Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal home that for me. I'm
Speaker 1: a man, I'm for it.
Speaker 2: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
Speaker 2: be happy. You want to be happy for a day?
Speaker 2: Edith state is that woo woom?
Speaker 3: And Dan and Tye welcome back to the solid verbal
Speaker 3: boys and girls. My name is ty Hildebrandt, joining me
Speaker 3: as always way over there, though not as far as before.
Speaker 3: The one and only Dan Rubinstein, sir, how you doing? Man?
Speaker 1: Good?
Speaker 2: I am unsure about when I will actually have all
Speaker 2: of my normal goods and wares because I have now
Speaker 2: been away from Brooklyn for going on almost four months.
Speaker 2: But no, I am now on Central time. I am
Speaker 2: now on Central time. We have made our way to
Speaker 2: the suburbs of Chicago. Would not have gotten on a
Speaker 2: plane if there weren't family circumstances to attend to. So
Speaker 2: everything is cool. I will just say we're out here
Speaker 2: and we're comfortable, and everybody's good, and I would say
Speaker 2: we'll be here for Do you know what a ray is?
Speaker 2: In geometry?
Speaker 1: Tie? Hooray.
Speaker 3: I've heard ray, but geometry was not my strongest. Strongest
Speaker 3: math line is point to point, ray is open ended
Speaker 3: point to something else. So not exactly sure how long
Speaker 3: we'll be in the suburbs of Chicago, but here we are,
Speaker 3: and everybody's cool. So I'm dealing with some family circumstances
Speaker 3: that you know, everybody, everybody deals with.
Speaker 2: It's not uncommon. Hopefully everything turns out all right. But
Speaker 2: this is where I and Jody with and I and
Speaker 2: the solid toddler are now residing tie. So what better day,
Speaker 2: what better change, than to hop on a show to
Speaker 2: discuss north central Indiana private parochial football, Right.
Speaker 1: I believe that's correct.
Speaker 3: So, as you might have gathered from the title of
Speaker 3: the show, we are talking a little bit of Notre
Speaker 3: Dame with our good friend Pete Sampson, longtime friend of
Speaker 3: the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, gold standard, best of the best, love Pete.
Speaker 3: Pete's over at the Athletic. He does a great job
Speaker 3: keeping track of the Irish or read him all the time,
Speaker 3: and he actually, as luck would have it, you know,
Speaker 3: like this week where we're having news breaking, important news breaking.
Speaker 3: Right before we hit record, right before I connect it
Speaker 3: up with Pete, he drops an article a one on
Speaker 3: one interview he did with Brian Kelly, so we had
Speaker 3: a chance to get into that talk about some of
Speaker 3: the scheduling conundrum, stuff going on with Notre Dame, and
Speaker 3: more specifically the internet memes about Notre Dame being canceled
Speaker 3: this coming fall semester. So we'll get into all that
Speaker 3: and much much more in the meantime.
Speaker 1: Daniel, it is good to hear your voice. I hope
Speaker 1: all this well.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for hopping on with me to
Speaker 3: help lay the groundwork for the show with Pete. If
Speaker 3: you like the show, don't forget to subscribe. You can
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Speaker 3: but we got big plans for it. We're excited to
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Speaker 3: it's easy. Just give us your email or not going
Speaker 3: to spam me. It's just going to be the newsletter
Speaker 3: of intent pending some you know, some things on our
Speaker 3: end that we're still working through.
Speaker 2: And also we should mention if if you think Tai
Speaker 2: is a good guy, you're you're totally wrong.
Speaker 1: He's a great guy.
Speaker 2: If you send him one hundred dollars, he's going to
Speaker 2: send you back two hundred dollars via bitcoin.
Speaker 1: Is that correct? That's exactly correct?
Speaker 2: Is that what happened yesterday? I was traveling and I
Speaker 2: saw that Twitter was shut down or not Twitter, but
Speaker 2: I guess confirmed verified accounts because they were hacked and
Speaker 2: asked people to send them bitcoin. Is that what happened?
Speaker 1: That is what happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh god, the world's ending. Okay, the world is ending.
Speaker 2: It's possible. It is possible. It's always possible. Don' want
Speaker 2: to rule anything out? Shall we get to news I
Speaker 2: would love to.
Speaker 1: Break? I guess it's not so breaking news yes time.
Speaker 3: Oh god, not that voice again, davorit. It killed me,
Speaker 3: killed me on the last show.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: The NCAA has issued extended guidelines to help navigate the
Speaker 3: return to fall sports amid the pandemic. The guidelines released
Speaker 3: on Thursday, testing strategies for all athletics activities including preseason,
Speaker 3: regular season, and postseason, along with daily self health checks,
Speaker 3: the use of phase coverings, and social distancing during training, competition,
Speaker 3: and outside of athletics. Mark Emmert releases that document, but
Speaker 3: at the same time acknowledges that the virus is trending
Speaker 3: in the wrong direction. Some of the data points we've seen,
Speaker 3: especially in some of our most football crazed states, they're
Speaker 3: having a hard time with it right now. So nice
Speaker 3: of the NCAA to send this out. No doubt, there
Speaker 3: are still many challenges ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've talked about the fact that they're just we
Speaker 2: need to get as close to universal protocols as possible,
Speaker 2: be it on the conference level, be it on some
Speaker 2: sort of Power five agreement level FBS agreement level NCAA
Speaker 2: which does not necessarily govern competition with FBS football. Rather
Speaker 2: than enforce some basic rules, there needs to be some
Speaker 2: sort of protocol guidance. The problem, as always is nobody
Speaker 2: fully knows what's best. So it's good that the nc
Speaker 2: DOUBLEA is sort of figuring out the best they can do,
Speaker 2: and the best that they can think of that makes
Speaker 2: sense for their member institutions. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: everything needs to be taken with a bit of a
Speaker 2: shrug because every day we learn more and have to
Speaker 2: adjust to different things. So good to hear. I remain
Speaker 2: confident that this season is not going to be anything
Speaker 2: if at all. If it happens, but it's not gonna
Speaker 2: be anything like we're used to. If it's even attempted.
