Notre Dame vs Rice - Matchups That Matter

0:00This is Belie, one network, every topic, everywhere. Music Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Irish Breakdown Podcast, brought to you by our friends at Fandall. We were so excited for today's show actually, we wanted to skip the intro and hop right into it. Don't run cover for StreamYard, we hit go live and hit the thing, and it just said having trouble with your internet connection, then just went live. So we're like, all right, let's rock and roll, son. Well, let's dive into it because we have a really fun show coming your way today. It's the Notre Dame football midweek rundown, and we're continuing our conversation with Notre Dame's home opener against the Rice Owls, which is taking place Saturday afternoon, inside a Notre Dame stadium, 3.30pm kickoff, you can watch it on NBC, peacock, Notre Dame is still heavy, 43.5 point favorites.

1:00So today what we're doing, this is sticking in line with our new content plan for in season, we're talking about part one of today's show, the matchups that matter in this one. And basically, the lens that we're coming at today is not necessarily Notre Dame has to win these matchups so they're at fear of losing this game. These are the matchups that we all expect Notre Dame to put on a dominant display. And when we talk matchups that matter and game records in keys to victory, that's kind of the lens that we're looking at this from little different lens in keys to victory for the Notre Dame defense because they're facing such a unique Rice offense. But we're starting off with matchups that matter. Then we're going to talk about the game records. Part three at today's show, we're talking keys to victory on offense and defense. Now we're ending it up with a week two college football roundup. A lot of fun when we did it last week. We're doing it again this afternoon. Brian, it's going to be a really fun show today. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this, Trev. Obviously, home opener, some demons you have to exercise to a degree.

2:02And how much are we really going to learn about Notre Dame this weekend and all that different stuff? And then it's an interesting week of college football because I want to be like, it's ridiculous all the teams that all the week games are this weekend. And I'm like, and Notre Dame kind of has one. Now, the difference is Notre Dame doesn't have one in week two after having one in week one. That's a little bit of a difference. But it's an interesting slate of games this weekend for sure, Trev. And I'm looking forward to talking about that. But yeah, it is interesting as we're putting this together trying to find the balance between Notre focusing on Notre Dame, but also trying to incorporate Rice into the matchup. I just on the offense versus defense. I was like, screw it. It's not even going to really be about them for the most part in some of the like the keys to victory, but some of the matchups are interesting. But that's kind of where we're at. It's different. As you mentioned, it's different for the defense though because they're actually it are some things that we can learn about the defense this weekend.

3:05Not so much because they're playing Rice personnel wise, but more so because they're playing Rice can match. We're playing Rice schematically. We get a chance to see this defense have to show improve discipline and things along those lines. Definitely going to be a very, very interesting matchup to dive into and that's and that's where we're going to start here. We're talking the matchups that matter for Notre Dame versus Rice. And we're going to start with two offensive guys. We're starting on the offensive side of the ball for Notre Dame. There are unit that last Sunday put up 34 points against Wisconsin. Huge step forward for this unit, but a lot of things that we want to see moving forward. You know, Brian, we've talked over the course of the offseason. We talked in the post game show. You guys talked about it in a run for the review that a lot of the success of this offense is going to start up front. We think some of that narrative is also going to remain consistent, even when facing an opponent like Rice. Number one matchup to watch in this one. First one that we're talking about is the offensive tackles versus defensive and shibi. Newaku. Yeah. So first of all, if you want to actually watch these matchups in person, I still have two tickets for the rice game this weekend.

4:11We talked about the Chester day. We're doing sort of a donation fundraiser for Hope Mommies, which is an organization around the country that works with mothers who have lost a lot of loss, whether it's a miscareds like my wife and I dealt with and or some have lost children that were born in. So now we're doing a fundraiser for them. They're all have a golf out of this weekend. Our breakdowns already sponsored that, but we're going to kind of do more for them. And so Miami SMU tickets are the Miami ones are gone. They've actually the donation already been made. Someone said they're going to do the donation for SMU. We'll see if they do that. But I've had a couple of your travel. We do have rice tickets. So if anybody wants to go to the rice game this weekend, shoot me an email, Brian at our sprakedown.com or shoot me a DM on X or you can shoot me. A message on the the premium message board if you are a member at our sprakedown. So just wanted to point that out to y'all before we get this thing rocking and rolling. And then you can watch these matchups in person. You know, I kind of did that, Trev.

