WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — If there was a broad-brush question lingering for the Notre Dame football team after the 18th-ranked Irish put Ross-Ade Stadium in the rear-view mirror Saturday and left tire tracks on the team that calls it home, it’s this:
Road rage or an awakening?
A real awakening, that is. One that’s sustainable and that can recalibrate the trajectory of the team that destroyed Purdue by historic proportions, 66-7, on Saturday the way it wrecked its own College Football Playoff vibe the week before in a 16-14 implosion against Northern Illinois.
Maybe it will turn out to be both.
Related Content
► Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard leads with legs as passing game remains project
► Transcript: Marcus Freeman following Saturday's win at Purdue
► Game Balls: Leonard turns a cold shoulder to rumors; Botelho sets tone on D
► Game Thread: No. 18 Notre Dame 66, Purdue 7
► Notre Dame football injury report: DE Joshua Burnham will miss Purdue game
How the Irish (2-1) responded to adversity on Saturday — losing their two best offensive linemen, Billy Schrauth and Ashton Craig, and starting vyper end Jordan Botelho — and so seamlessly carried on is an encouraging sign toward that end, especially when it comes to team chemistry and culture.
There was no word, incidentally, after the game on the severity of those injuries, but Botelho left the field on a cart.
Another positive Saturday, in not only the most lopsided of the 88 meetings between the in-state rivals but the ugliest loss since Purdue took up football in 1887, was being able to work four quarterbacks into the game. And none of them because starter Riley Leonard had a short leash or because a left shoulder injury turned him into a one-dimensional, passing-game trainee.
In fact, neither Leonard nor head coach Marcus Freeman was even asked about the QB’s physical health in the postgame press conferences, after it was speculated by some media outlets in the days leading up to the game that if the Duke transfer could even play, it was going to be a much more limited version than the one who labored against Northern Illinois.
And playing as if he should be in bubble wrap, mentally and physically.
Instead Leonard’s toughness and physicality in the run game helped set the tone.
“All credit to coach Free bringing me to his office and every day saying, ‘Hey, you’re the guy. I trust you. I got all the confidence in the world in you,’” Leonard said. “That type of stuff built me up.
“For this game, I was extremely prepared all week. I was just itching to get out to the field again and be able to prove myself. It’s a long time, Saturday to Saturday, of just sitting around and thinking about the last game. You’re like, ‘Man, I just want another opportunity to get back out there. This game was not only big for me but big for the whole team.’”
And it felt like the whole team played.
Twelve players made their Notre Dame debuts on Saturday, including 30-year-old backup kicker and Citadel transfer Eric Goins, sophomores Armel Mukam (NG), Joe Otting (C) and Chris Terek (OG), as well as freshmen CJ Carr (QB), Micah Gilbert (WR), Karson Hobbs (CB), Guerby Lambert (OT), Teddy Rezac (LB), Loghan Thomas (DE), Kennedy Urlacher (S) and Kedren Young (RB).
Urlacher was the most statistically impressive against Purdue (1-1), with three tackles and a pass breakup.
By halftime, with Notre Dame leading 42-0, Leonard had amassed 100 rushing yards with three TDs on 11 carries, and 112 passing yards on 11-of-16 accuracy with no interceptions in an early game plan that called for quick passes and quick decisions.
It’s been eight years since a college player hit the first-half trifecta of 100 yards passing, 100 yards rushing and three TDs or more, and that was by Louisville’s Lamar Jackson in a 62-28 rout of Syracuse.
“Seeing Riley come out and persevere through all the bad comments and media and all that type of stuff, it really was something to see,” said sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love, who ran for a career-high 109 yards on 10 carries with a TD. “Because people say a lot of mean things. To see Riley have a great performance, it was something. Shoot, he played to our standard today.”
Junior understudy Steve Angeli took over for Leonard to start the first quarter. And in his first game action since the 40-8 Sun Bowl waxing of Oregon State on Dec. 8, Angeli lofted his first pass attempt for a 28-yard TD to sophomore tight end Cooper Flanagan.
Four Irish tight ends, incidentally, combined for eight catches against the Boilermakers with two TDs — one by grad senior Kevin Bauman playing in his first game since Sept. 17, 2022, due to two ACL tears.
