I.B.Nation, welcome back to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. Thursday is the day, August 22nd, is the date. And we are nine days away from Notre Dame kicking off the 2024 season.

Tomorrow we're going to have a mailbag. Monday kicks off game week.

So we're going to dive into the Notre Dame, Texas A&M matchup.

So this is technically the last show of the offseason.

This is the last show where we're going to talk about expectations and the team and what we think will happen, what we're happy about, what we're concerned about,

all that different stuff is going to be on the topic or on the topic of conversation today.

Going to find out soon enough, right?

I mean, we're going to find out who this team is.

Step one is next Saturday at Texas A&M.

That's a very important game.

Is it an end-all be-all game?

It is not, meaning if they lose, the season is not over.

If they win by 30, it doesn't mean they're going to win a championship, right?

It's just a, it's a step in the process, but it is our first chance to learn something

about this Nourname football team.

It's our first real chance to see what this team actually looks like.

I know we've seen some snippets in practice, not really a whole lot.

The only full practice we got all of fall camp was a non-padded practice on day one.

So in a lot of ways, I know what I've heard, I know what I've seen,

I know how I've evaluated this team based on the past, based on the spring, based on, you know,

the talent we think they have. But there's a lot more uncertainty on my end of what I actually

know about this team compared to past seasons.

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