Andy & Ari On3 - The biggest game at Notre Dame since the Bush Push? | The Oregon Ducks prepare for Deion, Colorado
Episode Date: September 22, 2023The biggest game at Notre Dame since the Bush Push? | The Ducks prepare for Deion and ColoradoToday's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users ...that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDYWant to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube - don't forget to subscribe!https://youtube.com/live/iGSLInTuhjwIt's the final show before a colossal Saturday of college football, and Andy is ranking his five most intriguing matchups of the day before welcoming some very special guests. (0:00-15:14)Mike Golic Jr. (The GoJo and Golic Show) is a former Notre Dame offensive lineman who grew up in a Notre Dame family. He and Andy discuss just how big Ohio State's visit to South Bend is and whether QB Sam Hartman has made Notre Dame capable of playing on Ohio State's level. Golic also is calling the Colorado-Oregon game for Learfield radio, so he's pumped to head to Eugene to see the Deion Sanders Effect in person. (15:15-39:21)Oregon defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus also will be in Eugene when the Buffaloes arrive. Dorlus tells Andy which rapper he'd have leading the Ducks out of the tunnel. He also breaks down his golf game and his sideline eating habits. (39:22-53:57)Back east, former Ohio State linebacker Bobby Carpenter (The Bobby Carpenter Show, SiriusXM Radio) explains why this version of the Buckeyes' defense is better than it has been in the past two years. Bobby also discusses former Buckeyes teammate Marcus Freeman, who grew up to be Notre Dame's head coach. (53:58-1:08:46)Andy's extra point zeros in on a potential mistake by North Carolina's social media team as the Tar Heels prepare to face Pittsburgh. (1:08:47-1:11:55)
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Welcome to Andy's Day on 3 and we are so close to a colossal college football Saturday.
This is the most loaded slate that we've had this season.
And I don't know if I remember one this loaded in September in a long time.
We've had a couple week ones that had some really good games,
some week twos that had some really good games, but this is sort of the intersection of conference play and non-conference play where we are getting a ton of great matchups. So many that I kind of
wish they'd spread this out a little bit. I wish we'd had a few of these last weekend and a few
of these this weekend because it's going to be tough to figure out what to watch. So I've decided to rank my top five matchups based on intrigue, based on stakes,
based on how much they matter, based on how hilarious they might be. Whatever the criteria,
this hopefully will help you figure out your viewing. And if you only have one TV,
may God have mercy on your soul
because you're going to have a problem.
This is going to be a tough weekend for you.
So let us rank the top five matchups this weekend.
We'll throw a few honorable mentions out there right now.
Honorable mention, Oregon State at Washington State.
The Pac-2.
They're the only ones left.
This is really for the championship in 2024.
If they want to be a two-team league, this is your championship game.
But this is a great game no matter what.
Both these teams are as good as they've been in years.
And once again, Pullman will be on a network television station. They were on ABC
when they beat Wisconsin. They'll be on Fox for this game. Get to see the Beavers in a highlighted
game for the first time. DJ Uyunglele, the revenge tour continues. By the time they kick off, we'll
know what happened with Clemson already. So we can say whether DJ was right, or
maybe Dabo was a little bit right, but we'll have more information once this game kicks off.
So that's an honorable mention. Another honorable mention, this is a noon Eastern kick, 11 local
kick, Auburn at Texas A&M. Hugh Freeze, he's building a roster at Auburn that is going to
be competitive in the SEC.
It's not there yet.
He had to do a flip.
He has to deal with what he's got right now.
But if we remember from when Hugh Freeze took over a much worse roster at Ole Miss in 2012,
he can scare the hell out of you in that first meeting in a while.
That's going to make this one very intriguing. And remember, Texas A&M kind of on the knife's edge because the offense looks so much better. It looks like all the stuff everybody's
complaining about last year seems to have been fixed. The defense against Miami did not look
great. They didn't get pressure. They didn't tackle well. If they can do those things, they're going
to beat Auburn. But if they can't get pressure, then this is going to be a game and it's going to be wild
if Auburn comes out of there with a win. So those are your honorable mentions, but let's get to the
top five. Number five, Colorado and Oregon. This is the one the casual fans probably have number
one because anything involving Coach Prime brings a new audience to
college football. We are not going to make fun of those people. We're not. We're not going to be the
people who gatekeep the sport. We're not going to be the people who said we watched college football
when it was playing small clubs and now that it's playing arenas, it's not cool anymore. You're not
cool enough to watch it. We're not doing that. We're going to
help these people. We're going to explain to these people, this may be a little different
viewing experience than what you've seen from Colorado so far. I hope it's not. I hope it's
very competitive. I hope it's a great game, but no Travis Hunter. I worry about them playing
against Oregon because Oregon is a very talented team. You've noticed the rhetoric coming out of Boulder very different than when they were
playing Colorado State.
There's no, you made it personal.
Dan Lanning said some not nice things about Colorado when Colorado went to the Big 12.
They don't care.
They're like, nah, he wasn't talking about us.
Don't worry about it.
Because they've watched the film.
Oregon is incredibly talented. And we're going to hear from Oregon defensive lin worry about it because they've watched the film. Oregon is
incredibly talented. And we're going to hear from Oregon defensive lineman, Brandon Dorless later in
the show. And he's one of the ones that the Colorado folks need to worry about because
this is the example I keep giving where in the portal, you can find pretty good skill players.
It's harder to find good big guys. and it's hard to build depth with the
big guys through the portal. And that is where there could be a problem because Oregon has been
building up with big guys since before Dan Lanning was the coach, when Mario Cristobal was the coach.
So this is one where Oregon is favored by three touchdowns for a reason, but man, would it be
something if Colorado is competitive in this game? If Colorado is close
in this game, if Colorado is winning this game, this one may overshadow all the others, but
logic says this might be the end of the winning streak for the Buffaloes, but that's not,
that doesn't mean what came before it wasn't valid.
It just means they got more work to do.
And I think Deion will be the first to tell you that.
Number four, Iowa at Penn State, the whiteout.
Great environment.
A little rain in the forecast.
Game that could be a little sloppy anyway.
Iowa's defense makes it hard for anybody to score.
Penn State's defense has made it hard for people to score this year too, though.
And that's the part I'm intrigued by. Does Penn State severely hamstring the Iowa offense to the
point that Penn State's offense gets some advantageous field position? That's Iowa's
special teams probably will have to play very well to keep the field position battle fairly even. And that's where this one could turn. But
again, maybe Iowa's offense had a 41 point explosion against Western Michigan.
Maybe it's completely different. They are 10 points ahead of the pace in the drive for 325.
Penn State, meanwhile, would like to keep rolling, wants to prove it's one of the best pace in the drive for 325. Penn State, meanwhile, would like to keep rolling,
wants to prove it's one of the best teams in the Big Ten.
And that environment will be electric, guaranteed.
Number three, Florida State at Clemson.
This is your noon, get yourself ready.
You're getting the main course.
This is not an appetizer.
You're getting a main course at noon,
a main course at 3.30, and a main course at noon, a main course at 3.30,
and a main course at 7.00, 7.30, 8.00.
This is going to be a big one right here.
We saw Florida State against LSU.
Was that the Seminoles?
We saw Florida State against Boston College.
Was that the Seminoles?
Very different teams.
Florida State goes into Death Valley looking for its first
win against Clemson since 2014. It's a long time. Jameis Winston was the quarterback on the roster,
but not in that game because he was suspended. But that's how long it's been since Florida State
beat Clemson. This could be a sea change moment in the ACC.
There has been a year where Clemson didn't win the ACC title,
when Pitt and Wake Forest played for the ACC title.
But this would be Florida State saying, no, no, we're the top of this conference now.
Or it would be Clemson saying, hey, that Duke game, complete mirage.
We're fine.
We're still really talented.
We're going to defend Death Valley.
It's going to be epic.
They're going to run down that hill.
Is there a Florida State player, speaking of Coach Prime,
is there a Florida State player willing to stand at the bottom of the hill and beg the Tigers to come down?
That's what Deion did when they played there.
