Notre Dame Will Get A Test From Northern Illinois

IB Nation welcome back to another edition of the Irish breakdown podcast it is Wednesday already can you guys believe it it's Wednesday already it's hump day and that means we got a lot to talk about today we're g to talk matchups we're GNA talk Personnel we're GNA talk game records and of course since it's Wednesday we are going to have our weekly Buy sell hold segment Notre a gets started this weekend obviously against Northern Illinois on Saturday the Irish uh get their home opener against the huskys this is a quality football team I know they're a Mac team so everyone just kind of assumes that they suck but this is actually a quality MAC football team and Notre Dame is going to have to bring their be ready for a competitive game it is a game that nerame should win handily but it's one of those games as we've seen in recent years against Marshall in 2022 Toledo in 2021 Ball State in 2018 if you're not locked in as a notame football team it could get a little bit interesting and a little dicey for you so Notre Dame is going to have to obviously be ready to rock and roll in this game on Saturday and and avoid any potential let down after the big win over Texas A&M this weekend so you know when you think about what's at stake for Notre Dame it's not so much winning or losing I I just I can't really fathom a scenario in which they lose this game but you need to make sure that it's not a game where you go out there and kind of Sleepwalk through it and maybe have to play longer than you should or your starters have to play more snaps than they should because this is the kind of game that if they are forced to sort of play a 60-minute game with the starters you know the when I say starters I mean just like the normal rotation you know it's not a it's not a given that they're going to beat Purdue convincingly next week next week it's not a given that if you struggle with Northern Illinois I think Miami of Ohio might be even better it's it's a certainly Poss that you go through your first five games and you don't get any games where you get a chance to get your young guys some work so it is it is important from that St point of not only getting your young guys some work but also getting yourself into a situation where you know if you just want to be able to minimize the snaps that's really what it comes down to for me you want to make sure that you get out of this game where it's a it's a it's a Get Right game it's a get healthy game it's a get fresh game before you go on the rout Road next week to play Purdue and so that's really what's at stake for nerame this weekend it's a it's just another step towards building your football team as we talked about last night this is a game that's more about you than it is about Northern Illinois if no Dame plays a Bame or better this will be a convincing win if not Dame plays an aame then this will game will be over by halftime and we're gonna find out which which version of that is when is noted incapable of playing an aame some teams can't do it early some teams you know you need more time to build can Notre Dame get there this early or is their first kind of a game going to come down the road against somebody else we're gonna find out this weekend but certainly another good test for Notre Dame it's a unique game because there are some areas where I believe they present some important matchups for Notre Dame and some matchups that Notre Dame needs as they go out to to try to really build their their team this year so I I'm looking forward to seeing how this all shakes out I'm looking forward to seeing you know how uh how this game how this game goes for noted Dame and and what are we going to learn about this nerame football team those are all things that we're going to learn and so today we're going to talk more about this matchup we're going to start the show off with sort of looking at a a stacking up article uh diving into um uh diving into a situation where um you go through it and it's going to be sort of Advantage Notre Dame in a every area but there are some areas where I do believe Tech Northern Illinois can present a challenge to Notre Dame uh in not a challenge a test of Notre Dame and so we we'll get in each one of those also talk about a little bit of what I want to see from Notre Dame in each of these categories gonna still use the 23 stats because one game against an FCS team that went o 0 and 11 last year doesn't really tell us a whole lot about Northern Illinois so we'll still look at that but we'll also mention kind of what they did in the opener and dive into that a little bit as well after that segment I will get into game record for Notre Dame you know there aren't really any game record on the Notre aame on the Northern defense but there are some on their offense which we'll talk about but who who are the guys that I want to not so much the guys that need to be game wers like we talked about last week right I mean we saw the guys that they they needed to step up and be game Wreckers but more so who I want to see step up and be game Wreckers because you don't really need any game record in a game like this I mean just kind of play your game and everybody does their job you're going to win convincingly you know but who are the guys that I want to see step up and really really you know play at a high level and and then we'll kind of get into uh to to kind of where this is for Notre Dame so let's get into that today folks before we get started do me a favor hit the like button hit the Subscribe button hit the notification Bell share this podcast give us a festar review no arguing in the chat today let's all get along Notre names want to know they just get went on the road beat a ranked team by 10 let's just all enjoy that get ready for Notre aame to go out this weekend and hopefully play another game and and get to 2 and0 so and if you haven't done so sign up for the message board at boards. breakdown. comom had a lot of action on that breakdown that I did of the of the Run game and I'm hoping to get a couple more out this week but uh check that out you can sign up for that at boards. Irish breakdown. comom so let's get after it all right so we're gonna dive into the first part of today's show and and discuss sort of the matchup between