Irish Illustrated Insider: Notre Dame football’s defensive dominance over Rice, CJ Carr’s rise and the running-game debate

Tim O'Malley (0:03)

Welcome to the Irish Illustrated Insider. It is Monday, September 14th. I'm Tim O'Malley joined by Tim Prister, Andrew Mentock of Irish Illustrated. Notre Dame is 2-0 as predicted. Just finished with Marcus Freeman. Had a whole lot going on in that press conference, which is what you would expect when Notre Dame beats Rice 52 to nothing. Michigan State comes in for the Megaphone Trophy. That is one of the few trophies I know the name of. I know there's a couple of Shillelies out there as well, but I think Marcus Freeman has a bit of a challenge on his hand in that Tim Prister, before we get into Rice, Michigan State has a bit of a one-way rivalry going here. Max Bulle and Pat Pisterald will have them frothing at the mouth.

And it's hard for Notre Dame to be frothing at the mouth. It's 30-point favorites.

Tim Prister (0:40)

Yeah. The number seems a little high to me right now, but what do you always say, Tim, about big buildings in Las Vegas?

Tim O'Malley (0:48)

Big buildings for a reason. We are that reason.

Tim Prister (0:51)

No, it's true.

But I don't think Michigan State is terrible by any means. They played Toledo, they were losing late and then they did what they had to do in the fourth quarter. Then this past week, they pretty much had their way with Eastern Michigan, although it was a 14-7 game at halftime. Obviously, Vegas knows what they're talking about.

I will get it out of the way now, Cam Edwards. I really like that running back. I said that this summer when coming from UConn and Alessio Milovojevic. I think that's how you say his name. The quarterback is a gunslinger. I mean, he's a guy that's going to go back there and sling it with some length, and he's pretty good at it. He's got some receivers, including KK Smith, who made a diving grab against, which game was that, against Toledo. Then, Marcus Freeman said today, they'll get their linebacker back, and he is very good. Jordan Hall. I had him on the all-opponent team. I'm not sure if it was second or third team, but he's pretty good. They've got a couple of defensive ends. Kenny Soares Jr. can put some pressure. Notre Dame's defensive, I'm sorry, offensive tackles will get a bit of a challenge this week.

Tim O'Malley (2:00)

Your Michigan State might not be terrible, but Rice is. And we're going to switch back to Rice and the press conference. I think the best news from it, nobody injured. No one knew injured. Everybody that's out is still out. And Kingston Villa Amoasu came out unscathed and probably the best defensive player in the football game as well.

Andrew Mentock (2:15)

Yeah. I mean, he looked great. I think there's a little worry he got during that penalty from the Rice offensive line.

And it seemed like he was shaking his knee after, but continued to play the rest of the game. Obviously, it's almost probably good a little bit for him just to feel that contact there and then play through it and regain his confidence. And we saw him just flying all over the field. And I agree, after losing two starters in week one, on defense, going against a triple option, I think there's some concern that those injuries could start piling up. But as I think we all pointed out, the Press Box Rice's triple option isn't like facing Navy's triple option. So good thing there weren't any issues there. And yeah, Notre Dame ruled, obviously, as the winner of the game and got in a ton of backups. And really, that game went how you wanted it to go, where CJ Carr is out of the game after the first drive of the third quarter. They're up 49-0. Like that's what you want to see from the number three team in the country.

Tim O'Malley (3:09)

Yeah. Pretty soon before we get into the nitty gritty, there's a great question from CMU PennSpan. I thought about it during the game. He asked, was the Schuyler hit in Triority TD the fastest? Yep. This game is over moment you have had in the press box.

That was 16 seconds in. You know, there's...

Tim Prister (3:24)

Yeah. If I didn't feel it then, I felt it after the third fumble on seven snaps.

They did. Notre Dame recovered two of them, but they had three fumbles on their first seven snaps. That's when we knew. And Drew, what was Drew's line about triple option and Notre Dame preparing for Navy?

Tim O'Malley (3:41)

They still haven't seen triple option yet. That's fantastic. Well, they stifled whatever option was going on with Rice. They took away Rice's options. That run defense just played a great game. I mean, obviously Rice is overmatched, but they run the football usually a little bit on people. There was nothing there in the running game. The best run they had was fumbled. Back to Notre Dame.