Notre Dame Football Midweek Mailbag originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

It’s Mailbag Day on IB Nation Sports Talk! Irish Breakdown’s Sean Stires and Vince DeDario answer listener-submitted questions about Notre Dame football and more on today’s show. Some of today’s topics include:

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* With less than two months to go until Notre Dame’s season opener, what keeps us fired up to get through the rest of the summer before football?

* What three Irish players on both sides of the ball will have the most locker room impact?

* Will Texas A&M fans repeat the turnout Georgia fans had in 2017 when the Aggies visit Notre Dame in September?

* ESPN has Irish defensive end Bryce Young as a sleeper candidate this season. In or out on that?

* Is Notre Dame building its program with the Alabama and Georgia blueprint?

* What’s better: Beating Penn State on the field, beating PSU in recruiting or PSU fans being “clowns”?

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* Which Irish opponent, outside of Miami and Texas A&M, will be the most formidable this season?

* Will CJ Carr be an early Heisman favorite next year if he leads Notre Dame to a national championship this season?

* More!

There’s more Notre Dame and other topics to cover in Rapid Fire as well. See the list of topics below!

* EA Sports has released its rankings of the top 100 players for its College Football 26 game. Jeremiyah Love comes in at No. 4 with Leonard Moore at No. 38, Aamil Wagner at No. 60 and wide receiver Malachi Fields ranked No. 89. Any surprises and any snubs for Notre Dame on the list?

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* They have Love ranked as the No. 1 running back and Moore as the No. 3 cornerback in the country in the EA rankings. Those two were also named to the Walter Camp Preseason All-American Team yesterday. Which is the bigger deal: The EA Sports ranking or the preseason All-American honor?

* Neither CJ Carr nor Kenny Minchey showed up in the EA Sports top 20 quarterback rankings. Fair or Foul?

* How high do you think Carr could be ranked at the end of the season?

* Thoughts on these QB rankings:

1 Cade Klubnick

2 Garrett Nussmeier

3 Drew Allar

4 Sam Leavitt

5 LaNorris Sellers (South

6 John Mateer

7 Carson Beck

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8 Blake Horvath

9 Arch Manning

10 DJ Lagway

* CBS Sports is projecting Iowa State to win the Big 12 and represent the conference in the College Football Playoff this season. We guess the Cyclones’ over/under win total for this season.

* Netflix got into the NFL broadcasting business with their Christmas Day games last year and they’ll do it again this year. Last year ESPN, Fox and CBS all allowed their announcers to be part of the Netflix broadcasts, but this year ESPN and Fox will not allow announcers like Laura Rutledge, Tom Brady, Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen to be on the Netflix Christmas Day shows. What do you think of the hardline by those networks?

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* Actor Glen Powell said on the Pat McAfee Show that there is definitely a Top Gun 3 in the works. He said when it happens is up to Tom Cruise but they are “definitely headed back for another trip to Miramar”. On a scale of 1 to 10: What’s your level of excitement for a third Top Gun installment?

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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 3, 2025, where it first appeared.