Well, we have to worry about Purdue again.
We’ve always had to worry about Purdue. There were rarely instances in this rivalry in which we didn’t at least have to worry about Purdue. For all their struggles, the two-time Rose Bowl participants have almost always stayed above worriless territory. Their floor has been competitive. Of course, Notre Dame has to worry about everyone these days. We’ve made that abundantly clear. But even if Riley Leonard had checked down for that first down last weekend instead of gifting NIU our femur for their boneyard, we would have had to worry about Purdue.
It’s not fully the state championship—Purdue still has to play a competitive Indiana who was suspectly picked to finish ahead of them in the Big Ten—but it’s our state championship. From our perspective, this decides the state. Indiana might make a bowl, but we’re not looking at a top 25 team over there. If Notre Dame can just beat Purdue, we can claim Hoosier State superiority. It isn’t much, but it’s a good first step in the recovery from last week’s assault on Knute Rockne’s legacy.
It’s unclear what exactly we’re up against in West Lafayette. We know these guys have one of the world’s largest drums, we know they have a curious definition of fun, and we know this is a huge one for them, a chance to punch up and—if successful—land a knockout blow. On the field? They’ve played one game so far, it was two weeks ago, and it came against Indiana State. That they won so emphatically (49–0) is concerning, but Indiana State is a plague upon its conference, lovable though the Sycamores are. We really don’t know how good Purdue is or how good Purdue can be. Projections say they should be decent, with a decent offense and a decent defense having returned a decent number of last year’s contributors. It’s all decent. It’s all very Purdue.
This is the second season for Purdue’s braintrust: Ryan Walters (recent Illinois defensive coordinator) at head coach. Graham Harrell (Texas Tech legend) at offensive coordinator. Kevin Kane (another Illinois defensive staffer) at defensive coordinator. Last year’s team was inconsistent but showed flashes of promise. Again: There just isn’t much that stands out about these guys.
Defensively, the Boilermakers put one player on the preseason all-Big Ten team, with another receiving votes. Dillon Thieneman is the first, a sophomore safety out of Westfield who was a third team All-American last fall. Kydran Jenkins is the second, a big linebacker who spends a lot of time in the backfield. Yet again, this really doesn’t tell us all that much. There are few Power Four teams as generic as Purdue.
The one thing we do know:
I don’t know how many of you watched Texas play Alabama in 2022. The game occurred in Austin in the heat of September, a bright and sunny Big Noon Kickoff. Early in the game, new Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers looked great. But then he got hurt. Then, Texas’s backup quarterback also got hurt. Texas still managed to only lose the game by a single point.
How did that happen? Well, the backup quarterback came back into the game. Hobbling around on that bum ankle, Hudson Card kept the Longhorns in it, most memorably with a 20-yard scramble late in the third quarter on which he looked like an IndyCar with a loose wheel struggling to get back to pit row.
The point of this story is that Card is a gamer. Card is a tough, capable guy. Card, a product of the same high school which produced Baker Mayfield, is the kind of quarterback you don’t want to play when you’re facing your decent, capable, fired-up in-state rival.
What kind of quarterback do you want to play? A running quarterback who’s too hurt to run.
Ideally, Riley Leonard is fine to run despite his reported (non-throwing) shoulder injury, and the absence of rushes with him last weekend after the hit was a precaution which turned out too precautious by half. Ideally, his performance last weekend was on the poorer end of what he can do as a passer and decisionmaker, and he gets both his head and his arm back under control this week.
It’s tempting to say the best thing Notre Dame can do out of the gate is hand the ball to Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price a dozen times in a row. But really, the best thing Notre Dame can do out of the gate is find a way for Riley Leonard to pass for a first down. Don’t ask him to throw deep. Don’t worry about that “FBS teams without a touchdown pass” stat. Get a first down through the air, then get another one, then let Love and Price take over. I’m not an x’s and o’s football expert. But from a momentum standpoint, that seems like the play to me.
I don’t think we need to worry about Riley Leonard’s confidence. (If anything, a concern is that he’s too confident.) Nobody should worry about fans’ confidence in Riley Leonard. What matters is Leonard’s teammates confidence in Leonard. That’s the piece Mike Denbrock needs to reinforce. College football teams can win with subpar quarterbacking. I’m not sure college football teams can win if a quarterback’s teammates authentically doubt that he’s their guy.
Soccer!
In a time-honored American tradition when things are going poorly, let’s look at the women’s soccer team.
Doing pretty well!
Since a season-opening loss to Michigan State (who still hasn’t lost and is up into the top five of the coaches poll), the Irish are 6–0–1. Given the quality of competition, the record alone doesn’t say much, but they’ve been pounding teams. Between the MSU loss and Wednesday night’s 2–2 tie at Boston College, Notre Dame scored 22 goals and allowed zero. Most importantly? They beat Michigan. Also importantly? They beat NIU.
A tie to open ACC play wasn’t ideal, especially because expectations aren’t high for BC, but coming back from an early 2–0 deficit is a good skill to hone, if we’re looking for a silver lining. After allowing that second goal, Nate Norman turned to freshman Ellie Hodsden, who scored two minutes after subbing in to pull the team within one. Later, with just a few minutes left, Hodsden headed in a cross from Cornell grad transfer Reagan Pauwels to salvage the draw. Shoutout to Dripping Springs High School, from which Hodsden hails. Big day for us mentioning Austin-area high schools.
The program’s off until next weekend.
Fr. Dowd’s Inauguration
It’s inauguration weekend for Fr. Bob, our new president, and the big news from his inaugural address yesterday is that Notre Dame’s expanding its financial aid. You can read what details have been offered here, but the highlight is a no-loan system for undergraduates, meaning the financial aid offered to undergrads will not include loans, instead consisting of direct subsidization for families below a certain threshold of income. The university bills this as “ensuring middle- and low-income families who are admitted will be able to afford attendance.”
There’s still probably work to do on this front. Financing low-income educations is one thing. Recruiting low-income students is another. Investing in communities in order to empower these students earlier in life is the third and final step, the morally just answer to legitimate concerns about affirmative action.
Similarly, there is always going to be a prospective student whose family is just above the income threshold. Where that income threshold stands, that student is cost-conscious and would be a valuable member of the student body because of those very traits which create cost-conscious 18-year-olds. Notre Dame could probably use a dose of groundedness these days. Purdue’s a weird school in so many ways, but there is a type of grounded Midwesterner there whom Notre Dame would do well to retain. It’s easy to become ungrounded when your world revolves around a building topped with gold.
By and large, though, this is a good and just thing to do, and the prominent placement of the announcement, headlining Fr. Bob’s address, implies this is the kind of school he wants Notre Dame to be under his leadership: A school which, through all the higher education noise, does not forget its original purpose of educating a largely Catholic immigrant base. The school is French-American by birth. It became Irish-American because of the kind of student it brought to its doors. That the students were Irish was not the point.