Northern Illinois and Notre Dame and and Northern Illinois is a very interesting team because you know we talked yesterday this is a team coming off of a seven- six season but a team that finished seven and six and and and did so kind of with a very strong finish you know their season last year got off to a great start they went on the road and beat Boston College at home at excuse me on the road and beat Boston College on their home field obviously and mean you think boy that's a great way to start your season then the next week they went out and lost to an FCS opponent they got beat convincingly by Nebraska then they lost to Tulsa then they lost to Toledo and you're sitting there one and four thinking this might be a really long year for Northern Illinois but they rebounded and rebounded very well you know I mean again you lose to an FCS team you lose to a a Tulsa team that finished four and eight and then you go on the road against akan and you know aran's not very good either but you know they're not a whole lot worse than what Tulsa was last year and you you get a win a blowout win and then that kind of got them hot you know they they beat Ohio the next week by 10 Ohio was a good football team last season the Bobcats went 10 and three their only losses were a touchdown loss to San Diego State a two touchdown loss to Miami of Ohio who won the league and then of course a 10-point loss to Northern Illinois so that was a a very good football team they beat an Eastern Michigan team that made a bowl game last year did drop a a a really weird loss they lost to Central Michigan in Ball State which is hilarious by the way because there's literally did you guys know that there's actually a Northern Illinois like Message Board did you guys know that I had no idea that things like that existed and I I got somebody put it in the message board at Irish breakdown yesterday the boards at Irish brown.com and I read that thing and that is a delusional fan base that is an insanely delusional fan base and I was kind of shocked by some of the stuff that I heard to be honest with you from uh from that but uh apparently Notre Dame is not that good because they couldn't score on Central Michigan last oh ironically Notre Dame beat Central Michigan by 24 and then Central Michigan beat nor Illinois but that's a different conversation then they lost a game to Ball State but then they rebounded well uh beat Western Michigan in their next game and then went out and that was a a not not a great western Michigan team obviously went 4 and8 last year and then beat U beat a really bad Kent State team in the last game of the year which made them both eligible then they went to a bowl game and beat Arkansas State so very strange team but what I like about that they've done is they've returned a lot of players from last year they have a lot of guys coming back and and coming back at very important positions that'll test Notre Dame and I think they have like I think n eight or nine starters coming back on defense they've got similar numbers coming back on offense they lost their quarterback Rocky Lombardi but I actually think that they have a chance to be upgraded I know again I talked about this yesterday Rocky Lombardi is a big kid a physical specimen just not a real good quarterback very good athlete I think they're going to have a much better passing game this year with the kid that they have at quarterback and of course one of the best running backs in in in that not is going to face this season so it's a very interesting team very experienced team pretty well coached team and I love like I said yesterday I love their offensive coordinator higher uh that that they brought in so uh it's it's G to be a very interesting test for Notre Dame and it's one of those games where Notre Dame is GNA have to to to play well to dominate the way that they should dominate this what I mean by that is I didn't think Notre name played overly well against New Mexico in 2019 but they still won like 66 to 10 because New Mexico was terrible I didn't think they played overly well against B Bowling Green meaning like they didn't dominate you know like they just it wasn't it wasn't um a real pretty performance they were just way better and won 59 to nothing if you win if you win something like that against Norther Illinois you played really well this is a game where you know to me if you just kind of roll the ball out and and don't perform well you can win by 14 to 17 to be honest with you maybe only 10 if you play good football like they did against Central Michigan last year you'll win by a similar score 24 to 27 somewhere around there and if you play you know you play really good football then you'll cover the spread and win by more than four touchdowns and that's really where Notre Dame is is at at this point in time so um that's that's it's a it's an interesting matchup and I want to get into the specifics of it here as we get rolling and we're going to start uh by looking at the Notre Dame offense against the northern Illinois defense and so we'll bring up the numbers again this is last year's last year's numbers for Northern Illinois I think it still it still matters to to focus on kind of what they did last season as we compare this football team but you look at their Rush defense last season it was pretty average to you know for that league but it ALS but you know when you look at him against some of the better teams they played last season they were not they were not a great football team in that regard looking at it strictly from a a Max standpoint their defense last year ranked number six in their league they were a yard and a half behind the number five team and they were barely above the number seven team so you know kind of right middle of the road of Mac last season had some very good performances that's the interesting thing about their numbers because the overall numbers are not very good they were pretty good at limiting 20 plus yard runs as you see there it but like they had they held Southern Illinois to 73 yards they held acan they held Ohio Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan all under 100 yards rushing and they held Western to 24 yards rushing they held Arkansas state to only 101 yards in a bowl game they held akan to only 107 yards in the bowl game