I.B. Nation, welcome back to another episode of the Irish Breakdown podcast brought to

by Fandul.

Happy Wednesday, everybody. And today we get to break down the Notre Dame versus Texas A&M matchup.

Yesterday we gave a little bit big picture preview. What's at stake for Notre Dame?

And today we're getting into the weeds a little bit. We're talking Notre Dame offense versus Texas A&M defense.

And we're going to talk a little Texas A&M offense versus Notre Dame defense. And then we're going to wrap this all up today with a mailbag. So throughout the show, if you guys have some questions or comments you want to get in there, put a little MB for mailbag next to it, or as always you can put in a super chat. Those will always get bumped to the top. But Brian, it feels good that it's game week. I have now put the Miami lost in the rearview mirror. It's time to move on. This is a huge, huge matchup for Notre Dame on Saturday, and I'm ready to start breaking this thing down, man. Yeah, it is. I mean, the closer we get to the game, the more excited about it I get, the more nervous about it I get. I always kind of get like that early in the season just because of the unknown. And as I've said before, not having control. I get more nervous about Notre Dame games than I did when I coached. Again, just, you know, I felt like I had some say in what we were doing when I was coaching. They don't have any say now. But I'm excited about it. And I'm looking forward to Notre Dame getting out there and playing well this weekend. So, you know, all the people that say that if they don't, I literally saw a tweet today that said from a Notre Dame person, a fan that said if Notre Dame doesn't dominate Texas A&M, they're not basically, they're not going to make the playoff. And I'm just like, okay, is there a way to, like, virtually slap people? Like, I would love to be able to do that if, you know, that was an option. Like on Facebook, you can, like, poke people. Yeah, yeah, like, you know, just, you know, just, it's so wild.

But I'm just looking forward to seeing how this team responds and how they bounce back.

And this is a good Texas A&M team.

You know, Treb, the more and more we watch the film, the more I'm like, look, I like this team.

I had high hopes for A&M.

I have them as a playoff team.

They've got some stuff to clean up.

But do you know who else has some stuff to clean up? Like everybody in college football except maybe like Florida State right now

who's just athlete cooking? Who to thunk it? I was just about to. Yeah. But I'm excited about it.

This is going to be a heck of a football game between two really good football teams and I'm very much looking forward to it. You and me both, man, and I've changed my mindset a little bit around this. And, you know, like everybody did, I had to, you know, lick my wounds a little bit after watching that three-point loss. Yeah, that game sucked. Yeah, it was a rough loss. But look, at the end of the day, this is why you're a Notre Dame fan. This is why student athletes choose to go to Notre Dame.

And it's in games like this.

We knew what the schedule was going in.

And all offseason, we talked about, hey, look, if you can make it through the first two games one and one, you're right on schedule and you're going to be in a good spot. and in one light, you know, it was rough going back and thinking about what all of Notre Dame's previous games were, going back to, you know, last year year, when they were playing against an undefeated army team in Yankee Stadium. And fast forward to now, a year later, they're playing a number 16, a top 20 SEC team at home under the lights. But again, this is what makes Notre Dame fantastic. You have these opportunities to get a signature win on your schedule.

I feel good about it, Brian.

I'm ready to start jumping into this thing, man.

And where we're going to get started today is Notre Dame's offense versus Texas A&M's defense.

And typically what we talk about, and I want to get your thoughts on this, Brian.

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