Notre Dame vs Rice Game Predictions

0:00Football is back and this is believed. You're home for NFL and college football news and analysis all season long. Now let's start the show. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Irish Breakdown podcast brought to you by our friends over at Fandall Happy Thursday. You guys know what that means. It is prediction time. We're going to be giving our predictions for the Notre Dame Rice game Notre Dame opens up their home slate this Saturday afternoon. I for one, I'm happy we don't have to wait in additional day and then wait all day in that addition day to watch Notre Dame play some football. So we're going to be getting after it. We're going to be giving our predictions for the Notre Dame Rice game to kick off today's show. We're going to be giving out game ball predictions and then talking about what we're going to be looking for part to a today's show a new segment, a new add to our in season content plan is we're giving a Notre Dame opponent run down.

1:06Just running through who Notre Dame's opponents play this weekend giving our thoughts. What are some of the biggest games who has the opportunity to make the biggest statement and then the remainder of the show we're previewing three big games. We're talking to Arizona State on the road against Texas A&M. Oklahoma on the road in the big house and then Ohio State on the road against Texas. So it's going to be a fun day talking ball given game predictions game ball predictions. This is going to be a lot of fun. It is it is it's you know as we talked about yesterday. It's not like the greatest slated games on the planet, but the games that are good are going to be good ones and I'm just glad to be inside Notre Dame Stadium. It's been a while. Trev not since the Syracuse whooping last year. It's been quite a while since we've been in there. So I'm very excited to be in there. Yeah, man. I'm just again, I'm just happy that I don't have to wait an additional day and all day in that additional day to watch Notre Dame play some football back to the regularly scheduled programming Saturday at 330 p.m. Inside of Notre Dame Stadium. Feels like all is right with the world man, but you know that's that's how Notre Dame is kicking off their home slate 330 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

2:08You can watch the game on NBC or peacock. Obviously Notre Dame is massive favorites in this one. I just looked at the new lines on Fandall 44 and a half point favorites line moved up one point. So this is going to be an expected routing for Notre Dame in their favor. And I think some of our game predictions are going to kind of back that up. Apparently Fandall didn't get the memo that Notre Dame is not that good of a team now because they didn't score 75 points in the opener and Jaden Graydouse and Milen Graham and Micah Gilbert didn't have a hundred years receiving. And Notre Dame wasn't in mid season form and I'm taking shots of a lot of people here by the way on that one. So let's see how this weekend goes, right? But I personally am excited to see what this team does this weekend because I do think there's something we're going to learn about this team this weekend. And it's not like well hey, the receivers had a big day against rice all as well in the world. That'll be a spin that's just like it's the spin that the receiver suck forever because only one guy had a good game against Wisconsin.

3:14But that's just kind of what it is. But I do think there's a lot we can learn about this team travel and it's not so much about matchups, what we learn matchup wise, it's more about what can we learn about this team from a focus standpoint. I think that's something that's going to tell us a lot. Obviously we want to see Notre Dame break the streak of losing home openers to FBS teams, but I mean that I just don't see how that this happens. You know, we thought Northern Illinois is pretty good. We thought Marshall was pretty good and now I didn't think Notre Dame is going to lose either game. But I argued all summer with Vince before 2023 he kept having Marshall as the worst team on a schedule like bro you haven't watched Marshall. You know what I mean, it's a good football team and you know this is not a good football team. Rice and so this is a game that I'm sure Dominic so it's not so much will they win or not it's what kind what do we learn about this team from a focus standpoint what do we learn about this team from an intensity standpoint what do we learn about this team about their ability to focus on something other than the opponent.

4:21You know what's the standard that you're that you're you're playing to this weekend is it just to outscore rice is it to play to your competition or say no no no no no no we are going to set the standard in this game on Saturday. And I think that's something I'm curious about and of course there's always like okay so and so is going to play and so and so is going to make plays and so and so is going to do this or that and you know I just like to remind people that last year in the opener against old dominion Charlie becker caught one pass for yards. Omar Cooper caught two Elijah Shorot caught three you know they give up over 200 rushing yards to old dominion in the end of the Fernando Mendoza didn't even get 200 yards that game against the team that jam you hung 63 on by the way just want to point out so once one game does not define a team or doesn't mean a team has playmakers or doesn't have playmakers. Because I think Notre Dame would look a little bit different if they were playing against some other teams but that's not the standard. The standard is hey we're playing to our level and it's going to be fun to watch that and it's going to be fun to see who are the guys that go out and make plays this week on all faces of the game that's part of the fun of watching a team you know kind of evolve over the course of a season trip that that's what makes this sport fun.

