Notre Dame Keys To Victory vs Rice

0:00This is Belie, one network, every topic, everywhere. Brian, I'm next during the Irish breakdown podcast. Brought to by our friends over at Bandulant. It's time to dive into the keys to victory for the Notre Dame fighting Irish when they host the rice owls this upcoming Saturday inside a Notre Dame stadium. The home opener kickoffs at 3.30 p.m. Right now in Notre Dame's massive favorites, 43 and a half points and I just routed off what they believe rice is over under first half point total is going to be a two and a half. Yeah, the formal efficiency index. The goal of the game is to have has rice it projected score of 46 to one. Pretty sure the entire game. Pretty sure that's not going to be their point total on this game.

1:00Yeah, the over under on Fandul for total points for rice right now is at five and a half. So I think they're expecting to get some points. One would be shocking and actually I think impossible to do. But I guess we'll see. Yeah, crazy things have happened, but I mean, if they can add a second back onto the clock against for Michigan, they can add a point on the rice's point. You're not wrong, brother. Yeah, no, so. You're not well crazy. Crazy things have happened. They have certainly happened. Yeah, I expect this to be a dominant performance from the from the defense. Well, let's talk about what's going to go into that dominant performance. You know, on both sides of the ball, talk some keys to victory. Obviously we're two offensive guys. We're going to start off with keys to victory on offense. And if you guys have been listening to us for any amount of time, think you guys know what we're going with this one. Come on, chat. We're going to talk about the Notre Dame offense. What's the number one key to victory for the Notre Dame offense against rice? And I think it's especially true after last week at start fast. And a lot of this is for kind of what we were just talking about, Trev.

2:05You've got an opportunity to kind of come out here and build some momentum offensively. Put this game away early. Get your guys off the field a little bit. Get gain some confidence, gain some momentum. Get some other players involved. I want to see this offense come out and get into a rhythm. I was okay with them starting slow against Wisconsin. We predicted that they would start slow against Wisconsin. It's not a surprise. Now, it didn't make it a linear less of a key. But it's one thing to say this is what they need to do. It's another thing to predict that they're going to do it. So the start was a little rougher than I thought, but it wasn't too much rougher than we thought. We thought that it was going to be a little slower and they would pick it up as they went. And they did. There was a stretch in the second quarter or late first or second quarter. They scored on three or four possessions and the only time they didn't score is when they were appended their own minus two inch hard line. And so, but I want to see them kind of come out better here. No self inflicted wounds, no giving up run-throughs to kill the drive. Don't whiff with bad technique on a pass pro like you did on the first drive last game. Make good reads.

3:05Don't force the ball to somebody if somebody else is open. Move your feet at the snap and at the point of contact in the run game. Don't just get stagnant because of whatever. All the things that kept them from being effective in the opener against Wisconsin. I want to see those things corrected. How quickly can this offense learn from its mistakes and improving areas where they need to improve and adjust? It's going to be something that we're going to get a chance to see this game because it's not just about as I said, Trev, what I don't want to see this game early is I don't want to see them come out. And it's like a play where a nias gets hit behind the line of scrimmage for minus three. He bounces off runs around up the left side line for 90 something you're touched on. Sound familiar? Right. That's what Kevin Williams did in 2021. I don't want to see that. I don't mind seeing it from a highlight standpoint. It's like, oh, what a great run. But like, that's a bad sign if you're if that's what's happening. Like the point is they can make some plays where just like we're better than you. That's fine. And if that's, but it's more so it's I want to see that while also executing the offense the way it needs to be executed.

4:10I don't want to see CJ Carthroll ball in a triple coverage that it's like, yeah, that guy made a great play. But against BYU Miami, SMU, that's a turnover. Like I want to see this team executing their offense, performing the way that they need to perform correcting them mistakes, working their feet on the point of contact, driving rice off the ball. If you're legitimately one of the best of lines in the country, which this unit should be, this is an undersized defensive line for a team that gave up over 30 points of game last year. This should be some absolute dominance. And you don't notice against Wisconsin. There were a lot of a lot more pancakes in this game, especially from the left side of the world black out of few. Anthony Napp was bearing people. I did a run game breakdown, about 20 minute run game breakdown where I showed why they were having issues in the first half. And the things they corrected in some of the some of the blocks that Anthony Napp had a second half for like, oh my goodness. But will black had a couple pancakes as well? I was like, okay.