Speaker 3: There will be a huge quirk, as we said time
Speaker 3: and again, and furthermore, if and when this system changes,
Speaker 3: at least if it's you know, if only for one season,
Speaker 3: It's not going to be the NCUBLEA that decides to
Speaker 3: change it. It's going to be the member institutions. It's
Speaker 3: going to be the challenges that local municipalities are facing.
Speaker 3: It's going to be driven by local, state and our
Speaker 3: leadership at the federal level. That's what it's going to
Speaker 3: amount to. So a lot remains to be seen. It
Speaker 3: is nice, as you said, that they took the step,
Speaker 3: but I think there are huge challenges ahead. I did
Speaker 3: see that the AAC, the American Athletic Conference, they're going
Speaker 3: to require mandatory coronavirus testing for all football teams at
Speaker 3: least seventy two hours before each game. They also announced
Speaker 3: that on Thursday you go on to read the article
Speaker 3: here their commissioner basically saying, we know this is coming.
Speaker 3: We want to try and get out in front of
Speaker 3: the power five before maybe they make similar announcements. We
Speaker 3: sort of want to be on the level and establish
Speaker 3: that protocol. The protocol, as we'll talk about in my
Speaker 3: interview with Pete a little bit later, and as we've
Speaker 3: alluded to time and again on this show, that protocol.
Speaker 3: The closer we can get to some standardized version of that,
Speaker 3: there's never going to be a bubble like there is
Speaker 3: in the NBA in college football, but if we can
Speaker 3: get some standard guys protocol related to testing, that would
Speaker 3: that that would solve at least a long way some
Speaker 3: of the problem.
Speaker 1: Right, sure?
Speaker 2: Can I can I put you totally on the spot
Speaker 2: for a question that you there is no right answer
Speaker 2: that you're definitely not gonna be able to answer correctly,
Speaker 2: but I'm still gonna ask it, please, Okay. One of
Speaker 2: the terms you mentioned was it's not going to come
Speaker 2: down to like the NCAA mandating yes or no. It's
Speaker 2: going to be sort of a member institution than conference.
Speaker 2: It's going to be on a bunch of different levels
Speaker 2: that that's going to affect change.
Speaker 1: Is there a.
Speaker 2: Specific school or a level of school in terms of
Speaker 2: college football hierarchy if that matters, or importance or cachet whatever.
Speaker 2: Is there a school that if they say, we're just
Speaker 2: not doing this, like we had the Ivy League, we
Speaker 2: had the Patriot League. I know you're gonna mention that.
Speaker 2: I think it's the MEAC, the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference.
Speaker 2: We've had conferences sort of cancel fall sports and say, well,
Speaker 2: see what happens in the spring. We'll see what the
Speaker 2: world looks like in the spring. Is there a level
Speaker 2: of school that's that if they say, you know, this
Speaker 2: testing that we're doing, it's just not enough. We're not
Speaker 2: getting good results. We're not putting our student athletes, you know,
Speaker 2: at risk because we know we can't really control things
Speaker 2: to a level that we can. Is it is it
Speaker 2: Texas saying it? Or Georgia saying or Alabama or USC
Speaker 2: is it? You know if a is it Houston? Is
Speaker 2: it Memphis? Is it Boise State? If Boise State says
Speaker 2: this ain't it? This just ain't it we're not it's
Speaker 2: not worth the risk. What level of school carries that
Speaker 2: weight that you're going to see immediate dominoes across the sport.
Speaker 3: Well, Benny, what's interesting about this is that I think
Speaker 3: there's both a trickle down and trickle up effect. We
Speaker 3: talked about the trickle up effect with the IVY League,
Speaker 3: and as the IVY League made some of its announcements,
Speaker 3: as Nicole and Bruce and others at the Athletic wisely
Speaker 3: noted there there were dominoes that fell after that IVY
Speaker 3: League announcement.
Speaker 1: So one thing that we brought up in the.
Speaker 3: Interview, and we'll talk about this more with with Pete
Speaker 3: Sampson again from the Athletic, But.
Speaker 2: That's dominoes of non conference dominoes a non conference, but
Speaker 2: just dominoes in general. Right for sure.
Speaker 3: You know, Pete and I talk about the size of
Speaker 3: Notre Dame and Notre Dame by comparisons a small school.
Speaker 3: If they can't do it, clearly they are a notable institution,
Speaker 3: a blue blood institution, and if they're unable to get
Speaker 3: it controlled within their smaller space, that that could be
Speaker 3: a harbinger of things to come for bigger schools. Totally
Speaker 3: to your direct question, though, I think if an Ohio
Speaker 3: state or Texas rule it out, that's a big deal.
Speaker 3: Those are very very rich athletic.
