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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The smile on Brian Kelly's face said it all.

Asked whether Notre Dame could take its special-teams play to a new level this week, the head coach replied with a question of his own.

"What level would you like me to take them to?" he said to a room full of laughs.

If there was one thing that kept Kelly from proclaiming Saturday's 38-10 win at Purdue his team's best performance of the season, special teams may be it.

John Goodman netted minus-3 yards on two punt returns and let another ball roll by him for a 61-yard punt in the first quarter. David Ruffer had one field goal blocked and missed another.

And Kyle Brindza, who saw more action than normal given the Fighting Irish's offensive outburst, averaged 64.3 yards on seven kickoffs, matching a season low from a week earlier at Pitt, where he kicked off just three times.

"Kyle took a step back last week in his performance against Purdue, so we gotta find out why," defensive line coach and special teams coordinator Mike Elston said, adding that Brindza has been punting in practice as well.

"Maybe we've overpunted him a little bit. He's been awesome up until last week, which he understands. And he'll do a better job this week."

Of bigger concern is the punt return game, which has netted 3 total yards for the season on 10 returns between Goodman and Theo Riddick, who have each turned it over once.

Goodman, who has returned eight punts, ranks last among all 76 qualifying FBS players in returns, averaging 0.63 yards per return.

"When you're going backwards, we gotta make better decisions catching the ball, first of all," Elston said. "We can't catch the ball with a guy in our face. And we gotta do a better job of holding up. We gotta get guys out there that can run a little better, that can hold up. And Purdue had good skill and we didn't really match up well and we'll match up better this week with guys that we can get out there. So we just gotta put better guys on their fast players and try to do a better job of holding up."

And then there is Ruffer, a fifth-year senior who converted 23 of 24 field goal attempts last season, when he was a finalist for the Lou Groza Award. Ruffer has made just 3 of 7 field goal attempts so far this year.

There have been some bright spots on special teams, specifically freshman George Atkinson III, whose 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown broke open the Irish's Week 3 win over Michigan State. Atkinson ranks fifth among 100 FBS-qualifying players in kickoff returns, averaging 30.56 yards per return.

And punter Ben Turk has averaged 40.9 yards per punt over his past three games after a rough first two weeks left him with an average of just 33.85.

Still, a lack of clarity at several key spots five weeks into the season has forced Notre Dame into some tough situations, such as the first possession of the third quarter of its Week 4 win at Pitt, after the defense forced a three-and-out.

"It's very frustrating," Elston said, "because now you feel compelled to make a play so you call a block against Pittsburgh. And you rough the punter. So it's like you're trying to make something happen, you're trying to get something positive going on that unit and you're too aggressive, so it's very frustrating."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Jonas Gray was locked in a battle with Purdue's Will Lucas at the 2-yard-line Saturday when Lucas suddenly gave out, giving Gray the first-quarter touchdown.

At least it seemed to Gray that was how he escaped his defender. Then, the running back's brief end-zone celebration was interrupted by center Braxston Cave.

"He knocked the guy off of me actually and I didn't even realize it until I watched the film," Gray said of Cave. "And he said something to me in the end zone about it and I didn't know what he was talking about.

"Once I watched the film, he knocked that guy off of me and that's a guy, just like the rest of the guys, they're just happy to be physical. They're just happy to go out there and open up holes for us."

Perhaps Cave's clobbering block of Lucas had the Notre Dame offensive line so eager to get back to the line of scrimmage every play Saturday night. The Fighting Irish's 287 rushing yards may have had something to do with that as well.

Regardless, the camaraderie of the rushing attack has been at a high through five games this season, with Notre Dame averaging more than 179 yards per game on the ground.

"It's good, it's a confident group right now," offensive line coach and running game coordinator Ed Warinner said. "They're playing hard. They've been together, they like each other, we have good chemistry and so they know that if they do their job good things happen.

"So those guys are getting some nice creases and [it's] just kind of infectious. It just gets going. And moving the ball and being physical is why they play football. That part of it is fun for them and they're enjoying it."

Fun is exactly how Gray described going back to the sideline after each possession Saturday. Excluding a knee to end the first half, only one of the Irish's first nine possessions at Purdue ended with a punt.

Gray finished with 94 yards on 15 carries. Cierre Wood rushed for 191 yards on 20 carries.

