Notre Dame Prepares For Northern Illinois

so this Saturday Notre Dame is home for their first home game of the 2024 season I'm excited to get back in Notre Dame Stadium I know all all of you that will be coming to the game are as well very much looking forward to you know seeing what the home environment is going to be and although the opponent you're about to face is not a juggernaut but he stretch this is a quality football team Notre Dame comes in obviously one and0 rank fifth in the country in the AP poll you have the Irish are a 28 and a half Point favorite the over under is 44.5 that is actually down from what it was earlier in the week when I actually did the so when I do the depth chart for Notre Dame I'll put the line in there and and as of yesterday Notre Dame was a 30-point favorite and and the over under was 46 and a half so that has already dipped a point and a half uh but Notre Dame is still obviously a four touchdown favorite in the game and kickoff will be 3:30 in the afternoon it will be on NBC and also on peacock northern illino northern Illinois is coming off of a 54-5 win over Western Illinois uh so that that was their opening win obviously Western Illinois is a FCS team and they handled business you know it was a little bit of a slug a start it like 63 at the end of the first quarter but they really poured it on in the second quarter and it wasn't just like you know short Fields I mean they they were doing some stuff and ripping off some big plays in that game against Western Illinois Western Illinois is a is a uh how do I say this they're really bad and and that's not meant to take anything away from but but they're very bad they went 0 and 11 the year before uh they lost to Indiana State by 21 points last year H to give you a sense of of of um how bad Indiana state is Indiana State lost to Purdue last week 49 to nothing Indiana State the previous year went 1-10 and their only win was over Western Illinois so uh not they're not a very good football team but still they did what they need to do in that game and got the win and so uh 54 to 15 got a lot of action for their backups in that game Northern Illinois is a team coming off of a seven and six season their head coach is Thomas Hammond Thomas Hammond was actually not some of older folks like me probably remember Thomas Hammond I'm G pull his stats real quick but he was a really good running back at Northern Illinois and and uh when you look at his give me a second I'm gonna pull um pull up his college stats here real quick and give you a sense of uh of what he did hold on one second I excuse me it's Thomas hammock is his name so it would help if I spelled his name correctly to get to his statline but Thomas hammock is a running back at Northern Illinois from 1999 to 2002 ended up ended his career rushing for 20 432 yards he only played one game in his final season I believe he had an injury rushed for 172 yards in that game as a sophomore and as a junior he rushed for 1,83 yards in nine games in 2000 rushed for in 16 touchdowns and as a junior rushed for 1,96 yards and seven touchdowns uh for the Huskies back in 2001 in in 11 gam so he was a really good College running back and he's obviously now the head coach of his Alma moer has done a has done obviously a good job with that football team last year the uh the Huskies made a bowl game and I'll be honest with you there was a lot of people that that that liked their their quarterback I was not a big fan of their quarterback to be honest with you but you certainly have seen growth uh he went nine and5 in 2021 they had a bit of a Down year in 2022 they went three and nine but he did a great job bouncing back last season and and uh and getting them going he actually won the MAC in 20122 uh the year that they 2021 the year they went nine and5 they actually beat Kent State in the me Championship That season and that year they beat Georgia Tech at Georgia Tech to start the season that year so this is a team that has had some success against Power five teams obviously Georgia Tech wasn't that good in 2021 Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech by 55 points that year but they still beat Georgia Tech and and obviously this is a team that has experience playing Power five football teams uh they played Vanderbilt last year they played Kentucky last year only lost to Kentucky by eight last season so certainly a team that had or that was two years ago and then last season they played Nebraska uh and Boston College Beat Boston College last year in overtime so nor Northern Illinois last season won a regular season game on the road against a power five team that made a bowl game so they're not going to come into the stadium afraid of Notre Dame oh gosh you know what are we going to do they're going to come in battle and you're going to have to be ready to to be at your best because um you know yeah this team is this team is certainly going to battle so a little bit more about Northern Illinois as I said they went seven and six last season actually got off to a pretty rough start they beat Boston College in the opener then they lost to Southern Illinois lost to Nebraska lost to Tulsa and then lost to too by two points uh but they rallied and won six of their final eight games with l a six-point loss to Central Michigan and