Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 18, 2021 35 GAME PREVIEW: PURDUE nerbacks Cam Hart and Clarence Lewis. At 6-2½ and 205 pounds, the longer, bigger Hart will likely be matched up against him. "He just makes plays," Brohm said of Bell. "He's a guy that has tremendous ball skills. He competes for the football. Normally on a 50/50 ball he's going to come down with it. "In a clutch situation where you need to make a play he's going to get it done." UP AND DOWN DEFENSE Purdue has three defensive coordina- tors. Yep, that's right. The trio of Brad Lambert, Ron Eng- lish and Mark Hagen were named co- defensive coordinators. Lambert has play-calling duties. Outside of that, it's a collective effort to put the best defen- sive product on the field every week. "I think this year I wanted to get on the defensive side of the ball myself quite a bit more and I wanted to sur- round myself with a lot of guys that had experience, that wanted to work together, that wanted to put a plan to- gether," Brohm said. "Yes, there needs to be one play caller, but we want a lot of voices in the room giving their opinion and giving their input and putting the best plan together for our guys to go out there and make plays." The Purdue defense held Oregon State to 78 rushing yards on 25 attempts. The passing defense, meanwhile, gave up 285 yards. Notre Dame's offensive strategy could be the same as it was in the first week against Florida State: come out passing. Graduate student quarterback Jack Coan and company could feast on a Purdue secondary that has struggled in recent seasons. The Boilermakers ranked 94th or worse nationally in pass- ing yards allowed in the last four seasons with a low point of 128th in 2018. The first game of this season didn't give Purdue fans many reasons to be- lieve the secondary would finally turn a corner; Purdue came out of Week 1 ranked 100th in passing yards allowed. With Plummer trying to keep pace with Coan and the Irish, Saturday's game could be a shootout. And Purdue just isn't at a place where that will work in its favor — especially on the road at Notre Dame. ✦ Things To Know About Purdue 1. Treading Water Purdue delivered an all-time moment in program history just 20 games into Jeff Brohm's coaching ten- ure. The Boi lermakers hosted then-No. 2 Ohio State on Oct. 20, 2018, seeking their fourth straight win following an 0-3 start. They led 14-3 at halftime and 21-6 after three quarters. An upset was brewing. The Boilermakers drew the curtains on it with 28 fourth- quarter points and four touchdowns of at least 40 yards. The 49-20 dusting of the Buckeyes felt like the ar - rival of a new Big Ten West contender. That offseason, Purdue awarded Brohm with a contract extension that pays more than $5 million per year. Three years later, the win looks like an anomaly. Since then, Purdue is 8-16. In the last two seasons, it has defeated one team that finished with a winning record. It ended 2020 with four straight losses and has not appeared in a bowl game since 2018. Purdue has handled its business against lesser teams, keeping it out of the West division basement. But that's still below the heightened expectations set after Brohm's first two years — which included that toppling of Ohio State and a pair of bowl appearances. Brohm started Year 5 on a positive note, with a 30-21 home defeat of Oregon State. That's a game Purdue should win. To reach the status that once felt imminent, though, it needs to win a few contests it shouldn't. 2. Run Game Woes Only 15 Football Bowl Subdivision teams finished with a worse yards per carry average than Purdue's 3.26 last year. The run game was simply not a threat nor reliable. The Boilermakers became a one-dimen - sional offense and were third-to-last nationally in rushing attempts per game. Low yards per carry figures are often skewed by sacks, which count against a team's rushing total but aren't true rushing attempts. Purdue, though, is largely an exception. It was a respectable 48th nationally in sacks allowed per game and 26th in sack rate. Run blocking was unsurprisingly a problem. Purdue ranked 123rd in stuff rate, 100th in power success rate (a measure of short-yardage success) and 116th in line yards per carry (measures the average running room available). Despite all that, running back Zander Horvath rushed for 442 yards on 5.0 yards per carry in six games. Purdue's 2021 opener didn't evoke optimism for widespread run-game improvement. The Boilermakers ran for 99 yards on 29 non-sack carries against Oregon State. A passing offense led by junior quarterback Jack Plummer and All-Big Ten junior wide receiver David Bell did most of the work. 3. Recruiting Uptick Brohm quickly elevated Purdue's recruiting to a level it has rarely seen. The Boilermakers signed the na - tion's No. 26 class in 2019 and the No. 30-ranked group in 2020. Their 2022 class is ranked 37th and has a pair of Rivals250 commits. Half of the 10 four-star signees from 2019 and 2020 have already turned into starters or stars. Bell — Rivals' No. 95 overall player in 2019 — is one of the five highest-ranked recruits to choose Purdue in the Rivals era. He posted 1,035 yards as a freshman and averaged 104.2 yards in six games in 2020. Junior defensive end George Karlaftis, a top-150 recruit, was a first-team Associated Press All-American in 2019 as a freshman. Elsewhere, redshirt sophomore safety Marvin Grant (No. 138 player in 2019) is a starting safety. Junior receiver Milton Wright, a former four-star, enters his third season as a starter. Sophomore Gus Hartwig, another former four-star, is in his second year as the starting center. Brohm's most impressive recruiting wins have come with local players. Purdue has signed or earned com - mitments from 13 four-star recruits since 2019. All but one is from Indiana or a bordering state. — P atrick Engel Junior defensive end George Karlaftis, a top- 150 recruit, was a first-team Associated Press All-American in 2019 as a freshman. PHOTO COURTESY PURDUE ATHLETICS