But as former Fighting Irish and Bears defensive back Dave Duerson said with a smile, "We kinda threw 'em a curveball."

So did fate. Four Irish players, including free safety Donald Dykes, a very talented fifth-year senior, were expelled following an allegation of sexual misconduct by a student. Then Julius Jones, a 5-foot, 10-inch, 210-pound tailback with classic sprinter's speed who rushed for 750 yards and six touchdowns last fall, was an academic casualty.

Ty Willingham never changed his expression as he stood at midfield during Notre Dame's annual pre-season press day at the stadium. "Some things," he said, looking upward, "are beyond your control. Others, you learn to deal with."

In little more than 5 months, he'd seen the fire and the rain. But now, even with a stalled-out offense that still hasn't scored a touchdown, he presides over an Irish team that is 2-0, No. 20, and, quite honestly, possessor of one of the nation's best defenses.

After Saturday's 24-17 win over Purdue, who could argue. The punctuation marks were three scoring plays — Gerome Sapp's 54-yard return of a fumbled pitchout by Purdue's Montrell Lowe, a wide-open sprint to the end zone... and four seconds later... a fumbled kickoff by Deaute Ferrell, gratefully caught in midair at the Purdue 4 by Lionel Bolen, who scored... and Vontez Duff snatching the ball from Seth Morales on a swing pass from Kyle Orton and returning it for a 33-yard touchdown that broke a 17-17 tie with 5:09 left.

A couple of media deep-thinkers decided to grill Willingham about the lack of offense (203 yards total), one climaxing his question with a semi-confrontational, "How would you describe that?"

Willingham never broke stride. "I describe it as a win," he said, earning a few chuckles from the veterans in the house.

It was your classic Willingham response. Bob Davie's intense, stammering responses, Lou Holtz's homespun Ohio Valley twangs, Gerry Faust's foghorn answers and Dan Devine's classic coachly cliches were so much history.

This was pure Ara. Understand after a 2-0 start, collegeBLITZ.com isn't about to go there just yet. But there are some fascinating parallels between the two men, both bringing exceptional organizational skills to South Bend from academically prestigious schools — Willingham from Stanford, where he went 44-36-1 in the cut-throat arena that is the Pacific 10, the legendary Ara Parseghian from Northwestern, where he'd propped the Wildcats into national visibility in the early 1960s.

"You have to remember," former Irish tackle Larry Williams told an WNDU radio audience after the game, "He's only got maybe a quarter of his offense in there right now... you can see the lack of confidence right now in the linemens' splits, where they're about 6-8 inches apart. They're not confident they're gonna pick up their guy.

"As soon as the confidence picks up, you'll see a two or three-foot split between each guy."

The o-line struggled with an aggressive Purdue defense that chased quarterback Carlyle Holiday into a 7-for-22 passing day, for only 50 yards, sacking him four times.

"We couldn't get ourselves moving for whatever reason," Willingham said.

"The whole key, though, please understand, as much as I know that you would like to see us throw the football and have real success doing that, the key is to win."

As he talked to Jason Kelly, the South Bend Tribune's talented young beat reporter, among a media swarm of over 100, Willingham was a study in patience, and showed the same kind of resolve that was Parseghian's trademark — never give away the store when answering a question.

Willingham, whose key objectives include (not necessarily in order) producing a team alumni will remember fondly and major academic success, would be a wonderfully daunting test for any and all media.

After the Irish saw the typically-gritty Boilers bounce back from a 17-0 hole on a 76-yard Anthony Chambers punt return with just 2:03 left in the first half, followed by a third-quarter 71-yard drive climaxed by Jared Void's three-yard bolt and a fourth quarter Berin Lacevic field goal, one key difference surfaced between the Bob Davie era and Willingham's approach.

"A win is a win," Holiday told South Bend Tribune columnist David Haugh. "But we really want to win in the fashion Notre Dame football is used to. I know a couple of us, we really felt embarrassed."

But where heads would have hung deeply when the Irish offense stalled once again, giving the Boilers (1-1) two late-game shots at their first win in Notre Dame Stadium since Parseghian was coach in 1974, this scene was different.

"When you get a team that refuses to give up and competes (like Purdue clearly did)," Willingham said at the post-game press conference, "you look at our sidelines and they were not hanging their heads. They were making plans."

He talks a lot about plans and keys. "Coach Willingham's the captain of the ship," defensive tackle big Darin Campbell, a 6-8 Boilers roadblock all afternoon told WNDU radio. "I'd go through the wall for him. I love him to death. Not to (dis) the old staff, but being there for us, with daily life, academics, etc., that's Coach Willingham."

And that's Notre Dame football. Of course, it might be a good idea to find at least some part of that offense sometime before 2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (NBC-TV). The guys on the other side of the line of scrimmage will be wearing one of the most famous sets of helmets in college football.

The Maize and Blue stripes of No. 7 Michigan (2-0), one of the precious few teams in the college game with an historic winning record over Notre Dame (the Irish are 11-17-1 vs. the Wolverines, despite their 783-247-42 overall record).

MEANWHILE... It was this kind of day for I-AA Georgetown as it took on the powerful Mountain Hawks of Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa., a team coming off an impressive win at I-A Buffalo.

"I don't want anyone to start crying the blues about the Georgetown football program," coach Bob Benson told The Washington Post. "Hey, I'm not panicking."

