With a primetime start and a team that is still adapting to a new system, Purdue coach Darrell Hazell looks ready for his biggest challenge to date: A Notre Dame team that’s looking to rebound after a difficult loss to Michigan.
In his weekly press conference, Hazell talked about some of the challenges his team with face, and what’ll they’ll need to do to win a game where they’re more than three touchdown underdogs.
A week after his offensive line struggled sustaining their blocks against Indiana State, Hazell talked about the challenge that All-American Louis Nix and the Irish front seven pose for the Boilermakers.
“They’re very good up front. Those guys are very good inside. The nose guard, Nix, he’s outstanding,” Hazell said. “The thing that impresses me about him is to watch him run down and chase the ball at 350 pounds. You wouldn’t think a guy that big plays with so much energy down the field, but he does a great job. The other guys on the edge, they’re outstanding as well. So we’re going to have to do a good job of creating some double teams.”
Double-teams? Check. And that won’t just be the strategy for Nix, but also Stephon Tuitt, who was remarkably kept off the stat sheet, even though he made a game-changing play on his endzone interception of Devin Gardner.
Hazell talked about the work Michigan did to keep Tuitt from causing too many problems up front.
“They did a good job of doubling him,” Hazell said. “They ran the ball outside. They got it out of the quarterbacks hands as fast as they can on three step, and if they weren’t throwing three step, a lot of times they were going seven-man protection so he was not getting the rush.”
From a defensive perspective, it’s interesting to hear what Hazel saw looking over the game film of Notre Dame’s loss to Michigan. For those that have accused Bob Diaco of playing too vanilla up front, the Irish were burnt as they tried to get pressure on Gardner, especially on third downs.
“They rely a lot on their front seven. They play a lot of manned coverage that probably exposed them a little bit last week, some of those routes,” Hazell said. “But they’re going to bring the house on third down. They’re going to twist and bring blitz on third down. Just watched the third down cut-up reel, and it was a frenzy of blitzes coming from all areas.
“We’re going to have to do a good job on third down of understanding the situation and not getting ourselves in a 3rd and 15 or 3rd and 12, and managing that situation especially early in the game so that the crowd, their part of the crowd, doesn’t get all juiced up.”
Ross-Ade has been a feisty place for the Irish, both with pro-Notre Dame fans and a home crowd that did their best to will Purdue to an almost upset of Jimmy Clausen’s final Irish squad in 2009. And if you thought you’d get through the week without rivalry talk, Hazell also spoke about how excited he was to take part in this in-state rivalry, a game that’s been played for an awful long time.
“Anytime you get two good universities going against each other that are so close to each other, there are bragging rights,” Hazell said. “There are absolutely bragging rights. This is a big game for us.
“It’s really fun just to think how long this series has been going on uninterrupted. I’m excited about this game Saturday night. There is a lot of hype going on right now. We’ve got to make sure as a staff and as a football team that we put in the preparations that we need to do to help our chances to be successful, and that is the bottom line.”