Welcome everybody to another edition of Irish Illustrated's instant analysis.

I'm Tim Priester with Tim O'Malley from Irish Illustrated, John Bryce from Football Scoop.

And we had an opportunity to do something today that we haven't had since the season started.

And that was to talk to defensive coordinator, Chris Ash.

We also, of course, talked to Captain Drake Bowen.

Marty Biagi was there.

KK. Smith talked about his big third quarter, KVA, and Billy Shroth, representing the

offensive line.

Let's start with Chris Ash, the long-awaited interview with Chris Ash.

By the way, this segment of Iris Illustrated's instant analysis is brought to you by the RVMH Hall of Fame and the Northern Indiana event center in Elkhart, Indiana.

Guys, Chris Ash, I'm not sure what everybody expected like he would come in being apologetic.

He said, this isn't my first rodeo.

He thought there were a lot of good things that happened early on in the season, which are

camouflaged, of course, by a couple losses. But fellas jump in as to what you heard Chris Ash

talk about today. I mean, I wanted to know from Ash how important was it to get to know your players in game

situations. He learned about them in the spring, of course. He heard about them and saw them

somewhat in the summer. That's what training camp is for. He clearly knows more about his players now

what their strengths. I didn't mention the word weakness, but what their strengths and weaknesses are.

And he did admit. He's like, look, sometimes the best way to know what a player can truly do is to see it against other guys. I totally get that. I understand that. The problem is when we talked to Chris Ash, after four good defensive games or three and a half good defensive games, you do want to talk about all the games. And I don't blame the guy for not wanting to talk about what happened a month and a half ago but that's the situation when he comes out for the first time in this like he he he it is a much different tone for him right now because he has they've righted the ship however you want to look at circle the wagons right of the ship he's just found something he knows more about his team yeah jen you know he talked about time. It takes time with younger guys. He talked about it, and this is true. Nobody wants to hear it on the outside. I understand, but there were a lot of young guys playing in the secondary, especially against Purdue when things went a little bit haywire at the end of the first half. But they are playing much better. Now, the challenge this week is going to be really, really extreme. And so I'm not sure whether the timing is exactly right for Chris Ash speaking to the media. But they're playing really good football. They are playing really good football. I thought it was very interesting kind of piggybacking off of what O'Malley just said. And that is I point blank Chris Ashes. So we've talked a lot about how much

better your defense is. How are you a better defensive coordinator today than you were week one?

How are you better as you had into game seven, week eight than you were going into game one at

Miami? And he said, because I know my players better. I know better what they can do. I know better what I can ask

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