they held Kent State to only 113 yards in the bowl game and BC only rushed for 46 yards against them with their Dynamic quarterback last season so it's uh it was an interesting when you looked at it it was it was kind of a a fascinating thing to look at because you you say all that but then you also have to look at and say well they gave up 224 yards to Nebraska they gave up 261 yards to Toledo gave up 186 yards to Ball State and then gave up three 331 yards to Central Michigan The Ball State one was was interesting because I mean ball State's just not a real good football team but they they run okay the central Michigan one I thought was really fascinating because M Central Michigan was not a really good run team coming into that game they ran for a 236 against New Hampshire they went for 123 against Michigan State 131 against Notre Dame 125 19380 this is the three games leading into the Northern anoy game 80 117 99 they averaged 3.2 2.3 and 2.8 Rush rushing yards allowed and then against Northern Illinois they went for 331 and and so this was it was a really weird Central Northern Illinois Rush defense last season and then two weeks later they completely shut down Western Michigan and finished on a a strong note so they they're a you very weird team to be be honest with you when looking at their their run defense last year at the end of the day you know this is a team that just doesn't in my opinion doesn't have the the size and necessarily a talent up front to hang with another name but they're a very experienced group they've got two Junior starting on the edge one of them Roy Williams did play a lot of football last year they have two seniors at defensive tackle uh starting at the defensive tackle they have another Junior and a senior that are their rotation D tackles that played a lot of football last year so they're top four you know their top four D tackles are guys that have played a lot of football and you know so they bring some some ability there they've got a kid named Roy Williams who's I think a pretty good pretty Athletic Edge player 66 251 galani Williams is a real big Edge player he's 64 286 and their best defensive well I shouldn't say their best their most productive defensive end from last year's not expected to play in this game he was out missed the opener as well ran Thomas so the linebackers are you know okay Jaden dolphin's a a solid football player their other linebackers a typical Mac linebacker you know short thick kid not overly athletic smart but this is a team honestly that Notre Dame should be able to run the ball on the question that I have about this team is can they come out and Notre Dame can they come out and clean up a lot of the mistakes that they made last week in the Run game and and I showed you guys the numbers last night a little sneak peek into into what they what they kind of what Notre Dame did against Texas A&M and the focus was on big plays right a lot of big plays and I I think they should be able to get some big plays against Northern Illinois as you see last year Norther Illinois was actually pretty decent about not giving up a lot of big runs because they're a 4-25 defense that tries to kind of funnel everything inside they don't want you to get outside of them and you know that can somewhat limit some of the big gains and and things we'll how they defend Notre Dame I think they'll probably have to be a little bit more aggressive get numbers in the Box against Notre Dame but I think there's some opportunities for not Dame to continue to have big plays what I want to see from Notre Dame however is I want to see them be a little bit more efficient in this game you're you're playing a defensive line that has two 200 two 300 Pounders in their rotation another guy that's 293 and then a couple 285 Pounders up the middle so they're not huge but they're not small either and as I mentioned they've got a a 286 pound defensive end starting form as their sort of their big end and then their their their version of the Vipers a kid who's 66 251 pounds so they're not a small defensive line they're a very experienced defensive line which means if you make mistakes they're going to hurt you they're going to make you pay so the big thing for me for noted aame this weekend is obviously from a from a number standpoint noted aame got off to a great start this week this season I mean great start you go out and play one of what was last year one of the best run defenses in college football last year they have even better coaching than they had last year in my opinion in Mike Elco and you went out there and rushed for 198 yards I I pointed this out last night but when you look at Texas A&M last season Notre Dame rushed for more yards against Texas A&M on Saturday night then Arkansas Alabama and South Carolina had against another Dame combined only one team rushed for more than the 198 yards ner Dame had last season uh last season nobody had only Tennessee had more nobody had the five point 8 yards per carry that notame had the best that they they allowed last season was 5.5 from LSU and a lot of that was Jaden Daniels so you know Notre Dame was able to statistically have really good success but as I mentioned the efficiency was not there and that's going to be something that that in future games nerame is going to have to be a lot more efficient running the football a lot less of the 40s and 30s surrounded by twos and ones and minus ones and different things like that so you know I'm I'm I'm going to need to see Notre Dame come out in this game and be a lot more efficient against a run team that's just kind of okay you know I expect them to be better than they were last year but I don't see them making huge Leaps and Bounds worth of improvement and and honestly I actually thought Western Illinois was able to run the ball a little bit early they just got behind so quickly that there wasn't a whole lot that they could do so uh run run game is going to be very important for Notre Dame in this match up statistically Notre Dame has a a big advantage in this game although West although they did hold Western Illinois to under 100 yards in the game but uh you know I I think and I think Notre Dame has certainly has a clear advantage in this one this is the part of the matchup that I'm most interested in seeing because