Penn State, Purdue look to open eyes on opening night

Take a look at their respective records from last year, and you might come away thinking that Penn State will be the team with something to prove to a skeptical nation on Thursday night when it visits Purdue in a prime-time season opener. 

But one of the underappreciated traits that many successful football programs share is an ability to conjure disrespect out of almost nothing at all. So, while the Nittany Lions are looking to bounce back from last year’s 7-6 finish, Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said his players feel as though they haven’t been getting their due, even after posting a 9-4 record in 2021 that ranks among the best in school history. 

“Our guys have a chip on their shoulder,” Brohm said Monday. “They all think they’ve been overlooked to a certain degree. They’re out to prove themselves. They’re willing to put in the work to get it done. They love playing great opponents.

“We’ve had a couple of good games where we’ve risen to the challenge. At the same time, Penn State is going to be hungry. I know last year didn’t go exactly the way they wanted, but they’re very talented and they’re very physical and they’re fast.”

During Brohm’s first five seasons in West Lafayette, the Boilermakers developed a reputation as giant killers, defeating Ohio State in 2018 and Iowa last year when both were ranked No. 2 in the country. They also stunned Michigan State last November when the Spartans were No. 3 in the Associated Press poll.

An early-season test

It’s going to take more wins like those for Purdue to go from giant killer to giant itself, and this year’s schedule affords the Boilers an opportunity to open some eyes around the country on opening night. The Nittany Lions might not be ranked in the preseason Associated Press poll after going 11-11 the past two years, but they’re still a traditional college football power that has defeated Purdue nine times in a row, including a 35-7 victory at Beaver Stadium in the teams’ most recent meeting three years ago.

“It was 21-0 before we blinked, and we had to fight and scrap just to not get blown off the field,” Brohm recalled.” This will really test us and show where we really stand right off the bat.”

The Lions’ most recent visit to West Lafayette was in 2016, a little more than a month before Brohm’s arrival. The Boilermakers were playing their second game under interim coach Gerad Parker, who had been promoted following Darrell Hazell’s midseason dismissal. 

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Parker went on to spend a season at PSU as wide receivers coach, but his first experience with his future employer was not a positive one. Saquon Barkley ran for 207 yards, and the Nittany Lions romped to a 62-24 victory.

Since Brohm’s arrival, though, the Boilermakers have been much more competitive. They had gone 9-33 in three-plus seasons under Hazell, but Brohm led them to a winning record in his debut season, marking the first time the team finished above .500 since 2011. There have been some highs and lows since then, but the highs have been high indeed. In addition to the victories over a trio of top-three opponents, the Boilermakers have won a pair of bowl games under Brohm, the most recent being a 48-45 win over Tennessee in the Music City Bowl to wrap up the 2021 season. 

O’Connell poses challenge

With star quarterback Aidan O’Connell back to lead the Big Ten’s second-most-productive passing offense (355.4 yards per game in 2021), the Boilermakers are looking to build on last year’s strong finish. The sixth-year senior from Long Grove, Ill., is coming off a breakthrough 2021 season. Although he didn’t make his first start until early October, he still threw for 3,712 yards with a 71.8 percent completion rate, 

Penn State coach James Franklin has been impressed with O’Connell’s ability to complete a high percentage of his passes even while attempting plenty of low-percentage deep throws. The Boilermakers, he said, “do a really good job of taking shots. The vertical passing game is a big part of what they do. … That’s probably the biggest thing that we’re going into this game with — the understanding that we are going to have to be able to stop the vertical passing game and the shots down the field.”

Since the inception of its football program in 1887, Purdue has only once posted a double-digit win total. That was in 1979, when it went 10-2 and finished with a 27-22 victory over Tennessee in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. The Boilermakers haven’t won the Big Ten or played in a New Year’s Six bowl since 2000, when they did both under coach Joe Tiller. 

Are they ready to end that drought this fall? The opener may provide more answers than usual, since the opponent isn’t a nonconference foe from a smaller conference or lower division but instead a Big Ten rival with championship aspirations of its own. 

“If you can open with a nonconference game that you feel you have a good chance to possibly win, that’s always a comfort zone,” Brohm said. “But at the same time, we know we have a great schedule. It’s like that every year. At some point, you’re going to play really talented football teams. We’re going to do it right off the bat.

“I think what it does is help you focus more in the offseason in fall camp and understand that, as coaches and players, you’ve got to get ready to go, or it’s going to be a long day.”