5:35Because you're not a finished product on game one and now we just let the rest of the season play out and this is kind of who you are nobody's who they were in game one I think the only team that hopes they can play the rest of the year like they did we caught his LSU that's about it. You know that there's a lot of other teams are like yeah we've arrived because good coaches know we hung 70 on the Thun Cookman but if we did that against you know so and so I don't know if it would have gone the same way. So let's keep rockin' and rolling. We spent a lot of time this off season talking about Notre Dame's regular season schedule and how much flack it was getting and everybody thinking it was the softest schedule and the history of all of sports and you know we push back on that note should not to say that it was a gauntlet by any means. But to your point Brian about what is Notre Dame's level of focus that is something that I'm going to be evaluating very very closely over the next four games really till they get to about Stanford and then obviously BYU. But look Notre Dame is a talented enough team that they could roll the footballs out minimal level of focus and probably go 4-0, 5-0 over the next couple of games over the next month or so.

6:39But that's not what the standard is to your point but I'm not going to be too concerned about who stats look the best and who had the biggest day numbers wise because that could look very very different at the end of the depending on who all plays. But I'm with you it's about that level of focus and there's any amount of spin that you can put on this you know I've you know all week Brian you and I sit down and write articles about every match up Notre Dame plays whether they're hosting Miami at night or they host rice at 3 30 in the afternoon. We could have put in there you know had Notre Dame has a beaten an FBS opponent in their home opener and Marcus Freeman's tenure this is a much bigger match up jacari brown can do this and that and this. But look at the end of the day Brian you and I were talking about this yesterday after the show. Rice is closer to Tennessee state than what they are north Illinois Marshall that's just how it is and when I sit back and I look at what this game means for Notre Dame it's if you come out and not hurt Notre Dame. We get into the how conversation how you beat these opponents is going to matter not necessarily if you just win there's no if you just win against Marshall we can have that conversation about Miami just win.

7:44But yeah that's why you SMU playoff games just have more points than they have I don't care how many it is if it's one great if it's 30 phenomenal. This is a game where it this can't be ball state 20 you know who's a 2018 this can't be you know it just but that's what we get to is we talk about what you're going to learn about this team it's okay this is where we talk about this is where we learn if how is this team different than the 20 24 team in that regard. You know and it may not cost them a game here but maybe it can you know down the road but I'm looking forward because I have a feeling this team's going to come out fired up and ready to go. Yeah absolutely I'm with you and that's kind of reflective in what our game predictions are I'll get us kicked off I'll give my game prediction for rice talk through game ball predictions the score how I see this one playing out like I mentioned before Fandall has Notre Dame favorite is 43 and a half point favorites 44 and a half point favorites now and I have them covering that pretty comfortably when I when I see this game and how it plays out I think Notre Dame is going to I think this matchup heavily favors Notre Dame obviously the enter is massive favorites Marcus Freeman hasn't fair well in home openers against inferior opponents and I think that stigma is going to get shut down after Saturday afternoon.

9:03I think it's a game that Notre Dame should absolutely dominate on both sides of the ball. I think we're going to see the passing offense come alive in this game a little bit of that is not necessarily a kind of a shot at the fan base that's very very very beside themselves that Notre Dame didn't have 300 yard receivers against a pretty decent defense in the opener. But Mike then Brock all off season heard that you know the running back room is not going to look the same because Jeremiah love jadari prices gone I think it was very intentional that they came out and foresee issue in the run game. I think we can see a little bit of that in the past game this Saturday. And then I think defensively despite it being a unique somewhat gimmicky type of offense because they have to what Vince months has to put together I think Notre Dame's defense is going to fare pretty well so my final score prediction in this game Brian I've Notre Dame went in this one 59 to three. I just don't see this one being overly close and I have Notre Dame dominating for the majority of the game. I mean I don't see this being close from start to finish whatsoever. Yeah last week Trev we talked about how we thought the game was going to be a little bit sloppy early mean in in now look I didn't think they were going to give up 13 points and we talked about why they go up 13 points and I'm not and I didn't think they would.

