Are you ready for this weekend? Are you concerned, as we are? Let's just remember how things can be.

Let's go back to 1997 first -- when Purdue had not beaten UND in more than a decade -- and Adrian Beasley's return.



Look at that sideline. Listen to that crowd. Voracious for a destruction of UND.

And the end of that game.... could the game be this great? Probably not quite this exciting...but it can mean nearly as much:



We move to 1999. I don't think we can expect this kind of horrendous coaching from the schematically-advantaged UND coaching staff. In all seriousness, this was a clusterf-ck:



After three straight close losses (23-21, 24-18 and 24-17), 2003 saw a return to form with a 23-10 home victory. Did any of us realize how lucky we were to have Kyle Orton when we had him?



The next year was 2004 -- the year that we wonder what might have been -- and a year in which the UND-Purdue game was legendary, at least from the Black and Old Gold side of the ball. If this isn't one of your favorite moments in this rivalry, then you must be a Golden Domer. Or wish you were.



And then, just the last time these two teams met in West Lafayette, during what turned out to be a very mediocre year for Purdue football, the Boilermakers won by two touchdowns.



These things all happened. The Boilermakers are 5-6 against Notre Dame since the start of the 1997 season. It's our house. Let's make that 6-6. It can happen.