Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Texas A&M Aggies | College Football Week 1 | Game Preview 🏈

week one is officially here we have made it we have games on Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday and Monday but right now we are focusing on one of the biggest games on the Saturday slate so here to help us break down Notre Dame in Texas A&M are our friends Tim prer from Irish Illustrated and Carter carols of gigum 247 let's talk a little bit more about this top 20 matchup between Texas A&M and Notre Dame look at this Notre Dame has played SEC teams kind of tight lately six of their last seven games against SEC opponents have been decided by just one score for A&M despite the new head coach they actually have some continuity returning nine starters on both the offense and defense let's start talking quarterbacks and Tim once again Fighting Irish Trot out a transfer quarterback and this time it is Riley Leonard previously at Duke so I want to know how is he set up for better success around him compared to last year's situation with a transfer quarterback well uh first of all much different quarterbacks uh Riley Leonard is a guy that wants to keep the the football on the read option where Sam Hartman didn't but um you know I would say that Sam Hartman had a better offensive line or certainly a more experienced offensive line going into the game uh last year going into the season last year but I I tell you what Ry Leonard has much better receivers a much deeper receiving core than they had and you know the thing that Leonard has going in his favor is is his athletic is and we see him running here he he wants to run the football he wants to keep the football on the read option Sam Hartman was going to hand it off just about every time and I really think that you know Riley Leonard is set up for more success partly because he wants to be at Notre Dame and there were some questions in Hartman's mind whether he wanted to be there number one when Tommy Reese left as offensive coordinator and number two when he found out he had an inexperienced Jared Parker as his offensive coordinator so Riley Leonard's in much better position whether he's in a better position as far as the offensive line I would say Hartman had the better of those two yeah we'll talk about the offensive line woses in just a bit but while we're on the subject of people who are formerly at Duke on the other side you have Leonard's former head coach there and Mike Elco so Carter for those unfamiliar what do Elco coach teams do well well when mik goo was at d uh he did something that had only been done two other times since World War II and that's when nine games in his season at Duke that was year number one went in and and beat Miami the next year he opens the season with a win against Clemson so he shows up in big games he has his team prepared uh something that we've seen this offseason with Texas A&M is just a a complete and total culture change uh when he took over the roster after A&M had fired Jimbo fiser uh it was kind of a shambles a lot of guys had one foot out the door uh you had a bad culture where accountability and and you know uh showing up to things and being on time and things of that nature just weren't High priorities and so uh he went in this offseason hired Tommy Moffett who uh was a highly successful trength coach at at LSU and and uh that had a a big role in changing the culture in this program and so I think you're going to see a team that is a lot more prepared a lot more accountable you'll see that when you know not only when they're playing these big games but also when they're playing the Lesser opponents whereas we've seen in previous years with this team where they haven't shown up for those games and they they have a tendency to look Overlook some opponents and then obviously Mike ELO being a defensive minded coach that's his bread and butter he you know specializes in the secondary so uh I think that's probably uh defensively where this team has the the most Room to Grow is the secondary and he went in this off season got seven newcomers there from the transfer portal three freshman there so he totally revamped the room and I think it's a group that you're going to see improve quite a bit and year one under coach ELO Tim you had uh previously mentioned Notre Dame suffering some losses across the offensive line and now they have to go up against a team in a conference that's really known for line of scrimmage play so I know that the losses across the offensive line are going to affect the season as a whole but how do they impact this game in particular really really difficult match up for the first game for this offensive line a total of six career starts three by Ashton Craig at Center three by Billy stal first first time starters Emil Wagner of course a right tackle left tackle Anthony napat freshman left guard uh Sam Pendleton a red shirt freshman you know I asked Mike denrock the offensive coordinator if how confident he was in the young gu in particular you know the left side of the line being uh assignment correct and he said I have no worries about them being assignment correct so that's a real positive for them but what he didn't say uh I think is the flip side of that do they are they powerful enough are they strong enough to handle the Shamar the Shamar line as we we call it and Nick scorton who is absolutely outstanding at 64 285 so assignment wise they'll be correct uh most of the time when Mike Den Brock doesn't mention is whether they can just hold up physically play after Play There's going certainly going to be plays where they can't do that and he recognizes that but at least they have uh the knowledge of the game and that's partially why they won the job is that they are assignment correct so they have that going for them but when you're going