5:11But action Craig blocked really well. I want that you should be moving this team off the ball. I mean blowing this team off the ball. And so I want to see those things early in the game, Trevor. I want to see this offense come out smoking. And I don't care if it's throwing a ball down the field and you're beating it got by five yards. Fine, it's not your fault. He sucks. What I mean is I just don't want it to be the fluky plays where it's like, yeah, that doesn't translate against better teams. You know, I want to see stuff where it's like, oh wow, you were executing the offense. CJ was dicing them up. O line was dominating. Receivers were torching those DBs because that's what great players should do. And so when I talk about start fast, it's all those things. And you're going to have a role in yourselves not playing a lot in the second half. And I would love to see that. I would love to see Napp come out and had halftime. I'd love to see, you know, action Craig yanked at halftime. I'd love to see, you know, Jordan Faeson yanked at halftime. I'd love to see CJ, you know, be able to come out in the third quarter, you know, because I want to see a drive with the, the o line, you know, behind the, the backs.

6:14I want to see that all that. So then I can get bubble phrase in the game. I can get a lice of burst in the game. I can get, you know, some, some other players, I want to get the freshman running backs in the game. I want to get Charlie Tom or Grayson McEw and Owen Streibig and, and Cam Heron and guys like that in the game. Let's, I'll press God get a lot of snaps in the second half. If you think he can be the guy for you, then this is a game where maybe you could get him some low leverage snaps in the second half. I'm okay with that. But this would love to do this, but you can't do that without a fast start. Can't do without a fast start. This game needs to be over half time. If it's not, I'm going to be very disappointed in the offense, very disappointed. This is the one key to victory that I'm going to be very, very, very nitpicky about in the post game show on Saturday afternoon. I'm just giving everybody a fore warning about that now. This isn't coach speak, but the only team that can stop Notre Dame on Saturday is Notre Dame. And I know coaches say that all the time, no matter who you're playing, you know, that we're only going to hurt ourselves. And we can't hurt Notre Dame with you.

7:14It's all valid, no matter who you're playing. I'm being dead serious in this game. The only way that Notre Dame doesn't score on every possession this game is if the Notre Dame hurts Notre Dame. I don't want to see it, you know, you drive down inside of the 30 yard line, you have to settle for a field goal. I told this to Lauren against Wisconsin. And this is something the offense still has to prove to me. If there is a negative play, specifically a penalty on an offensive drive, that offensive drive, so this unit has to show me that they can overcome a holding penalty, an offensive pass interference, a fall start. The second Ash and Greg false started on the first offensive possession of the game against Wisconsin. I was like, yeah, that's, that's the drive. They're going to go three now. Now I was talking to Lauren on the couch, I don't know about that. Like it's still early. I was like, no, they'll go three now. And then they went three now. Then later in the drive, when they had that holding call against Anthony Napp, which negated that big chunk played by my grandmother, I was like, alright, that's the drive. And then that was just the drive. This y'all offense has to show me that they have the ability to overcome some self inflicted wounds. Ideally, they don't have any this game, but I'm also a realist in that you're going to get some sort of penalty in this game.

8:18Are you going to be able to overcome best way to do that is start fast. But another great way to do that Brian is, you know, your second key to victory, it's getting the pass game going. This is another one that I love because look, at the end of the day, Notre Dame could beat rice and they could cover their point spread. And you know, they could absolutely dominate and put up godly looking points on the scoreboard by running the football 50 times. And they might, depending on how many offensive possessions that they have or could have. But that's not going to show me anything new about this team news flash. Notre Dame can run the football against rice. I definitely want to see them have a concerted effort to get the past game going love this second key to victory. Yeah, Trev, when I, when I look at this game and I think of the aspects of it, obviously the fast start is sort of the big picture aspect of this, right? That's the one where we look at and say, okay. But how? Okay, how do this is this is part of that? Look, what I don't want to see is Notre Dame just come out and just run the ball down rice is throat, run it 50 times for 375 yards.

