Eric Hansen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The celebration was noticeably muted.

Not that there weren’t smiles. Not that they didn’t sing the Alma Mater with the student section. Not that the Notre Dame football team didn’t love being prodded by the media about the most prolific burst of offense in the post-Brady Quinn Era, Saturday in a 38-21 subduing of Purdue.

"After the Michigan game, you would have thought they won the Super Bowl," Irish fourth-year coach Charlie Weis said of the 35-17 victory over the Wolverines on Sept. 13. "But I think now it’s much more matter of fact. It was more, ‘We’ve got Stanford coming up.’ That’s the way they acted."

Added Irish sophomore wide receiver Golden Tate, "You enjoy it tonight and tomorrow, and Monday you come ready to work and prepare for the next team. That's one thing about football. A win lasts one day. A loss lasts a whole week."

This is an Irish team (3-1) that has learned to play with raw emotion, in part because of Weis’ recognition that he had to stop micromanaging mood. But the players have also found that winning can come with hangovers, too.

The most fragile part of the squad is that if Purdue is the zenith of how well this team can play, it is in trouble. The strength of this team is they know it.

Looking at Notre Dame’s statistics a third of the way through the season, this does not have the numerical look on the surface of a team with a bowl in its future. The Irish are sitting at No. 88 out of the 119 FBS teams in total offense, 85th nationally in total defense.

But some of those stats are deceiving. The Irish laid 476 yards on a Purdue defense that wasn’t elite but certainly was better than the San Diego State unit they labored against in the opener. They showed balance, precision and progress.

The defense, meanwhile, gives up yards but not a proportionate amount of points (34th in scoring defense). And if you throw out field-goal kicking -- and Weis certainly would like to do that -- special teams, have been, well, special.

In fact, the Irish lead the nation in kickoff coverage and moved into the top spot after smothering the nation’s No. 2 kickoff return team Saturday.

"We're still a young team -- mostly sophomores, freshmen and juniors," quarterback Jimmy Clausen said. "We're progressing. We've still got to go out each and every day and practice and get better."

If the Irish are to get better over the last eight games, here are the 10 people who will play major roles in the improvement:

10. Maurice Crum, senior linebacker
Crum is having a nice, quiet season through four games -- 25 tackles, tied for third best on the team, and the team’s only sack. But this is a guy you expect to be playing the best football of his career. Nice and quiet doesn’t cut it.

He’s a senior. He’s your defensive captain. He has it in him.

9. Robert Blanton, freshman cornerback
Notre Dame’s starting cornerbacks -- fifth-year senior Terrail Lambert and junior Raeshon McNeil -- have played above expectations. That Blanton has forced his way into the rotation anyway underscores just how bright both his future and present are.

His 47-yard interception for a touchdown against Purdue Saturday was a seismic momentum shift. The added bonus for a freshman? He brings consistency along with the big-play potential.

8. Duval Kamara, sophomore wide receiver
Sophomore Tate and freshman Michael Floyd have jacked up the octane in the Irish offense and senior David Grimes is a reliable steadying force in the receiving corps.

The 6-foot-5, 219-pound sophomore would seem to fit right in this picture. He was Notre Dame’s leading returning receiver from 2007 and he broke Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown’s freshman school receiving record while playing in the worst offense in the nation last year.

Yet he’s been an enigma so far, with just three catches. And of Clausen’s six interceptions, Kamara has been involved in four of those. Two of them were clearly his fault. The other two he might have been able to prevent.

If Kamara can’t find himself soon, Weis may have to bump him from the rotation in favor of junior Robby Parris, another tall receiver.

7. Darius Fleming, freshman defensive end/outside linebacker
The 6-foot-1, 236-pound Chicagoan once dreamed of bowling -- not Gator Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Meineke Car Care Bowl type of bowling -- but Dick Weber, Marshall Holman, Fred Flintstone type bowling. In fact, he almost switched high schools because he wasn’t convinced his high school, St. Rita, was making a strong enough commitment to the sport.

If the freshman keeps finding his way on the field, he may realize both dreams (he still bowls with a high game of 279). He fits the Jon Tenuta/Corwin Brown defense to its template. And as he picks up the nuances of it, he’ll make a bigger impact.

6. Ethan Johnson, freshman defensive lineman
Ditto Fleming, sans the bowling part. The 6-4, 275-pounder made his first start of the season against Purdue and has played in all four games. He is proving to be an every-down player, stout enough to stuff the run, quick enough to penetrate on pass plays.

5. Dan Wenger, junior center
Right tackle Sam Young is the guy with the most pedigree, left tackle Mike Turkovich the biggest surprise and Wenger is the guy who has come the farthest since game the season opener.

He struggled as a guard last season but is making quantum improvement this season now that he’s at his natural position.

If the Irish offense is going to continue to grow, it starts with the offensive line not going backward. And the line’s toughness starts with Wenger.

4. Kyle Rudolph, freshman tight end
Sophomore Mike Ragone is out for the season, junior Will Yeatman suspended, junior Luke Schmidt out indefinitely with chronic headaches (he has a history of concussions), but Rudolph is hardly the starting tight end by default.

What the 6-6, 255-pounder lacks in brute blocking prowess he makes up the ability to stretch a defense. He has shown flashes of that in ND’s first four games. He’s likely to show longer stretches of it over the final eight.

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