Latest / D-constructing Topics / Irish Heartbreak: Why Notre Dame Got Snubbed From the Playoff

Transcript

Irish Heartbreak: Why Notre Dame Got Snubbed From the Playoff · D-constructing Topics

0:00
What's going on, everybody? And what's going on, folks? And what's going on, my legendary people?
0:06
My name is David, and I'm your host of this legendary podcast,
0:10
the Deconstruct the Topic Podcast.
0:12
And we got a good one. We got a one that I got a fan. We got a sports one.
0:16
We got a one that I'm going to break every goddamn window there is.
0:19
No, let me stop playing, because you know what?
0:21
We got another today, Friday Night Live episode. So, let's get it. And you know what?
0:33
As a Notre Dame Fighting Irish fan, over this past weekend,
0:38
it's one of the more disappointing weekends that I've ever encountered in a
0:43
while as a Fighting Irish fan for, let's say, 1989,
0:49
if I'm not mistaken, a long time ago.
0:52
Puerto Rican kid from the island of Puerto Rico Coming to the US,
0:57
From the Bronx, racing the Bronx All that good stuff,
1:01
Grew up a Notre Dame fighting Irish fan And
1:04
if you are listening to this You'll be disappointed You
1:07
done heard everything from every News media outlet Independent Every football
1:14
analyst Every of all And you already know Real quick Just to make a long story
1:20
short But the 2025 Notre Dame Fighting Irish,
1:24
who finished, what, 11-2,
1:27
whatever it is, are not going to the college football playoff.
1:31
And not because of whatever, but the fact that the powers that be decided that,
1:36
you know what, you're lost to the University of Miami, the U, and whatever it is.
1:41
And there's other teams out there, and whatever it is. another disappointing
1:47
one at bad scene, I'm just going to give you excuse me, I'm a little bit a little hype as you can see.
1:56
And I'm drinking, you know, I just came from the gym because I needed to kind
1:59
of release a little bit of dashed rush.
2:01
Once again, I've been watching Notre Dame fighting football for quite a long time.
2:07
Quite a long time, as you can see. Over 40 years, whatever, 40 years,
2:11
whatever the case might be.
2:13
Or close to 40 years. And I goddamn love my fighting Irish football.
2:19
I visited that college. It was a dream come true for me.
2:23
And please hit that like subscribe and all
2:27
that good stuff because again a puerto rican kid born in a little
2:29
island of puerto rico even though it's a little island it's
2:32
a little small country island it is
2:35
my opinion hey listen you want to fight let's fight because i'm
2:38
a fighting irish and i'm a fighting puerto rican but in that beautiful place
2:42
in that beautiful island i've been traveling a little bit extra and i saw a
2:47
couple of games with my The Notre Dame final average this year in 2025 were
2:53
playing their best football that I've seen in a long time.
2:57
And once again, the powers that be in the NCAA college football,
3:01
whatever it is, decided, you know what, Notre Dame, not worthy.
3:06
They lost to the University of Miami. Miami is going to the college football.
3:10
Maybe that was the tiebreaker. Now, I'm one to say it's this.
3:13
I damn love my Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
3:17
I was little when I had no cable on NBC when they played those Saturday games
3:25
over there at Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana,
3:28
where I made myself, and I definitely got to go again, where I made myself a
3:32
nice little trip watching the movie, inspired by the movie Rudy.
3:36
But those who are there who are listening who
3:38
are fighting irish who are upset and rightfully so
3:41
not the first time where notre dame in
3:44
a sense get a little bit screwed and sometimes i'm one to say hey i'm not gonna
3:48
be naive but i want to say how notre dame sometimes i have screwed themselves
3:54
hey listen and i get it being running independent not part of these other major
4:00
conference you know You do your schedule, you work with whatever school,
4:03
you do a little, you know, in the beginning, you, you,
4:06
you know, ramp up a little bit tough schedule here with Miami,
4:09
then Texas A&M, two teams who are in the college football.
4:13
And it kind of reminds me so much, or I think this is more disappointing, 1993.
4:21
In 1993, the Notre Dame fighting average was undefeated.
4:26
But it's a 10-0, 11-0 after defeating Flover to State University.
4:31
And all we needed is one win in our home stadium versus the rival,
4:37
the other Roman Catholic school, in which I think they call it the Holy War.