I'm telling you, these games have the potential to be awesome. Number two, potentially the most hilarious game, but also wide variability in what could happen here. Ole Miss at Alabama.
The week started with Lane Kiffin trolling Nick Saban about who's actually calling plays
for Alabama's defense.
Lane Kiffin said, it looks like Tavares Robinson.
We played against him at South Carolina when he was the DC.
That looks like Tavares Robinson.
We played against Kevin Steele, the actual DC, when he was at Auburn.
It doesn't look like Kevin Steele.
And Nick Saban, of course, goes, of course it's Kevin Steele. And Nick Saban, of course,
goes, of course it's Kevin Steele. And then Lane Kiffin says, I saw what I saw.
This is the intrigue. There's a layer upon layer upon layer. You've got Lane used to work for Nick
Saban. Nick Saban basically helped save Lane's career. You've got Pete Golding, defensive
coordinator for Ole Miss, runoff from Alabama
to Ole Miss, heavily criticized while at Alabama. There's so much here. Plus, Alabama has decided
that Jalen Milrow is the starting quarterback. The offense could be completely better, could
look completely different than what we've seen so far this season. We saw Milrow start against
Middle Tennessee and Texas, but were they designing the offense around Milrow? Certainly it'll look like it. It looked like
they were designing an offense that either Milrow or Ty Simpson or Tyler Buckner could run. Well,
now they've decided it's Milrow and there's some things they can do to take advantage of
his athleticism that can maybe open up his ability to throw the deep ball. But
it also may be that Alabama's just not as good this year. And maybe Ole Miss can come in and
win that game. There's so much intrigue there. I can't wait to watch that one. So you're going to
have to split screen that one in Colorado, Oregon. Number one, Ohio State at Notre Dame.
The Buckeyes, the Irish, two massive brands.
Yes, they opened the season last year in Columbus,
but it didn't feel the way it feels now.
Notre Dame feels like they are much more like Ohio State
than they did last year.
Perhaps it's Sam Hartman.
We're going to talk to Mike Golick Jr.,
former Notre Dame offensive lineman,
current podcaster extraordinaire.
We're going to talk about how different
Notre Dame feels right now going into this game
and how big this game is.
This is one of the biggest games in South Bend
in a long, long time.
Guys, I cannot wait.
This is going to be so excited.
Before we get to Mike Golick, I want to talk to you about prize picks because
Friday, when I make my prize pick selections, is going to be as hard as trying to make the
selections of these games, trying to rank these games. I mean, I opened the app.
The first thing I see, the first thing I see,
Shador Sanders, 335 and a half passing yards.
Bo Nix, 315 and a half passing yards.
He's daring me to say the Oregon defense
can shut down Shador Sanders.
Nobody shut down Shador Sanders yet.
Nobody.
And then Bo Nix, can he carve up Colorado's defense? the Oregon defense can shut down Shadur Sanders. Nobody shut down Shadur Sanders yet. Nobody.
And then Bo Nix. Can he carve up Colorado's defense? Are we going to get a shootout in that game? You've got your appetizer on Friday night. Remember, Wisconsin's playing Purdue
on Friday night. So you've got plays with Tanner Mordecai and Hudson Card.
You got Braylon Allen rushing plays. there's so many things you can do here one of the the more
interesting ones that I like are the uh the rush yard combos where you can take two players in the
same game like there's a there's a Trey Benson Will Shipley one in the Florida State Clemson
game it's basically will they combine for more or less than 129 and a half rushing yards?
You could combine Blake Corum from Michigan,
who's playing against Rutgers in their first Big Ten game.
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You can combine him with Will Shipley, and that number is 155.5.
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Twitter, whatever we're calling it, Andy underscore Staples on Friday afternoon. I'm going to be
throwing some things out there as I try to figure out what I want to do because there's so many fun options. And especially this
weekend, I really don't know where to go with it. And it's like picking the games themselves.
You can really overthink these things. You can underthink these things. You just go with your gut.
There's a lot to do. You can study. But some of these, in some cases, you have teams playing
the first really good opponent they've played.
So what happened before, the averages, the statistics they've compiled may not even matter.
There's a whole lot to look at. So on Friday afternoon, we're going to go through that stuff.
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We will talk on Friday,
and we will find out exactly how we're going to play this weekend.
I'm going to take some tips from you. I don't know if you're going to take any tips from me.
If we remember me picking the games last weekend, well, it didn't go so well. But this week,
I feel so much better about everything. Now, I felt good about the ones last week too,
and I missed them all. But no, I feel great about these picks.
So we're going to figure it out.
Prize picks on Friday, games on Saturday.
Unbeatable combination.
Next up, let's dive into these games.
Let's go to South Bend.
Mike Golik Jr., former Notre Dame player,
son of Mike Golick, who also played at Notre Dame, brother of Jake Golick, who also played
at Notre Dame. This is a guy steeped in the Notre Dame tradition. He's been in South Bend all week.
He's got a jet out for the Oregon-Colorado game, but he has been deep in the thick
of Notre Dame and Ohio State,
and he gives us a report
on what that town is going to be like this weekend.
We welcome Mike Golick Jr.,
Notre Dame legend.
You're the most legendary talker
to come out of Notre Dame
other than your dad, right?
Is that fair?
I mean, I look at Regis Philbin's a Notre Dame alum, so obviously like overall talker.
Dad's there.
Brady Quinn's in that group.
Like, you know what?
Let's put it this way.
I'm a much more legendary talker than I was a football player at Notre Dame.
And so I think I can shoo more myself in that way
because playing wise, I'll get better as I age and get further away from it, even though the
internet still exists. Well, so you were in South Bend for most of the week or have been in South
Bend for most of the week. You played on a team that played in the BCS championship game, went 12
and on the regular season. I'm curious, how's the vibe now for this game compared to what
it was in those days it's starting to pick up now like this was always the point of the week
especially that year because I had been before 2012 so for anyone that wasn't aware that was my
fifth year senior year so I had been on campus four years prior to that and I had lost a lot of
September games in those years prior and the one thing I always tell people, Notre Dame fans are awesome,
but like any fan base, they get up for the big moments especially.
And we do the player walk like a lot of teams would.
For us, we would go and have mass at the Basilica,
and then we would walk from the Basilica on Notre Dame's campus
over to the football stadium.
And on the player walk, you'd have the path lined with people,
especially the first couple of
the weeks of the season while hope springs eternal and we're undefeated and get a first couple of
wins under our belt but then you lose a couple of september games and it gets a little bit sparse
around the dining halls and some of the less populated areas but in that 12 and 0 season
it felt like the player walk was going on thursday afternoon when people started to get hit campus
and then on Fridays you
know I can remember college game day is going to be here this weekend I can remember college
game day has been back a couple of times since but we had them for the Stanford game my senior year
and the buzz went especially show like that's hitting campus you've already got Ohio State
that's a big team and regionally close so there's a lot of overlap in the fan bases and geographically.
So it gets going around here pretty good on those weekends
and certainly did back then.
And we felt it built every successive week when we won.
It just got bigger and bigger, and there were more people,
and there were more autograph seekers out in front of the Goog,
the football facility, when we'd get done with practice.
And so I'd have to imagine, especially with what Notre Dame's dealt with as far as attention around the
quarterback where Sam Hartman's a legitimate rockstar around here.
I'd have to imagine they're already dealing with a lot of that going into
the biggest weekend of their season.
Well, let's talk about Sam.
We had Joe Alt on and he was talking about how quickly Sam assimilated into
the culture of this team.
And you, the results on the field look very different and it feels like that's what
Notre Dame's been like when you went 12 and 0 that was Everett Golsan he was all right but it wasn't
the same thing as having a QB where you felt like oh this guy can absolutely break this game open at
some point this feels different it's it's wild because you're right. That 2012 team, it was Everett Golsan and then Tommy Reese coming in
and doing spot duty and being like a relief pitcher in certain games.
The sure thing we have, and I think on every team,
you've got to have something that you can look at for the rest of the team
that gives you the confidence to relax in big moments.
For us, it was the defense.