if you look at it you you really can't evaluate last year statistics a whole lot for Notre Dame because of just how many new pieces that are there but I wanted to still bring this up because of you can I think evaluate Northern Illinois's past defense and when you look at obviously how Notre Dame handled the the opener the past game struggled you know you had the one big play to Bo Collins and then you had a decent 16 yard gain to Cooper Flanigan but everything else that you hit in that game was short stuff and there was no even threat of throwing the ball down the field not only I mean I you had the one play to Bo Collins I think there was only I don't know if there was another attempt over 20 yards I've got a let me look at my sheet I don't think I have marked down yeah I have one pass attempt of 20 or more yards for Notre Dame in last week's game and so that's something that obviously is going to have to continue to get a lot better and they're gonna have to be a little bit more aggressive and they're gonna need to the receivers are going to have to play better Riley Leonard's going to have to play better the pass protection's going to have to be better uh this is not a team that that is in Northern Illinois that that was very good at getting after the quarterback last year they do have you know the kid that I mentioned earlier the six6 kids a decent athlete off the edge decent pass rusher but they don't really have a lot of guys are going to wreck you as in the past game so this this should be a game should be a game where the Notre Dame offensive line is able to give Riley Leonard time you'd like to see Riley Leonard be more willing to sit in the pocket and and let's say have a little bit more patience going through his progressions and one of the plays that I'm going to show in my pass game breakdown when I get that up is going to be a a sort of an invert smash concept I call it a burst corner where Bo Collins comes open for what should have been a touchdown and Riley had just looked away from him and then misses Chris Mitchell who was open on on a dig cut so that's certainly an area where Riley's gonna have to get a lot better and the receivers goingon to have to play better everybody's gonna have to step up and play better and and I'll talk more about the individual players when I get to the game record section but when you look at this Northern Illinois pass offense pass defense they they were good last year they were legit legitimately a a very good group of five pass defense last season and when you look at where they ranked in their in their league um in in 2023 they had the number one pass defense in the league by over eight yards last season they ranked number two in yards allowed per attempt only Toledo was better at 0.1 and they were also number two in quarterback rating last year only Toledo was better and Toledo had a cornerback that I believe went in the first round last season Ryan you're in the chat the kid from Toledo last year he went in the first round correct the cornerback that Toledo had last year that was a really really good player Mitchell so I believe he was a first round pick this year maybe second round um I I know he's projected to be a first round pick last season quinan Mitchell right but where did he go was he he was a first- round pick yeah so he was so that I mean you're the only team ahead of you in the pass game last year was a team that had a first who's a great team by the way with with Jason kandle but a team that had a firstr draft pick a quarterback now what's interesting is when you break down Northern Illinois pass defense they're not really good at after the quarterback they do a good job of keeping everything in front of them and they're team that is very smart very sound uh they'll they'll a good tackling team in my opinion and they're a team that that is just not going to get beat deep a whole lot and which is interesting ing when you consider they weren't very good at getting after the quarterback last season and not just from a sack standpoint but you know looking at their numbers they weren't a team that that like like racked up a lot of pressures even though they you know because you can be actually a pretty decent pass rushing team and actually not get a lot of sacks uh it's usually you'll get at least a decent amount of sacks you won't rank 92nd in the country in sacks but you could be a team that maybe doesn't get a lot of sacks but still does a good job of pressuring the defense and and they they they weren't even that last year they only had 179 pressures all season and as I mentioned the guy that that had the most pressures on their defense last year ran Thomas he's out for the game their their next two best actually uh pass rushers last season and James eser and George gums are also gone uh I believe James Esther ran out of Eligibility and George gums transferred to Florida so uh you know that's that's he's he's started he's playing for Florida right now so you know th those are things that I look at and say that they weren't good at Rushing the quarterback last year and they lost all their top pass rushers so either they're going to have to try to heat Notre Dame up or they're just going to say hey we're gonna play Ben but don't break prevent the Deep ball play our too high defense and and not let Notre Dame you know get the ball down the field so you know this is going to be a test for Notre Dame and and I actually this is one thing I really like about this matchup for Notre Dame is because I mean look I know what a lot of you want to see a lot of of you this because this is true for every time they play a bad team just come out and run the ball down their throat and do this and run for a bunch of yards and that all sounds good and it helps the end of the season stats but I don't know how if that that necessar makes their name a better football team I I'll say what again what I said last night you have this has got to be a game where you have to be able to enhance your pass game it doesn't mean that I need to see them throw for 300 yards somebody earlier said I got to see him throw for 300 yards I mean if ndan throws for 275 yards and rushes for 225 yards that's a pretty darn good day of work right but it just needs to be good you know because there's also a scenario where