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Notre Dame SURVIVES Wisconsin Scare Before Second-Half EXPLOSION | Fighting Irish · College Football Addiction: A Show About All Things College Football

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: For about 25 minutes on Sunday night, Notre Dame looked
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: like a team that had spent the entire offseason lying
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to itself. Leave no doubt, that was the mantra. That
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: was the whole point of this season. After getting left
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: out of the playoff last year, despite ripping off 10
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: straight wins, Marcus Freeman's team walked into Lambeau Field with
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: one job. Prove that last year was the fluke, not
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the 10-game streak. Marcus Freeman's team walked into Lambeau Field
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: with one job, proved that last year the end of
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: it was a fluke, not the 10-game streak. And for
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a half, Wisconsin had the answer, not with speed or talent,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: but with sheer stubbornness. This is college football addiction, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: we are presented by PrizePix. By the time the teams
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: walked into their locker rooms, Notre Dame had 29 rushing yards.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: They had one offensive touchdown. A Wisconsin team playing with
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a brand-new quarterback and a rebuilt receiving core had matched
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the fourth-ranked team in the country play-for-play. And then the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: third quarter happened. And Leave No Doubt stopped being a
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: slogan and started being a football game. Let's get into it.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: This wasn't just any season opener. This was the first
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: college football game played at Lambeau Field in a decade.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: since Wisconsin shocked fifth-ranked LSU back in 2016. 75,939 people
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: packed into Green Bay on a Sunday night, split about
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: as evenly as you'll ever see a crowd split, and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: all of them were there to see whether or not
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame's championship or bust preseason talk was real or
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: simply just that, talk. Notre Dame comes in ranked fourth
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: in the country, Preseason All-American scattered across this defense. A
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: quarterback getting Heisman buzz before he's thrown a single pass
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: that counts this year. And a chip on the shoulder
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the size of the state of Indiana. Because this is
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: a program that won 10 straight games to end last
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: season and still got left at home when the playoffs happened.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin came in as a three-touchdown underdog. New quarterback Colton Joseph,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a Transfer that, let's be honest with ourselves, very few
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: people outside of Madison were talking about in July. You
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: had a new look receiving core. Luke Fickle entering year
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: four of a rebuild that hasn't produced the results anybody
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: in Wisconsin wanted just yet. On paper, this is the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: kind of game that you circle as a tune-up. It's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: a measuring stick that's supposed to measure exactly one team.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: But Wisconsin didn't get that memo. And for a while,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: nothing to lose looked exactly like the right approach for
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the underdog in the building. Here's what nobody expected. Notre
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Dame's offense, the one built around a Heisman hopeful quarterback
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and a completely rebuilt backfield, just could not find a rhythm. C.J.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Carr led one scoring drive in the entire first half.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: The other possessions, three punts, two field goals, that's the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: return on investment for 30 minutes of Notre Dame football
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: against a three-touchdown underdog. And the one touchdown they did
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: get almost didn't count for the offense at all. Wisconsin
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: muffed a kick, Notre Dame recovered it at the Badgers'
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: 13-yard line, and four plays later, Carr found James Flanagan
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: in the end zone. A name that means something in
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Green Bay, by the way. His father and grandfather both
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: wore green and gold for the Packers. This was the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: first college football game they're to be played at Lambeau
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: in a decade, and it's his family's guy that's scoring
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: in it wearing Notre Dame blue. You can't script those
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: kind of things. They're the reminders that kind of get
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: us in the mood to remember why we fell in
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: love with this sport in the first place. But back
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: to the game, running the ball with any kind of
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: consistency wasn't happening. Aeneas Williams, the guy tasked with replacing
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: two backs who are now first-round picks in the NFL,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: was getting nowhere in the first half. And Wisconsin made
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: them pay for it. Notre Dame went three and out
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: on the very next possession after that Flanagan touchdown, handing
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin the ball back just past midfield. Colton Joseph took
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: advantage immediately. He found a wide open Malachi Coleman streaking
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: down the field for a 28-yard touchdown. And just like that,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the three-touchdown underdog was tied with the fourth-ranked team in
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the country. Wisconsin's best special teams moment came from a punter,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Sean West, who dropped a 70-yard punt that rolled out
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: of bounds at Notre Dame's own one-yard line. It's the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: kind of field position flip that turns a comfortable game
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: into a nervous one in about four seconds. Notre Dame
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: did manage two field goals, sandwiched around all of that,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: which is the only reason the scoreboard was not tied
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: heading into the locker room. But two field goals against
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a three-touchdown underdog is not a statement. It's damage control. Halftime,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame 13, Wisconsin 10. Three points against a team that, again,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I'll remind you, most people had picked to lose by