"Whenever we go to the sideline during a media timeout or something like that, we were just communicating with each other, telling each other what we saw, and they were like, 'Run behind me. Do this. Do that,'" Gray recalled. "And when you get that from your offensive line, it's refreshing. When they wanna run it and they wanna continue to be physical up front, it was just, they were putting on a lot of positive energy and just being physical up front."

Still, Gray saw plenty of room for improvement, namely in not leaving any more yards out on the field. The senior also hopes to hold up his and Wood's preseason promise of not allowing a sack all season.

The latter area is something running backs coach Tim Hinton believes will go largely unnoticed until a running back actually does miss a crucial block.

Avoiding that is one big challenge for a rushing attack that thus far has exceeded everyone's expectations but its own. Another is simply maintaining the edge that has helped the Irish set the bar so high to begin with.

"The biggest thing right now is to do it every week and have that consistency to run physical, and there will be games where they may not have the highs, but we can't ever have the real lows," Hinton said. "We gotta have a consistent approach to our practice, a consistent approach to how we go about our day and then every game we have to bring a physical mentality and a drive and a relentlessness. We're mad if we got tackled; even if it was a 20-yard gain, we're mad we didn't get 21.

"And I keep trying to instill that that every play: fall forward and try to get one more, try to get two more. And you get that mentality that, 'Listen, I got a little more in me. I got a little more in me,' and that's what we're working for every day. We gotta continue to bring that consistently and I'm telling them every day. And I had a long talk with them [Tuesday]: 'You gotta be able to manage success, because you get a lot of media at Notre Dame and you better manage success.'"

Three straight wins to mask an 0-2 start have Notre Dame above .500 for the first time this season, but it's far from where coach Brian Kelly wanted to be after entering the season ranked No. 16.

Kelly re-iterated Sunday that he hopes his players can play with the same kind of anger they carried into Week 3 after dropping two close contests, anger that they've maintained through the past two wins.

And that edge comes from the top.

"Well I think it starts with me, and I set the tone for the way our team goes to prepare each and every game," Kelly said during his weekly Sunday teleconference. "And so I'm not happy where we are; 3-2 is not what we had in our mindset. So it starts with me and our coaches and they take that lead in the way we go to work every day, so I don't see it changing. I'm certainly not gonna change."

Notes: Kelly said defensive end Ethan Johnson, who spent much of the second half Saturday wearing a protective boot on the sideline after spraining his right ankle, will be immobilized until midweek and there is a chance he could play Saturday against Air Force. ... Long snapper Jordan Cowart, who picked up a personal foul after extended physicality against several Purdue players during a second-quarter punt, broke his hand during the melee but may be able to give it a go Saturday.

1) Protecting the ball makes for smooth sailing: It seemed like we'd never see the day Notre Dame went 60 minutes without a turnover, but Saturday changed that.

The Fighting Irish eclipsed the 500-yard mark for the third time this season, but won while crossing that plateau for the first time, as they were doomed by five-turnover performances in Weeks 1 and 2. Saturday was huge for the offense, in particularly Tommy Rees, who eliminated many of the befuddling miscues that had Irish fans calling for a new quarterback after his first three-and-a-half games under center. Now, for the first time all season, we can no longer say Notre Dame leads the nation in turnovers or has the worst turnover margin. (The first honor belongs to East Carolina, with 17. The latter is shared by East Carolina, Iowa State and Western Kentucky, at -2.00).

2) The rush defense is for real: Notre Dame had another dominating performance up front Saturday, limiting the Big Ten's second-ranked rushing offense to 84 yards on 27 carries. This came two weeks after the Irish allowed just 29 rushing yards against Michigan State and one week after holding Pitt's Ray Graham to 89 yards, something that looks like more of accomplishment after Graham exploded for 226 yards Thursday against South Florida.

3) Special teams need to improve. Still: Brian Kelly said Saturday that he didn't want to sound like sour milk when listing what his team could have done better, but the Irish did leave points on the board. David Ruffer, a 2010 Lou Groza Award finalist, missed two field goals. And the punt return experiment once again looked like just that -- an experiment. John Goodman netted -3 yards on two returns and, in a real head-scratcher, watched one ball sail over his head and roll for a 61-yard punt in the first quarter.

