Wednesday Morning's 1 minute look at practice

-The BTN was in town to do a feature on the Boilers that will air next week...so Hope kept the offensive and defensive looks vanilla. He liked the cameras being inside the fences for one reason though- the players tend to want to play faster and show off a bit for the TV crew.

-McBurse still held out of practice...wore a "support device" (according to Hope) while going through drills. Hope says he'll be just fine in a few days. In his stead, Dierking and Pegram were taking the lion's share of the snaps with the 1s.

Hope says the team and coaches tend to take Dierking for granted at times because he works so hard and that Pegram is a natural at the position because of his compact frame and ability to shed tacklers.

Hope likes the possibilities of getting other guys (besides the RBs) the ball at times...the offense will show two-back, one-back and no-back looks this season...and, I think, he's hinting at a bit of trickeration with Smith, Siller, Marve and Co...Beware, UND and ensuing competition.

-Keith Smith was wearing tape on his right hand/wrist and Hope says a lot of guys are fighting through small injuries.

Some guys are coming back from small injuries- Albert Evans, Josh Johnson and others all returned today...Jeff Lindsay was kept out of practice due to a shoulder injury.

-A repeating theme you hear from coaches and players is that the defensive and offensive units are both getting better, but still aren't consistent enough. Ken Plue remarked that the team looks good...but not good-enough yet. That's OK...they still have 17 days and 15 practices left...nearly half way through "camp".

-Hope mentioned Eargle, K. Smith, Pegram, Charlot and Plue as guys who he thought were making noise so far. Specifically, he talked about how Ken Plue was "wasting away in front of our very eyes" as his weight has dipped to 345.

Final Scrimmage- "We are going to have a good defense."

Maybe it's just because he's intoxicated on thoughts of his home in Wyoming being less than a year away, but in his last season at the helm, Joe Tiller surely isn't following his own advice about managing expectations...at least on the defensive side of the ball.

"As I have said all camp, I like the way our defense runs to the ball, and that continued today," Tiller said. "I thought we came out ready to go defensively and made some plays. We are going to have a good defense."

Unlike the last scrimmage, the offense scored with more regularity, with the story, statistically being the running game seemed to dominate the play-calling. Ex-QB Siller had the most carries and the most yards (right around 6 yds/carry), but Bolden and Dierking both averaged around 8 yds/carry.

Vlad Tiller is still controlling the info coming out of camp, so we don't know the situations (ones, twos, types of plays, etc.) in which the yards were accrued, so it's hard to judge anything...But Brandon Whittington and Kieth Smith both had nearly 100 yards receiving and a lot of grabs while Orton didn't seem to be noteworthy. Painter completed nearly 70% of his passes w/ 260+ yards...and Elliot was just over 50% for 155 yds.

Honestly, I don't think these stats are worth too much, but the quote about the defense, to me is very interesting.

Atta boy, Frank!

One of my favorite Boilers is a guy named Frank Duong. Frank goes 100 MPH when on the field and seems to do quite a bit with not a ton of size. He's quick and comes from a good high school program (Penn HS, Indiana), so he knows how to play the game and get in position to make plays. His hard work earned the former track and field sprinter a scholarship on the heels of camp. I love it when Tiller and staff hand out schollies to guys like Duong, Jake Standeford (who kept Purdue from giving away the '06 Oaken Bucket and should have started over Selwyn Lymon in '07), Cory Benton (now a starter), Nick Hardwick (now an NFL All-Pro) and others...It's just good to see hard work paying off.

Congrats, Frank!

Catching up...

Work continues to be busy and keep me from important things like posting on this site...But, I have a couple of thoughts about what's been happening in the world of sports and near me.

CHS v. CHS on the Entertainment Network
-First off, my alma mater played a football game on national TV earlier this afternoon. Many of you probably saw EsPN's High School game between Carmel (IN) v. Cathedral (IN), the latter being my high school. While I kind of think it's nifty, especially for the kids playing in the game, to be on a big stage, I also think it's negative. EsPN continues to profit off of making big business out of small time sports. I'm stoked for the CYO championships on the deuce in October.

...News from God's Country
-There have been some noteworthy position switches during camp in the past week in West Lafayette:
Magee from Tackle to D-End
Holland from Safety to LB
and finally
Siller from QB to RB

While I think it's odd to have such a big DE, especially in the defenses that Tiller's had the last 11 years, It seems like Magee might have the feet of a much smaller man and the size to actually stop the run...Great combo. If worst comes to worst, he can move back inside with little problem.

