Welcome to another edition of Irish Illustrated Insider, brought you by Irish Illustrated.com with Pete Samson and Tim O'Malley.

I'm Tim Preister as we hit the Thursday podcast a couple days before Nordame takes on Duke.

Obviously, a sense of urgency is the catchphrase of the week

and the Fighting Irish desperately need to play really, really well this weekend.

Duke's probably a pretty good opponent to do that against.

I have to warn that I think David Cutcliffe is an outstanding coach,

and if anybody can get them to start playing better,

he's the guy to do it.

Yeah, I mean, this is the game where I think earlier in the preseason, I marked this as Notre Dame's upset loss. I think Pete had it as a very near escape. I had an overtime win. You know, overtime win, and I think it's everything, a lot has changed. clearly if Notre Dame's, that was mainly because of a drop in excitement level by Notre Dame.

I mean, if you're not...

I mean, after they were... it's everything a lot has changed clearly if Notre Dame's, that was mainly because of a

drop in excitement level by Notre Dame and I mean if you're not I mean after they were defeated Michigan State. I had them three and no and even if there were two and one I would have been defeat Michigan, you know, beating Michigan State so I kind of saw a letdown you can't as a human being in the situation have a letdown now. it's not a letdown anymore if you don't play well it's just you're not that good yeah yeah

yeah it's not it's not a letdown anymore if you don't

play well. It's just you're not that good. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a slump. Yeah. It's just how you are as a football team. And I think it is going to be interesting because whether it's Duke or Nevada or Texas or Michigan State, your opponent really shouldn't dictate whether you're a sloppy team or not. You know that should be irrelevant and that was something I asked Brian Kelly about after

Nevada you know your opponent really shouldn't dictate whether you're a sloppy team or not. You know, that should be irrelevant.

And that was something I asked Brian Kelly about after Nevada.

You know, when you evaluate your team and where you are, how much does the competition factor into it?

And he's like, kind of sort of some places, but not everywhere.

But I just think the mentality, how physical you play, how sloppy you are or not,

how crisp your execution is, how well

your quarterback plays, doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opponent. And Duke,

look, Duke's not that good. They can't score 20 points. We'll see if they can against Notre Dame,

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