He called the game last night! ESPN's Sean McDonough joins! Could Notre Dame win it all? #NCAA Is Carter a potential pick for Patriots?
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00:00All right
00:01Taking time out of his busy schedule this morning, and I really appreciate it
00:06It is the man who had an extraordinary call of that game last night ESPN's Sean McDonough. Hey, Sean
00:13Hi, Greg. How are you? How you doing?
00:17I'm doing all right
00:19Really enjoyed the conversation about the scheme sounds like a great trip is is your finger up for it has
00:26Has that thing repaired what's the current situation? I'm just not a good skier
00:31You know I tried it a couple times never really got the bug
00:35Golf is yeah golf is your game. Yeah, it's too much effort, right?
00:40You got to put the outfit on the skis on go up and down the hill and then most of the time I'm doing it
00:45I'm thinking I'm going too fast for my ability to stop or I'm about to run
00:49somebody over somebody's about to run me over or
00:53Yeah, it's just not I don't turn very well, so you can start going down the mountain a little too fast
00:58But yeah, it's just I've tried, but it's not my thing well. That was a good for my finger is fine
01:05Thank you. Thank you for asking my pipe
01:07How's the condo eight weeks in the cast 11 weeks after surgery it didn't work, so my finger is permanently damaged
01:14But you know what we power through how's the condo Sean as it's old still looking for a renter, maybe
01:20No it isn't I think I'm staying now. You know Greg convinced me that the neighborhood is great and
01:26And it is great. You know I love the seaport and
01:29yeah, so I think we're going to ride it out at least for a while and
01:34Rename remain neighbors with with Greg although this time of the year were in Arizona so have not been around there for a while
01:41Well, that was a great game last night
01:44awesome
01:46So when when you look at that game last night and being there
01:52Do you think that?
01:54Notre Dame can win the whole thing because I think the one area where they where they do struggle is their inability to
02:01Throw the ball especially outside the numbers to the wide receiver. I know the kid
02:06Greathouse had a nice catch, but for most part of the game
02:10They struggled with that and they're gonna play either an Ohio State team or a Texas team
02:15You know that can really make some plays in the passing game
02:19Yeah, I do think that they're one obvious weakness, and you know it's been a problem all year and the play you mentioned wiggy was
02:27Made really because the defender fell down for Penn State and great house wound up being wide open so
02:33You know but that's been a problem for them all year, and they've always managed to overcome it
02:36You know they don't look pretty doing it, but you know we were saying on SportsCenter after the game
02:40They really are just a team right I'm sure as a football guy you can appreciate that you know it's all three phases
02:47It's excellent coaching
02:49There's really a vibe there
02:50And you know in this day and age now with the transfer portal and people go in and out a lot of these
02:56football programs feel like bus stops where people are just passing by and you know they they really have a
03:02Vibe there in a culture, and I think it starts with Marcus Freeman, and he has an excellent staff
03:08You know it's just I wouldn't put it past them. They don't look pretty doing it, but you know they keep winning
03:13They've won. What is it 13 games in a row now, so I wouldn't bet against them
03:18You know it just kind of feels like it's their season
03:20Wiggy and chime have their heart set on Abdul Carter
03:25At number four for the New England Patriots is he even available at that spot at this point
03:31I don't know you know Mel Piper has him as number two on his big board any position number two overall behind
03:39Travis Hunter, so you know I haven't that was my first time. I've seen him play this year in person
03:45We don't have the big ten anymore at ESPN
03:48We had a relationship with them for 40 years, but it ended a couple years ago, so I've only seen him on TV
03:54I was impressed last night because it was clear that his shoulder is still pretty messed up. You know he was basically
04:01Winning at the line of scrimmage and creating a pressure all night long playing with one arm. You know so
04:07It was impressive the way he gutted that out, and you know he was a huge factor early
04:12You know I know you guys watch the game
04:14It was just surprising to me
04:16The way it turned because when it was 10 to nothing and it looked like they were knocking Notre Dame off the line of scrimmage
04:21On both sides of the ball. I thought you know Penn State's clearly the best team and you know the thing that can't be
04:28Underestimated is the job that the backup quarterback for Notre Dame did
04:31You know when he came in the game late in the half
04:33And they hadn't done anything and he marched him down the field got a field goal gave him a little momentum going into the
04:38Locker room you know that was that was big Sean speaking of field goals
04:42You had a great call on that final one watching it on TV
04:45It was kind of a weird kick the way in which the ball moved it looked like it was almost going out
04:50Then it swooped back in at the last minute for you in the moment calling something like that
04:55How fun is it or how difficult is it while watching
04:59Yeah, it's true right
05:01I mean it looked like as a golfer you'd say it's slicing and usually when the ball slicing it keeps slicing and
05:06You know maybe it was touchdown of Jesus up there redirecting the ball through the uprights
05:11But you know it did I mean it was it was fading and then it got hooked so
05:16As I said it just kind of feels like their season and that was another example of it because you don't usually see a ball
05:22That travels on that plate path, and yeah, I was happy for the kid
05:27You know Mitch Jeter is really good kicker, and he struggled the second half of the year because he he pulled his groin
05:33About halfway through the year kicking off against Stanford
05:35And they were the worst field goal kicking team in the country which makes what's happened in the playoff
05:40So incredible you know he they were below 50% in field goals in the regular season
05:45Which was worse out of 134 teams, and then you know he got healthy
05:49He told the story a couple times his dad's a chiropractor flew from Charlotte up to
05:53Notre Dame to help the kid get
05:56healthy
05:56And he said the only thing that it hurt him to do was kick a football you could run do a lot of other things
06:01That it didn't hurt so
06:03Yeah, it's fun. I mean you know it's it's interesting as we're at the 50-yard line to answer the other part of your question
06:09You know so it's not a great angle to call a field goal
06:13That's kind of diagonally to your left or right so you call it off the monitor because it's the
06:18Vantage point from behind so as it was about halfway there
06:21I thought this isn't going to be good, and then it was good
06:25So that's what we hope for in our business. You know it's something that comes down to the end
06:29Sean given this incredible hot stove season how much time did you spend scripting Soto home run calls that you had to scrap?