Joe Holland is pretty young and seems to be a mini-Jason Werner from a few years ago...Much like Werner, he should be able to pack on some pounds as he was a lean sprinter in high school. If he's as promising as Werner seems to be, this move might be brilliant.

The biggest head-scratcher of the bunch is Justin Siller's. Prior to spring ball, there were whispers that Siller would be the next great quarterback at Purdue...During Spring, it became clear to the coaching staff that he wasn't going to pass Elliott as the two. Then, early this fall, Caleb Terbush surprised many by showing he could run the offense well and actually make a wide-range of passes.

Siller tries a running back's facemask...Taylor looks on in the distance

All of a sudden, Siller was an ultra-athletic player without a position. So the story goes, the coaches wanted him on the field because he has too much ability not to be utilized. Now, he's in the stable of running backs behind Kory Sheets, Dan Dierking and Frank Halliburton.

Honestly, Siller doesn't look like a running back, to me...but Reeves and Werner didn't look like LBs following their switches. He's tall and pretty lean...but just because taller running backs haven't been the norm in Tiller's offense doesn't mean they can't find success. I don't know his 40 time, but I do know he ran the option in high school and didn't pass a whole bunch, so he can carry the ball. I'd assume he has good vision, and God knows he knows the offense (he seemed to be in huddles all last year just soaking up Painter's direction), so I'm hoping for the best. That said, I don't have the best feeling about this move. I said it earlier in the week in a discussion that it reminded me of the move Bill Foran made a few years ago...That was the end of his Purdue career, pretty much.

I got to talk to Justin Siller during the spring and he sounded like a guy who was ready to take the reins at QB. Furthermore, he seemed pretty confident that he could do the job. That kind of makes me think he'll move on to another locale and try to be quarterback elsewhere...I really hope not, but that's what my gut says. Granted, if he sees the field this season and makes an impact, I think that could keep him here, but if his experiment at RB goes like Foran's one season there, it's audios Mr. Siller.

-In the biggest scrimmage of camp so far, the defense surprised a lot of people by holding the offense in check for most of the contest. I'm always torn when I hear reports like this- Does it mean the defense is good or the offense isn't as good as they're supposed to be? My guess is the new receivers are still figuring things out and Taylor's loss to the offense is still fresh. I think the next scrimmage should prove successful for the offense as the wideouts decide to hang onto the ball and Sheets comes in with a chip on his shoulder. We'll see.
USA! USA!
-In about nine hours Team USA will try to re-claim the gold. I'm hoping they do so...and am pretty sure they will. But, I'm kind of ready for the olympics to be over. They've worn out their welcome, to me. It could be because I've had a taste of football now or it could be because I'm sick of hearing human interest stories about all that China has to offer. Whatever the case may be, I'm excited for Thursday night, as college football returns to us like a long-lost lover. I can't wait to see her.

Hoosiers to be Hurting in 2008?
-The IU fanbase is excited about what's coming this season...Maybe it's because I'm not a fan of IU that I see things through a completely different prism.

I've said this before, I think James Hardy's importance to that offense was immense- he drew the number one corner and usually a safety on every play and freed up IU's other receivers...He also made Lewis look brilliant as he threw jump balls up and the 6'5" Hardy caught about everything.

Next, Lewis may or may not be still struggling with much bigger problems than anything football-related. According to many, Hoeppner kept him glued when he almost came undone...He finally became unraveled last spring and it led to his suspension. I don't think IU or Lewis are out of the woods yet with his problems. And without Lewis, that offense is nothing noteworthy.

On the other side of the ball, the Hoosiers lost two shut-down corners that allowed guys like Middleton to thrive with coverage sack after coverage sack. Plus, IU loses key players at LB and on the D-line...that leaves a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of a not-very-talented group of young players in Bloomington.

The thing up against IU is the simple fact that their coach hasn't had a bunch of success prior to last year. He did a masterful job leading IU to a bowl while bolstering the team with Hep's inspirational "Play 13" speech, but that's now gone. Friends of mine at Ball Sate don't think the guy could coach while at the helm for the Cardinals, I tend to think he didn't pick it up in the last 4 seasons.