Speaker 2: Because they have but they have the resources, is what
Speaker 2: you're saying. They have the resources, yeah, right to enact
Speaker 2: harsh safety protocols. They can basically afford to do whatever
Speaker 2: they want. And if they can't get it under control
Speaker 2: at bigger state institutions, that's a problem.
Speaker 3: That's a problem. I think that would be the worst
Speaker 3: sign that this is not going to go off, either
Speaker 3: in the fall or in the spring whenever. I you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know, but certainly a school of that magnitude
Speaker 3: that has deep pockets, if they can't pull it off,
Speaker 3: there's a real problem.
Speaker 2: What about And I know that they're sort of in
Speaker 2: the news as well. The American Conference, the AAC says,
Speaker 2: we don't have a unifying confidence that we can get
Speaker 2: things together to keep our kids safe enough. We know
Speaker 2: we're going to take an enormous financial hit, but morally
Speaker 2: we just we can't do it. We just can't do it.
Speaker 2: And you know, all the ads and whoever else presidents
Speaker 2: of these schools all agree. What does that do you
Speaker 2: don't have a correct answer, because nobody does. But do
Speaker 2: you think that it obviously has to carry significantly more
Speaker 2: weight than the IVY or Patriot League share Patriot League,
Speaker 2: who we love. I think it's probably inevitable at this point.
Speaker 2: I think they're trying to put it off as long
Speaker 2: as they can m M. And I do think it
Speaker 2: would have an effect. These are more games that teams
Speaker 2: who haven't already called off non conference games can't play, right,
Speaker 2: So eventually you run out of teams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if the challenges are just too great to overcome,
Speaker 3: and if you're stuck playing your own conference, not always
Speaker 3: bad thing.
Speaker 2: Stuck Wow. I don't know who that comment was directed at.
Speaker 3: Okay, but LIKECC, that's a significant challenge, especially if you
Speaker 3: have schools within your conference that may be unable to
Speaker 3: field a team for one reason or another. So I
Speaker 3: just for sure the pool of available teams is growing
Speaker 3: shallow we'er by the second and the more announcements that
Speaker 3: come out. Now the AAC is not there yet, they
Speaker 3: could get there soon. For now, it's just a mandatory
Speaker 3: seventy two hour testing protocol. But now I think each
Speaker 3: one of these contributes and eventually will probably get to
Speaker 3: a point where someone serves as a strawbreaking the Campbell's back.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I can't even Oh, I can't even imagine
Speaker 2: what sort of that that scenario playing out looks like.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm thinking about college football teams in a
Speaker 2: bubble like what the NBA MLS to a lesser degree,
Speaker 2: MLB is doing. Yeah, how much it must cost to
Speaker 2: put one hundred, one hundred and twenty one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty people in a bubble, even if they're a few
Speaker 2: read different regional bubbles. The NBA is spending what one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty million or something crazy like that in Orlando,
Speaker 2: and there they have positive tests and complications things like that.
Speaker 2: I couldn't even imagine what it would cost to do
Speaker 2: that with football, and I don't I don't know. Does
Speaker 2: the NFL's not doing that right? No, they're just already
Speaker 2: hoping for the best. That's their best mechanism. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: there's just there's no good answer. As much as member
Speaker 2: institutions and the NCAA and conferences are trying, I feel
Speaker 2: for them, and I feel for you Ti.
Speaker 1: Thanks. Yeah.
Speaker 3: The Mid Eastern Athletic Conference has suspended all fall sports
Speaker 3: indefinitely because of the pandemic. They have yet to determine
Speaker 3: whether or not they're going to try and move the
Speaker 3: season to the twenty twenty one spring semester.
Speaker 1: That's the MEAC.
Speaker 3: That's teams like North Carolina A and T. Bethune, Cookman
Speaker 3: Florida A, and M. Howard Morgan State. There's a whole
Speaker 3: bunch of historically black institutions part of the BAX, So
Speaker 3: hopefully they get to play football at some point in
Speaker 3: the academic year. Would love to see them play in
Speaker 3: the spring if at all possible, but for now they've
Speaker 3: made the decision that not going to try and give
Speaker 3: it a go in the fall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, always crazy bum to hear about things like this,
Speaker 2: but glad they're enough out in front of this that
Speaker 2: hopefully they're figuring out contingency plans for a potential delayed
Speaker 2: season in late winter spring with with safety protocols in place.
Speaker 2: If the world and the country isn't a better place.
Speaker 3: Other news here, Dan, Perhaps we should have expected this,
Speaker 3: but the NCAA has ruled that Bowl eligibility for this
Speaker 3: season only can be a little bit different. They approved
Speaker 3: a blanket waiver request for only this season. It allows
Speaker 3: all FBS teams to count two games, count them one
Speaker 3: two against FCS opponents that average at least eighty percent
Speaker 3: of the maximum amount of football scholarships during a two
Speaker 3: year periods.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of words there.
Speaker 3: All you need to know is that previously they only
Speaker 3: allowed FBS teams to count one game against an FCS opponent,
Speaker 3: and that opponent had to average ninety percent of the
Speaker 3: maximum allowable football scholarships during a two year span. So again,
Speaker 3: more words, but one versus two and eighty percent versus
Speaker 3: ninety percent.
Speaker 1: All I need to know.
Speaker 2: I'm not right now in mid July anticipating a twenty
Speaker 2: twenty Mayo Bowl.
Speaker 3: I'm not the male bull takes the brunt man. They
Speaker 3: are taking the brunt here on this show.