10:15It would be quite as sloppy in the first half but not too far away from it but we talked about how the game would play out last week and I did think it'd be a little bit sloppy first game quality defense all those type of things this game should not be that this game should be. An absolute route this game should be honestly should look like what I think Notre Dame did to not very good teams last year with the exception of Purdue right I mean that was the one game where you played a team one very good where you didn't really do what you needed to do but. You know the next week you go out and play Arkansas and it's over half time. You know you look at what they did to Sarah Q slash here I'd say the only other I guess B.C. be the other exception so like more often the not last year they don't that actually annihilated teams that weren't very good now here's here's where I'm curious about this game and here's why this game is a little bit intriguing to me Trev because. Yes last year they completely blew out Arkansas they completely blew out Navy they completely blew out Syracuse the Stanford game was over half time like. But that was a team that was was at something to prove that was a team those oh and two and couldn't afford to not do that what I want to learn about this team to your point Trev is are they capable of doing that before.

11:26They get to a point where their backs are against the wall can they do that in a game before we are talking about like well now you're you know you got to win them all you can't afford to slip up again that's what I want to see from this team and honestly that's something. That we we haven't learned about Marcus Freeman yet at Notre Dame because in every single year that he's been the head coach in Notre Dame there's been a September lost that's caused them to say hey time to get your heads on straight now that you have some negativity that you got to respond to so. It is going to be interesting to see if this team can get ahead of that and I think that for at least this week I think they do that I think Notre Dame actually dominates I have it 63 seven look I wouldn't be shocked if rice scores more than seven. There's some decent athletes on their offense it's a gimmicky offense I could see them getting 10 to 14 points. But I have a feeling that that Notre Dame's offense is going to come out and really just be cooking early running the ball throwing the ball.

12:31I'm really hope that Mike then brought doesn't come into this game and just say hey we're going to run for 350 yards because this team can't stop us like I want to see them doing it all I want to see them run in the ball I want to see them going on the attack I want to see them attacking down the field because this is a defense that is you should be able to tack down the field against. And I want to see this team locked in and if the offense comes out the way that I think it will then that allows the defense to play with kind of their their you know ears pen back a little bit. And really go at this rice defense rice offense so I can see rice score a little bit more than this but I'm going to dominate man I really am I think this team is going to be locked in. And if it's like a 49 to 14 game I'm going to be honest with you trap I won't be happy because that that most likely means this team kind of was a little sloppy doesn't mean that I'm going to over react and act like well they're not going to win the natty that won't be my reaction it'll just be this game because at the end of the day when you're in the first three four or five games you're you're still learning a lot about the football team.

13:31And there's still a lot of evolution that's happening with the football team. And I just I want to see this team kind of come out and in game one and say okay we're we're ready to rock and roll we're ready to really kind of take this thing and and not have any let down because of the fact that they you know one they're big one in this team isn't good. I that I don't want to see I don't want to see that. Yeah, and to your point in this hypothetical scenario of Notre Dame getting a 49 to 14 victory I think the thing that would make me mad the most is I don't see it being something like 21 to 14 going into halftime I could see it being 35 to zero going into halftime or 42 to zero going into halftime and then they just completely take their foot off the gas. And again like this that is something that would make me the most mad is then you put in your second stringers are asking them to play cover for defense against a very heavy rush offense and rice there moving the ball down the field just in chunk runs and then the offense comes out run run run punt for the duration of the second half that would really tick me off I'm with you completely because how do you go from throwing wheel routes to running backs in the fourth quarter with your first string offense up 30 what would that have been.

14:4434 to 13 against Wisconsin to then just taking your foot off the gas against the team like rice this is also a Notre Dame fan base at home I think you need a little bit of that rejuvenating absolutely dominant win. We got asked a lot in the off season of do we see Notre Dame potentially having any shutouts this year this is one of those games on this candidate list now i'm not going to predict the shutout against BYU Miami or SMU it's going to be really hard to do against the team like Stanford Navy. But this is one of those games on that list as a potential for me but again the score variance for rice as long as they don't reach double digits i'm not going to be too upset about it depending on what it looks like again the biggest theme for me in this game is the how not the what the final scores can look a bunch of different ways it's how you get to that is going to matter for me in this one but yeah there's a lot of room here definitely a lot of room. Brian when you look at what you gain balls for this game how where what direction do you go in.

