Notre Dame Fighting Irish GRITTY Win Over Texas A&M | Riley Leonard, Freeman Defense Takeaways?

Notre Dame finding a way to get it done walking into Kyle Field against a 100,000 people winning the game 23-13 Over Texas A&M what does it mean for Notre Dame what can we take away from this game the first game of the Riley Leonard era the uh opener for year three of the Marcus Freeman era we'll talk about all that but make sure you are subscribed right here to the on three YouTube channel college football SOS I know a lot of y'all watch this game and then stayed up even later to watch some more ball if that was you go ahead and subscribe right here uh this is your channel for all things college football all year round and we appreciate you doing that also follow me on Instagram and on Twitter at JD pel let me know your thoughts around this game so as I was getting ready for this segment last night finished up watching there's a lot of uh there's a lot of thoughts a lot of thoughts after this game if you're a Notre Dame fan cuz on one hand you're like man the offense you know we talked so much about all the explos I it we were going to get from them Mike denck and him averaging like 10 yards a pass last year at LSU with his offense and they were number one in the country I believe in like uh yards per carry like that 23 points 20 23 points that's all we're getting I know an& M's a good defense but like really we we went to the portal and got one of the best quarterbacks in that thing and Riley Leonard what is going on here's what I would say a lot of the times it is better to be gritty than pretty and that was what happened last night and no your quarterback wasn't throwing for like 300 yards that was unfortunate but guess what found enough to get it done ran the football at a really I I thought effective rate to get it done picked up some big first downs for you you you saw some uh some called quarterback runs that should tell you the belief you have in him at quarterback the defense man that we'll talk more about the defense in a second uh but that is a team now with that defense that I believe can go toe-to-toe with just about anybody in college football that is a defense that can walk into any environment home or away and get you in a street fight and feel pretty good about Landing your fair share of punches like Xavier Watts as advertised that front seven as advertised Benjamin morson as advertised the adult defense that was supposed to be there was there okay like that should be encouraging if you're an Irish fan that was exactly as advertised and was the strength of your football team yesterday and a gritty gritty uh matchup where you had to find a way to get it done now again going back to what I said the offense left you wanting more you don't apologize for getting a win in front of a 100,000 people college game day and a prime time atmosphere like you found a way to get it done again the offense did leave you feeling wanting a little bit more um but here's what I would say even with the lack of production and output that's a young offensive line and I think there should be validation if you're Notre Dame fan around all the pieces you have offensively still to work with like Riley Leonard what he is in that game and what he's going to be over the course of the next few months I think it's going to evolve I think it's going to change but you also I think saw a lot of promising things from your skill players like Bo Collins he was on a mission last night and I know the box score doesn't totally reflect that five for 62 but the way that he was battling on the perimeter against a good or an improved at least A&M secondary that encouraged me he's a guy that you just put the ball up to and he hey 50-50 ball is Bo Collins ball Jeremiah love we talked about him being a key matchup differentiator for you in this game he was exactly that scoring the game winner had over 90 yards on the ground was a weapon in the past game like you have some pieces here to really work with Okay your backfield ran hard all night price was a stud in that long touchdown run he had for you that was a game changer like I think what you saw last night wasn't enough to you know make you feel like it all came together perfectly in game one but again I think you saw a lot of validation of okay when this thing does find its footing when they do all get on the same page especially when the offensive line does start to you know um I me what's the right word gel I suppose you would say does develop some experience which you can't really replicate in practice you just got to get it in games once they do find their stride there's some guys to get the football too that I think Mike Den Brock will take advantage of also I'll say this Mike Brock I thought called a heck of a game last night like he knew what it was in the interior and we said that during the week like it wasn't going to be so much the Battle of A&M's dline versus Notre Dame's offensive line that battle was going to be won by A&M the true battle was the chess match and how Mike Den Brock was able to scheme it up and allow his offense to generate some points and they did exactly that so I think that's the reason why it's scary like they they won last night for the most part Just Landing Jabs and a couple of body shots but there there was no hay maker from Notre Dame last night there was no deep shot to Chris Mitchell a guy I talked about a lot there was no you know put it over the top to Jaden Greyhouse but I think that's coming so a lot of variables I think you can just kind of chalk up last night's lack of offensive success week one new quarterback new coordinator a quarterback who didn't really get all the spring either for the most part uh tough atmosphere also tip your hat to A&M that's a good defense now that that is a very good outfit and I know they only scored 23 points but like I think 23 against A&M is going to be good for 31 plus against a lot of other teams so I'll leave it at that executions got to get better but I think you feel good about the offense from a jumping off point perspective you never apologize for a gritty win now going back to the defense man schematically from what I could tell and I'm I'm not like a defensive coordinator Savant but from what I could tell they were content to just get after it in the Box against A&M and let their their secondary play man and it worked like a charm like they played downhill and got after A&M a physical outfit up front they wanted to be the they wanted to be the bully up front as well lean Moss I think is a really good back and I think he's going to have a good season in the SEC but like they made a point last night to be the bully and that's exactly what they were and Marcus Freeman now in year three what he's done on the defensive side of the football for Notre Dame should be applauded not just schematically but based on the personnel and the development like I heard Ari werman who's new to on3 now big big get for us here at on3 excited to see him and Andy just make magic together on their show uh every single weekday morning on the on3 YouTube channel he mentioned he's like I saw Notre Dame have the superior Personnel than an SEC team how good does that have to feel if you're a fighting Irish fan cuz that's really the neighborhood you've expected to live in not so much I'm talking about the Southeastern part of the United States I'm talking about like the in terms of the overall Talent tier that you want to be at and expect to be at if you're know her Dame I'm not telling you you're exactly where you want to be but you're a lot closer and I think last night should serve as a pretty good measuring stick for that it's hard to not overreact based on one data point so again we try to not overreact from week one we're not big fans of that it is what it is um but you look at the playoff path for Notre Dame man it is very very obvious it is extremely obvious we we said it all offseason now here and we don't even need to break down the whole schedule for just two games Florida State USC we told you if they go one and two in that stretch they're going to be okay and they're going to feel decent about their chance to make the college football playoff because every other game if you know their name you should be at a talent Advantage pretty convincingly um y'all they got they got there one of those three last night and by the looks of things we'll see how Florida State Trends we're going to get a good gauge on USC on Sunday night we're recording the on Sunday morning so we'll see what happens if you're watching this after Sunday more power to you and you have better gauge for USC I think Notre Dame is in a very good chance in a very good position to make the college football playoff and get a pretty decent seating when they get there we had him preseason in the playoff a lot of I think what they're going to be going forward depends on becoming more Dynamic downfield with Riley Leonard and capitalizing on these skill players but hey man you do not apologize for a gritty win in front of a 100,000 people in a very difficult atmosphere in Kyle Field and your quarterback's first start on his new team so for Notre Dame gritty is better than pretty and that was a gritty outfit last night finding a way to get it done on the road the Irish now 12 team playoff I'd be surprised if we don't see him there but it's week one we appreciate y'all we love y'all lock in right here baby college football every single day we appreciate y'all we love y'all we're going to keep this party rolling and we will see y'all next time hey y'all thanks so much for watching subscribe to the channel here to make sure you don't miss an episode of the hard count also be sure to check out other videos on the Onre YouTube channel