Danny Hope Is No Nonsense And We Like That

Because he's Adam Rittenberg and we're us, Adam has an interview up right now with Danny Hope.

What I love about it is that Hope just sounds like he doesn't want speculative questions -- things are what they are, dammit, and we're going to go with it.

A couple of samples:

Outside the program, there's a lot of curiosity, not knowing exactly what to expect from this team. Do you understand that? Is it just part of the deal with all the new things?


Danny Hope: I'm indifferent to it. It doesn't have anything to do with what we're doing getting ready to play. I'm indifferent about the perception on the outside, the preseason rankings, the expectations, any of that. We know where we're at as a football team. We're a very close football team, and we communicate on a regular basis. We know what our expectation levels are for the season. We're focused on us and not necessarily what's on the peripheral.

Is there any curiosity on your part? Now Joey [Elliott] will be in a major role. Now Keith [Smith] may be the No. 1 wide receiver, or another guy might be in a bigger role than he's ever been before. Are you interested to see how they'll react?


DH: We don't have a choice on how to react to that. We're going to get ready to play and we're going to play well with the players we have. We have a lot of confidence in them. It's the same thing every year. There's always new guys coming onto the scene. I don't care where you're at. We have a few more than others, but it's no different. It's business as usual, in reality.


Well, alrighty then.

Coach Hope also mentioned Frank Hallburton multiple times and how Frank is really progressing. This is great to hear as we at BS have long been fans of Frank the Tank.

Enjoy.

ESPN'S Rittenberg Joins Masses In Predicting Painful Year For Boilermakers

It's really no shocker to read Adam Rittenberg's three preseason predictions about the Boilermakers from yesterday. (For those interested, Adam's doing three fast facts about each team these days.)

He gives the defense props, which is warranted, he addresses the kind of fluid quarterback situation, and he sums up the season thusly:

Purdue misses a bowl for the second straight year -- Danny Hope has his work cut out for him in Year 1, and the schedule does him no favors. Purdue must visit Oregon, play an improved Northern Illinois team and host Notre Dame, a preseason Top 25 squad. There are questions at quarterback and wide receiver, and the Boilers have two new coordinators. We'll definitely see some signs of progress, but not enough wins to reach a bowl game.

We don't find this assessment unreasonable at all and continue to see Rittenberg as perhaps the only guy at the WWL who knows the Big Ten teams as thoroughly as a network like EsPN should. We do, however, like that in pointing out our tough schedule, he feels compelled to remind everyone that UND does again count as a tough game, since they're a top 25 team.

Adam Rittenberg Doesn't Much Like Ross-Ade

I like Adam Rittenberg -- the guy is a pro (not a hooker). But his latest list isn't a favorite. However, since we're all about integrity and hard-hitting reporting here at BS (not really), I figured I'd share it with you all.

For those who didn't see it, Adam ranked the Big Ten stadiums (see, he's bored in the off-season, too) and our lovely Ross-Ade finished ninth out of ten (he hasn't seen a game in Minny's new stadium yet -- no one has).

Hard to argue much of the list, but I think our biggest bone to pick would be with ranking Ryan Field (basically a glorified high school-quality stadium) ahead of the home of the Boilermakers.