15:44That's a that's a good question. I've been kind of back and forth on this one and just I want to kind of think outside the box like I don't want to go CJ I don't want to go with jade Jordan phase on because like you know those are some of the obvious ones but I also like I want to go jade and great house but I just here's my thing. I could be wrong here and I hope I'm wrong here I just don't think Mike Brown and Mike then Brockers high on jade and great houses we are. And I just have a feeling that in the game where they're going to force the issue to another receiver it's going to be my land gram not jade and great house. And I hope I'm wrong on that but that's just a bad feeling that I have. And so I'm hoping that this is this I get proved wrong in this game so there's just a lot of those things I'm going to kind of go outside the box and I'm actually going to go Mike a Gilbert with that in mind. I think we're going to see someone on one to the boundary I'm going to predict that Michael Mike a Gilbert has a bit of a breakout game here against rice.

16:46And go there I thought about going towards my land gram my deep dark you know my deep down in my heart. Hope is that it's jade and great house but as I said I'm just I'm not going to I'm just I'm going to wait to see it with this offensive staff and in this quarterback before I'm ready to jump on the the jade and great house is going to be that guy. And again I don't say those things is I have negativity towards Jane Grant so I think that's a mistake. But that's the I mean what he pushed will Pauling as hard as he could they pushed my land gram as hard as they're still are as hard as they can. So it's just kind of the evidence I have so I'm going to go Mike a Gilbert and say that Mike a Gilbert has a bit of a breakout game in this game. I have to think rice is going to be smarter than Wisconsin and actually. Key on Jordan phase on a little bit is again people say what why was Jordan phase on getting so many targets well. I talk about that in the film breakdown I did so I got an all 22 film breakdown on the boards about what 25 minutes long trip I go through and I show what Wisconsin was doing defensively.

17:53And why they were taking some of the quick game you know why were they doing those things and then why was Jordan phase on getting so many of those targets down the field. Where it wasn't necessarily that he was the primary target there was one catch he made where he was the third read and CJ rightly went to the third read because that's what the defense dictated. And and Wisconsin was like yeah we're not we're not worried about six. And they probably should have and I was very happy to see Notre Dame getting him the ball on the run that made me very happy in this game. I have to think rice is smart enough to say hey we're not going to let six beat us you have to think that they're smart enough to do that. And that's why I'm not going to phase on in this game but if they don't if they try to single cover him it'll be Jordan phase on again. But I'm going to pass catcher things going to step up and be good so I'm going to go Mike Gilbert has a break out in this game. I like that it was very hard to pick game balls on offense just because one there are mismatches all over the field that favor Notre Dame you could have picked quite literally any person on offense and I would have been like, yep, understandable.

18:55I get why they're getting the game ball. Mine is more so going with what I hope happens not necessarily how the game plays out. And I'm going with just the slot receiver position I talked earlier this week about how important the slot receiver is because look I have all the reservations that you do I didn't want to pick just Jane great house and I didn't want to just pick my own gram. I just hope the slot receiver position short of moving Jordan phase on into the slot has a really good game on Saturday. That's an that's an integral part of Mike then Brock's offense and this game is about putting in the work and building a foundation for when you do play Stanford at home for when you do play BYU on the road for when you do host Miami and SMU and then the college football playoffs. Notre Dame could beat rice stone the football to Jordan phase on 15 times and your final score prediction would absolutely come true. They could hammer and he is Williams to death target Jordan phase on 16 times and Notre Dame would probably win this game 63 to 7.

19:56But that doesn't tell us anything this is the game that I want this offense to tell us a little bit of something. And so I'm going with the slot receiver position I was between that or the tight end room specifically Cooper Flanagan. I think that he is set up to have a really good game I talked about mismatches all over the field in Notre Dame's favor. I don't know if it gets much more of a mismatch than a 6 foot 6255 pound tight end because there's just nobody on rice's roster that's going to be able to run with that or just have a decent enough block destruction in the run game against that either. But I'm I stuck with the slot receiver position but like I said I'm going with more of what I hope happens versus what I could see playing out you know what I mean. Yeah I I there's so many guys it could be that player in this game honestly trev just because I do expect this to be a dominant performance from the offense I do and that's that's part of it that's what part of what makes it challenging is because even if even if I'm wrong about how they're what their feelings on Jade and Jaden great house even if I'm 100% wrong and they think he's going to be all world.

