Dame, not just that they can do it, but they can do it at Notre Dame. Well, and I think that part about Notre Dame that you were just discussing, I think that really does help them in situations like this, where this is the textbook situation for a quarterback to hit the portal. But you're right. If you're at Notre Dame, if you don't have that degree yet, you're probably going to stick around. Like you might leave if you've already gotten a degree from Notre Dame.

But if you don't, it's worth it for another year if you've already gotten a degree from Notre Dame but if you don't it's worth it for another year if you're going to be the backup and also you know if you're Steve Angeli or if you're either either the the younger guys you might be playing because Riley Leonard injured now was injured part of last season at Duke like somebody might have to play and it wasn't just the ankle that you mentioned getting injured in that Notre Dame game. That was the biggest part of it. And that's what's keeping him out right now. Like you said, he's had two surgeries on that ankle that he hurt against Notre Dame last year. But if you remember, I believe it was either the Florida State game or

the Louisville game. Those are the two games that he played after he got hurt against Notre Dame on September 30th. He came back and played in October a couple of times. He had a turf toe injury in one of those games. And that's when he decided, okay, I've got the ankle. Now I've got turf toe. If you've ever played football at this level, you know, and I have not, but I've read enough about it and heard enough of these guys say it. Turf toe, that's nagging. Turf toe needs a needs a rebrand turf toe has a bad pr agent because turf toe sounds like a hangnail and it's incredibly painful for anyone who has it so like that yeah we just need to rebrand turf toe to understand what what riley leonard was dealing

with last year yeah because those two games you play the floor State game Louisville game you're like oh god I can feel the pain from this guy through the tv screen he's he's banged up so yeah you're right there's gonna be opportunities there but I I do want to ask you about another kind of in a long line type position Charles Jagasaw taking over at left tackle like going back to Ronnie Stanley like when you're the left tackle at Notre Dame that is now you are we think you're going to be a top 10 pick in the draft like that you're essentially being anointed at that point yeah and being anointed is is the perfect way to put it because everything that we've heard everything that we've seen from Charles jagasaw is just it it's kind of like Joe all three years ago.

You had no idea that maybe he could be – like he played tight end and quarterback in high school for three of his years in high school. He shows up. He grew, I believe he said, in his junior year of high school, and that's when he knew that he was going to play offensive line. But you didn't know that he was going to be the next great offensive lineman. You didn't know that Harbaugh was going to be calling him a weapon in a uh NFL draft press conference on Thursday night Thursday night why they didn't take a receiver instead yeah so you didn't know that he was going to be that and

you don't know if Charles Jackassaw is going to be that either but you do know okay if we've got the confidence to put this guy at that position like you you said, Andy, that's a huge position at the University of Notre Dame, partly because the quarterback has been so up and down. The quarterback position at this university has been so up and down over the years. You know that you need a good left tackle to just sort of solidify things in a way, and they're saying all the right things about Charles jagasaw i mean he's got the size for sure the athleticism he came to notre dame a little bit banged up and that's where the similarities to alt kind of come in for me because alt came and you're like

okay this guy's not going to play right away jagasaw didn't play right away because of the injuries but once he did play like he played in that sun bowl and it looked good it looked apart and i think he's going to be a really good player at that spot and Tosh Baker the right tackle but replacing Blake Fisher is another one who got to play in the Sun Bowl and you got to see what he could do and it feels like they're they're really confident at both of those bookends yeah Tosh Baker's just huge like massive individual if there's one downside to that it's he can't move as well. And the guy that might be competing to take his position is Emil Wagner. And it's the total opposite. Emil Wagner is sub 300 pounds. Never see that for a tackle at Notre Dame. Just look

how big Joe, you know, Joe Alton, Blake Fisher, those guys were massive human beings. Emil Wagner is not that, but he provides a little bit of that athleticism. So it's just going to come down to Mike Denbrock, Joe Rudolph, all of these coaches that Notre Dame has saying, OK, what are we like? Who has the best upside there? Because Tosh Baker provides a lot of things that Emile Wagner can't and vice versa. So like you said, I think they do feel very confident in what they have at these tackle positions. But Jagasol is pretty much penned in. You can put it in Sharpie. He's going to start at left tackle. You got to figure it out on the right side, but you have two really good options. So Den Brock coming to Notre Dame, he's been at Notre Dame multiple times. He had Jaden Daniels.

