Final word on Notre Dame's win Texas A&M | Riley Leonard, offensive line, rushing attack, more

first off Tyler your reaction to the performance of Riley Leonard including when they needed him most late in the ball game yeah that's the biggest takeaway and I think that's the thing people are going to remember the most is and I actually put it on social media right before it happened I said okay Riley Leonard go win a football game you're in a position to do so there were still what I don't know six seven minutes left so it's it's not like that drive was going to win the game unless Notre Dame literally took six or seven minutes it ended up taking five minutes and in those five minutes before Jeremiah Love scored that game-winning touchdown what ended up being the game-winning touchdown I thought Riley Leonard made some crucial plays obviously the third down to Jaden great house that thing was on the money Darren was a perfect pass and then throwing it up to Bo Collins and letting him make a play Riley Leonard told us after the game it took me a while to realize that hey that guy on the outside is a pretty good athlete and he can do some things against uh the the defensive backs that Texas A&M had and then going forward in the rest of the season I think um defensive backs that all of the the the teams on Notre Dame schedule have Bo Collins is going to be a playmaker for this team Riley Leonard recognized that threw the ball up to him that was a huge first down on that drive as well so big plays from Leonard and then I thought we didn't talk enough about how good he was with his legs or maybe on the broadcast I've yet to watch the game back I usually do that on Monday afternoons but throughout the game Darren I thought when Notre Dame KN needed to rely on Riley Leonard's legs which we knew was going to be a thing the Irish were able to do that he's physical he's Savvy Jack Soo my colleague who was sitting next to me at the game kind of turned to me and he said that might have been the ugliest run I've ever seen that got nine yards but it got nine yards and there are a lot of other quarterbacks in the country on that particular play that wouldn't have gotten nine yards or wouldn't even have tried to run so Riley Leonard um the passing obviously a little left to be desired it needs to get cleaned up he was inaccurate and we knew that going in that that was kind of his his Bugaboo his one big flaw is he's not always the most accurate guy but he's a winner he's tough he made winning plays and I do think the accuracy issues can get better uh as the season goes along as well that goahead touchdown drive he completed that third down in five niney pass to Great Al that got the drive going and kept the ball away from Texas A&M Irish offensive line a lot of focus on the newcomers on the left side Pro Football Focus says that Anthony nap had 36 pass blocking opportunities allowed just one pressure and that's against a guy that is probably going to be a first or second round NFL draft pick at the end of the day your thoughts on the offensive line and how they performed with all the chaos around them yeah Nick scorton for Texas A&M is a beast and seeing him in person I was like whoa this guy is is is tough and for Notre Dame not to allow a sack I know there were plenty of quarterback hits on Riley Leonard and I think that was the one take away from a negative perspective was that hey these guys got to Riley Leonard a little bit and then Riley Leonard obviously can do some things to negate sacks and avoid sacks as well but overall to not give up a sack this young offensive line six starts going into this thing I mean it was an incredible performance and and yeah there were some times where I'm looking at the monitor after a play there and in the Press Box and I'm like whoa Sam Pendleton or Anthony knp kind of let that guy go right by them Marcus Freeman I don't know if he's just sticking up for his guys but in his press conference today he said hey the naked eye the the untrained eye if you're seeing that and you're gonna quickly blame that on Anthony nap or Sam Pendleton there were some things that we could have done as coaches maybe even the quarterback pre- snap to say hey the check needs to be this the protection needs to be that we need to get these guys in a better position to be able to block somebody like like Nick scorton or the other great defensive players that Texas A&M had so if you're watching that and and again I'm gonna watch it back on Monday afternoon and and you say okay that is totally on Anthony nap or that is totally on Sam pendlton I think those instances were fewer and farther between than you thought just watching the game in real time so it's kind of like the Riley Leonard thing Darren if if that's what it was in game one against the tough opponent on the road I think it was good enough to win obviously and I do think it's going to get better the rest of the season as well early on I was wondering what the Irish were going to get out of their run game the A&M safeties were coming downhill to the line of scrimmage But ultimately Mike denrock stuck with the running game and at the end of