5:11So let's do that. But look, you know, Trev, when I when I look at this this matchups and you look at what rice does, what I like about this football team and what I like about Scott, a bell as a coach is I feel like he has a great sense of awareness of who his program is. Meaning he understands, hey, we're never going to have the most talented roster in our league. We're not we're not going to often have the most talented roster in a game. We're going to be talented enough to compete. But if we want to win, we've got to do some stuff. And we know the offense does that. But when you break down the film on defense, it's the same thing. They don't have great talent on defense. But they do a lot of funky stuff on defense that that puts you in some binds where if you're not smart, if you're not disciplined, if you're not. You know, hey, look, we got to be wise with this and we've got to be wise with that and all these other type of things. You're going to be in trouble. And I love the way they use chip, chibi, wajuaku is my best way of sex.

6:13You know, no, no, no, juaku because he's technically an edge. You look at his body type, he's definitely an edge, but he will play all over the field. He'll line up in some three down fronts and like be over the slot or he'll just kind of almost like, remember how Clemson used Isaiah Simmons. It's not the same way like as like he's going to drop on the end, but remember, they just kind of would move Isaiah Simmons all over the field and he would just attack you from different angles. That's kind of how this kid is for rice. And I thought he had a good game against Houston, Christian. He's shorter. He's not the biggest kid. He's a pretty for them. He's a pretty good athlete for them. Trev, I just feel like he's very active. He's a strong kid. He's that kind of guy that has a little bit of a burst off the line. And the thing I like about they do is they give him a running start a lot of time. You know what I mean? Like, you know, they'll have him off the ball and he'll like be four or five yards back. And then he thinks he's going to start kind of getting a running start on you.

7:13Kind of like that. You know what I mean? The way that they use him is very interesting. But that also puts the Notre Dame tackles in some, you know, into some hold on a second. He they do some very interesting things with him, you know what I mean? Where it's not just lining up on the edge, which then puts the Notre Dame offensive tackles in some situations where you're not just getting in your two point stance. And you're not just going to do a normal pass at this kid's going to come at you from all angles. Going to play with a great motor. He had two sacks in the game last week. Had five run stops in the game against Houston, Christian last week. So he's very aggressive against the end as well. My concern with the way that they use him is that the tackles get a little bit passive, especially against the run, which can kind of change where the edge of the run game is set. They've got to go at this kid and really attack him. And if they can do that, I think they'll be successful.

8:18Yeah, when I was diving into the film, one of the things that I noticed and the things that I had underlined when I was kind of jotting down notes for rice as I said that the Notre Dame offensive tackles are going to have to be pretty patient in this game, not lunging forward being patient in their pass sets. And that's when Chibi can kind of get it, get an advantage over some much bigger offensive tackles that he's going to face. And that's not just specific for Notre Dame, you know, he's like a 270 pound kid, pretty decent athlete to your point. But yeah, I'll be very interested to see how Notre Dame's offensive tackles handle that one, but it'll be a different test than what it was last week, especially for Will Black who's going up against Sebastian cheeks. It's a much different player that they're going to be facing on Saturday afternoon, but it would be a very important matchup to watch. I'll be interested to see how they do. Yeah, it went. There's just a lot of these intriguing matchups, Trev, when you look at this game, right? And you talked about that we just talked about the other one, but I think this matchup here on the perimeter here with the corners and against the Noury receiver is going to be a very fascinating matchup because one of I mean, it's going to kind of play into.