4:42
You know what I mean? Boston College, and I remember that game when we lost
4:47
41-39, if I'm not mistaken, a field goal by Boston College.
4:51
Boston College, I mean, they looked like they could have just scored in the
4:55
beginning, and we got a little hot late.
4:56
But 1993, that game In which we just finished beating Florida State The week
5:02
before, Atlanta's at number one And because we lost that last game of the season We got screwed over,
5:10
And the powers that be decided to put Florida State. And guess what?
5:14
Florida State won the national championship.
5:16
And just because that one game we lost. Now, I say this to you.
5:20
For those who remember in that game, that was when they did that Rudy movie,
5:25
Halftime, where they did some football clips.
5:28
So that might have thrown us off. You know what I mean?
5:30
If you ever see the movie Rudy, based on the football player,
5:35
whose size was a bit small, but his heart was big. back in the 70s.
5:41
If you're interested in the Notre Dame for folklore kind of thing going on there,
5:48
you already know there's a lot of great stories behind Notre Dame football and me growing up,
5:53
hearing these stories and me growing up with the Rick Myers of the world,
5:56
the Jerome Bettis of the world, Len Dawson.
5:58
Is it Len Dawson? It's the tight end. Dawson.
6:02
Reggie Brooks. Brian Young. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on.
6:07
Rocky Ishmael Remember that game Against Colorado 10-9 They call us back Again
6:13
But that game in 1993 Where we lost To Boston College.
6:19
That was the name Tom Coughlin, who in the future coached my New York Giants and won two Super Bowls.
6:24
In that game in Boston College, or that game against Boston College,
6:29
if you watch the movie Rudy,
6:31
if you watch the football aspect of it, if you look closely towards the end,
6:37
you see a lot of that maroon go because that game was the last game of the season, senior night.
6:46
Everything was supposed to go 4-4s, but sadly, it did not go well.
6:52
For some reason, we started a little bit slow, and Boston College could not just stop.
6:57
Even though in the fourth quarter, we did our thing, and we took the lead,
7:00
but for some reason, Notre Dame's defense couldn't pull through.
7:06
And that was that game that I said to myself, we lost that game,
7:09
but we still hopeful, but the cup hours that be decided, you know what,
7:13
think about it. We just played Florida State. We beat Florida State.
7:17
Not handily, not a blower. It was a tight game. It was a good game.
7:22
I think it was, you know, Charlie Ward and them kids took the last play of the
7:27
game or something to that effect. We won.
7:29
But the powers that be decided, listen, losing to Boston College,
7:33
you know, was the one that crosses the game and crosses going to the national
7:38
championship and maybe crosses the national.
7:40
So it's not the first time in this year where the powers that be decided against Notre Dame.
7:46
Now, we could go on and on and on and on and so forth, and I done heard everything.
7:51
And sadly, because of what happened, Notre Dame football decided not to participate
7:56
in any college bowl because in reality, what college bowl game that's out there
8:00
that they're going to participate on?
8:02
There's no certain amount of money that's going to get a play is what?
8:06
$2 million, $3 million just to get Notre Dame to whatever bowl,
8:10
Chick-fil-A bowl, I don't know, whatever bowl, cereal bowl, I mean, you know.
8:18
And I think that the way they see it now, Notre Dame is taking flack.
8:22
I don't know. Once again, if the decision of not participating in college football,
8:27
it's a Notre Dame decision, the players as well. I'm not sure if it's Marcus Freeman.
8:31
You know, the information is out there, but from what I lean or what I'm looking
8:35
at, it's like, hey, listen, I guess they are okay by the decision,
8:39
and let's see what happens.
8:41
Good luck to the other 12 teams out there, the Miamis and the Texas AM,
8:47
who would be participating, who we lost to close. Now, my thing is this.
8:51
Again, I'm not going to be naive because I've been watching college football
8:53
for a long time. I've watched Notre Dame for a long time.
8:56
And if there's one thing about Notre Dame that I tend to, and sometimes I feel
9:02
like we can't compete with some of the bigger boys.
9:05
And if you look at the landscape of college football and the history of college
9:09
football, if you look at Notre Dame, if you look at Army, private institutions
9:13
that had college football was a different landscape.
9:16
If you look at Notre Dame's national championship, at one point, they had the most.
9:20
Army was not too long. Then the Alabamas came in. The public schools came in.
9:25
Out of nowhere, these used to be that the best football players at one point
9:30
or the other were in these private institutions.