He had Malik neighbors. He had Brian Thomas Jrr. Last year at LSU record-setting offense. He's used to having good offensive tackles. He had Will Campbell and Emory Jones who could be first round draft picks next year. What does he bring that's different than Jared Parker? Who's who's now gone to become the head coach of Troy. Yeah. I think Jared Parker was still so new to all of this that he just didn't really have, like you didn't really know what a Jared Parker offense was. He took so many elements from Tommy Reese and really so many elements from what Notre Dame has been doing for decades. It was a very much round and pound.

You saw Audrick Estime, who just got drafted this past weekend, run the ball 210 times and he didn't even play in the bowl game. So he was getting quite a few carries out there. And Notre Dame had a lot of other running backs. I got to give credit to Dylan McCullough for this. It wasn't just Audrick Estimate. It was Jeremiah Love, Jadarian Price, Jabron Payne. Like it was ground and pound offense for Notre Dame last year. And that's what it's been for a long time. The quotes to me, Andy, that stick out from Mike Denbrock coming in, in this first spring that he's been back in his third stint at Notre Dame is the 11 personnel stuff. It's the shotgun snaps. I mean, I was just reading a quote today.

I was going back through and just kind of summing some things up from the spring. And Steve Angeli, who's been here for a couple of years, he said, I'm not really used to all these shotgun snaps, but I really like it because it spreads the field out, spreads the ball out, and I'm able to get the ball into a bunch of different playmakers' hands. And that's what stood out to me in the blue-gold game as well, is you hear we're going to 11 personnel, and that may be, for some Notre Dame fans, they get in their head, oh man, that means the tight end is less important and we're going to see less of them. Every time I saw a tight end on the field in 11, he was split out wide like a wide receiver. And I believe Eli Raritan, Cooper Flanagan, and Jack Larson, the three healthy scholarship tight ends that Notre Dame had in that game, all had at least

five targets in that game and all had at least three catches, I believe, with Raritan and Flanagan both having five, maybe somewhere around there. They were being used as pass catchers, being used as weapons. And that's nothing new at Notre Dame because you've seen Michael Mayer go off. You saw Mitch Evans go off last year in the eight games that he played before he hurt his knee. But it's less, okay, we have one really good tight end, and we're just going to run him into the ground and use him all the time.

That's what you saw with Mayer and Evans. Now it's, okay, we have four or five really good tight ends, and we can use them as wide receivers if we need to. So it's a lot of really exciting stuff with Mike Denbrock at Notre Dame, because like Angeli said, and like Kenny Minchie said, it's a lot of new stuff for these guys and it's cutting edge. It's just modernization, Andy, is really all it is. Like Notre Dame is going to look like a modern offense. 11 personnel is one back, one tight end. And the reason the tight ends get targeted more in that is they typically are the ones that get the mismatch because you put the faster guys on the, on the three receivers. And so who's going to get stuck with the slowest safety or with a linebacker

covering them? Well, it's probably the tight end. And that's where that's, that's where you make your hay. So I would imagine those Notre Dame Titans are pretty excited about this. Absolutely. And like I said, I don't need to say much more about the history of the position at Notre Dame. They've had some really, really good ones. If Mitch Evans comes back from that ACL injury, I'm seeing some stuff that maybe he's being viewed as one of the best tight ends, if not the best tight end in college football when he's at full tilt. So you have Evans and then you have a lot of really good guys behind him. That's nothing new at Notre Dame.

The way that the Irish are planning to get those guys the ball, that's what's going to be new. So what did we learn about the Notre Dame defense throughout the spring? Continuity, cohesion, chemistry, all of those words. Like Al Golden's going into his third year. And he's a guy that a lot of people thought might have gone back to the NFL or he's just a he's a hot commodity. When you lead Notre Dame to a top five ranking in yards allowed per game, which quietly they were last year. I know Notre Dame lost three games and we're not close to making a 14 college football playoff field.

But if you go back and you look at the numbers, especially in some of those bigger games, like holding Ohio State to 14 points, and that could have easily been or 17 points, whatever it was, they could have easily won that game. And it was going to be because of the Notre Dame defense that they did. And it's just a really good group. And you've got a lot of really good guys to come back for it. Like your starting tackles are intact. Almost you're starting defensive line across the board, if not for Javante Jean-Baptiste, who, by the way, just got drafted as well. And you replace him with RJ Oban coming in from Duke. They're practically the same player. I see so many similarities in their games. But Howard Cross, Riley Mills in the middle of that defense.