Speaker 2: Well for a season, hopeful for some sort of season
Speaker 2: whatever it looks like. Not anticipating a male Bowl.
Speaker 3: Finally, the Senate Judiciary Committee going to hold a hearing
Speaker 3: on Wednesday to focus on integrity of college sports and athletes.
Speaker 3: Nil rights, nil of course standing for a name, image,
Speaker 3: and likeness.
Speaker 1: It's been in the news.
Speaker 3: We haven't had a lot to talk about around that topic,
Speaker 3: simply because the news has been so inundated with coronavirus
Speaker 3: and pandemic stuff.
Speaker 1: But this is a big deal.
Speaker 2: This is a huge.
Speaker 3: Red blinking light staring down the NCAA, staring down college
Speaker 3: athletics as we know it. At some point we'll probably
Speaker 3: put a show together and talk a lot more about
Speaker 3: it with people who actually know the subject matter through
Speaker 3: and through. But for the time being, this is definitely
Speaker 3: going to get some prominence on the federal level. It
Speaker 3: will not be the last that you hear of it,
Speaker 3: as some states like Florida and California have already passed
Speaker 3: legislation that would allow college athletes to profit off of
Speaker 3: their likeness as early as next summer in some cases.
Speaker 3: So keep your eyes on this subject. It is not
Speaker 3: going away, and it's a big deal.
Speaker 1: Ty.
Speaker 2: I just have a few words for any student athlete
Speaker 2: potentially trying to monetize his or her name, image, or likeness,
Speaker 2: and that is stay away from our sweet, sweet bombus
Speaker 2: sock cash.
Speaker 3: Those are all ours, all hours, All the socks belong
Speaker 3: to us.
Speaker 1: Don't you touch it. Don't touch it.
Speaker 3: That's all we got for news today. We'll be back
Speaker 3: again next week and talk about anything that happens over
Speaker 3: the weekend. If there is anything pertinent, please feel free
Speaker 3: again to send it to us out there on email
Speaker 3: soliverble at email dot com, or any one of the
Speaker 3: social channels I mentioned at the top of the show. Okay,
Speaker 3: So I did an interview while you were in transit
Speaker 3: yesterday with our good friend Pete Sampson. As I said
Speaker 3: at the top, he had just conducted an interview with
Speaker 3: Brian Kelly. Really good interview with Brian Kelly covered a
Speaker 3: lot of ground. It was good to catch up and
Speaker 3: talk Notre Dame. How Notre Dame fits into this current
Speaker 3: jigsaw puzzle we find ourselves in trying to understand how
Speaker 3: college football may work this fall and beyond.
Speaker 2: And you counted down all of your favorite Notre Dame
Speaker 2: playoff touchdowns, right.
Speaker 1: I did all of them.
Speaker 2: Okay, oh, I can't wait.
Speaker 1: All right, joining us now.
Speaker 3: It's been a while since we talked to him, but
Speaker 3: always a pleasure to welcome back Pete Sampson, the Notre
Speaker 3: Dame beat writer for the Athletic. Back to the show,
Speaker 3: mister Sampson, how you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing great, Like everyone else, just sort of hoping
Speaker 1: and praying the college football actually happens.
Speaker 2: What's your level of confidence that it does happen.
Speaker 1: This fall? Really low? This fall? Yeah? Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that it's going to be a spring season. And you know,
Speaker 1: I understand if you're a head coach that you're not
Speaker 1: talking up that possibility. I mean, you may say, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can make it work, but if you've got a
Speaker 1: roster that's training and working out, I don't think your
Speaker 1: first move is going to be like, yeah, guys, let's
Speaker 1: keep working hard. So we played this game in March,
Speaker 1: so you know, I get that, and I get if
Speaker 1: you're an ad you're not pushing for it. But man,
Speaker 1: it just you read sort of the Peak Family column
Speaker 1: from earlier this week, and that's it just seems like
Speaker 1: it once you get people to tell the truth, it
Speaker 1: gets pretty dark pretty fast.
Speaker 3: We've seen this very pessimistic shift in mindset over the
Speaker 3: last couple of weeks. And you know, like just a
Speaker 3: month ago, Dan and I were game planning how we
Speaker 3: were going to do our conference previews this year, and
Speaker 3: now I'm not sure if we're going to.
Speaker 1: Do them at all.
Speaker 3: I don't don't we don't know if it makes any
Speaker 3: danse to do them. I know you talked to Brian
Speaker 3: Kelly earlier today, and we'll get into that, I'm sure,
Speaker 3: But I know you also talked to a lot of
Speaker 3: folks around the Notre Dame program in college football, just
Speaker 3: being at the athletic But like, are you detecting any
Speaker 3: kind of optimistic swing in the other direction.
Speaker 1: I haven't heard it. And I think it's interesting because
Speaker 1: if you look at Notre Dame, and Notre Dame's not
Speaker 1: alone in this, but they've done about two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty COVID nineteen tests and they've had one positive. Like,
Speaker 1: if that was this, if that was sort of the
Speaker 1: normal everywhere, I think we'd have college football for sure.
Speaker 1: But it's not. And that doesn't even get to students
Speaker 1: getting it back on campus and what that's going to
Speaker 1: look like. So I everyone that sort of talks to
Speaker 1: you on background you feel that pessimism. There's a little
Speaker 1: bit more optimism when people are on the record and
Speaker 1: have their name attached to the quote. But I do
Speaker 1: think that there's a movement. Brian Kelly, I touched on
Speaker 1: this with him when I talked to him, is just
Speaker 1: like season, how would it work? And he talked about
Speaker 1: how in the ACC it's like Dave class and a
Speaker 1: wake for us was somehow in charge of modeling what
Speaker 1: a spring schedule was.
