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Preview: Notre Dame at Purdue
UHND.com  - Joe Brunson
11/30/2001

Notre Dame (4-6) At Purdue –1.5 (6-4) 4:30pm ET

Purdue Senior tight end Tim Stratton has been selected as one of the six semifinalists for the John Mackey award, given to the nation’s best tight end. Stratton was the winner of the inaugural award last year. Upon reviewing the game, Coach Tiller said that Kyle Orton played better than he originally thought, making it sound as if Orton would get the start against Notre Dame this Saturday. Orton was 31 of 62 for 263 yards and a touchdown in rainy conditions at Indiana. Tiller reminded the media Drew Brees only threw the ball 49 times his entire freshman year and the freshman Orton was asked to gun it 62 times in one day. Purdue is also battling for the Alamo or Sun Bowl, and with a Pittsburgh loss, possibly the Tangerine Bowl.

Notre Dame ran the ball on 18-of-22 first down attempts against Stanford and left Palo Alto with their second losing season in three years. After the loss, Notre Dame was eliminated from bowl eligibility. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how hard the Irish play on the road in West Lafayette. Notre Dame is 0-4 away from home this season. Saturday's game marks the 73^rd meeting between the Irish and Boilers. Notre Dame leads the series 47-23-2 with a 22-12-2 record at Purdue and a 17-10 mark at Ross-Ade Stadium. With a victory, Notre Dame will log their first win at a Big Ten stadium since its victory at Purdue September 9, 1995.

• Keep the Irish defense off balance. Throwing early in the downs may open up some holes for Montrell Lowe.
• Take advantage of the home-field advantage. Getting big plays early will get the crowd going and the Irish haven’t played well at all on the road.
• Take away the Irish run. Notre Dame has not shown any ability to throw the ball.
• Take care of the football. In positive games for Notre Dame, they feed off the defensive ability to take away the ball.
• Force audibles by Holiday. Carlyle has yet to make many good decisions in the pocket. If the Boilers can confuse him, then the ND offense is done.

• Please, throw the ball. Notre Dame needs to be able to throw to win.
• Control the line of scrimmage. Even if the Irish do open it up a bit, they still rely on the run.
• Blitz the freshman. He burned Indiana, but if ND can get some pressure on him, the lack of experience may kick in.
• Show some pride. It would be easy to give in to the season after all of the speculation. Notre Dame definitely has the talent to put this one away if they play with the enthusiasm they are capable of.
• Let the athletes make plays. It seems as if the players are there, but the plays aren’t being called to exploit their strengths. If the Irish can get rid of the shovel pass and add in a few screens to the wideouts (are they still in the playbook) in may provide a spark they have yet to find. There is no reason not to let these kids play wide open on Saturday.

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