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GoldanDBlack express • volume 25, express 3 • 31 some point before Saturday's 7:30 p.m. kickoff with the No. 11 Irish, he will tell at least the quar- terbacks who will start. If it's Etling, it'll be his 10th consecutive. If it's Appleby, it'll be his first. Both players want the nod. Etling wants to prove he's better than his rough two-game start — marred by a 51 percent completion rate. "Obviously I wasn't very hap- py with the performances and I'm sure many people weren't. I'm just going to keep trying to get better," Etling said. "I'm try- ing to figure out what's going on as far as that goes because you feel good in practice, sometimes maybe you just overthink. So just get a fix for next week and con- tinue to try getting better." Appleby wants to prove he can be the answer with a chance from the first snap — and normal down-and-distance situations in- stead of comeback mode. "I feel like I give this team the best chance to win this football game," Appleby said. "I look for- ward to the oppor- tunity to have a full game, put some drives together and get into a rhythm working with this offense and see where we end up." Hazell met with Etling on Tuesday morning — he didn't meet individually with Appleby early in the week — and told the sopho - more he wanted him to try to play more relaxed. It's an area Etling admittedly has struggled with, saying he found it hard to get out of his head in his first season and that it's something still plaguing him early in Year 2. But how does a quarterback so focused on football, so intent on being as prepared as possible, dial that back and just sling the ball around? And how does he find the balance of trying to make plays without the fear of making mis - takes over-riding that? Tom Campbell The injury bug has bitten B.J. Knauf again as the sophomore will be likely be a game-time decision against the Irish. He re-aggravated a groin injury on Tuesday. In THE OPPOSITE CORnER Comment's from last week's and next week's opposing coaches: Central Michigan coach Dan Enos "When they made it 14-7, that next drive was the key and we went down and scored another touchdown and I thought that was a good sign. I've coached in this conference before and wins here are never easy to get. Make no mistake about it. This was hard. We were a lot looser today than we were last week. Our fast start really helped us." Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly "We know our opponent, and we know about the resolve that they'll play with. It's an opportunity for them to play at Lucas Oil (Stadium) on na - tional television. They'll have a lot of enthusiasm and emotion on their side, so we know what's going to hap- pen Saturday night from Purdue's end. I think it's pretty clear that our players un- derstand what they're going to get from Purdue and that is their very, very best. "They've got some veteran players on defense that we're familiar with. Defensive ends (Ryan) Russell and (Jalani) Phillips, athletic players, they've got some veteran linebackers, and the secondary is aggressive. They like to get up and play some tight man coverage. So guys that we recognize, guys that we've gone against, they have provided a difficult challenge for us last year in running the football, so we'll certainly have our work cut out for us there. "Offensively, they do a very good job. Coach (John) Shoop's a very good offensive coordinator. He's very experienced. He schemed us up last year in certain areas, specifically in some of our bracket coverages in the red zone. So they do a very good job offensively with a lot of dif - ferent looks, spread sets, motions. So, again, well coached. Coach (Greg) Hudson does a great job defensively, an experienced coach, and last year they gave us fits defensively." Irish Illustrated