Man, Purdue is bo-ring. We know this. We also ‘know’ that they’re not very good. Of course, I said that last week about Pitt’s pass defense, and we were owned for a half and barely squeaked out a win. But, I’ll say it again, Purdue is looking more like Purdon’t. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA. Get it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
This train is going nowhere.
Record: 2-1 against the 181st most difficult schedule according to Sagarin. Yep, there’s a loss in there, and a squeaker of a win. Against the 181st SOS. 181!
Wins vs: Middle Tennesee State (27-24) and SE Missouri State (59-0)
Loss to: Rice (22-24)
The SEMizzou game was their last one, so they’ll come in very rested, and ready to go. That said, they struggled with the Middle of the State of Tennessee and a Side Dish of Carbs. This shouldn’t be close (which means it probably will be).
Offense
The Boilermakers boast a Top 10 Rushing Offense, and a bottom half (of the FBS) Passing Offense at 73rd. Running the ball is their bread and butter, where they’re racking up 259 yards per game at a clip of just about 5.6 yards per carry. Pretty impressive. Then again, 181st SOS! This will be the first time this season that Purdue meets a DL anything remotely like ND’s Top 25 unit. While Bolden scares me this year, as he did last year, he should be shut down if we can keep him contained on the edge. This should force Purdue into a less comfortable down and distance and force their passing game. Not a strength for them, and not a strength for us (relatively), but I don’t see them putting up a ton of yards.
Where Purdue is good is putting points on the board. They are 33rd in the country in Scoring Offense (again, against no one, but still…) and they score 83% of the time in the red zone. While not world-beating, that’s a rate that ND can’t even sniff right now. ND is at 57% right now, btw.
Defense
Purdue is 19th in Scoring D with a really solid (181st SOS!) average of 16 ppg against. Even against that weak schedule, that’s pretty good. They thrive against the run, holding their opponents to 2.8 yards per carry, good for 18th in the country. This is largely due to a pretty big middle of the DL, including one-time-ND-recruit Bruce Gaston anchoring the middle. He’s a big muchacho and he’s playing pretty well, especially for a young guy.
Purdue struggles a bit against the Pass though, ranking 60th and giving up 213 yards per game (6.5 per attempt). And their stats are very much padded due to the I-AA game where they performed much better against the vaunted aerial attack of the SE Mizzou State Redhawks (unranked in the FCS). Against Rice and Middle Tennessee, they gave up 286 yards per game and 7.2 per attempt. Much different story, when looking at ‘real’ competition. (SERIOUSLY 181ST!)
I don’t expect ND to just air it out, but I do expect Purdue to make ND throw the football to win. Just like all of us, they’ve seen the fumbles and INTs that happen when we’re forced to pass. If Purdue has a shot in this game, it’s through Turnovers, so they’ll give Tommy as many opportunities as possible to do just that.
Net Net
The Irish are taking on another team that appears inferior on paper and hasn’t played anyone yet. This means they’re hungry for victory, they’ve likely saved a lot of scheming for ND, and are likely healthier and more rested than the Irish with the blowout followed by a BYE week. If ND plays relatively clean ball and can match the energy of the Boilermakers, it shouldn’t be close.
I guess we’ll see if this team has the focus and killer instinct required to squash a subpar program on the road on Saturday. All the stats say this should be a whomping, but the only one that matters is the score Saturday. Go Irish.
Don't take me, yourself, or life so seriously. This is supposed to be fun.
Biscuit co-founded HerLoyalSons in partnership with his ND roommate (Dillon Hall baby!), MQ, in 2006 and has been ranting about ND Football and everything Notre Dame since. He strongly believes in the mission of ND and its football program. Biscuit expects logic and data in arguments and will absolutely crush you if you come to a debate missing one or the other. He despises everything Michigan, and his favorite pastime is mocking Purdue.
- (Re)Introducing: DANCING LEPRECHAUNS - August 29, 2019
- Ticket Auction: ND vs USC - August 22, 2019
- No Respect! - December 14, 2018
Reverse jinx comment: we’ll struggle in another night game versus an inferior opponent and squeak out a win, adding fuel to the fire of supporters of a 3:30PM EST kickoff for all games going forward.
Wait, do I need to unreverse jinx your jinx? Or are you unjinxing us? I am confused.
Gamewatch at my place won’t start til 5:30 (DVRing it) so this weekend likely not the best to come my way anyway. We’ll do it another weekend.