Notre Dame doesn't throw for over 300 because they don't throw the ball much in the fourth quarter because they have a big win I want to see an offense that is aggressive thrown the football that's efficient throw in the football receivers gaining separation the quarterback making good decisions then the quarterback being accur thrown the football because if you can have success against Northern Illinois it doesn't mean your pass game has arrived because it's Northern Illinois but as I said this is still a solid pass pass defense a for for their level they're very good at their level for overall they're just they're solid this is going to be a solid this going to be one of the six or seven best pass defenses not's going to face all year schematically and then personnel-wise they're very long they've got I think all their starters at the at the outside and back end are six feet or taller the only guy that's some six feet is their nickel who's a good football player there one of their safeties is 63 really long rangy kid so they're going to do some things where they're going to make you work for yards in the pass game and I want to see Notre Dame beat have some aggressiveness uh first efficiency good decision making getting some separation and then also seeing some aggressiveness I want to see some some different wrinkles from for this week against this particular defense which is going to be a little bit different schematically than what Texas A&M was but I want to see Notre Dame go on the hunt a little bit more on defense that that's really where I'm at and when I look at this matchup I think that's going to be a big key for Notre Dame wrapping up this part of the preview we'll go to the the offense against the defense obviously Notre Dame uh last season was a top 10 scoring defense a top 10 team in in yards per play we'll see how they're going to be this season obviously the first game of the year was um a battle for Notre Dame I think I do believe tchm is have that is one of the two to three best defenses that Notre Dame is going to play this season I don't think there's any doubt about that at all in my mind and you had 356 yards and 5.6 yards per play if you look at you know comparable teams last season and you look at how Notre Dame performed in comparable games last season against Ohio State Notre Dame had 351 yards and 5.5 yards per play again against A&M they were 356 and 5.6 against Duke notame only had 3 81 yard that had 381 yards of offense 6.1 per play but most of that was gained on the last Drive of the game they had three big plays on that drive against Louisville notame only had 298 yards and 4.5 yards per play against Clemson notame only had 329 yards and 5.4 yards per play and I would argue that Texas A&M's defense is better than all those defenses in my opinion talent-wise certainly post Ohio State better than everyone except Ohio State's defense last season so you had a a better than expected slightly better than expected performance statistically weren't able to put the ball in the end zone as much as you'd like to see but Notre Dame was able to get out there and and uh and do what they needed to do to win now it's about taking next steps right it's okay you you you did what you needed to do in that game you were able to win the game Heck if You' have scored 23 points against Ohio State last year you win that football game right so uh that that's certainly a positive for outcome in that regard but now Notre Dame needs to take that next step offensively against what is a pretty solid Mac defense as I said before pretty solid group of five defense and and when you look at that what Northern Illinois did last season in their conference as you see right there I mean that's national rankings actually uh they were pretty good last season in the Mac they were the fourth best Mac defense last season in scoring at 21 points per game uh they were number three in the league in Total Defense at 39.5 yards per game and they were number four in the league in in yards per play at 5.12 so 5.1 per game so this is a solid defense uh did a did a good job last season allowing limiting big plays as you can see there 31st in the country at limiting big plays not a great third down defense not a great red zone defense and they were not good at all at forcing turnovers so you obviously Notre a should be able to protect the ball but you know we're GNA see if noted Dame is is the same old Notre Dame as they've been in the past these next couple couple games in my opinion because you you look at this team and and you say look I understand the not wanting to turn the ball over against Texas A&M but you've got to be willing to be more aggressive against a team like Northern Illinois you you do you have to be more aggressive than that and so I just you you just can't get in situations where you're so afraid of turning the ball over that you don't take any chances and I don't want say that that's happening now because it was one game but I want to see how Riley handles that message to where yeah you don't want to turn the ball over but you also have to be willing to take some chances and and and be aggressive and will he be able to do that against his team and I think you're going to need to uh if you're going to win this game as the way that they need to because like like what are we talking about here when we talk about this game are we really talking about what n needs to do to get upset no I see somebody in chat talking about how I'm you know doing a Lou a Lou Holtz impression of building up their opponent I I don't really know what you're talking about I mean look we can do this this dance where every team that's not a power five big-time team sucks and not should win by 100 or we can take an honest look at a team right imagine that taking an honest look at a team and what we're talking about with Northern Illinois is not is nor going to win or lose the question is are you going to play to the level that you need to in order to say hey we took a step as a program that's what Notre Dame needs to do did you have growth in this game it's not about winning or losing it's about are you able to say hey we got better in the areas we need to get better and when I look at this particular matchup and I look at the things that Northern Illinois is good