00:00It's Miami-Notre Dame, John, on Saturday.
00:03This is a huge game.
00:05Number one Miami is 8-0.
00:07Notre Dame is 7-1.
00:09This is a big game here, obviously, for college football playoff rankings.
00:16It's a 2025 rematch.
00:18Miami won the opener, 27-24.
00:21So, listen, Miami is one of three unbeatens left.
00:25Malachi Tony, though, this is a big story that's kind of going under the radar.
00:30Malachi Tony is having ankle surgery, and he's out indefinitely.
00:33So, that is a big loss for them.
00:35But in any case, John, this is one of the biggest matchups of the year.
00:40What do you got on it?
00:42As much as I hate to say this, these words have never wanted to come out of my mouth,
00:45but I like Notre Dame.
00:47Oh!
00:48Is it because of the Tony thing?
00:50It's only because of the Tony thing.
00:52I think sometimes when you lose a dynamic wide receiver
00:58and people expect for these other guys to just pick it up,
01:02well, they're open because Malachi Tony is doing his thing,
01:04and he's getting double covered, or they're putting somebody over the top,
01:07or there's safety help.
01:09You game plan to stop him.
01:10Now he's off the field.
01:12Marcus Freeman is a damn good coach.
01:14And Notre Dame this particular year, they're a good football team.
01:18Now, they ain't played nobody.
01:19But they're a good football team.
01:20They got hosed by BYU,
01:22and this is their first time back on the major stage this season after that.
01:26So they're going to be tuned up and ready to go.
01:28And I just think with this Malachi Tony injury,
01:31I think that is going to kneecap the offense.
01:34Yes, they have other good players,
01:36but those other good players ain't him.
01:39He opens it up for the rest of these guys.
01:41And so now the attention is going to be fully focused on these other guys.
01:45Yeah, they're okay at tight end.
01:46Yeah, they're okay at wide receiver.
01:47The guys that they got in from the transfer portal,
01:49they led the other team they came from in receivers,
01:52but they were still behind Malachi Tony.
01:55And that's my whole point.
01:57So I like Notre Dame for that specific reason,
02:01and that specific reason only.
02:02He's the main staple, and they're removing that staple.
02:05So now you're expecting guys to step up in a stage
02:08where they've never had to step up for Miami.
02:11And the thing is with Notre Dame, a lot of people say this, John,
02:15is that Notre Dame, they have such a weak schedule to that.
02:19They essentially have to win these big games.
02:22They lost to BYU, obviously, in that thriller at BYU at 28-24.
02:28And now they're playing a Miami team that's obviously looking like the best team in the nation so far.
02:33So they don't have any room for error like the Alabamas, like we were talking about,
02:39or the Georgias, right, where you're playing top 10, top 15, top 20 teams,
02:43basically every week down the stretch.
02:45So if you lose one, oh, you'll go back to 10th, or you'll go back to 12th.
02:49It's like Texas.
02:50Everyone thought Texas was out of it.
02:51Now they're winning again, and they're starting to get themselves back into at least the conversation.
02:56But for Notre Dame, I feel like it's just every year it's going to be like this.
03:00But do you always buy into that, or it's like,
03:03I don't believe in Notre Dame because they never play anybody,
03:06or is this just a good football program that we should probably just respect anyways?
03:11It's, you know what, that's a very tough question when it comes to Notre Dame.
03:15I think this particular iteration of them, I think this is a good football team.
03:19I think most of the time, eight out of 10 times, it's just hype.
03:23Eight out of 10 times, it is schedule.
03:26Eight out of 10 times, it's people giving them due that they don't deserve.
03:32This particular year, I think this is a good team.
03:35I think this is a very good Notre Dame team.
03:37But they always put themselves behind the eight ball when you only play two ranked teams a year.
03:43When USC told them, nah, we good, bro, because y'all don't want to do it on our terms,
03:47that was it for them.
03:49Once that came off their schedule, now they're looking around trying to play somebody.
03:52And this Miami game might be the last big game that they play all year long.
03:57And so if I'm the committee, the committee is always going to get them in.
04:02This is why they went to, I think it was 12-team playoffs,
04:04because Notre Dame got shut out last time.
04:07And so this idea that they're not going to be in,
04:10the committee will find a way to put them in because people travel for them
04:14and people watch them.
04:15And at the end of the day, it's still a business, believe it or not.
04:18And so I expect for Notre Dame to get in,
04:21but to get in off of merit this year and not off of name.
04:25Do you think that's fair, though?
04:28Do you think that's right?
04:30Like, come on.
04:31We both know that they don't play, and we were just talking about it,
04:34they don't play the competition of some of these other teams that are in the top 12.
04:38And just because it's Notre Dame, we're going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
04:43And there's probably other teams that are deserving of it.
04:45I mean, I remember, what was it?
04:47I don't even know if it was last year or the year before.
04:49Alabama got in, and everybody was disgusted over that
04:52because they had two losses, and it's like they shouldn't have been there.
04:54But they gave it to them based on, I think, merit and their name
04:57and, like, who they are, right?
04:59So I don't know.
05:01I think a loss here – listen, they would have lost to BYU and Miami,
05:06both teams that they're probably the two best teams on their schedule.
05:10And I wouldn't believe in them to be a playoff team.
05:13I would say this.
05:14If they lose to Miami, they're cooked.
05:17They're cooked.
05:18They're cooked.
05:19But –
05:19They're getting in if they win, obviously, for sure.
05:22In the event that they don't win, watch the committee find a way
05:27to put them in as a two-loss team.
05:29I'm telling you right now.