Is there really such a contingent of supporters?
Why is Purdue boring?
what’s a Purdue? We’re playing against air in an empty stadium this weekend.
Name the first thing that comes to your mind when i say ‘Purdue football.’ That’s why
Ummm, Drew Brees? C’mon, guys, Purdue’s not Michigan or USC, but they’re still a proud program that’s done a lot IN THE PAST…kind of like Pitt in that…are we in any position to diss them for that?
No, theyve had 1-2 good yrs over their existence. And the fact that a single player defines the entire history of Purdue in your mind is embarrassing for PU. They have no tradition, no success, no excitement around anything they do and they play in West Lafayette. Its boring.
Pitt has loads more past success. Purdue? Please, they’ve won Big Ten titles in 1918, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1943, 1952, 1967, 2000. Yes, past WWII, they’ve won 3 Big Ten titles.
They are 8-7 in bowl games. They’ve been in the Rose Bowl game twice, winning once in 1967, finishing 8-2.
Sorry, that’s not a lot.
We were having a strong week. Can’t believe you actually bothered with a Purdue preview.
Tons of time on my hands this week. But, no excuse will do.
This is funny as hell, and exactly how it seems like the entire fanbase feels about this game.
Syracuse? UConn? Tulsa?
Half of the fan base is pissing and moaning about the QB situation and nobody gives a rat’s ass about Purdue. This is the kind of situation where we’ve been blindsided with a WTF kind of loss in the recent past. I hope the team isn’t blowing this game off like we are.
See: locker room post. Thankfully fans in no way reflect players/coaches/program
What was scary about Bolden last year? He blew out his knee pre-season and didn’t play.
And I was glad for it, he’s a talented dude.
Underestimate ANY opponent at your own risk. The Irish have played down to the level of every opponent this year. I see no reason this won’t happen with Purdue.
I will never forget the Notre Dame – Purdue game in which the Irish were ranked #1 in the country, Purdue was unranked the game was at ND Stadium and Purdue whipped the Irish.
Ara was quoted after the game saying “I tried to make the team understand they could not take Purdue lightly but their heads were so inflated by being ranked number 1, they just wouldn’t listen.â€
We’re not ranked #1 but we still cannot take ANY game for granted, ever.
Hence the nickname Spoilermakers. If Purdue’s offense is clicking and/or the ND defense has a let down, and TR continues his TOs, it could be an unhappy night for us Irish fans.
Going out on a limb here…The Irish will be turnover free against Purdue. If you believe in trends, 5-5-3-2, what follows should be a 1 or zero and I’m betting on the latter.
Go Irish!
Love it when I’m right…it doesn’t happen very often, as my wife would tell you.
Hopefully, they’ll keep the turnovers to 0 for Air Force.
As far as Purdue history goes, give them a little – I said a little – credit. I recall my old Eddie Bracken (you didn’t know him? a pity) telling me about a ND-Purdue game where ND had the lead, and then knocked the Purdue starting QB out of the game. Everyone relaxed when the skinny sophomore backup QB for Purdue took the field – some guy named Griese. He lit up the sky and won the game. But Biscuit is right – even when they are sort of good, the place is still boring.
Question on our running game – should we be going outside more with Cierre Wood? He had success inside the last two weeks, particularly on traps and trap draws, but against Pitt the few times we did quick pitches to the edge he just flew. With Purdue’s sides of beef playing on the D line inside, is it time to mix in more quick pitches and maybe even some student body rights and lefts?
It would be nice to see Cierre run with a head of speed before receiving the ball. Not the staad next the qb and hand it off, 3 seconds after the ball is hiked. Completely agree on some pitches or sweeps.
Playing a prime time game on the road in a black and gold alternating color crowd (if they paint the empty seats and blot out the green from ND fans), I don’t think the team will overlook this game. They are so far away from proving how good they can be. I would really like to see this be the game we finally put some points and don’t let off the gas the entire game. The last game I remember coming close to that was the Washington State game in San Antonio – it’s been a long time.
There is nothing wrong with being anxious and arrogant – as a New England Patriots fan I know this, and I am proud to say that I am as obnoxious and arrogant as any.
BUT – You can’t be obnoxious and arrogant until you have a TEAM that you can be obnoxious and arrogant about. It has been a LONG time since Notre Dame qualified as that sort of team.