06:41Yeah
06:43Yeah, at least they made from what I understand an honest effort right I can't blame them for dropping out
06:48What's the price got to where it did at a certain point?
06:51It's ridiculous and at a certain point
06:52I think everybody knew not just the Red Sox
06:55But the other teams that you know the vets were just going to keep going until they got it done, so
07:00I guess at a certain point. You know it's like being at one of those auctions and
07:05You're bidding it up. You do run the risk of you actually get something that maybe you don't want
07:10I'm sure they wanted it, but you know the certain price
07:12You're out, so I understand what they did, but it's still exciting some of the other things that they've done and
07:18You know they should be better with the improvement in the pitching assuming everybody stays healthy, which is you know this day and age
07:25Sometimes a big assumption. What do you think tonight?
07:27I like Texas just because I think Ryan Day gets tight in these kind of games. I like Sarkeesian as a coast
07:32What do you expect tonight in the Cotton Bowl?
07:35Yeah, I think people are really jumping on the Ohio State bandwagon because of how good they've looked in the two games
07:41And they really have although you know I thought in the in the Tennessee game, Tennessee was awful
07:46you know the quarterback just had a really rough night and
07:50They just were bad
07:52What they did to Oregon was really impressive, and I think scary for the rest of the field
07:56But you know I you know the Big Ten
07:58And I said this during our Notre Dame Indiana game, and I got in trouble with the Big Ten people
08:04But you know historically over the years in bowl games
08:08And you know even in this playoff the Big Ten hasn't done very much. This is the 11th year now of this
08:13Format you know they've won two national championships in the in the first ten years so
08:19You know I have a lot of respect for the SEC have a lot of respect for the Big Ten, too
08:23But I do think maybe people are overreacting a little bit to what the Ohio State's done in these two games and perhaps forgot
08:30The Michigan game where they looked awful, so we sell Chelsea tonight
08:35But I agree with you you know there's there's still pressure on Ohio State
08:39You know it's just like last night with James Franklin
08:41You know his whole
08:42career now has become he can't win the big one and then last night it looked like he was going to win the big one
08:46And then not only did they lose, but they lost an excruciating fashion
08:50I think he's won in 18 now against top five teams so
08:54Yeah, that's it's rough, and that was particularly rough last night
08:58I'm in the Miami Airport right now, and I've been walking by a lot of Penn State fans
09:03there's a lot of glum looking people and
09:05You know that's when it's hard to be a sports fan when your team loses like that when it looks like for a lot of
09:10The night you're gonna win right and then they were the more talented team on paper Sean
09:14You've been around a lot of college football this year
09:16How great has it been for college football with the expansion of the 12 teams?
09:21And what it's been able to do for just us fans in general to be able to see what we've seen over the last several weeks
09:29Yeah, I think it's great. Don't you wiggy? I mean, I just think it's great
09:33People say well
09:33It's going to make the the end of the regular season irrelevant because these games don't mean anything because all these teams are going to
09:39Be in the playoff, and that's not true
09:41You know it made the games at the end of the season much more relevant because you know in the four-team playoff for the previous ten
09:48years
09:48You just kind of knew that when it got to the last couple weeks of the regular season there were only maybe eight teams
09:55I had a chance to be among the four and then this year there was many more times that so we did a bunch
10:01of games at the end of the regular season that you know in previous years might not have had
10:06Anywhere near as much meaning as they did this year, and it makes the conference championship games that much more meaningful
10:11Do you have teams you know like?
10:13UNLV and Clemson who are playing in these conference championship games knowing if they win they're going to be in the playoff and if they
10:19Lose they're not going to be so yeah, I think it's been great
10:22And then the games on campus we did the first game you know which was at Notre Dame which I thought was so
10:29Perfect you know to have the first-ever college football playoff game on a campus be at Notre Dame and
10:34The atmosphere there was tremendous and metric there's talk about maybe in the future trying to play more games on campus
10:40So I think it's been a huge home run you know I've Molly McGrath our sideline reporter
10:44Was just texting our group talking about how much fun
10:47This expanded playoff has been and I really think it has been in the TV reading ratings bear it out to people are watching
10:52It very interested in well Sean. Thanks for taking the time this morning safe flight
10:57And we'll see you back here when the weather gets better. I guess all right guys and girls good to talk to you
11:03And have a great day. All right that is Sean McDonough of ESPN