From the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona, this is Irish Illustrated Insider, our sunniest edition of the year, I think.

Joined by Tim Priester and Tim O'Malley, where a day before the Fiesta Bowl, Notre Dame, Ohio State.

We spent the past five days in press conferences, watching practice,

poring over quotes, writing stories, doing videos,

and now we're finally getting into our podcast.

So we're going to do two segments today, first,

wrapping up the news of the week and then getting into breaking down the fiesta ball.

And obviously, I mean, the biggest story for both teams was the sort of departure of

Max Redfield for a violation of team rules sent home. And then the injury to Devin Butler,

which forces Nick Watkins to make his first career start in the biggest game of the season.

And I think the biggest part of that is Redfield, who, while not obvious in his presence, will be conspicuous by his absence, if that makes sense. He doesn't make a lot of plays, but he probably negates a few we don't see with his speed. And I mentioned a right up today that Notre Dame and now without Cavarry Russell and Butler into Dick Watkins, Notre Dame is without their two fastest best athletes on the back end,

and I think that matters.

Russell and Redfield, I think that will end up mattering. And, you know, a lot of people say, whatever, Russell's not, or Redfield's not there, I think the attrition is what matters that he's not there. It does, and it's nice to be able to have a guy like Matthias Farley, who, you know, we know he's not, He probably isn't going to make mental mistakes physically.

He may not be able to get places, but you feel pretty good. Farrley, who, you know, we know he's not, he probably isn't going to make mental mistakes

physically. He may not be able to get places, but you feel pretty good about his knowledge of the system back there with, and probably a guy that can really help out Elijah Shumade in a game where, you know, he may need a little bit of direction too, but it's a, it's a blow. And I, you know, I think we're all really interested to see how Nick Watkins plays.

I think we're all really interested to see how Nick Watkins plays. I think we're all surprised that this is the first time he's really been, not only as it his first star, but it's really his first prominent role in Nordame uniform in two years. Yeah. And I mean, the Redfield Farley dynamic is interesting to me, because Nate, can you do you guys name a play that Max Redfield has made this year in a positive way? I mean, does that, does anything strike you at all? Because I can name a half dozen from Matthias Farley without thinking. And you can name even more last year, Matthias Farley. You can name a half dozen from Matthias Farley in one game. Yeah. So I think that that's, but O'Malley's point about attrition, does it trickle down to special teams? That's a real issue to me. I'm Nick Watkins. I'm fascinated to see him play. It was fun talking to him yesterday and also talking to his dad a little bit and his high school coach for feature I'm working on today about Wocken. Just like, he didn't bother to call home. Didn't bother to call his coach when he got the news

his dad found out for me that his son was starting in the fiesta bowl he decided to come to the

game no no it's hilarious because he took time off to come to the game and then Nick's not

playing I'm not going to bother so he'll be watching a home in Dallas.

He's not going to be able to make the trip out here. But he's just a really understated kid.

But athletically, I think he's short of Kavari Russell as impressive, just a physical

specimen as Notre Dame has so long.

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