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: at least three touchdowns. If you're a Notre Dame fan
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: watching that first half, I don't know that you're panicking yet,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: but you're definitely checking your phone to see what people
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: are saying. Because this was, again, supposed to be the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: leave no doubt team. And right now there was nothing
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: but doubt when you looked at the halftime scoreboard. Freeman
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: knew it too. Walking into the locker room, his message
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to his team was pretty blunt. They had to find
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a way to run the football. They couldn't keep dropping
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: catchable passes. The margin for error against a team playing
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: with house money was getting thinner by the minute. And then,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame came out of that locker room and remembered
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: who they were supposed to be. Nine plays, 70 yards,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: 4 minutes and 31 seconds off of the clock. Aeneas
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Williams bounced around the line of scrimmage. found a crease,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and walked into the end zone. All of a sudden,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: you've doubled them up. 20-10, Notre Dame leads. That drive
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: alone would have been enough to change the tenor of
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the broadcast, but it wasn't the moment that broke the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: game open. Wisconsin got the ball right back, and Colton Joseph,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: who had played a clean, efficient game for two and
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: a half quarters, made one mistake that could decide the game.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: He rushed a throw on the outside. D.J. McKinney, a
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: transfer who came over from Colorado, read it like a book.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: He stepped in front of it, and he took it
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the entire length of the field for a touchdown. All
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, instead of a three-point lead, you're up 27-10.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: And just like that, a football game turned into a
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: track meet in the wrong direction for the Badgers. We'll
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: go on in just a moment, but I do want
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: to tell you, thank God we have one more football
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: game coming tomorrow night. I'm in Tallahassee right now. I
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: know this isn't the normal studio where I'm at. But
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: you can go to the PrizePix app right now. Play
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: a $ 5 lineup using code HMA. If you win that,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: all new users will get $ 150 instantly. I love the
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: more on Kevin Jennings' passing total. I love the more
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: on Ashton Daniels' passing total. I think this is going
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: to be a high-scoring game. I like the more on
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Kevin Jennings' rushing total. Go check out the PrizePix app.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: There's some pics there on the left on the screen
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: that you can see. We appreciate PrizePix, as always, for
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: their support. Wisconsin got a field goal late in the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: third quarter. to make it 27-13. And for a possession,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: there was a version of this game where Wisconsin claws
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: back into it. Where Lambeau Field turns into the kind
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: of environment that swallows a team whole the way it
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: did at LSU a decade ago. However, that version of
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the game never showed up. Notre Dame outscored Wisconsin 28-3
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: in the second half. Think about that for a moment.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: That's not a Patriots-Atlanta-Falcons joke, but 28-3. After Being up
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: only a field goal at halftime, Notre Dame turned the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: final 30 minutes into the kind of statement you make
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: when you're tired of people questioning whether you belong in
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the conversation. Aeneas Williams punched in a second touchdown run.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Carr found Nolan James Jr. wide open for a 28-yard
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: score with less than two minutes to go, and that
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: was just to put a bow on it. The final
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: score was a laugher, 41-13. Same score, coincidentally, as the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: last time these two teams played in 2021 at Soldier Field.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Different quarterbacks, different rosters, different NFL stadiums, but the same result.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Some things about this rivalry don't necessarily change. Look at
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the box score without context of how the game actually unfolded,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and you'd think that Notre Dame steamrolled Wisconsin start to finish.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Carr finished 19 of 29 for 239 yards, and he
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: had two touchdowns. He had an efficient, mistake-free night. And
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: that's for a guy that some are already talking about
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: as a National Player of the Year candidate. Faison, Notre
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Dame's top receiving weapon, added four catches for 80-plus yards.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: A couple of them the kind of chunk gains that
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: put a defense on its heels. We already talked about
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Nolan James Jr. He had himself a night, too. Had
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: that late touchdown. He showed that he can be more
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: than just a change of pace ball carrier in this offense.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: But if you strip away the final tally and you
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: rewatch the first 30 minutes, this was a fight. It
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: was a real one, and it was a fight against
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: a team that almost nobody outside of Madison gave a chance.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about Aeneas Williams for a moment because this
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: was about as good of a debut for Notre Dame
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: as you really could have asked for. Replacing Love and
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Price is no small task. Those are both first-round picks now.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: That's the bar. Williams walked into that. Not be pretty good.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The bar is be the guy who replaces two NFL players.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: paid first-round running backs. His first half was quiet. It
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: was rough, honestly. 29 rushing yards as a team through
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: two quarters doesn't happen if your lead back is finding
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: room to run. But the second half told a completely