Speaker 3: How did Dave Cossa get that job.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean a pretty smart guy. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess I don't And Kelly was like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: like it. I can see how this could work, you know.
Speaker 1: I talked to Chuck Martin. He was at Notre Dame
Speaker 1: a while ago. It was at Miami, Ohio now, and
Speaker 1: he was he was just, I want to play in
Speaker 1: the spring. It was almost like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: play in the fall at all because things are so uncertain.
Speaker 1: So I think it would definitely work. And I think
Speaker 1: my sense is we're getting to the point where the
Speaker 1: question is becoming less do you want to play in
Speaker 1: the fall or do you want to play in the spring,
Speaker 1: and more, do you want to play in the spring
Speaker 1: or do you not want to play at all? In
Speaker 1: that scenario, you know everyone's going to choose spring conferences.
Speaker 3: Don't want to over commit and say that they are
Speaker 3: going to play in the spring, because if they make
Speaker 3: a commitment to playing in the spring and then there's
Speaker 3: no season and they feel like maybe they left a
Speaker 3: little meat on the bone. Like maybe they could have
Speaker 3: gotten a few games in in the fall and instead
Speaker 3: of pushing it off to spring so early, there there
Speaker 3: was still a chance. I mean, like, how do you
Speaker 3: feel about the spring season? You talk to a lot
Speaker 3: of these guys, Dan and I we've been talking about
Speaker 3: that possibility for months, and certainly from a fans perspective,
Speaker 3: it's unique, it's interesting. It probably means a lot of
Speaker 3: downloads for us, Like I want this to be conducted
Speaker 3: responsibly and safely, mind you, but it's interesting. I haven't
Speaker 3: read much of anyone, maybe outside of Lincoln Riley, and
Speaker 3: you know, a couple anecdotal quotes here and there from
Speaker 3: people who seem to be embracing the idea. Where where
Speaker 3: do you come down on it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we all would prefer the fall, right,
Speaker 1: but I don't think that's a as realistic an option
Speaker 1: as people want to make it out to be. You know,
Speaker 1: the spring drawback is the drawbacks that are advertised by
Speaker 1: people who don't want it, is you're going to have
Speaker 1: a bunch of players go pro I think that's just
Speaker 1: a cost of doing business in a spring season. That's
Speaker 1: you know, you're making the best of a bad situation.
Speaker 1: But I don't. I'm not in line at all with
Speaker 1: this notion that, oh, the players can't play two seasons
Speaker 1: in one calendar year, because I mean, we're talking about
Speaker 1: what a nine to ten game schedule. Is there really
Speaker 1: going to be two Duke's Male Bowls and one calendar year?
Speaker 1: Probably not? Yeah.
Speaker 3: And by the way, since when do the ones and
Speaker 3: needs of the player really matter in the college.
Speaker 1: Football There's that too, right, I mean, suddenly it's very important. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean not to be overly skeptical here, but since
Speaker 3: when is that a thing?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I just think that the players want to play.
Speaker 1: If you're playing twenty five games in a calendar year,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you can do that. These guys ultimately
Speaker 1: are going to go pro and play twenty games, twenty
Speaker 1: four games in one fall. So to me, I feel
Speaker 1: like it's realistic that you could play a two thirds
Speaker 1: three quarter season in the spring in a full regular
Speaker 1: season in the fall and not come. Ay, think in
Speaker 1: ban we really grown those players into the ground. Especially
Speaker 1: you know, if you've got your early en rollies, you
Speaker 1: maybe you get some relief on that in the spring
Speaker 1: season where you're going to have seven eight extra players
Speaker 1: on your roster. The n CAA gives you some leeway
Speaker 1: on the eighty five man limbit. I just think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of ways to work around it if that's
Speaker 1: your only option.
Speaker 3: I saw our friend Bruce Fellman wrote about the possibility
Speaker 3: of guys sitting out of spring season for fear of
Speaker 3: hurting their draft stock, and I know you've written about
Speaker 3: it too. Now you use ian Book as an example,
Speaker 3: which we could talk about that later, but it's a
Speaker 3: valid point, and from the Notre Dame perspective, I know
Speaker 3: there are a lot of guys, especially along the lines
Speaker 3: where I think you discussed the potential issue for the Irish,
Speaker 3: But how do you see it affecting a team like
Speaker 3: Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: You know, think it would be a negative most games,
Speaker 1: but a positive in games against Clemson or USC if
Speaker 1: you got to play that one. You know, the idea
Speaker 1: of Ian Book not playing would be pretty devastating. Whether
Speaker 1: you think he's a fifth round pick or a first
Speaker 1: round pick or an undrafted free agent. But that has
Speaker 1: more to do with what's not behind him. Would Leam
Speaker 1: Mikenberg their left tackle, or Robert Haynesy the right tackle
Speaker 1: not play? I don't know. That's that's kind of a
Speaker 1: that's a question I would like to ask them, but
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think like not Rames roster as
Speaker 1: it's currently engineered, is it does not have a lot
Speaker 1: of high draft picks on it after this After this year,
Speaker 1: you know, if this was a year from now, woul
Speaker 1: Kyle Hamilton play, absolutely not. But he's got two years Togo.