9:27It's going to play into the sort of it's not really about rice as much as it's about Notre Dame to a degree. I thought their corners looked solid in the opener, you know, Jameer Benjamin's a kid that transferred from UCLA, you know, he's you know, shorter 510 185, 50 kids, smart physical, you know, the Kyron, my Kyron condle, taller skinnier, you know, type of player rangeier, maybe not quite the same burst as what the other, you know, Jameer Benjamin has. And they played left right. So it's not like one guy's going to be matched up against my gigilbert all day and one guy's going to be matched up against Jordan phase on all day, but I want to see the Notre Dame receivers make some more plays in this game. As opposed to not just skiing, they were skimmed into some openings on sat Sunday night and that was good. We didn't really see them win any, you know, like, like, win any throws, right? It wasn't like, oh, their route running got them free.

10:33Like, if you think about Jordan phase on right, he had four catches, you need to get two dig routes, basically, recop balls, you had, you know, short throws, quick throws, there was nothing where it's like, oh, man, what a great route. It's not faulting Jordan phase on those opportunities weren't really there against what was consul was doing because they're corner for bailing. So there weren't, there weren't opportunities for him to go out there and make those plays. You know, Mike, a Gilbert had caught hitches in the seam route, you know, against zone coverage. You're going to see some of that, but you're going to get more opportunities in this game to go out there and win someone on ones and, you know, there's still some questions about the receiving core, which are fine. I get it. I don't, I don't actually disagree with them. In general, I think some people are a little too strong with their thoughts, but I do think the receivers have something to prove still. And I think the outside receivers are going to get those opportunities. It's like if you can't rip up rice thrown football, then, you know, that's a bit of concern. And so I'm really looking forward to seeing this match up because great players are in these happy games should dominate their matchups.

11:36And I think these are two quality corners for the American level, but they shouldn't be able to hang with the new name receivers. And so that's why this matchup is really interesting, really interesting. The other interesting side of this matchup, I agree with everything that you said, but one of the other things too is, what Notre Dame could win this game and cover their 43 and a half point spread on fan to easily if they just wanted to feed Jordan phase on to death. I mean, that's something that I think we can all agree upon. There's a world where Jordan phase on could have 11 catches in this game for over 100 yards a pair of touchdowns and call today. Notre Dame still wins handily. This is your opportunity to go out and try and make plays with guys like Mikey Gilbert, the slot receiver in general. And I'm not putting names on it because I know we separate ourselves into camp, Jane, great house, camp, my land, Graham, camp, bubble phrase, your camp, Logan, saw that day, the list goes on and on. But at the end of the day, the slot receiver position plays a major role in Notre Dame's offense. And this is a game where I hope to see that start to get going and get some of these guys in a rhythm with games against Michigan State at night coming up or do on the road coming up North Carolina on the road coming up.

12:40So that's going to be a big pieces well, but Ryan, they're not the only pass catchers that have the opportunity to make some some impacts the tight end room, specifically both of the Flanagan's the law firm Flanagan and Flanagan are also going to have an interesting match up against safety. I believe that what his name is. Yeah, go a kui. Yeah. This is an interesting one because he's their boundary safety. And from from what I can tell, I saw him mostly in the boundary trip. Maybe when you watch the game, you noticed them flipping him. I noticed him in the boundary a lot when I was watching the game. And he's a guy that's very active getting downhill. He's a he's a you know, 510, 193 pound thumper type of kid that I think that these these safety should be able to have some success with. You know, I think that they should be able to you know, he should be able to you know, he's a he was a downhill run run defender last year.

13:40For he came from Sacramento State, you know, he was a 54 tackles and 17 run stops and you know, really aggressive short stout kind of kid 510 195 type of guy that this tight ends are going to have to be able to handle in the run game on the second level. I think that's going to be a part of it. You know, maybe coming off the edge, but then I want to see the tight ends be a little bit more used going the football down the field. Now, I understand why Notre Dame's past game was not aggressive down the field against Wisconsin. We talked about that that this show a week ago, one of the keys to victory for the Nürnium offense was to be patient on offense because of the way Wisconsin plays. This is a different one. This is one where you should have opportunities to attack down the field. I want to see the outside receivers do it. I also want to see the tight ends do it. I want to see everybody do it, but like those are the ones where I feel like, okay, I'm curious how they're going to use them. And so you've got a 5 foot 10 boundary safety. Whether you're working on him from a 2 by 2 or a 3 by 1 with a tight ends backside or a 3 by 1 to the tight ends play side where he's working a backside scene.

