Notre Dame shows up to West Lafayette as a College Football Playoff contender with a Heisman name atop the marquee. Purdue's still hunting its first Big Ten win under Barry Odom.
Bush’s Picks
NDPUR
NDPUR
OverUnder
Best BetNotre Dame
Notre Dame brings a Heisman-caliber quarterback and a 10-game win streak to close last season into a building that's produced one Big Ten win in two years combined. This is about as clean a talent mismatch as the schedule offers the Irish, and betting against Carr's offense here requires ignoring everything Purdue showed in 2025.
Notre Dame
+CJ Carr returns as Heisman-hype starting quarterback
+closed 2025 on a 10-game winning streak
+ranked top-10 in every CFP poll last year
−opened 2025 with two narrow losses to CFP teams
−still stinging from missing the playoff
−quarterback depth behind Carr is largely unproven
Purdue
+Odom overhauled roster with 53 new additions
+started 2025 an uncharacteristic 2-0
+program has clarity on its identity entering year two
−finished 2025 at 2-10, winless in Big Ten play
−lost final 10 games of last season
−external projections still call the outlook bleak
Friday's trip to West Lafayette is an early step in Notre Dame's push back toward the playoff after last year's snub, and it runs through CJ Carr, the redshirt sophomore already being floated as a Heisman front-runner after a record-setting freshman debut. Purdue, meanwhile, is still trying to find anything that resembles a winning formula after going 0-9 in Big Ten play a season ago.
Barry Odom overhauled the roster with 53 new additions this offseason and insists this group looks nothing like the one that lost its final 10 games of 2025, but until Purdue actually beats a real Big Ten opponent, that's just talk. Notre Dame handled the Boilermakers last season on the way to a 10-game winning streak to close the year, and there's no obvious reason to expect a different outcome here.
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ND Notre Dame
PUR Purdue
None of that guarantees style points. Notre Dame's two losses last season came in tight spots against eventual CFP teams, a reminder this group can be really good and still find ways to make things uncomfortable for itself. Purdue's counting on a retooled offense to at least make the Irish work for it, even if the outside projections on this rebuild remain grim.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Sep 19?vs Michigan State—
Sep 12?vs Rice—
Sep 6?vs Wisconsin—
Purdue Boilermakers
Sep 19?@ UCLA—
Sep 12?vs Wake Forest—
Sep 4?vs Indiana State—
Recent form.
Carr's supporting cast is the real story in South Bend all offseason — the passing attack that helped him rank among the national leaders in yards per attempt as a first-year starter returns most of its pieces, and the pressure is on him to be more consistent in exactly these kinds of games, the ones Notre Dame is supposed to win comfortably. Purdue's issue isn't effort; it's talent depth after two straight winless Big Ten seasons, and that gap tends to show up fastest in the trenches.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Purdue Boilermakers
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Odom's group started 2-0 last year before the wheels came off, so there's at least some evidence Purdue can be competitive in a season-opening stretch before Big Ten physicality wears it down. Whether that shows up against a Notre Dame team with national championship aspirations is the whole question of this one.