4) Penalties still need clearing up: This one gets overshadowed because the Irish didn't turn the ball over, won by 28 points and saw their opponent commit an astounding 13 penalties for 118 yards. But Notre Dame itself committed eight penalties for 85 yards, including an ugly one when long snapper Jordan Cowart got tangled up with several Purdue players on a second-quarter punt. Mental lapses such as these are forgivable against the Boilermakers, not so much against USC or Stanford.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- In a makeshift media room a football's throw away from the same Ross-Ade Stadium field he just watched his team demolish Purdue on, Brian Kelly was finishing off his opening statement when screams, roars and general excitement began emanating from the nearby Notre Dame locker room.

"You can see they're pretty happy about the way they played," the Fighting Irish coach explained.

What's not to love for Notre Dame fans about a 38-10 thrashing that, for at least one night, validated the early preseason expectations of Year 2 of the Kelly era?

His spread offense looked every bit as high powered as many initially expected, totaling 551 yards. The quarterback he has stood behind through a rocky three-and-a-half games impressed, completing 24 of 40 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns.

The wide receiver he insisted would not be kept under wraps after a rough showing at Pitt amassed 137 yards on 12 catches, none more important than his 35-yard grab on a beautiful play-action fake by Tommy Rees on Notre Dame's second play from scrimmage, making it 7-0 24 seconds into action.

"On the road it's really important," Kelly said of Michael Floyd's early touchdown. "You wanna take the crowd out of it, you wanna be able to put the first one on the board and kind of dictate the tempo of the game, and we did that at Michigan as well, we just didn't finish. It was very similar in the way we really started well [and we] built on that.

"The difference between the two games is we finished this one in the third quarter, is really where we finished it. We deferred, got the ball in the third quarter, had a great opening drive. I think dominating the third quarter really put us in a great position."

Rees completed 9 of 11 passes in the third quarter, ending both of the Irish's drives with touchdown passes. Notre Dame punted on just one of Rees' nine drives at quarterback (excluding his knee to end the first half).

And, more importantly, Rees, and the Irish, did not turn the ball over a single time; this after entering the night with an FBS-worst 15 giveaways.

"I don't know that that is a sigh of relief as much as we have a way that we need to play the game if we're gonna be successful, and we've said that from Day 1," Kelly said. "We're making good decisions, we ran hard. I thought physically our backs, both Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood, really exerted their will on Purdue today, and playing that way physically gives them a confidence that there's no reason why the ball should be on the ground."

No kidding. Notre Dame averaged a ridiculous 7.2 yards per rush, bursting through holes on the left side all night that Kelly, three weeks shy of his 50th birthday, could have probably run through himself.

Wood finished with 191 yards and a touchdown. Gray rushed for 94 yards and a score.

Asked if the backs or linemen were more excited breaking out of each huddle, Gray said: "Offensive line, definitely. You got five against two, they wanted to run it every play."

Tough to blame the group. Hit hard, hit early, leave no doubt. The Irish, above .500 for the first time this season, finally put on the performance they expected all along.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A Notre Dame team that had trouble putting everything together did just that Saturday night, routing Purdue by a final of 38-10 before an announced crowd of 61,555 at Ross-Ade Stadium.

Gary Gray set the tone early, picking off Caleb TerBush on the first play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Tommy Rees hit Michael Floyd for a 35-yard touchdown, and the rout was on.

Floyd returned to his normal self after an off week at Pitt. The senior eclipsed the 10-catch, 100-yard mark once again, re-inserting himself into the conversation as one of the nation's top receivers.

More importantly, the Fighting Irish imposed their will on the ground, running over and around the Boilermakers throughout the evening and controlling the tempo in the second half.

The Irish defense, meanwhile, continued a stellar effort, allowing Purdue to cross midfield just twice in the first half and allowing just a field goal during that span.

Be sure to keep it right here for Brian Kelly and player reaction from the Irish's convincing win.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Notre Dame goes into halftime leading Purdue 21-3. Here's a quick analysis of what went down in the first 30 minutes:

Turning point: It's never early to establish momentum, and Gary Gray did that by picking off Caleb TerBush on the first play from scrimmage. Michael Floyd caught a 35-yard touchdown pass two plays later and the Fighting Irish set the tone early, playing ahead the whole half.

Stat of the half: Purdue has nine penalties for 78 yards, an inexcusable number for a whole game, let alone one half against an Irish team it is overmatched against. To put those numbers in perspective, the Boilermakers have just 122 total yards in the first half.

