Joe Holland's mother and father graduated from Notre Dame. So did his grandfather. As a youngster, Holland watched a lot of Fighting Irish football, and he attended a one-day Notre Dame football camp while in high school.

You could say that the former Bishop Chatard High School standout comes from the ultimate Notre Dame family.

At least it used to be.

The Fighting Irish recruited him but appeared to be in no hurry to offer a scholarship.

He saw no reason to wait, so he committed to Purdue.

"I tell you, as soon as I got the offer from Purdue, all the Notre Dame stuff was stripped down out of my basement and quickly replaced with Purdue stuff," said Holland, now a redshirt freshman linebacker with the Boilermakers.

"My grandpa's office at his house used to be filled with pictures of Joe Montana and other Notre Dame legends. . . . And now, I saw his office this summer and it is completely filled with Purdue stuff. Everything, wall to wall, is Purdue."

Holland will line up against the Irish on Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.

Brock Spack, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, didn't mince words when asked where the defense would be if Holland hadn't stepped in at linebacker so quickly this season.

"We'd be in deep trouble," Spack said. "He's learning on the job. He makes corrections at halftime. But he's so smart.

"The Oregon game is a great example. He missed a tackle on a critical fourth down, but he came back in overtime on the same play and made the tackle to force a field goal. He's that kind of guy. You might fool him the first time, but you won't do it twice."

Holland, a straight-A student at Chatard, has maintained those grades at Purdue. Majoring in movement and sport science, he originally planned to become a doctor but is now thinking about dentistry.

He is convinced that intelligence in the classroom carries over to the field.

"Sitting in the meeting room, it really helps being able to retain that information and take it out to the practice field," Holland said. "In terms of making game-time adjustments, I think it's got to help."

He hopes it helps Saturday, in a game that matters more than most.

"I'm not going to lie. I'm very, very excited to play them," Holland said.