Notre Dame vs. Rice Preview

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Hi, this is Isaac Shade, host of Lockdown College basketball and Lockdown Tar Heels. Today's episode is brought to you by ADT. Imagine you're watching the game at a buddy's house when you get a call that someone tried to break into yours. In a second, everything can change. That's why there's ADT. ADT security systems help keep your home safe 24-7 with the most company operated monitoring centers in the industry. The ADT Plus app keeps you in control the whole time. Don't leave your home wide open during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADT.com or call 1-800-ADT-ASAP. Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where ODO comes in. And all in one business management software that brings every part of your business together

1:00from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing all in one powerful platform. No messy integrations, no bouncing between tabs and best of all, no spreadsheets. Stop managing software and start managing your business with one unified system. Try for free today at odo.com slash locked on. That's odo.com slash locked on. It's no secret. One of them should dominate rice on Saturday, but this game isn't really about whether the Irish will win. It's about what they can accomplish while they're doing it. We're breaking it all down. Coming up next. You are locked on Irish. Your daily podcast on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome in. This is locked on Irish, your daily home for Notre Dame football. I'm your host, Tyler O'Jack. And today is Thursday, September 10th. Thanks as always for making this show. Your first watch or listen of the day. This episode is brought to you by CalSue.

2:01For a limited time, download the CalSue app and use code locked on to get $10 when you trade $10. All right. The Irish are back inside Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday for the home opener against the rice owls. And while there should not be much suspense about who wins this game, there is still plenty that Notre Dame can get out of it. And we're going to talk about why this matchup is different from some of those infamous home opening upsets under Marcus Freeman. We're also going to talk about what rice actually does. Well enough to challenge the Irish for at least a little bit on Saturday. And we're also going to get into the specific areas where I believe Notre Dame needs to take advantage of a massive talent gap before I give you my predictions at the end. Let's get right into it. Kick off is set for 330 PM Eastern inside Notre Dame Stadium as the Irish opened their 98th season playing on those hollered grounds. The game will air on NBC and feature the same crew as last week's game against Wisconsin. We're going to get Dan Hicks and Jason Garrett in the booth and Caroline Pineda on the sidelines. And man, looking at the weather forecast for Saturday afternoon in South Bend, it looks

3:01like it's going to be hot and it's going to be humid. I'm seeing a high of 84 degrees, but the feels like temperature is going to be pushing 90 because of the humidity. So this could obviously play a factor on the field. We might see guys get worn out quicker, maybe even start to cramp, but if you're in the crowd and you're going to the first home game of the season, my dad likes to say there's no fire or beer can't put out that well, that may be true as long as it's cold. Let me just say make sure that you are hydrating and putting on some SPF 30 for your own good because it might be a scorcher. Notre Dame has played rice five previous times and the Irish are five note. The last time these two teams faced off was actually back in 2014 for the season opener. He was Everett Goulson's first game back as the starting quarterback for the Irish after he was suspended for the entire 2013 season. And man, he lit it up in that one. He passed for 295 yards and just 14 completions, including two touchdowns through the air. Plus he ran for three more scores on the ground. Whenever Goulson was on, he was such a joy to watch.

4:01Just the highs and lows were a little bit too extreme with Everett Goulson. In 2014 was also the last time rice had a winning season. That was my freshman year of college. The Notre Dame Rice game was the first game I attended as a college student, although I was at Holy Cross at the time. And that legitimately feels like an eternity ago. And that was the last year that Rice football won more games than it lost in a season. Now the owls are led by head coach Scott Abel, who is in a second season with the program. And he has a six and eight record thus far. Abel has been head coach for 13 years now, but Rice is his first job in the FPS. And Rice went five and seven in the regular season last year, enables first season, but then they got stopped. Forty one and 10 by Texas State in the bowl game to finish five and eight on the year. The owls enter this game right out though. They're one and oh to start the year coming off a 31 to three win over the vaunted Houston, Christian Huskies. I bet you didn't know that I already knew the mascot for Houston, Christian. It's because I didn't I looked that up online before we started doing this.

