We are now through two weeks of the college football season, and we are ready to do it again in week three. The college football season has been a ton of fun already as we have already seen a lot of upsets and we have learned a lot about teams across the country. Contenders are beginning to present themselves, and we have already seen pretenders fall flat (sorry Florida State). So much has happened in just a couple of weeks, and week three is sure to provide more excitement. One game that will be an exciting watch this weekend is between the Notre Dame football team and Purdue. The Fighting Irish need to bounce back after their embarrassing loss to Northern Illinois.
Week three is almost here, but this will be the fourth week of games as we did have a week zero this year that had a mini slate. Week one and week two have provided some great matchups, but week three is a little bit slim. Notre Dame vs. Purdue doesn't look like that good of a matchup to the naked eye, but it should end up being a pretty good game between two in-state foes.
ESPN’s College GameDay goes to the best game every week, and they will be at LSU vs. South Carolina for week three. A lot of people would argue that there are better matchups out there, but that will be a good one. Missouri-Boston College is one of just two matchups featuring two ranked teams. The other one will take place on Friday night as Arizona and Kansas State will square off in a crucial Big 12 game.
One good one to watch this weekend will be taking place in Madison, Wisconsin as Alabama will hit the road to take on the Badgers. There is also another intriguing rivalry game for former Pac-12 teams as Oregon will battle Oregon State. Now that these teams aren't in the same conference anymore, they have to change their rivalry week.
One other notable game this weekend is a SEC clash between Georgia at Kentucky. There are some decent matchups, but it is a pretty slim week. Conference play begins in week four for most teams, so this is the calm before the storm. However, weeks like this are sometimes the ones that produce the most chaos.
This Notre Dame-Purdue game is going to be especially interesting to see because of the loss that the Fighting Irish suffered last weekend. Notre Dame had a ton of hype coming into the game, and they lost at home to a MAC school. Now, they need to bounce back. Before we get into predictions for this game, let's look at where both of these teams are at heading into this week two clash:
Notre Dame got embarrassed last week
There isn't any other way to describe the Notre Dame football loss to Northern Illinois other than embarrassing. The Fighting Irish are in the third year of the Marcus Freeman era, and they have had some decent teams. With the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams, it felt like this was the year that they take the next step before the season began. Now, the task is a bit harder.
Notre Dame won an impressive road game in week one against Texas A&M as they took down the Aggies 23-13. The hype around the program got even louder after that victory, and they came into their matchup against the Huskies as massive favorites. Notre Dame was favored by 28.5 points, and they lost 16-14.
That was a disastrous loss, and it wasn't the first time that Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame suffered a loss like that at home. They lost to Marshall in front of their home fans back in Freeman's first season.
Last Saturday was bad, and the Fighting Irish need to respond with a win this weekend.
Purdue is 1-0
We really don't know much about this Purdue football team as they have played just one game this year. The regular season spans more weeks than usual this year, so teams have an extra bye week because of it. The Boilermakers had an early bye in week two.
In week one, Purdue took down Indiana State 49-0. Indiana State is obviously not a very good team, but the Boilermakers took care of business and handled that game like they were supposed to. Now, the Boilermakers have a golden opportunity in front of them to get a signature win.
Notre Dame is expected to win this one, but they lost at home to Northern Illinois last week. Anything can happen on Saturday. Here are three predictions for the game:
Riley Leonard will have zero passing touchdowns
Riley Leonard transferred to the Notre Dame football team this offseason and he was supposed to relieve any concerns about the quarterback position. Through two games, he has zero passing touchdowns. Leonard struggled a bit against Texas A&M, but it was a tough road environment. That happens. However, he was 20/32 for 163 yards, two interceptions and zero touchdowns against Northern Illinois. Yikes. It's going to be another week with zero touchdowns for the Fighting Irish QB.
Notre Dame will score less than 20 points
After last week's performance, we have to consider the possibility that this Notre Dame football team just doesn't have a good offense. If they couldn't move the ball against NIU at home, that is a real problem. Purdue is coming off of a week of rest, and they are going to be ready to go. It's going to be another tough week for the Fighting Irish on offense.
Notre Dame will win 13-10
We're going with a final score prediction to close things out, and it will be a low-scoring battle that goes to the visiting Fighting Irish. The defense will do enough to win Notre Dame this football game, but it won't be pretty. This offense has real problems that will lose them games down the road if things don't get fixed.
Notre Dame and Purdue will kickoff from Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana at 3:30 PM ET/2:30 CT on Saturday. The game will be airing on CBS, and the Fighting Irish are favored by 10 points.
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