Stay ConnectedIrish Breakdown provides unmatched in-depth analysis of the Notre Dame Football program while also discussing hot college football topics.
Bryan Driskell – A former college football coach, Bryan has been covering Notre Dame football for over a decade.
Sean Stires – A long-time radio host in South Bend, Sean is the host of IB Nation Sports Talk and the play-by-play announcer for the Notre Dame Women’s Basketball team.
Copyright: © 2020 Irish Breakdown
Irish Breakdown answers Buy/Sell/Hold submissions from Notre Dame fans about the Fighting Irish. This is part one of the segment.
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Today's Rapid Fire topics include:
* Fan Duel has posted college football season over/under win totals for next season. Notre Dame’s is 10.5 We always complain that their number is low, so what do you think about 10.5 for 2025?
* Notre Dame also –2.5 in the opener at Miami
* Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State also have 10.5
* Georgia and Texas 9.5...
* Alabama 8.5...Michigan, Indiana and LSU also 8.5
* North Carolina – Bill Belichick 7.5...so does USC
* Colorado 6.5
* Jeremiyah Love has +4500 odds for the Heisman. Good value or a waste of money?
* Fill-in the blank...It will be BLANK if Notre Dame does not make the playoffs this season.
* Fill-in the blank...You will remember Riley Leonard for BLANK.
* Buy or Sell the Kansas City Chiefs as true villains?
* Is Patrick Mahomes overrated, underrated or properly rated?
* How about Jalen Hurts?
* Here’s a Super Bowl Fan Duel special: Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts to combine for 6+ Passing and Rushing TDs at +320. Do you like it?
* Do you Buy or Sell banning the Philadelphia Eagles’ tush push quarterback sneak play?
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Wednesday is Mailbag Day on IB Nation Sports Talk. Irish Breakdown answers listener-submitted questions about Notre Dame football and more on today's show. Some of today's topics include:
* What will Notre Dame football's winter conditioning plans and goals look like?
* Is there any advantage to Notre Dame's Blue-Gold spring game being earlier than usual?
* What's the biggest benefit to Notre Dame from the new ESPN-ACC TV agreement?
* Which game will be tougher for the Irish: Miami or Texas A&M?
* Will we learn more about Irish quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli's ability to develop players this year?
* What college football coaches will be on the hot seat in 2025?
* What's taking so long with Notre Dame's efforts to hire James Blanchard as its next football general manager?
* What changes in the Irish offense can we expect this season?
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Bryan and Trevor discuss the potential breakout players for the Notre Dame defense for the 2025 season. It’s still very early, but there are plenty of options on all three levels.
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Despite heavy losses the Notre Dame defense remains very talented and poised for another big year. Bryan and Trevor break down the reasons for optimism on defense, which revolves around the talent, especially the young talent.
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Irish Breakdown takes a first glance look at the Notre Dame defense for 2025. There are a lot of changes and losses, but the standard must remain the same. Bryan and Trevor discuss why it’s important that Notre Dame doesn’t take a step back, and whether or not that’s possible.
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Today's Rapid Fire topics include:
* ESPN did its way too early All-American team for next season. Jeremiyah Love and Leonard Moore made the first team and Billy Schrauth made the second team. Who’s one guy on each side of the ball you think they left out?
* How many times would it be acceptable for Notre Dame to miss the playoffs over the next 10 years?
* On a scale of 1 to 10...What’s your confidence Notre Dame will have a 1,000-yard wide receiver next season?
* Fill-in the blank...Marcus Freeman’s son Vinny getting an in-home recruiting visit from a Michigan wrestling coach is BLANK.
* We talked yesterday about Nebraska possibly doing away with its annual spring game because of head coach Matt Rhule’s concern that other teams might use the game to poach players. Ross Dellenger who covers college football for Yahoo and co-hosts the College Football Enquirer Podcast, says he thinks all schools might follow suit in the next few years. Do you Buy or Sell that?
* Do you Buy or Sell there being more interest in Bill Belichick at North Carolina this season than Deion Sanders had in his first season at Colorado?
* Do you think Belichick will treat the media differently now that he’s coaching at a lower profile college job?
* Chiefs fatigue is a hot topic as Kansas City goes for its third straight Super Bowl win this weekend. Do you Buy or Sell the same team having so much success being good or bad for overall interest and TV ratings?
