Now Purdue's crazy offense rolls into South Bend, and the Irish blitz happy scheme has blown the hype for this game way out of proportion. Nobody knows what to expect, and campus is abuzz.

Fittingly, the game starts with an onside kick - called by Coach Weis. Purdue recovers, however, and immediately runs a triple reverse, which results in a loss of 37 yards.

They follow that with a statue of liberty play that loses another 10, and a fumblerooski that gives the Irish the ball at the Purdue 3. A quick Hughes touchdown on the next play, and Weis and Haywood decide that maybe they should stick to a basic gameplan.

On the subsequent possession, Purdue tries the A-11 offense, but the Irish were not fooled this time, blowing it up and forcing the Boilers to run a swinging gate punt.

The Irish settle into a grinding offensive game plan, slowing down the game and limiting Purdue's opportunity to run all over the field.

Purdue does get some big plays, scoring on a hook and ladder and again on a free kick return after giving up a safety. But the Irish play disciplined defense, getting away from Tenuta's blitzing, causing the linebackers coach to run around the press box headbutting people as Brown calls a conservative game.

Notre Dame scores on long drives in each quarter, three touchdowns and a field goal. The defense gets another touchdown on a blocked fake kick on 2nd down.

After the game, Tiller refuses to shake hands with Coach Weis, and grabs the giant drum and starts banging it incessantly during Notre Dame's alma mater.

Prediction: 33-14 Notre Dame

vs. Stanford University

After all of the craziness to start the season, nobody knows what to make of the Irish at this point in the season. ESPN.com has them in the Bottom 10 and in the Power 16, the Coaches have them unranked, and the AP ranks them 17th.

For the first time in the season, the Irish play something resembling a football game, rather than a circus of crazy.

Aldridge, Hughes, Allen, and Gray all score rushing touchdowns, and Clausen adds another pair of passes himself, one to Kamara and another to Grimes in a beautiful diving catch.

On defense, Bruton and Mo Crum lead a defensive effort that renders the Stanford attack completely impotent, holding them to only a pair of field goals.

Prediction: 42-6 Notre Dame

at North Carolina

Notre Dame is finally getting some respect at this point in the season, and they are ranked in the top 20 going into the game with Top 20 and undefeated North Carolina.

In fact, both teams are tied for a 16th ranking in both polls.

To this point, in fact, the teams have had identical seasons.

North Carolina, with their sophomore quarterback, beat the snot out of McNeese State by a score of 84-0.

They survived a strange game against Rutgers in which 5 Rutgers players were ejected for chop blocking, as they were confused by Schiano's constant chopping motions on the sidelines by a score of 35-21.

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