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Acrepro.com presents: GoldandBlack.com Wednesday Night LIVE Purdue football chat: Replay

Karpick_headshot500x500by: Alan Karpick10/16/25AlanKarpick
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Join GoldandBlack.com football gurus Tom Dienhart, Dub Jellison and host (and non-guru) Alan Karpick for our weekly Live video chat show. We will talk about Purdue-Northwestern and much more.

Audio Only

Purdue-Northwestern (a key question)

GoldandBlack.com: What can we expect from the Northwestern offense?

Northwestern PBP vet Dave Eanet: It’s a run-oriented team with Caleb Komolafe and Joseph Himon, the two running backs who are really, really playing well and behind a veteran offensive line that’s also developing as the season goes along.

And a smart veteran quarterback, something Northwestern really has needed. Preston Stone, a transfer from SMU, has gotten better as the season’s gone along. He kind of had a rocky start in the first game against Tulane, where he turned it over some. But since then, he’s seen three straight games without an interception. He’s got a very talented wide receiver, also a transfer, by the name of Griffin Wilde, who is one of those guys who has a knack for getting open and a knack for catching the ball when he is open.

Those are the keys to this offense. But I think ultimately, they want to run the football. They’ve been doing a very good job of that.

GoldandBlack.com: What can we expect from the Northwestern defense?

Eanet: It’s a defense that is sort of taking on the personality of its defensive coordinator, Tim McGarigle, who’s the all-time leading tackler in Northwestern history. They’re a physical defense. They haven’t come up with a lot of takeaways, kind of like Purdue on defense. But lately, those takeaways have started to come. They came up with a couple of them on Saturday against Penn State in their big win over the Nittany Lions.

They have had some injuries in their secondary, but what that’s done is create some depth back there because they had to give some other guys some playing time. Now, the guys who were out are back. Josh Fussell, a starting corner, and safety Damon Walters both played Saturday against Penn State. Fussell had missed a couple of games. Walters hadn’t played at all this season. They didn’t start Saturday, but they did play, and I think we’ll see more of them this week against Purdue.

The defense is led by their middle linebacker, Mac Uihlein, who’s been one of the top tacklers in the Big Ten and one of those guys who just seems to be all over the field, and safety Rob Fitzgerald. And it’s a good defensive line with Aidan Hubbard. Anto Saka missed the game Saturday at Penn State because of an injury, but he’ll play this week and he’s one of the top edge rushers in the Big Ten.

So, that’s kind of what you’re looking at. It’s a pretty good defense. They’re good at stopping the run, and they have not allowed a quarterback to throw for 200 yards yet this season.

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