Start of a New Era

The Irish opened up their season with a solid 23-12 victory over Purdue on Saturday, starting off the Brian Kelly era on a positive note. At times, the Irish offense looked polished and perfect, while at other times, hesitant and shaky. However, the Irish defense was aggressive and dominant from start to finish. Nonetheless, it's time for the first awards of the season:


HEISMAN BABY

ARMANDO ALLEN - 18 carries for 93 yds - TD - Allen looked comfortable, and dependable, in the new spread offense. His 22 yard TD run has to be one of the longest TD runs ND fans have seen in a while.

DAYNE CRIST - 19 of 26 for 205 yds - TD - Crist looked comfortable in his first game as the leader of the Irish offense. While the play calling was passive, Crist was still very efficient. He looked calm in the pocket - escaped when necessary. One area of improvement is his accuracy of the deep ball.

TJ JONES - 3 catches for 41 yds - TD - The freshman provided a breath of fresh air solidifying his role as the counterpart to Floyd.


ROCK SOLID

MANTI TE'0 - Tied for game high tackles with 9, T'eo led the stout Irish defense in a dominating performance. The man-child warrior is going to be a dominating force this season.

KYLE RUDOLPH - The stud TE is the sure thing in go-to situations. While Rudolph only had 5 receptions for 43 yards, almost all accounted for first downs, and came on 3rd down.

DARRIN WALLS & GARY GRAY - The starting corner back were all over the field delivering big hits, sure tackles, pass break ups - especially on the deep ball - and two interceptions!

CIERRE WOOD - 7 carries for 58 yds - Wood proved he can live up to the hype. His shiftiness and speed is the perfect counter attack to Allen. Wood amassed almost all his yards on the first Irish scoring drive.


GET HIM OUTTA THERE

THEO RIDDICK - The dropped pass on 3rd down in the midst of a TD drive really hurt his stock. Not to mention, after that, the ball was not thrown his way - go figure.

BRIAN SMITH - Assignment, assignment, assignment! I hold Smith personally responsible for the TD run by Marve.

MICHAEL FLOYD - Hold on to the football son! That TD would have put the game away and sent Purdue fans filing out of the stadium.


WAIT WHAT?

CARLO CALABRESE - The sophomore linebacker tied for game high tackles with 9 in his first career start.


-DH