5:04Despite the fact that rice is undefeated. Vegas doesn't think this one is going to be particularly close. Notre Dame is currently favored by 44 and a half points on Fandall and the over under is listed at 55 and a half. And according to our friend of the show and resident gambling expert Tim Murray, it is the highest point spread for Notre Dame games since Tennessee State in 2023, which closed at 48. The next closest was bowling green back in 2019, which was about the same as Rice. The Irish were favored by 45 points and that one. And guess what? Irish covered in both those games. They beat Tennessee State by 53 and bowling green by 52. And if you know, for whatever reason, you're wondering what the spread was for the Northern Illinois game. It was 28. Well, what about Marshall? That closed at 20 and a half points. So if you are worried about this game, turning into a repeat of Marshall or Northern Illinois, I won't blame you one bit playing down to the opponent has been an issue for Mark's Freeman, especially in home openers. He is a one and three record through his first four, which is just crazy to think about

6:06his only win in a home opener was against Tennessee State in 2023. But when you look at what Rice has on its roster and you compare that to Notre Dame, the gap is actually much, much bigger in this game than it was against Marshall and Niu. I vividly remember doing my prep on Northern Illinois and I came on this show and said, I was kind of scared about that matchup coming off a big win against Texas A&M and man, I caught all kinds of flack for saying that. Now, I did not think they were going to lose that game, but I felt like it could be close in the second half and it certainly was. I feel no sense of concern about this matchup. I understand the recent history and why fans still have PTSD from those games and I get it, but there is just no possible reason why this game should ever be close. At least when I was looking at Northern Illinois, they had a really good running back. They had a lot of experience guys on defense who had played well against other power for teams. Marshall had some good players as well with the respectable head coach, but the one similarity

7:08between this game and the Niu and Marshall games is that Notre Dame just had to travel to play a team from one of the two major conferences the week before in 2022. They went to Columbus. They lost to a top five Ohio State team and in 2024, they beat a ranked Texas A&M team at Kyle Field. Both games are incredibly physical and in the case of the 2024 game, that was a slugfest all the way to the very end Sunday night against Wisconsin was a physical game for sure, but this year's Badger team, like I know they're improved, but they are nowhere near as good as Texas A&M was in 2024 and certainly not Ohio State in 2022. So I'm not worried about this Irish team feeling some huge let down after playing a good team in Wisconsin, but just not the same. And they were 20 and a half points against the Badgers and even though they didn't pull away until the second half, I don't think that game demanded nearly as much from the players as the Texas A&M game. If I have any concern as small as it is, it's that Wisconsin, that game was on a Sunday.

8:09So Notre Dame is going to take on rice after having a short week and rather than giving his guys a couple of days to rest, Notre Dame had coach Mark Freeman had them in pads for their traditional bloody Tuesday practice, which is obviously physical. It takes a lot out of the guys. Initially Freeman said he was going to make it a lighter practice, but he said that when he saw the guys and he talked to them on Tuesday morning, he felt like they were ready for it. So they upped the intensity to what it would be during normal week. And look, I've heard arguments on both sides, but frankly, we're just going to play the results anyway. If Notre Dame comes out of the gates, clicking and they go a big right away, people are going to say, well, good thing they had the physical practice on Tuesday and they didn't take their foot off the gas. But if they come out slow and they look sluggish, people are going to say they spent too much energy and practice. That's just the way it's going to be. And it would be the exact same if it were the other way around it. But here's the thing. It should not matter how much of the Irish practice this week whatsoever, because Notre Dame should destroy rice from the opening kickoff. It might not look particularly impressive to anyone on the outside if and when they blow

