Welcome to the latest episode of the Shamrock.

I'm Pete Sampson, joined as always by Matt Fortuna.

I think we're going to try to make this a non-super league podcast because everything in sports media has been Super League all the time over the last 72 hours, but it was something that came and went between our podcast, Matt.

This week we got Marcus Freeman and Tommy Reese, the only time we're going to talk to them this spring.

As you would expect, I find them both really enlightening, kind of interesting people to talk to. You get a lot of

information out of it. And I think that they both have kind of more of a, I guess, an optimistic bent on

you know, where Notre Dame football can go. So I don't know if one was more interesting than the other to you, but what was,

what sort of struck you talking to Notre Dame's two coordinators this week?

Yeah, I mean, it's such a breath of fresh air to have, you know, two young guys.

I mean, Marcus is maybe 35, Thomas, Tommy's not even 30 yet, I don't think.

Be in those high profile roles and handle everything both out and off the field with such a

professional demeanor, for lack of a better term.

I mean, every time you talk to those two guys or hear those two guys speak, you feel like

you're learning something new and you feel like they have a plan that they're absolutely confident in that will make Notre Dame football, you know, an elite program every year.

And, you know, Freeman's the bigger takeaway because he's a new guy, so everything he says is going to be parsed.

We'll get to the recruiting part in a bit.

But even the way he handled the question of, and I'm paraphrasing here, all the players seem to think this defense is easier and more refreshing, and they love playing in it. You know, why is that? And even Mark, it's like, let me preface this by saying, like, Mike Elko and Clark Lee were really, really good here. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. Like, I'm not trying to undo everything they did. They set a standard that I need to uphold. So let's not, you know, get things misconstrued here. You know, it's the players who are going to make the plays. It's the talent that's ultimately going to win out. And he's a believer so far of the talent. He has his disposal. Now, that talent's going to shape itself probably in different ways.

I mean, I think we're already seen it with the possibility of Bobauer, Andrew White,

playing on the field together because he wants the best three linebackers on the field together,

and they're all going to cross-trained regardless of position.

I think you're seeing that with Myron Tama Viola Amosa moving to the outside because he's an elite player and I think they're a lot deeper inside than they are outside right now. And again, if you can cross-trained those guys and get your best four guys on the field at all times, you're going to be better position as a defense. And the other part, philosophically speaking, I know this isn't unique, but to hear him come out and say it, It's just like we're going to be a defense and the other part philosophically speaking I know this isn't unique but to hear him come out and say it

just like we're going to be a defense that goes away our defensive line goes

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