Pod of Gold: Notre Dame Football

We'll try, but we may mirror the College Football Playoff selection committee and fail miserably.

In our latest Pod of Gold, we attempt to make sense that like that, the Notre Dame football season for 2025 is officially over. No College Football Playoff run to a possible national championship. No bowl game. No nothing. All of it, over.

Who's at fault? Should fingers be pointed? Our crew of South Bend Tribune columnist Tom Noie and ...

We're done.

With the regular season. With the College Football Playoff rankings shows over those four Tuesday nights in November and December. All that's left is Championship Saturday and Selection Sunday.

What does that mean for projected No. 10 seed Notre Dame? Are the Irish comfortably in the field of 12? Do they need to sweat Sunday? Do they need help from a team here or a team there? We discuss what Selection Sunday might have...

We start this edition of Pod of Gold wondering exactly what's wrong with the Atlantic Coast Conference. Specifically, what the league has against Notre Dame of late with its "Team A vs. Team B" comparison nonsense, and then deciding that, yeah, it's a good idea for the game at Stanford to kick at 10:30 p.m. The Irish, in fairness, have remained quiet and calm and composed as they chase down another College Football Playoff at-large...

If it's November, it means it's time for the College Football Playoff rankings roulette to begin. What do the guys think of Notre Dame opening at No. 10? Good? Bad? Perfect? We recap the sluggish win over Boston College, which didn't play like a 1-7 team and preview Saturday's prime-time matchup with Navy before spending some time with former Notre Dame All-American defensive back Mike Townsend, captain of the 1973 national champio...

Notre Dame football is back from an off week and right into a Final Five stretch to close the regular season. We preview (kind of) Boston College, review (kind of) the win over USC and debate several additional topics, including what the Irish need to improve on to stay College Football Playoff worthy and the future coaching aspirations of Marcus Freeman.

Stick around for our Speak Up segment before we close with a Pod of Bold that...

This week hits differently. Irish coaches and players can insist otherwise, but it just does. It's USC week. It's the biggest game on the schedule for Notre Dame, and the biggest game left in this season. Everyone knows the stakes, but nobody may know them better than former Notre Dame defensive back Tom Zbikowski, who played in this rivalry game and offered Irish fans one of the best moments of the last 25 years.

You know the game...

We're all over the map in this one - talking a little Boise State, previewing North Carolina State and then diving deep into the 1988 Notre Dame football national championship season friend of the show Pete Cordelli, an assistant coach during that Irish title run.

Cordelli shares stories about that 1988 season, about Ricky Watters, about coaching Tony Rice and about Lou Holtz. Tune in to hear our thoughts about Irish football prese...

Notre Dame is back to .500 and looking to climb over that break-even mark Saturday at home against Boise State in the first-ever meeting between the teams. Before previewing Boise State and talking Broncos with long-time radio play-by-play Bob Behler, we put a period on Notre Dame's win at Arkansas, arguably, the most complete Irish effort this season.

What's up with that offense? What's up with that defense? What did Tribune beat ...

Notre Dame football has issues. Even coming off its first win of the season over Purdue, Notre Dame has not looked and played like it should look and play. We're tired of talking about it, but there's no way of getting around it - the defense is overdue to deliver. Maybe this is the weekend when we watch the Irish and say, now that's how it's supposed to look.

So we spend the first 20 minutes on the tired topic of the Irish defense...

That's not how this season was supposed to go - not even close. Two games in, two losses for Notre Dame. We'll recap what didn't go right for Notre Dame in its come-from-ahead loss to Texas A&M and dissect why this Irish defense hasn't looked at all like the Irish defense should look.

Then, it's on to the next one. In this case, it's Purdue, a team Notre Dame beat last season in West Lafayette, 66-7. What makes the Boilermakers...

It will have been 13 days since Notre Dame football last played football by the time kickoff Saturday night arrives and the clash with No. 17 Texas A&M. The South Bend Tribune's Mike Berardino and Tom Noie and WNDU sports coordinator Jackson Neill discuss what improvement we need to see from the Irish offense and defense after that loss to Miami (Fla.).

They also discuss if Notre Dame and head coach Marcus Freeman has this Sout...

For the first time since 2022, Notre Dame football is 0-1 to start a season following Sunday's 27-24 loss at Miami (Fla.) The loss dropped the Irish from No. 5 to No. 9 in the US LBM Coaches Poll. Miami moved to No. 5.

What happened in South Florida? How did it happen? Why did it happen? South Bend (Ind.) Tribune columnist Tom Noie and WNDU sports coordinator Jackson Neill take a deep Tuesday dive into the hows and whys of the loss...

It's game week. We made it. No more quick views of practices. No more talking season. The regular season is here for No. 5 Notre Dame, which opens Labor Day Sunday at No. 10 Miami (Fla.).

We set the stage for what we're going to see Sunday in South Florida with news of the week - Marcus Freeman, player comments, depth chart and injury updates before joining long-time Miami (Fla.) play-by-play radio voice Joe Zagacki, who believes N...

It's done. It's over. Twelve days before No. 5 Notre Dame opens the 2025 regular season at No. 10 Miami (Fla.), the Irish have their starting quarterback.

Welcome to the role, CJ Carr.

No use burying the lead - we spend a good chunk of the show discussing/dissecting the Carr promotion. After battling Kenny Minchey, Carr was named the starter heading into the 2025 season. Why Carr? What's next for Minchey? Plenty of Irish quarterbac...

A new season of Notre Dame football brings the return of a new season of Pod of Gold, where the South Bend Tribune's Mike Berardino and Tom Noie and WNDU's Jackson Neill discuss everything Irish.

There was plenty to ponder in this early August episode. What are the early impressions of preseason  camp, specifically, how good can that Notre Dame defense be in 2025? How about the offensive line? Then, there's the little issue of...

With spring practice and the transfer portal in the rearview, NDI looks back on the last few weeks of Notre Dame football, which includes the transfer of a potential starting quarterback and the ascension of a possible starter that no one saw coming. We'll run through some of the highs and lows and positions of strength and of weakness following Notre Dame's 14 workouts.

What's the latest with the new Irish coaching staff? The NFL ...

The 12-team College Football Playoff field is set. Notre Dame gets a No. 7 seed and a home game against No. 10 Indiana. Did the selection committee get it right? How could the format be tweaked, even now, to better improve the process/product?

What about the weather? Tickets? Hotels? We discuss everything that surrounds the first-ever CFP post-season game at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday, December 20 game - but not the game itself. ...

We go Army heavy in this week's Pod as No. 6 Notre Dame (9-1) hosts No. 17 Army (9-0) at Yankee Stadium as part of the Shamrock Series game. We talk with Ken Kraetzer of the West Point Football Report on what makes the Black Knights so dangerous this season - it's more than just quarterback Bryson Daily, who's really good. We also talk former Granger, Indiana resident Richard Cacioppe, author of the book “Black Knights and Fighting...