Manti Teo, the late Louis N Nix Capron Lewis Moore all those guys
we had one of the number you know the top defenses in the sport that year so when we made a mistake
on offense we're like all right we know the defense is going to get us out of a couple of
these jams for Notre Dame now it is the quarterback and I was amazed you know I got to spend time with
Sam at a couple of different junctures in the offseason leading up to the year over the summer
and you're overwhelmed in person by the maturity, which you would expect
from a 24-year-old player who's in his sixth year playing college football. But that's not a given
for everybody. But it was the seamless understanding of, all right, Sam knows that Notre Dame is going
to be even a step up in attention from what he's dealt with as one of the best players in the ACC
in recent years. He understands the history. He was in lockstep with Marcus Freeman from the jump.
And in so many big moments, you know how how the sport operates we all know what the most important position is there's just something about whether it's on the offensive line where all right as a
player like Joe Walt I know exactly where Sam's going to be on any given play I know we're going
to be in the right play every time and so as an offensive lineman that makes my job so much easier
where I can cut it loose and worry about blocking Jack Sawyer and JT Tuamalo and all these guys and on defense hey if you make a mistake you
got a quarterback that's going to be able to keep you in it the way he can throw the football right
now one of the most efficient passers in the country and so I think culturally from a leadership
standpoint he's everything you could have wanted and more and so far the play has matched that too
which is incredible well and the O-line
part of it's interesting to me because Sam played behind some good O-lines at Wake Forest, but they
were not chock full of NFL players. You know, Notre Dame's offensive line, there's a good chance
all five of those guys are going to wind up on NFL rosters at some point in their career. And
that seems to make all the difference. Notre Dame has become an elite O-line program.
How did that happen and how do they keep that rolling?
Yeah, I mean, how it happened, you go all the way back
and I give a lot of credit to Harry Hestand
who just retired after this last season,
was my O-line coach that fifth year senior year.
And I had four O-line coaches in five years
and I had a bunch of good ones,
guys that I have a ton of respect for.
But Harry Hestand is a program changer and the pride that he had in the history I had four line coaches in five years and I had a bunch of good ones, guys that I have a ton of respect for, but Harry,
he stands as a program changer and the pride that he had in the history and
tradition of Notre Dame's offensive line room and what it meant to have guys
like Jeff Fane and Aaron Taylor and the history of this room,
the all Americans that came through,
it mattered to him.
And he was there during the formative years.
I would argue outside of,
you know,
Jack Swarbrick and Brian Kelly in the modern pantheon of important Notre Dame football figures, Harry Heastand is on that medal stand at the top
because he had that run where starting in 2012, it was Zach Martin and Chris Watt and
Ronnie Stanley and Mike McGlinchey and Quentin Nelson and on and on down the list, first
round draft pick after first round draft pick.
He instilled that sense of duty to that room
that I think still permeates now.
The guy's got a taste of that.
Last year, Joe Rudolph's come in
and been a phenomenal addition.
You've seen how he's helped even continue
to add to these guys' tool belts
and what they can do up front.
And so it's created a standard inside that room
that I don't want to say drives itself,
but when I was there,
we were a program that was winning six, seven, eight games a year. We had to learn a lot
about the things that it took to go into winning football that these guys know a lot more innately
now because it's been passed down through that room for a while. And to your point about with
Sam too, part of it's also the scheme. I know we beat that slow mesh thing into the ground.
There's a lot of good alignment at Wake Forest, guys that are playing Sunday ball there but what they were asked to do is so difficult in the confines of that offense versus
now for Sam he gets to operate with much more NFL concepts multiple tight end sets play action shots
normal shotgun when you can get the ball out on time without having to slow walk up and what I
always said throw the football out of a straight jacket So Sam's getting to play with a little more freedom
from that constriction around him.
And because he learned how to operate in that,
I think we're seeing Notre Dame fans who are startled
by seeing a quarterback operate so calmly in the pocket.
I think a lot of that has to do with the development
that happened under Dave Klaassen in that offense.
And I've talked to Sam about operating that slow mesh.
And we had Mitch Griffiths on the show,
the guy who replaced Sam at Wake Forest.
And I said, how do you maintain your poise when you are meshed with that running back
and you are like three feet from the entire defensive line?
He's like, yeah, you just get used to it.
Man, it's something so special.
But you're right in that once you get used to that,
we always talk about like pocket presence for quarterbacks.
So much of that's developed early in your football life.
You know, the next level, we always look at what happened to David Carr,
where you get hit so many times so early in your career.
It's really hard to shake that once you see,
because like backfield players, I always try and explain to people,
I always thought about this through a running back's lens.
Stuff's moving so fast, you're looking for a flash of color.
Like when a running back cuts back on outside zone, it's because you didn't get your hat three inches far
enough play side. And now he sees an opposite color jersey and he's putting his foot in the
ground and going. For a quarterback, so much of that stuff has to be feel in the pocket because
you're looking downfield. So it's the same thing. It's flashes of color and being able to discern
on the fly the difference between a guy that's going to take your head off and a guy that's just collapsing the right guard a little bit and so to your point
because Sam got used to it that way I think you see so many places now where the pockets collapsing
where a normal quarterback would dip out of that thing would roll out and try and make something
happen and he's been a guy willing to stand back there and not only trust the quality of that group
but also just trust the time under task.
He's had discerning real threat from perceived threat.
Yeah.
Well,
so you are not getting to stay for this game because you,
you have a radio gig.
You did the backyard brawl last week, but you are doing Colorado at Oregon,
which is a fascinating game.
Absolutely fascinating.
And,
you know,
I I'm,
I'm curious because this –
Deion is bringing so many casual fans into the sport.
Like you pointed this out on Twitter on Wednesday.
Somebody said, what attention to detail.
They're playing the Oregon fight song and crowd noise at practice.
And you're like, everybody does this.
Why is this new to you? But 9.3 million people watching a Colorado-Colorado State game
at 1.30 in the morning Eastern time.
What is going on here?
Brother, I stayed.
I got done with the backyard brawl.
So we finished that broadcast in like the 11 o'clock Eastern hour.
We got done and packed up and back to our hotel
because getting out of Morgantown is kind of wild.
We got back to our hotel probably at one o'clock in the morning and i had to get up at four o'clock
to drive from where we were staying near morgantown back to pittsburgh to fly out and so i knew i was
gonna have to be up early and make that drive and i still couldn't take my eyes off that and
couldn't bring myself to go to bed dion got us all to stay up for what's normally a window reserved
for hawaii and chasing overs after dark he somehow turned that into a pseudo prime time window to go to bed. Deion got us all to stay up for what's normally a window reserve for Hawaii and
chasing overs after dark. He somehow turned that into a pseudo primetime window. And so, yeah,
you know what it is, Andy? It's interesting you mentioned it that way. It's bringing a lot of
people in that wouldn't normally be, and it's putting attention in certain places. And I do
wonder, because we all expect Oregon's a heavy favorite in this game. Coming into the year,
they were one of what we felt like were the known commodities in the Pac-12 with Bo Nix
and the rest of this offense,
with what Dan Lanning started to build up there already.
I do wonder if this does go the way we think,
if this might actually be the bump that Oregon kinds of needs,
weirdly enough, from a team that is considered their lesser on the field
to at least start getting some of the
attention because so many eyes are going to be tuned in on the game that I feel like thus far
in the national conversation has kind of eluded the ducks early in the season as we knew Caleb
Williams and USC were obviously going to be the main story I think some people have started to
sink their teeth into Washington just because the Michael Penix juniors number have been insane and
it's been about conference realignments and all this stuff outside of a couple of Heisman posters in New York
that were the talk of the town for a few days.
I don't feel like the Ducks have gotten that same love.
So this weekend, because this broke contain
and now Colorado's become a good morning America story,
maybe this can also be the moment that early in the season
the Ducks are finally brought into the national conversation
in a conversation sense the way they were in a football sense
the minute they stepped foot on the field this year.
Yeah, and I think it's interesting because it's really because they haven't played anybody.
They played Georgia in the opener last year,
and that got them talked about in a completely wrong way.
But they have not played anybody who's challenged them other than Texas Tech.