9:27I mean, I don't know if they do that, they do that. But I don't know how that moves the needle for you as a football team. And, and I felt like coach Dembrock, who y'all know I'm extremely think is a heck of an offense coordinator. I thought he was too reliant on trying to force that not too reliant. He was trying to force the run game too much against Wisconsin. They were geared towards stopping the run. Sometimes it's okay to use the past game to protect the run game and an opportunity. And this is another game where rice is going to come out and say we got to stop knowing if we're running the football. And this is a game where I want to see them say, hey, we're going to go at you throwing the football. We're going to dice you up. We're going to make some plays in the past game. We're going to get some of these receivers going. And yeah, we can run the football. But this isn't the game where if you run the ball for a million yards, you show me anything. I'm sorry. This team stinks. Like, let's just be real about it. This is not a very good defense. It's undersized. They're not super athletic.

10:29They're not skimmed incredibly well. They're gimmicky. This is a game where you should torch this team. And just running the ball down their throat is fine. But I don't know that it moves the needle. This one is to me is something where let's see that past game get going. Let's let CJ Carr put up some big numbers while getting more comfortable with other receivers than just Jordan Fazon. Who's the only guy that he's throwing to that was on the field last year. And that's the realization that Mike Dembrock and Mike Brown have to have. Yes, you have other talented players, but there's only one guy on the field, one guy that CJ Carr has any in game rapport with. And that's Jordan Fazon. The tight ends are new. You know, he played four games with Jaden Graydust and threw him any caught four passes. He's never, you know, he's never, he's throwing what nine passes to Mike at Gilbert last year and mop up minutes. You know what I mean? Like a, you know, the Miami game, he threw him a couple balls. We caught nine passes in 12 games. Jaden Graydust, we talked about the tight ends weren't part of it.

11:30This is a game where you've got to come out and you've got to say this is a great opportunity for CJ to build on his in game rapport with Jaden Graydust, with Milen Graham, with Mike at Gilbert, with the tight ends. And I want to see that. And that's why I want to see the get the past game going that I'm going to learn a lot more about that than I will from just. Running the football down their throat because you're way better than they are. Oh, yeah, well, I mean, the other piece of it too, Brian is you have to put on some sort of sample size on film for Mike Dembrock and Mike Brown to evaluate at the wide receiver position. There's only so much you can learn from this group going through individual period and seven on seven and team periods in practice. The fact of the matter is there's just some players who are gamers and maybe they're not showing up to practice every day right or wrong. It's a conversation for a different day, but you need to be able to put out a sample size outside of Jordan phase on what this wide receiving room can do. I'm with you completely because it needs to happen.

12:31You're not going to be able to beat my am you're not going to be able to beat BYU and potentially SMU and then especially once you get into the postseason by hammering a news Williams to death and throwing a Jordan phase on. You have to be able to get more creative in that sense, not from a play calling standpoint, but forcing the issue with certain players. Third key to victory, Brian is a more of a situational improvement, especially from the Wisconsin game. Noted name was not good on third down, especially in the first half against Wisconsin. That is a clear cut improvement that Notre Dame has to work on on Saturday. I loved they got better in second half. I love that. I mean obviously you went I think what three for three in the second half had some short-guardage success third converted to third and one. And I want to see them build on that in this game, Trev. This is a defense that ranked amongst the bottom in the country last year in third down defense. And I want to see you.

13:32I mean, honestly, there's just there's no excuse for you not to be better. Okay, their third down defense against Houston Christian was good. 30.8% for 13. That's pretty good, but Houston Christian is not very good. They were a 43.5% defense last year on third down conversions allowed that ranked 113th in the country. You were a pretty good third down defense last year. You weren't in the opener. You got better, 0 for 6 in the first half, 3 for 3 in the second half, but which one is who you are? I don't want them to have a lot of third down opportunities in this game, but when they do, I want to see more of a better third down plan. I didn't, you know, I want to see receivers running better routes attacking the football. There was a lot that I didn't like about the third down game plan on Saturday. And that's going to or Sunday night. That's going to have to improve. So I want to see a better third down game plan. And I want to see better third down success. That's a third and short as a situation where I'm OK running the football. I think getting used to moving the chains with the run game is something I would like to continue to see.

