In 2017, Purdue football Coach Jeff Brohm showed the Big Ten West that there is no such thing as “year zero.” No matter what kind of mess you inherited, and Darrell Hazell certainly messed up the Purdue football program before Brohm’s arrival, you can hit the ground running and win football games in year one.
Year one begins the moment you sign that contract, and thus become paid handsomely to produce results. Yes, some head coaches at other division rivals started way behind the eight ball, and yes, some rebuilds take a lot longer than others. However, the beauty of sports lies in its boolean values- college football is win or lose, period. The rest is just cheap excuse making and insolent noise.
Brohm showed us last year that if you know what you’re doing, you can anywhere, no matter what kind of empty cupboard you inherited. Of course, in 2018 the Boilermakers won’t be sneaking up on anybody, so now Brohm and his staff must adjust to drastically higher expectations.
Purdue Football Season Preview Offense:
QB
A decision on the starter is reportedly coming either today or tomorrow, but it doesn’t appear that said decision will be made public. We’re probably just going to have to wait until the first offensive series against Northwestern on August 30 to find out who it is.
One should fully expect to see both Elijah Sindelar and David Blough play in the opener, and we broke that down in more detail over at this link.
In college football, if you don’t have a quarterback, you are donezo! Conversely, if you do have a good quarterback (or two) you pretty much guaranteed to be at least be solid. So Purdue fans should be feel pretty optimistic big picture. Plus they have the added advantage of a head coach, offensive coordinator and QB Coach who all played in the NFL.
Not many programs can say that, so this fact is certainly “on brand” for the cradle of quarterbacks.
We joined the Hammer and Rails podcast after Big Ten Media Day to break this all down. Have a listen below:
You can hear the audio, in three segments of the two quarterbacks holding court at Purdue football Media Day over at this link.
RB
Brohm admits Purdue won’t beat anybody with three yards and a cloud of dust this season, but they do have a lot of experience in the offensive backfield. It looks like it will be running back by committee again in West Lafayette this year with Markell Jones, D.J. Knox and Tario Fuller in the mix.
OL/TE
Five of six (including the tight end) starters return this season, and three of those five are seniors, and a fourth is a junior. In other words, there will be a lot of experience in this system and that means this will be a position of strength. Your offensive schemes and your OC can only be as good as your blockers up front, so Purdue football fans should feel good about the prospects of seeing the Xs and Os work to design on this side of the ball.
WR
Freshman Rondale Moore is the highest rated recruit that Purdue football has seen in a very long time. His time to be the alpha dog will come eventually, but this year it’s all about Jackson Anthrop, a sure handed slot guy. He’ll need help, and this unit really needs to take some steps forward though if this team is going to go anywhere special.
Purdue Football Season Preview Defense:
DL
This unit has some depth and experience, but if you’re an opposing OC, your game plan is just basically account for Lorenzo Neal, and then some guys. Neal is a wide body run stuffer who will carry this crew. The Boilermakers have major question marks at end, and this season will remind us of the strides that this program still needs to make.
DL depth, talent and experience is usually a good barometer of the overall health of your college football program, as the most elite schools simply reload, not rebuild. Purdue football isn’t there yet.
LB
“Of all the positions, linebacker is the thinnest,” said Brohm.
“We have some depth on the line and and in the secondary. At the linebacker position we are thin, so when guys get dinged up or injured, it’s going to make it more challenging. We’ll have to more some pieces of the puzzle around. The thing about college football today is sometimes you can use two linebackers, or have a nickel guy in there and do some things, you don’t have to have three linebackers out there.”
While this is the team’s weakest position group, it’s paradoxically the area where the Boilers’ best overall player Markus Bailey resides. The 6-1, 235 lb junior will wreak havoc inside, and in 2020, you can talk about him as a next level guy.
Here is audio of Bailey holding court at Purdue football Media Day below:
He finished second on the team in tackles last year despite playing out of position. Purdue had to convert safety T.J. Jallow over to the position to try and shore up depth. He’s in contention to start, along with Tobias Larry, Cornel Jones and Derrick Barnes.
DB
Strong safety Jacob Thieneman will be making the play calls on D, and he’ll be accompanied by another returning starter, Navon Mosley at free safety. Cornerback is a major question mark. They could start fresh and put two redshirt freshmen in the starting XI. Or they could stick with experience and slot two seniors here. It’s Up in the Air like George Clooney and Anna Kendrick.
Here is audio of Brohm holding court at Purdue football Media Day below:
Purdue football Preseason Rankings:
Street and Smith’s projects Purdue to the Pinstripe Bowl, and a third place finisher in the Big Ten west. Athlon also picks them to finish third in the division, and ranks then 45th nationally. The magazine predicts a 7-5 finish, 4-4 in league play. And no, I don’t know what Athlon did with that ninth conference game. *shruggy guy emoji*
Purdue football Bottom Line/Expectations:
Brohm said at media day that this team relishes the opportunity to play a challenging schedule in 2018, and that the program is at the point that they should be playing a formidable schedule. However, he also cautioned that this year could get ugly if they don’t play well. One could infer from that he probably has some concerns about depth, given the dismal state in which Hazell left the program for him.
They will need to win seven or eight in the regular season to further validate that the idea that the program has turned the corner. With this schedule, it’s a tall order, but the third place in the division projections seem spot on.
2018 College Football Season Previews
#12 Notre Dame Northern Illinois Northwestern Purdue #11 Michigan State
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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