at and I said very clearly that they are a a good group of five team right then you can look at it and say hey this is an opportunity for you to to get better it's not like playing Bowling Green in 2019 it's not like playing New Mexico it's not like playing even Ball State where you can just kind of roll the ball out and you have no chance of losing or you're going to win by you know plus points and you don't even play well you're going to have to play well to have the kind of blowout win that I think you want and need and so if you think that Northern Illinois is just the sucky team that's just going to you know roll the ball out and give up you're you're mistaken and as I've said before this is a team in Northern Illinois that in recent seasons has had I believe multiple victories against Power five teams they obvious they certainly Beat Boston College last year uh beat Georgia Tech in 2021 so in the last three years they've beaten power five teams on the road so this is not a team that that we should just look at and say well no's going to roll the balls out and win by 60 they've got to go out and earn it and but more importantly are they building themselves as a team and the offense especially needs to go out there and build themselves up in order to to have success in this game let's move over to the defense this is a matchup again uh that is going to be an interesting test it's a Notre Dame's run defense was okay against Texas Anan them it wasn't great it was just good was solid they did what they needed to do right and and that's really the the the important thing for Notre Dame is being able to have that that sort of improvement in the run defense to a degree I felt like they were willing to give up some things against Texas A&M in order to to limit their opportunity to have big pass plays they were willing to give up four five yard gains here and there uh in order to limit some of that I think g& him at a very big offensive line and they leaned on Notre Dame at times especially when the the second team defensive line was in the game but you look at this this this Northern Illinois matchup and it's another good test you have a veteran offensive line coming back when you look at Northern Illinois they have four returning starters on the offensive line their offensive line has got very good size for a Mac team left to right their 66 298 65311 63305 64321 and 6312 they have very good size and like I said four of those guys are returning starters and they've got a running back coming back that's a really good football player in antario brown and I and I've talked about him before he was a second team running back on my all opponent team he's a kid that's got some very good ability he's got he's a very low low built short thick legs he's built like a lot like his coach was when he was a player in college he's got really good agility change of Direction ability good balance he's a guy that is not going to necessarily be a threat to rip off a bunch of big runs as you can see last year Northern Illinois ranked 37th in the country in rushing yards per game at 179.2 they ranked 22nd in yards per attempt at 5.0 yards per attempt but they only ranked 66th in runs of 20 yards or more and so he's not really a a home run threat per se although he did go for over 20 on the first Carry of the game against Western Illinois it's more so he's a chain mover and you think you have him for minus two he makes a quick cut next thing you know instead of you instead of it being second and 12 it's second and six because he made a guy Miss and got to the second level you know on Third and two you think you got him squared up at the line of scrimmage you hit him he bounces off pops it outside and moves the chains though that's where anterio Brown is a is a weapon it's he's just that slasher type of back with vision feel for the game and obviously was very productive last season for Illinois he finished the year with 1296 yards last season at 10 touchdowns and averaged over six yards a carry 6.1 yards per carry and so this is a kid that this is a very good football player he went for eight for 69 in the opener they didn't play him a whole lot but he looked good he looked good when he did play uh but he he does he is a kid that does have a couple 80 yard touchdown runs in his career but again those are not those are not against teams that that like like Notre is going to play he's racking those up against against different types of teams actually he did have an 80 yard against Toledo last year ran for 280 against akan last season 167 against Central Michigan 159 against Western Michigan uh last season went for 132 in the bowl game last season against Arkansas State uh the season before he that's when he rushed for 1296 he only ran for 689 yards as part of his split backfield in 2022 but he did average 6.3 yards per carry and uh went for 160 yards against Ohio and had five for 9 7 against Miami of Ohio that's when he had his 86 y had a 51 y against Vanderbilt eight carries for 60 yards went for uh 13 for 70 against Eastern Illinois he went 6 for 37 which is 6.2 per carry against Kentucky and had 17 for 84 against Toledo That season as well so this is a good running back with a lot of good production he's got over 2,000 career yards he's probably going to be in, yard rusher again this season so um this is a good this is a good football player good running back and a guy that going to have to keep their eye on now what they don't have this year like they had last year is they don't have quite the same you know threat as a as a rusher that they had last season not that Rocky Lombardi was like a great Runner he only had 129 yards last year but he was really good in the Red Zone he had seven rushing touchdowns last season they used him a little bit more effectively running the ball down the stretch uh in the first SE seven games eight games of the year he had five games of minus yards he was over four 14 or more in every game after that and four of his touchdowns came uh in those final five games where they were able to to do more things near the goal line and in the Red Zone with him but you at least had to respect his ability to kind of pull it and keep it uh I I don't know if you have a lot of that this year with Ethan Hampton I think Ethan Hampton's a solid athlete