14:35But overall, I just want to see a more effective third down game plan and a more effective effect of third down. Just execution in this game. The final key to victory on offense, Brian, before we switch over and pivot to the defense is an expanded rotation. Expand the rotation early in later in games. You said something that I thought was perfect yesterday. It was like, you know, one of the bills of goods that we were sold this off season. You know, there's no day mask nine wide receivers that are all game ready to play right now. And they, you know, we're going to see this deep wide receiver rotation and then game one. It was the first, it was basically copy paste from last year. So top five guys, the majority of the time against an opponent like rice. There's no reason why we shouldn't see early and often the depth of this wide receiving room. And really just the depth of the team overall thought the defense did a great job. Obviously we're talking offense keys to victory defense at a great job of rotating offense. I want to see that rotation early and often.

15:36To me, Trev. So yeah, expanding the rotation does not mean OK when you're up 42 to nothing put the younger guys on the field. I want to see some of that happen in game. I want to see if you have a receiver that you think's on the verge. Maybe late in the first quarter, second quarter, you get him in the game. I don't want to see Jordan phase on running playing 60 snaps again. I against Wisconsin. I get it man. You got rights coming up. You do whatever you need to do to beat Wisconsin. If that means direct ball and plan every snap, it means direct ball and plan every set. But that means Jordan phase on playing 60 snaps. It means Jordan phase on playing 60 snaps. But here's a thought. Instead of every time you go 12th person, I'll just have in your W in your X on the field, phase on and Gilbert. How about you work, mylon Graham into that? How about you work, Jaden, great house into that? Whether in place of phase on or in place of my my myca Gilbert expanding the rotation means don't move Jordan phase on into the number one receiver slot every single play. And then defense is kind of get a read on that. And then now you're you're taking C. J. Car already has a I love Jordan phase on mentality, which is good by the way.

16:36You want a quarter back to have a guy that he believes in, but you don't overdo that by then putting him in that number one spot every play and acting like he's Jeremiah Smith. You know, expanding the rotation is is about making you know getting more guys on the field, but also about getting more guys the football. And some of that's just your starters, but you know, let me see a couple young receivers get on the field, maybe in the second quarter. If things are going well, getting on the if you give up a phrase or a series and with C. J. Car still on the field. You know get K. J. Young a little bit more involved in your run game in this game. Get in Primer on the field in this game at some point time and and so early in the game those those and that's just examples. He you know, maybe he's not ready. I'm just using him as an example. Get Elijah Burris on the field a little bit earlier, but then also be willing to maybe yank some of your starters, not all of them necessarily, but yank some of your starters earlier in the game to let those guys like just a little bit more. Let those guys like Jordan Faeson just played 61 snaps and he played hard in that game.

17:39If you're up big at halftime, maybe you aren't ready to pull all your starters. Maybe you want to let C. J. Car get another series or two, but pull Jordan Faeson. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like give him that breather pull last and Craig at center defensively like you mentioned pull Leonard more. If you're up 35, 3 and a half time, Leonard more does need to take a snap in the second half of that game. I don't know the drag bone does either, you know, but but it's offensively it's same thing. You know, maybe you still want to get during great house and my land gram and fall a little bit more. So you leave them in a little bit longer. Maybe you know, you know, but like if Mike Gilbert had a big first half. Let's say he catches three balls for 87 yards and a touchdown. Maybe you get Jerome. Bet a junior in the game a little bit. Maybe you get Devin Ferret's Gerald in the game a little bit with C. J. And that's kind of what I mean, but then also like I said, expanding it to where you like you yank those guys a little sooner to let some of those guys get some work. You know, if Jaden great house has a big first half, I don't care about seeing him in the second half, put Bumpa Frazier in the game or maybe leave Milen in for a couple of lectures series.

18:41So him and C. J. can kind of get some more in game work or vice versa. If it's Milen that goes off, then maybe you kind of force feed the issue on a series with Jaden great house. So I wanted to help C. J. him build some rapport. I want to see Bumpa Frazier. I want to see J. Me and Osborne. I want to see Jonas Walton in this game at some point time. So I would have a little bit of a quicker trigger with pulling guys in this game that I did last game. I loved that they didn't put their when they were up 34 13 with you know, few minutes left. I love that they didn't put their backups in with the exception of action Craig. I thought that was smart. I love that they now were peddled to the metal baby. That made sense last week. That won't make as much sense to me this game. You know what I mean like. I just want to see some of those young guys get a chance to come make place. Agreed. Let's pivot and talk about the Notre Dame defense and the keys to victory here. The game of this show rice runs a very unique style of offense. It's not quite triple option, but it's definitely not traditional and they run more of a pistol option.