So what's it all mean? To me it mean that despite playing EIGHT home games, the Hoosiers will struggle to win 5 or 6 games. Sure, they play a slew of mid-majors, an amount that makes Joe Tiller jealous, but that may not be so good. CMU and Ball State both have quarterbacks who are receiving publicity nationally...both can improvise and both are accurate passers. I'm really happy Purdue doesn't play Ball State as I think they're the most over-due program in the MAC...and Hoke actually is a pretty good coach, in my opinion. We'll see, but don't expect IU to lose any until the third week...then the flood gates might open.

I predict 4-8 with wins coming versus Western Kentucky, Murray State, Minnesota and Iowa. IU won't play 13 in '08.

The Rock will need to defend itself in '08

Things Less-Than-Rosy

Now, that's more like it- all is right with the world again. No reports of ineligibility, law infractions, injuries or fights? That doesn't seem too much like what we've become accustomed during Purdue football camp and two-a-days during the past 4 or 5 seasons...

Until now.

Two pieces of not-great news came out of West Lafayette yesterday. First, D.J. Donley, who I still don't think will play a down at Purdue, has yet to report to Purdue's campus. According to a couple of sources, he's ironing out some details back at GT. Seems to me, details could have been ironed out during the last 2 or 3 months...but what do I know.

Next up, one of Purdue's incoming Freshman, Dwayne Beckford will not be able to play this season due to the NCAA Clearinghouse. While some thought he might play this year, chances were greater that he'd spend a year developing...but the fact that Purdue has one less option at LB isn't a good thing since they're already so thin there.

In the perpetually-falling-sky atmosphere of the Knucklehead Board, many think this is the beginning of the wave of bad news that begins each time in August for Purdue's football team. While I may be wrong, I don't think this year will be too bad. Crappy things happen to every program at the beginning of camp...but perspective and wisdom might be better than hunches and bad feelings. Camp does not have to be a precipice of pending doom that it's become for Boiler fans, but it is human nature when you don't know what's going on to draw conclusions on your own thoughts about what's around the next corner. The best way to stop this sort of thinking is by getting through camp as well as possible and follow that up by having a successful season.

Regardless of who you are, it's probably not the best practice in the world to place a ton of heartache or stress on the prospects of a career of a 19 year old who's never played a down for your alma mater...Regardless of which school is your favorite. That said, is there anything more exciting than raw potential and upside? You know, conversations about what might happen and what someone might become are really nothing more than fantasy, but they can be an enjoyable distraction...But when the new season isn't rainbows and lollipops, it stings quite a bit.

Not everyone can sign Terrelle Pryor or Jimmy Clausen...and that's good sometimes because you're forced to not place your hopes and dreams in the hands of a completely unknown commodity. Busts usually aren't the result of a kid's downfall, in my opinion. They're the result of silly expectations placed on an athlete who's never played at the next level.

I think as Purdue fans, we might be wiser to focus on what we know best- kids that develop into solid players in a two or three season span and maybe take the next step and become great. Guys like Dustin Keller and Curtis Painter, Craig Terrell and Anthony Spencer. Granted, it's not quite as fun as the dream of greatness that comes from unlimited potential, but it's not quite as heartbreaking either. Maybe, just maybe, one season in the not-so-distant future, a group of these kids who develop slowly, but surely, will all be on the same team again and our Boilers will get back to a BCS bowl. Like I said, it's fun to dream.

Practice Finally Begins

Due to lousy scheduling (Purdue's first week is actually a bye) that can only be blamed on Purdue, our Boilers started practice a week later than everybody else. Maybe that's part of the reason that EVERYONE came back healthy...and academically eligible. Tiller says this is the first time he can remember such a situation occurring...I think I'd go one step further, it's never even been close to being this ideal as practice commenced during Tiller's 11 previous seasons. But, there was some bad news from West Lafayette-

Harris

A guy who I thought had a lot of promise and that would probably make the two-deeps next season is off of the team. Malcolm Harris, who hails from New Jersey has officially been removed from the roster due to conduct issues.

In better news...
As camp finally began for Purdue, Brandon King, my son's pal (see below), will be moved back to his natural position of CB. I talked to Brandon prior to the spring game, and he believed it was going to happen when the fall resumed. With Williams' issues and the lack of depth at Safety, I didn't see King's prediction coming to fruition...It has, at least for now.

lil' Boilerdowd and Brandon King

Hopefully, we'll have more info from camp, but since it's closed to eyes outside of the program, there's not always a whole lot to report. Regardless, it's great to hear that football is getting closer.