When opportunity knocks: 18th-ranked Irish provide signature win opportunity for Boilermakers
The importance of the Purdue-Notre Dame game Saturday in Ross-Ade Stadium cannot be overstated.
A victory for the Boilermakers would give head coach Ryan Walters his first signature win in his young tenure in West Lafayette.
This will be the first time Purdue, which is facing a 2024 schedule considered to be one of the most difficult in the nation, has hosted Notre Dame since 2013.
Saturday’s meeting between the two schools will be the 88th in the series history. Notre Dame leads the series 57-26-2.
The game will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. ET and be broadcast on CBS.
The Boilermakers have not defeated the Irish since 2007 when Purdue. Back then, Joe Tiller, the school’s all-time winningest football coach, was roaming the Old Gold and Black’s sideline.
Speaking of Tiller, during his 12-year head coaching tenure in West Lafayette he would always look forward to the annual clash with one of college football’s most storied programs.
Tiller used the Notre Dame game as a barometer for his Purdue program, saying after playing the Irish he and his staff would know exactly where his team stood.
Tiller’s record against the Irish was a respectable 5-7.
Since Tiller retired, though, Notre Dame hasn’t lost to Purdue, winning six straight (2008-present).
For the Irish, Saturday’s game is the most important of the season.
A win for the Irish is a must if it is to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.
After last Saturday’s home loss to unranked Northern Illinois, Notre Dame has no room for error now if they want to be one of the 12 teams selected for the playoff at the end of the regular season.
Walters is expecting his team will face a team clicking on all cylinders.
“They’re going to be an angry football team,” said Walters, whose team enjoyed a bye week last Saturday after opening the season with a convincing win over FCS Indiana State. “Anytime you are top-five in the country and lose the home opener, that’s going to leave a bad taste in your mouth.
“I know Coach (Marcus) Freeman will have those guys fired up and ready to play. So, we’re fully anticipating getting their best shot.”
Freeman is confident his team will bounce back and be ready for the Boilermakers.
“We have a great challenge,” said the third-year Irish boss about playing at Purdue.
“It’s a Purdue team as you watch film, really from last year to this year, has continuously improved under Coach Walters. On offense, I have a lot of respect for (quarterback) Hudson Card. He’s a really good player, runs their offense well. Graham Harrell is a guy I know that was the (offensive) coordinator at USC when I was the defensive coordinator here. I have a lot of respect for how he runs an offense. They do a really good job at running the football. They led the Big Ten in rushing last year in conference games. We gotta make sure we’re prepared to stop the run. They have good skill. Really good tight end, and some good, skilled wideouts.
“Defensively, it’s a unique defense that you don’t see every week, in terms of their scheme,” Freeman added. “They’re gonna stack the box, and gonna make you have to try to throw it on them. They take pride in stopping the run. Played a lot of man coverage, so to have success, we’re gonna have to beat man coverage. They’re really big up the middle with their interior D-linemen. The linebacker (Kydran Jenkins) and safety (Dillion Thieneman) are really good.”
One of the big questions going into this one is: Have the Irish turned the page on the humiliating loss to NIU or will the effects of that loss still be lingering Saturday afternoon?
No doubt, things have certainly changed in the last seven days.
Last week at this time Notre Dame was ranked fifth in the nation and had the best chance of any team in the country to finish the regular season unscathed.
The Irish were nearly 17-point favorites over Purdue, and 28-point favorite against NIU.
But the Huskies shocked the world, and now the line for Saturday’s Purdue-ND has dropped to 9 ½ points.
Certainly a loss to Notre Dame Saturday won’t ruin Purdue’s season like it would the Irish.
Will the Boilermakers notch yet another big win in Ross-Ade Stadium?
In order to upset the Irish, Purdue will have to play turnover-over free football and get its raucous crowd into it early with something positive.
The blueprint to beat this Irish team is to get it in passing situations, which obviously means getting it to play from behind.
Card, who transferred from Texas prior to last season, needs a breakout game. If he has one against ND, the sellout crowd in West Lafayette will be spilling out onto the field at game’s end.
Card and the Boilermaker receivers will be facing one of the best defensive backfields they’ll see this season.
Purdue’s offense vs. ND’s defense and the Boilermaker front vs. the Irish young o-line. Those two matchups will determine who wins this one.
One thing to keep in mind is Purdue has beaten seven ranked teams over the past six seasons, going 7-9 against Top 25 competition. Included in those upset wins was No. 3 Michigan State in 2021 and No. 2 Ohio State in 2018. Both of those games were played in Ross-Ade.
Througout history, Purdue has defeated a ranked Notre Dame team 16 times.
No question this year’s Boilermakers are improved over a year ago, but I believe Notre Dame will bounce back from its unbelievable loss a week ago.
ND 27, Purdue 17
BOILER BITS
*Winning is supposed to be the only thing. Well, it’s almost everything.
Despite going 4-8 last season, Purdue fans’ support of Walters’ program has been fantastic.
In August, Purdue announced a season ticket sellout and soon after student season tickets were sold out.
Single tickets for certain games are still available. However, Notre Dame and the Homegaming game against Nebraska Sept. 28 are gone, too.
Purdue opened its season against FCS Indiana State, a team that went 1-10 last season.
A crowd of 59,488 showed up on Labor Day Weekend. It was the largest crowd for a season opener at Ross-Ade Stadium since 2005.
Ross-Ade Stadium has a capacity of 61,441.
*Purdue is playing the waiting game on two of its most heralded transfers.
Boilermaker fans have yet to see their two University of Georgia fans this season due to injuries.
Wide receiver CJ Smith (hamstring) and cornerback Nyland Green (foot), both transferred to the Boilermaker program in the off-season after playing for the Bulldogs.
Walters says both are getting close to playing, but for now, the wait continues.
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