19:45So key to victory number one for the Notre Dame defense is to be disciplined because this is going to be unlike some things that they've seen before. That's going to be key number one. Yeah, discipline is going to be important and that's something that I was actually very encouraged by in the opener with with with one exception in the secondary made some mistakes. But I was incredibly impressed with how disciplined the front seven was I can only there was like there was one run fit by Jalen, Jalen, that I thought was wrong you broke it down in the post game show. I remember you talking about the post game show, Trev and there was one other run fit by Drake, born that he made the right whole fit, but he went a little too level and didn't quite strept in. You know the quarterback made a miss, but Drake then made a bat and you talk about this to made him bounce and you were able to pursue play. Overall though, man, for especially for game one, I thought this defense was locked into the game plan last week. In great job by the coaching staff to have them prepared to play discipline. Now the secondary has got to do a little bit better job than in some of those situations and they did last week.

20:47And so I say I want to see that as well because just like last week, you know, biting on a double move against an option team could result in a ball going over your head. So I want to see that in this game as well from the secondary, but when you're defending this type of option, we talked about a play yesterday, but they ran, you know, they they ran a jet that way and they're running counter back away. And you got to have your eyes being disciplined and whatever your key is, you can't get sucked into all the other stuff if your key is the guard, read the guard. Don't don't don't worry about the back field action. If you're if your job is the fullback, then you take the fullback, you know, if you're a linebacker or a D lineman, like whatever your job is, do it. Now there's always a level of, okay, I'm doing my job, but now I see where the balls going, go to the ball. That's part of football. But if you are trying to make plays in a game like this, that's when you over pursue by a gap or two. Or I'm going to make this guy miss. I'm going to do this swing move. Yeah, it's a sweet swim move and you swam right into the wrong gap.

21:51You know what I mean? And the in the running back ran right where you were supposed to be. So those are those are things you want to see is be as disciplined in this game as you were last game, but clean up the four, five plays that you made some of those mistakes. And the nice thing is is they're so athletic that even on those plays in the run game where they had a couple bad fits, it didn't go anywhere because they're so fast. But when you make a mistake on the back entry, there's no one to fix that mistake. Jalen's need, you know, or Drake Bowen or Jaden Osbury makes a bad run fit. You got a safety coming behind him to clean it up. A Don Schiller's there to fix it. If if a D lineman hits the wrong gap, you got Drake Bowen there to make you right and clean it up. When a corner makes that mistake. Strike up the band, you know what I mean? You've got to eliminate those mistakes, but just being disciplined, know your game plan, know your job, don't play hero football, go to it. And then key to goes with this, being disciplined without being passive.

22:54Do your job, but do it aggressively. I thought they did a very good job with that against Wisconsin. No, they weren't blitzing a million snaps and doing all that, but they were playing a vertical game. That's why there was nowhere to run for Wisconsin. They were playing a very aggressive game, but it was a discipline game. We're not twisting. We're not stunting. We're not bringing six. We're not doing all these corner fires and stuff where we might expose ourselves to get it giving up a big play against the team that otherwise isn't really capable of, of ripping those off. This is a similar game to that. So yes, be disciplined, but within that discipline, be aggressive. If your job is the fullback, it's don't wait on the fullback, go get him. If your job is crashing the polar, crash the heck out of that dude, meet him in the A gap. And that's another key to shut this off and it's down. You got to be aggressive. You got to be disciplined, but you also have to be disciplined and aggressive. It's a controlled aggression. That's the key to I say this every year when they're playing the triple option. It's the same principle here. Yeah, you got to do your job, but you got can't do your job passively as you're like, oh, they're doing. No, this is why you have your job. Go do it. Go attack. And I want to see that in this game.

