Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/82695
THEY SAID IT "It really did come down to Brian Kelly decided to put Tommy Rees in the game. No timeouts, 2:05 on the clock, and he made all the right decisions on the key plays down the stretch." — Mike Mayock, NBC Sports Purdue's most effective runner, gain- ing 6.8 yards a carry and scrambling for a few key first downs. With mul- tiple key contributors off the field, we'll give the Irish a free pass this time around. But the difference be- tween a good defense and a great one is the ability to get off the field, and Bob Diaco's guys didn't do it on Saturday." — Keith Arnold, NBC Notre Dame blogger "Quarterback Caleb TerBush was "Sure we struggled a little bit. I thought we played well and went out there and tried to execute as well as we could, but we had our hands full with the quality of the competition. A lot of offensive lines would struggle with that outfit." — Purdue head coach Danny Hope on Notre Dame's defense PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA run early. We want to run the ball early so we might be getting stopped in the beginning of the game, but we want to wear those guys out over the course of the game so those four-yard runs turn to eight-yard runs near the end of the game. That's what we want to do: wear guys out and run the ball hard." — Michigan State running back Le'Veon Bell on attacking Notre Dame's defensive front seven "Those guys are going to come out and be physical. They're going to want to stop the in various games that we were able to break down. For us as a defense we always try to stop the run first. That's No. 1 on the totem pole, on the poster. That's what we try to focus on. If you can make a team one-dimensional you're going to be successful. In order to do that you have to stop the run." — Michigan State linebacker Max Bullough on stopping Cierre Wood "[Cierre Wood is] a great football player. We learned that from watching him last year and reassessing the schedule strength issue, it looks like 10 wins and a BCS bowl berth could very well be in Notre Dame's future this year. … An achievement of that order would almost certainly rate a high enough spot in the BCS rankings to give Notre Dame a shot at playing in a BCS bowl. It's the type of occurrence that seemed next to impossible just a short time ago." — KC Joyner, ESPN.com "It is only two weeks into the season, but after looking at some game tape and metrics The Michigan State defense will be focused on stopping senior running back Cierre Wood and the Notre Dame rush- ing attack. ✦ PAGE 14