00:00So Notre Dame hadn't really played anybody yet of note.
00:03They've got that, obviously, that matchup coming with Miami here
00:07at the end of the month and what's going to be an unbelievable day
00:10of college football, but that's not for a couple of weeks.
00:12They played North Carolina last weekend, Tim, and, you know,
00:15a game was a lot closer than probably what people thought.
00:17Is that – is North Carolina, like, better?
00:20I mean, they have a tough, tough schedule for the ACC.
00:22Are they better than what we thought?
00:24Is Notre Dame, you know, maybe pulling the foot off the gas,
00:27or, you know, was that just a function of the weather
00:30and the fact it was a monsoon?
00:32Yeah, so I think the Notre Dame-UNC game – and, you know, it's funny, Bobby,
00:36because I had on EJ Manuel – I know who you work with at SiriusXM.
00:40I had him on my show, and I was asking about CJ Carr,
00:43and I made the point, you know, Notre Dame hasn't played
00:45a daunting schedule yet.
00:47Man, Notre Dame fans got all mad at me, and I'm like,
00:49you morons realize that that's a panoramic picture
00:52of Notre Dame Stadium right there.
00:53Like, I am – I'm a huge Notre Dame fan, but I need to read it into the record.
00:59I think it is legally – I'm legally obligated to point out that Notre Dame,
01:03according to Jeff Sagarin, has a top 25 strength of schedule.
01:06So now that we've put that to the side, I would agree.
01:08They have not faced a daunting schedule.
01:10They've been a 20-plus point favorite in every single game this season.
01:14We'll start with the Irish, and then we'll pivot to UNC here in just a moment.
01:17You know, I actually – as odd as this sounds, I came away more encouraged
01:23by an 11-point win than discouraged, and here's why.
01:27Notre Dame, if you think back to the first four games of the season,
01:31they had struggled to find that identity on the ground.
01:34And after UNC returned the opening kickoff of the second half, guys,
01:39it was 21-20, UNC botched the snap.
01:41And I was thinking to myself, this is – this could get ugly.
01:45This could get, you know, uncomfortable quickly because the rain was really coming down.
01:50And C.J. Carr, I think, went back to pass on that opening drive of the second half,
01:54and the ball, like, slipped out of his hand.
01:56It was clear you're not going to be able to throw the football.
01:59And Notre Dame did what we've seen Notre Dame teams do in recent years.
02:05They leaned on the run game, and they had an emergence of a true freshman,
02:09a Jonas Walton.
02:10So I think the encouraging signs for Notre Dame were the run game looked strong.
02:15C.J. Carr, I thought, was really, really impressive in that game.
02:20Going up against Bill Belichick and a defense that was throwing some unique wrinkles against him.
02:26You know, once again, Notre Dame homer here, 21-7.
02:29Notre Dame's got a goal to go.
02:31They don't score.
02:32UNC then goes 90-plus yards, scores a touchdown right before the half.
02:36The game is over if they score a touchdown there.
02:39So I did come away slightly encouraged by Notre Dame because I think things that people wanted to see did
02:47come to fruition.
02:48The offensive line played their best game.
02:50The running game looked rather strong.
02:52Once again, you had a really strong quarterback play from C.J. Carr.
02:56And then for UNC, this is not, I'm not going to say that this is some sort of great team.
03:02I'm not like, let's pump the brakes there.
03:04I'm very curious to see this Saturday in Pitt what this game is going to look like.
03:10Because, you know, last Friday night it was a great atmosphere at Virginia Tech.
03:15And Pitt comes back.
03:16They win that game.
03:18You know, a little bit of controversy with that field goal.
03:20Was it good?
03:21Was it not good?
03:21Regardless, Pitt gets the win.
03:24Narduzzi's feeling himself.
03:25He's, you know, talking all this junk about, hey, you got to rank us.
03:29And then he's, you know, throwing shade to Penn State this week.
03:32Well, now you're going up against a UNC team that's pretty good defensively, that has Bill Belichick still on the
03:38sidelines.
03:39And you got a backup quarterback, Mason Heinz.
03:41Well, that's a really brutal blow for him to be done for the year with the torn ACL.
03:45So, maybe we learn a little bit more about UNC this week.
03:49Three and a half, four-point underdog at Pitt.
03:52A little bit of a letdown spot, I would say, for Pitt coming off of that emotional victory, getting ranked
03:57in the AP Top 25.
03:59So, you know, I'm not going to say that UNC has, you know, impressed me a ton.
04:05But I would say they have been better because everything based off of the offseason, guys, with this team was
04:12a mitigated disaster.
04:13And they've looked decent.
04:15Not great, but they've looked decent.
04:16I think they should be a bowl team this year down in the ACC.