I for one would not be surprised to see Purdue win – thus far in the Kelly era Notre Dame has yet to attain the status of having the RESPECT of the teams they are facing, never mind fear.
When you lose AT HOME to the likes of Tulsa, Western Michigan, USF, Connecticut, Syracuse et. al it becomes difficult, nigh on to impossible to take Notre Dame seriously.
Arrogant and obnoxious is fine but when you ain’t got nothin’ to be a&o about – it’s silly.
True, but the state of ND FB has no effect on the fact that Purdue is the most boring program in CFB.
We’ve had some shitty home experiences, no doubt, bi we didnt lose to W. Mich…we actually crushed them like we were supposed to
Also, USF is now in the top 15 in both polls. I think listing them with ‘Cuse, WMU, & UConn is foolish
Don’t remember losing to WMU?
We beat WMU 44-20.
I’m a diehard ND fan and I have to agree with you. And I never watch a game and just think we are going to dominate a team I am always wondering what are we going to do t screw it up. We will be there soon but I still think it is to early to belive we can just role over anyone. But any fan has the right to be obnoxious and arrogant if they want to, that is part of being a fan. Just because your team is not doing well are you any less pationate about that team? It sounds like you are not a fan as much as you are a hater.
Trey from above says Purdue is boring because they play in West Lafayette. Terrific argument since the ghetto, crime town of South Bend is so delightful and full of culture.
Purdue’s success isn’t up there with the storied football programs of USC, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio State and Alabama. We all know ND considers themselves a storied football program yet haven’t won anything in close to 25 years while the others have all won national titles since 1995, most within ten years.
Not sure what all the “empty seat” talk is about. Two years ago the atmosphere at the Purdue/ND game under the lights at Ross Ade was really good and should be very similar this Saturday. Purdue doesn’t sell out games against crap teams like they should but this game will be full.
You could put Purdue smack dab in Manhattan, and it would still be the most boring program in the nation.
Typical fan of a crap program. Points out the recent struggles of ND in order to deflect from the horrible state his team has been in since they started playing football.
25 years, really? Yes, it has been 23 since the Irish won a championship, but there was success after that. 18 years ago FSU stole the title from us, 5 years ago we had a 10 win season. Still not good enough by ND standards, but PU would kill for ten wins. Has PU had ten wins over the past two years?
Know your role and shut-up PU fan.
“18 years ago FSU stole the title from us.”
WRONG
18 years ago the week after beating previously unbeaten FSU at Notre Dame 31-24, #1 ND lost AT HOME to an unranked BC team it had beaten the year before at ND by 40 points or so. IOW they couldn’t defend their HOME TURF against an unranked (but determined) opponent.
The same day FSU beat a top 10 ranked Florida team in Florida’s home stadium.
Who’s the better team?
Since ND won the head to head match up, I’ll stick with them. Sadly they had a letdown the next week. They won their bowl game and many people thought they should have been NC. Somehow fsu claimed it. Like it was bowden’s turn.
Right on.
Why does the fact that FSU beat Florida on the SAME DAY even come close to mattering?
You are pointing out the truth about my arrogant and obnoxious observation.
Being a&o is a good thing but you have to have a team that you can be a&o about. 5 years ago doesn’t count – today counts. And today ND is nothing special. At the end of the season – or even sooner – I would be happy to take these words back, but as of today – they are true.
Yes, today ND is 2-2.
Notre Dame is, and always will be something special. And yes, by the end of the season you should come back on this site and take those words back.
Today, you have lost to Rice. Today, you have the 181th ranked SOS (by the way, there are 120 teams in FBS, good work there).
And Saturday will be the first time you face a team that is in the BCS AQ umbrella.
Would you like to continue talking about today?
Notre Dame’s last title has nothing to do with how boring Purdue football is. Just ask Rice.
Your observation is arrogant and obnoxious, I agree. So what are we debating?
That was the very last in a line of a string of examples, so congratulations for picking on an afterthought and makinfg it seem that my whole argumemt was based on that.
From South Bend, if you turn your ear northeast to Ann Arbor, you hear a great sucking sound. If you turn you ear southwest to West Lafayatte, there is nothing but silence.
Yeah, Purdue never wins 10 games yet we are still as relevant as ND, which is not at all.
Wake up ND, no one cares about you other than you. You will reply with some quip about your national TV contract or your national schedule but only you care. Everyone has a national TV contract now.