That was a game that was kind of – there were other games going on
at the same time that kind of covered it up.
So, yeah, I want to see them play.
I hate that we're going to have to watch it with no Travis Hunter
because I think probably that puts Colorado at a pretty severe disadvantage
in terms of slowing that offense down.
I would say so between Travis Hunter and then, quite honestly,
the injuries up
front that we've seen along the offensive line were a big part of the Colorado State game as well.
We already thought coming into this season that Colorado most of the like everyone who covers
college football the biggest concern was in the trenches right you can recruit skill talent pretty
much everywhere and with Deion Sanders at the helm what young skill player wouldn't want to come and
be a part of this. Sean Lewis and the offense that he calls that that seemed like a given but being able to recruit depth and quality
along the lines of scrimmage is usually the biggest differentiator between g5 and power 5
and they've been such a pleasant surprise up front but the depth shines in now you get one or two
injuries up there and the equation starts to change a little bit so that's the biggest worry for this
weekend but Travis Hunter I mean to have that kind of a difference maker on both sides of the ball so
far I've seen some people kind of go the Shohei Itani route as far as a comp of just how unique
it is to see someone doing this much on both sides of the ball no doubt going to be an impact felt
for that for sure so they had Lil Wayne bring them out of the tunnel last week uh your Notre Dame teams, who would you have had bring you out of the tunnel?
Like if you just dream artist, like rapping or singing as they walk you out,
who would you have had?
Well, I mean, for me, listen, like obviously now and everyone knows this,
it would have been like awesome to get like a Taylor Swift or someone.
Back when I was in college too, like God rest his soul,
like Avicii was the biggest thing on earth.
So when we got the stadium
to play levels for the first time as notre dame stadium was kind of growing up late in terms of
the in-stadium accolades and accoutrements the music the video board all that getting something
like that playing would have in 2012 been exactly what we needed z clarity by zed was huge back then
but if you're asking me now like shake it off or bad blood or
something like that being let out by Taylor Swift going into the stadium would be incredible for me
in all actuality I think Garth Brooks has played at Notre Dame like twice it would probably be like
him or like Bruce Springsteen or honestly um Jon Bon Jovi whose son Jesse oh yeah ended up coming
and walking onto the football team here for a little while here Bon Jovi would probably be like the one that most fans and other people
might say.
Yeah.
That's where the olds would be very happy.
Yes.
Yes.
The Notre Dame football environment is interesting because I do remember
there was a period where they had to tell the old people to stop yelling at
the young people for getting up and cheering during games.
It seems like,
because now they're like,
we're going to have all these glowing wristbands and everybody's going to be
going nuts.
Like they've come a long way in a short time.
Dude.
When I first got to Notre Dame,
we had no giant jumbotron like they've got now.
We had like the one little digital screen that used to play.
You remember back in the day when we had like the old flip phones and it was
like those little like two bit graphic images or the knockoffs of songs'm that was like what was playing in the stadium to get us hype
and i remember it was such a big deal they had almost never played music in the stadium leading
up to like my sophomore junior year and they're like all right we're gonna give you guys one song
this year you choose one song that's gonna play on third down and we're like oh man this is sick
we're finally gonna have music and i forget how it got chosen, but someone chose Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne.
Okay.
Andy, by the third game, I promise there is nothing I hated on earth more than third down.
I don't know what percentage was on defense, but to just hear that,
didn't, didn't, didn't.
For like the 40th time in a game the third game of
the season got old really quickly so yes we have grown up a long way since that we've grown up a
long way since i can remember the gold seats are the rich seats that you're talking about where all
the old timers sit i can remember looking there in the middle of a big game one time i'm down on
the sideline as a backup and i just turn around and there's a guy dead ass asleep in his seat
come on we can't we can't be living like this.
So it is, it is way different and way better now,
but we survived some pretty tough years on that front.
So yeah, you can't do crazy train.
You have to do let's go by trick daddy, which samples crazy train,
but at least you get a base drop and a little bit of, of little John in there.
You do the problem.
The problem is I love Notre Dame's fans,
but especially the student body,
it is a largely white student body.
And so a lot of times you'll get like
the hand nodding in there
and there is not a lot of rhythm
mixed into that student section.
And so we could sometimes look a little bit offbeat,
which is tough on the national TV copy.
Well, listen, you just got to make sure
that the opposing fans don't take it
it can't be like the Georgia game in 2017 no and that's that's a point Marcus Freeman made you
heard it didn't come and say it outright early in the week but this is you know an Irish wear green
game we saw before the season they did the Jerry Maguire show me the money video tease for this
where it's the all green top Kelly green jersey Kelly green pants for the first time that I can ever remember if it's ever been done before and marcus freeman got up in his press conference
early in the week and said we want to see a lot of green in the stadium meeting yes do not be
selling your tickets to georgia fans or like we've seen in the past years before that nebraska fans
for some reason the red team seemed to be a real trigger there and again with how close
columbus is to south bend geographically relative to some of the
other big games we're going to play, that's the hope is that everybody understands the
opportunity here.
And I think going all the way back, there's a different excitement this year because of
Sam.
There's obviously been a lot of good feelings about Marcus since he took over, despite some
of the early season woes last year.
But the big game moniker, right, wrong, or indifferent indifferent is going to follow Notre Dame until they do something about it.
We've seen them kind of slay that dragon a bit with Clemson in recent years,
but it still hasn't felt like the ball's fully gone in the basket on that.
Ohio State would go a long way, and so it's going to take every little bit,
and hopefully that environment reflects that.
Well, game time's a sponsor, and no matter who you root for,
last-minute tickets, best price is guaranteed.
I'm like a NASCAR driver.
I can slip that plug in anywhere.
So earlier this week, I felt bad for you.
You got got by a deepfake.
And I understand because we've all been there and everybody in the world was
sending me this Brian Ferentz clip. So you were not alone, but it was hilarious and a little bit
scary. There's a Brian Ferentz clip. I'm not playing it on the show because I don't know if
I want to encourage this sort of thing, but it's after, allegedly after Iowa scores 41 points and gets ahead of the pace in the drive for 325.
And he says, I believe you can use a stepstool to crawl up out of my you-know-what.
As a citizen of the internet, how did that make you feel?
Humbled.
As someone who, you know, I work with my father every day on gojo and golic and
my dad's a 60 year old man which means he's got the technological limitations that most of our
dads do or most of us with older male well that relatives do and the internet he didn't grow up
with twitter or any of this stuff he barely grew up with dial-up in his lifetime and so i can
understand when certain things like that are you know and he's cautious online because of that
i'm a child of the internet like i always say i'm like a day walker like we used to say uh in the um
blade in the blade movies yes where i grew up in a world where we went to play outside and call the
house phone as a kid and then i got to college my junior year and we got twitter and the world
changed and i'm deeply online as most people know who follow me and so the fact that i was not able
to discern that one
means I might be losing my fastball but two like you said means we've arrived at a terrifying place
with what's possible that's right that's right Skynet is about to take over we're we're this
close and I gotta tell you so I think this person who makes the deep fakes is an Iowan because they
made another one a day later of Matt
Campbell.
That is even better than the Brian Ferencman.
And again,
I'm not going to play it here to encourage this sort of thing,
but it's hysterical because for those who didn't see the video,
there's a video of Matt Campbell being held back from an Iowa state fan
after the Ohio game.
And this is this Iowa state fan is as you like little skinny guys,
wearing a cyclones jersey.
He's got like Mardi Gras beads on.
And so it's got Matt Campbell saying the Fiesta Bowl champs don't have to apologize to anyone.
And then he says, I'll send your Mardi Gras bead wearing, you know, challenged into a boxing match at Rough and Rowdy.
I'll send your Mardi Gras bead wearing ass back home in a coffee can and it's like if you've never talked to matt campbell and understand he
would never say that right in public like it's perfect wait so now my brain is really in a
blender are you telling me that whole video of his encounter with that? No, that was real.
Okay.
That wasn't right.
Yeah.
They had that in the picture in picture as the fake Matt Campbell is having a
press conference.
Okay.