9:11this team out, but there is still plenty to gain from this opportunity for the players and the coaching staff. There are plenty of guys who need more game wraps on both sides of the ball. And we're going to talk more about them shortly, but more than anything, this game is about the mindset. The theme of this season is leave no doubt. And the rice game is no exception. We actually saw Mark Streeman and Notre Dame players repeating that mantra, leave no doubt before the start over the fourth quarter. That is going to be the theme. That is how we are going to look at this entire season. So Notre Dame has to come out against rice. Be ready to go, not because beating rice is going to change anyone's perception of this team, but because of what it says about them internally. There's been a lot of noise around this team dating back to last winter and there will continue to be the route the rest of this season. Beating rice is obviously not going to do anything to quiet that, but this is another opportunity for Notre Dame to show that some of the things that have cost them and cost this program in seasons past, like playing down to an opponent, starting slowly, overlooking a team

10:12that they should be are no longer going to be tolerated. It should not matter who is on the other side line. It shouldn't matter that Notre Dame is favored by more than six touchdowns. And it shouldn't matter that everybody expects them to win and win big. If leave no doubt is actually going to mean something, this is exactly the kind of game where you have to prove it. Don't play with rice. Don't let them hang around. Put this game away early. Get the starters off the field before the fourth quarter and leave absolutely no doubt about which team they just lined up against. The rice does bring something the Irish have not seen yet this season and likely won't see it all the rest of the year. It's a very different offense designed to make you think on every snap. We're going to break down the aisles on both sides of the wall and how Notre Dame should attack this matchup coming up next. Today's episode is brought to you by Calci. NFL season is here and everyone is already making predictions. Who's winning the division? Who's making the playoffs? Who's hoisting the Lombardi trophy when it's all send done? Well, with Calci, America's number one prediction market, you can actually trade on those predictions in a live market.

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13:19That's applyhouse.com promo code SH5 College, Supplyhouse, real people, real service. All right, let's dive in to the rice scouting report. I actually did not do an opponent preview series episode about rice during the off season, but we're still going to give you the full scouting report today. We're going to start with our offense. Their offense of coordinator Vince Munch came over from Davidson with her head coach, Scott Abel. They like to run a pretty unique style of offense. It's an option offense run exclusively out of the shotgun. Abel refers to it as a gun choice system as opposed to the more traditional triple option offense. But there are some triple option principles that you're going to recognize, but they run a lot more speed option stuff and some traditional zone running schemes as well. That's part of the reason why Mark's Freeman wanted Notre Dame to hit and practice on Tuesday, because they need to be prepared for such a different style. Preparing for this offense is unlike preparing for Navy, even though they run an option and it's certainly a lot different than playing Wisconsin or any of the other teams on Notre

14:21Dame schedule. So rice finished 25th in the country last year in rushing yards per game, but that stat is a little bit misleading because they were also 93rd in yards per carry. So they're going to run the ball a lot, no matter what happens, even if they go down big in the style, actually worked the perfection. Their season opener, they ran for a whopping 458 yards on 69 attempts, which comes out to 6.6 yards per carry, but they're going to be facing a little bit different defense on Saturday. All right. Players know. Notre Dame. Number 11, Jacuri Brown. He's had an interesting career. He's a big dude. He's 6'4", 227 pounds, and he actually played his first two seasons with Miami Hurricanes before transferring to UCF where he played the last two seasons. And believe it or not, Brown actually started two games for the Miami Hurricanes at Cordeback as a true freshman, which kind of shows you how far that program has come in recent years. And then he played some during his first season at UCF, but then barely at all last season. That's why transferred and ended up with rice.

15:22He rushed for 98 yards in his first game with the Alice, but completed just three passes for 6 yards, but he's like a big running back in the backfield considering the fact that he's 6'4". They also have a pair of sophomore running backs, number 26, Tyven Byers. He led the team with 16 carries and more than 100 rushing yards in the season opener. And they also have running back at number 28, DeAndre Hardeman Jr. He added 77 yards in the ground. If they are going to throw the ball, it's probably going to be to their slot guy, number 10, Quentin Jackson. They also run the ball to him as well. He had a touchdown in their season opener. And then a name that Notre Dame fans are probably a little familiar with. Tyven, number 9, Preston Zinter. He's a former Notre Dame linebacker transferred away this off season. He was a very good special teams player for the Irish when he was there, but just couldn't crack the linebacker rotation with all the talent ahead of him. But I think he was clearly playing the wrong position. If he had stayed at Notre Dame, he might have switched over to Tyven, like he's playing with Rice. But he did actually, he did not actually play for Rice in their season opener, but he's not listed on the injury report for this game.