Speaker 1: So your Notre Dame is their names stuck with him?
Speaker 3: Does he in book think he's higher than like a
Speaker 3: fifth round pick.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. I I don't think. I think
Speaker 1: that he does. That doesn't mean that he will be.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like his decision to come back was
Speaker 1: roughly forty eight hours after the bowl game last year.
Speaker 1: So it's not a situation where I think that he
Speaker 1: sweated it out and was waiting on draft feedback. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's got to get a lot better. So he's one
Speaker 1: of those guys where playing and showing that you've improved
Speaker 1: as a quarterback I think would be worth significant dollars
Speaker 1: to him to come back.
Speaker 3: Shortly before we connected up, you did post a one
Speaker 3: on one interview with Brian Kelly out on the Athletic
Speaker 3: A really wide ranging interview. You covered a lot of ground,
Speaker 3: from testing protocols to flex scheduling to this notion of
Speaker 3: spring football, et cetera, et cetera. I'm most encouraged by
Speaker 3: what seems like an upbeat tone there. Now you touched
Speaker 3: on that a little bit. Was that palpable that upbeat tone?
Speaker 3: Or was I reading a little too much into it?
Speaker 3: Do you think it was real? Is it just because
Speaker 3: his name was associated with these quotes like where what?
Speaker 1: Where's your BS meter? On? That? He is? He is
Speaker 1: an optimist in PR terms in most of those media settings,
Speaker 1: So I think you adjust the dial a little bit
Speaker 1: on that. However, if they've done two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: tests and had one positive, I think they do the
Speaker 1: next round. Their next round of results probably will come
Speaker 1: out this weekend. If they're still sitting there at one
Speaker 1: or two positives and they survived the July fourth weekend,
Speaker 1: when players maybe are getting a little bit more loose,
Speaker 1: I think they'll fill rocop it. Then you just got
Speaker 1: to survive what happens when students come back, and you
Speaker 1: know how Notre name manages that. I mean, overall, if
Speaker 1: Notre Dame can't manage it, this I don't think anybody
Speaker 1: can manage it because we're talking about a campus of
Speaker 1: twelve thousand, not fifty thousand. I think as Notreame's administration
Speaker 1: would help, likeme's doing spying by and large, with their
Speaker 1: their Catholic up bringing, they follow the rules. So if they,
Speaker 1: if Notreame cannot make this work, it's uh, we're in
Speaker 1: dire streets. I think on a national level.
Speaker 3: Were there any surprises for you in talking to Brian Kelly,
Speaker 3: any of his answers surprise you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if anything really took me back. Just
Speaker 1: based on having covered him for now going on eleven years,
Speaker 1: I thought that he is one to put himself out there,
Speaker 1: like I didn't think that he's necessarly going to tell
Speaker 1: me about the acc Springs scheduling model. I sort of
Speaker 1: floated the idea of Notarame playing Alabama somehow, and his
Speaker 1: eyes got real big when I said that. But I
Speaker 1: do think that, you know, his quote about our phones
Speaker 1: ringing off the hook with scheduling was significant because that
Speaker 1: was that was one of those storylines as soon as
Speaker 1: the PAC twelve and Big ten one conference, only who's
Speaker 1: gonna play? They're gonna get left out. I think they would.
Speaker 1: They could find thirty teams to play them and not
Speaker 1: break a sweat. So I don't think that that that
Speaker 1: fear that a lot of interne fans had maybe a
Speaker 1: week ago, is all that justified or has a whole
Speaker 1: lot of weight to it.
Speaker 3: Well, that that was actually gonna be my next question.
Speaker 3: So we're recording this, it's mid July. As of now,
Speaker 3: the games against Wisconsin, Stanford, and USC have been canceled,
Speaker 3: and it does seem like a bit of a foregone
Speaker 3: conclusion that other conferences are going to go the same direction.
Speaker 3: The internet has had a lot of fun with this,
Speaker 3: right and you've seen the memes. I appreciate the what
Speaker 3: is it the confused John travolt To meme around Notre
Speaker 3: Dame and they're gonna be left out and the season
Speaker 3: is going to be canceled for them and all that.
Speaker 3: But you seem to indicate, and I'm with you, that
Speaker 3: this is not at all grounded in reality. It's a
Speaker 3: fun internet storyline. Ultimately, if they've got to fill out
Speaker 3: a schedule, they're going to find a way to figure
Speaker 3: out a schedule.
Speaker 1: Yeah, at the end, for how much posturing there is
Speaker 1: in college football, and we love that the dramatic effect
Speaker 1: that the ads and coaches have. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: money to be made off Notre Dame if you're playing them,
Speaker 1: and right now, you really want to make that money.
Speaker 1: So I just think that, you know, whether it's an
Speaker 1: ACC or it's another SEC school, or maybe it's a
Speaker 1: Big twelve school, they're going to find a way to
Speaker 1: get Notre Dame in there, and because it just is
Speaker 1: good for their bottom line. I think if Notre Dame
Speaker 1: is if Notre Dame gets word from the ACC, is
Speaker 1: that says, hey, we're going to give you Miami Florida
Speaker 1: State and let's start Boston College in there for a
Speaker 1: filled your COVID narrative story. Yeah, let's do it. Not name,
Speaker 1: it's just going to be like, okay, cool, we'll take
Speaker 1: those extra three. We've still got Arkansas, Navy, and Western Michigan.