a three-point loss to Ball State they also beat Eastern Mig beat Ohio beat akan by 41 beat Western Michigan by 24 beat Kent State on the road and then won their bowl game over Arkansas state to finish the season uh with a seven- six record obviously won their their game the opener 54 to 14 as I mentioned so let's look a little bit at the stats from Northern Illinois last season to give you a sense of of who they are these are their National ranks and what you're going to find is their offense was not very good last year and their defense was actually pretty good in a lot of areas so especially their pass defense and so they obviously they finished 81st last season in total offense or scoring offense 77th and yards per play they were a pretty decent running team last year they finished 37 nashley in rushing yards which shouldn't be a huge surprise when you consider their head coach was a running pack uh but uh certainly a team that's got a shot to be a very good running team again because their running back is back this season that would be antario brown if you guys are regulars on the show you will uh you will remember you should remember the name antario Brown because I talked about him before uh when I did my all opponent team uh last month antario Brown was my second team uh all opponent team running back the only guy I had of him was Jamal Haynes from Georgia Tech who you guys have seen is off to a pretty good start this season so that was obviously a a a player that's a that that some of you will be familiar with uh and he's a really good football player he is and and he's one of those guys I was talking about earlier where you know you look at where Notre Dame needs to improve as a football team defensively one of those things is tackling and with antario brown you're going to have to be good at tackling he's a short Stout kid he's 510 216 pounds it's actually kind of funny because he's very similar to the size's college coach was when he was in college and uh which which I kind of find actually kind of funny but I I believe Thomas hammock was about the similar size uh as as um as uh ano Brown so I just I just kind of find that find that pretty F I'm actually looking up Thomas hammock yeah he was F he was listed at 58 211 and this kid's listed at 510 216 and I don't know that he's 510 but he's got really good Vision he's got really good he's got a thick lower body he can bounce off tackles he's got really really nice contact contact back he's got really good agility changes Direction well runs with really low pad level not a burner you know so he's not gonna he's not going to rip off a lot of 50 yard runs he's not a guy that's a threat to house it if you unless you just completely just don't do your job but he's a guy that can just just keep turning out yards turn a minus two into a plus4 you know turn a plus4 into a plus 10 plus 15 plus 20 and and those are all things that he does well and so if you're going to bring this kid down and stop this kid from running you you're against a an offensive line that that returns four starters four starters from last year's offensive line and an offensive line that when you look at their their size their left tackle is not real big he's listed at 66 298 but the rest of their offensive line is 65311 63305 64 321 and 66 312 so their offensive line has some good size and as I mentioned has four returning starters so they're going to do their best to give him room to run and their quarterbacks somewhat mobile player as well and and not a guy that's going to run a ton but has some quickness and Mobility does they'll do a lot of boot legs and rollouts and things like that that get him on the move and you know are gonna mean you're gonna have to be disciplined you know that look one thing they do offensively and they have a new offensive coordinator and actually one of the reasons I think their offense is actually going to be a lot better is they have a new offensive coordinator that does a lot of stuff that I like so you can't just they're not just going to line up and run power o at you with their running back or just run inside Zone a million times they do a lot of pre-nap movement they get their receiver move receivers moving on a lot of jets you got to worry about Trayvon Rudolph who's a really Dynamic Athlete of 510 187 cam Thompson's a good football player they're going to do a lot of movement stuff they're going to do jet sweeps they're going to do uh they'll go under Center and do a a traditional jet sweeper just kind of open up and hand it off they'll do shovel passes uh they did something this past week out of shotgun where they kind of faked a Jet Sweep the quarterback starts running and uh one of their guys comes behind and they do a little shovel pass broke wide open for a touchdown had a guy come wide open out of the backfield for a touchdown they had another big play where they ran a real quick post snap switch got a guy open vertical uh do a lot of boot their first touchdown pass was was on a bootle a quarterback got out of the pocket so they do a lot of stuff that messes with your eye discipline they do a lot of things um that that are going to allow you to um they're they're going to force you to really be locked in if you're not locked in to what they're doing you're going to run this way and