Opening transcript... Watch the full show above.
Instant Takeaways
“This game, as a fan watching on the couch, was like watching the worst movie ever. You go into it knowing the outcome, and you know it was going to be terrible because you have seen it before. I don’t think Notre Dame embarrassed themselves today, and it didn’t seem like Bama was that juiced up. It didn’t look like they tried that hard, really. They took a professional approach to the game, but it didn’t look like they were ‘up’ for this game. Notre Dame had its opportunities to capitalize at times and it did not. From Alabama, it could have been a slight lack of motivation with some confidence they were going to win or something like that.
“We did not see Notre Dame match the level of competition or exceed the level of competition this year. We only saw Notre Dame exceed its opponent’s level of competition once and that was in the first go around with Clemson. Yes, there is a talent gap and we all knew that and it became evident today. I’m sure there are some takeaways after you look at the film, and yes, the defense played well in terms of limiting the amount of points Alabama scored, but we still did not do anything outside of ourselves in order to pull off the upset and we did not do that today. Great season, but overall, there is still a lot left to be desired.”
Closing the Book
“We should all be grateful for Ian Book. He is a guy that I hope young kids look up to. He is a scrapper, he is a competitor, and we knew he had his shortcomings, but he won a lot of games through his up-and-down career. There will always be questions about how Notre Dame would have fared if it had a prototypical five-star quarterback back there, but I have been pretty adamant about my fandom and support of Ian Book. Today is a snapshot of Ian Book’s Notre Dame career. He was battling until the end, got injured, came back, and his will to win is so strong. The ability to pull the trigger is not, but his best throw of the game was a shot over the middle where he got drilled by the Alabama defender. It is frustrating to watch him sometimes, but then he makes great plays like that. The half a dozen opportunities he has in other games where he does not pull the trigger makes it frustrating. We should all be grateful for Ian Book; he did a lot of great things in his Notre Dame career and won a lot of games. He helped us win a lot of games and he made the most of his ability. I am very proud of him for that.”
ND lost to No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation... The Talent Gap?
“I have tried to delve into this in our most recent podcast, but there is a weird culture thing right now. You know Alabama is not taking in the highest academic kids, but you hardly ever hear of any of them getting into any trouble off the field. As much of a hard ass as Saban is, he has stuck up for his kids and has been great about giving kids second chances. When it comes to closing the talent gap, Notre Dame has built a tremendous culture with young kids on and off the field, but sometimes I feel like the focus is more on developing kids off the field rather than on. I think the focus may need to shift towards taking in kids that may not be the best students, but guys that are in the middle of the road that could be taken into the culture and succeed within it. A big part of the culture that Saban has built at Alabama is that those guys go there to get into the league. If you sign to Alabama, Saban asks you to give everything you’ve got for three years then you go into the league and make millions. I don’t know how ‘up’ Alabama was for this game because Saban started to rotate in his backups in the third quarter and they could have blown this game out of the water and kept their foot on the gas.
Did Notre Dame look better in this game compared to other recent “big” games?
“Yes, Notre Dame did look better because we did not embarrass ourselves. The average fan watching looks at the final score and sees that Notre Dame hung in there and did not get embarrassed. Our national championship game against Alabama in 2012, we got boat raced and it was hard to watch, we looked better today. It was pretty apparent early on though, that Alabama could do just about whatever it wanted. Notre Dame’s first touchdown drive slowed down the game which was great, but I think Alabama still could have done whatever it wanted offensively.
“Alabama’s culture they have created over there and the expectations they have created is amazing. They have created a culture and an atmosphere where you go in and win or you are sat and replaced. You are getting buy-in from five-star kids that know they only need to be a one-year starter and do what they're supposed to do, then they go to the league and get paid. It is all centered around expectations. To be honest with you, I don’t know what Notre Dame’s expectations are when it comes to on the field, football stuff. I know Notre Dame has high expectations academically and character expectations, then is it just ‘hope for the best’ from there? I think some expectations are too high sometimes where guys in high school are written off as a guy that is not a ‘Notre Dame fit’ because they don’t have the 3.8 GPA, they are 15 year-olds in high school! That has to change. When you take certain types of kids, whether it is their background or socioeconomic background or whatever it may be, they are hungrier to succeed and they are willing to do things on the field to make that happen. They do things that guys from different circumstances are not willing to do. Like, after the game, did our kids look upset? It comes down to needing football and the desire and effort and hunger and that all comes out on the football field.
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