00:00All right, welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid.
00:02Time to preview the upcoming season for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish
00:06as they take on the Miami Hurricanes on Labor Day weekend.
00:10Joining us from the South Bend Tribune, he covers Notre Dame like nobody else,
00:14is Mike Berardino, and we'll get a full preview of the team, how they look,
00:17and then also talk about that game coming up.
00:19Mike, great to have you back here on Newswire for another season
00:23and previewing some of the big games.
00:25Thanks for coming on.
00:27Anytime, Craig.
00:28This is our annual visit.
00:30I hope all is well with you.
00:32We did twice last year, so don't say it's bi-annual at this point.
00:36Yeah, we did two.
00:38Oh, boy, I don't – okay, all right.
00:40Well, then I stand corrected.
00:42Okay, very good.
00:44Let's get a quick preview of Notre Dame here under Marcus Freeman.
00:48It's his fourth season.
00:50I know that you've gotten to know him now, you know,
00:52as well as you can know a coach at this point covering a team.
00:5614-2 last season, four bowl wins.
00:58Of course, getting to the national championship was quite the surprise, I think, for some to see the Irish go that far last year.
01:06Is that fair to say?
01:06Certainly after the Northern Illinois loss in week two, the smart money was not on Notre Dame running off 13 straight wins.
01:18They did it.
01:19They had a softer schedule last year than they appear to have this year.
01:22And they have two back-to-back real tough ones at the start, Miami on the road, Texas A&M coming here after a bye week.
01:31I would not bank on being able to flip the switch after an early loss.
01:36Would not be wise to chance that.
01:39But the talent level keeps rising, the top-five recruiting class, if not a top-three recruiting class, coming in in 26.
01:48And they really know how to develop these young guys right onto the field.
01:53Freshmen making an impact, a la Leonard Moore last year.
01:56Yeah, it was a great season for them last year.
01:59So let's show what Mike is alluding to here.
02:02The premium game of the season is the opener because it's the only game on the board that night on August 31st, Labor Day weekend, when Notre Dame takes on Miami.
02:12And then they play Texas A&M, USC, and Syracuse.
02:16Notre Dame's got three straight home games against three quality teams.
02:19So we'll see how those go.
02:20But let's start off with the Miami game, Mike.
02:24Now, this goes back a bit, but the Hurricanes, really, their win against Notre Dame under Manny Diaz with the whole turnover chain game,
02:33we're going back, I guess, like eight years ago, seven years ago, something like that.
02:37I mean, that's Miami's biggest win in the last 10 years.
02:40And I'm guessing that the Irish are not going to forget about that as they enter that game.
02:46Well, some of these guys were quite young at that time.
02:51I'd say, you know, maybe the freshmen were 10.
02:53But, no, I mean, I think, and what, it goes back to 1977 since Notre Dame won a game on the road against Miami, a true road game.
03:05They don't play nearly as frequently as they did for decades.
03:09And Hard Rock Stadium is no Orange Bowl.
03:12We know that.
03:13Notre Dame has the recent memory of winning a game and Orange Bowl in the semifinal against Penn State.
03:20They know the lay of the land, but perhaps a little more speed, perhaps a little more of a chip on the shoulder for Miami as Notre Dame comes in.
03:29It's a lot of transfers on both sides of the ball, obviously, for Miami.
03:33And that's been something that Notre Dame will have to navigate because it's not unusual in the opener to have that level of uncertainty.
03:41But new defensive coordinator as well for Miami, and new defensive coordinator for Notre Dame and Chris Ashe.
03:49Yeah, so I believe Ohio State named their starting quarterback yesterday, and they felt like that was really late in the game for a team like that to name a starting quarterback.
03:58But is Notre Dame in the same boat here?
04:01What's going on with their signal caller?
04:02It continues between Kenny Minchie and C.J. Carr going into the offseason, and that's why Steve Angelli transferred to Syracuse because he read the tea leaves, and Notre Dame was up front with him.
04:18And it was going to almost certainly, from the outside, it looked like C.J. Carr would be the money pick.
04:24But Kenny Minchie apparently having a better, substantially, or at least somewhat better fall camp than C.J. Carr.
04:31And so this derby remains open.
04:33Mike Dembrock, offensive coordinator who's been around the block, he says they're not nearly as freaked out by the lack of a publicly named starter as everyone else is.
04:44And there could be a little bit of obfuscation going on, too.
04:47I mean, maybe I don't think we'll get a definite word until the Tuesday of game week because that's the next time Marcus Freeman's in front of the cameras.
04:55The next time the players would be in front of us would be Wednesday of game week.
04:59So there is this gap, and they may have it sorted out much sooner than the public will realize.
05:04Now, you wrote about Jeremiah Love, and I see something here in the South Bend Tribune about some sort of comic book character that he is.
05:12You'll have to enlighten me on the story that you wrote there.
05:15But in terms of odds to win the Heisman, Mike, and I'm sure you've looked at this, but he's not, like, among the top three or four.
05:23But he is one of the top running backs predicted to win and probably has a good shot at the dope walker if he has a great year.
05:31Yeah, the difficulty there is, you know, Ashton Gentry had 2,000-plus yards and was being fed the ball nonstop and still came up just short of a Heisman.
05:42It's tough for a running back even with those gaudy stats.
05:45In Love's case, if he can help Notre Dame in a variety of ways, he's going to be good out of the backfield.
05:50He's going to split carries, or maybe it would be a 70-30 split with Jadari and Price.
05:54And they're also talking about using both Price and Love on kickoff return.
05:58And that's the kind of dynamic approach that could be a game changer.
06:02Price has run one back for a touchdown in the past, and Love certainly has the long speed to do it.
06:07But it would be tough for Jeremiah Love to get even to the Heisman finalist group with the amount of talent around him, especially in that backfield.
06:16But if Notre Dame is on top of the heap, it could be almost a team award.
06:22Let's end with this, Mike.
06:25Miami, A&M, we'll start with those two.
06:28It would seemingly be a success, is it fair to say, with them splitting those games and then potentially winning the home games against USC and Syracuse?
06:37I mean, the Irish will be favored pretty heavily, I'm assuming, against USC and Syracuse as well.
06:42So 3-1 out of the gate, is that fair?
06:46Well, that's not the exact order of how it would go, because Purdue's sitting there at Arkansas.
06:53Yeah, and then Boise State comes in here.
06:56You know, don't sleep on that, even without Gente.
07:00A lot of people still have Boise State being the team that will be that group of five pick.
07:05But, you know, I'd say that Notre Dame knows what it is, just needs to decide on the quarterback.
07:13It won't be appreciably different, whether it's Minshew or Carr.
07:16And I don't think they're looking to split out of the gate.
07:19I think they're looking to run the table.
07:21All right, Mike.
07:21Thanks for coming on, and we'll talk again soon.
07:23Appreciate it.
07:24All right.
07:24Thanks, man.
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