T-Minus 36 Days: Quick Look at the Cardinals

In the third game of the season, Purdue stays at home to welcome the Ball State Cardinals. BSU is coming off a pretty horrible season directly-following a bowl game season. But a ton changed between '08 and '09. Brady Hoke left and they lost a lot of talent, some of it NFL-caliber talent. So no one can really blame them for the big drop off last season. In spite of that drop-off, a few Ball State fans are pretty vocal on some of the message boards about how confident they are versus Purdue. I honestly don't understand why...but here's what I know about the 2010 Ball State Cardinals.

-They've got a trio of running backs that are very, very talented. In ONE contest last year, two backs combined for over 500 yards. That's not a typo. The only one I'm going to talk about is Miquale Lewis. He had 301 yards in that game alone...he's good, he strong, he's really short. He's listed at 5'6" 201...but he's no taller than Lil' Boilerdowd (who is 4 years old). Doesn't matter, Lewis is a bad man.

The really good thing is that Purdue's 7 up front are solid...I'd be more worried if BSU was a pass-happy offense. That said, they pretty much return everybody. But the age-old football philosophical question is, "Is it a good thing to return a bunch of players from a lousy team?"

-Toward the end of Tiller's tenure, many joked that Purdue was MAC champs as they got fat on the widely-disrespected conference. But, what does a MAC team do when it wants to feast on tasty cupcakes? Well, BSU scheduled SE Missouri State, then Liberty to start out its 2010 campaign...So they should be very healthy as they head into Ross-Ade. But, in-spite of having a pair of tune-ups to start the season, they might not be exactly battle-tested.

BSU is the first of MAC opponents Purdue will face in a two-week span in the pre-con schedule.

T-Minus 39 Days: Quick Look at the Leathernecks

Not quite as flashy of a matchup as the first game, Purdue welcomes the Western Illinois Leathernecks to Ross Ade in the second contest of the season. Here's what you need to know about them:

-They got dumptrucked by Northern Illinois last season, 41-7
-Brock Spack's squad whipped them late in the season, 25-7
-Their only win in '09 was Sam Houston State
-They helped ISU snap out of their 33-game losing streak by throwing last season's contest
-They had a pretty solid running back in '09 who averaged about 4.5 yards/carry...he's gone.
-The two quarterbacks who started in '09 and combined for one win both return
-Their defense had a good three-game stretch in the middle of the season where they didn't allow more than 17 points...but they allowed 30+ five times in '09
-Like Brian Kelly, Mark Hendrickson (WIU's HC) parts his hair from left to right...and is in his first year as their head coach. That's about where the similarities stop. Hendrickson's offenses are typically run-first systems as he's produced a ton of 1000 yard+ rushers as an OC. They might have trouble running against Purdue's front 7.

Robert Marve should put on a bit of a display in this one...as should the entire Purdue offense. Hopefully TerBush takes most of the snaps in the fourth quarter.

T-Minus 40 Days: Quick Look at the Irish

Since we last saw our pals in South Bend, a lot has changed. They've lost an unlikable coach and all of the wonderful trappings that came with him...Plus, he's been replaced with a guy that I have a hard time disliking. Kelly has been no-nonsense since his arrival at UND and hasn't once mentioned any specific advantage his team has because of his abilities. Amazingly, they might actually have some because of Kelly's ability to develop offensive talent and spread the ball around to a number of different weapons. Quite honestly, the chasm that Weis left angers and saddens me. But, as the NDC hype machine cranks up in the fall, the embers in my gut will be stoked once again as we're all reminded of Subway Alums, stuck-up students and an heir of cockiness as talk of Waking up echoes, great tradition, or all their success of the past becomes louder and louder.

Here's what we know of the Irish right now:

As usual, they're chucked-full of talent with four and five star recruits sprinkled throughout the offensive and defensive line-ups, but there are plenty of variable in South Bend too. Dayne Crist is now the QB. Like Clausen, he was one of the top players in the nation out of high school. But, he was only used as an option QB in '09. Armando Allen returns at running back, Floyd and Kamara at WR, Ragone and Rudolph at TE, but their offensive line has gone through a major overhaul as they lost three starters. Defensively, they return 9 players from a mediocre defense. But, Manti Te'O is probably now ready for primetime as he's had a full year to bulk up and prepare.
And of course, Kelly, who has been successful everywhere he's been, will surely change the look of the Irish. One thing to watch is the fact that Kelly might struggle with one of the same problems that Weis had- an offense-first coaching philosophy.

Off the field, 8 Irish players were arrested for underage drinking. Kelly has done nothing about it other than issued firm warnings. Of course, the arrests probably aren't too important as none of the players looked to be significant contributors in the coming season.

Around the team, in spite of suffering another mediocre season, the Irish media still are quite confident.

UND's rivals site has been rating all 12 opponents on their schedule along with the Irish by position. Not surprisingly, Purdue is not getting a ton of respect...Coming off of a 5-win season, I can't really blame them. But, their objective outlook isn't even-handed. The site consistently has the Irish in the top-3 of most categories and has them at a current average just behind USC. The 10-win Pitt Panthers, 8-win Stanford Cardinal and the 10-win Utah Utes all trail the Irish in most categories, according to Irishillustrated.com. So at very minimum, if the Irish don't have great success, at least they'll always have their world-class confidence.

Don't Mess With Nick (or Albert)

62 is the new 99...and now, Mondek won't be punishing QBs, but protecting 'em.

Adam Rittenberg over at EsPN wrote a pretty nifty and quick article about ten BT football players who are impressive in the gym- Nick Mondek and Albert Evans both made the list. I met Evans in the spring and was impressed with his mass...here's to hoping his speed doesn't suffer too badly as he becomes an absolute run-stopping monster and starting safety that makes everybody, even tight ends, think twice about coming across the middle as the season progresses.

But, Nick Mondek really impressed me with his numbers. First off, we all know he's big, and linemen need to be strong, but his 6'5" frame is now hovering near 3 bills...and atop that, he's running a 4.82/40 and has a 31-flippin'-inch vertical leap.

Holy Moly. Not sure jumping is all that important on the offensive line, BUT, the numbers really show his athleticism and while pulling, his quick feet will make a big difference.

I'm positive I'm not the only one who's stoked to watch Mondek and Plue on the same line.

Evans was just getting comfortable as a defensive player in '09...his developing defensive mentality and corresponding physique can't be a bad thing.