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Irish Breakdown answers listener/subscriber submitted questions about Notre Dame women's basketball on today's show. IB's Sean Stires, who is also the radio announcer for Irish women's hoops, is joined by Vince DeDario to answer questions. Some of today's questions include:
* What needs to happen during the tournament for the team to win the national championship?
* Has freshman post Kate Koval exceeded expectations, or simply met them so far?
* Who is out of eligibility after this year, and who is likely to leave early? In other words, who will likely need to be replaced for next year?
* Is the “we’re all good” attitude on playing time, and ball possession starting to tarnish? Seems like the Louisville, and Va Tech game there were a handful of times, with an open shooter, a player had a face like no-no I’m getting mine.
* Has Sonia Citron's role been reduced a little. Seems like she rarely gets 30+ minutes.
* How much fun is it to watch Hannah Hidalgo? On TV it’s like did she really just do that. Does it look more impressive in person?
* Not surprised Liatu King is playing well. Do you think the offense should balance a little more to the inside?
* This season ND football took a very aggressive approach to forcing depth to play in order to keep the team as fresh as possible for the playoff season. What does NDWBB do to get the players in peak physical condition for the postseason? Do these concerns impact Niele Ivey’s substitution strategies? If yes, how do concerns affect her strategies?
* What is the status of Emma Risch? Should we be concerned with her durability? Will she be able to take some minutes off the trio of Hannah, Olivia Miles & Sonia down the stretch?
* Per ESPN’s stats, ND has committed 325 turnovers in 21 games (15.47 avg per game). Having watched every game, the turnovers often come in bunches & are caused by various issues. Sometimes the lineups don’t look comfortable working together yet; sometimes ball handling’s an issue; sometimes passes are off target or are made without seeing a defender; sometimes the mental focus seems to drift. What can and should NDWBB be doing to cleanup this issue? As one example, to get you started, Cassandre Prosper has had dozens of turnovers where a pass goes offer hand(s) and out of bounds. Seems to me she needs to do some of those Pistol Pete drills where you rotate the ball around your torso & tap the ball from hand to hand.
* With UCLA absolutely rolling & South Carolina looking dominant in all their games except the double digit loss to UCLA, how does ND matchup against those teams?
* Niele Ivey has done a good job of utilizing our depth this year, but it’s been hard to keep track of which players are playing on the court at the same time. Does Niele tend to play a limited number of lineups that have the same players in together at the same time? Or has she mixed and matched?
* Liatu King has been phenomenal in many ways this season. Her addition to the team seems like a near perfect marriage based on her strengths & the role NDWBB needed King to play. Yet, she’s only 20 for 44 shooting FTs, which is 45.5%. Once the postseason comes, teams with depth and size may play extra physical & force the referees to call fouls which could put Liatu on the line a lot in close games. Is NDWBB doing anything to improve her free throw shooting? Can ND sub in bigger lineups anytime she gets to the FT line in order to increase their chances of getting a rebound on her missed FTs? How else can ND minimize the damage of her missed free throws turning into easy rebounds for the other team?
* I was trying to come up with a comparison for Hannah, and the best I came up with is that she is a female Allen Iverson. What are your thoughts?
* Would you rather a backcourt of Jackie Young and Arike Ogunbowale or Miles and Hidalgo?
* Do you think the team is having a hard time adjusting to the Hannah’s playing style and Olivia’s playing style. They are both amazing floor generals and at the same time very different players.
* What is Coach Ivey’s strategy for recruiting? It seems like she targets a few high level players and either gets them or not. Also her classes seem to usually be pretty small.
* Also how are we losing out on a lot of top 100 in state recruits?
* Lauren Betts UCLA-If ND ends up playing UCLA in the tournament, how much of a problem will she be (with her size 6’7” and game)?
* What is our biggest weakness as a team?
* What team or teams do you think will give ND the toughest matchup?
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Bryan and Shaun answer questions about Notre Dame football, Irish recruiting and even an NBA discussion.
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Was the Notre Dame run in 2024 like the 2012, 2018 or 2020 runs where Notre Dame took a step back, or is this Irish program now in a place where they are an elite program that can simply reload? Bryan and Shaun discuss that.
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