you got the balls going that way you're GNA have to really be focused and so this is going to be a great test in my opinion for the notame linebackers which is what I want to see I want to see them uh perform well well they should be able to handle the receivers relatively well Trayvon Rudolph is more of a quick game guy they haven't thrown him a ton of deep balls so I I you know I I don't know that he's that kind of player he had four for 104 last week but like one of his big plays was on a like a just a little shovel pass you know and he had another play where he kind of got open on a little bit of an over concept and was able to get free he's not a guy just throwing bombs to all day but again they do a lot of that stuff off action they'll do play action pass they did a a a play where they fake the rever fake the handoff fake the reverse and the quarterback drops back and and you see that a lot in college football but because they do so much action if you're not disciplined the times that they do that you know you might find yourself getting beat I actually like this quarterback a little bit more than the kid they had last year everybody talked a lot about the the kid they had last year but I think that really just came down to the fact that he was from Michigan State and I I was not I I've never been like a really big Rocky Lombardi guy he only passed for 2274 yards last year 11 touchdowns seven interceptions he had seven rushing touchdowns and people act like he was he's gonna be hard to replace and I I just don't see it I think this kid Ethan Hampton is a just a good college quarterback you know quality athlete decent arm accurate smart went 18 of 20 for 328 yards and five touchdowns in the opener and a guy that I think just he's a veteran player knows where to get the football and he's a guy that you've gotta you've got to be prepared to to have a game plan for and um you know those are all things that that uh that I want to see this team do and I think that that between Trayvon Rudolph between antoro brown between all the action that they do pre- snap and post Snap movement this is a game where it's going to force you to be locked in and that's certainly something that's going to help this team and last year stats wise their pass offense was terrible and I think that's going to get a lot better this season I I think number one it's going to get better because teams are going to be so far focused on stopping antario Brown that it's going to open up some ACT you know some play action opportunities that certainly did against Western Illinois and I just you know they're not going to light the world on fire as a pass game I just think they're going to be a lot better than what they were last year and so n's have to be prepared for that for that look from their offense their defense is a 425 uh it's not a a super super complex defense they just they're smart they got a lot of guys coming back I think four of their five secondary three or four or five of their secondary players from last year coming back have decent size in the secondary uh you know surprisingly they're and you look at their defense they've got their cornerbacks are both six feet tall Javon bird is 191 pounds their safeties are 61 192 and 63202 their Nickelback is 511 187 so they've actually got pretty decent size in the secondary they're not great athletes but very sound they're smart football players they're experienced football players and and so you know you're gonna have to work a little bit when you look at their stats from last year and you look at their passing stats from last year their rushing defense was not that good last season they only finished 62nd in college football last year but they finished 23rd in yards per game and a reason why it's because of how good their pass offense was and when you look at Northern this that Northern lillois team last year they lost a game by three again G by eight a game by two a game by six and a game by three meaning they didn't do well in pass yards because they kept getting blown out a lot and they were able to keep yards down because teams were running on them and they weren't throwing late because they were down and and so they were legitimately that good of a pass defense last season in in almost all instances and when you look at kind of how they fared against the two power five teams that they played last year Boston College went 17 of 38 168 yards only 4.4 yards per attempt Nebraska last year went 14 of 24 for 158 yards 6.6 yards per attempt Tulsa only went for 5.1 yards per attempt they held akan to less than five yards per attempt Ohio less to five yards per attempt Eastern Michigan less than six Ball State less than five Western Michigan less than six last season so and the most yards they gave up in a game last season passing was too who went for 281 they only allowed three opponents all season to pass for over 200 yards last season so uh throw stopping the passing game is an area where they certainly got a lot better the year before they were not a very good pass defense in 2022 they gave up [Music] team but they should because in this instance especially since their best defensive lineman is out he uh he he was injured early in the season he or in the off I don't know if he's hurting camper in the offseason but he missed