Gary Nord Says You Should All Zip It About Playing Multiple QBs

Many of us have had issues with the QB rotation we've seen at Purdue over the past year, especially since it sounds like it's simply going to continue unabated this year. While there were some differing opinions over who should be the starter last year, one thing I think we all realized was that shuttling QBs in and out with little predictability or apparent strategy was not a good thing.

At the center of some of this nonsense is offensive coordinator Gary Nord. Nord is frequently labeled as an exciting OC ("Gary Nord will never allow a defense to get comfortable." -- GBI), yet I know that we have often felt frustration at the vanilla nature of things. Sure, I know there have been injuries, such as two years ago when the QB position was a mess and Rob Henry had certain passing limitations and Sean Robinson simply wasn't ready. And then last year, Caleb was thrust into the starting role after Rob's knee was injured and Marve wasn't completely recovered. HOWEVER, at some point, you need to show us why you're a supposedly clever and offensive-minded OC. Don't you? I think this season there are absolutely zero excuses to not open things up, at least in the sense of mixing it up and catching defenses off-guard. If opposing D's can begin to accurately predict what Purdue is going to do and capitalize on those predictions, then Nord has failed in my eyes. This is a team with seniors and a team with more returning starters than anyone in the conference. It's time to deliver. But I'm digressing.

More concerning to me than Gary's unimpressive tenure thus far were some comments he made recently in GBI's season preview issue. On the subject of using multiple quarterbacks, Nord got a bit prickly at Neubert's continuing pressing him on the issue, ultimately suggesting that a) the other players probably don't care who is under center and b) that rotating QBs in and out is no different than any other position. I sincerely hope he does not believe this. But let's look at the quotes.

"We practice them the way we are going to play them and they know what their roles are, so there should not be any change of momentum and there shouldn't be any trouble. I don't believe the other ten guys in the huddle even give a damn which one is in there. I really don't."

Wow. Just.... wow. I'd love to hear from people who have played organized football at almost any level on this. But from my uneducated opinion (I never played organized football), it would seem that stability at the QB position would be desirable by most players. Like any sport, you learn tendencies, you get comfortable, you begin to be able to communicate non-verbally, etc. I would think the guys even care about the punter, since the more reliable and better he is, the better your field position will be. So if you could argue that even kickers are important to the other guys, it would seem a bit disingenuous to say nobody cares which QB is in there.

Coach Nord continued...

"No one said anything about it when we rolled Ralph (Bolden) and (Akeem) Shavers in there last year. No one even made a stink about it at all. No one said anything when Gabe (Holmes) and Crosby (Wright) rolled in and out at tight end. It gave us some different momentum and gave us a different personality, but it is one of the 11 positions. It's just the one that gets the most publicity, the one that gets the most talked about."

What the what?

Do I really need to address this like a lucid human being said it? Okay, fine.

Ralph Bolden had a history of injuries and getting banged up easily. Also, you always rotate RBs. Unless you have an absolutely workhorse like Mike Alstott, you have multiple options at RB. Sometimes one guy just needs a breather.

And TE is the same as QB? Just "one of the 11 positions"? Are you fricking serious? This entire line of thinking makes me actually angry, because it just sounds belligerent for the sake of being belligerent. It also sounds ignorant. If you're a football coach at the Big Ten level and you think a QB is no different from the RBs or the TEs, then, frankly, I have serious concerns about your competence.

That said... I'm not a coach. I am not qualified to pass judgment as an expert. But I am qualified to pass judgment as a fan and a witness to mediocre season after mediocre season.

If Gary Nord was doing great things here and his offenses were always clicking and he was always doing innovative things... well, then, fine. In that case, he would have earned the right to a) be different and b) be cranky when his methods are questioned. However, he has most assuredly not produced good results at Purdue.

I don't like what I've seen from Coach Nord and I don't like his attitude when he's questioned. As we've been saying for a while, this is a big year all around at Purdue -- mainly because continued futility will not be tolerated. I'm not saying Morgan Burke or Danny Hope have the stones to can this guy, but the fans have spoken over the course of the past 5 or 6 years as attendance has taken a nosedive. Another year of boring, predictable offenses run by indecisive coaches and QBs who don't know where they stand will push this program further towards the brink of complete irrelevance.

Prove me wrong, Coach Nord.

Gold Jersey Spy Photo

This photo was taken by a friend of one of our spies. Photo credit is anonymous.

Just one more reason to believe the goldies are back this season.

Coach Matty Talks Big Three, Incoming Guys, Injuries and More

GBI has a story up right now about Matty's conference this morning with the media. It's a good read, but for those who are lazy, here are the highlights:

The coach has already talked to the Big Three about the potential of going to the NBA and will continue to talk to them and their families, as needed. Seems as though not much has changed: Hummel's knee guarantees he's back, Smooge has made no comments to indicate he thinks he's ready and JJ has publicly said he's planning to come back, though last week he hedged just a bit after the Duke loss. We'd be surprised if any of them left, honestly.

Donnie Hale's situation hasn't changed: if a scholarship opens up, he's getting it, but as of now none is necessarily expected to open up. While there's nothing to see here -- for now -- it's not the first time we've heard the remark that he gets a schollie if one opens. Is someone transferring? We haven't heard any specific rumors and any names we could come up with would be pure speculation.

Hummel's knee is progressing fine and he remains on a 4-6 month timetable, which would mean back to full use by late summer most likely, especially given Rob's work ethic. That's good to hear.

LewJack will have surgery next week to get the broken screw pieces out of his foot, and he "had damaged the screws to the point they caused him great discomfort." Yeesh. I'll bet. Painter also said that once Jackson is healthy, the coach wants to see him become a perimeter scoring threat (don't we all, coach):

"He's got to be able to make a shot," Painter said. "It's just that simple. Once he's able to make an open shot and get something to his intermediate game, whether it's a floater or a runner ... I think he has a chance to be one of the best point guards in our league."

Matty is excited about the size for next year, especially since it might allow Rob Hummel to play the 3 instead of the 4 and turn Purdue into a terrific rebounding team. I loved this quote:

"I don't care who it is on our team, you have to rebound the basketball. If you can't see that as a void on our basketball team, you've been blind-folded this year."

Coach Matty also isn't letting anyone get too comfortable, saying about DJ Byrd that while he's versatile, "he has to have a hell of an off-season, just like a lot of other returners."

Good stuff.

Fools Gold

An email from a reader the other day alerted us to the fact that Purdue is calling for "gold strike" at Ross-Ade for the 10/17 bludgeoning game against Ohio State, and sure enough, now there's a story about it on the Purdue Athletic site.

The reader email asked us if we thought they might bust out the gold jerseys for such an occasion. Our answer is... hopefully not.

Those things were a disaster and the team never looked comfortable in them. After the first home game of the '03 season -- in which they had changed to the gold with black numerals (pictured) instead of gold with white numerals -- the team went back to black and has stayed with them ever since. And then they overdid it with back-to-back "blackouts" the past two weekends, most likely because it was asking too much to have the stadium crew change the end zone lettering back to gold.

Give how this season has gone, though, why not expect another weird decision?

Scout v. Rivals

As our readers know, I'm a big fan of Rivals.com, specifically, goldandblack...but competition is always a good thing and Scout is trying to make a game of it.

Honestly, Rivals has been kicking Scout's arse for years, when it comes to Purdue info...but they now have some talent dedicating their time to our Boilers. Plus, their forums don't have all of the negativity that's become rampant on KHC and the free boards at Gold and Black.

I'd highly suggest you give them a look...while they're not at the level of Neubert, Karpick & Co., they are another perspective...and you might see/hear something from them that you haven't heard any place else...Give 'em a look, if you get the chance.

Boiler Sports Report (Scout.com)

Gold and Black (Rivals.com)