Benjamin Morrison, obviously one of the best players on this defense. He had shoulder surgery this offseason, so we're not really sure if he's going to play against Texas A&M on August 31st. But the cornerback room has become such a strength for this team, and that goes back to what I was saying about the continuity and cohesion. Mike Mickens is the longest-tenured defensive staffer. Maybe on the entire Notre Dame coaching staff, he's been here the longest. It's about half a decade now. He's recruiting guys that can just

plug in and play right away. Christian Gray was a freshman last year. Incredible acrobatic interception he made against Pitt. He's probably going to start this year. Obviously, if Morrison is healthy, he's going to start. But Jaden Mickey is a guy that could start at a lot of different places as well they've they've done really good in the transfer portal on the defensive side of the ball too like I said getting a guy like Oban to replace Javante Jean-Baptiste that's basically a one-for-one swap getting Jordan Clark from Arizona State to replace Thomas Harper who played really well coming in from Oklahoma State. He was another transfer that Notre Dame used at the nickel position in 2023. Now you're going to see Clark play the same position in 2024. So just the way that this unit on that side of the ball has

been able to remain consistent and just do all the same things, whether it be get guys out of the portal, get guys to stay for fifth or sixth seasons. Jack Kaiser in the middle of the defense as a linebacker who's here for a sixth year local kid from Indiana, obviously wants to play as much Notre Dame football as he can. And he plays it really well as well. So just a really good group, a lot of really good players, a lot of really good coaches. Well, and it's interesting how much athletic depth Notre Dame has now versus years past. And that's something that Marcus Freeman mentioned as something that was critical when he got the head coaching job. They had to improve that.

But I think back to a few years ago in the playoff when they're playing Clemson and they're playing him tough. And then Julian Love goes down. And it's like, oh, no, there's nobody else who can cover these receivers. I would imagine that Notre Dame, they could absorb something like that now and it doesn't end the game for them effectively. Yeah. And it's, it's what you said about Marcus Freeman and recruiting and what I said about the transfer portal too. It, it goes back to what I was saying about Notre Dame being a little different and you can't really recruit the portal like a Texas can

or a Florida can. I'll mention the state schools that you didn't name earlier. You can't recruit the portal like those teams do, but when Notre Dame does, they go out and get a guy like Brandon Joseph from Northwestern who was an All-American there and he starts every single game. Or like I said, Thomas Harper from Oklahoma State. This year, it's Jordan Clark from Arizona State. They're getting what they need out of the portal. And those are the guys that kind of keep you afloat and keep you intact, like you were saying. And when one of those guys goes down, the guys that you get from the portal, you're dealing with a bunch of recruits who Notre Dame has not recruited at this level.

Prior to Marcus Freeman, it wasn't humming along like this. You weren't getting the guys that can just come in and play as true freshmen. Benjamin Morrison, six interceptions as a true freshman. I mentioned Christian Gray, what he did as a freshman. And it is also, I will give props to these guys just sticking around. Like Xavier Watts probably would have heard his name in the NFL draft this past weekend if he would have went. He stayed. He won the Bronco Nagurski trophy last year. I know there's like eight different probably would have heard his name in the NFL draft this past weekend. If you would have went, he stayed, he won the Bronco Nagurski trophy last year is, you know,

I know there's like eight different defensive player of the year awards, but he won one of them. So it sounds like a lot, but really that's only going to a select few guys. And he was one of them and he's back. So it's just the mix, Andy. It's the mix of the young guys coming in and the old guys sticking around.