last week's game he's not listed on their depth chart for this game that's certainly going to help them they actually have pretty decently pretty decent length on the on the edge of their defense their two ends are 64 286 and 66251 uh they're they got decent size up the middle 62 293 62300 their top backup is 6238 they have a couple other guys that are 285 plus so their defensive line actually has some size and as I mentioned their secondary has some size but they just don't they don't have great speed and great overall athleticism so this is a team that nerame should be able to move the ball on but they're gonna have to earn it and they're definitely GNA have to earn it in the secondary so we're g we're going to see these the Notre Dame receivers get tested a little bit more than you might think against a Mac team this weekend and and if they can step up and perform at a high level that'll be considered a success because this is a quality defense uh there's no doubt about it a very a very quality defense and and uh in the opener they gave up 17 of 29 204 yards and only one touchdown 7.0 yards per attempt and if you watch that game they got a decent decent amount of yards in the throwing game uh after they were up big and they held Western illino to 94 rushing yards only 3.2 per attempt so um that's just kind of that's that's kind of where they are at this point in time so so um it's a it's a quality football team all right so getting back to this game in this matchup uh as I said before Notre Dame is gonna have to they're gonna have to bring it this weekend for a host of reasons and if you do pound this football team then you get better and I know I know this what drives me nuts about games like this is fans Who come out say just run the ball run the ball run the ball I don't know what coming out and just running of the ball on a team that's inferior to you really does when it comes down to actually making you a better football team and right now Notre Dame needs to come out and improve their pass offense their pass offense has to get better it's not going to get better just because you go out for the next three games and just run the ball down the throw of teams who you are far superior to so no just coming out running the ball does not it may it may work it may they may win the game it may allow them to win by 40 or 50 points but I don't know that that necessarily makes them a lot better but I also don't think this is a game where you get into a situation where you just come out air every down either you have to both aspects of your offense need work it's just can't be a game where you just come out and overwhelm them with size and run for 350 yards and throw for 150 and and feel like you got better I I don't know that that necessarily does that so they will have to come out and and find ways to improve their pass game against Northern Illinois and if they do it's it's going to have to be earned because as I mentioned this is a pretty decent this is a pretty decent secondary very experienced secondary coming back and they have pretty sound scheme and that's one of the things that works for them is because they don't they're not running these crazy exotic things at least I haven't seen a lot of that and and so they're just kind of letting their kids play and and teaching them sound fundamentals and and it's allowed them to to reach their full potential as players because I I don't think the town is great and uh that's certainly something that they're gonna have to to to to continue to recruit better but I do think they're coached really well I I think the ham the hired the Thomas hammock made for zoc at least in the first game I was very impressed with what he did the first game I'm not at all familiar with what he did beforehand but I'm just telling you what I saw against Western Illinois I was very impressed with all the stuff that they do they they're they're going to put you in a lot of stressful situations that you got to be prepared for so I'm very very much looking forward to seeing that so again this is a quality football team this is a team their name should beat and beat soundly but this is a team that will test you this is a team where you're going to have to be locked in you can't Sleepwalk through this game they have a they are they are more Toledo than they are Bowling Green right because remember Notre Dame didn't really they weren't really locked in against BG in in 2019 and they beat him like was a 59 to nothing because they were just way better than Boston College and then you come out against Toledo and you're not locked in and they've got really good scheme and they're doing a lot of different things and you're turning guys loose and you're Los you're you're blowing coverages letting guys run in for long touchdowns you couldn't defend the quarterback and next thing you know you need Jack con to Rally you back in the last minute of the game to beat Toledo y'all that was three years ago that that three years ago I mean obviously it was a different head coach then but the fact is is the principle is the same you know 2018 Notre Dame earns a huge season opening win over a really good top 15 Michigan team beats them controls the game for 60 minutes you come out the next week and you only beat Ball State by eight points and that