he can do some things but he's more of a dropback throw it bootleg he's the kind of guy you're more worried about you you lose contain on a bootleg and he tucks it and runs and picks up eight to 10 yards that's more of what you're looking at as opposed to a guy that's really dangerous as a runner this is a kid that's going to do more damage sitting in the pocket against you and throwing on the move they do a lot of movement stuff if you can shut down antario Brown you basically shut down Northern no's offense at least their run game and and so this will be a good test for Notre Dame good siiz offensive line one of the best running backs are going to face all season and really good scheme as they talked about yesterday you know their offense is going to look a lot different than it did last year you got a new offensive coordinator and he is a guy that's going to do a lot pre- snap a lot of shifts motions Jets and then they do a lot of things to try to mess with linebackers and and Jet sweeps and shovels and reverses and you know moveing the pocket they do a lot of stuff where they get the quarterback out of the pocket so you can't just pin your ears back and go get the quarterback you know he's a thrower he's a pocket guy but their pocket moves a lot and he they do they do a really good job moving him around which can kind of slow your defense down a little bit and so this is a great opportunity in my opinion for this notame defense to say Hey listen we're going to face one of the best running backs going to face all year he's going to be one of the three or four best easily for sure in my opinion if we can shut this guy down in this veteran offensive line down then we then we may then we can say hey we've shown Improvement and we're ready to keep going that's really where not Dame is going to look like look like the other the next aspect is the pass game and this is the this is a very interesting matchup because if you look at last year on paper Notre Dame was an Elite pass defense last year and guess what folks they are an Elite pass defense again this year we saw that against Texas A&M I mean like A&M had basically like option offense numbers against Notre Dame I mean they they passed for 100 yards against no Dame and and if you listen to the A&M people that you think that that it was all all them making mistakes uh has nothing to do with noted aim but they held noted a to A&M to 100 passing yards 3.3 yards per attempt no touchdowns and two interceptions and this is a team in northern northern Illinois that last year ranked 105th in the country in in passing yards this is a team that ranked uh 95th in the country in yards per attempt 82nd in uh yards per completion 96 in touchdowns and then uh 96 in pass effic efficiency and then only 14 touch pass passes last year of over 30 yards or more which ranked them 104th in the country now they were very good at limiting uh or limiting sacks but that's because they honestly didn't throw the ball a whole lot to be completely to completely Frank with you this year they're going to throw the ball certainly a lot more and so I I I like where this kid is at I or this team is at I like what their offensive coordinators doing uh so far he's a young guy and and does a lot of things so I think you're to see a lot more intricate pass game we saw them last uh in this pass game hitting wheel routes out of the back field hitting big plays on post Snap switches they did kind of a it was just real simple just a real quick in you know motion outside guy goes in inside guy goes out they turn it loose big play you know those are things that no name can and should shut down but they do enough to where if you're not locked in if you have the attitude that some of the fans have which is you know like this team sucks and you know all these type of things then you know you're going to make mist and you're going to give up big plays and and because you know they'll do a lot of levels off play action you know they'll they'll run like a play action pass and and uh a movement pass and they'll hit the outs and hit the overs and then they'll kind of take a shot they'll kind of roll right throw back side I think their first touchdown pass was like I believe on a roll out to the left they're going to do a lot of intricate things they've got a couple good receivers they've got one kid who's a really Shifty player had a big play on a Jet Sweep last week on a shovel pass I think it was a shovel pass made made a big play on a Crossing route last week Trayvon Rudolph short fast quick guy uh their other receivers a pretty solid players well in my opinion at cam Thompson 6 foot 198 pound guy so they've got some size of receiver also Andrew mroy 63 that Jaylen Johnson plays he's 63 George demopoulos is 62 so they've got some size there and they've got a tight end that's a really good football player for that level kid named Grayson Barnes averaged about 20 yards a catch last year uh six 5 225 pound kid from California good football player really good football player so uh the the pass game has got some weapons to work with there's a much better scheme this year I think that Ethan Hampton is a kid that's a much better passer than what we saw from Rocky Lombardi last year so this will be a much big better test for notame than it would have been uh from last year but this is still a match up Notre Dame should dominate The Only Way Notre Dame gives up big plays in this game in my opinion throwing the football is if they're just undisciplined that's that's that's basically where where it's at if they're if they're undisciplined if they turn guys loose if they make mistakes if they don't get to their depths if they don't you know communicate then sure A&M can or then northern northern Illinois can make some big plays but this is not a team that otherwise should make some even though I like their talent I think they're going to be a much better passing team this year in the Mac I think they're going to have a lot more success throwing the football uh in this game than this season than they have in the the past I mean I said the opener against against Northern ill against Western Illinois Ethan Hampton went 18 of 20 for 328 yards and five touchdowns and just to give you some context last season they only threw 15 touchdowns the entire season