Speaker 1: That's our schedule. Let's let's make it work. So I
Speaker 1: ain't going to names in a fine spot. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's when those Pack twelve and the Big ten start
Speaker 1: pulling out like, oh, who are you going to play?
Speaker 1: It's like, oh right, everyone wants to play Notre Dame.
Speaker 3: Sure, Yeah, is there like a target that they've got
Speaker 3: in mind, like ten games and that that would be
Speaker 3: okay financially, or is it six games just an acc schedule?
Speaker 3: Is it as many as possible because this is football
Speaker 3: and obviously, like, where have you heard any numbers like
Speaker 3: that thrown out?
Speaker 1: I believe the target's going to be something closer to ten.
Speaker 1: I don't think that they have any intention to play
Speaker 1: twelve because whether it's conference only or they're mixing and matching,
Speaker 1: the same principles apply that are working with the Big,
Speaker 1: the Big ten, the PAC twelve is you want some flexibility,
Speaker 1: I have to start and stop that the entire season
Speaker 1: doesn't get wrecked by that. So I my hunches they're
Speaker 1: shooting for about a ten game schedule based on people
Speaker 1: I've talked to.
Speaker 3: One interesting angle that Dan and I have talked about
Speaker 3: on the show is it would seemingly benefit a situation
Speaker 3: like Notre Dame has, frankly, where you've got a lot
Speaker 3: of veteran leadership, and I wonder if you've had a
Speaker 3: chance to talk to Brian Kelly or anyone around the
Speaker 3: program around how Notre Dame might come out of this
Speaker 3: if they do end up playing any football. Do you
Speaker 3: think there is any kind of tangible benefit just with
Speaker 3: the way the roster is constructed, knowing they've got that leadership.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's there could be a lot worse situations than
Speaker 1: the one Notre Dame is in. You got five starters
Speaker 1: back on your offensive line, third year starting quarterback, defensive
Speaker 1: coordinator in year three Reese Tommy Reese the new OC
Speaker 1: but has been here for a while, knows the personnel.
Speaker 1: You know on Brian Kelly the year eleven. It's I'm
Speaker 1: sure there are some teams that have come out better
Speaker 1: than this. Like I would prefer to be Clemson because
Speaker 1: you'd have Trevor Lawrence. But maybe yeah, just I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say definitely, ty Okay, I just think that if you're
Speaker 1: Notre Dame, you feel like, all right, we've got a
Speaker 1: puncher's chance in this, Like we don't have a major
Speaker 1: hurdle to overcome it. I mean, even the starters that
Speaker 1: they're replacing on defense, there's a good chance they're going
Speaker 1: to replace them with two grad transfers, one from Menci State,
Speaker 1: one from Ohio State. So if you're plugging in new
Speaker 1: starters who actually have started twenty thirty games, somewhere else.
Speaker 1: That's not a bad place to be either. So I
Speaker 1: think Notre Dame's roster is very, very old, and it's
Speaker 1: coaching staff is stable. That would be good any season,
Speaker 1: but particularly with this offseason.
Speaker 3: Two the areas that I know I've looked at, just
Speaker 3: in checking out the roster and the way it's constructed
Speaker 3: and certainly reading smart people such as yourself. The secondary
Speaker 3: is a bit of a concern. Kyle Hamilton can't play
Speaker 3: all the positions, so that's top of mind, and also
Speaker 3: the skill positions. They lose a lot at the receiving position.
Speaker 3: A little bit of question around who's running the rock
Speaker 3: this year. What does Reese do on offense that looks different,
Speaker 3: if at all, from what we saw under chip Long.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to be all that different.
Speaker 1: I do think Chip Loong's offense was a lot more
Speaker 1: boom or bust like they and he was sort of
Speaker 1: content to take stuffs, you know, get the read option stuff,
Speaker 1: and it's Tony Jones for one yard, Jeff Armstrong for
Speaker 1: two yards, and then it would be Brad Lindsay for
Speaker 1: fifty yards on a jet sweep. So they're I think
Speaker 1: they need to be a lot more consistent than that.
Speaker 1: How Reese manages that, you know, does he do less
Speaker 1: read option stuff or is it? Is it different? I'm
Speaker 1: not really sure because we've only seen one game of it.
Speaker 1: But you can have your line back and your quarterback back.
Speaker 1: But I think they're running back talent is pretty low
Speaker 1: compared to other playoff contenders, and they turn over basically
Speaker 1: their entire receiver depth chart, so's there's a bit of
Speaker 1: rebuilding on the outside. How that impacts how we judge
Speaker 1: him Book, I don't know. I could see im Book
Speaker 1: being an improved player, but the statistics taking a step
Speaker 1: back because he's got receivers who have never really played before.
Speaker 3: Did it surprise you that they decided to ultimately go
Speaker 3: with Tommy Reese as offensive coordinator because there was a
Speaker 3: lot of scuttle butt there, there were names thrown about.
Speaker 3: Ultimately he was the guy. It felt a little bit
Speaker 3: like they were afraid of losing him. What's your sense there, Pete.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that surprised about it. I'm not sure I
Speaker 1: would describe the higher as like all that inspired. It
Speaker 1: was kind of much more comfortable with Reese. I mean,
Speaker 1: Kelly coached him he's been on staff for a couple
Speaker 1: of years. The roster loves him, and I do think
Speaker 1: he's going to prove to be a good higher. But
Speaker 1: his personality is so different from Chip Long. I mean,
Speaker 1: Chiplong was sort of Brian Kelly circa twenty eleven in
Speaker 1: terms of the way he dealt with players. Reese is
Speaker 1: a lot more even keel about it, and he has
Speaker 1: no real experience calling plays other than the Camping World Bowl.