24:11The style of offense is hit too quickly for you to play on your heels and one of the you know, you talked about being disciplined and you thought the front seven did a great job of playing disciplined agreed completely. I think this defense and week one also did a fantastic job of playing aggressively. And so if that's able to carry over mentality wise, because you're right, there's a difference between out of control and being aggressive. I'm looking. If you get hurt on a double move because you made a mistake going 100 miles an hour fine, but I'd rather it be that then you make a mistake because a lack of effort. Control aggression is going to be huge in this one as is tackling well, because these are good enough athletes to be able to hurt you. Look, we talked about how rice is in a good team, especially defensively. I also don't want to make it sound like all of their skilled players run 49 40s and Notre Dame can make plays. Yeah, so tackling well is going to be huge for this for this game as well. This is a smart one and it goes back to kind of what we talked about in the first two points, Trev. There's an underlying theme to a lot of these keys to victory. And that is it's like last week. Make them earn every yard they get.

25:20That was something we talked about last week. When we talked about, you know, play discipline football last week, make Wisconsin earn every yard they get. And the fact is, is Notre Dame did that 95% of the time, but the 5% you didn't do that. That allowed Wisconsin to stay in the game a lot longer than they should have been in the game. And you don't let them do that. Don't give up those big plays. And now with part of that is the coverage. And that's where the being discipline standpoint comes from. But the part of that is, be sound tacklers. When the guy catches a ball for yards, that's the game. If the guy catches the ball seven yards, that's the game. If the initial point of contact is for the running back is one yard down the field, then make it a one yard game. Because tackling well is not just about open field tackles and bringing guys down and not letting rip off 30 yard gains. Part of tackling well is not hitting a guy and then letting him get four yards after contact. You never missed the tackle.

26:21But because you didn't arrive with force, you hit him and then he dragged you for for next four yards. Where you hit him, that's where the ball, that's where the balls can spot it. And that kind of plays into a being disciplined, being the right spot. You can't tackle well if you're not in the right spots. You can't tackle well if you're not taking proper angles with the football. You also can't tackle well against a team that's playing downhill if you're not playing aggressively. So these things all kind of build together. But if you are where you need to be and you take the proper angles and you're flying down hill, don't then be out of control and miss the tackle. Don't fail to wrap up. Don't don't tub. Be out of control and look for the home run hit. You know the highlight real play. Let your highlights come from playing the game the right way. And that's another piece of this puzzle for me, Trev. When you talk about the defenses, if you make them earn everything that they get, this game's going to be over half time. If you give up some some cheap plays, then this is going to look like UMass 2015 where it's like, you know, a game was a lot closer at halftime than it should have been because you gave up an 82 yard touchdown run to UMass.

27:27And you know, I mean heck, I think it was, it was like 28 20 right before halftime and CJ Sanders returns that punt to kind of break the game open. But I believe if I remember correctly that that was a, that was a close football game right before that early in that game. And then CJ Sanders said that punt return. It was it was 21 20 and then he had the punt return. Yeah, you're correct. And that gave them and that was, that was in the second quarter. And then you had a drive late that you, you know, you made it 35 20, but like you let them hang around, Trev. Like you went up 14, not then you give up an 83 yard touchdown run and they score the next one. It's 14 to 13. And then you go up 21 20 and then you give up a 75 yard drive on three plays. I mean, think about that. Why did, why was UMass in that game? Well, a, they had a one drive 78 yard play or drive. And then they had another drive where they had three plays for 75 yards because after a kick return, you gave up a 56 yard pass down the field.

28:32You know, it's like, you had a defense pass and offense and you let a bad football team hang in that game. And they were a bad football team that you missed. Now that a, that a nice receiver that we talked about in that game, you know, playing the NFL for a while. But that was a team that went three and nine that year, Trev. And you let them hang around. Don't do that with rice. And it was because your bad angles, not discipline, not taxing well. Don't let that stuff happen. Final piece to this conversation, Brian is get the football that's something that Notre Dame's defense has done exceptionally well. The last couple of seasons, last season they, what 21 interceptions. Now I don't know how many opportunities are going to have for interceptions in this game based on what rice did passing against Houston. Christian, but hopefully a lot because they're down 35 and nothing in the middle of the day. So, yeah, I'm definitely hoping so. But turnovers for a team like this, make it very difficult for them to win. We've seen this before, you know, Bryce and daily fumbling at Army when they were playing Notre Dame in Yankee Stadium really started to break that game wide open. That's a good army team Blake Horvath. I think at four turnovers.

