I.B.Nation.

I.B Nation, Notre Dame fans, welcome back to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast, brought to you by Fandul, part of the Believe Network.

And we are joined today by the newest member of the Believe family. That is David Pollack, a former two-time All-American at Georgia, I believe, correct?

I want to make sure I put some respect on that rest, three-time All-American at Georgia, I believe, correct. I want to make sure I put some respect on that rest.

Three-time All-American at Georgia, I think, Outland or Lombardi, right? You got the Outland, right? Got the Outland trophy. You're O for two, Lombardy. Oh, for two, Lombardy? Hang it. These trophies are so messed up. It's like O linemen, interior limo.

Man, don't nobody care about those stupid trophies anyway.

I love the intro.

I love the intro to the podcast.

It made me think of like Draylor. It's like O linemen, interior limo. Man, don't nobody care about those stupid trophies anyway.

I love the intro. I love the intro to the podcast. It made me thinking like Dre, like neck up the next episode. Well, you know, it's funny is I had a guy make that music for me. He goes, well, what are you looking for? I said, I want a combination of Rush Limbaugh's intro music and Dre. And so that's what he made for me. I felt it. I felt it. Yeah. Yeah. So, so we got we come correct with it. But we're here to talk some Ner Day football with David Pollock. And, you know, it's to kick things off, David, I want to talk to you a little bit about the evolution of the Notre Dame program through your eyes. And if we kind of went back and and talked about things that you've observed with the

Notre Dame program, you know, back 2012, 15, 18, as they've kind of come along to Brian

Kelly era. And then you look at kind of how you've talked about them really going back to late

last season. I want to talk about, I want to get your thoughts on where you've seen this program

evolve and why you went from being someone said, I don't think they can compete with these SEC teams to where last year in December, you're talking about like, I think this team could win at all. They were close, didn't quite get there. When you look at this program, David, what's changed when you look at this team? What's different on film now and in the program now from where it was you know a decade ago uh physicality toughness uh just that you can see it

man like it's just it's on it's on a different level the strain is on a different level like

this these are but listen i know recruiting is is picking up as well is, is definitely on the rise too, but it's just a different, you know, you've always had guys that were in the trenches that were, that were pretty good. But like, now I see a bunch of guys flying all over the field that play with an edge, that play with some toughness. with some toughness and i think it comes from marcus freeman like i think marcus is he's an absolute

stud i had him on our podcast not too long ago just because I just, the human being is just hard not to love. Like he's just a, he's just such a good dude and he's got, he's got a good heart. He's, but he's made of all the right stuff, man a defensive minded linebacker like just grimy dirty

like that's just what we are right like that's that's why that's why i love it because that's what

i played so i just think there's a different level of toughness along with belief along with

recruiting going up that it's just this program's in a different spot than i've seen it since i've

been covering it.

It is funny when you talk about the Marcus Freeman aspect because I've told people, I say you meet Marcus Freeman. You talk to him. He's a very nice guy, polite guy, smart guy, family guy, strong faith and all that. I said, but this is a former Big Ten middle linebacker, y'all. Like this is still a guy. You get him on the football field. you see a little different side of him, and to your point, this team plays with it.

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