Macho Joey Elliott

Elliott trying to work his way into the league...

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.

Time for a new routine

Today on GBI.com, there's a story about Joey Elliott and how he's preparing for his first career start this coming Saturday. Many are excited to see the new-look Boilers and what Coach Hope and Coach Nord will have in store for the offense. But we all know that how Joey Elliott goes, so go these Boilers.

I don't think anybody's expecting Joey to pull a Dicken and be All-Big Ten...not saying it's not possible, but it's definitely not-expected. But, for Elliott to make his mark on the team this year and on the greater program for years to come, he needs to become his own man.

Elliott and Painter were always together on the sidelines during the past few seasons. Their demeanor, at least from a far seemed similar. And, according to the story I referenced above, that was by design...Elliott was just following in the footsteps of the even-keel Painter...Joe Tiller liked that type of game preparation.

But Painter's gone and so is Tiller...perhaps it's time for the high-energy Elliott to show a bit of his personality to his teammates before each contest.

Painter was obviously a pretty-good quarterback as he holds a bunch of records and is playing ball at the next level...but, his even-keel nature may be part of what contributed to the fact that his game seemed stagnate, at least in the last few seasons of his career at Purdue. Elliott doesn't have the luxury of time to figure out what's going to work over the next four years...he's got 12 or 13 games- he needs to do his own thing now.

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?