Gold and Black LIVE Replay: Bobinski, Brown and Purdue football talk
Gold and Black LIVE opens its 16th year talking Purdue football and more with special guests Boilermaker AD Mike Bobinski and Chad Q. Brown of Profilebehavior.com. And of course, GoldandBlack.com’s Tom Dienhart breaks down what we may see in Ross-Ade Stadium tomorrow.
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More Purdue football analysis from Brian Neubert’s Weekly Word
PURDUE FOOTBALL AND SUCCESS
Jeff Brohm’s six seasons at Purdue: Success or nah?
Unequivocally, yes, a success.
Quick: Tell me what Brohm’s six-year record was.
Yes, as you’ve already jumped out of your seat to blurt out: 36-34. Two games over .500. The Even Steven-est of cumulative records.
But you don’t remember that, do you? You remember the program’s extraction from the pits of college football hell. You remember the Foster Farm’s Bowl and the Tennessee Music City Bowl and you will still be replaying Ohio State 2018 in your mind on your deathbed. You remember Rondale Moore and David Bell and Aidan O’Connell and George Karlaftis and Tyler Trent.
You don’t remember that the broad outcomes — context-free — were the very epitome of mediocre and forgettable.
Doesn’t mean it wasn’t success, the very concept that ought to be reimagined nowadays, as these new schedules make six wins the new eight, and eight the new 10, for a lot of programs.
So what does success mean for Purdue this season in Year 2 under Ryan Walters? No one at Purdue would paint themselves into a corner by honestly answering that question before a season, nor should any coach, but the underlying context does need to be taken into account.
Last year’s four wins were unfulfilling, but not altogether shocking, given the personnel deficit inherited and schedule encountered. Now, this is more Walters’ team and comfort between both staff and roster should be more apparent, but that daunting schedule from a year ago is now something more, as the Big Ten ridiculously added the Pac-4 for no good reason, other than TV getting what TV wants, like a bratty toddler seeing candy at the store.
Big Ten Bloat dovetails with Notre Dame coming back the same year Purdue lives up to this agreement to visit Oregon State, scheduled in a very different world than exists now. Purdue should never do this traveling-west-in-September thing again, save for showcase opportunities too good to pass up. I’d cite the ’98 Pigskin Classic at USC, but A) some of you maybe hadn’t been born yet, B) that would now be a conference game and C) I don’t want to trigger my PTSD from the heat that day. Purdue should schedule as many wins in non-conference as it can get from here on out, and apologize to no one for doing so.
But FCS Indiana State should — should — be Purdue’s lone lay-up of this season.
After that, Purdue has four presumed Playoff contenders on the schedule, a non-conference trip to Bigfoot Country in the Pacific Northwest and three or four of its most winnable Big Ten games on the road.
This is a cop-out take that I’m guessing readers are tiring of, but the win total or bowl locale isn’t the end-all, be-all anymore. You know success when you see it, and you know a foundation when you see it.
That said, some boxes for Purdue to ideally check this season, because I know how you like a good old-fashioned box-checking.