9:34
But not anymore. Not anymore. You got the Penn States of the world,
9:39
the Ohio States, the Michigan, you know, public institutions.
9:42
When I say public institutions, they're open for the public.
9:45
Like, whatever state, whatever it is, they're just open for the public.
9:48
These are schools that are 40, 30, 20, 20-something thousand people.
9:54
A little bit more than today, a little bit on a lesser scale.
9:58
But the fact is that Notre Dame, once again, when it comes to,
10:01
I guess, the Ohio State last year's national championship, you know,
10:05
we just a little bit just, you know, lacking off.
10:11
And I feel like this year, once again, when we lost to Miami,
10:15
to you, and we lost to Texas AEM, two games that we could have won,
10:19
even if we won one of the two, the fact that winning one of the two would have
10:23
been us getting to the college football.
10:26
And I said to myself, ah, 0-2, that's not looking good.
10:31
We got a young kid at quarterback. We got a great running back I love.
10:35
You know, we go on and on and so forth.
10:37
But in fact, when it comes to Notre Dame, when we started 0-2,
10:40
we just said, you know, we can't compete with the big boys.
10:43
And that's always been my pet peeve. And I'm not knocking anybody down because
10:48
I believe that Marcus Freeman is a great coach.
10:52
But sometimes you can tell when it comes to playing Ohio State,
10:56
the Alabamas, even for years.
10:59
When we play these public institutions Just my observation,
11:04
They tend to have more better plays than us And I'm not saying that you can't
11:08
find these kids Because I know that for the most part A lot of the kids in Notre
11:13
Dame They come from these private schools You know, especially the Catholic schools But sadly,
11:18
if there are certain states Where these Catholic schools are closed and due
11:21
to funding Then somewhere underlining I'm not saying, again I'm not saying we
11:25
can't get them outside of that,
11:27
but it seems that a little bit kind of, you know, it's a little difference between
11:32
those that aren't going to the, you know, the Florida's of the world and so
11:36
on winning national championship.
11:38
You can pick up some of these players who have iffy off the field,
11:42
you know, thing, and you just tell them, hey, listen, I got a scholarship for you.
11:45
You know, public institution, boom, voila.
11:48
A little bit different than Notre Dame because Notre Dame, we believe in turning our boys into men.
11:55
In the college basketball, Notre Dame, in terms of the ladies,
11:59
they have had a good run in the last 10 years or so.
12:02
Again, we're talking about turning girls into women.
12:06
And Notre Dame has been that institution. We have a lot of great players in the NFL.
12:11
I was watching a Vikings game, Harrison Smith. I got to see him when I went
12:15
over there to Notre Dame, seen a night.
12:18
Possible future Hall of Famer, possible. You know, he's out there.
12:22
Been playing for the Vikings forever. You know what I mean?
12:26
He made an interception once again, a great Notre Dame.
12:29
I see Riley Leonard who came in the game for Daniel Jones who got hurt. ACL, done.
12:35
Leonard, you know, Leonard became Leonard, but he got hurt again.
12:39
Or he got hurt. And once again, it's one of those situations where,
12:42
you know, we as an institution, the college football,
12:46
the Notre Dame football, we build so that these kids can not only excel outside of the football,
12:52
but when we do tend to get drafted a lot of these Notre Dame players they do
12:58
tend to play like a pro style thing so it's once again it's it's it's you know
13:02
I'm probably gonna say that perhaps,
13:06
I could be mad at and I could be upset and I'm definitely a little bit disappointed
13:10
at the college football but what to expect that's what college football is that's
13:15
why they have these things and I'm not gonna say college football in itself
13:18
but division one division two and division 3, they got a down pack with the playoff system.
13:24
Region 1, now they got the 12th. I'm pretty sure they're going to do a 16 and then call it a wrap.
13:31
It's like, oh, are you not happy now?
13:34
But the fact is the fact that this year for me, especially after 0-2 start,
13:40
Notre Dame playing against Arkansas.
13:42
I mean, we, Notre Dame, I have not seen a Notre Dame football play like this in a long time.
13:49
When we played the U, it looked at the heat, the fact that we had a young college
13:55
quarterback, as you already know, for the most part, many times when it comes
13:58
to college football, when you win, you win with that person behind the center, that quarterback.
14:05
And for the most part, if you don't have a quarterback, then you got to have
14:10
a great running system, a great defense, so on and so forth.
