00:00I just want, okay, there are some people who are like, man, this ND schedule is a joke.
00:05As two of their first three games, and what will end up being three of their first four games, are
00:11against Big Ten teams.
00:16They're the worst Big Ten teams.
00:19That's not Notre Dame's fault.
00:20The games are scheduled literally years in advance, but that's also not the point.
00:27When Ohio State, oh, but they play in a conference.
00:31It's like, cool, yep, and this is who they play, guys.
00:34This is who they play.
00:36Notre Dame are a 28.5-point favorite here against Sparty, and yet people are like, oh, see, it's easy.
00:48No, it's easy because Notre Dame is much better than these teams.
00:51In the same way that when Ohio State plays these teams, it's easy.
00:55It's easy because they are better.
00:57Now, there's a lot of rain in the forecast here.
00:59I think that might be a reason for some of the buyback on Michigan State.
01:03If this gets to a flat 28, Notre Dame is card worthy for me.
01:07They are better than Michigan State by a lot.
01:10They are at home, and Marcus Freeman is one of, if not the best, against the spread coaches in college
01:17football here.
01:18I understand the fighting Irish are, you know, going to kind of be seen as under cruise control until either
01:24October 17th when they play BYU, or they end up in a close game against one of these teams that
01:30people don't think is going to be close here, Dave.
01:34But, and I don't know why I'm fighting a fight that doesn't really matter.
01:38If Notre Dame's 11-1 or 12-0, they're going to be in the playoff, and if there are anything
01:41other than that, they're not going to be in the playoff.
01:43But it's just, I don't know, like, Mensah finding his way to being like 2-1 to win a Heisman
01:47Trophy and getting praise while people are still like taking shots at Notre Dame's schedule.
01:52It's driving me nuts a little bit.
01:55No, but it does matter because Notre Dame's schedule last year is what kept them out of the playoff to
02:00begin with.
02:00They had two losses to the only two good teams they played, and that was that.
02:04Granted, they lost by four combined points, but that was held against them because they didn't beat anybody.
02:08And you can't control how bad some of these conference teams are that are on an independent schedule because you're
02:15right.
02:15You don't know how good or bad Sparty's going to be when you scheduled them seven years ago.
02:19But Ohio State got to the Big Ten title game last year playing nobody.
02:23They played the dregs of the Big Ten.
02:25They played the Spartys of the world, and then when they played someone tough, they lost, and then they played
02:29Miami and lost.
02:30So schedule does matter, and Notre Dame is always going to be criticized because they're not in a conference when
02:37sometimes their schedule is tough and sometimes their schedule is not.
02:40As far as today's game's concerned, I'm 1,000% with you.
02:44If this thing drops to 28, I'm absolutely in on them.
02:47I think they can cover the team total all by themselves in this game, and their defense is good enough
02:53to not allow Michigan State to score anything.
02:55I mean, last week they beat up Rice to the expected number that we thought it was when shutting them
03:01out, and Sparty's allegedly better than Rice, but not much better.
03:04So I do like Notre Dame in this spot, hoping it gets down to 28.
03:09What I'm interested in is seeing if the market's going to play with C.J. Carr's number the way they
03:14play with it.
03:15It's not like Carr is putting up 120 yards and two interceptions in every game.
03:20He's playing fine.
03:21He's playing more than fine.
03:22Is he on national TV on Thursday night throwing for 800 yards and nine touchdowns against FAMU?
03:28No.
03:29But what I'm excited about is we're headed literally bullseye into a showdown between these two teams and these two
03:38quarterbacks that I can't wait for.
03:40So I, as much as I don't necessarily root for either team at this point, I want to see them
03:45both win and face off in that November 7th game.
03:48Because you could literally be deciding number one team in the country and the Heisman at the same time.
03:53Yeah.
03:53I think one of the interesting things for Notre Dame, you know, and again, it's early season.
03:58But there's a lot of conversation about do they have the skill guys to live up to the way they're
04:06being priced?
04:08And, you know, ironically, this weekend in the NFL, Jeremiah Love and Janarian Price go head-to-head, right, in
04:18a Cardinals-Seahawks game.
04:20And there's a lot, there's even Notre Dame fans who are starting to panic a little bit about the running
04:26back room.
04:27Because Anais Williams and Nolan James Jr., not splitting carries, but those are the two running backs so far.
04:33Neither averaging, you know, yards per carry, 4.1 and 3.7 doesn't inspire a ton of confidence.
04:39Two rushing touchdowns apiece.
04:40Again, Love and Price were capable of, you know, two apiece in each game.
04:46And the wide receiver room has people still wondering, there isn't a Jeremiah Smith, there isn't a Malachi Tony.
04:53I do think, again, it's like, yep, and how many teams have those?
04:56Two, right?
04:57You know, Miami and Ohio State here.
05:00I will just, to that question that's been posed around Notre Dame before we get to the Indiana spot here
05:05today,
05:06I think the person who is supposed to be the offensive difference maker is the quarterback.
05:13C.J. Carr is supposed to be the guy.
05:17And, yeah, maybe his life is a little bit harder than some of these other quarterbacks
05:22because they have these surefire first-round locks.
05:24I think Jordan Faison's really, really talented.
05:28But that's what's on Carr, right?
05:30Like, you'll notice Marcus Freeman did a lot of press this offseason.
05:33A lot of times C.J. Carr was sat next to him.
05:35He is the star of the show this year for the Fighting Irish.
05:39And I'm excited to see how he lives up to that building.
05:42Again, Dave and I agree.
05:43If we can get a flat 28 on the Irish here, they become a play on.
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