was a bad football team Ball State was this is not a bad football team this is a good football team for their level it's a quality football team for their level so for Notre Dame it's going to be about don't let them hang with you they shouldn't hang with you this is a game that n should win convincingly I'm not sitting here trying to tell y'all that if ndame only wins by 14 you should be happy because Northern illin is really good I'm not saying that what I am saying however is if you try to sleepwalk through this game if you don't have a focused week of practice if you're not going out there trying to get better this could look a lot like Toledo in 2021 I don't think they have the athletes Toledo had but you get the point they certainly have better players than what Ball State had when they took a Notre Dame team that went 12 and0 and took him down you know it was a competitive game for three quarters Notre Dame pulled ahead I think it was like 24 to uh was it 24 to 10 or something like that late and then b ball state scored uh it was 2413 and they kicked the field goal I think is what it was uh later in the game but you let the team hang around you can't do that you have to be locked into this game and if you are locked in they'll win and they'll win convincingly this game will be over halftime third quarter at some point in time uh but will they be locked in that's what we're going to find out and that's what notame has still has to prove so because you all know let's be real if Notre Dame struggles with this game they're going to get a lot of the same treatment Michigan got for not blowing out Fresno State they're going to get the treatment that Oregon got for not blown out Idaho Oregon beat Idaho by 10 and they dropped from number four in the polls to number seven six in the polls or seven in the polls and Notre D leaped them in the AP pole which is why nerame went from seven to five uh because they because not because how poorly or partly because how well n name played but then also partly because how poorly Oregon played so they're going to have to prove that last week was that's just the beginning that's just the foundation of what this team is going to be and if they can uh play their game then this is a game that they should they should be able to dominate you know because you're playing a good football team that's coming off a game when they rush for over 300 yards they got a really talented back really good athlet at receiver very good veteran quarterback and a very experienced defense that does their job well so if n's prepared and they're locked in they're going to roll and I'm very much looking forward to seeing that I did have a super chat here that I want to get to before we get out of here uh from Judge Phillips Philip Banks 2024 uh speaking of young guys it seems the program has gotten away from the excuses of young guys not knowing the systems and not able to play fast I well I mean look there were times when they didn't right there were times they didn't play fast but the whole point that that we've made for years and and we talked about this in last night's show the frustrating thing is you you're GNA get mistakes when you play Young Players we saw that Saturday against A&M Christian Gray made a made mistakes Don Schuler made mistakes Drake Bowen made mistakes Kingston made mistakes Jaylen Ste make mistakes Jaden Albury made mistakes um Jaden greous made mistakes Jeremiah Love made mistakes jarian love jarian price made mistakes Sam Pendleton made mistakes Anthony Nat made mistakes Emil bill I mean all the young guys made pretty big mistakes in the game but they also all made a bunch of plays because they're really talented and that's always been the beef that I've had is give these kids a chance to play because if if you give them that experience and they're going to get better and better and better and better in event the talent Rises to the top but they're not can you improve playing scout team of course there's value and Merit to that can you improve not playing in the year sure do you improve even more when you get opportunities to play absolutely absolutely and and so that's where you're you're going to see this team have a chance to to get better and better and better and and it's also uh why I think this team still has so much room to get better is yes they've got I mean Jack Kaiser is going to get more comfortable playing his position but Jack's not going to necessarily get experience in the system is going to make him better but it's not like way better same with Riley Mills same with Howard cross same with Xavier wat I mean it's just do your job play great every week with these younger players you expect sort of a a trajectory upwards from their performance and their play because they're not close to their Peak as players and and so you can't you're not going to get that growth if you don't play and so all those kids that play and look there's going to be games where Don Schuler does not play well there's going to be a game this year where Christian Gray does not play well that happens with young there's gonna be a game where Jon where Drake Bowen and Kingston don't play well it's gonna happen that's what happens with young players but the more you play them the more they kind of go up like that and and that's why