I was going to say,
because Andy,
I'll tell you what,
I was already feeling old and washed.
If that whole thing had been some sort of Skynet concoction,
there's a good chance.
I would have just retired the Twitter handle and gone back completely to
analog out of fear. Oh, it's it it this is terrifying as people like you and i
talking to a microphone every day it's on like gojo and golic is on youtube this show is on
youtube you can pull videos of us saying pretty much anything and so god knows what someone if
they get a wild hair, could make us say.
Like you said, though, I think that's the other advantage because with Brian Ferencz outside of Iowa fans,
most of us don't really know what he sounds like all that often.
You don't hear from him much.
You just hear him chided in public for the lack of offense there.
And for Matt Campbell, it's kind of the same thing.
I think we at least have the advantage of people are used to hearing us
belch into microphones plenty.
And so if it's really something wild and it's not about like donuts, breakfast food, Taylor
Swift, Japanese anime, or Notre Dame football, I think most people are going to kind of know
that is probably not what Mike would actually say.
Like I know most of the dumb stuff he would say and in certain other categories, it's
probably not going to fall into that line.
So maybe our volume shooting actually helps us here, Andy.
I hope so.
I hope so.
Before I let you go, you already known Swifty.
Yes.
Jason Kelsey apparently has confirmed
the Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift relationship.
If you'd have known it was going to be a football player,
would you have shot your shot a little earlier?
You know what? I've gotten asked that question a bunch and it i i'm flattered by it because it operates under the assumption that travis kelsey and i are in like the same weight class when it
comes to any of this stuff bank accounts accomplishments overall good looks the thing
i'll say is no i like Taylor Swift would eat me alive
she's in a class of powerful women that in you know it would absolutely destroy me based on my
station in life I would welcome that destruction but it is what it is what I'd say about Travis is
I appreciate it because I didn't know if he was a Taylor Swift fan coming into this or not
the fact that when he initially tried to shoot the shot he tried to do it speaking her language
the flavor of love for this tour was the friendship bracelets and so he went with the phone number on
the friendship bracelets i thought that was an incredible olive branch from a guy who is cool
young in demand at the height of his powers right now with the podcast and the super bowl win last
year he could have easily made this about him and instead he made it about her so as our representative
for the sports community and listen she hasn't really even dated an american in quite some time and she's always
majored in skinny actors and musicians this feels like kind of a win for all of us so i am excited
to have travis as our ambassador and i continue to hope that he is on his best behavior for this
because we need it yeah she's gonna eviscerate him in song at some point so just and it's gonna
be great what What an honor.
The highest honor, maybe.
All right, Mike, you got a big week.
Finish up in South Bend and join the pregame festivities and then off to Autzen to watch the Coked Prime show.
Good luck and thank you so much.
Appreciate it, brother.
Great talking to you.
Yeah, Travis Kelsey provided an update Thursday
on the Taylor Swift thing and and basically
said he's still shooting his shot uh and and nothing is nothing is actually happening yet I
don't know how much I believe but if if he does manage to pull this off and begin actually dating
Taylor Swift I don't know what this means for the Cincinnati Bearcats but they are playing Oklahoma
this weekend their first big 12 game Probably should have included that in my honorable
mentions. You heard Dante Corleone, the godfather, Cincinnati defensive tackle on this show yesterday.
That's a very exciting game. Oklahoma's looked great this year offensively.
Can Cincinnati slow them down? I guarantee Nippert Stadium is going to be rocking. That is yet another big one
at noon Eastern time for us to think about. But in that second window, you got the game that Mike
Golick's going to be at. Colorado at Oregon. The coach prime effect has changed who's looking at
college football. It is, as Mike said, broken contained. It has now become
a Good Morning America story. And that's great. That is great for the sport. Welcome to all the
casual fans. We want you to become diehard fans because this is the most fun sport in the universe.
Well, now you're going to Autzen and you're going to see a very talented Oregon team. And one of the
very talented players on that Oregon team is defensive lineman
Brandon Dorlis.
He came back for another year, could be in the NFL right now,
but wanted to have one more good year at Oregon.
And they could have a potentially special year.
This is a very deep Pac-12,
but they look like one of the best teams in the Pac-12.
Talk to him about getting ready to play coach prime.
Joined now by Brandon Dorless,
Oregon defensive lineman.
Excellent golfer,
in case you didn't know.
We'll talk about the golf in a second,
Brandon, but what's this week been like
for you guys? Obviously, the
story around the country has been Colorado.
Everybody's talking about the Buffaloes.
Usually, when you play somebody, we're all talking about the Ducks.
Is it weird to be kind of on the other side of the fence there?
I mean, yeah.
So since I've been at Oregon, like every time I play Colorado,
it's just been, yeah, Oregon's going to smash Colorado.
And now, you know, everything Colorado got going on,
it's just crazy because, you know, going social media,
you just see Colorado.
I don't follow no Colorado
post media for nothing.
All I see is
Deion, Shadari, all them boys.
It's different, but
at the end of the day, you got to make it about
your team and make it about
locking in to your fundamentals and
doing what you know is going to help you win the game.
You can't make it about them
and all the hype they got going on right now.
Now, you're an old college football player.
You're old for your age group.
But do you have any memories of Deion as a player?
I mean, you know, I watched the highlights.
I've seen the celebrations he did.
I know he played baseball too.
I wasn't a big fan of Deion.
I wasn't growing up watching him all the time.
But, like, just off the highlights, his kick returns he had.
And just, like, the player he was, the flash, the slack here.
You know, everybody sees him.
You know, everybody watched Deion.
Everybody wanted to be, like, primetime.
So, you know, watching this, it's going to be funny seeing him on the sideline coaching for sure.
You know, but.
You going to say anything to him if you tackle somebody along the sideline?
I'm talking all my pads in my hands.
I'm not doing no talking this game.
They had Lil Wayne
lead them out of the tunnel, like rapping
live last week. If you could have
any musician lead the Ducks
out of the tunnel, live,
who would it be?
Probably Drake.
That would be smooth.
I'd probably do with Drake.
Although there's a Drake curse, right?
If he sits courtside, the team
loses, all that. You've got to be careful with that.
Yeah, I'd probably just tell him to go sit in the
box or something.
You lead us out,
you do trophies, and then you're leaving
the stadium. Yeah, perform trophies
and then go up to the suite. It would perform trophies, and then go up to the suite.
It would be trophies, right?
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, has to be.
All right, so this team this year, y'all have played Texas Tech,
and that was a tough one,
but you haven't quite been challenged yet other than that.
What's practice been like this week,
knowing what you've seen from this offense?
Yeah, so, you know, this offense is pretty dynamic.
You know, have a lot of weapons they use.
You know, the running back, Dylan Edwards,
he's a fast back, a different back
where we're used to seeing, you know,
we see more physical backs downhill,
like through the tackle running.
But this dude, you know,
they'd have to get perimeter runs for him,
get him going, like some screens and stuff.
So, you know, and they know for their tempo. And so this week, they have to get perimeter runs for him, get him going like some screens and stuff. So, and they know for their tempo.
And so this week, our practice has been tempo,
get in shape for this fast offense coming into town.
Cuz we know how the OC came from and who his friends are.
So we know what they're gonna run.
We have a great game plan.
I feel confident in the game plan we got to stop this offense so texas
texas pure air raid team and this is more the old baylor offense but it's still the same level of
tempo like how how in shape are you guys to deal with what they're going to try to run at you i
mean coach manning has been texting this like crazy so like you know texas tech was known for
their tempo too but like clockwise like speed wise that I think they go faster than Texas Tech.
And they have the number one offense on the third down right now.
So biggest thing is getting like we're in shape, we're good to go.
The biggest thing is just locking in, we have to lock in,
don't try to do too much, don't fall into the trap of Shadown,
the watch and stuff, know all that hype stuff
you know we're gonna make it nasty and gritty like we're gonna punch them in their mouth all day and
we're gonna do our job you've that's become oregon's calling card since you guys have been
there you know when coach crystal ball was there too what was that like kind of building up on the
line of scrimmage because when you came right around when Panay came,
and you guys have just added – like, you've got Josh Connerly now
on that offensive line.