Speaker 1: I think it was kind of one of those hires
Speaker 1: where I don't know if the player. I would say
Speaker 1: the players had a say in it, but the players
Speaker 1: definitely would have voted for recently if they did.
Speaker 3: As we wind this down here, Pete, let's circle back
Speaker 3: to the top. Give me, on a scale of one
Speaker 3: to ten, your level of confidence that we're going to
Speaker 3: see more than six games.
Speaker 1: In the fall, like three? Pretty low?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, And your level of optimism just personally around
Speaker 3: going to Notre Dame Stadium maybe for a game in April.
Speaker 1: I'll go seven and a half. It's a little warmer, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I've covered spring games and blizzards before here. I
Speaker 1: just think that the spring makes too much sense, and
Speaker 1: you know, I guess I sort of view it as
Speaker 1: the national trend lines is Jack Swarbrick and Greg Sank
Speaker 1: and all the commissioners they seem to be pointing out
Speaker 1: now are like, are not good to give yourself another
Speaker 1: six months to turn this around? I think guy, and
Speaker 1: I've sort of said to other people, it's like, if
Speaker 1: things aren't in a better spot six months from now
Speaker 1: than they are today, Like whether college football is being
Speaker 1: played or not, is maybe the least of our work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we're all dead at that point. Yes, Like,
Speaker 1: let's I'd be happy to cover Notre Dame Clemson on
Speaker 1: April seventh or whatever day of the week that would be.
Speaker 1: That would be fine, And I think you'd say, hey,
Speaker 1: sign this piece of paper, you will be guaranteed a
Speaker 1: spring football season. I would do it. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: the sport can manage it, and it would give us
Speaker 1: something to look forward to.
Speaker 3: Well, we'll see, you know, whatever happens, it will. It
Speaker 3: will absolutely be fascinating and interesting to watch, not as
Speaker 3: people who cover, but as people who watch the sport
Speaker 3: and appreciate it as well. Come back soon, Pete. We
Speaker 3: need to talk more about Notre Dame and obviously once
Speaker 3: we get this whole scheduling thing figured out and know
Speaker 3: if we're going to play football or not, we'll have
Speaker 3: to talk more. But hope you're doing well out there
Speaker 3: and we'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: All right, Thanks, I appreciate it. All right, Dan again.
Speaker 3: Pete Sampson the Athletic check him out. One of my
Speaker 3: favorite Notre Dame be writers. There are many, yeah, there
Speaker 3: are many, but Pete's been in front of the show
Speaker 3: for a long time. Good catch up with him. The
Speaker 3: most interesting thing that he said in that interview talk
Speaker 3: about Brian Kelly and his media chops.
Speaker 2: I tend to think optimism publicly is real. I don't
Speaker 2: think people are sort of scripting what they're saying as
Speaker 2: much as people think. I know a lot of people
Speaker 2: are under the impression that college football coaches are full
Speaker 2: of I don't know if we have families listening to this,
Speaker 2: but full of crap kind of stuff. But I imagine
Speaker 2: you have to be able to get to a point
Speaker 2: as a college football coach where you're projecting positive energy
Speaker 2: and optimism because so much of the secret sauce of
Speaker 2: college football is culture and buy in, where I think
Speaker 2: you have to rewire your brain to project that sort
Speaker 2: of positivity even somebody who appears to be sort of
Speaker 2: a downer, I guess like Nick Saban. Nick Saban might
Speaker 2: sort of appear like a downer, but he has earned
Speaker 2: the benefit of the doubt with the results of both
Speaker 2: his players individually and with team success that there is
Speaker 2: a certain amount of positivity just wrapped up in the
Speaker 2: Alabama program. And even if Nick Saban specifically isn't coming
Speaker 2: off as warm and cheery, I think he rubs his
Speaker 2: players in a pretty positive way. And that's unfortunate framing
Speaker 2: and praising as I just hear myself say it out loud,
Speaker 2: But no, that's all a long winded way of saying
Speaker 2: I think on a very real level, it's genuine.
Speaker 3: Well, that's why I asked him about it. I thought
Speaker 3: it was an interesting tidbit that I took away from
Speaker 3: his interview going out to the athletic and read it.
Speaker 2: Is that a dog barking?
Speaker 3: I hear he's a dog barking in the background.
Speaker 2: Is she happy? Is she hungry? What does she she's
Speaker 2: angry about?
Speaker 3: She's angry that neither Kate nor I are downstairs with
Speaker 3: her at the moment.
Speaker 2: Bitches be wanting attention ty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: I've always been saying that I have some sweet potatoes
Speaker 2: to take out of the oven myself, so we can
Speaker 2: we can wrap this up if you'd like.
Speaker 1: Let's wrap this up.
Speaker 3: I gotta go see what's going on downstairs.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: For that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
Speaker 3: for myself, Tie Hildebrand. Big thanks to our guest of
Speaker 3: honor today, our good friend Pete Sampson from the Athletic.
Speaker 3: We'll be back in about a week. Hope everyone enjoys
Speaker 3: their weekends. Stay safe, stay solid in the meantime.
Speaker 1: No wait, I screwed that up.
Speaker 2: I screwed up my own outroup. Now I'll just leave
Speaker 2: this in here.
Speaker 1: Peace.