I'm Brian, the next part of today's show here on the Irish Breakdown podcast, brought you by our friends over at Fandul.

We're going to be talking about the questions on Notre Dame's offense.

And again, quick refresher, folks.

These are questions that we don't have answers to.

If we had answers to them, I'd feel a lot better as of December 16th, 2025, but we don't.

And there are some things at this unit as good of some of the things as they did this year, average 42 points per game, 7.3 yards per play. Passing game took a big step while the run game didn't take a step back in some areas. It's really impressive. It doesn't mean that they don't have questions and things to work on moving forward. And that's ultimately where we're going to start with today's show, guys, is we're going to talk about the offense.

And, you know, Brian, you brought it up.

And I think it's very well said.

This is the first time they've had a returning starting quarterback

since the 19 to 20 season, which, by the way, is just crazy to think about.

But it's also the first time in Marcus Freeman's tenure as defensive coordinator

or as the head coach that Notre Dame has a returning starter or quarterback.

How much of a factor does that play?

I think it's, I mean, that's a question. I don't know. Is that the reason we've seen the early season struggles?

It's because every year they're breaking in a new quarterback. Is that part of the reason?

You know, you had a quarterback battle in 2022, and you came out of the gate, and you lost your first two games.

You had a quarterback battle in 2025. You came out of the gate and you lost your first two games.

You know, in 23 and 24, you knew who your quarterback was, but he was adapting.

In 24, your starting quarterback missed all of spring ball, was recovering from an injury,

was getting new to his teammates, and you struggled out of the gate offensively. The one year that Notre Dame kind of came out of the gate really good on offense

in September was the one year they had a guy that came in, was the guy all spring, was a guy off

all camp, and that offense came out and looked pretty good the first month of the season until the

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