On3 Roundtable: What would be a signature win for Ryan Walters in Year 1 as Purdue head coach

New Purdue head coach Ryan Walters is going to have ample chances this fall to pick up a signature win in his first season leading the program. The Boilermakers have one of the more jam-packed schedules in the country with 11 Power Five games and a 12th game against a high-quality Group of Five program.

One game sticks out to Gold and Black’s Alan Karpick as the potential to be that signature win both due to the historical significance of the game and its place in the schedule: Wisconsin.

He explained the reason to JD PicKell on On3 Roundtable.

“Well, I think they haven’t beaten Wisconsin since you were born if that’s right,” Karpick said. “I don’t know what your birth date is, but, actually, that’s probably not quite true. 2003 in Ross-Ade Stadium. Actually, that game was in Madison. 1997 at Ross-Ade Stadium. That’s a Friday night game, September 22nd. That will be maybe that first chance to pull a surprise. If he could somehow find a way to stem the tideway they way that that one sided rivalry has gone, that would be a huge one.”

The Badgers matchup is the first Big Ten game of the season for the Boilermakers. In addition to facing their six other Big Ten West foes, Purdue is getting Indiana, Michigan and Ohio State in crossover games.

To get both the College Football Playoff semifinalists from the conference last year in crossover games in the same year is a rough beat for the Boilermakers but it does provide more opportunities for that signature win for Walters.

“Obviously that it’s a tough schedule for Purdue this year,” Karpick said. “Michigan, Ohio State on the schedule this year. Ohio State at home on October the 14th. If they could pull another Tyler Trent game and Rondale Moore in 2018, that would be probably the upset of the college football season. But I don’t know if anybody expects that, but I think it’s really gonna be important for Perdue to get out of the box early and maybe that Friday night game.”

The non-conference schedule for the Boilermakers takes place the first three weeks of the season with games against Fresno State, Virginia Tech and Syracuse.

The contest versus the Hokies takes place in Blacksburg, Va.

“I think they’re gonna have challenges everywhere they look,” Karpick said. “When you look at Fresno State and going to Virginia Tech. I understand that Virginia Tech hasn’t been good, but who the heck knows how good Virginia Tech will be this year and Syracuse at home. The Boilermakers are gonna have to pay attention to detail at every stop.”