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: different story. 90 yards on 20 carries, two TDs, both
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: of them on drives that 8 o'clock and 8 Wisconsin's
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: will to keep fighting. But here's why this matters beyond
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: one Sunday night in Green Bay. Notre Dame's whole offensive
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: identity for the last two seasons has been run through
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the backfield. You take that away and you're asking your
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: quarterback to try and be a hero every single week.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if that's sustainable across the full
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: slate that eventually includes BYU and Miami and SMU. Williams
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: didn't look like a finished product against Wisconsin. He looked
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: like a guy who needed a half to figure out
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: where the openings were. And once he found them, boy
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: did he. I don't think that's just nothing to scoff at.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I I think that's actually pretty encouraging for a team
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: that has to replace that much production at one position.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: The concern going forward to me isn't whether Williams can
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: be a lead back. It's whether the offensive line can
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: consistently create the kind of push that it did in
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: that third quarter. Drive after drive against defenses that aren't
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: playing from three-score underdog mentality with nothing to lose. And
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: there's a secondary storyline worth watching here too. Nolan James Jr.,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and Kedron Young both saw time in the backfield as well,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: which tells you that Freeman isn't ready to hand Williams
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: every single snap just yet. And that's obviously great roster
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: management for a long season, but it also means the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: who's-the-guy conversation at running back may not fully be settled,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: even with a great night from Williams. Now, my expectation
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: is that Williams will build on this the next few weeks,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: and that conversation will end pretty quickly. But if he doesn't,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that committee approach is something that can work really well
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: for Notre Dame. If Notre Dame's offense sputters like that
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: against a real playoff caliber opponent later in the season,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: does the defense have an answer? That's my takeaway number two,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and I'll just not bury the lead. Based on Sunday night,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: I think so. DJ McKinney's pick six was probably the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: single biggest play of the game, not because of how
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: many yards he covered, but just because of what it meant.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: It was the timing. Wisconsin had just cut the deficit
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and had a ton of just energy and excitement going
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: their way. Coming out of halftime, Notre Dame scores, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: now it's Wisconsin's turn to go respond. And they weren't
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: able to. Not only were they not able to, instead,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: McKinney turned the lead into a 17-point lead that effectively
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: ended the game. And that's ultimately what elite defenses do.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: They don't just stop drives, they end them and flip
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: it into points for their offense. And Notre Dame's defense,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: loaded with the kind of preseason All-American talent that got
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: mentioned all summer, delivered exactly that kind of play when
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the offense needed the cushion at the perfect moment. The
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: concerning part of the defense is that Notre Dame did
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: lose a couple of key defensive pieces during the game
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: to injury. And that's the kind of thing that does
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: not mean a ton in Week 1 against Wisconsin, but
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: but it could mean everything in November against a team
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: that actually has people that can make you pay for mistakes.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: As a standalone data point, a transfer cornerback making the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: single biggest defensive play of a marquee opener is the
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: exact kind of thing that playoffs teams need. Portal additions
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: who show up in big moments in week one are
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: usually a good sign for the other 11 weeks. Think
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: about what that pick six actually did. Wisconsin was moving
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the ball. They were down two scores. They were 20
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: yards away from having another attempt at a field goal. However,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame took their two score cushion and made it
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a three score cushion pretty quickly. And in the span
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: of one bad decision from Joseph and one perfectly timed
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: break from McKinney, all of that energy for Wisconsin that
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: was building got wiped away. That's the value of a
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: defense that can create points instead of just preventing them.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: It doesn't just stop the bleeding. It cuts the other
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: team instantly in front of a crowd that had started
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: believing again because of the way that Wisconsin had just
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: converted a 17-yard pass. All belief was gone. Notre Dame
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: has a luxury that a lot of teams don't have.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: And if this defense keeps generating that kind of splash
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: play after splash play across a full season, it papers
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: over a lot of the offensive hiccups that we saw
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: in the first half. Takeaway three, here's the uncomfortable truth
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: buried inside of a 28-point win. Notre Dame trailed or
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: was within a field goal for essentially the entire first
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: half against a team that was picked to lose pretty substantially.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: They had 29 rushing yards. They had one offensive touchdown
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that came after a gift turnover. Against Wisconsin, that is
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: a story with a happy ending because Notre Dame has
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: more talent at just about every single position, but against Miami,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: against a team in the playoff field with talent that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: matches yours snap for snap, that first half version of