16:23So I expect to see him out there on the field for Rice. As for their strengths, who weaknesses? I mean, they can run the ball against bad defenses. And that's about it. They finished second to last in the country last year in passing arts per game ahead of only army. So they're going to try to run the ball. They had some success against Houston, Christian. I don't think that's going to be the same against Notre Dame. All right. So the keys for the Notre Dame defense, well, stopping the run would be a pretty good place to start in my opinion. But honestly, the most important thing for the Notre Dame defense is getting off the field on third down, like the only way that this game can be even moderately close is if Rice plays keep away from the Irish and they stay on the field as much as possible. We saw that happen last year when Boston College was extremely overmatched against Notre Dame, but they had the ball for more than 10 minutes longer than Notre Dame. And they had it for practically the entire third quarter because the Notre Dame defense just could not get them off the field on third down or fourth down. And then when Michigan was playing Western Michigan this past weekend, it's put all the craziness at the end.

17:24The main reason why Western Michigan led is because they just kept the ball away from Michigan. Now the Notre Dame defense was very effective at stopping the run against Wisconsin and they were able to get the badgers off the field on crucial downs for the most part. Wisconsin was 5-13 on third down and the Irish defense held them to a sack adjusted 2.7 yards per caries. A great performance by the Notre Dame run defense and the guys in Wisconsin's backfield are a hell of a lot more talented than what Rice has. So that should bow. Well, plus Wisconsin's longest run went for just eight yards. So not only were they stopping the run, they were limiting explosives as well. It is also very important, speaking of explosives, that Notre Dame's defense stays disciplined and they prevent any trick plays from turning into explosives because I do expect Rice to kind of dig deep in their tool bag a little bit and try to throw out some exotic stuff. I remember last year when Notre Dame played Purdue, Purdue ran a very effective trick play early on that actually they used to score a touchdown there early on in the game. But I expect Rice to do some trickery in this one as well because obviously the Rice

18:27offense is not going to beat Notre Dame by sustaining long drives throughout the course of the game. It's just not going to happen. So they're going to have to try to create some chunk plays by fooling the defense. They don't really pass it often as I mentioned, but when they do, it almost feels like a trick play in the same way that it does when Notre Dame plays the service academies, even if Navy throws it more than Rice does nowadays. But I'm just not concerned about this defense going up against Rice's offense, even if it's a different style than what they're accustomed to seeing. What I'm much more interested in is how Chris Ash expands the rotation in this game. So 22 different players registered snaps on defense against Wisconsin, but freshman Rodney Dunham only got five. Well, safety, Joey, Brian played just one snap on defense. So it was really just 20 different players. Notre Dame only rotated three linebackers with Kingston and Villamuasa out. And that caught me by surprise because I thought we'd see more from Madden Framow, although Framow was out there on all the special teams. They rotated a lot at defensive tackle, which is what we expected. But both Bubacartre, Rayory and Bryce Young still played 44 snaps out of 61 on the edges.

19:30Clearly, the Notre Dame coaching staff wanted to keep things tight for the season opener against a quality of big 10 opponent that they respected. So they shortened the rotations. But against a team like Rice, they're going to want to expand those rotations much more and go deeper into the depth chart. This is a great opportunity for the reserves. And especially those young players like Ronnie Dunham, like Joey O'Brien, to experience their first significant game action. Those reps might not mean much in terms of determining the outcome on Saturday, but they could mean a whole lot later on in the season when their numbers are called in much bigger games. All right. Now let's flip it over and take a look at Rice on defense. So John K has been at Rice since 2023. He was promoted to defensive coordinator before last season. He spent 25 years coaching high school football in Texas. He's a bit of a legend in the high school football ranks down there, but his time's defensive coordinator has not been smooth thus far. It was not a great debut. Rice had one of the worst defenses in the country last season. He finished 122 and opponent yards per play allowed and they also finished 122 and scoring