against 64 285 nick scorton uh it's going to take more than just being assignment correct to be successful it's interesting you know Notre Dame uh obviously he's been historically at a great offensive line when we asked Mike goo about it um on Monday he was kind of some gamesmanship right he's like hey you know if they're starting a true freshman probably means he's gonna be a first round pick one day but you know I think Mike ELO probably knows deep down this is where the advantage is for his team H you know Tim talked about Nick scorton that's a guy who led the Big 10 in sacks last year and and looks even better this off season and and you know he did did that on a Purdue defensive line where the focus was fully on him what's he going to do on a defensive line where you can't fully focus on him you can't quite double and Chip him when you've got other guys on the line like Shamar Stewart and Shamar Turner uh you know Shamar Turner is another guy to to mention because this is somebody that was a second team OS player last year and he did that despite playing out of position at defensive men and playing with with two injuries that require surgery a torn labram and a shin injury and so what's going to happen when he's playing in the right position defensive tackle and he's healthy uh if he can play at a second team OS level otherwise so I think he's in for a huge year and I think A&M probably thinks that hey three of these starting defensive linemen could be top 50 overall picks in the upcoming draft um and so when you have that kind of talent and you're going against an inexperienced defensive line certainly you feel like you've got the advantage there and Mike ELO you know one thing that we've heard mentioned multiple times this offseason just how creative he gets in these third and long packages uh something where you could see some guys and spots where you know you don't even know what's going to happen right you don't know where the pressure is going to come from he gets pretty exotic on those sort of sit situations and I think he's got the the players to to Really dial up some pressures on third down it's not just the talent it's the scheme as well they're going to use to exploit that offensive line Tim we just talked about a concern that you have uh for Notre Dame so let's do a positive what's one part of this team that you're not worried about you feel really confident in well I think it starts with Nord Ames defensive line that's why it's such an interesting matchup both teams go into the season with one of the top 10 defensive lines in the country um Howard cross has been a little bit banged up he's suffered a hamstring tweak during the summer not really sure where he is he needs to be at 100% or or very close because uh even though this is this is I mean I've been covering nor for four decades this is you'd have to go back to the Holtz era to find a deeper group of defensive linemen than they have and then I you know I'd point to the secondary as well I think Nord Dame um I think El golden and and secondary coach Mike mickens feels like the area on this team where they improved the most was in the during preseason camp was in the secondary a Don Schuler is a red shirt freshman it appears that he's beating out Rod herd II who's a transfer from Northwestern Nord Dame doesn't take a whole bunch of transfers and when they do they're usually expected to start and herd will play a multiple role for them but Adon Schuler has won the starting job we know about Xavier Watts the defending Bronco nersi Trophy winner and then of course Benjamin Morrison who's a junior will probably leave for the NFL and be a first- round draft pick after this so they feel good there Christian Gray is a sophomore cornerback who looks to be on a similar path to Benjamin Morrison if not a first-r draft choice a real quality College uh quarterback so they're they're really happy with what has developed on the back end the linebackers are a little bit young uh but you have Jack Kaiser the veteran there the linebackers are young but there is a ton of talent there so really on all levels of the defense they feel really good about it um the the linebacker cor is a little bit more in experience but on the front end and the back end they feel really good about uh as they enter this season yeah and just talking about the shrinks of the agies real quick uh you know I've talked a lot about the defensive line but let's talk about the quarterback real quick Conor wigman someone who's already kind of receiving that that first round uh hype you've seen ESPN you've seen the athletic project him to be a first round pick in 2025 some people may say hey man but he's only started eight games or where's this kind of coming from a lot of it has to do with projection a lot has to do with what he's shown in this small sample size so far and you just go back to his true freshman year had a pretty bad team and went in and beat the number five team in the country LSU uh as a true freshman had a great game against Old Miss and and then the next year you saw what he did against Miami uh it's just that small sample size needs to show it across a whole season but he has all the makings of a quarterback who can can lead this team to a lot of wins uh certainly can make all the throws but something that he does two things that I think will really help this team out is one he doesn't turn over the football and in his career he's got a 16-2 touchdown the interception ratio one of the interceptions was because it was tipped up in the air uh against Miami and I think the other one what came at the very end of the game in just a late game scenario where he had to kind of force it so not a guy that's going to throw picks and he also avoids sacks uh look I mean this was one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the country through the