“Proud of the guys,” Freeman said, wisely staying away from a big-picture message despite being prodded through the postgame questioning to do the opposite. ‘Enjoy this victory,’ as I told them. ‘It’s hard to win. As we saw last week, it’s hard to win. And so, enjoy it and get back to work Sunday or Monday and get ready for our next opponent.’”
That would be 0-2 Miami (Ohio) next Saturday, with former Notre Dame assistant Chuck Martin leading that program for the 11th season and coaching a team that was picked to finish two places higher than Northern Illinois — first — in the preseason MAC poll.
Martin was Brian Kelly’s offensive coordinator in 2013, the same season that marked the last time Notre Dame and Purdue had met at Ross-Ade Stadium. And Freeman was a 27-year-old linebackers coach for the Boilermakers, who didn’t surrender the lead in a 31-24 Irish escape that day until inside 3:30 minutes left in the game.
The 38-year-old version of Freeman on Saturday was asked, in essence, about what in that experience helped his team to the 59-point margin this Saturday. And asked — three times — what the difference in mental preparation was from last week to the week, to which he responded the third time: “Guys, I just said it.”
And the response was more word salad than substance the first two times.
He was even prodded — unsuccessfully, mind you — about whether Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock’s public revelation of a private postgame X’s-and-O’s conversation between the two figured into Saturday’s seemingly perfect gameplan.
The numbers the Irish put up spoke louder. Much louder.
A few of the more telling ones:
• The 587 total yards the Irish accrued on Saturday matches the most of the Freeman Era, tied with Central Michigan from last season.
• Notre Dame outrushed Purdue 362-38 and held the Boilermakers to 162 total yards. Only Notre Dame’s lone FCS opponent ever — Tennessee State last season — amassed fewer (156) during the Brian Kelly/Freeman football renaissance (2010-present).
• While the Irish were a season-best 7-of-12 on third down, Purdue converted just 1-of-12, and blew its only fourth-down conversion attempt.
Purdue quarterback Hudson Card was coming off a 24-of-25 passing performance in Purdue’s season-opening, 49-0 smackdown of Indiana State. His 273 yards and four TDs along with just the one interception translated to a gaudy 240.5 pass efficiency rating.
He had a little more than a third of that against the Irish (86.3), a few points worse than what he managed against Michigan last year during its national title run.
Card, whom the Irish considered strongly coming out of the transfer portal from Texas two cycles ago before settling on Sam Hartman, was 11-of-24 Saturday for 124 yards with one TD and two picks. He rushed for minus-42 yards on six carries.
• Four Irish players scored at least one rushing touchdown in a game for the first time since the USC game in 2000. Third-string QB Kenny Minchey was among Saturday’s group.
Not quantifiable with numbers but still impressive when considering Notre Dame’s answer to the Northern Illinois doubts was the performances of the players who replaced the injured starters _ sophomore Boubacar Traore at vyper end and center Pat Coogan and right guard Rocco Spindler on the offensive line.
“I can’t speak any more highly of those two guys,” Freeman said of Coogan and Spindler two seniors and former starters who were beaten out in training camp. “And they went in there and they got the job done.
“And it’s a respect to their preparation. It’s a respect to their unselfishness, to their love for the team. Those two guys deserve a lot of credit for the way they prepared, the way they make the guys in front of them better and in the way when they got their opportunity, they went in there and did their job.”
Traore returned an interception for a TD and had a sack and a QB hurry to go along with his two tackles in what will likely become an expanded role due to the Botelho injury.
“Definitely heartbreaking,” Traore said of Botelho. “Definitely in my prayers, too. But I told him, I’m going to do it for him. ‘Everything I do is for you here on out.’”
And it’s a team that is convinced Saturday’s ninth straight win in the Purdue series wasn’t its ceiling, but just the beginning.
The college football world is watching again and waiting and maybe a bit confused, but open to seeing if that next step continues on a redemptive path.
• Talk with Notre Dame fans on The Insider Lounge.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.
• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.
• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND and @TJamesND.
• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports
• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports
