Much Like Boilerdowd With Dance Dance Revolution, Curtis Painter Can't Stop Playing A Game He Loves

You probably missed this one from over the weekend (And why not? Didn't college football end, like, months ago?), but our friend Curtis Painter took his laser rocket arm down to scenic El Paso, Texas and played in the "Texas vs. The Nation" senior all-star bowl game thingie.

[Insert joke here about Purdue QBs knowing the way to El Paso well.]

Curtis had a decent showing, going 6 of 15 for 55 yards and a TD. As much as we've had our doubts about Curt's abilities from time to time, I find myself really rooting for him to do well. He was a good Joe Tiller soldier and while his leadership might not have been as vocal and intense as we would have liked, he also wasn't an embarrassment to our program.

In other Purdue football news, Painter, Greg Orton, Kory Sheets and Alex Magee all received invites to the NFL's combine in Indianapolis. Get ready to be examined like a show dog, boys.

I Don't Think Joe Tiller Reads Boiled Sports

I know, crazy talk, right? But I don't think he's paying attention to us. As evidence, let's take a look at this quote from today on ESPN.com's Big Ten "blog":

"I haven't heard anybody say, 'You've got to be crazy if you're not [starting Siller]!'" Tiller said. "Mind you, it's only Tuesday."

Ahem. Joe, you've got to be crazy if you're not starting Siller. Does that change anything?

Also from that same post:

Backup quarterback Justin Siller won Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors for his impressive performance against Michigan, but Painter's experience could be beneficial against No. 18 Michigan State.

Really? Beneficial how? You mean all his experience beating ranked teams? Because I think Siller guiding the Boilers to 48 points was beneficial and that sort of firepower might also be beneficial against Sparty.

Michigan Week -- Purdue Coaches Room

Coach Hope: Men, thanks for assembling. I know we're having fewer and fewer coaches meetings because A) the season is a loss and B) Coach Tiller is often very sleepy, so I genuinely appreciate you showing up. Here's the thing -- we have the maize and blue this week, who are also 2-6 and whom everyone is beating up on. We need to beat them. Brock, what do you think for this week's defensive game plan? You must have something up your sleeve.

Brock Spack:



Coach Hope: Ah, I see. You're truly a defensive wizard, Brock. But see, here's the thing -- we want to keep Coach Tiller in the dark on our opponent this week -- Shh! Don't say the name! -- because Joe is very... scared of this squad.

[Tiller begins to enter room]

Coach Legg Rock: You mean Michigan?

[Tiller freezes mid-stride, eyes widen]

Coach Hope: Dammit.

[Tiller runs from the room, grabbing Curtis Painter by the arm and fleeing]

Tiller: Come with me, Curtis! I'll save you, my little buckaroo!!

A Typical Day For The Purdue Football Coaching Staff

[Joe Tiller enters room where assistants are already waiting and sits down.]


Tiller: Hello, men. Sorry I'm late. I was just talking to a satellite plate installer out in Wyoming. Can you believe what they can get on those plates now?

Danny Hope: Coach, I think you mean satellite “dish,” not “plate.”

Tiller: Fourteen kinds of porn! It's amazing.

Danny Hope: Um, well, coach, shouldn't we talk about the team?

Tiller: Oh, Danny, when you're head man you can do whatever the hell you want. But you're not. You're my underling for five more games. Plus the bowl.

[silence, Hope grits teeth]

Tiller: I'll tell you what. I think we should talk about the team. Here we are, 2-5. And I'll tell you what I want -- I want two trick plays for this weekend and I want them decided on in the next ten minutes.

Hope: Oh, I see, cool. You're giving the staff a time limit so that they bear down and focus. Good tactic.

Tiller: What about Tic Tacs? No, I have a frozen pizza in the oven and it only has twelve minutes left on it. And then I'm taking a nap and watching Captain Kangaroo.

Hope: I see.

Tiller: Brock! What do you have for me?

Spack:

Tiller: Same as usual, eh Brock?

Hope: Do you think Curtis could handle a flea flicker?

Tiller: A what?

Hope: [calls Curtis Painter up, tells him to come to coaches room]

Painter: What's up, coach?

Hope: Can you throw a flea flicker?

Painter: hmmmmm.....

......no, coach, I don’t throw fleas. I don’t even think that’s possible. I throw footballs.

Hope: [sighs] A flea flicker is where you hand off to Kory and then he tosses it back to you…

Painter: Oh.

Hope: …and you then look downfield and go through your progression, pick out the receiver, and let fly.

Painter: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. What’s a progression?


Tiller: That’s mah boy!

Hope: Curtis, it’s when you look at each receiver in the order of whom you’d like to throw to and decide on the best option.

Painter: Oh, right! I always just settle on the first guy. I’m that freaking good. I just laser it in there no matter what.

Hope: Yes, we know.

Painter: Watch me thrown a dead-accurate pass!

Hope: Hold on, let’s go to the aquatics center – I want to try something.

[at aquatics center]

Hope: Okay, Curtis, your target is there:

Curtis: [lets fly]

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

[ball sails over pool]

Hope: [sigh]

[back to coaches room]

Hope: Curtis, you need to work on your game.

Tiller: It’ll come around.

Hope: No, coach, it won’t. It’s more than halfway through his senior season – when do we begin to coach him?

Tiller: Do what now? I sure do like fly fishing. Curtis, you need to promise me you'll come visit in Wyoming and go fly fishing with me.

Painter: Of course, Coach. [looking at Hope] Look, I don’t need to be coached. I’m a Heisman candidate AND and a bowl-game MVP!

Hope: Argh. The bloggers you're afraid of are right, Joe. We have to do something about this team’s mindset and the culture we’re letting develop here.

Tiller: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Joe Is Curious; Curtis Thinks We're Doing Things Well

Sure, we're now hypersensitive to everything and we're downright pissed off about this season, this coaching staff, the fact that I ordered cheese fries at Ross-Ade last weekend and the guy filled the cup of fries to the brim with cheese and then gave me a blank stare when I asked if they had forks... I'm telling you, everything sucks right now.

I then read this story on ESPN.com about how Tiller is becoming impatient with Curtis. Fine, let's see what they say.

First, I like that ESPN bylines it with "INDIANAPOLIS" -- probably where they think Purdue is, or, more likely, they figure it's the only city in Indiana.

Anyway, it's a typical Purdue article -- we don't know what happened! (Hint: 3-stars often lose to 5-stars.) And it's getting old to see the coach completely clueless. Coaches are supposed to have answers, solutions, plans.... something. Being curious and wondering when everything will sort itself out is something that WE can f-cking do!

Joe?

"I don't think you can put your finger on one thing and say, well, he's [Painter] not doing this. He's doing what's being asked of him."

Maybe you need to be asking him to go through a progression rather than staring down one receiver and then firing a laser at knock-down-able heighth.

Painter knows he needs to deal with Tiller's most significant gripe, accuracy on the deep ball. Ironically, Painter took over for Brandon Kirsch in 2005 because Kirsch struggled to connect on long throws.

"I don't know that there's a solution," Painter said. "Just keep practicing, keep going for them. Sooner or later, you'll hit those."

Yes, much like chipping golf balls at a bucket, you should just keep sailing them out there... eventually, one might land where it's supposed to. Law of averages, right?

Joe must have then been asked about Painter on the road, against a ranked opponent, in a place where Purdue would have trouble winning if OSU had only 8 players on the field... so what's Joe's approach?

"You know, I'll be curious," Tiller said. "I'm like you guys. I want to see how he snaps back from this. I think that will give us an indication of where he's headed in the future and where we're headed."

*sigh*

No, Joe, you're not like us guys. You're the head effing football coach. You are supposed to have a plan to deal with things. For F's sake, just say you have a plan of attack! Say you're going to "try some new things." Do something to make us believe you're not just playing out the string. Make us fricking believe. We so desperately want to believe.

Meanwhile, Curtis is drinking kool-aid:

Painter said the Boilermakers aren't far from having the kind of potent offense their fans are used to.

"We've lost a few games, and we feel like we should have been in them a little bit more than we were," he said. "We're doing things well. I think we're just close. Hopefully we'll click soon."

Wait, I'm sorry.... we're....doing....things.....................well?

Sorry, I almost vomited a little bit there. It was hard to even type it. If Curtis thinks we're doing things well, then... well.... we're as screwed as we thought.

Purdue Football T-Shirt

PURDUE FOOTBALL '08

EXPECT THE EXPECTED.

2008 Boiled Sports Season Preview (About Time)

Well, here we are, probably the last site to roll out our season preview for 2008. But hey, we haven’t missed anything yet since Purdue is finally just now getting around to playing a game. If you can count our opener against Northern Colorado as a “game.” (Sweet hey-soos, I hope we don’t lose.)

We’re not a site that overanalyzes things (yes, I’m sure you’ve noticed). If you want an overly-detailed breakdown of the Purdue season, go ahead and take a look at the detailed work over at OffTheTracks. Or read the mediocre-fest take from Varsity Blue.

From us you’re going to continue to get what you come here for and that’s our rambling, stream-of-consciousness thoughts on the team, life, boobies, and all sorts of things in between.
Here are the categories for the BS Season Preview:

Thoughts on Offense
Thoughts on Defense
Thoughts on Special Teams
Impact Players – Heralded Department
Impact Players – Unheralded Department
X-factors
Miscellaneous Thoughts
Predicted Record (including our own versus the readers)

So here we go.


Thoughts on Offense

Painter will likely have plenty of time to pass this season, and this o-line will – get this – actually create holes for the running game. However, this receiving group will struggle to hang on to all of the balls thrown their way, especially in the first half of the season. Look for Keith Smith to have serious impact very quickly...kind of a hybrid of Keller and Bryant last season. All of the receivers are big and strong this year...and unlike Bryant and Lymon, they all seem very willing to block and play hard every play. This should translate into a solid running game. With Jaycen Taylor out with a blown out knee Korey Sheets gets to show if he deserves the full load of a #1 back. He’ll get help from Frank Halliburton and maybe even former QB Justin Siller, but it’s essentially Sheets’ job to lose and we think he’ll thrive in the role.

Will Painter win the Heisman or even be in the discussion? Doubtful, but he should put up some more impressive numbers this season. The real question, as mentioned, is whether he can do it against the big boys in his final rodeo.

As an aside, I love the prevailing wisdom that’s currently out there about Curtis Painter. That being that he simply can’t win big games and simply never does. Well, nobody wins big games until they do. Remember how three years ago, Peyton Manning was considered a playoff choker who couldn’t win big games? That was the case… until it wasn’t. It was also the case with Eli Manning… until it wasn’t. And with Vince Young… until it wasn’t. And Drew frickin’ Brees…until it wasn’t. And on and on. So let’s see how young Curtis handles his senior season.

Thoughts on Defense

The defensive backfield should be unusually sound, especially for a Tiller team...same with the front four...and the LBs, who are typically strong for Tiller, will struggle due to a lack of depth. Look for Werner to play similarly to Laurinaitis @ aOSU – very high energy and with reckless abandon. Brock Spack could screw up anything, though, so you never know. But this defense looks fairly stout. However, we’ve been fooled before. When you’re known as an offensive team and your offense has trouble outscoring MAC teams, well, somethin’ ain’t right. (I’ll also never get the image of Indiana State putting up five TDs on us a few years back – sure, we scored 60 but it was a harbinger of things to come…Brock.)

Thoughts on Special Teams

Not much reason to worry about the kickoff return game because both Tardy and Sheets have returned kicks and done it quite well. What is worrisome, though, is the void Jaycen Taylor leaves on special teams coverage...that might be a concern. Summers will punt and kick well and we’re not worried about the kicking portion of special teams.

Impact Players – Heralded Department

Painter, Orton on offense, and Heygood & Magee on defense all have a chance to collect accolades at the end of the season... Magee will be the most noteworthy, nationally, at the end of the season. Again, Purdue seems to have a pipe dream of promoting Painter as a Heisman candidate. We don’t see it having any legs unless he just catches fire out of the gate and the Boilers start 5-0 or something. Not unpossible, but definitely unlikely.

Impact Players – Unheralded Department

Offensively, we like Smith and Adams quite a bit. Both will run safer routes than Orton, Curry or Whitest. We hope to see Smith and Tardy on the field together quite a bit. Defensively, Werner and Brown remind some of Koutivides and Ayodele, respectively. That wouldn’t be a bad surprise to have them live up to those impressions.

X-Factors

When people talk about x-factors, it always seems kind of silly. Because if you know what the “x factor” is, then it’s not an x-factor anymore, right? The very definition of an x-factor is something we haven’t factored in, right? Hello, is this thing on? *tap tap*

Anyway, to us, the biggest X factors on both defense and offense is how well the less-experienced players come along. Players like Tardy, Smith, Curry, Dierking and Halliburton will all play very important roles and haven't seen significant PT prior to '08.

On defense, similarly, Werner, Brown and McClean need to play like seasoned vets right away...and the backups may be even more important as we could see a significant drop-off in quality of play in the twos and threes...That translates to a worn-down team in the fourth quarter.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

We like kolaches. And ice cream. And pizza.

As for miscellaneous thoughts about the Purdue football team, we'd love to see Tiller get Jack's all-time wins record vs. Oregon...that could be a big momentum-builder for this team.The period of September 27 to October 11 can make a difference between a Jan. 1 bowl and another unimportant late December contest.

The schedule is designed perfectly for a run at a major bowl and a bunch of surprises for the national media and Purdue fans alike. Tiller compares this team to '97, and that is valid. No one saw that team coming, and no one has expectations for this group either. Just like in '97 there are a ton of players who are unknown that might turn out to be difference-makers.To us, an 8-win season is a successful final season for Tiller, 6 or 7 wins will remind Boiler faithful why we're all looking forward to Hope's era. That said, there are so many question marks for '09 (quarterback, depth, system) that we Purdue fans might want to savor this season because a bowl next year might be a long shot.

Predicted Record

The exercise in futility that so many people try to do each year. Of course, in college it’s usually a little easier than in, say, the NFL. But predicting Purdue is one of those painful experiences. It’s not difficult, and therein lies the sadness. You look at the schedule and you see some sure wins, some likely wins and some truly “winnable” close matchups. And yet, as a longtime Purdue fan, and as guys who have watched the entire Tiller Era with close, watchful eyes, we all know what a leap it is from “winnable” to actually winning. And even when we’ve seen them pull together a season where they win those tight games against quality opponents (see 2000 and Brees, Drew), they find a way to turn around and kick us in the nuts with a letdown loss to a subpar MSU team or something. It never seems to fail.

So what do we think? Well, here’s the thought process…

Best Case Scenario: 10-2

Don’t laugh. This would mean wins over Northern Colorado, ND, CMU, NW, Minny, MSU, Iowa and IU. All of those are games the Boilers should – wait, let me put more emphasis on that word – “should” win. Will they win them all? Of course not. But it’s not, like, ridiculous to think they should if they play to their potential. So that’s eight wins. Then you need two wins against: Oregon (at home), OSU (on the road), Michigan (at home) and PSU (at home). Could we see them beating, say, Oregon and Michigan? Or Michigan and PSU? Sure, we could. The only game I think we’ll all “put in Sharpie” as a loss is the contest in Columbus. This team hasn’t ever shown the mettle to win a game like that. So doesn’t that make “best case” 11-1, you say? No, we answer, because there’s zero chance the Boilers will win all those other games. Best case scenario includes a loss at OSU and a hiccup elsewhere along the way.

Worst Case Scenario: 6-6

Conversely, as bad as things can get for some teams, they can’t get worse than .500 for the Boilers. Sure, a lot of those teams have the potential to beat the Boilermakers, but we don’t think they will. This team has every reason to be focused – Tiller’s swan song, Painter’s senior season, a favorable schedule with most big games at home. Let’s hope Tiller has enough left in the tank to motivate this group for twelve games. But if he can’t, we see losses likely to: Oregon, Notre Dame, Penn State, OSU, Michigan and Iowa. ND and Iowa because they’re on the road and the Boilers don’t often fare well in either locale. The others because, well, if recent seasons are any indication, Purdue doesn’t beat anyone they’re not supposed to beat. And the stars say we’re not “supposed” to beat powers like PSU, Michigan, OSU and ranked Pac Ten teams.

Boiled Sports Official Prediction: 7-5

And so here we are, with our official prediction. And we’ll go with 7-5. And not because we think this team won’t do better – I think we all feel they can and should have 8-9 wins this year. There’s really no excuse not to beat PSU and Michigan at home this season. But we’ve just seen it all before and become believers again each September, only to see them perform at the same middling level they have for so long. Do we think Painter could bust out and be a wonderful surprise? Yes, we think it’s possible and not in one of those 2% possible ways.

Tim thinks 6-6 is likely, boilerdowd came in around 7-5 and I feel 8-4 is likely. So we’re taking the average. And we think it’ll be a fitting end for Tiller; ending his career in San Antonio at the Alamo Bowl.

Oh, and more importantly, the BS reader voting is in. And you all collectively think the Boilers are going 8-4 with the losses coming to Oregon, OSU, Michigan and MSU. We had hoped the homerism of a Purdue-themed site would bring about a predicted record of 12-0 so we could mock you, but thankfully you guys proved to be humble, reasonably-intelligent humanoids and not, you know, Sparty MSU readers. (Oh, snap!)

Some interesting stats to note in the voting…

Closest margin was the Oregon game, where Oregon was tapped as the winner by our readers with just a slim 51% margin.

The game the readers are most confident in? A victory over IU, with 94% of the vote.

Curiously, everyone seems sure we’ll crush Iowa on the road – to the tune of 89% confidence. Which is odd, especially considering only 66% think Purdue’s going to win tomorrow versus D-2 Northern Colorado.

Anyhow, the season is now upon us and it’s no longer necessary to kill time until football season with mindless antics like de-pantsing Terry Hutchens or interviewing other bloggers. The games are here and we’re off to the races.

Thanks for continuing to read and share your opinions. We love it and we’ll do our best to keep the content coming.

Boiler Up.

An Afterthought

In the wake of the Big Ten Pre-Season Media days for football teams and players, we know marginally more than we knew going into the meetings. But, one of the things we learned from Purdue's S.I.D. is that they're going to do their best in trying to make Curtis Painter a name that is in the forefront of the national consciousness...They really want to give Curtis the tools to win the Heisman if his play on the field puts him in the position to do so.

They did it before with Brees and then Orton...and I think they did a pretty good job. Both players were on ESPN doing individual interviews during multiple times during the season and the press guides prominantly displayed both players. Another part of the equation is the interwebnet...Well, check out Painter's website, which was put together by Purdue Sports...While you're doing that, I'll be watching a music video over here on BS.



Alright, first, you're welcome, second, let's talk about our alma mater's QB's site.

It stinks. It's almost like Burke has a 13 year old daughter who tinkers with HTML when she's not making friendship bracelets and she put it together...or that the office secretary was asked to do it as a favor the week before the Big Ten meetings. What's my point?

