Purdue ready to deal with rain, wind and Iowa on Saturday
The forecast for Saturday’s game vs. Iowa calls for rain and wind. Purdue will be ready. At least as ready as a team can be when dealing with the elements. The outlook on game day in Ross-Ade Stadium calls for an 80 percent chance for rain and strong winds with a high of 67 degrees.
“Well, it’s not ideal, of course,” said Purdue coach Jeff Brohm on Thursday after practice. “But that’s part of the business, especially in November. Over the last few days, we’ve had numerous periods of wet ball drills with our skill players and position guys. Gotta learn how to handle it, gotta learn how to throw it and catch it and use your body and coddled it in and use every part of your mechanism that you can to catch the ball.
“And on defense, it’s about trying to get it out, keeping your feet and all those things. So, yeah, you’ll have to be aware of it and you have to make sure that you’re doing whatever you can not to turn it over because that’d be critical.”
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Can a team prepare for wind?
“That one’s a little harder to prepare for,” said Brohm. “I think when it’s windy, you gotta gauge which direction you’re going, which way the wind is coming at you, with you, across the field. And you’ll have to adjust some things, without question.
“We’ve had a couple element games before. Haven’t done real well in them. So, we got to learn from those games and figure out what we need to do to try to move the ball, but yet be a little safe to make sure that we’re not creating a lot of mistakes.”
Brohm referenced a 2019 game vs. Illinois played in the rain at Ross-Ade Stadium. The Boilermakers lost the turnover battle, 2-0, and the game, 24-6.
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“If we just do our part and have some patience and not turn it over, we’re in the game to the end,” said Brohm. “So, there’s got to be the perfect complement of that compared to aggression to making sure that you’re trying to score.”
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Brohm says associate equipment manager Kyle Gergely is tasked with monitoring the weather.
“I know he calls into the National Weather Service and tries to get an expert’s opinion,” said Brohm. “And you know how that is, sometimes they’re correct, sometimes they aren’t. We explore every avenue we can.”
Personnel update
Purdue had several players dealing with injury this week. And, the prognosis sounds good for many of them.
Brohm expects cornerbacks Cory Trice (groin) and Jamari Brown (ankle) to be ready after each left the last game (at Wisconsin) with injury. And running back Dylan Downing (foot) looks good to go, too, after missing two games. LEO Kydran Jenkins (knee) also is expected to suit up after getting hurt at Wisconsin.
But running back King Doerue (calf) will be out, as will fullback Ben Furtney (knee). And wideout Broc Thompson (knee) still isn’t ready. He hasn’t played since the second game of the season vs. Indiana State. And defensive back Chris Jefferson is still away from the team dealing with mental health issues.
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