You've got Honcho, who sounds like a complete monster,
the freshman from Hawaii.
And then you've got Popo, who you're playing with alongside on the D-line.
Like, how did you get this nasty up front?
I don't know.
I mean, like, when I was getting recruited by Crystal on the staff,
like, their main goal was to make the O-line, D-line more stout, you know,
get bigger bodies, more physical dudes.
And ever since my freshman year, every year it gets more physical, more bigger.
And these freshmen come in, I'll just be like, another big dude.
But, like, it's good.
Like, Poncho, for instance, like, he's – the way he – how big he is, he should just be like another big dude. It's good. Poncho, for instance,
he's, how big
he is, he should not be moving like that.
We get good work. It's good on good work.
Yesterday, me and him had a couple one-on-ones
and it was just going back and forth.
He'd probably catch me when I'm slacking, but then I'd
hit him with some old school move.
This is how it goes. Me, personally,
I love the physicalness that we got up front.
We know football games are won up front.
So I heard you in another interview talk about what Poncho can do on the diving board.
He's like 355 or something.
What can he do?
Oh, I mean, not just Poncho, even like Ben Roberts on the D-line.
All the Polynesians dudes, they get to the pool on the diving board.
These dudes be doing back flips.
I'm like, what? it's crazy to see that and like me first i came with diving board i'll do a cannonball like
i'm not doing the back flips and stuff but no it's just somebody's in there yeah you're 290
the cannonball is going to displace lots of water everybody's going to go. Like you don't need to be risking your life here.
That's what I'm saying. We do need to talk about, about your golf game. Cause I saw you talking about this in another interview and you mentioned that you played a bunch growing up, hadn't played
much since you'd been in Oregon, but then this past off season, you really got back into it.
And while you're talking, we'll'll we'll have a few a little bit
of video of you and it's interesting because i i expected like when you were putting videos on your
instagram that it'd be just you bombing long drives but this is your short game and you got a
pretty swing yeah nah me personally i'm i'm not great with the drivers and the fairway.
It's like, I love the short game.
I'm par threes for life.
I could do that all day.
But that's been my biggest point, just trying to get better on my drivers.
In this video, the pitching wedge is my favorite club to use and
I hit it at Penn High.
I just love golf, man.
It just clears your mind up.
Well, so you grew up in, in South Florida.
So there's, you know, you play all year round.
There's courses all over the place.
Is that, is that how, how it got started?
Uh, no.
So like my dad, my dad growing up, he grew up on the country clubs and he worked for
like, he was caddying for people.
And so he started taking me out to the country club.
We started golfing together.
And at the time I was like middle school, like, I don't't know what i was doing i was just swinging as hard as i can and and then i got to college my dad was
trying to make me uh go one-on-one with him and he think i don't have no golf skills and i've just
been working on that the whole time well you said you're like a 10 handicap now so that's i mean
given the busyness of your schedule that's pretty pretty good. When I first started going back,
it was the end of the last season,
towards bowl season.
As soon as the bowl game got done,
I got back to Eugene. I was around the golf
course every day right after workouts.
That's all I've been trying to work on is my short
game and trying not to slice
my drivers.
It's
funny because I feel like we've learned a lot about you as a person
because I think most people just care how far they can hit the ball.
But you want to slice strokes off your game, the short game is the way to do it.
That's what I'm saying.
It's crazy because people don't understand the short game can really just mesh up your score a lot.
And when I started working on that,
I went to this country club and worked with this trainer.
And he was like, yeah,
all people are always trying to work on the drivers,
keeping it straight.
But people understand the better your short game is,
the better your score will be.
And once I seen my score keep going down and down,
I was like, yeah, I'm just getting matched to my short game.
Now you got to work pretty short when you're on the D line.
You play all along, by the way.
You play from nose to edge.
Yeah. Those are
very different skill sets, but
what is your absolute
favorite move to
hit on somebody?
It all depends on where I'm at on the
line. If I'm on
the edge playing against a tackle
like I'm on a regular 5-tech, I like to set up. I feel like I'm on the edge against a tackle, like I'm on a regular five tech, I like to set up up feel like I'm going speed and then go to the one with
a long arm and bull rushing tackles and I used to big dudes on the edges.
When I'm in a three tech, I like to get a little more fancy or my moves,
you know, because again, that and that, but it always works.
Like my favorite movement at three tech is hitting one of the nice little stutter
swim and then when I play nose, like, again, since it's tech,
I like to go to the old school club rip.
And if that doesn't work, you know, just work a counter move off of that.
The club rip seems like the easiest one to learn but the hardest one to master.
Like –
It is.
But I bet it feels very satisfying when you get it clean and you get past somebody,
especially in those tight quarters, and all of a sudden you burst out
and it's you and the quarterback or you and the running back right there.
No, yeah, it was amazing.
It's like – because that same – the same move I hit on the end of the game,
Tech, is the same drill we do after practices, like do it as you work.
We work that – the club rip.
Like Coach Taj demands a club rip, like Coach Tosh,
demands a club rip a lot.
Like he says, he said, it's the one of the hardest moves
to master, but one of the cleanest moves when you do it.
And when I finally did it, and the nose take was,
it was like, whoa, it was ridiculous.
And I was just happy about that.
So you still eating Skittles on the sideline?
I heard you, you did have the Washington State game
last year, where you guys were in this middle of this comeback and you're like popping Skittles on the sideline i i heard you you did that the washington state game last year you guys are in this middle of this comeback and you're like popping skittles
no yeah i like to you know i feel like when like other dudes see me eating skittles on the
sideline they get to see that i'm confident in them and so it just calms everybody down let's
just get too high get too low you know like things that. Taste of tech. I can't be a dude whose mind is like,
oh, I'm panicking, I'm panicking. I got to be calm, just be in my
zone. I feel like Skittles is the best thing to keep me in my zone, so I eat the Skittles.
Taste the rainbow, baby. It's an NIL deal waiting to happen.
Speaking of rainbow and colors and changing, you all are wearing the color change
cleats this week.
How does that work?
Like, do they tell you a few weeks ahead of time this is you're going to be wearing these?
Or do they give them out to practice in for the week?
Or have you not actually seen those yet?
No.
So we've seen like we've seen the first prototype when they first made it like a couple months ago.
And we've seen like what the cleat did.
And at the time, they wasn't really going to give it to us because they didn't think it was that cool but you know after
more dudes saw the cleat everybody was like yeah we gotta wear this next year and so we came to
like all the seniors or the whole team came to a decision like we're gonna wear this or these
cleats this year and i mean personally i like the cleat you know the it looks it looks good
they change the colors and the heat.
And I feel like it's just going to look amazing.
And we did.
We got the cleats on Monday, and we started wearing them in practice
to get our feet used to them.
That's what I wonder is when do they first break them out?
What's that like when you walk in there and they're in your locker?
No, it was crazy because, you know, personally, the big dudes up front
don't get a lot of flashy cleats.
You know, we get the nice, bulky, you know, the big dudes up front don't get a lot of flashy cleats you know we got the nice bulky you know keep your ankles safe please but like we finally got some
prepared cleats that look nice and flashy so you know it feels good to put like a skill plan
this week yeah i've seen but i've seen those jordan one high cleats lately that the that the
big guys can wear like it feels like it though it's not the old boss shark anymore like nike's come up with some more stuff
for you guys yeah no they did for sure uh me personally like you said the land sharks that's
what we the d-line we're used to know like watching these like like dudes like nick bosa wearing the
jordan one lows like i don't want to get more jordan one lows but like i just gotta keep making
sure my feet stay good that's right that's. You got to keep those feet because you only get two,
and you got a long career ahead of you.
Brandon, thank you so much.
Good luck on Saturday.
Hope you eat a lot of Skittles and feel pretty good about yourself.
Appreciate you.
That is Brandon Dorlis, and he is so much fun.
Can you imagine what those pool parties look like
with offensive linemen flipping off the diving board?
And Oregon's got some dudes on the offensive.
Josh Connerly at left tackle.
He's a sophomore, former five-star recruit.