Well, as Sam Hartman taught us last year, sometimes it's better to play that last year at Notre Dame than head to the NFL a year too early. Yeah, I mean, look at Sam Hartman. I know he didn't get drafted. And maybe if he would have played better against Clemson, Louisville, those two games in particular were tough, but I mean, I just read a Tom Pellicero tweet yesterday that says that he's, you know, signing for a pretty good contract for a guy that didn't get drafted and might be in Washington's plans moving forward. So I guarantee you Notre Dame helped in that regard because coming out of Wake Forest, I know he had all the numbers, he had all the accolades, but I don't think anybody after five years, they wanted to see

him play in a different kind of offense. They wanted to see him play what he played in last year and now they want to see riley leonard play in this offense and if riley leonard can stay healthy we're talking about a different probably different scenario post-draft yeah i mean riley leonard athletically he's got the build he's got the arm he's got the size he can run a little bit and scouts are in love with that for sure but then again it gets him into a little bit of trouble and a little bit of uh injury you know there are injuries that come with being as athletic as a guy like riley leonard because you just put yourself in more spots and more situations to take on contact and i know notre dame is not looking for that this year, given the way that his time in South Bend has started. But what they are looking for is just the complete maturity.

And yeah, I think maturation is probably the best word because you watch his film at Duke and you see a raw quarterback at times. And we have to remember, Sam Hartman came here, I think, as a 23-year-old and had played already riley leonard is a true senior and when you've only played three years of college football and really two and a half because of what happened against notre dame last year there's signs for there's room for growth you can improve and mature beyond where he is right now and i think going back to mike denbrock you saw that with jayden daniels like he was not the player LSU, especially in that last year, the year that he won the Heisman Trophy, that he was at Arizona State.

At Arizona State, you saw a raw player who liked to use his legs a little bit more than he should. At LSU, you saw a guy that used his legs because he knew he could and went to do it. So I think that's what you're going to see with Riley Leonard is just the complete growth of his game going from a guy at Duke that kind of had to carry the team to a guy at Notre Dame that's surrounded by really good tight ends and a wide receiver room. Like I said a little bit earlier, that might be as good as it's been at Notre Dame. The running back room, even without Audrick Estime, is very good. You have Jeremiah Love, Jadarian Price. Those guys are fantastic football players. So Riley Leonard

is stepping into a good situation. If he could just stay healthy and get his body right, I think he's going to be picked probably maybe even day two of the NFL draft a year from now. Like I, I think we're talking about maybe a second or third round player. If everything goes right this fall at Notre Dame. Well, and there's a good chance it can, because they do have the pieces around him that he needs. Charles Jagasaw, no pressure, buddy. No pressure in that spot. well and there's a good chance it can because they do have the pieces around him that he needs uh charles jagasaw no pressure buddy no pressure exactly that spot but tyler thank you so much thanks andy that's tyler orca talking notre dame and yeah great reason to be optimistic

for the fighting irish they are as deep as we've seen them in some time. Speaking of depth, you're going to see two very deep teams tomorrow because Cody Belair, our national scout at On3, is going to join me, and we are going to draft our ultimate college football teams for 2024. Basically, if we could create the best possible team. Now, it's a draft,

so we're going to be fighting over some players. I can tell you right now, there's a few, like Will Johnson, the corner at Michigan. We're going to have to strategize, figure out how do I get him and keep Cody from getting him. But think of your favorite players. Think of who you'd put on your ultimate team also think of the schemes you'd run because this matters too my offense is going to be awesome but i also think my offense allows me to draft my quarterback a little bit later because i don't have to worry about cody taking him i think we'll see not sure It's going to be so much fun. It's going to get you so pumped for the 2024 season. I've been building my draft board. I cannot tell you how excited I am. This is the same. Like when we go through these deep dives on the schedules for all these

teams for 2024, I am so excited. And on days like this where we talk about the settlement in the house case and what happens next and how it's all going to be organized and how they're going to pay the players and all that. I know that most of you, while interested in that tangentially, just want to see the games, just want to talk about the games, be excited about the games, be excited about your team, be excited about your players, just watch some football. So I love when we just talk about some football. That's what we're doing tomorrow. So join us tomorrow. Bring your own draft board. Select your own ultimate 2014. Feel free to rip me and Cody's picks in the chat. This is going to be awesome. There's so many good players. Our friend Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl has said, because of the COVID year, because of various factors, NIL,

this will be the deepest year we've seen in college football in terms of talent. He ain't kidding. He ain't kidding. He ain't kidding. Cause it's one of those deals where I was like, Oh, if I lose this guy, what's going to happen if Cody takes this guy? And I'm like,

Oh wait, I can take this guy. It's going to be great. So tomorrow, join us for the ultimate college football, 2024 team draft. We'll talk to you tomorrow.