It is the same argument every year, ND thinks its important and no one else thinks they are so the ND fans get arrogant and obnoxious and try to pick on everyone else. I haven’t checked but I would guess these comments pop up about all the schools they play. Michigan has redneck fans or USC is a rich kid school that pays professionals to play in its band or whatever. We actually all come on here to pick on you and get you charged up so we can laugh about it when you do respond with the same crap you said last year. Thanks for the laughs. Win or lose we love ND because it is pure entertainment.
Sure. Purdue’s just as relevant as ND. That’s why every little thing Purdue Football does gets a ton of media coverage. Just like Notre Dame. Yep.
It’s just so weird that Purdue hasn’t played any games this late into the season.
Tom, you are embarrassing yourself. By the way, are you related to Lee?
Wait, where’s Purdue’s national TV contract?
“Wake up ND, no one cares about you other than you.”
–mostly true, but there are a lot of us, and we are everywhere.
“Win or lose we love ND because it is pure entertainment.”
–oh wait, I guess more people do care…
Even though I am an ND alum I am with old Tommy from above. I get tired of hearing the same song and dance from ND folks about how damn great we are when the only thing we do to show how great we are is simply tell everyone. It gets hard to defend sometimes. Give it a rest. This game only matters in the midwest and there is nothing wrong with that. Just like we don’t care about Texas vs. Texas AM or Florida vs. Vanderbilt. College football is a regional, confernce based sport and that is what makes it great.
ND not being great does not mean that Purdue is not boring. Why are these 2 always confused? No matter how GREAT or how BAD ND is, Purdue is still boring. It’s irrelevant.
The Biscuit,
The Big Ten Network is a carried nationally so every Big Ten team has every game shown nationally whether it be ABC, ESPN or BTN. Oh, and each Big Ten school makes more money from their TV deal each year than Notre Dame does.
You might want to reflect more closely on that statement.
Football Revenue
Penn State Univ. $70,208,584.00
Notre Dame $64,163,063.00
Ohio State Univ. $63,750,000.00
Univ. of Michigan $63,189,417.00
Univ. of Iowa $45,854,764.00
Michigan State Univ. $44,462,659.00
Univ. of Wisconsin $38,662,971.00
Univ. of Minnesota $32,322,688.00
Univ. of Illinois $25,301,783.00
Northwestern Univ. $22,704,959.00
Indiana Univ. $21,783,185.00
Purdue Univ. $18,118,898.00
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sportsmoney/2011/04/19/how-does-notre-dame-do-financially/
I’d love to see you cite a 1st source on that statement. Go ahead, locate the actual data, not some conjecture nt a Big10 journalism school grad.
The network is AVAILABLE to 80MM homes. Out of 120MM. So that means that if every single HH that could get it, got it, they’d have coverage in 67% of homes. And most of that 80MM comes outside of the BTN area, which means actual coverage is <67%. I doubt that anywhere close to 100% of the 67% are signing up/buying that tier. So 50%, if we're generous, is not 100%.
100% is NBC, which is national.
Thanks for playing.
Top 100 TV markets indicate that BTN footprint has 24MM homes. Add in Nebraska and maybe it’s just over 30MM. So 30MM definitely have it. If 50% of the remaining 50MM get it (unlikely but being generous) that’s 55MM. 55/120 is 46%. That is anything but National. Sorry bud.
I have the B1G network, but it was included free in the base package on Uverse. I would imagine a good number of Network ‘subscribers’ just have it and didnt ask for it. Id replace it with NHLN in a heartbeat
Jim Kress,
You are stating overall football revenue which includes more than tv revenue. I wasn’t claiming Purdue generates more revenue than Notre Dame, I said they generate more tv revenue.
Biscuit,
Nice math for an alum from a liberal arts school but you are arguing a counter point to a point I didn’t make. I didn’t say the BTN was in 100% of homes, I said it was a national network.
So prove it.
Several times, the NBC contract has been quoted as being “worth more than people think”. So yeah, have fun proving the Big Ten network money out-does that.
And I don’t consider a network with such low penetration to be national. It’s regional with pockets elsewhere. That’s not national.
If we absolutely had to lose one of our every-year rivalries and they were put to a vote of ND students & alums, which would we cut?
Michigan State?
Purdue?
Navy?
USC?
