Five Wide Fullbacks: "Bourbon in my Boilermaker Please" Edition

Long time no see fellow One Foot Downers! Greetings from the nation's capital. I know you're all confused - 'it ain't roundball season yet, the hell is 4pointshooter doing around here?' - but trust me I love me some foosball too!

The Notre Dame football season will officially start on this side of the Atlantic as the men will don their blue and gold to play host to in-state rival Purdue. Both teams are coming off big wins in their opener and there are many things to keep an eye on and questions that need to be answered but we're limited to just five over here (and I will waste one or two of them on frivolous things) so read on comrades!

This week's 5WF after the jump.

You're borrowing an exorbitant sum of money to be in law school, what have you learned in your first few weeks?

I learned that 1) other schools actually don't have classes on national holidays 2) there is legal power in the phrase "you snooze you lose" (Normile v. Miller) 3) the United States government had a narrow definition for "treasure trove" up until the 1970s and 4) just about every question a professor throws your way can be answered by the phrase "that's a jury question." I'm not sure I made the right career choice so far.

What did you take away from both teams' 1st game?

We confirmed that Notre Dame has solid lines and a strong running game while Purdue will throw the ball around a lot. 12 different players caught passes and 10 more had rushing yards for the Boilermakers against Eastern Kentucky (an FCS team and Purdue coach Danny Hope's alma mater) so they were able to go very deep into their rotation and get some experience for the backups much like Notre Dame did. So exactly what did we learn? That it's easy to put up points on outmatched opponents? I don't know... we didn't learn anything.

Will Danny Hope's QB juggle between Robert Marve and Caleb Terbush continue this season too?

Yes. I don't know if Hope just can't make his mind up or he's doing this deliberately. I know that Terbush supposedly won the job outright this summer but the suspension and Marve's subsequent 295 yard (on 30/38) passing game must have thrown a wrench into the equation now. So even if Terbush starts the game this Saturday, I suspect a few non-productive drives will put the 6th year senior in the game. Rumor has it that Marve provides some more mobility from the position while Terbush provides better vision and downfield accuracy so we'll see what works better for the Boilers against the Irish defense.

What's the match-up to watch for this week?

Because I've been in law school for the grand total of two weeks, I can't seem to make my mind up about anything so I'll say that there are TWO match-ups to watch for this week. The first is the Irish running game against the Purdue front 7. While Purdue has a decent combination of size (DL average is 6'4"/275 and LB average is 6'2"/240) and experience (all but one of the starting front 7 is a junior or a senior), they are likely going to be without leading tackler MLB Dwayne Beckford while the home team will be sporting 2 (and maybe even 3 or 4) RBs who are feeling pretty good about themselves. The other match-up to watch for of course is Purdue passing game against the Irish secondary. E was dead right when he mentioned that he's more worried about the safeties than the corners. The corners are young and inexperienced so we expect them to make the occasional mistake but both Jamoris Slaughter and Zeke Motta left Irish fans wanting after the first game of the season. If the Purdue O-Line can buy Terbush/Marve some time in the pocket it'll be interesting to see how the successful the pass coverage will be.

Any bold predictions for the game?

Yes. I predict that one of our young corners (Bennett Jackson, KeiVarae Russell, Jalen Brown) will return an interception for a touchdown and give Irish fans all over the world an exaggerated sense of hope and confidence about our secondary. This confidence will likely be waned when Notre Dame plays host to Michigan and allows Denard Robinson to look like a quarterback again all of a sudden, but that's for week 3. Way too early in the season to talk fatalism right?

Final score? 38-17 Irish.

BONUS QUESTION! What's your favorite boilermaker combination?

I prefer to drop the shot into the beer (I know some folks chase the shot with the beer, but my Korean heritage loves me some "Poktanju" - which means "Bomb drink"), and the beer can be any traditional amber or pale ale. The shot will have to be a Pappy Van Winkle 15 year. I acquired a bottle this past Spring. It's literally my most prized possession. I know dropping a shot of rare (but not expensive) bourbon into a beer sounds like a waste, but it's delicious. What the mouth and body likes can never be considered waste!