Welcome to the latest episode of the Shamrock. I'm Pete Sampson on Saturday night, the top Keenan Stadium following Notre Dame's 4532 win over North Carolina, which, I mean, I don't know what it looked like on TV at home at

home at, but like it felt like Notre Dame as a program kind of just like crack their knuckles

a little bit, started to play like the team they thought they were when August started,

never mind September. And after kind of a few weeks of everything being about the first this, the first that for Marcus Freeman,

this felt like kind of the first step forward for the program post Brian Kelly.

Yeah.

Did anyone get a chance to ask Mack Brown what the hell North Carolina did on their by week?

That was like the sloppiest, most undisciplined, worst excuse for a defense I think I've seen in however many years doing this.

I mean, it was so bad.

And credit is a nerd name for taking advantage of it because I'm not sure a nerd name of two or three weeks ago could do what they did today.

But to your point, I mean, definitely with all the postgame comments, you know, Marcus Freeman, yeah, I'm really happy with where this team is progressing. Is it a football team that's getting better? It is. We're playing better. We're practicing better. You know, he talked a lot about like this looking like what you hope Notre Dame football as a brand, so to speak, can be about running the football behind a strong offensive line.

Drew Pine had a lot to say about that offensive line.

I mean, there's a lot to pick apart with this box score just as far as firsts and comparisons to the first three outings.

I mean, you had a couple in-game tweets.

I mean, chunk plays.

I think they finished with 23 plays of 10 or more yards after having 25 total over the first three games of the season.

Again, I think Carolina's defense had something to do with that.

But Neradame was humming.

I mean, you know, if not for the fumble at the end, you know, the window dressing on this one does not exist. And this is, what, 52, what, 26 game? Right. In favor of Notre Dame. And by the way, I don't know if you saw it on TV, like, that was just a really good defensive play. Like, like, watching it live, like, I'm like, oh, man, Audrakesmae, just coughed it up right in the end zone. I was like, no, like the defender flipped him well.

The other guy was there to punch it out.

Not a whole lot you can do about that. But definitely, like, it felt like, all right, we're back to normal now. Like, you know what I mean? Like, oh, yes. This is what it looked like when Nourney played Carolina two years ago.

And old teams were much better than they are now.

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