Notre Dame’s 27-13 win against Purdue on Saturday lacked the dramatics of a quarterback change or the definitiveness of a four-touchdown win, but it felt familiar to fifth-year receiver and captain Avery Davis. Perhaps more precisely, the pair of three-point wins to open the season felt familiar.
They reminded Davis of the 8- and 5-point Irish wins against Ball State and Vanderbilt, respectively, early in the 2018 season.
“We knew we had a very talented team,” Davis said of that frustrating September. “It’s not that we didn’t practice hard, we just needed to pick it up in practice.