Purdue eases into bye week with visit from Notre Dame looming
Upon further review of the film from Purdue’s season-opening 49-0 throttling of Indiana State, Ryan Walters has no major complaints.
“Didn’t find anything new from the tape,” said Walters on Tuesday. “Pretty much what I saw live is what I saw on film. Lot of good, lot of positives. A few things need to clean up, especially with that second group once we started kind of rotating guys. …
“I don’t care who you’re playing, anytime you put up 49 points and hold the opposing team to zero, it’s usually pretty good on tape.”
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Purdue notched 583 yards and yielded only 154 in an effort that checked most every box. And how about QB Hudson Card? He was as close to perfect as perfect can be, hitting 24-of-25 passes to tie a FBS single-game record for completion percentage (96 percent).
The one nit to pick: 11 penalties for 110 yards.
“Definitely got to clean up the penalties,” said Walters. “There’s a couple that were questionable or whatever. So, you can learn from those, as well. That, to me, was the biggest area that we need to harp on.”
Aside from harping on penalties, what’s on the to-do list this week for the Boilermakers?
“To keep developing technique, fundamentals,” said Walters. “The guys that did the majority of the playing, we didn’t practice them today. They came out for warm ups and then went in and worked out. So, we got to get more of the depth guys or guys that just played the minimal amount of snaps got more work (today).
“Everybody will practice tomorrow. We’ll introduce Notre Dame tomorrow, we’ll have a pretty extensive walk-through and workout on Thursday. Friday, they’ll workout. Saturday will be off. And then Sunday will be like a Tuesday practice.”
How does Purdue keep the mojo going during an off week?
“I don’t know if there’s necessarily momentum,” said Walters. “We’re just trying to improve every day and focus in on the things that we need to do to continue to improve and have success. So, that’s the focus, let’s get better this week and do better next week, so that we play a game on next Saturday that looks like a better team than the week before. So, that’s the goal for this team, to continue to improve as the season goes.”
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Purdue came out of the opener in good health with no new reported injuries for a squad that was operating without some key players vs. Indiana State, including CB Nyland Green (foot) and WR CJ Smith (hamstring). Each is a projected starter. Will they be ready for Notre Dame’s visit on Sept. 14?
“We’ll see,” said Walters, who faced the Fighting Irish when he was an assistant at Oklahoma in 2012 (30-13 ND win in Norman). “If they’re ready to go, they’ll be in there. We’re not holding anybody just to hold them. But if they’re not, we won’t put them out there. It’s a long season, and don’t want any lingering issues trying to rush guys back. So, like I said, if they’re ready to go, they’ll go. If they’re not, they’re not. If we have to play today, they wouldn’t play. Luckily, we don’t have a game this week.”
Walters had better news on three other key Purdue players who missed the opener: OT Corey Stewart, WR Kam Brown and DL Joe Anderson.
“They’ll be ready,” said Walters. Stewart is the No. 1 left offensive tackle.
Purdue will need all hands on deck navigating a Big Ten that saw its schools go 17-1 to open the 2024 season. The lone loss: Minnesota vs. North Carolina.
“I mean, we only had one loss the first week,” said Walters. “That’s the Big Ten, man. I think this is the marquee conference in college football right now. … It’ll be fun to watch everybody competing against each other once these non-con games get out of here.”
