Purdue coach Joe Tiller said he knows the CMU football team better than any other.
The schools will play for the third time in two years Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind.
"I know who Ontario Sneed is, Antonio Brown, Dan LeFevour,"
Tiller said. "I don't need people to remind me what their names are. Usually I know a player's number, I don't know their names. I know these guys' names, which tells you they're very familiar with us."
After playing twice last season - Sept. 15 in West Lafayette and Dec. 26 in Detroit's Motor City Bowl - the Chippewas and Boilermakers both view the matchup with more knowledge than they had in either of their previous two.
"We play them more than our own MAC opponents, so we're pretty familiar with them,"
LeFevour said. "That's the biggest thing. I think we'll be very prepared and there will probably be no unknowns."
Purdue tallied 583 yards against the CMU defense in the first game, a 45-22 Purdue win, and 587 in the Motor City Bowl, a 51-48 Boilermaker win, which ended on a last-second field goal by Chris Summers.
However, LeFevour also had good days. Central gained 465 yards and 435, respectively, in the two meetings.
More than half of each teams' starting lineup returns from last season. As a result, LeFevour doesn't expect the Boilermakers will change much in the way their defense attacks the offense.
"I think they're pretty similar. They still have a lot of speed and they're very physical,"
he said. "Obviously a few guys have graduated, but they have a lot of seniors and they're still very experienced and they're still a pretty good football team."
Both also featured CMU comebacks. In the Motor City Bowl, CMU came back from a 34-13 halftime deficit to tie the game at 48. In West Lafayette, CMU scored 22 unanswered points and rallied from 38-0 third-quarter deficit in its third game of the 2007 season.
Tiller said he learned one thing from both of CMU's comebacks last season.
"It ain't over 'til it's over,"
he said. "We've had substantial leads in both games versus the Chippewas and in both game they've come storming back ... You're on the ropes and you're hanging on to come out of there alive."
However, CMU head coach Butch Jones believes the first matchup may help his team more this weekend.
"Each year, each team has its own personality, its own style of play. So it's a different football team, but our kids have played in Ross-Ade before and they understand how loud it gets,"
he said. "But half our team is new, so it will be a new experience for about 17 freshmen making the trip. For the guys that have been in the program, there is some familiarity there."