20:31defense, giving up more than 34 points per game. Now they did bring in several new players in the secondary and at linebacker through the transfer portal, but a lot of the guys up front have been in the program. I'm not blaming it all on K either. Like they have been bad on defense for years. But according to Jamie Ullama from Irish Sports Daily, Rice had nine defenders play more than 400 snaps last season and eight of them are gone, including their top seven tacklers. On one hand, you might say, well, you know, they weren't very good last season. It's probably good to see some new faces, but also experience can help, especially a team like Rice who's just trying to find their footing. Couple guys to keep an eye out for defensive end number 16, Chibi and Waku, I think his last name is. He had an ice game in the season opener against Houston, Christian. He recorded two sacks, had five run stops, according to pro football focus and he actually finished last season with 28 total tackles and three TFLs. I thought linebacker number 14, Bo Barton looked decent. He was tied for the team lead with five tackles at a half attack for loss. And like I said, they brought in a bunch of new guys in the secondary, but none of them

21:31really stood out in game one as for their strengths and weaknesses. There's not many strengths from being completely honest. They've had one of the worst defenses in the country, pretty consistently over the past five years. They have not been good against the run. They have not been good against the past. So needless to say, there are plenty of weaknesses for Notre Dame to exploit. The Alas had one of the worst secondaries in all of college football last year. And even though they brought in some new guys, I'm skeptical that any of them are going to completely change that Jamie Ulliamma also pointed out that the Rice Defense forced just seven turnovers all season long, seven and 13 games, including only three interceptions. They were in the bottom five nationally in both categories, but the number that really jumps off the pages this, the Rice Defense gave up 24 plays of 40 yards or more last season. I'm going to say that again. The Rice Defense Explosive Play that is double the 20 yard minimum that we typically use to define an explosive play and Rice gave up 24 of them in 13 games.

22:34And look, as we shift now to the keys for Notre Dame's offense, there's been a lot of talk about Notre Dame's wide receivers after the Wisconsin game. Some people in the college football media are already writing Notre Dame office in national championship contender because the lack of production and the perceived lack of playmakers on the outside. I think it's totally fair to question how this group would fare against some of the best defenses in the country. But in my opinion, it is extremely premature to decide how good this group is right now or what it could become based on one game against Wisconsin. But fortunately, for Notre Dame's offense, Rice's defense or lack the rough presents the perfect opportunity to get the downfield pass in game going. If you're giving 24 plays of 40 more yards, it's probably a lot of deep passes down field. Wisconsin played with two high safeties, basically all game. They sat in deep zone coverage, daring CJ Cardo beat them underneath, and that's exactly what he did. I don't care if Rice plays three safeties deep.

23:34They don't have playmakers in the secondary who can hold a candle to Notre Dame's wide receivers and the Irish should be able to carve them apart. I am not worried about Jordan Faizon. He had a great start. And in time, I think he's going to slowly start to get the respect he deserves nationally as he should produce one of the best seasons of any wide receiver in college football this year with the way that the offense is structured and also CJ Card throw on him the rock. And Jordan Faizon is just always open. But I would really love to see Miley and Graham and Jane Greyhouse rack up at least five catches each in this game. Graham had a nice play against Wisconsin that got called back and he drew a pass in her interference penalty, but he finished his Notre Dame debut without a catch on just 16 total snaps. Whitehouse was out there for about 30 snaps, but he only had one catch a screen that went for six yards. This is the type of game where you force the issue with those guys and they really have to force the issue with break house because him and car have just not been in sync on game day, stating back to last season. So let your wider receivers go out there and make plays. And if it leads to a couple of incompletions when you're trying to force the ball, even