What Notre Dame needs to do: The Irish need to stick to their ground game until Purdue otherwise proves it can stop it. Notre Dame rushed for 160 yards on 19 carries in the first half, good for a ridiculous 8.4 yards per rush.

What Purdue needs to do: Aside from shooting themselves in the foot with dumb penalties, the Boilermakers need to make some kind of a stand defensively. Notre Dame has two missed field goals that could have put this game that much further out of reach, but the Irish have gone the entire half without a turnover after entering the contest with an FBS-leading 15.

1. These guys can rush: Aaron Lynch set the tone early by sacking Kirk Cousins and forcing a fumble. The defense continued the assault all day long, getting to Cousins time and time again and rendering the Spartans' run game moot.

2. Special teams can make all the difference: George Atkinson III's kickoff return for a score made it 14-3 early and the Irish never looked back. The return came after MSU's first scoring drive and gave Notre Dame plenty of momentum and distance the rest of the way.

3. Turnovers need to be curtailed: Three turnovers are still too many. Tommy Rees, at 19, is still growing as a quarterback and will make mistakes, but senior John Goodman's fumble of a punt return deep in his own territory could have been costly if not for Blanton's pick three plays later. Three is better than five, and the Irish have at least showed they're capable of bouncing back from mistakes by not letting up against MSU on Saturday. But at some point the bleeding has to stop.

4. Don't look now, but the Irish could be in business: The Irish should be favored in every game moving forward except for the final one, at Stanford. For now, they can focus on a Pitt team that looked more vulnerable Saturday than the Irish themselves through the first two weeks, as the Panthers blew a 21-point lead to Iowa in a 31-27 loss. Purdue and Air Force follow for Notre Dame before its bye, after which it will host rival USC in its first home night game in 21 years.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Here’s a quick look at Michigan State’s 74-56 win over Purdue in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals on Friday.

How the game was won: Michigan State came surging out of the gates. The Spartans opened the game on a 10-2 run and never looked back. They led by as many as 21 points.

Turning point: The opening tip went Michigan State’s way and so did the rest of the game.

Stat of the game: Purdue had two offensive rebounds.

Player of the game: Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas continues to be a big-game player. He scored a game-high 30 points and shot 4 for 6 from 3-point range.

Purdue player of the game: JaJuan Johnson did his part for the Boilermakers. He had 21 points, nine rebounds, one steal and one block.

Unsung hero of the game: Michigan State’s Draymond Green did a bit of everything in the win. He had eight points, 13 rebounds, four assists, one steal and three blocks.

ESPN SportsCenter highlight of the game: With Purdue creeping its way back, Michigan State’s Mike Kebler picked off a pass, was off to the races and soared in for a layup at the other end to push the Spartans ahead 64-51.

What the game means: Where has this Michigan State team been? The Spartans looked like the team everyone thought they would be coming into the season. There was a thought tossed around by some that Tom Izzo’s squad would turn it on in the postseason. Friday’s performance doesn’t guarantee that, but it should give Michigan State’s fans hope. For Purdue, this is the second consecutive game where it has been underwhelming. The Boilermakers also lost to Iowa to close out the regular season. It’s not exactly how you want to be playing entering the NCAA tournament.

Illinois senior point guard Demetri McCamey earned Big Ten co-player of the week honors with Purdue senior guard E'Twaun Moore on Monday.

Read the entire story.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Like so many little boys before him growing up in the shadow of the golden dome, Braxston Cave's living room in Granger, Ind. often doubled as Notre Dame's locker room.

His VHS copy of "Rudy" was worn and warped, as was the furniture from which he stood and shouted the Fighting Irish gospel at a prepubescent pitch.

"I can just remember in the living room when he fell in love with the movie," his father, Rick Cave, said. "He'd watch that thing over and over and over. It got to the point where he would get up on the coffee table and do the whole recital, you know, the Knute Rockne speech. He knew that thing like the back of his hand. The thing that really took me, he turned to me and said, 'One day I'm going run out of that tunnel.' He was probably only 6 years old at the time. I said, 'I believe you will, son, I believe you will.' "

Two years ago, Kim and Rick Cave watched their son do just that as a freshman snapper on special teams, a position he also staffed as a sophomore.

"It was like, 'Pinch me, I don't believe this is real,' " Kim recalled. "It was very exciting. My husband and I both had tears in our eyes."

