Welcome back to Irish Illustrated Insider. I'm Tim Priester with Tim O'Malley and Pete Sampson.

It's Thursday, December 9th, and we are having a questions-only Irish Illustrated Insider podcast.

We've been gloviating here a few times here in recent weeks, and we will continue to do that, of course,

but we have opened it up for multiple questions more than we're accustomed to. And I'll start

with the first one, which I believe is the only one that we received with regard to Oklahoma State.

I've spent the last three or four days looking at Oklahoma State, so I have a lot of things I want to say. But the question is from Paul Noon 745. I know you have a new coach,

recruiting news in the Fiesta ball game to discuss in nine months until Irish visit Columbus,

but dying for a little sneak peek on your perspective on Irish chances in the Fiesta Bowl.

I touched on it a little last time, noting that if Brian Kelly just remained,

this is not a reflection of Brian Kelly, but if everything was just equal,

I would be very concerned about Notre Dame's offensive line,

their overall level of motivation after being left out, and the matchup itself.

I think they get a big boost from Marcus Freeman.

But anytime you see a defense, anytime you have a rush defense that you see a single digit

in the touchdowns and double digit in rushing yards allowed, you know they can stop the run.

And then you see there in the top 15, 16 in stopping the pass as well in a

Power 5 conference. I know the Big 12 is not as good offensively as usual this year.

Some things flipped. But you have to be concerned about that. And then if you start looking at

it's been a long time, but Notre Dame played good defenses and they did not fare well.

So this is the ultimate test for is the offensive line better or is the offensive line any good?

I agree.

It's better, right?

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