21:07That doesn't mean that my land grams still can't be the player the game because when he's in there they don't you know that he could go still make big place because he's a really talented player and it doesn't mean that they're not pushing Jaden great house that's also part of the problem is because there is so much talent on this offense and I think it starts to show this weekend I don't know that people that have concerns about the offense are going to if it does look like what you and I think it should look like I don't think that's going to alleviate too many people's concerns and honestly I don't think it should. I don't think it should if you're if you're concerned about the skill talent on offense I don't think what they do against rice should necessarily change your opinion. I just don't I think they should have to do more against somebody different and I think it should be about consistently going out there and and doing what you need to do so but I do think there's a level trev to the idea of like hey I don't know what I'm doing. I do think that that this could be at least a step where guys start getting comfortable you start building that report that's why I think it's important to not just come out there and run the ball me and for a million yards down their throat I mean run the ball don't get me wrong don't come out there and throw the ball 60 times in the first half.

22:24But I think it's imperative that CJ car start to build a in game rapport with someone other than Jordan phase on and this is a great game where you could you could get that done. Sock defensive game balls Trev who do you have as your defensive game bonus game. I'm going with safety Luke Talich he's getting his first start of his collegiate career on defense and I think this style of offense for rice kind of feeds into a lot of his strengths. We talked yesterday is can you be disciplined enough on the back end if jacari brown elects to pull it and then try to hit a big shot over top like we see some option teams try to do year in and year out. But there this is a game that I could absolutely see Luke talich having a very very godly stat line at the end of the evening end of the afternoon on saturday. This is very similar to some of the styles of off NC face back in high school when he was in Wyoming we've seen him have very very productive blue gold games. You know when the game plan was similar to this i'm talking overarching theme not stylistically and schematically looks like rice. But my player the game i'm going with Luke talich he's been a very underrated member of this defense for the last two seasons especially in 2025.

23:29And I think he backs up Marcus Freeman's comments in his press conference from Tuesday saying hey we view Luke talich as a player that's a starter caliber player. I think that's a big game. Look coaches say stuff like that all the time Trev. But that's not the first time like in a situation like this where you're trying to instill confidence in him and all this up. But that's not the first time we've heard Marcus Freeman say that. That's what makes me think it's actually true. I've never heard you comment once about this kid now that he's thrust into the starting line up you want to act like always a starter we have just as much faith in him. Like you've never once talked about that in this case that's not true they've talked about Luke plenty and there's been plenty of praise for how important Luke is now good of a player he is from them and over the last year. So when he says that you're like yeah okay I believe that because they've on and off the record. And we commented on that and we had some intel this summer about you know about Luke and how well he was performing so I'm not surprised by that at all I'm going to stay on the offensive side of the ball or deep or the deep obviously we're going to stay on the defense side of the ball.

24:33I'm going to go up front and I think this is going to be Francis brew had a breakout performance last week I'm going to be on gray has a breakout performance this week I think Tion is going to blow up the option. And have some big place force a fumble make some plays in the back feel and I think Tion in his home opener against Notre Dame is going to it's going to dominate and if I'm wrong and he's not the game ball winner I think it'll be you know he'd be one of the linebackers and I think some some linebackers going to have double digit tackles a lot of it like kind of in the first half you know what I mean like I think Drake bone was at like six tackles on halftime last week. And I think we're going to see something more somebody's than double digits and tackles in the first half unless rice is just going three and out every play and then there's just not enough snaps to that many tackles but I'm going to on gray is my gets my game ball I think Tion is going to have a bit of a breakout in the cuz I see him building on what he did kind of as the game more on against Wisconsin he got better and better and better and started playing some fire and he's like hey this playmaking thing is a lot of it.

