Tim, is this the most unpredictable season you've ever covered? And what does all this say about parity, perhaps, and the college transfer portal, perhaps, about college football?

Yeah, I think it all stems, Phil, from the fact that – and we've heard – I think Kirby Smart has talked about this.

We've heard people talk about this, that in the NIL age of college football, the talent is spread out more now because Georgia and Alabama and the heavyweights were able to stockpile talent.

And now that talent – They want to play.

So they're leaving Georgia and Alabama, et cetera, et cetera, Ohio State so they can get on the field somewhere.

And that has definitely stretched out the talent across the board.

So from that perspective, 11 top 10 teams in the last three weeks have lost.

What made him such a good quarterback? And where does he rank among the best, perhaps, that you've ever seen?

How concerned are we about this, and how much of this falls on Chris Ashe and the scheme that Notre Dame's running?

Well, first of all, let me point out that there's some chatter now coming out of Saturday that BYU would put 12 men in the huddle and then remove one late.

I'm not sure the legality of that, but they were allowed to do that.

And so that... inhibited and slowed down Notre Dame's process of choosing their exact 11 on the field and how they wanted to utilize them.

So that could be one factor.

But the other factor is this.

Chris Ash is notorious for tinkering with defenses.

You agree with me?

What's it been like being around Marcus Freeman and the team leading up to this big matchup?

Well, he's, I mean, he's really adept at preparing a team, and so they'll, they'll come ready to play tonight, and I have no doubt that BYU, uh, will as well.

Kalani Sitake, I think, I've been saying this all week, I think he is, uh, Notre Dame's equi- or the equivalent of M- of Marcus Freeman and what he's done at, at, at Notre Dame.

So, uh, Sitake's done a great job in developing the culture of BYU, the culture of, of football at BYU.

And so this is a great matchup.

I think it's two head coaches going against each other.

I think it's two very physical football programs going against each other.

We'll be fine here, and we'll, we'll end up, you know, 11 and one at worst"?

Is this team ready for that kind of an atmosphere? Because they haven't seen one like this, I have a feeling, for a while.

You know, they've got a team – I mean, most of the guys that are contributing have been around a bit.

I know missing the playoffs last year was a missed opportunity to grow a little bit more collectively.

But, you know, I don't think that is – a concern at all you certainly when you go on the road you go into hostile territory you have to be prepared for for an environment that you're that that makes you uncomfortable and this is an environment that will make them uncomfortable and comfortable but you know everything that that they've done under marcus freeman especially since 2024 it's been a whole entire building process building to what they hope is you know a second national title run and And with a legitimate shot at winning it.

So I don't think that's the issue.

What you do have to avoid is the opening kickoff where your return man drifts over to the sideline, catches it and runs out of bounds at four, you know, accidentally or however you want.

Or just a fumbled snap or something that pins them back.

And as we wrap this series up on great Notre Dame running backs of the last 30 years, did we save the best for last?

What is your number-one takeaway from the win over North Carolina, and did the Irish come out of this one maybe better equipped to win a championship?

Well, I think anytime you face adversity, um, you know, you can benefit from that situation.

And they certainly, they cert- I, I- they created some adversity for themselves, I think, a little bit by, um, n- not kicking the field goal, going up by 17, which is a three s- three-score game, and then you kick off and they have to go 75 yards.

As it turned out, the fourth down attempt didn't work.

Uh, North Carolina goes 97 yards, which is about as an improbable leading into the game as, as you could imagine.

And so, yeah, I, I, I, I, I think the game pressure is good for them.

Um, I, I, I believe that, um, you know, North Carolina presented some, some problems with the passing game that Notre Dame hasn't generally struggled with, and now they'll be without Leonard Moore for the week.

What does America's foremost authority say?

Does he do a little talking down there on that field?

Well, Hudari Hines, the cornerback for Purdue, is the one that got him fired up when he split out wide in the Wildcat formation.

So yeah, I think so.

I think he's a good teammate.

I think his teammates know that he has their back in a lot of respects.

Running the football is not his forte.

I would like it to become a little bit more larger part of his game, I think it would make him better.

We haven't seen that part of the pass rush game in a long time.

... about the team?

Yeah, I, y- you know, at a very early age, being in South Bend, I mean, I was taught to be a Notre Dame fan.

My, I have two older brothers, my oldest brother, Pat, who lives, uh, in Eugene, Oregon with the Ducks for 50 years, knows nothing about athletics.

But my middle brother, my brother Mike, who's five years older than me, um, was the one that taught me about Notre Dame football and Notre Dame, and he had a lot of enthusiasm towards it, and his friends did.

And so I, I went to a, I went to a game when I was six years old.

Uh, Notre Dame destroyed Duke in Notre Dame Stadium.

I think it was 64 to nothing.

Oh, yeah.

Now, are they starting to gel three games in? How concerned are you about the offensive line?

Well, I think it was a step on Saturday, a positive step for them.

Who's playing a high level of football along the offensive line? I think left guard Anthony Knapp.

I'm not sure that you would necessarily say that about any of the other four yet.

The two tackles, Will Black and Gerby Lambert, they're playing that position for the first time on the collegiate level.

They've been beaten off the edge a couple times.

But really, by and large, C.J. Carr has been protected.

Is this defense good enough to pretty much pull off a championship all by its, well, not all by itself, but mostly by itself? Bear Bryant, he said it, right? Defense wins championships.

I didn't think, uh, what was your overall impression about the way Notre Dame handled rice? Did Notre Dame play like a national championship contender?

Well, first of all, I thought the game was over when Rice fumbled for the third time out of seven snaps.

That's when I knew for sure.

But, you know, give Marcus Freeman a lot of credit.

Game two, everybody's talking about game two, and, you know, you're going to have a letdown like you have in the past.

And he absolutely had them ready, starting with a Don Shuler's big hit that created a turnover and a touchdown, and Notre Dame's second defensive touchdown in two games.

But...

Did we learn anything meaningful about this wide receiver room Saturday? Or was Rice simply the perfect game to get everybody involved?

Jordan Faison, and other than that, I was kind of underwhelmed, right? It's only one game, but is this developing into a bit of a problem that what we thought was going to be a really deep room actually looks kind of shallow

right now? Well, Phil, if I talk about this too much, then I'm negative.

But the reality is it's not just one game.

It was the entire camp in which we were saying, who is going to be Jordan Faison's complement at wide receiver? He doesn't have it right now.

Mylon Graham made a nice...

Downfield reception was negated by a penalty.

Micah Gilbert caught three passes.

Need help navigating... environmental risk and with regulatory compliance you need ses look them up at sesadvantage.com tim priest of vegas says the irish by 44 and a half uh over under is 54 and a half what does america's foremost authority

What's this team's biggest weakness and what's its biggest strength?

Well, I think its biggest strength is – they're loaded with talent and the level and the depth, the depth at virtually every position.

Again, you're never going to be as deep as you want to be at every single position.

But I think that the depth is pretty exceptional.

And Marcus Freeman's done a really, really excellent job of inserting 8, 9, 10 transfers that blend in.

And before he accepts those transfers in, he makes sure that he's finding the right guys that are going to buy into the Notre Dame culture, whether it be for a year, which has generally been the case, or it's going to be longer than that.

They're starting to bring in some players that have multiple years of eligibility.

Okay, what about the rotation of wide receiver? That's been a story at Notre Dame for several years, and this year they brought in some new players, and they got another lacrosse player, don't they, ready to go, who played last year, but now it looks like he might be a little bit more of a factor.