Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 20, 2025 37 GAME PREVIEW: PURDUE BY TYLER HORKA PURDUE RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE There isn't any disguising what type of team Pur- due is in the ground game. The Boilermakers have a true No. 1 running back in senior Devin Mocko- bee, who ran 46 times in Purdue's first two games of the season. The player next in line in terms of rushing attempts? Quarterback Ryan Browne. He was credited with 16 rushes through two games. However, Mockobee and Brown were not very efficient in the first couple weeks of the season. The former averaged 4.0 yards per carry. The latter, 3.4. It's not like Purdue has a wild card in its stable of ball carriers, either. Only two players bested Mocko- bee's mark of 4.0 through two games. The leader in that regard, Arkansas transfer quarterback Malachi Singleton, rushed 3 times for 17 yards. That repre- sented a team-best 5.7 yards per carry. Sophomore running back Antonio Harris' 8 rushes for 38 yards and an average of 4.8 yards per carry placed him in the No. 2 spot in yards per attempt through Week 2. All things considered, it's no wonder Purdue ranked 80th nationally in rushing offense with 153.5 yards per game through Week 2. The Boiler- makers just don't pack a punch in this part of the game. Notre Dame, meanwhile, wasn't much bet- ter in rushing defense through Week 2. The Irish only played one game in that time, but they gave up 134 yards to Miami in the season opener. That placed the Irish 75th nationally in rushing yards allowed per game. Even if not being as stout as other national cham- pionship contenders along the defensive line is Notre Dame's most glaring defensive deficiency, the Irish should have enough to stymie Purdue in this phase. For instance, the Boilermakers rushed for only 38 yards on 1.5 yards per carry against Notre Dame last season. Advantage: Notre Dame PURDUE PASSING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE Purdue's got a quarterback who likes to sling it in redshirt sophomore Ryan Browne. Through two games, he completed 32 of 49 passes (65.3 percent) for 481 yards with 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Not bad. Browne's predecessor, though, was vastly more experienced than him. Hudson Card started big, meaningful games at Texas before he got to West Lafayette. That did not matter in the slightest when he got on the same field as Notre Dame in that city. The Fighting Irish limited Card to 11-of-24 passing for 124 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 intercep- tion. There just wasn't much Card could do to overcome Notre Dame's passing defense that day. A big part of it was due to the Irish's effective pass rush, which was nonexistent in this year's season opener against Miami. Hurricanes starter Carson Beck was comfortable all night in dicing up what is generally a vaunted Irish secondary, which has been rated No. 1 in college football in defen- sive efficiency for the last two seasons. Notre Dame's edge rushers need to get to Browne in the same way they did Card a year ago. Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore were tremendous in that game. If they're game wreckers once again in this year's matchup, it should render On PaPer Redshirt sophomore quarterback Ryan Browne completed 65.3 percent of his passes and threw 4 touchdowns to 1 interception in his first two starts of 2025. PHOTO COURTESY PURDUE ATHLETICS