24:35if a guy's covered a little bit so be it because getting those guys confidence specifically Graham and great house and getting them more established within the offense is going to be crucial down the road and that process should start against rights. Now my second key for the Notre Dame offense, figure out the starting five on the offensive line. Last week the offensive line played much, much better in the second half than it did in the first. They also had Sullivan absur out there for the entire second half and he played well after sub again for styles, Prescott. I'm not sure if they still plan on rotating guys because Absure was dealing with an injury during camp and Freeman said the plan going into the Wisconsin game was to rotate styles Prescott and Sullivan absur so that they would each finish with around 30 snaps. But Absure has to be the starter in this game. He started games before he played well when he was out there. He should start against rice and it might not be a perfect performance from that five man unit on Saturday. But it is very important that they continue to get more reps together and build off what they did in the second half against Wisconsin. If they do that, the running game should open up naturally. The running backs were pretty harshly criticized in my opinion after struggling to run the

25:38ball early against Wisconsin. But then once the offensive line settled in and started moving the badges front seven, then notary running backs exploded in the second half, both on the ground and through the air because they were catching passes as well and turning those into big plays. I think it's more important to get the passing game going early against rice, give car chances to push the ball down field, get gram involved, get great house involved to make this receiver core part of the offense is set of spending another week wondering what they can do. And once the game is under control, let the offensive line and running backs take over and finish it because again, this game shouldn't just be about beating rice. Notary should use saturday to work on things they are going to need to beat the much better teams later on. But what does a clean performance actually look like on saturday special teams players I expect to shine and my final score prediction are coming up next. Today's episode is brought to you by O2. Running business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One at for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales and somehow none of them

26:38talk to each other. Well, that's where O2 comes in. O2 is an all in one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. Everything works in one place helping your team move faster, stay organized and focus on growing the business instead of managing software. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent, it's about having everyone working toward the same goal. And that's true in sports just like it is in business. One thing that's really shout out to me about market strength senior at Notre Dame is how aligned the entire program feels from the top down. Whether that be recruiting, player development, strength conditioning or the coaching staff, everyone seems to be working from the same vision of what they want the program to become. It's not just about landing talented players, it's about having every part of the organization pulling the same direction. That's usually what separates good programs from great ones. Great organizations win because operations matter and that's why you should get O2. Try it free today at odu.com slash locked on. That's od.com slash locked on. All right, before we get into my predictions, I did want to spend a moment on Rice's special

27:42teams unit because we always acknowledge the third phase of the game on these preview shows and you know what? Rice has a pretty solid kicker. He finished 10 of 13 last season and he went 10 of 11 from inside 50 yards and all three of his misses came from 40 plus yards last season. In the season opener, more of the same. He knocked in a chip shot, but missed from 50 plus. He can hit it from deep though. His career long is 49 yards. Charlie Durkin is their punner. He's a transfer from Kent State and he got a lot of work for the Golden Flash last year. No doubt about that, but it was not particularly good work. He averages less than 40 yards per punt for his career. Although he did have a nice 54 yarder against Susan Christian in the return game. Quint Jackson is the return man, but he's not particularly dynamic. So my key is for Notre Dame on special teams. Number one, keep Spencer, poor, and Jasper, Skate off the field. Notarym should not have to punt in this game. They should not have to kick field goals. The only time that Spencer, poor, that should be out there is to kick extra points. The offense, which core of touch on every single time they have the ball, whether the

28:43starters are in or not. Poor, and Skate should be more focused on figuring out ways to stay cool on the bench, then coming into the game for any meaningful action other than extra points for poor at. The only kicker who should see action beyond that is Eric Schmidt, because he handles kickoffs. And if everything goes according to plan, Schmidt should have around seven opportunities to kick off in this game or eight. And he can not have another kick go out of bounds. That is so frustrating to me. He has done it four times in 13 games, including one last week against Wisconsin. And it seems like Notre Dame prefers to have him kick it toward the corner and force a return because they trust the coverage team to tackle the returner before he gets to the 25. I get that. That makes sense. But if your kicker can't consistently keep it between the sidelines, then just kick it through the end zone instead of handing them the ball at the 35. Is it going to matter against rice? Not really, but still Eric Schmidt has to become more consistent outside of that. Notre Dame should get after the ponder and see if they can block one.