14:14
But if you look at the history of where national championships are winning losses, quarterbacks.
14:21
And that's my thing with the situation with Notre Dame. When we enter,
14:25
hey, young quarterback. I mean, I love me some Riley Leonard.
14:29
But we enter in the year, young quarterback in car. And, hey,
14:31
listen, he looked a little bit kind of not to use yourself in the first two starts. We get it.
14:38
But after week three, after the third game, we just accelerated,
14:41
and we looked great, and we look incredibly great.
14:45
Look, it felt like that Notre Dame that I watched in the 90s with Lou Holtz
14:49
scoring the 50s with our eyes closed defense against Syracuse, you know what I mean? 70.
14:58
And I think half of that was the defense of the special teams.
15:02
You understand what I'm saying?
15:04
You know, my thing is that this team was feeling different than the one from
15:09
last year because we was running at all cylinders.
15:13
We have a great running back, even a backup.
15:17
I mean, we were running at all cylinders after that third game,
15:20
but once again, it was not enough for the college football.
15:23
Sadly, as much as Notre Dame is a name, and you would think that,
15:28
you know, what's best for college football, college football plays in a little
15:31
different type of league.
15:33
And it's not the first time. I think that, you know, years ago I was watching
15:36
someone what did like the top 10 college football teams that never won a national
15:42
championship, something like that.
15:44
And, uh, you know, in the mid nineties, Penn State undefeated,
15:46
even get played to the national championship.
15:49
You see how it's weird, the landscape of college football, because college football,
15:54
it's, it's based on certain divisions, the ACC, the SEC,
15:59
you know, the big 10 now, whatever it is, used to be packed to up a little bit,
16:03
you know, USC, those boys, you know, a big 12, but the big 12 is a little bit
16:07
different. You know, it's like a cart.
16:09
It's, can I say, I'm not gonna say a cartel, but it's different cartels.
16:13
And depending on where the win and the money's at.
16:17
It doesn't matter sometimes who you are. Now, sadly, because there are certain,
16:21
especially in the South SEC, there's certain schools with certain money, perhaps.
16:27
In the ACC, there's certain schools with monies, perhaps, who tend to kind of
16:31
change how things go depending on how things are heading.
16:38
But that's just my take. I'm a little bit disappointed, but it is what it is. I get it.
16:43
It is one of those things that I could be upset at the college football landscape,
16:46
but then it's not the first time.
16:49
College football, when it comes to Division I and their playoff system or whatever
16:53
system, time and time and time and time had disappointed people.
16:57
And this year is no better.
16:59
Just because you added teams, just because you made it the 12-team expansion, look what it got.
17:06
Again, respect to the other James Madison and all the schools out there making
17:10
it for the first time, whatever it is that they're doing. They're doing it.
17:15
They're doing it. You know what I mean? What can I say?
17:18
The irony would be that the number one team, Indiana, with Notre Dame,
17:24
the home state of Notre Dame in Indiana, a college basketball staple.
17:29
Gets to get a national championship before Notre Dame in these last 30-plus
17:36
years. Who would have thought of that?
17:39
I know I'd put it. But that would be a certain irony that would actually, whew.
17:48
We'll probably hurt us a little bit. It's supposed to be here,
17:52
the Irish. Here comes the Irish.
17:55
South Bend, Indiana. But now over there, Bloomingfield, I see you,
17:59
boys. I see you. We played last year. We won.
18:03
But good luck. Hopefully, everything works out. But that's my take on the Notre Dame.
18:07
Love my Notre Dame. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun,
18:11
dun, dun. We'll keep fighting.
18:13
Marcus Freeman, hopefully he will stay his two. women's out
18:16
there of me making the nfl you know
18:19
but let's see anyways much love
18:22
out there to my fighting average fan and if this is
18:25
the first time listening to my podcast feel free to subscribe please feel free
18:29
to share a puerto rican kid from puerto rico raised in new york city with the
18:34
love of notre dame i hopefully one day i'll go back again there hopefully it'll
18:40
be on a cold nice day where, you know what,
18:43
or perhaps we'll play for the national, but it's nothing better than going over
18:47
there to Notre Dame and watching those beautiful people, beautiful campus,
18:52
call, give me touchdown, Jesus, first down, Moses, give me the grotto,
18:55
give me all that. Let's go.
18:59
I'm out. Peace.