14:47There's going to be a lot of opportunities to get him matched up against this safety. And I feel like if you're not going to use that to your advantage in this matchup, I don't know when that's going to happen. You know, because you got 6 6 tight ends going against the 5 10 safety. That's you should be scheming up ways to get them into those isolated matchups on seams, govers, digs, corners, a lot of those matchups that I think you can have some success with. So I really want to see. I want to see Mike Denbrock take better advantage of the tight ends in this game. I was actually fine with how it's so like the thing you got to understand is just because we say like, okay, they got to do that this week. Doesn't mean like we were bothered that they didn't do it last week. Sometimes that's the case. That's not my situation here with the tight ends. It's not my I'm not criticizing Mike a Gilbert and Jordan phase on for not winning with their routes on Saturday because they were playing soft outside zones the whole game. It was just because of that we didn't see them win with that and the one time we saw Jordan phase on get a chance to run around and win he ran right into the corner and got covered.

15:56And you know, we didn't see a whole lot of that for Mike a Gilbert in the game. So they got to show me that they can win one on ones and and rice is the kind of game and it's the same thing here with the tight ends. I need to see these tight ends be you know are you going to actually use these guys in the past game because if you're not it's going to make you a lot easier to defend in 12 personnel when you get down the road. And so I'm very curious to see what they what they do with that position this week and I want to see these guys really get after because I also you could throw them into the conversation with the tackles against Chibi. Because they're going to he's going to go at them at times as well and and it's just one game, Trev, but I felt like our our excitement about Flanagan and Flanagan in the run game was met with a performance to match our excitement in the opener. You know there's some technical and a couple times Cooper Flanagan in driver's feed, a couple of time, you know, but man overall I thought they both did a great job like really physical in the run game.

16:56And I want to see that again in this match up, but then I want to say these guys are also good athletes that can make plays in the passing game take advantage of it. And it last week it was mostly quick stuff and that's fine because that's what was there against Wisconsin. This week you should have some more opportunities get the ball down the field. Yeah, I know you were talking about the just a significant height advantage that Notre Dame has Cooper Flanagan 66 255 James Flanagan is 66 253. You know, so Cooper Flanagan's biggest tied into the room by two pounds with having a 510 boundary safety. It's not like they also have a safety that rotates in that's like 62 even the rotational safeties are undersized that you know one of them's 510 a buck 87 the other ones 510 like 203 about a smidge over so. So Notre Dame is going to have to look to take advantage of those matchups i'm with you completely if not now then when the other piece to is it's just as players it's the next step in Flanagan and Flanagan's evolution within this offense we knew coming into the season I learned nothing new about them as run blockers got some self confirmed some things verified.

18:00But nothing new that I learned about them so looking forward to seeing what they can do as pass catchers. It definitely some confirmed things which is good. Yeah, you know like that's that's not a criticism because that's something that we wanted to see. It's just it's nice to. It's just nice to see that. To see that kind of. Confirmed you know what I mean now it's like okay let's take it to the next level. Let's flip over to the defensive side of the ball Brian in the first matchup that we're actually going to talk about is not on the field related it's between the coordinators Notre Dame's defensive coordinator Chris ash versus rice is offensive coordinator Vince Munch which I think is going to be we talked yesterday about just the very interesting play style that rice brings to the table. I'm going to be curious to see how Chris ash adjust Marcus Freeman kind of alluded to it in his press game or his press game his press conference yesterday I'm like hey this isn't just going to be roll out the same game playing we had for Wisconsin because this is a very different looking offense.