it's good and that's why I'm glad they played them but but the other thing too is I'm going to have an article out I think it's going to probably come out tomorrow that's my hope but this is a different type of talent too let's be honest Marcus Freeman's bringing in a different type of cat Marcus Freeman's definitely shopping down a different aisle than the previous head coach there's no doubt about that so not only is it are you playing those younger players but you're doing it in a situation where you're also playing some dudes and that certainly helps quite a bit so that's going to do it for today's show ien uh here's the schedule for the rest of the week including the mailbag I'll tell you about that so tomorrow we're I'm go live at 1:00 for the midweek rundown you have a lot of different topics to talk about then on Thursday it's going to be me and Ryan Roberts going over keys to victory for Notre Dame against Norther Illinois then we'll make our Notre Dame predictions um I'm Trevor's have living a married life this week so you won't see Trevor until Saturday in for the postgame show but then Thursday at two o'clock I'll be joined by Bill Bender he and I are going to preview this weekend's big games I believe the games we're doing is Texas Michigan we're going to do that one let me actually pull up the scores we're going to do Texas Michigan this week week we're going to do Iowa Iowa State we are going to talk about Tennessee and NC State and then we are also going to talk about there's one other game that we're going to discuss and here let me find the the uh text message I sent a bill and he'll he'll tell you or that'll have it it what it's Texas Michigan Iowa State uh Iowa Tennessee NCC oh and Colorado Nebraska so we'll preview that game as well so those will be the few that um that we um that we uh are going to go over this weekend that'll be Thursday and Friday 1:00 will be the mailbag so I'll do a mailbag on Friday so the Friday mailbag that'll be sort of our normal Friday routine last week was a little bit different because we did the mailbag on Monday and then Friday I just did something different um but uh that the mailbag on Friday and yes salty we will have the normal the normal midweek rundown is I go over the different subjects then we have biso hold so that that that is part of the normal Wednesday routine so we will have biso hold uh tomorrow as well Friday mailbag and then Saturday postgame show with Vince Trevor Ryan and Shawn and then Sunday night we'll get back to our normal upon further review schedule so that is the schedule for the week then of course tomorrow t tomorrow night and Thursday night five o'clock IB Nation Sports Talk and then Sean will publish the post the the countdown to kickoff the difference between this year and last year we decided to publish it Friday night as opposed to waiting on Saturday partly because of how many afternoon games their name has y'all don't have as much time to listen to it when we put it up on Saturday morning so this way when Sean and them are done recording it he'll get it published on the YouTube channel and on the podcast app which you need to subscribe to the podcast app also and then you can get that so one o'clock tomorrow rundown and then B so hold Thursday one o'clock we'll do uh keys to Victory predictions and then we'll have the big college football segment after that Friday 1:00 mail bag and then Saturday postgame show we'll go live It's usually the way we do it is like the first 10 minute Mark after the game so sometimes that's nine minutes sometimes that may be you know as long as after five so if it's like 38 it'll be we'll do it at 50 if it's at 41 we'll do it at 50 so we go we'll go pretty quickly we'll get that going pretty quickly and then the guys will be doing that I'm I'm not going to probably jump in this week's postgame show let the guys handle it I thought they did a great job and my thought is like I I like the this France segment was fun but I think what I'll probably do is just kind of record that more often than not and then put it up and we'll have some fun with that you know but that's why you need to be subscribed to the channel Irish breakdown. comom uh is where you can find all of our free content Irish breakdown is the channel you go to any of your podcast platforms Apple spotif or Google Spotify whatever type in Irish breakdown you'll see our IB Logo Pop Up you'll know that that's us course subscribe to the YouTube channel and the best stuff is always always on the premium message board board at boards. arbre down.com so for the rest of my crew that couldn't be here today I had to go solo today uh because Trevor is now a married man and and kind of doing some things to get caught up on that but uh hope you guys enjoyed the show today and I look forward to seeing you all again if you have not done so if you are a member go check out that film breakdown that I did there's some more coming this week but I think you're going to enjoy that breakdown and if you're not a member and you want to check out the breakdown the all 22 film and all the stats and all that stuff go to boards arbre down.com definitely going to want to check that out so anyway have a great rest of your day everybody and I will talk to you again very soon on the Irish breakdown podcast