Welcome back to Irish Illustrated Insider, brought to you by Irish Illustrated.com.

I'm Tim Priestler with Tim O'Malley.

Pete Sampson will join us in Pittsburgh on Saturday, Notre Dame versus Pittsburgh this weekend in Heinzfield.

Great setting for a college football game.

Pittsburgh's won two of the last three against Notre Dame in Hines Field,

including two years ago when the controversial Stefan Tewitt ejection and

Northern Dame lost by a touchdown.

But different set of circumstances, better Notre Dame team, probably a better

Pittsburgh team, coached by Pat Narduzi.

We'll get into more of that, but first, Tim, let's address the college football playoff

rankings.

The first one came out Tuesday night, and I don't think there's anybody that wasn't surprised

to find Notre Dame in the number five hole.

Right.

I remember thinking they were too low last year. I might have bought in too much to the Florida State situation. I don't think they're too high, but I was pleasantly surprised. That surprised me a lot. Obviously, it's tied to Clemson, and Clemson is tied to Notre Dame. And in fact, we heard them talking about Clemson has the best win. and they mentioned Notre Dame as the best win of the

college football season, and I thought that was a high compliment for the Irish. Obviously,

that gives them by far the best loss. I would have guessed, when you've guessed, they would come

in about number eight. Yeah, that's where I was thinking. I thought Michigan State would be

ahead of them, and I'm not saying right or wrong either way, but I thought Michigan State would be ahead of them. I guess I kind of figured Florida would

be too. That's probably them being 10 is as big of a surprise as Nordame being five. Iowa being

undefeated. I think I speculated on Monday, hey, let's see what happens because Nordame is ahead of Iowa and AP,

but that stayed true to form. I don't know. I just think, you know, so often people are concerned

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