I'm psyched for everything about this game.  Well, maybe not the predicted forecast of rain, but football's football.  A couple of good friends of mine are coming into town and it should be a great weekend of football, capped with tickets to the Bears-Seahawks game on Sunday night.  How could it get better than that?

I'm excited for this game because its one of those "response" games.  How will we come out?  Can we stay motivated after a huge win in East Lansing?  I'm feeling confident that we'll win this game, but that confidence is what is making me worry.  I'm just excited to watch some Notre Dame football and I've got a few questions I'd like answered in this game.

Will we see any kind of improvement in the first quarter?
I'll admit it, I was a bit harsh in my first quarter criticism of Weis.  I wanted him to pitch those scripted plays.  We were opening up flat and it was pissing me off.  In all honesty, for some reason it takes a drive or two for the offense to get going.  But Dan, who was in attendance last weekend at MSU, told me that Weis' first plays are terrific.  People are open and they're open big.  It's just that Brady isn't making good throws.  That's a concern, but against a defense with three freshman in the defensive backfield, it's now or never for BQ.

How many carries will now-healthy James Aldridge pickup on Saturday?
This is my favorite question.  Darius Walker is good at what he does.  He's a terrific draw runner, blocker and receiver out of the backfield.  But anytime you get more than 90% of the carries, you're going to need someone to spell you.  Travis Thomas is focused on the other side of the ball and Munir Prince isn't as ready as we thought he would be.  Enter all-world freshman running back James Aldridge, fresh off a knee injury, who may be able to take some carries from Darius this weekend.  I loved Aldridge's high school film and truly believe, when healthy, is a terrific back.  Think Ronnie Brown.  He's that type of player and talent.

Will we become a "nasty" football team again?
No one hates that phrase more than me, but we really need to become a little more aggressive and nasty in order to play the way we want to.  People are telling me that Notre Dame is a finesse team and I'll agree with that on the offensive side of the ball.  We have the players that will make a finesse team look good.  But on defense, I'd like to see some head-crushing and I think I saw it last week in the second half.  The defensive line was all over the place, Travis Thomas and Maurice Crum made a bunch of plays, and our defensive backs actually played opportunistic football and created some turnovers by themselves.  This Purdue offense is a good one, but it's much less talented than some of the other teams we have faced and will face this year.  I want to see the nastiness back, starting in the first quarter.

Well that's it for me.  Here's to 3 days of football, booze, and more football.  Cheers!