He's a stud.
And Poncho, whose last name I am not going to butcher,
he's a true freshman this year.
He's a guard.
Sounds like the next big thing on that Oregon offensive line. It is going to be a lot of fun watching these guys
in the trenches against Colorado because the big question is how does Colorado hold up in the
trenches against a team with really good interior line play? We're going to find out. We are going
to find out on Saturday. But let's head back east now because Notre Dame and Ohio State is the best classic helmet matchup of the weekend.
The gold versus the silver.
It's going to be beautiful.
Bobby Carpenter has a very special view of this game because like a lot of the great former Ohio State linebackers,
he played with Marcus Freeman, who is now Notre Dame's head coach.
So Bobby broke down what that's like to watch his former teammate lead his team against the
Buckeyes, but also broke down this year's Ohio State defense.
Joined now by Bobby Carpenter, former Ohio State linebacker, host of the Bobby Carpenter
show. You can hear him on Sirius XM. The show is called Off Campus, but it's really Meathead Radio
with Bobby and our friend Jacob Hester. You're at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center right now. You
have been deadlifting with the Buckeyes. Well, I mean, I like to think of dead lifting with them, dead lifting
maybe around them. And you guys are considerably stronger. I'd like to think that I'm still 20,
but every day when I get out of bed, I'm constantly reminded that I'm now 40 years old
and no longer in peak physical condition. Well, listen, okay. So for those who don't know,
you guys have a pretty tight group of former Ohio state linebackers. So Anthony Schlegel does the show with you.
He's been a strength coach at Ohio State.
He was a strength coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
A.J. Hawks in town, another former all-time great Ohio State linebacker.
And we were talking before we started recording about, I said I envision that there's this group chat every day
where you figure out whose house you're going to deadlift at.
How tight is this group of ex-Ohio State linemen like Laurinaitis is he in that too
yeah I mean we've got one just the three of us we're all seniors then we have one with James and
you know there was one with Marcus in it but you know this week like you've got to make sure that
he's out of there so it was we had a pretty special room pretty awesome group of guys
James and Marcus were a couple years younger than AJ, Schlegs, and myself.
So we've got a really tight-knit group.
We all kind of think alike.
And so it's fun with James being back, watching him work with the linebackers.
He reminds me a lot of our former coach, Luke Fickle,
with how he works with those guys in individual.
And watching Marcus coach games, a lot of Jim Trestle, Luke Fickle,
kind of shines through him as well.
Well, so I'm wondering, because Marcus was a little bit younger than you.
I think you guys overlap by a couple of years.
Could you tell when he was in college that he was potentially destined to be a coach?
It was interesting.
I mean, Marcus was like the biggest star coming in out of Dayton Wayne.
Huge, huge recruit coming in and got here.
He had a little bit of injuries early on in his career.
And, you know, I never really thought that he would get into coaching.
It was interesting when he got done playing,
he had some heart issues that kind of forced his NFL career to end prematurely.
And then he started working in the administrative side.
He was working under Gene Smith, interning.
I think he came full time.
And then he was like, Trestle, why don't you try GA?
So he GA's working under Fick.
And then the next thing you know, he's leaving to go to Kent State with Darryl Hazel.
They go to Purdue.
And then he makes his way through the coaching ranks,
meanwhile having like seven kids with Joanna along the process.
So you've got a huge family, great guy.
And I've been really happy to see his success.
I'm even more happy, Andy, because he was a guy when he came into Ohio State,
he always used to have problems with his weight.
I mean, he was a guy that would kind of always meander over to the dessert table a little bit
and Fick would have to be on him, getting him on the climber.
I look at him now, I'm like, Marcus, man, this new spelt version of you.
Like, I'm so proud and impressed.
It is.
He is the most handsome coach in college football.
I think there's no debate about that.
Nobody fills out a Q-zip like Marcus Freeman.
But yeah, is it hard for you, though?
Because obviously you want the Buckeyes to win this game,
but is it a little bit in the back of your mind
wanting Marcus to,
because this would be such a breakthrough for him.
It is.
And you know, it's no different than Wisconsin.
It's no different than when my former coach,
Mark D'Antoni was at Michigan State,
who ironically is kind of back there now again with Mel.
All the guys who you played with or coached, played for,
you see them out like, I want them to win every game
except for the one against Ohio State.
So I wish Marcus the utmost success.
I was so happy last year when they were able to beat Clemson,
get on a roll, like utterly disappointed for him when they lost to Marshall.
But I knew he was going to do a great job.
He got the team like figured out.
And you know what's interesting, like watching him,
like there's so much press that kind of just shines through.
You know, he kind of figures out what type of team he has, how he has to play,
and then he really kind of leans in on that.
It may not always be the flashiest thing, but they ultimately end up with wins.
And so I'm excited to watch him mature.
Not many guys, I mean, ironically, kind of Ryan Day and him
can maybe have a conversation about it.
When you get your first big-time job And it's that probably a top 10, top five blue blood program. Like there's
really not a whole lot of room, Andy to learn on the job. And so I think those guys could probably
sit there and commiserate about some of like the subtle missteps you make in those first year or
two. Yeah. Cause you think back to Marcus coming out of, he was working with Luke fickle at
Cincinnati. He was the DC. He's the hottest the hottest D.C. candidate in the country.
It comes down to LSU and Notre Dame.
He winds up going in and Brian Kelly leaves for LSU,
and all of a sudden, whoop, there you are.
It happens overnight, and I can't even imagine the pressure
of something like that.
Oh, it's immense.
And like I said, usually you get to learn at maybe a group of five schools,
somewhere in the MAC, maybe somewhere in the Sunbelt, or even maybe a school that's not near the top of college football
that might be in the back half of a power five conference and so you go in there you're opening
I mean I think about this Andy for Marcus last year and he's in a much better spot now just
comfortability wise you're opening at Ohio State it's a a night game. You're alma mater.
It's your first game as a coach.
And by the way, you know, the guy that you played for, Jim Trestle,
is being honored with the 20th anniversary of his national championship team in 2002.
So you've got all that swirling around you.
And you're an Ohio guy.
So, like, there's all that pressure swirling around.
And I thought he did a heck of a job coming in, you know,
especially given their quarterback situation.
And this year with Sam Hartman,
you've noticed how much more prolific
and proficient they've been on offense.
Yeah, and that's the question I had.
Because Ohio State's defense the last two years,
the problem has not necessarily been
the down-to-down situations.
It's been big plays, two or three a game
that just change everything.
Sam Hartman now makes Notre Dame capable of doing that. Has Ohio State tightened that? I look at
the Western Kentucky game and I see 5.9 yards per attempt for a really good passing offense.
I mean, that suggests to me that Ohio State is a little bit different in terms of
how they're handling that. Well, Andy, experience matters a lot.
And people look at Western Kentucky, like, ah, it's a group of five schools.
Like, they hung 41 on South Florida, and Alabama was struggling to get to 17.
So, you know, Austin Reed, Malachi Corley, they have really talented players,
some NFL guys, and that team puts up yardage and points on everyone.
And the thing I was most impressed with in that game,
and the Cobb Accord played well, but it was the defensive proficiency.
They didn't give up the big plays.
They tackled well.
They were in the spots they were supposed to be.
They didn't let anyone get over the top.
And I think that's a function of experience.
Last year, they were more experienced than the prior season.
But if you look across the board now,
really Sonny Stiles is the only guy out there who didn't start last season.
And that was a guy that played over 35, 40 plays against Georgia in the Peach Bowl
and is one of the most gifted athletes I've ever seen on a football field.
So experience helps you a lot.
It helps you in big games when you're going to see things that you never practiced.
Teams are going to have wrinkles out there, and the pressure of the moment is going to be huge.
When you get to live in that pressure for a while, you feel more comfortable in it. So I think the defensive backfield feels a lot better than maybe
they have in years past. Well, I think of a guy like Steel Chambers at linebacker who was a
running back before, and now he's been at linebacker a while. And he, I mean, he's going
to be critically important in this game because if the D line does this job, it is going to be
Steel Chambers job to fill holes and, and tackle Aud guesstime and all their backs so it feels like
they're just more experienced everywhere what is you look at steel you look at tommy both of those
guys now have started for three years and audrey guesstime is the key we can talk about kyle mccord
and we can talk about sam hartman no notre dame has two high quality nfl tackles they love to run
the football they're going to try to pound it. Austin Estimé is big.