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame doesn't get bailed out by a pick six
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and a running back finding his legs in the third quarter.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: This is the tension every leave no doubt campaign runs
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: into eventually. You can't leave doubt in your season opener
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and then ask everybody to stop bringing up the doubt
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: for the rest of the year. Now, to be fair
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: to Freeman's team, and this matters a lot, 41-13 is 41-13.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Blowouts are blowouts regardless of how bumpy the road to
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: get there is. Nobody remembers a slow start to a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: game you won by 28 when we get to November.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: But they will remember that if you start slow and
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: that becomes a pattern over and over again instead of
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: just a week one hiccup. That's the thing to watch
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: over the next month for Notre Dame. They're going to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: ramp up towards the part of the season that will
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: start to matter more. And the games that matter more
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: are looming closer right now. We're a week closer to
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: them than we were before the start of this night.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame spends the next couple of months building toward
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: BYU and then building toward Miami and SMU. And it's
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a team with a chip on its shoulder. Those are
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: teams with their own explosive offenses and their own reasons
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: to think that this season they could break through nationally.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: If the version of the Irish that shows up in
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: those games is the one that we saw against the
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: first half in Wisconsin, stuck in the mud, running the ball,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: giving up chunk plays to receivers, running wide open, those
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: aren't games that you're just going to win on sheer
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: talent alone. That's a game where sluggish becomes fatal. Freeman
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: knows this, and that's why his halftime message was so blunt.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a rah-rah speech. It wasn't deflection. It was
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: a direct, uncomfortable diagnosis of exactly what wasn't working. He said,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: find a way to run the ball. Stop dropping catchable passes.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Simple stuff. Simply stated. Because the problems were simple. The
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: good news for Notre Dame is that his team actually responded.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: The concerning part is that they needed to respond at
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: all against Wisconsin. At the end of the day, a
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: 41-13 win is a 41-13 win. On paper, this looks
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: exactly like what a fourth-ranked team is supposed to do
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: to a three-touchdown dog. A dominant final score, two dynamic
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: touchdown runs from a new lead back, a defensive touchdown
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: that sealed the game in the third quarter. But if
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: you watch this game unfold in real time, you know
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: that it didn't feel that clean for about a half.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: It felt like a team that was searching for its footing,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: searching for a run game, searching for the version of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: itself that that went undefeated over its last 10 games
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: last year. Notre Dame did find it though. Eventually, in
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the third quarter with a running lane and a pick
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: six in a building that was trending Wisconsin's way for
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: a little bit, it was suddenly quiet though. The margin
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: for finding it eventually gets smaller on certain weeks from here.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: So here's the question for the comment section. Was that
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: sluggish first half just week one rust wearing off against
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: a scrappy opponent with nothing to lose? Or is that
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the version that shows up again the next time somebody
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: actually makes them earn it? I tend to think it's
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the former. I don't expect Notre Dame to struggle their
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: way to blow out victories every single week, which is
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: maybe a little bit ironic. I think Notre Dame did
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of really good things in this game tonight.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I would like to see them start a little bit quicker.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: We talked about that in the offseason. They changed the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: way that they did fall camp so that they could
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Start faster. They didn't start super fast last year. They
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: lost to a couple of really good teams out of
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the gate. Boy, when they got going, they got going.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: And there's a reason they should have been in the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: playoff last year. I've said that from the very jump.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I thought Notre Dame should have been in. But guess what?
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Last year is over. You get nothing for that 10-game
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: win streak. You barely get anything for the win streaks
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: that will happen this year. It's what you do over
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: this 12-game season. I thought that the concerns at the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: beginning were very evident. I thought the response... was pretty
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: close to perfect. I'd love to know what you think
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: down in the comments. Notre Dame will be a phenomenal
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: watch this year. Marcus Freeman is one of my favorite
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: coaches in this entire sport. I love how genuine he is.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I love how real he is. And I love the
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: way that his team responded in the second half. We
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: appreciate you guys, as always, for tuning in, doing this
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: at a little after midnight here in Tallahassee, Florida. I'll
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: go out to the game tomorrow night and hopefully be
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: in as good of a mood as you guys are
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: right now. We appreciate you guys. you guys as always
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: for tuning in to College Football Addiction and we'll see
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: you on the next one.