September 25, 1993

Notre Dame at Purdue Final Stats

By Warren Junium, The Scholastic 1993 Football Review

Who would have thought that Purdue would give the 1993 Notre Dame squad a tough time? But on a rainy, miserable day in West Lafayette, the Purdue Boilermakers came close to upsetting the number four Fighting Irish.

Purdue coach Jim Colletto came into the 64th meeting of these two teams looking to play the role of “Spoilermaker” by letting history repeat itself. Purdue and Notre Dame have met 15 times previ­ously when the Fighting Irish were ranked in the top five nationally. The Boilermakers have won seven of those games, most recently in 1979. Purdue was looking to make it eight.

In the first half, the Boiler defense shut down a strong Irish offense – something that no one expected. The Notre Dame offense was limited to just 136 yards for the entire first half. Senior quarterback Kevin McDougal led an ineffective passing game in the first two quarters. He was three for nine with two interceptions, and his longest completion was only 15 yards on a second and 10 play to sophomore split end Derrick Mayes.

“Coming out in the first half our offense was out of sync,” said Coach Holtz. “We didn’t prepare well, but this is the real Irish offense.”

The Irish passing game may have been contained by the Boilers, but the Irish running game made some headway against the surpris­ingly strong Purdue defense. Freshman tailback Randy Kinder led the Notre Dame rushers in the first half with 51 total yards. During the second possession, he threaded himself through the steadfast Purdue offensive line for a 22 yard gain, and junior fullback Ray Zellars also added to the Irish cause with 31 total rushing yards in the first half.

“In the first quarter we could not get the ball over the 50 yard line. Their defense played a great game today,” said Purdue fullback Mike Alstott.

But in the second quarter junior quarterback Matt Pike got his offense rolling. Pike relied on Alstott for the big play. He connected with Alstott on four accounts that totaled 55 yards. Halfway through the second quarter, on a third and seven play, Pike hit Alstott with a pass that moved the Boilers to Notre Dame territory for only the second time in the game. Pike continued this drive all the way to the Irish 25 yard line, where the Boilers teed up for a 43–yard field goal. Junior kicker Vito Speciale lined up the field goal, but senior tackle Aaron Taylor blocked Speciale’s kick, which was recovered by Purdue junior holder Brian Goehl.

The Irish took over and the offense again faltered. This allowed Purdue to have another chance to score before half time, but the Notre Dame defense stood strong.

The Irish came out in the second half looking to vindicate themselves. At first they could not get their offense started.

The first Notre Dame drive of the half ended on the Purdue 38-yard line when McDougal went wide right and fumbled the ball as he was tackled. But the Purdue offense was also having a bad day and the Boilers did not capitalize on Notre Dame’s mistakes.

After McDougal’s showing in the first half and then his fumble in the third quarter, Coach Holtz went to junior back-up quarter­ back Paul Failla. During his first drive Failla was also ineffective. But then the Notre Dame defense stepped in again.

With 5:50 remaining in the third quarter, Purdue took over the ball on its own 15-yard line. The Boiler offense had a string of successful plays in the drive but with 4:27 left in the quarter, the possession came to an abrupt end. Pike stepped back to pass but was smothered by the Irish defense and fumbled the ball. Notre Dame senior defensive end Brain Hamilton recovered the ball and took off for the end zone. No one could touch him, and Hamilton scored. With time running down in the third quarter the Irish were up 7-0.

Even with an impressive score by the defense, the Irish offense failed to jump start. Purdue continued to give the ball back to the Irish, but Notre Dame’s offense could not get the ball in the end zone. It seemed that the Irish defense would put the only points on the board. But late in the fourth quarter the Notre Dame offense finally got started. With 7:51 remaining, the Irish took over the ball after a Purdue punt. McDougal was back in at quarterback and relied on fresh­ man tailback Robert Farmer and Zellars to breathe new life into the Irish attack. In this drive Farmer carried the ball four times for a total of 15 yards. And Zellars carried the ball twice for a total of 15 yards with his final carry putting the Irish within field goal range. On a fourth down with four yards to go, senior kicker Kevin Pendergast teed up for a 34 yard field goal and put the Irish up 10-0.

The Irish defense again showed its strength on the kickoff. Pendergast’s kick sailed 60 yards to Purdue freshman linebacker Joe Hagins, who returned the ball 33 yards before Notre Dame junior linebacker Jeremy Sample forced a fumble on the Purdue 38 yard line.

The Irish ground attack took over and ran through the tired  and wet Purdue defense. Zellars broke through the line for 29 yards on three carries during the final drive. The Irish notched their last touchdown of the long afternoon on a one–yard rush by freshman fullback Marc Edwards, making the fi­nal score 17-0.

The weather played a large part in the out come of the game.  It rained throughout the en­tire contest, falling hard­est during the first half. This could explain the lack of accurate passing. McDougal was only three for nine, and Pike was nine for14. In the second half, as the rain began to lighten up, Purdue re­turned to the pass, but Notre Dame stayed with the rush.

“I want to give Purdue all the credit in the world. They played hard and physical. They won the battle up front. It was a tough battle,”said Coach Holtz.

Even though Purdue lost the game on the scoreboard, the Boilers felt good about their performance.

“This game makes our team gain confidence after playing against All-Ameri­cans,” said Alstott

“I told those guys that if they walk out of here with their heads down, I was going to kick them in the fanny,”said Coach Colletto. “Today they played a great game.”