Saturday against Purdue, the 6-foot-3, 301-pounder will emerge from the tunnel as Notre Dame's starting center.

"It's just not every day that something like this happens," Rick Cave said. "From the time he was young this has been his dream."

Cave appreciates what he's accomplished after two frustrating seasons. In a battle with fifth-year senior Dan Wenger -- one that's expected to continue considering Wenger has 19 career starts at center and guard combined -- Cave received the official first-team nod Monday when the Irish depth chart was released.

"Well, Wenger got dinged up, as you know," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. "He had a concussion and it was a pretty severe concussion. It took longer for him to come back. We had to hold him out until he cleared, so that really gave Braxston probably the nose at the end to take that number one position. Braxston's improved in a lot of areas -- first of all, in his physical conditioning.

"He is in such better condition to play a longer period of-high level football for us. He could only go in spurts for us in the spring. Secondly, he's been really good with the shotgun snaps. He'd been very inconsistent in the spring. He improved in the areas that he's needed to to put him in the position he's at right now."

Cave, who bench-pressed 520 pounds in the offseason, credits strength and conditioning coach Paul Longo for the significant gains that powered his starting push.

"Like coach Longo always says, lead from the front and the rest will follow," Cave said.

Keeping It In Perspective

Cave, enthusiastic but focused, knows how difficult a climb it was to get to this point and how quickly it can all be yanked away. He explained to his mother in a text message Monday that Aug. 30 need not be circled or celebrated.

Kim: I'm a little bothered. This is one of the most exciting times in your life, what you've worked so hard for, and you don't seem too excited.

Braxston: Because it's not the same to us as it's projected by the media. I go to work every day and I do my thing day in and day out. It's not like something happened today and coach Kelly told me I was starting. It's been an ongoing process for the last [few] months.

Really, for the last 15 years.

"This is something I've been working for my whole life," Cave said. "It's finally paying off. There's never a moment to relax around here. I have to keep coming out here and pushing it every day."

The first two years were tough for him. From the time Cave was small -- as hard as that is to imagine -- he dominated. When he arrived in South Bend, he had trouble keeping pace with a long list of veteran linemen ahead of him.

"It came to the point those two years he realized he had to step his game up," Rick Cave said. "I'm proud of him for that. He never did mention that he was going to transfer. He made the comment, 'I'm a Notre Dame man and that's the way it is. My time will come.' "

Quarterback Dayne Crist, one of Cave's closest friends, must have had a premonition over the summer that the time was now. He invited Cave to fly out to his home in California and the two worked on shotgun snaps and lived in the weight room. Cave began to "think what things may become."

For Kim Cave, what came Monday was a phone call from Karen Crist.

"Congratulations," she said. "I guess your boy will be taking care of my boy."

Man Cave

A hulking Cave is now partially responsible for protecting Crist, the lynchpin of Notre Dame's offense and the only quarterback on the roster with Division-I experience. But taking care of Crist and a host of her son's other teammates, including regular visitor Kyle Rudolph, has always been a priority for Kim Cave.

"They spend a lot of time here," Rick Cave said. "They love Mama Cave's cooking and she loves having them over. [Braxston's] our only son and [my wife] came from a family of all girls, so, boy, you bring all those boys over and that's her cup of tea. She's ready to lay out the spread."

Kim's kitchen turns into an assembly line, pumping out the same massive order phoned in each and every week.

"The burritos," Rick Cave said. "She makes a pretty mean burrito. They'll call up and say it's time for the burritos. She'll have 50 of them whipped up in the oven for 12 [players]. If our son was away, I'd hope there would be another family that would do the same."

A lifelong Irish fan, Rick sometimes can't believe his home serves as a team hotspot.

"It really is [surreal]," he said. "You see all the hype. [My son] and Dayne Crist, Kyle Rudolph and Mike Golic are really ... those four are probably closer than anybody else he runs with on the team. They spend a lot of time here. Sometimes I have to take a step back and say, 'Look who's sitting in my living room.' I'm just having general conversation with them. We'll have people come over and they're just slobbering all over themselves. It's neat."

Boiling Over With Emotion

Today the Rudolphs will arrive in Granger from Cincinnati and unroll sleeping bags and air mattresses in the same living room where a little boy fantasized about suiting up for the Fighting Irish. It's a game weekend tradition for two proud families that have enjoyed a blossoming relationship.

