Notre Dame football: Ranking the Irish’s 2021 schedule by entertainment value

Notre Dame football: Ranking the Irish’s 2021 schedule by entertainment value

No. 10: Purdue, Week 3

When Notre Dame left the Big East for the ACC, there were consequences to remaining independent in football. Namely, they have to play at least five games a year against schools in the ACC. This has made Notre Dame pick and choose which of their traditional rivals they continue playing games with annually.

Recruiting trips to California are key, so USC and Stanford stayed. Navy, meanwhile, is a special case. That has left very few spaces for a team like Purdue to keep playing, which is a shame in its own right.

Still, Purdue falls behind several other B1G 10 opponents, like Michigan and Michigan State, in terms of importance to fans. With that being said, this is the first time Notre Dame and Purdue have played since 2014.

Purdue hired Jeff Brohm in 2017, and since then a few things have happened at Purdue. The first is that Brohm has managed to develop an excellent passing offense for the Boilermakers. The second, which wouldn’t be possible without the first, is that he leveraged the open Louisville job (his alma mater) to get a massive contract extension, 7 years and $36.8 million.

That’s what a top-10 coach in the country would make. Third, Brohm has not figured out the defense or running game at all, and now Purdue is on the verge of needing to find buyout money for a coach they overpaid in the first place. It’s not a good situation to be in.

The game itself should be a lot of fun, putting two old rivals in Indiana together. The game itself will come down to whether or not Purdue can throw into Notre Dame’s secondary all game long, because they won’t be able to run on the Irish for a minute.

• Notre Dame leads the all-time series 56-26-2. They last met in 2014, when the Irish won 30-14.