Weekly Word: Wisconsin's reign of terror over Purdue, basketball and more.
The Weekly Word is GoldandBlack.com’s weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s Weekly Word, we discuss Purdue football’s aim to reverse its fortunes against Wisconsin and much more.
ON PURDUE VS. WISCONSIN
As you are aware, Wisconsin has been Purdue football’s daddy for a very, very long time, for two reasons above all others.
1. The Badgers have been very, very good and very, very consistent for a very, very long time
2. Style of play and roster construction.
And when Purdue has had opportunities to beat Wisconsin, the Badgers have been the Road Runner to the Boilermakers’ Wile E. Coyote.
Forget 2004 — a day that shall forever live in Purdue football infamy — for a moment. That triple-overtime 47-44 loss in 2018 was the classic example of what happens when one program just has another’s number, a cosmic force bigger than all of us, against which conventional weapons are useless.
Now, as both programs reset under new staffs and Wisconsin moves a little further away from the Barry Alvarez Template, can things start to turn? I don’t know what direction Wisconsin is headed in stylistically and I have even less idea why they felt the need to change. That’s how Rome falls, moving away from your winning identity.
But, yeah, maybe.
Wisconsin has out-cultured Purdue during this reign of terror and torment its inflicted upon the Boilermaker program. Its identity has been clear and unapologetic and while the names and faces have changed, very little else had up until now.
It may not happen this year, but if Purdue’s new leadership can establish clear identity, be consistent with it and make the pieces fit year in and year out, the worm can turn here, particularly if Wisconsin deviates from its dairy-farm approach to building soul-crushing offensive lines. As I wrote somewhere years back, your recruiting base is your offensive line and your offensive line is your culture. (I wish I could find the link. It was some of the least mediocre work I’ve done.)
For many years, Wisconsin has preyed upon Purdue at the line of scrimmage, playing classic Big Ten football while Danny Hope tried in vain to play SEC football, Darrell Hazell did whatever that was, and Jeff Brohm played something more like Big 12 football.
If Ryan Walters and his staff work out in a best-case sort of way, Purdue will become its most defensive-driven of the modern era. I know that seems so distant after the Syracuse game, but this is a big-picture endeavor. It’ll be tough, and it’ll be built for Big Ten West football (just in time for the Big Ten West to dissolve). Big Ten football is Big Ten football, though, even with the Pacific Ocean flowing into Lake Michigan next year.
ON PURDUE BASKETBALL AND THE START OF PRACTICE
Next week marks the annual redundancy of college basketball practice officially or formally starting, after teams everywhere practiced all summer. At Purdue, there was more summer practice than usual (albeit without Zach Edey).
It’s an interesting time at Purdue, where Matt Painter has one of the clear best teams in college basketball, yet one with so much more upside than teams this established normally have.
Three areas come to mind (and we have weeks to cover this, but I need this column done now) …
- If Edey and Trey Kaufman-Renn can function together, then you may have more scoring optimized lineups.
- Myles Colvin and Camden Heide are both potentially impact — and collectively transformative — additions for which Purdue should have every incentive to put them on a fast track.
- Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer should be markedly better this season as sophomores, which is a mouthful.
If this stuff falls in place, Purdue realizes its up-side potential and takes a big step. Then it comes down to maturity and making threes.
RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK
• I never understood the consternation about Friday night college football stepping on the high school game. High school football is for students, family and community die-hards. Is there some overlap in audience? Sure. But not so much that the sport that brings millions of dollars into local economies — or rather the network execs who tell it when to jump and how high — should stand down.
In New Jersey, there are games on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.
So should Rutgers just never play?
• Now that Deion Sanders’ name has basically been co-opted into “Coach Prime,” I’ll bet there’s a whole generation of 20-somethings too young to have seen his NFL days who think his name is actually Optimus.
Signed, Jack Handey
• The SEC is down.
Alabama looks as beatable as it ever has under Nick Saban, Georgia is just OK by its standards, LSU got waxed in its opener and Florida looked very average before kicking Tennessee in the face this past weekend, maybe more of an indictment of the Vols than anything.
Throw in Clemson looking very pedestrian now that everyone’s players are getting paid (I kid, I kid) and some other falls from grace around the country and I think you’re seeing how the NCAA has finally backed into some measure of parity.
Seems to me as if Transfer Culture has spread the talent out, especially at quarterback, and NIL has kept some of those programs above from player-hoarding, which are net positive for the sport overall if you care about teams 1 through 130 and not just 1 through 13.
