00:00The odds to win the national championship is going to be with the football team
00:05in South Bend, and it's going to be Notre Dame.
00:09Notre Dame hasn't won a national championship since 1988.
00:13A couple years ago, they were in the national championship game.
00:17Brian Kelly put them in that title game against Alabama a few years back as well,
00:21but it's really been underwhelming for Notre Dame over the last couple years.
00:25And I won't lie to you guys.
00:26I can't stand this program.
00:28One of the great rivalries of all time in college football history was University of
00:32Miami versus Notre Dame, and that rivalry back on display November 7th in South Bend this
00:40year, and I can't wait for that game.
00:42Cannot wait to go to that game.
00:43Cannot wait to be involved in that game and watch and see what happens because I think
00:47the two of those teams that will be playing on November 7th will play for the national
00:52championship, the winner of that game.
00:54I don't get the Notre Dame hype.
00:56Then again, I do.
00:57I get the brand.
00:58They're the most unlikable team in the history of the country.
01:02I don't like them at all.
01:04People always ask me, Sills, who's your biggest rival, University of Florida or Notre Dame?
01:10It's probably going to say Gators.
01:11However, Notre Dame is right there.
01:13And I just love to hate on this team.
01:16However, I've got to be fair here to this.
01:22Their head football coach, Marcus Freeman, makes me want to root for them.
01:26I think he is the hottest candidate for potential coaching in the NFL or any other program in
01:34the country of any candidates that we have coaching anywhere at both levels, pro or college.
01:40I think Marcus Freeman is a coach that players love playing for.
01:44I think he has elevated Notre Dame.
01:47And as I said, he makes you want to root for him because he looks like he is honest.
01:53There's a polar opposite coach in Baton Rouge.
01:56That's Lane Kiffin.
01:57I would never want to play the billionaires for a guy like Lane Kiffin.
02:00But for a guy like Marcus Freeman, who's going to tell you the truth, who's going to be a
02:06coach, and he's going to be a coach to you 40 to 50 years after your playing days.
02:13I tell people one of the greatest comments that I could make about my former coach, Jimmy
02:17Johnson, Coach Johnson treats me the same way over 45 years ago, the same way he treated
02:24me when I was 19 years old and to where he treats me now when I'm 60.
02:29He treats me the same way with respect, talks to me like a man, same with Dave Wonstad, our
02:35coordinator, or Butch Davis, our D-line coach.
02:38All those men back in the day who were teaching us to grow and be men and to grow and
02:44learn
02:44how to win, those men were the same people back then as they are today.
02:49And to me, that is the centerpiece on being a coach.
02:52And when I look at Marcus Freeman, I see that same characteristic.
02:56Every single guy that players play for him, they say the same thing.
03:02Coach, you walk into his office, and he's going to be as fortright with you, and he's
03:06going to be as honest with you as he possibly can.
03:10Look, that's all people want in life.
03:12Nobody likes a BS artist.
03:14Nobody likes telling them two things, one thing out of one side of your mouth and another
03:19thing out of the other side of your mouth.
03:20That was the coolest thing about my coach.
03:22My coach told you, hey, you got to get better, kid, or I'm going to put someone else in.
03:27I love you, but that's got nothing to do with winning.
03:30My friendship for you and my love for you, you're here.
03:34I'll carve out the yellow brick road, but you got to walk it, son.
03:37And I think that's exactly what Marcus Freeman has done there in South Bend.
03:41I'll make this point, too, to you.
03:43I don't know if he's going to stay in college football or he's going to stay at South Bend.
03:48I know that teams like the New York Giants and also the Pittsburgh Steelers were recruiting
03:53him to come and coach in the National Football League.
03:56I think Marcus Freeman is the top candidate for anybody, pro or college, to bring him
04:02in and to build your program.
04:04Who would have thunk it that he would have been an upgrade from Brian Kelly, who left
04:08that program in a lurch and said that Notre Dame will never win a national title.
04:13And he went to Baton Rouge, the same place that Lane Kiffin is at, and now he's elevated
04:19Notre Dame, where a lot of people believe that Notre Dame has the talent this year to finally
04:23win a national title for the first time since 1988.
04:27It pains me to say this.
04:30It does.
04:31It pains me.
04:31That football program is a great program again.
04:35That program looks like it's back to being where it used to be back in the 70s and in
04:42the 80s with Lou Holtz.
04:44There looks like there's players that want to play again at Notre Dame.
04:48Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish look like the Parsegian Fighting Irish, not the Brian Kelly
04:55Fighting Irish.
04:56Brian Kelly has the most wins of all coaches in Notre Dame history.
05:01But you know what he doesn't have?
05:02He doesn't have the hardware that a Leahy or that a Parsegian or a Rockne go down the
05:09list of the greatest coaches in Notre Dame history.
05:12And if Marcus Freeman could do that, what an absolute feather in his cap that he would
05:18have upgraded from Brian Kelly and put that program back into the national power structure
05:24in this country.
05:26I don't like Notre Dame, but I do love Marcus Freeman.
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