It's simple- our boy deserves better. Honestly, I couldn't find a site for UGA's Stafford and found nothing but fan sites for Tebow and Wells...so the thought is good and nice. But, unless the voters for the Heisman are all middle-aged women, I don't think the site is going to sway too many of those in places of importance. Compare the style of Curtis' site to this site, which was put together by the same people. How about a cool intro, at least?

A little help here, Athletic Department!

This guy put together a site, probably on a budget similar to BS' and it's about as good as Curt's official site...and without the feminine font. No matter, I think Curt deserves something a bit more macho and manly to match his new hairdo. Let's hope his play speaks so loudly that the website will be rendered unimportant...because if Painter's expecting the site to get him over the top, we're all in for a long '08 football season.

Wouldn't it be nice if...

Wouldn't be nice if everyday had that feeling of Saturday afternoon in the fall...or if kittens never became cats? One can dream.

Over at BigTenNetwork.com, they've begun dreaming about the upcoming football season...And in this Purdue-centric universe at BS, I only saw two points that were noteworthy-
First- One of their writers believes Curtis Painter is the best QB in the Big Ten. I think that argument can be made. He throws for a high percentage, throws for an absurd amount of yards, lots of TDs and got much better last year at controlling turnovers. That said, I don't know if I'd go this far: Brent Yarina thinks our boy is going to blossom into a handsome man this year and throw for nearly 3,800 yards, throw 30 TDs and a mere 8 Interceptions all while completing over 63% of his passes. To me, the completion % is about right, but I don't know if I see Curtis leaping all of the other tall buildings on this list. If he did do that, his Senior year would be better in all major statistical categories than Brees' Senior campaign. Brees came second in the Heisman voting that season...

My response to this prediction is simple- If Curtis reaches Mr. Yarina's marks, he will win the Heisman Trophy. This schedule seems to get tougher every time I look at it. Think about these fun facts-

Purdue has replaced a MAC cupcake from previous seasons with a ranked Pac-10 opponent in Oregon, Purdue plays at Notre Dame (only won there once in the last 25 years), then welcomes a PSU team they haven't beaten in 3 seasons, heads to Columbus (where they haven't won there in 20 years), a few weeks later, hosts a UM program that they haven't beaten since Brees was QB, then after playing a tougher MSU team in East Lansing, goes to Iowa (haven't won there since I was a Senior in High School ['92]). In a not-so-succinct way, I'm just saying it's going to be tough.

Now, if he does have such a season, he must have someone to throw to that's of note...Here's my second focal point from the Top-Five blog over at BTN.
Brees had Stratton and Sutherland. BTN.com thinks Greg Orton will most definitely become Painter's go-to guy that many around here think he can be. So much so, that Brent's Blog only has two better receivers in the Big Ten- Robiskie from aOSU and Benn from Illinois. His predictions for Orton are more human than those for Painter- just over a thousand yards receiving and 13 TDs. To put it in Purdue terminology, that would be, almost exactly like Vinny Sutherland's 2000 season w/ Brees at the helm. I've compared Orton to the Colts' Reggie Wayne for a few seasons- he's got good size, great body control, but performs inconsistantly. To do what Brent's blog prognosticates, he'll have to become an every game guy.

In his Purdue preview, Pete Fuitak over at CFN thinks aloud that Painter's not as good as Brees, but is better than Orton. Honestly at this point in his career, I'd say Painter isn't as good as Brees or KO coming into his Senior year. But, he has one more season in black and gold to become one of the best QBs in the Cradle and definitely under Tiller. For that to happen, he has to learn how to look off of the first and second receivers and definitely NEEDS to beat some teams that are real contenders for the Big Ten title. I'm not saying he can't do it, but you might be dreaming if you think he definitely will.

I'm not telling BTN's Brent, or anyone else not to dream...I'm just saying that some dreams are just that...But, it would be awfully, awfully nice.

Painter for Heisman?