the day Tyler a very successful night 198 yards your two running backs and your quarterback did a lot of damage in that game yeah you needed at least a couple touchdowns to win that game you knew that and who scored them Jeremiah Love obviously with the eventual game winner and jadarian price I I think that is I put that up there with what trayon Henderson did to Notre Dame in the game last year against Ohio State early in that third quarter gets that touchdown run at at that point you're kind of thinking okay Ohio State if if they can do that and they got that big play probably GNA win in the end it ended up being a lot closer and Notre Dame should have won that game but I felt the same way about the jadarian price run Darren where I was like okay Notre Dame got that one it needed that one it's probably going to score again at some point probably not in 47 yard da dazzling fashion like price did but it kind of set a tone and huge play huge huge play in that ball game and then you go to Jeremiah Love who I think kind of asserted himself as running back number one in the clutch in the fourth quarter give him the ball a couple times he he runs up the middle and it looks like he should only get two to four yards but he's getting a first down and then again it looks like he should only get two to four yards and he's getting a touchdown you have those types of players on this team price is one love is one I think they're going to be doing those types of things all season and then like you said running the football with Riley Leonard's legs I said it earlier as well you have those three guys and I think in addition to that we didn't see anas Williams or Devon Ford or anyone like that get the football but they're there if you need them but the three guys at the top price love Leonard you're gonna be able to run the ball for around 200 yards or more than 200 yards especially considering what the schedule is looking like coming up to get 198 against that team Darren wasn't impressive it was special and I think you're going to be seeing some 200 250 maybe even knocking on the door of 300 type yard rushing games for Notre Dame in the near future dein Ford might have had a touchdown but the ball was thrown at his feet there was nobody near him on that one pass Play Tyler the Irish defense last year faced Caleb Williams who turned out to be the number one pick in the NFL draft and he had his worst college performance against Al Golden's defense some people believe Conor wigman in a very weak draft class could be the first quarterback taken in 2025 if that's the case I think all the guys or all the teams that took quarterbacks this year are very very happy because next year's class doesn't look that great and I'm wondering did Conor wigman see a lot of ghosts during that game how much did Al golden get in that guy's head I think so the blitz is obviously and even if the blitz doesn't get home from Al golden the amount of times that I saw him just send two linebackers at the line of scrimmage yes Darren that does get into quarterback said again you don't have to get home you don't have to hit him you don't have to sack him but Conor wigman looked like a guy that knew the pressure was coming and knew that he had to do something special to try to beat it whether that was with his legs which he did a few times to his credit or with his arm and I knew that that was the case Darren throughout the game because if you go back to that first drive he hit a couple balls where you were saying oh boy if he completes those all day maybe Texas A&M does have enough to win this game and they the agies will score 21 24 maybe 28 points and that would have been enough to win in this game Notre Dame obviously only ends up with 23 but as it wore on you knew oh man this is getting in his head he knows that this Notre Dame defense has a ton of Playmakers at all three levels you can point to Howard cross's sack again I just talked about the linebackers two interceptions I mean Adon Schuler that one was a seeing ghost type interception obviously Darren where the ball just floats up and all Scher had to do was you know catch it right in his Bread Basket but when you have a guy like Xavier Watts uh before the half coming over the across the middle and just intercepting a pass out of nowhere uh near Midfield that's when you're a quarterback and you're saying okay so they're going to Blitz me they have all these guys up on the defensive line that I want know part of and on the back end they have guys like Christian Gray and Benjamin Morrison two guys who didn't get interceptions but were around the ball just as much as the two safeties that I just mentioned were long day long day for Conor wigman and like you said it ended up being a a terrible game statistically and and ey test wise which is exactly what Caleb Williams who is probably about to light up the NFL as he would be my pick for rookie of the year I think he's that kind of talent and he has that kind of talent around him in Chicago remember what Notre Dame did to him last year Notre Dame just did the same thing to Connor wigman in his own house in College Station [Music] [Music]