My guess is that of those four schools, Purdue would get over 75% of the vote. It would not be close. I have never once heard an ND fan express any feelings at all about Purdue, except for the (too often) “how the hell did we lose to Purdue?!” No one at ND cares about the Purdue game. No one gets worked up over it. I think we schedule them just out of habit. When we beat them, no one considers it much of an accomplishment, and when we lose to them, it’s just embarrassing.
Id go with Sparty
Michigan and it’s not even close.
USC and Navy stay on the schedule no matter what, for historical reasons. MSU is right behind them since they kept playing us when the rest of the B1G blackballed us. Purdue right behind them. Drop anyone, drop Michigan, far as I’m concerned. Playing them every year is only a recent thing.
Funniest moment in the ND-Purdue series: early 80s, at ND, during the Purdue band’s halftime show.
Purdue Band PA announcer: “We may be Boilermakers, we may be Irish, but we all have one thing in common — we’re all Hoosiers!”
ND Student Section: “NO WE’RE NOT!!!!!”
That’s amazing.
Was trying to keep up with all the back-and-forth in this comment section, but saw the word “Purdue” too many times and fell asleep. What did I miss?
Purdue’s fan showed up…
Purdue’s fan showed up…
Guess the WNBA season is over
I wouldn’t say you were “missing” anything, but here is a recap:
1. Purdue fans think their exposure on the Big 10 plus Northwestern and Nebraska Network is equal to ND’s exposure on NBC. (This is like putting rims and a spoiler on your Datsun and trying to race a Mercedes LS coupe).
2. Purdue fans are jealous that ND gets multiple times the media coverage. (If I keep talking about how I and no one else cares, will anyone notice that I really do care way too much?)
3. No Purdue fan has even tried to argue why their team should win or how their team can win on Saturday.
4. Apparently there are no Purdue football blogs, since both of their fans have to come here to get a preview of this weekend’s game.
5. Notre Dame should win by 4 touchdowns.
One last point on PU’s irrelevance. Will PU play another prime time game nationaly televised by espn this year?
Yeah, they’re just as relevent as ND, and I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona I’d like to sell your ignorant ass.
And if I remember correctly, PU was the one that made this a ‘prime time’ matchup. Unlike ND/scUM or USC where the actual networks approach the school about moving the gametime so that more eyes can watch a great game under the lights. No, this one is a faux primetime game concocted by the PU AD to appear relevant.
At least it’s on ESPN. My biggest concern every year with playing Purdue is that we will get kicked to regional coverage, and I won’t be able to watch the game.
…make that every other year
I see my comments have been deleted for whatever silly reason you geniuses have come up with.
Curriculum Vitae – I went to Notre Dame from 1961-1963 when I flunked out. My freshman year I was in Farley Hall, as a sophomore I was in Dillon Hall.
I was at the Syracuse game (when they had Ernie Davis) and the game was won on a field goal after the final whistle when the refs called a ‘roughing the kicker’ call against Syracuse. We stormed the field after the game.
I remember Norb Roy, Nick Buonoconti, Mike Lind, Jim Rakers, Jack Snow, John Huarte, Joe Kuharich, Moose Krause, I remember that guy who coached Northwestern and we could NEVER beat them when he coached them. I remember Frank Budka, Les Travers, Daryl Lamonica, Angelo Daberio, Joe Carollo, Jim Kelly and Dave Pivec.
In February 1964 I joined the Navy. November 1966 – I listened to the USC (51-0) game on a short-wave radio in Turkey. Legend has it that the coach at USC at the time (whose name I have forgotten) said after the game “I’ll never lose to that Armenian bastard (Parseghian) again.”
October 1967 – I was back at ND and SC showed up with O. J. Simpson.
27 – 7.
A lot of you seem to think that the fact that you graduated from ND makes you better than others. This is not true – it merely makes you more fortunate than others.
Although I never got a ND degree, I am as much a part of Notre Dame as you are, and all I ask is that you consider this – do you truly deserve the inheritance which crotchety old farts like me are passing on to you?
I do not have an ND degree either. Proud Indiana Weslyan alum. I have not, nor will I recieve any kind of inheritance from a “crotchety old fart” like yourself. I make my own way in life and I do not rely on receiving an inheritance. Get over yourself.
More fortunate, beter than, no just harder working than yourself. Serioulsly, who other than a complete jerk off flunks out of college. Even if you are not as intellectualy gifted, if you are smart enough to get accepted you should at least graduate.