This happened after the ever-ambitious Hoyas fell to the Hawks 69-0, the worst day for a D.C. football team since that ignominious December, 1940 N.F.L. championship game at old Griffith Stadium when the Bears routed the Redskins 73-0.

How bad? It was the worst loss G'town suffered since 1905, when the Hoyas fell to the Carlisle Indians, coached by Glenn "Pop" Warner, 76-0.

This bad...Georgetown amassed a total of 98 total yards to Lehigh's 604. Ulp. Ah, well, "midnite madness" is only a little over a month away.

Scratched 'Cats: Some of you may be wondering how things are going in Evanston, as coach Randy Walker tries to right the Good Ship Northwestern a year after the Rashidi Wheeler tragedy.

Not so hot, it turns out. After a 51-3 bomb in the opener at Air Force, the Mildcats returned home to face Texas Christian, a team heavy on the Texas part and leaving the Christian charity to the 'Cats, who turned the ball over 7 times to their grateful guests. Final score, and it wasn't this close, 48-24.

"I don't think I've ever coached a team that had seven turnovers in a game," a befuddled Walker told the Chicago Tribune's Skip Myslenski afterward. "I can't even get remotely close to that.

The fans are beginning to pick up the old habits. Only 21,442 showed up for the 0-2 'Cats home opener. Don't expect the turnstiles to spin out of control this week, when Duke (1-1, but owners of a 23-game losing streak coming into this season) comes calling.

Ill-Annoying: Does Illinois miss graduated quarterback Kurt Kittner? Well, the Illini are 0-2 after Saturday's loss at Mississippi Southern and flagging badly, coming into their home opener against Arkansas State.

The current sus...er, candidates are Jon Beutjer and Dustin Ward. Somehow, the Illini avoided beating Southern Mississippi in rainy Hattiesburg thanks to some abyssmal passing from both, blowing a 14-2 lead and spoiling a 162-yard rushing effort by Antoineo Harris in the process.

Chicago Sun-Times Big Ten guru Herb Gould, who couldn't help but yearn for the terrific 11-2 days of last fall as Kittner, Harris, Rocky Harvey and supertalent wideouts Brandon Lloyd and Greg Lewis led a high-powered offense that stopped just short of the Rose Bowl.

He contacted Kittner, who was en route with the Atlanta Falcons, to Green Bay, and told the Falcons' rookie backup QB Ward had just been sacked. "Tell him to throw that rock away!" Kittner said.

Ward finished 5-for-10 with one interception, and Beutjer hit the pits, going 8-for-23 for 76 yards and one pick.

"We'll look at the film and evaluate the situation and see where we are," said coach Ron Turner to Gould.

"It's something I'd like to fix, but I don't know what's happening out there," said Ward, who according to Gould has good practice habits.

The schedule gets a little friendlier with low-level I-As Ark State and San Jose State visiting Memorial Stadium the next two Saturdays. Then the Big 10 kicks in. And the first guest is Michigan. Good luck.

Quick Look-Ins... Illinois and Northwestern weren't alone. Indiana coach Gerry DiNardo, who came into Bloomingon eyes wide open, didn't expect to get an early preview of Big Ten-style physicality.

The rookie learned in a hurry. Utah trounded the Hoosiers 40-14 in Salt Lake City and it was left to I.U. defensive tackle Kris Dielman to sum up the carnage. "Utah is a big, physical team," he told The Associated Press. "They run it down your throats like the teams in the Big 10 do."

The Hoosiers (1-1) can relate, having been strafed for 200-plus rushing yards a game for the past four seasons. And any serendipity remaining from last Saturday's 25-17 defense-dominated win over I-AA William & Mary evaporated in a second-quarter where Utah wiped out an early 6-3 deficit with a 17-point blitz.

The Utes — and the only other place you ever heard that word was when Joe Pesci used it to describe two young people to a Mississippi judge in "My Cousin Vinny" -- trampled through the Hoosiers step-late defense for 386 rushing yards, led by Marty Johnson's 229.

"They really took it to us," DiNardo admitted. "They showed us we have a lot of work to do."

The Hoosiers better get a big chunk of it done pronto, because emerging Southeastern Conference power Kentucky is straight ahead. In Lexington.

Also notable... Brooks Bollinger you know. One of the Big Ten's excellent veteran QBs. Meet freshman wideout Jonathan Orr. He hooked up with Bollinger on first half touchdowns of 19 and 43 yards as Wisconsin (2-0) raced to a 34-3 halftime lead en route to a 34-17 cruise over West Virginia... On a day when Ohio State coach Jim Tressel kept superfrosh tailback Maurice Clarett under wraps, QB Craig Krenzel turned in a 12-for-14 passing effort for 190 first-half yards in the 2-0 Buckeyes' 51-17 rout of in-state rival Kent... Michigan State (2-0), hearing a little halftime sermon on the soapbox from coach Bobby Williams after trailing Rice 10-7 in East Lansing, rallied behind two Jeff Smoker TD passes to beat the Owls 27-10. "There were some things they needed to hear," said Williams. "Mainly that we were causing all of our own problems. I wasn't that nice saying it, though." Michigan (2-0), which has earned a recent reputation as Wideout U, may have found yet another in its long line. Braylon Edwards caught 4 passes for 93 yards and two TDs in the Wolverines' 35-12 win over Western Michigan... "It feels good to make plays, but I don't consider myself a go-to guy," he said. "I just think I'm a guy playing in a great system."