Elliott-Brees Connection Mentioned on DP Show

As B-dowd mentioned, Drew Brees reportedly sent a text to Joey Elliott telling him to "go out and shock the world" on Saturday. (And, indeed, they're still talking about this game in Abu Dhabi.) Maybe we can arrange for Drew to text Joey before every game the rest of the season?

We often bitch about the lack of respect our program gets from media outlets so I wanted to mention this here. One of the few morning radio programs I can stomach is The Dan Patrick Show, and each Monday they do their "best and worst of the weekend," and one of the guys made Joey Elliott's performance against OSU his "best" of the weekend.

It's been a good feeling to be a Boilermaker the past few days.

The Joey Elliott Experiment

A couple seasons back, I was at a game and Painter had a minor injury and so Joey Elliott (as a frosh or soph) had to come in for a series, and a guy sitting near us shouted, "Welcome to the Joey Elliott Experiment!" I always found that amusing and continue to use it.

Why's it appropriate? Because we really don't know what Joey's capable of. He could be a very serviceable game-manager... or he might not be. He hasn't played enough for us to judge. But we do know that he wants to go into coach, as per this piece by the talented Adam Rittenberg.

Reading that and learning more about Elliott, I am cautiously optimistic about his chances. Sure, shoulder injuries are scary and one hard hit on it (like being driven into the turf) could shelve him, but putting injury aside, it sounds like he's going to work very hard to put on a respectable performance at QB this season.

And while there are no promises of him being the starter, he really should be. A team like this needs leadership and in the absence of experienced, talented playmakers, you have to turn to your seniors... especially if they act like a player-coach. Definitely a good thing.

Other tidbits from the story...

Joey Elliott wants to become the next Josh Heupel.

Sure, he wouldn't mind leading Purdue to a national title, winning the AP Player of the Year award and finishing second in Heisman Trophy voting. But Elliott is more interested in mirroring Heupel's rapid rise up the college coaching ranks.

Sure, we wouldn't mind that, either. Hells yeah! Elliott for Heisman '09! I assume his website is in the works.

"In my mind, he's the starter," Purdue offensive coordinator Gary Nord said. "At the same time, we haven't named anything, and anybody can beat anybody out. Nobody's guaranteed anything. The coaching staff doesn't know what the capabilities are, doesn't know the intangibles of them yet."

You know, "intangibles." Who's the best juggler? Who makes the best buttermilk pancakes after a night out with 19-year-old college girls? Who has the highest score on "Dance Dance Revoultion." That kind of thing.

Elliott even shares play-calling ideas with the coaching staff, almost like he's another graduate assistant.

"He's got everything you want in a quarterback, except experience," Nord said. "He hasn't played any."

Insert the wah-wahhhhh sound effect from The Price Is Right here. He's great! He's got everything you want! I mean, besides having played.

Elliott has appeared in only 10 games, completing 27 of 49 passes for 300 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

You know, this is interesting to me. If I was offered Joey Elliott going 27/49 for 300 yards and 2-and-2 every game, I'd sign up right now.

Wouldn't you?

A Lot to learn

I'll be honest- I don't know what's going to happen in '09 to Purdue's football team. A lot has changed...and the coaching staff and players both have a lot to learn before they can be considered a cohesive unit.

At the same time, we as fans have a lot to learn about what type of football will be played, offensively and defensively, what type of mentality this team has and who is going to rise to the occasion as opportunity presents itself to a slew of new players who will be starters or in the two-deeps for the first time in their careers.

There are a few people out there, myself included, who have thought of the parallels with Tiller's first season that we're going to see in Hope's first campaign.

-The starting quarterback will likely be a Senior who is coming off of a shoulder injury. In 1997, it was Dicken, this time, it's Elliott...both had rotator cuff injuries.

-Last season's team finished near the bottom of the conference with just four wins. The 1996 team did too, with just three wins.

-In 1997, expectations were that Purdue would finish near the bottom of the Big Ten, it's once again the case in 2009.

It seemed pretty bleak then, and it has that feel now. But there are some differences that are noteworthy, some are positive, others are negative.

-Billy Dicken had started a few games at QB...and at DB before his final year in West Lafayette. Joey Elliott has not started a game.

-Tiller's coaching staff was nearly completely in-tact coming from Wyoming. Hope's staff is a bit of a patchwork of Tiller guys, EKU and some transplants from other programs still.

-Tiller's hire came with very few votes of confidence within the Purdue family. Conversely, players like Rosey Colvin, Drew Brees, Matt Light and others seem to think Hope is exactly the right guy for the Purdue football program.

A few friends of mine are already cynical because of the age of Hope's coordinators and the fact that Hope's teams at EKU were never great...they're bothered that so much is being asked of so many underclassmen and that so many skilled players will be starting who have never done so before. All those things are true. But really, none of it can't be changed at this point. Furthermore, while there are parallels and contrasts to the last coaching transition, none of those matter either.

I think the best and fairest thing we can do is wait until we see the product on the field before we make our decision about this team and the level of success they might have. Give Hope, his players and coaches the chance to succeed or fail on the field of play before making a judgement call.

At this point we all have a lot to learn.