25:38A lot of fun you know because at Oregon it was just like dude eat space eat up space you're not really getting off to the ball you're not really you know someone who's going to go make a ton of plays and and you know getting the back field and do all this kind of stuff and that was definitely not the case against Wisconsin. If you look at for example you look at the on at Oregon last year in in 12 of 14 but they play 15 games in the first round quarters summer yeah 15 games last year he only had six run stops the whole year. According to pff he had two against Wisconsin and only played 11 snaps against the run he played 18 total snaps I think Tion's going to have some monster plays in this game gets rice. Yeah I love that pick and I think our game ball picks this week is a testament to the level of depth that Notre Dame has on the defensive side of the ball we talked about it all off season is like look man. Briante Johnson goes out Jason O'Neill goes out in our two selections for game balls are the players replacing them in the starting line I think that's a testament to the level of depth down that they have on this roster.

26:48Brian is we kind of wrap up our Notre Dame versus rice game prediction segment what is specifically that you're going to be looking for on both sides of the ball this could be all encompassing for team but what will you be looking for to know that Notre Dame is locked in in this one. It's going to be focus that that's going to be the thing for me Trev are they locked in is their focus do they come out and play with intensity we're going to know that after two series on both sides of the ball we're going to know just team is locked in we're if the offensive line comes out in their fire off the ball. If C.J. cars coming out snap into ball off not aiming it like you was last week if the receivers coming off the line playing with some intensity as opposed to just thinking the other team is just going to lay down if the defensive line comes out and they're hungry they want they want to get the ball. You know if the linebackers are being disciplined and flying the ball we're going to find out very early how locked in this team is I have a feeling rice is going to do something early in the game.

27:48Some kind of trick play some kind of gimmick some kind of reverse some kind something how locked in is the defense to the to the game we're going to know by how well they defend something like that so that's going to be the thing for me is just are you locked in mentally are in and are you playing with intensity are you truly living to buy what you say you live by which is the gold standard which is about we don't care who the opponent is we're expected to play to a certain level their human beings and they can't completely ignore what's going on in the game. They ignore what's on the other helmet so let's not pretend like that's something that 100% they're going to be able to look at rice the same way they do Miami that's not what I expect them to do because you can't you can't replicate that but from a focus and intensity standpoint you can. And I want to see them do that that's really the big thing for me I don't want to see a lot of sloppy mistakes early. I want to see the team comes out fired up playing hard and if they are committing penalties early I want them to be aggressive penalties you know I want it to be you know stuff that's not like three false starts delay game you know off sides on second and third and four and stuff like that because you're not doing what you're taught to do I want to see this team come out locked in and playing hard if they do that they will actually dominate this game they don't.

29:07It might look like Indiana against Kennesall State last year where Indiana was only up look they struggled in the opener they were only up on Kennesall State 21 16 and a half time that are 21 6 and a half times excuse me and but then came out in a second half and absolutely rolled. Out scored him 35 to 3 and a second half in Indiana never look back. Yeah I don't want another name to have to need the second half against rice to figure it out I want them to do that in the quarter one so that's what I'm looking for in this game. What about you my attention actually shifts to the coaching staff and that's going to tell me if this team is locked in or not look there's a world where Mike Dunbrock and script the opening series and it's you know first play it's mid zone to a news Williams and the second play is a deep out the Jordan phase. On and then you pick up a first down and then the second place a play action dump off to the tight end it's that doesn't tell us anything. If the coaching staff is going to sit there and tell us a against Wisconsin the only thing that stopped Notre Dame was Notre Dame.

30:08Then make sure that you go out and kind of nullify some of those errors. I'm with you completely make sure you're focused you're locked in but I think that stuff starts from the top down. It does and fact of the matter is like Notre Dame has started out slow quite a bit over the course of Marcus Freeman's tenure. This isn't me pointing the finger at any one specific person but the last time I checked C.J. Car wasn't the starting quarterback in 22 23 24. You know and he is Williams wasn't the starting running back any other year except for this year so my attention actually shifts to the coaching staff if Notre Dame comes out and has an aggressive game plan on defense because they can roll out their base 425 and just say hey you know what's going to do. Stop the run we have better athletes and then keep them out of the red zone. Ben don't break and if on offense it's those just scripted plays of everything that we've seen before tunnel screen to phase on deep out phase on mid zone to an ES Williams C.J. Car makes a check at the line to run a tunnel screen to Jane great house. Those are going to be the things that I'm going to be looking for to make sure okay if this coaching staff is locked in then I believe that this team will be locked in so that's the direction that I go in there.

31:14Love it.