David Blough was announced as Purdue's starter for the 2016 season today, to the surprise of no one. It's actually kind of funny that I can say that ("to the surprise of no one") since as sure as we are that Blough is the only logical choice for 2016, that's clearly no guarantee that David will be the starter next year... or, you know, even on the team. (Are any other SEC schools looking for QBs?)

Blough came on in relief of Austin Appleby last year, the 2015 starter who had shared time the previous year with Danny Etling, the 2014 starter. Etling, you may recall, came on as a highly-touted replacement for noodle-armed Rob Henry in 2013 once it became apparent that Purdue wasn't going to content in Hazell's first year and needed to think about the future. Yeah, about that...

It's kind of amazing that Purdue continues to have a stable of talented QBs. Perhaps it's the history of great QBs at Purdue. Or maybe they've just been lucky. I mean, with "lucky" being a relative term in a 6-30 world. 

The Boilers were 2-11 in games started by Etling. Rob Henry's ledger is harder to judge since he had a lot of spot duty over the years. But he was 1-4 before he was yanked for the final time for Etling. Austin Appleby hung around for quite a while, finally wrestling back the starting job most "officially" at the start of last season. He got a win in his first start (also Coach Hazell's first win over a D-1A school) vs Illinois in 2014 before losing seven straight. He won vs Indiana State last year and then lost his job in the debacle vs Virginia Tech. He returned late in the season when Blough got injured and ended his Purdue career in a hale of proverbial bullets against Indiana, going 36/57 for 332 and two TDs. His starter record was 2-10. 

Which brings us to David Blough, who is off to a 1-7 start as a starting QB. His lone win was the pasting of Nebraska in which neither team brought their defense. Blough was 28/43 for 274 yards and four TDs against zero picks against the blackshirts. Let's hope we see some more of that. 

Mainly because I don't have enough room to add Elijah Sindelar to the graphic above.

Twelve days to go!