last year they didn't go over 300 yards in a single game last season their best output was 298 against Central Michigan and it's 297 against Central Illinois the year before in 2022 again did not go over 300 yards one time 284 yards and they did that on 49 pass attempts they only had three games all year in 20122 over 300 yards passing the last time they threw for over 300 yards in the game was all the way back in in 2021 uh and and again so they they're just they're not a very good passing team they haven't been a good passing team a lot of that in my opinion is is is due to Rocky Lombardi and yes Tommy that is 30 plus yard pass completions yes so uh it just speaks to it's not 30 plus yards down the line past the line it's it's a so it could be a five yard completion guy runs for 25 yards and there it is that's a 30 plus so that's that's what that means uh but when you look at their in the opener this year again West is not good but they threw for almost 400 yards and five touchdowns very different scheme quality Talent much better thrower at quarterback and then you have a veteran offensive line that didn't give up a lot of sacks last year so if you're not disciplined they can hurt you if you're disciplined and you play your game Notre Dame will shut their pass game down and it it really is that simple but I do there are some things about it that I like that that are you know it's it's not even about Notre Dame as much but when I look at their schedule you know against Buffalo and UMass and Bowling Green Toledo Ball State Western Michigan akan Miami Ohio and Central Michigan what I think this team can do some things in the Mac this year because of the fact I believe their offense is going to be a lot better I I really do I think their offense is going to be a lot better than it was last year and it comes down to the the change that offensive coordinator and the weapons they have in the passing game it's going to make them much more much more effective in my opinion in the in the throwing game which is what they need because teams are just going to come out and try to shut down you know Antonio Brown and that's just what they're going to do and you know like last year here's a crazy thing last year as good as his running back was they only threw him the ball 12 times for 52 yards he was nothing but a check down guy first game of the year he has two catches for 45 yards so again they're going to use him in a lot of different ways a lot of different ways so uh I like this Northern Illinois team it's not a team that should challenge Notre Dame but I'm telling you if if they can stay healthy and keep improving this team's got a chance to make some serious noise in the Mac there's no doubt about it just overall looking at the statistics not Dame should dominate again not Dame's a top 10 team in scoring defense yards per game yards per play Red Zone defense third down defense they were top 30 they were top 15 and fewest 30 yard gains allowed 13th and turnovers forced the only area where where Northern Illinois was a top 50 team was third down defense they were 47th and then they ranked 42nd in 30 plus yards yard plays allowed so certainly Advantage noted aame in this matchup but I do really like this Northern Illinois team I'm telling you guys this is a good MAC football team not in related to you know they're going to beat Notre Dame or or should give Notre Dame a game but I will say this if Notre Dame's not locked in they will make it a game for at least a while this will not be a game that not Dame just rolls the ball out and runs by guys for 20 yards and easy touchdowns and they're not going to have a lot of blown assignments they're going to play hard and as I said this is a team that under Thomas hammock has won multiple games against Power five teams they're not going to be afraid of Notre Dame they're not going to think they're not going to come in and just lay down and and and let Notre Dame roll all over them they're GNA battle if Notre Dame plays their game it won't matter if their Dame doesn't play their game then it'll be closed for at least two to two and a half Quarters at least so uh I I want to see what this team does and as we talked about in yesterday's show we know they can handle adversity now let's see them handle success and so that's a that's going to be the breakdown for Northern Illinois so we'll have our uh Tom we're going to go game records next and B male biso hold but just a reminder tomorrow we'll do our keys to victory in this game it'll be Ryan and I we'll we'll do that and then of course we'll make our predictions for the game tomorrow uh going to give you a little bit of a teaser we both have have Notre Dame winning shocker okay I don't want to ruin it for you and then Bill bender and I will will get on the show after that and we will preview Texas Michigan Iowa Iowa State Tennessee NC State and Nebraska Colorado so we'll spend a lot of our time on that Michigan Texas game but we're going to preview those other three games as well so that'll that'll be our slate for tomorrow at tomorrow's show but um this is the preview for Northern Illinois give you a chance to see what this team is about and it's a again it's it's a good football team if you're someone who likes MAC football and I do I really like because I grew up watching it you know I'm an Ohio guy uh I I went to camps at Miami Ohio and Bowling Green when I was in coaching because we would recruit you know the same area so we would go work their camps and and uh you know and get a chance to see kids that maybe they weren't going to recruit that we could maybe try to convince come play for us and things like that so got to know a lot of those staffs got you know went there when Urban Meyer was a Bowling Green went there when Dave Clawson was a Bowling Green and um you have a lot of respect for that league and what they do and the things they have to go through so this is going to be a really good test for Notre Dame and just another good building block for them as they get ready to continue into the season so I'm g hit hit that like hit that subscribe hit the notification Bell share this podcast give us a five star review and I will see you guys here in a few seconds as we get ready for part two of today's show where we're going to talk about game wers