By 2:30 CT Saturday, they'll have made the nine-mile trip to South Bend together and be sitting anxiously on the 15-yard line in the southeast corner of Notre Dame Stadium, especially the Cave clan.

"My stomach's churning," Rick Cave said. "I will have to tape the game because my focus will be watching [Braxston] constantly. I probably won't even know where the ball is at. I'm excited, but pretty nervous at the same time. I know he's going to do well. I can't imagine [what it will feel like for him]. It's going to be something pretty special."

Had big Bruce Gaston chosen Notre Dame over Purdue, it's unlikely the defensive tackle would have been this charged up for Saturday's season opener in South Bend.

Landing with the Boilermakers presented the true freshman from St. Rita an opportunity to push his weight around immediately.

"I can't stress how happy I am to play [Notre Dame]," said the 6-foot-2, 300-pounder, who made ESPNChicago.com's All-Chicago Area Team as a senior after recording 16 sacks and 99 tackles. "We're so hyped for this game."

Gaston, heavily recruited by Purdue, ND, Boston College, Michigan State and Wisconsin, arrived in West Lafayette this summer with a shot to play right away after Mike Neal was drafted by the Green Bay Packers. Kevin Pamphile was expected to replace Neal but is out with a foot injury and probably won't return until the Boilermakers begin Big Ten Conference play.

"I think it being my first game, I never knew who my first game was going to be against, what it was going to be like," Gaston said. "Playing at the Division I level against Notre Dame for your first game, that's just like a dream come true. It doesn't get any better than that."

Boilermaker buzz

Purdue coach Danny Hope: "I think our No. 1 rivalry game is IU. Maybe I'm out of line with that comment. They're both great rivalries. They're both a lot of fun. Going against a storied program like Notre Dame, it's always a big coup when you win. In the long run, opening the season with Notre Dame is a real blessing for this team. It created a sense of urgency for us to prepare."

Senior WR Keith Smith: "You could open up against someone else, but this is going to be a nationally televised game. It's going to be one of the biggest games on at that time. Everybody's going to be watching. So you want to be as prepared as possible to execute your game plan and go out there and win the game."

Junior LB Joe Holland: "We anticipate that they might try to change the tempo up a little bit and that does put a little stress on the defense. We know we need to focus on getting lined up and getting the call from the sideline. If we do that, we should be able to keep up. Coach Hope said nothing's stopping us from lining up quickly. It will be a challenge."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The hits are coming. For first-year Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly, he expects a blast of emotion leading the Fighting Irish out on to the field for the first time Saturday against Purdue. For his quarterback Dayne Crist, Kelly anticipates the junior having to overcome that first physical blow.

Shaking it off quickly is paramount for both.

"I'll be excited obviously running out and being on the field for the first time," Kelly said Tuesday. "But that will all go away, just like the excitement or the jitters on that first hit [on Crist], it goes away as a coach on that first play call, especially if [the fans] boo you. I think that will be a great time of excitement ... Once you get into that game and that ball is kicked, you focus like any other game, you focus like you're at Grand Valley State."

Kelly kicks off his term at 2:41 p.m. CT against a Boilermakers squad shrouded in as much mystery as the Irish and with many similarities.

After starting the 2009 season 1-5, Purdue, under first-year coach Danny Hope, finished 5-7 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten Conference. Like Notre Dame, the Boilermakers enter Saturday's opener with a new quarterback, inexperience in the secondary and a few stitched-up areas on their depth chart.

Miami (Fla.) transfer Robert Marve is under center for the first time since 2008, when he started 11 games for the Hurricanes as a freshman and completed 54.4 percent of his passes for 1,293 yards. His main target is returning Big Ten leader Keith Smith, who caught 91 passes for 1,100 yards. A spring ACL injury sidelined running back Ralph Bolden and opened the door for sophomore Al-Terek McBurse.

"I tried to recruit [Marve] at Cincinnati," Kelly said. "He's a dual-threat quarterback. He's got some great weapons. [Smith] is an elite player. I think their receiving corps is as good as we'll see in terms of depth and athleticism. From an offensive standpoint, [there's] big-play ability. Marve's ability to keep plays alive is always a concern."

Perhaps Notre Dame's biggest concern should be senior defensive end Ryan Kerrigan (6-foot-4, 263 pounds), who feasted on Big Ten quarterbacks in 2009 en route to 13 sacks -- the third-highest total in the country.