29:44If they don't just keep everything clean and avoid giving rice any free opportunities. It was not a clean operation last week all across the board. So they needed to tighten up on satirin. All right, predictions. I'm not going to bury the lead. I like the Irish to win this game. 49 to three. They're going to get the win. They're going to get the cover. And unfortunately, a late rice field goal is going to spoil the shot out. And considering how much rice is going to try to run the ball, this game should move pretty quickly. And possessions might be a little bit more limited for Notre Dame than you normally expect in a blowout. But good news is the Irish offense should be able to strike quickly and often. I think to starter score five touchdowns in this game in the backups add two more. Considering how conservative the game plan was for the Notre Dame offense against Wisconsin, I feel like offensive coordinator Mike Dendrach is going to give CJ car plenty of opportunities to push the ball down field early in this game as a little reward. Like, it was great to see car take what the defense gave him and hit the check downs when he needed to because he didn't always do that last season. It was a sign of growth for the quarterback in year two as a starter.

30:45But I think we know what CJ car wants to do. He wants to let it rip. He wants to throw the ball down field. And after doing exactly what the offense asked of him against Wisconsin, I think Dendrach should let him do that against rice, chuck the ball down field. It would not surprise me at all if they take a deep shot on the very first play of the game reminiscent of the deep post to Malachi fields in the first play of the Purdue game. It was an unbelievable pass by CJ car score to touchdown almost immediately. So that's a bull prediction to start this off. I think they're going to chuck a deep on the first play. My bull prediction last week was at match. Every would find the end zone and then he didn't even register a snap on offense. I expect that to change on Saturday. But I'm not quite ready to pick him to score again. And while we're recording this right now, I have to mention it. We are recording this on Wednesday during the Patriot Seahawks game. I've got it up on the TV on view. And guess who scored a touchdown Eli Raridan. And if you tune in the show at all last season, you probably heard me give out the bet Eli Raridan any time TD. I gave it in pretty much every single preview show because I thought he was going to do it

31:48at some point. He kept getting tackled inside the five and it just never happened. Eli Raridan score a single touchdown last season, no matter how many times they gave it out. And then it became a running joke. And guess what? He scores in his first NFL game because of course. So am I going to give more any time TD picks this season? You know what? Yes. As a matter of fact, I think George Faeson is going to get one. That's a little bit of a safer play because of how good he is. I think George Faeson finds the end zone for the first time this season. But like I said earlier, my line Graham, Jane Greyhouse should be a lot more involved as well. Once the backups get in, I think running backs, Keedron Young and Jonas Walton each find the end zone. Jonas Walton getting his first queer game action his first career touchdown in the same game. And defensively, I think it's going to be a big game for Jalen Snead. He should be on the field quite a bit to stop. Rice is rushing attack. And Notre Dame might also be inclined to give guys like Drake Bowen a little bit more rest after he was out there for practically the entire game against Wisconsin. Like Bowen is going to be out there, but he's not going to be out there for the full of game. So guys like Jalen Snead and also Matt and Framow could both get a lot of work in this game.

32:50And I think they're going to be highly, highly productive. So Notre Dame is going to win. They're going to win big. And because of the way that Rice plays, this might be one of the quickest 40 plus point wins you're ever going to watch. The goal is simple. Get up early. Get the starters out. Get the young guys play and get everybody home healthy. And with that, we'll wrap up today's show, but you don't even have to wait until tomorrow for another episode. And that is because we've got a special bonus show coming your way this afternoon. It went on Brian Smith's show for another crossover with the portal. And we're going to release that conversation right here on the lockdown Irish feed a 5pm Eastern. And if you've not already, make sure that you're subscribed on YouTube or following the podcast wherever you listen. So you don't miss anything throughout the season. We're going to have your daily show every morning. We're also going to have bonus episodes like this one, pregame shows, post game shows, all that stuff. So make sure that you are subscribed and get your questions in for tomorrow's Friday mail back because we will have plenty more to discuss before Notre Dame and Rice kick it off on Saturday. So check back for that crossover later today. And then I'll be right back here tomorrow morning for the Rice Week mail back. Thanks again for tuning in.

33:50And we'll see you in a few hours.