Monday, October 04, 2010

Not according to plan.


The bye week was supposed to be a chance to for Purdue's football team to get healthy and prepare for a new chapter as Rob Henry will soon be Purdue's starter. Well, half of that is going to happen.

We all thought that Justin Siller was an option to be moved back to the QB rotation...until recently. Everybody saw him go down v. Toledo and come back on the field in sweats. But, Hope announced yesterday that Siller would be unavailable, to play any position, for the next few games at least. His sprained foot has been described as a "serious sprain". I had a serious ankle sprain in college that made me pretty worthless for a long while...so I understand. But, that makes the repercussions no easier.

Siller and Keith Smith excited a lot of Purdue fans, like myself, coming into the season. Their athletic ability, ability to pass and size combined to give Purdue all sorts of potential options (that we never really saw this season, by the way). Now, Those options are both off of the table as is a whole lot, at this point, honstly.

Purdue's skeleton crew, skilled players on offense look like this (right now) for the Northwestern game:
Rob Henry QB (0 starts) RS Frosh
ATM (1 start) Soph.
OJ Ross WR (0 starts) True Frosh
Cortez Smith WR (5 starts) Sr.
Antavian Edison WR (0 starts) Soph.
Kyle Adams TE (long-time starter) Sr.
Worse still, the depth chart, particularly at WR, is pretty scary- two RS Freshman and a Junior who has played little bolster the line-up. All of a sudden, the running back corps looks rock solid (in comparison)- ATM, Dierking, Carlos and Crank are all options as they're all getting healthy. Perhaps Carlos will be moved back to WR? Kinda hope not simply because his hands were so shaky in '09...that's probably not changed in the last few months.

What this all seems to spell out is the offense must change immensely. I think we'll see more read option, passing to the flat and maybe Kyle Adams will finally become more of a receiving threat...kinda has to, really. If you watched Henry run the offense in practice videos (the few that exist) and in his limited action, you might have seen what I noticed- he seems to run the offense at a faster pace than did Marve. Perhaps that might translate to a no-huddle that's even more effective...plus, the no-huddle has yielded the most success (I know that's not saying a ton) for Purdue's offense, regardless of who has been at the helm, this season.

I hate to say it, but it's tough to have anything but low expectations for the offense right now...at worst, they'll continue the lack of production we've seen thus far this season. But, anything more would be pleasantly-shocking.

This is all the more reason the defense and special teams simply must produce right now. Simple things like tackling and spacing are of utmost importance...but, sadly, we have no reason to believe these parts of the gameplan can be counted on at this point. Another way the defense can make a difference immediately would be making every easily-catchable interception that presents itself. That said, it doesn't seem Persa will give Purdue many chances to intercept the ball- he's completing an eye-popping 80% of his passes and his TD:Int ratio is 10:2...but the Wildcats looked amazingly-beatable against a mediocre Minny team last Saturday.

Editor's Note:
I'm out of town on vacation, so posting is kinda tough right now...J is dealing with something much more important than that. In the next week or so, things should get back to normal around here...thanks for your patience until that happens.

7 comments:

BoilerUpAT said...

VACATION? WTF you're not allowed to go on vacation........we're in the middle of football season here.

((just kidding)

I liked what I saw from Carlos last week running the ball. I think with Carlos, a healthy ATM, Henry at QB and Ross/Edison at WR this CAN still be a potent offense. Plus, with this lineup, we could possibly sustain long, clock consuming drives with our ground production and keep Persan and Co. on the sidelines.

boilerdowd said...

True- there's potential...but it might be a lot to ask for sustained rhythm right away, in my opinion. Like you, I'm hoping for the best though.

Regarding vacation, I won't let it happen again.

dozer8589 said...

I know I'm comparing apples and zebras here, but I kind of like the way Hope's career is mirroring Coach Painter's. I mean, he comes to Purdue after putting a small school on the map. He must replace a legend who has unintentionally let the cupboard go bare. Then, in his second solo season, he is blasted with injuries, forcing him to play young, inexperienced players.

If things continue in this direction, Hope will assemble one of the top recruiting classes in the country, loading it with instant impact players to supplement a now experienced bench. Three seasons later, everyone will be talking about Purdue's chances to make a run at a title.

dozer8589 said...

Hope on the offense with Henry at QB:

"We don't have to shrink it down from a play-calling standpoint.'

Good thing.

Scruffy_P said...

dozer8589 good points in your first comment, second comment, yes good thing since it doesnt seem that big with to begin the season!

Mommatried said...

Dozer,

I agree as well...I just wish he had put the youth wagon on the rails 3 years ago...imagine if we had a freshman quarterback starting then....now with 3 years experience and a sense of direction.

There's no sense in trying to make sense of this season. It's a crap shoot. If we win, great because no one expected us to. If we lose, not great...but we've been chewing on that not great cud for awhile...what's another year.

Bloomington.Boiler said...

"What's another year..."

So true.