It is Monday, October 20th, and you've dialed up Irish Illustrated Insider.

I'm Tim O'Malley, joined by Tim Priester, Irish Illustrated Pete Samson of the Athletic and John Bryce of Football Scoop.

Guys, the national interest aspect of Notre Dame's 2025 football season remains intact as a result of a 3424 victory over USC.

That was going to be one heck of a death march if Notre Dame did not win that game through November with three losses and eight games.

But J.B. will start with you.

What impressed you most?

What concern maybe does Notre Dame kind of carry over into its by week?

I think the thing that absolutely impressed me the most was Notre Dame's resurgence on the

defensive line, and USC is not a good offensive line team, but it had found a way schematically

to run the ball very well against the opponents, and Notre Dame had none of that. And then what

Notre Dame did on the ground against the USC defense that hadn't just been

atrocious against the run that was coming off probably its best performance against the

quality opponent against the run.

And then also the fact that Notre Dame had a first ever starter at center who really

had played nothing but mop-up duty. We won't use that garbage

time term like some people use in their phraseology of questions. But yeah, those are the

elements to me. Like Notre Dame Saturday night put its stamp on what Marcus Freeman wants it to be an O-line

and D-line-driven program. That doesn't mean that all else are cured in any of those because as we

get to the concerns, my concerns, number one, are Billy Shrath. It doesn't sound like he's necessarily

going to be expected back for the next game or maybe even the game after that.

It's early, but that's the word that I've been getting.

And we know that Gabriel Rubio is out for an extended period of time with a significant elbow injury.

...