Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 SEPT. 20, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: PURDUE Purdue's top pass catchers — Michael Jackson III, Arhmad Branch and EJ Horton Jr. — pretty useless. That'll be because Notre Dame defensive backs Leonard Moore, Christian Gray and Adon Shuler blanket the receivers they're covering when the opposing quarterback is under duress. That was the formula for solid pass defense dur- ing the Al Golden tenure as Notre Dame defensive coordinator; make life hard on the quarterback, and make life easier on your defensive backs. Golden's successor, Chris Ash, should be able to get back to that in this matchup. Advantage: Notre Dame NOTRE DAME RUNNING GAME VS. PURDUE RUN DEFENSE This is where last year's matchup was decisively decided. Notre Dame piled up 362 rushing yards on Purdue's porous rush defense. That was both a season high for the Fighting Irish and a season worst for the Boilermakers. Here's the catch — Notre Dame's next best effort in this area was further away from Purdue's next worst. Notre Dame's second-best rushing output in a single game in 2024 was 273 yards while Pur- due's second-worst figure of yards allowed in a single game was 341. What we're saying is this is more of a Purdue thing than a Notre Dame thing. Yes, if operating at full strength, Notre Dame's rushing attack is highly formidable. The Irish have one of the top tailback tandems in the sport in ju- nior Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. The offen- sive line, in theory, should be able to consistently block for them better and better as the season goes along. But it's more about Purdue having nobody to break through blocks and nobody that scares Love or Price as tacklers. Love had a 48-yard run against Purdue last year. Price had a 70-yarder. This is the exact type of defense players of their caliber feast on. The missing link, obviously, from one year to the next is quarterback Riley Leonard. He had 100 rushing yards in his own right versus Purdue last September. But even backup Steve Angeli, now at Syracuse and known for being a bit statuesque in the pocket, ripped off a 29-yard rushing gain in second-half relief of Leonard. Notre Dame red- shirt freshman CJ Carr showed he can scoot in the season opener at Miami. He shouldn't be afraid of Purdue's run defense, which ranked 47th in the country through Week 2 against two very feeble opponents. All in all, this edge goes the way of the home team with little resistance. Advantage: Notre Dame NOTRE DAME PASSING GAME VS. PURDUE PASS DEFENSE Southern Illinois actually got over the 200-yard threshold against Purdue in Week 2, but the FCS Salukis needed 34 pass attempts to get to 202. They only completed 58.8 percent of their passes, too. And in Week 1, Purdue limited Ball State to 87 passing yards on 16 attempts. So, in both of their games so far, the Boilermakers have held their foes to fewer than 6.0 yards per attempt. OFFENSE Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. WR 0 Malachi Fields 6-4 222 R-Sr. 14 Micah Gilbert 6-2 204 R-Fr. WR 1 Jaden Greathouse 6-1 215 Jr. or 2 Will Pauling 5-10 190 R-Sr. LT 54 Anthonie Knapp 6-4 300 So. 71 Styles Prescod 6-6 292 R-Fr. LG 74 Billy Schrauth 6-4 310 R-Jr. 55 Chris Terek 6-6 322 R-So. C 70 Ashton Craig 6-5 310 R-Jr. 64 Joe Otting 6-4 308 R-So. RG 76 Guerby Lambert 6-7 335 R-Fr. or 75 Sullivan Absher 6-8 327 R-So. RT 59 Aamil Wagner 6-6 300 R-Jr. 76 Guerby Lambert 6-7 335 R-Fr. TE 9 Eli Raridon 6-7 252 Sr. 7 Ty Washington 6-4 248 R-Jr. or 85 Jack Larsen 6-3 250 R-Fr. WR 6 Jordan Faison 5-10 185 Jr. 11 KK Smith 6-0 176 R-So. QB 13 CJ Carr 6-3 210 R-Fr. 8 Kenny Minchey 6-2 208 R-So. RB 4 Jeremiyah Love 6-0 214 Jr. 24 Jadarian Price 5-11 210 R-Jr. DEFENSE Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. DE 5 Boubacar Traore 6-4 250 R-So. 44 Junior Tuihalamaka 6-2 255 Sr. or 12 Jordan Botelho 6-3 260 R-Sr. DT 47 Jason Onye 6-5 302 R-Sr. 97 Gabriel Rubio 6-5 321 R-Sr. DT 41 Donovan Hinish 6-2 277 Sr. 93 Jared Dawson 6-1 288 Gr. DE 95 Bryce Young 6-7 271 So. 40 Joshua Burnham 6-4 260 R-Jr. WILL 3 Jaylen Sneed 6-2 230 R-Jr. 4 Jaiden Ausberry 6-2 228 R-So. MIKE 34 Drayk Bowen 6-2 235 Jr. 27 Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa 6-3 230 So. CB 15 Leonard Moore 6-2 195 So. 14 Dallas Golden 6-0 187 Fr. BS 8 Adon Shuler 6-0 205 R-So. 28 Luke Talich 6-4 210 Jr. FS 7 Jalen Stroman 6-1 201 R-Sr. 9 Tae Johnson 6-2 192 R-Fr. CB 6 Christian Gray 6-0 190 Jr. 24 Mark Zackery IV 5-11 175 Fr. NIC 0 DeVonta Smith 5-11 195 R-Sr. 21 Karson Hobbs 6-1 189 So. SPECIAL TEAMS Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. KO 48 Marcello Diomede 6-1 195 Jr. PK 98 Noah Burnette 5-10 185 Gr. P 16 James Rendell 6-6 225 Gr. 18 Erik Schmidt 6-2 210 Fr. LS 96 Joseph Vinci 6-4 232 So. 49 Andrew Kros 6-4 225 Jr. H 10 Tyler Buchner 6-1 206 Sr. 16 Anthony Rezac 6-3 201 So. PR 6 Jordan Faison 5-10 185 Jr. or 2 Will Pauling 5-10 190 R-Sr. KR 4 Jeremiyah Love 6-0 214 Jr. or 24 Jadarian Price 5-11 210 R-Jr. NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH TWO-DEEP DEPTH CHART Speedy sophomore wide receiver Nitro Tuggle, a transfer from Georgia, had 3 receptions for 54 yards and his first career touchdown during Purdue's 2-0 start. PHOTO COURTESY PURDUE ATHLETICS