Notre Dame tops Purdue in Kelly's debut with Irish

NCAA Football Betting Lines

09/04/2010 - South Bend, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dayne Crist passed for 205 yards and a touchdown, as Notre Dame topped the Purdue Boilermakers, 23-12, in Brian Kelly's Fighting Irish debut.

Kelly, a proven winner that resurrected both the Central Michigan and Cincinnati programs, came to Notre Dame (1-0) after leading the Bearcats to a 12-0 regular season in 2009. Crist, making his first collegiate start, completed 19-of-26 passes in the victory, while Armando Allen Jr. paced the ground attack with 93 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.

Purdue (0-1) quarterback Robert Marve, a junior who sat out last season after transferring from Miami, hit on 31-of-42 tosses with 220 yards and two picks. He did have a rushing touchdown for the Boilermakers, who finished 5-7 a year ago. Keith Smith was his main outlet, as he pulled in 12 passes for 80 yards.

The Irish kicked off the scoring with a 22-yard touchdown run by Allen with just over two minutes left in the opening quarter. The run capped a seven- play, 84-yard drive.

Early in the second quarter, Notre Dame's David Ruffer made a 22-yard field goal.

Purdue countered behind a Carson Wiggs 25-yard field goal with just under four minutes remaining before the half. The Boilermakers settled for the field goal after a 15-play, 79-drive stalled in Notre Dame territory.

Ruffer gave the Irish a 13-3 halftime advantage on a 46-yard field goal with 43 second left.

The Irish extended their lead early in the third quarter, as Crist tossed a five-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Jones.

The Boilermakers, though, made things interesting early in the fourth quarter. After the defense came up with a safety, Purdue took the ensuing possession 55 yards, capping the seven-play drive with a 23-yard touchdown run by Marve on a fourth-and-one situation.

The Irish, however, would respond with a 37-yard field goal by Ruffer that capped a 10-play, 39-yard drive with four-plus minutes to go.

Notre Dame is now 54-26-2 all-time versus Purdue, including wins in five of the last six meetings.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.