19:13Yeah, this is this is this matchup trevis is going to be intriguing because like you said it's it's similar principles of Wisconsin. Let me change that similar philosophy Wisconsin run the football mobile quarter back put defenses and binds but they go about it in a very very different way in my opinion and. Chris ash is good I thought had a very sound game plan in the opener I thought the plan they had for Colton Joseph was very good. I understand that some people wanted to be more aggressive and I'm like that to me is like that make make you feel better but that's not sound against a quarterback like this but I thought they were aggressive just not aggressive with. Pressures because that's what you don't want to do and I thought the linebackers played downhill I thought when they did run stunts they were well designed run stunts that were meant to occupy gaps because you attack Wisconsin with too many slants or pressures or whatever twists and things they catch you Colton Joseph is house in it that's the same thing that's true that here with rice now I think there are definitely some things you can do but.

20:26You almost got to treat them like you treat Navy Army in that regard but yet you also can't just replicate what you've done against them because of I do think there's some some wrinkles that they do and then being from the shotgun in the pistol where you treat him just like a of your team or triple option team there's things they can do and they never have to go to the option that to be able to get out outside of you and so. I think this match up is going to be fascinating and when you look at their offensive coordinator Vince Munch who's great name by the way he's been with Scott a bell for a while he was with him at Davidson going back to 2018 so like they've coached together for why he knows the system isn't it isn't like he's in year two with a bell and they came to get rights together it's like these guys like they know how this thing is supposed to work. And you they're going to try to control the get clock they're going to try to shorten the game they're going to try to move be a chain movers and then try to find some ways to to use their names aggressiveness to their advantage so how does how does.

21:26You know coach ash have them prepare to come out and play sound but aggressive football. And I think that match up is going to be really fascinating out. You know he too very different offenses he's going to have to play behind your coach against the first two weeks but also some offenses that. That from a principle standpoint scheme is different formations are different but as far as what they're trying to accomplish. Is is similar and then the other thing is how do you get your DBs to remain aggressive but to not be too aggressive like last week because if you do that against them you run into some of the same down field options that you run into when you're playing a team like navy. And and so I'm very curious to see what what the game plan is going to look like I mean just from the standpoint of what personnel do you use. Like is this going to be a four three game is this going to be a four four game like we see in the past is it a four to five game. You know and if it is four to five is it four to five with Christian Gray in the slot or is it four to five with. You know maybe a third safety in the slot is it four to five with maybe you put J Nawsbury out there you know this is a guy that's played some rover in the past.

22:34Is it J Lens need that's out there there's so many different ways you can go at this team i'm very curious to see what what does what route. Chris Ash goes with in this match up. The bright side about the personnel of Notre Dame's defense is he has a lot of different options i'm with you i'm going to be curious i would be. With the injury to Briante Johnson i'd be a little surprised if the answer was a third safety because your depth there is already a little bit thin. You know because then your only rotational safety is who Ethan Long and or joeal Brian depending on who trots out there Brandon Logan yeah yeah i'll be curious to see how he handles that i. If i were a betting man i'd probably say linebacker but i mean i don't know it definitively so i'll be very curious to see what he does there. Another lineup change Brian that's kind of leads to another interesting match up in this game we obviously saw in in Notre Dame's depth chart yesterday tion Gray was listed as a starter in place adjacent on you who is out nursing an ankle injury and. The defensive tackles as a room is going to be i don't want to say have their hands full but play a very important role with how much rice looks to establish.

23:38The run game now the interior of rice is offensive line is interesting because if you guys remember last week we talked about the interior of Wisconsin's defensive line. And how they were kind of a bunch of sought off 320 pound guys and that's exactly what rice is interior offensive line is you know there's six two six two six three but they're all three 15 320 plus. I think they're left guard a six to 330 pounds so i'd be very interested to see how their defensive tackles play there but they're going to have an important role. And and the other thing about this group trip it's a very it's a very experienced group of interior players that have played a lot of football and and that's something that i'm. i'm very curious about as well because you look at you know the offensive line and. You know you look at coal a principle i'm the prince i just say let's go about it that way you and i talked about him this off season as a guy that you know we we hey how's he going to be. You know guy that played a lot of football last year for rice got injured but man when he was on the field he was pretty good player for them last year six three two 10.