He's thick.
He can run through tackles.
It'll be up to Chambers and Eichenberg.
It's not only hit, but you've got to wrap.
You have to get them down.
You can't let a two- and three-yard run get bled into five to six
because that changes the math dramatically on the second and third downs.
And then the third piece of that is Sonny Stiles,
who is kind of like that hybrid linebacker safety.
The guy can run like a safety, but he's about 225 pounds.
So him being involved in that mix as well, if the defensive line does their job,
it's going to come down to being able to get Otter Destin to the ground
and make sure that he's not rushing for 150 yards.
This also, the timing of this, and really it feels like Notre Dame is a different version of Notre Dame
than what Ohio State played last year but it feels to me Bobby like Ohio State after playing this game
should be better prepared for the Penn States and the Michigans and it feels like in past years they
haven't had anybody who could kind of give them that level of game this early in the season so
does that help win or lose going forward? I think it does.
Anytime you're playing tough competition,
it's going to obviously help sharpen you.
And you've looked across college football this year, Andy,
we have six ranked-on-ranked matchups coming up this Saturday.
I mean, I include seven, Clemson's ranked, you know, in the coaches,
and Clemson, Florida in Clemson State should be a great game
down there in Death Valley.
And so everyone's looking to this weekend.
And then you look to last weekend.
You look at Florida State and Boston College.
You know, you look at Alabama and South Florida.
You look at Georgia, South Carolina.
You look at Missouri beating Kansas State, Tennessee, Florida.
Like, I'm trying to figure out what exactly.
No, heck, Texas was struggling with Wyoming into the fourth.
Like, this year, college football seems more wide open than ever before.
So I think playing big games like this is going to help you immensely as you
get through the season, kind of figuring out what you're good at,
what you're not, what you need to improve upon. And so I like this.
I love this matchup going on the road early.
It's going to be at Notre Dame.
Hopefully there'll be a strong Buckeye contingent there,
but anytime you can go on the road and play a tough opponent,
you find a way to get a win. It's huge. But even if you don't,
I think you can learn a lot about yourself. the the folks in my town by the way i want to thank you for naming my
alma mater the the undertaker team of the week on the pat mcafee show you you had florida coming
coming out of the casket against tennessee andy listen i was i threw so much dirt on them after
that after that utah game because i'm gonna be honest i mean you're around my age like i grew
up watching florida like fred taylor javon're around my age. I grew up watching Florida, like Fred Taylor, Javon Kirst,
like freaks out there.
I'm watching that game like they don't have anybody out here
that looks like a difference maker.
I'm watching the backup quarterback for Utah jog into the end zone
off of a scramble, and I'm waiting for someone to come flying out
of the middle of the field running a 4-4 way in 230 to polish him off
on the three.
It just never happened.
So I was really happy for Billy Napier because I hate to see coaches that come into a difficult
spot.
A lot of heat on him, obviously, as you know, to be able to get that win, to preserve that
two-decade win streak over Tennessee in the swamp.
And hopefully this is a sign of things that come for them because I didn't want to see
Florida have to change coaches again.
You watch Florida State kind of do that, and they stuck with Mike Norvell,
and now you see it kind of paying off.
So hopefully this year gets a little better,
and then they'll be able to make a push into next season.
Well, yeah, and they're playing a style that I know you would appreciate
where they're trying to be dominant up front and salt games away on the ground,
tackle, dominate on the D-line, which you're right.
They didn't have those guys. And so Javon Kirst, I'm glad you mentioned that. My first day as a walk-on at
Florida, I walked through the gate and I'm just shaking like a leaf. I turned to my right. Javon
Kirst is standing there with no shirt on, just wearing his pants. And I'm like this is the first player I see I assume they all look
like this I'm like I I don't think this is for me I'm not even the same species as this guy so
oh yeah he's not in the brochure I mean I took a visit to North Carolina I see Julius Peppers
out there I get down on the field and then you truly have an appreciation when you're on sea level with those guys.
Wait, I see you move, and now I realize how big you are.
I didn't realize God crafted human beings quite like this.
It is incredible.
But, yeah, you played with a bunch of those guys at Ohio State
and got a bunch of those guys on the current Ohio State roster.
Notre Dame's got some of those guys too now.
That's what makes this game so much fun.
Like you said,
it feels like things are more even like, I don't,
I don't know how many teams I would before the season,
I would have said there's like three teams that can win the national title.
I don't know what the number is for me now. I think it's getting close to 10.
I think if you look at it,
you probably have four or five teams out of the Pac-12.
And, I mean, no one thought Colorado was going to be worth the salt,
and they're up there as good as anyone.
The Big 12 is a little bit different.
We've got to see what OU ultimately is.
But I think Texas is really stinking good this year.
They've proven that.
I think you have Ohio State.
You have Michigan.
You have Penn State in the Big Ten.
And then the SEC, like you have Georgia.
I love LSU. I think – I love LSU.
I think LSU is very good.
I think Bama, depending on their quarterback situation, can bounce back.
We might find out a lot about Bama this week with Ole Miss
because Ole Miss has looked really good this year.
And then you look at the ACC, and you obviously have Florida State,
and maybe there's someone else that can emerge.
But, I mean, you could get to a legit eight to ten teams,
which normally it's like, all right, give me – if you give me five, I could probably get all four in any given
year. Yeah, it is. It is so much more exciting this way. So I hope, hope this keeps up Bobby.
Thank you so much. Go get cooled off after that workout. And, uh, and we will see you
on the Bobby Carpenter show. My pleasure, Andy. Thank you.
If you haven't yet,
check out that Bobby Carpenter show.
He's with Anthony Schlegel,
who former strength coach with the buck guys.
He was a linebacker when they played that guy will get you pumped up.
No matter what he's in. He invented a device that pretty much every level of football they use that helps linemen work on hand placement, work on hand fighting.
The guy's incredible.
And Bobby's show is great.
And you'd also catch Bobby on the Pat McAfee show.
They call him General Bob.
And when you talk to Bobby, you see that.
He has a commanding presence.
Speaking of forces,
tonight's extra point is about some unfortunate wording in a tweet.
Because North Carolina is playing Pittsburgh on Saturday.
The Tar Heels are 3-0. They're having a great season.
But they... I don't know.
This is not the way to present your uniform.
So they're wearing these beautiful white uniforms
and there's nothing that can make
a North Carolina football uniform look bad
because that blue is glorious
and that argyle is awesome.
Whether it's the stripe down the helmet
or they make it a stripe on the pants
or they put it on a jersey somewhere,
it looks amazing. whether it's the stripe down the helmet, or they make it a stripe on the pants, or they put it on a jersey somewhere.
It looks amazing.
But the tweet they put out to unveil these uniforms, which are going to look amazing,
Stormtroopers assemble.
Teams, social media managers, don't do this.
Do not automatically throw the Stormtrooper name out when your team's wearing all white why because anybody who's watched the star wars movies or the extended star wars universe
on disney plus right now knows that the stormtroopers are the most incompetent fighting
force in cinematic history think of the numbers advantage they had over the Rebels.
And yet they still lost.
They got beat by the freaking Ewoks.
Tar Heels, you're 3-0.
Pitt's on the ropes right now.
They just lost the backyard brawl.
Don't cast your lot with people who lost to Ewoks.
Now's your chance to crush the ACC.
Don't do it with stormtroopers.
Just call them icy whites, whatever you want to call them.
But don't cast your lot with the stormtroopers.
They're the bad guys for one, and they seem to always lose.
So you're going to look great.
Just call it something else.
Guys, we're here. Great weekend coming up. We got our appetizers on Friday night, Wisconsin and
Purdue, NC State and Virginia. And then what is probably going to be the best college football
Saturday of the season so far. I cannot wait. We'll talk
to you again Saturday after some games.