"(Kerrigan's) just extremely tough in the way he plays the game," Kelly said. "He's coming after you for four quarters. If you want a model player in terms of the way we'd like to play, Kerrigan's that guy. ... He's relentless. He's going to bring a presence off the edge."

Kelly said Crist can't afford to be one-dimensional.

"He's got to be somebody that extends plays, that runs the football," Kelly said. "He's gonna get tackled and he's gonna get hit. He's gonna have to run around. He's not just going to stay in the pocket and protect him and run three-man routes. Dayne Crist is a guy that's going to have to use all his tools. But we're not going to put him in a position where we get running hits on our quarterback. That's just not smart."

Purdue returns five of its starting front seven on defense -- one that allowed 173.4 yards rushing per game. The Boilermakers appear vulnerable against the pass after replacing its entire secondary with first-time starters. Co-defensive coordinator Gary Emanuel knows Kelly will try and take advantage.

"I don't think [Notre Dame] had to reload much," Emanuel said Sunday. "They have some very, very talented skill players. We expect to see the whole bag of tricks that they have."

NOTES

Kelly made it clear that freshman Tommy Rees is only listed as Crist's backup because of a lack of space. "Tommy Rees is the No. 2 quarterback because there were only two slots to fill out (on the two-deep). ... Really, that position is still one that will be evaluated all week, quite honestly, and all year. Rees and (Nate) Montana will be treated with the second team reps -- they're splitting them right now. I don't think it's accurate to say he's nailed that position down."

For now, depth at linebacker is an issue for the Irish. Steve Paskorz (knee) is expected to miss three weeks after a strain suffered last Wednesday. Anthony McDonald (knee) will dress against Purdue and is "making good progress," according to Kelly, but has been bumped for sophomore Carlo Calabrese on the inside next to Manti Te'o. David Posluszny (hamstring) is doubtful for Saturday.

You can be sure that Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly and his staff have already dissected enough game film on this season's opponents to load a reel the size of a monster truck tire.

The first quarter of the season features a trio of Big Ten regulars coming off disappointing seasons. Of course, personnel and schematic changes are inevitable. But here are each opponent's most glaring vulnerabilities based on last year's results.

Bowled over Boilermakers

Purdue comes to South Bend on Sept. 4 for both squads' season opener and the Boilermakers surely have spent a good chunk of time this preseason addressing their abysmal run defense.

Even if Purdue makes significant improvement with stud senior defensive end Ryan Kerrigan (6-foot-4, 263 pounds) anchoring the D-line, Irish running backs coach Tim Hinton must be licking his lips. En route to a 5-7 record in 2009, Purdue finished 94th in the nation in rushing defense, giving up 173.4 yards per game and 26 rushing touchdowns -- by far the most scoring strikes by anyone on Notre Dame's schedule. When coach Danny Hope took his team on the road, it allowed 215.4 rushing yards per contest.

Backward Maize and Blue

Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez has a lot to fix in this third season in Ann Arbor. With a pair of sophomore quarterbacks battling for the starting role when Michigan visits Notre Dame on Sept. 11, Big Blue must find a way to minimize negative yardage when defenses sniff things out.

Last year, a dangerous offense with then-freshman Tate Forcier under center saw plenty of plays fall apart in a hurry, resulting in 348 yards given back on 91 snaps. The Wolverines, when trapped, lost an average of 7.58 yards per play.

The Irish weren't spectacular on the other end of that statistic last fall under former defensive coordinator John Tenuta, finishing 55th in tackles for loss. However, an experienced line consisting of junior ends Ethan Johnson and Kapron Lewis-Moore and senior nose guard Ian Williams will look to impose its will on the Wolverines and hope that Notre Dame's deep group at linebacker can finish the job.

Spartans Spinning

Michigan State, which hosts Notre Dame in a Sept. 18 night game, eked out an Alamo Bowl berth with a 6-6 record. But Texas Tech exploited the Spartans' secondary for 460 passing yards in a 41-31 postseason victory.

After giving up 267.6 yards per game through the air in 2009, MSU returns with sophomores on each corner. Irish quarterback Dayne Crist might want to test the Spartans early after MSU surrendered 42 completions of 15 yards or more on first down last season. Kelly can also feel comfortable in third-and-long situations after Michigan State failed to stop opponents 40 percent of the time.