24:46Luke Miller is a guy left tackle that's played a lot but Patrick valent is a guy that's played a lot of football for them i had 589 snaps last year rice was a starter for them good football player quality football player. Nate bled so at center is is new as a full time starter but he did play almost 300 snaps last year he started i believe four games last season and the year think you dealt with some injuries as well so. You know and they're all good size kids you know net net net bled so six two three fifteen Patrick valent six two three thirty and coal prince i. Is six three three ten so like this is going to be a big interior group. That comes off the line with good pad level they play hard their experience they now know the offense this is your two in the offense for them. I thought they played very well in the opener this offense is going to be built around running between the tackles getting the full backs down hill and doing all type of things and if you're interior D lineman aren't a physical aren't be aggressive and aren't see.

25:49Smart then you're going to get gashed just like you do when you're trying to defend the full back against Navy and army. And so when you talk about player match ups this is a big test and this is a big test for some guys who haven't really faced this kind of offense before. You know look for for Jason on you if he was still playing like ways played against army Navy before. Elijah Hughes played against them but if you think about it the rest of their D line did not has not played against this Tion Gray hasn't played against this. Frances brew hasn't played against this and our mo mucca actually played a decent amount against army last year saw something but they that was it. So this for for the transfers especially this is kind of something that they haven't seen before. And how prepared they're going to be I'll tell you what though it's going to be a great preparation for them. For a couple months when they've got to play Navy now Navy's different and how they block but it's similar principles in my opinion. I'll be very interested to see what Tion Gray and Frances brew do in this game to very different builds but utilize similarly there is a play I was going back through and watching the Notre Dame Wisconsin game where.

26:55Frances brew anchored perfectly on a double team stone walled the offensive lineman from trying to get a push up to the next level and ended up making a play and which led to the linebackers fill in. I thought it was exceptional. But I said at the time when Tion Gray committed to Notre Dame I was like i'm looking forward to seeing him start against Navy. Because of the style of offense they run it's not a copy paste with rice but I'll be very interested to see what Tion does but you know Ryan you mentioned. Allowing the linebackers to fill in and do their job and they're going to have a very important job coming up because they're facing a unique backfield for rice. You know obviously jacari browns are quarterback but I'll be interested to see what the linebackers do against the Von buyers and Deandre Hardeman junior Deandre Hardeman junior I believe is going to be starting in place at Quentin Jackson who is going to be out for this game. Then to Von buyers is kind of their their version of the Alex Tesco to keep this Navy analogy going he's kind of their hammerback i'm very curious what they do with Hardeman because I know like last week. He he was kind of also playing like in the fullback slot along with the other kid does he replace to your point is he replaced Quentin Jackson or not or do they just still go with the two man hammer at running back either way.

28:04This is a big match up for the linebackers trev because it's like with anything one of the keys to stop in a triple option team and they're not a triple option team okay they're not they they are a pistol option team which is different. But you've got to be downhill on the running backs because it's especially in this game they're going to if they can get three and a half yards every time they carry the football they're going to live in that world all day. And you know because again that gets him to get some first downs and so they want to keep the nerdy m offense off the field they want to make sure that that their offense can. You know can control the clock and all those type of things and so this is a team that wants to shorten the game they were eight in the country last year in time of possession per game eighth. And two of the teams ahead of them triple option teams and then you got navy right behind them so. That they want to be that boys he state was sixth in college football last year in time of possession Miami was seventh well one of the things that those two teams did against Notre Dame.

29:07Is they were able to shorten the game because they were to just kind of turn out first downs and just kind of keep the thing rolling slowly build the game slowly keep the nerdy m offense off the field where Notre Dame down and then defensively it's like well the more plays they run the more chance that they make a mistake well. Offense is like this look at the exact same opposite way. The more plays we run with this unique system the more mistakes you're going to make if the linebackers can come downhill and blow up the run game and put them in a lot of ones and twos and minuses that puts them into we got a throw now situations and that's absolutely where Notre Dame wants to be against rice. Yeah absolutely absolutely. 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.