first four weeks of last season and and the guy just didn't take sacks and so uh his ability you know not not the craziest Wheels but he can extend plays former Short Stop who can throw with different arm slots uh can really get the ball down the field and push the ball down the field so that's going to be a strength for this team um you know running back I I think they they're feeling a lot better about Levon moss and where he kind of taken his game this off season I feel like he really showed something uh in the middle portion of last season I think that the key with him is just staying healthy he's been banged up throughout his career uh skill positions definitely a a question going into this season for A&M but Noah Thomas is going to be probably the one who leads that wide receiver group someone that you know at 66 with his length just brings a a wide cast radius can can come down with those 50-50 balls and traffic has the makings of someone who could be a number one receiver and and that's probably the biggest question mark with this offense can they get a number one receiver I think it would be him if they have one uh defensively just can't say enough about where this secondary has gone since last season I I mean I keep joking like Tim prer probably had 100 yards against the secondary last year if he lines up against them but you know this year it's a different story bringing in those guys moving guys at a lot of different spots R Sanderson was a nickel last year and move him to safety I think that move's gonna work out big time for that that group Tyreek Chappelle was a three-year starter at field cornerback now he's making the move to Nickel uh I think that's going to be a more natural fit for him and so a lot to like about uh the secondary bringing in Des Ricks bringing in will Lee lots of new names that I think are going to be key contributors for this secondary sounds like we have two really talented quarterbacks and really talented defenses so this game should certainly be exciting speaking of exciting we got a little too anxious here at 247 Sports so we actually simulated this game 20 times on EA college football 25 and it was Texas A&M having the edge with 14 wins so for each team let's start with you Carter what is the key to pulling out a win in a very real football game in week one yeah look I I think this is going to be a low-scoring slugfest and I think for A&M to have the advantage it's their defensive line right you should that's going to be maybe the biggest advantage in the whole game and if this defensive line gets five or six sacks or something crazy like that nothing else really matters that much if they're that disruptive now I do think the offense with it with coming into the the game with some questions of skill positions and going against such an elite UT Dame defense can't turn over the football can't have a ton of three and outs can't shoot itself in the foot so if this offense can just be functional and the defensive line can dominate the way that we think they could dominate then I think that's a recipe for success for this A&M team I don't like to use a lot of cliches but I think when it's an opener on the road in front of about 110,000 people uh the turnover margin is going to be huge and was plus seven last year and Texas S&M was minus two I don't know if referring to anything from last year is relevant with with Texas S&M just because of the new leadership but obviously NM can't go into this game and you know lose the turnover battle three to one on the road uh you'll get eaten alive if you if you do that I've had a lot of people say and a lot of n fans talk to me about well you know they're going to have to uh uh uh pass protect Riley Leonard there's no doubt about they they have to do that but you're going have to be able to run the ball a little bit too if notame can't run the ball effectively it's just going to make it that much more difficult for Riley Leonard and a good receiving core I should have mentioned the receiving core is one of the the top things or the most improved things for Notre Dame this year it's much deeper and much more talented than it was but if you don't run the football uh they it's going to be a long day and then and then flip side uh like like Carter I'm extremely impressed with with Conor wigman um hangs in there love how he hangs in the pocket he'll take a hit he's perfectly willing to take a hit to make the throw and follow through with the throw he can run he's not the runner that Riley Leonard is but he has great escapeability like Leonard does and so he can keep plays alive uh so Nord Dame H Nord aame has to stop the run you can't let you can't let Daniels and Moss have a big day I think you know from what I've seen a Texas S&M offensive line I think it's a little bit underrated I realize that they they gave up a bunch of pressures last year but in in in watching it myself uh I think there's some pretty there's some pretty good players there up front including trun especially trun so um you know Nord Dame's going to have to stop the run if they can run the football and then that opens things up for Conor wigman it's going to be a long day uh or I should say a long night for Notre Dame I do think that Texas A&M has the advantage going into this game and so the way uh the way you guys played it out I could understand y&m would have would have the advantage in 20 games played well don't worry it was just a video game not real life that's why we get to to play these games and I'm so looking forward to this one thank you both so much for breaking down the matchup for us you can keep it locked in to Irish Illustrated for all things Notre Dame football and gigum 247 for everything that you need to know about Texas A&M these writers you just heard from in their whole crew they'll have you covered all season long [Music]