29:36Dar near to himself against Notre Dame in 2024 turnovers kill game plans like this and you know with rice having the makeup that they have on offense, getting the football will definitely make this because I want to play ball control. Yeah, that'll make it a strong favorite for Notre Dame. Yeah, you know, jacari, jacari brown is going to put a couple balls up that you're just like what was that? You know, the other kids at a show is like Kayla, show up rights. His name I think he's going to throw some balls or you should be able to get your hands up, tip it, pick it off, whatever big hits, you know, coming from behind, stripping the ball out. When you play a team like this, there's going to the ball is going to be in the air, whether it's on an option or it's a throw or it's going to be on the ground because it hit when that happens, fall on it. You know, it's a lot of times we're covering fumbles sometimes can just be about, you know, bad luck balls on the ground and it went right to that where that gliman was and it was out of any fell on it, you know, I mean, there's going to be opportunities for you to get the ball in this game.

30:36And you need to get the ball in this game. That's I mean, it's it really is that simple trip there. And honestly, if the balls not in harm's way at any point time in this game, then I'm probably going to be a little disappointed with the overall play the defense. You know, and this isn't a team that turns it over a ton, Trevor, they only had 11 turnovers last season, but that's a little bit of a different. They played a different type of that a different type of quarterback last year and then the one game they played against a P 14. They had two turnovers. So yeah, you should be able to force turnovers. They had three turnovers in their bowl game, right? So when they played better teams two against Memphis, you two against UTSA. So this isn't a team that turns over a ton. That's going to be a last year. I think that's going to be a little bit different this year with their quarterbacks. I want to see another name be able to force that issue against this rice football team. Do that. And that's going to help you put this game away. But here's the deal. If if no name doesn't force need turnovers because rice is going three and out every drop. Okay. I can live with that.

31:36Force and turnovers is also stopping them on four down in favorable situations for your team. Like if they go for the fourth and two at midfield and you stop them to me, that's it's literally called turnover on downs. That's a big play. Now doing it at you know the 25 going in. Yeah, that takes points off the board, but it's not like your offense is all of sudden working on a short field. Right. But that's something that I want to see as well because if you're rice, why not go for them for down and if you get into some situations where you know you're off the board. You know, your offense has a chance to do something. Why not do that? I mean they were seven in the country last year and four down opportunities or four. Four down plays on offense and 38. They were seventh and coach football last year. And they were 10th and conversions. They went 21 of 38. So they were they were good converting the ball on third on four down last year. And they were willing to do that a lot last year. They should definitely do that against Notre Dame. What have you got to lose? So that's what I'm saying. Get the ball for your offense in situations to to to to kind of put this thing away that shortens drives and sometimes that can mean stop them on four down.

32:45But other times it needs to mean you literally force a turnover. Yeah, but and I listened to a little bit of their head coaches press conference yesterday and he was talking about hey, you know, it's a dream to be able to go play Notre Dame inside a Notre Dame stadium not every. I was football team has that poll. Then he went on a site like we were going in there with nothing to lose. So as long as it's not just a craze they're not going to go for it on fourth down if they're on their own 15 yard line. But I think if they start creeping up anywhere around that midfield mark, I can see that happening as well. I'm with you completely thank you. The opportunity when you get them. Yep, agree. Special teams, Trevor. This is the final one real quick. This is a game where honestly just don't do anything stupid. Yeah, like don't don't muffle upon it. Don't have a bad snap. Don't give up a pop block. This is a game where special teams can hurt you. If it helps you if you make big plays, that's wonderful. We we know that Marty Beogie special teams can make big plays. We know that I don't need them to prove that to me. I just need to make sure that this special teams can be more consistently disciplined. That's always been kind of the rub with coach Beogie is like you got to live with the good of the bad.

33:53You know, you're going to make some big plays, but they're going to have some blown. No, I don't need to live with that. I do both. And I think Marty Beogie is one of the most creative special teams guys in the business. He is. But I would sacrifice a little bit of that creativity for no more blocked puns allowed. No, no, no, no. Muff the puns. Feeling the ball properly. Better decision making in the return game. Better kick coverage. But you know, all those things. And this is the kind of game where you need to show that in my view. Just be smart. Don't do anything that allows rice to get cheat points that goes for the offense. The defense and the special teams. That's a big key for me. If you liked the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.