Boilers Leave No Doubt on Senior Day
A four win team versus a three win team this late in the season usually means a bit of a rock fight...perhaps a back-and-fourth game that no one cares about outside of these two fan bases. Half of that was right. Purdue turned the ball over again and again to start the game...then allowed a 64 yard punt return for a touchdown just to complete in the effort of soiling the sheets on Senior Day in West La La.
It was a throwup throwback day, as the Seniors and the coaching staff looked back to 2013...remembered and forced us to do the same. Purdue was down 14-0 in the first quarter (just like the bad ol' days)...24-7 at the half...then, put up a fight as they took the 17 point deficit and made it into 24 point game as Senior Day mercifully ended 38-14.
Hazel's buyout is too expensive to even talk about a potential firing, friends. BUT, the way this season has ended, Hazell should be forced by the iron fist of Mr. Burke to fire both Shoop and Hudson as all signs of progress from the first half of the season have floated into the ether. In other words, a 3 or 4 win season will yield no change by an athletic department that will not engage in an arms race with the rest of the conference...and barely wants to compete anymore. Today was painful...today was emblematic of a program in the darkest hole that it's ever been in.
Everything's broken...and sadly, we're two seasons into a complete rebuild. In the dumping salt into wide open wounds category- Purdue recruit, Elijah Sindledar announced he'd be on campus in January instead of June. The next night in a playoff game, the record-setting QB from Kentucky injured himself; and it looks like an ACL (sadly predictable).
The Spring should yield competition at every position...because no one's earned security. The offensive line looked good in the first half of the season, but now can't create space. The two best running backs are gone. The receivers do no favors for the QBs and the change at QB, that I begged for, has yielded no progress.
Defensively, the front looks better than I thought...but there is no sure tackling on that side of the ball. On the bright side, Griggs job at place kicker seems secure.
This stinks...the weather was gray and dreary, but Purdue's play was more depressing. A season after Purdue stole one victory out of 12, they'll win 3 or 4...and the schedule next year is much more difficult. Am I looking past IU into the future? I guess...the present is a place that I don't wanna stay.
Purdue has now lost 14 of its last 15 Big Ten games...in a conference that is seemingly way down.
Dark.
Pete Quinn, in his infinite wisdom, blamed Purdue's fanbase and alums for not showing up in force today...said that the attendance demotivated the players...I'm guessing that they caused the repeated interceptions and fumbles in the first half. Mr. Quinn might be a great guy...But I'm hoping this type of asinine rah rah BS is never heard over a Purdue football game again.
It's the classic debate: Really crappy football or the egg...or something.
Hazell's team played badly today because they weren't ready to play...and the coaches weren't ready to coach. If they had played in front of a half million Boiler alums or my family in my living room, it wouldn't have mattered.
This is a dark, dark never-ending winter of a program at this point.
