Tall people love Indianapolis (and football notes)

My son, Dad and I took the afternoon to go down to Lucas Oil Stadium to take in a bit of the atmosphere and the day's events. Here are some quick thoughts.

-Saw MSU practice- Izzo is awesomely-short...and awesomely-awesome. Tons of Spartans were around us in the crowd...all in their standard seats that they get each final four. Hats off again to MSU and their head man who just knows how to have players playing their best at the end. I'm hoping my brother, "Bill's" alma mater beats 'em though...

And speaking of Butler, they had a huge amount of people in the oil can there to see them run through boring drills. The entire lower level of the stadium was full for the Bulldogs.

I left when Duke took the floor. The video paying homage to Goobek & Co. was too much, too soon.

-We went over to check out the Bracket Town fanfest...couldn't bring myself to pay $10 for a corporate-sponsored fair. Seemed pretty silly to me that all of these large sponsors of the tournament needed such a high entry fee to promote themselves and their products.

-The hatred between the Hershey's and Reese's squads goes waaaaaay back and that was obvious while watching the Reese's Senior Game.

The neato thing about the game was that Keady was HC and his two assistants were Weber and Painter. Sure, their team allowed well-over 50 points in the first half and they were just figure heads, but I'm positive Keady was cursing at the refs at some point and wanted to throw an article of clothing at them.

Kramer not only had charging called on him, but also drew a charge and tried for a second. Clearly, he doesn't understand All-Star games. One thing that was very normal about this All-Star game is that it was painfully-boring. We left at the 10:00 mark in the second half...only made it that far because my son wanted to stay.

-Have we mentioned how much we think domes stink as basketball venues? In case you haven't heard it, I'll say it again. Yuck. Reliant was lousy last week, and Lucas was lousy this week. The stands are too gradual down low, and the upper levels are 50 to 75 yards away from the court. The 200 level seats weren't too bad, but they weren't too good either. Save your dough, enjoy your own beer and pretzels and watch at home.

-Pretty sure I saw Iowa's new HC Fran McCaffery at Lucas Oil Field today. If you tuned into the Handsome Hour this week, you heard J laud me as a guy who is comfortable meeting and talking to people...I passed this time. Granted, he was texting while doing his business at the urinal...so I thought it wasn't in anybody's best-interest to get to know the newest member of the BT coaching fraternity.

-And speaking of coaches, I think every high school and college basketball coach is in Indy right now. I'm short to begin with...so hanging around with thousands of ex-basketball players makes me feel tinier than usual. Throngs of golf shirts with college logos I've never heard of, nor never will hear of again were all up in that biatch. One of the most-noteworthy was one of the Citadel's coaches (I guess) couldn't help but try to mack on a good-looking young lady (probably a teenager) as she crossed the street near him. I'm guessing that's not the best way to represent your program...and most-assuredly, it's not the quickest way to a HC position. In most cases.

-According to WLFI.com, Coach Keady's coaching career isn't only limited to heading up All-Stars with candy bar names on their unis. It looks like Keady will become an adviser to Steve Lavin, his old employee. Good for the coach...probably better for Lavin. Too bad the iconic combover won't be seen at each Purdue game next year as it was at nearly every game this season.

-Also, congrats to both Morgan Burke and Matty. Coach Painter received a well-deserved contract extension and raise. The new deal makes his salary very competitive and keeps him at Purdue through the end of '16/'17.

Football Notes
-Purdue stayed very healthy last fall during the season...and in an effort to keep balance in the universe, the Boiler football team is making its best effort to cloth the entire squad in purple jerseys.

Today, Dan Dierking was injured...and more scary in the same backfield was Ralph Bolden's injury. Bolden hurt his surgically-repaired knee, badly, according to GBI. This injury hurts the team, in a big way, in my opinion. Bolden was really impressive last year in his first full-season as a starter. His ability to do multiple things, from block, to make people miss, to catch passes made him, in my opinion, the most-complete back Purdue had seen in more than a decade. My hope for the guy is that he can mentally take this injury. Having it happen once is awful, twice is devastating. Keep your head up, Ralph!

In his stead, Kieth Carlos has been moved to RB...While his build looks more like a receiver's, he was a pretty good RB in HS and during his JuCo years.

Also of note, Nick Mondek is getting a look at OLine...Mondek has been a strong back up for the last two seasons at DT...so that means EITHER, the DTs look good and are coming along quickly...OR, the OLine looks horrible and isn't coming along at all...or perhaps a bit of both.

Regardless, this spring has been a tough one for the Boilers and seems to be getting tougher by the practice.

Springing Into Action

With basketball season officially over, we enter a long drought for me. Sure, I like watching Indy Car, but it's nothing like college basketball and football for me...and while the Yankees and Red Sox are set to play this weekend to kick off the MLB season, the length of both the season and the baseball game itself doesn't jive with my self-diagnosed ADD.

So, my attention, at least for a few weeks shifts to Purdue football practice. Sure, you can't really tell much about the team through the screens in the fence and while watching videos of drills, but it's a solid diversion.

Hope's squad had its first scrimmage with the kooky scoring system yesterday and the defense won. And if you're not into it enough to comb GBI and Journal & Courier for info, here's the skinnny so far:

-Lots of guys are injured. Specifically, linebackers. As of now, there are only 4 guys who have played significant snaps at any of the three positions available for spring. That could be good as it might help someone get seen early...Perhaps true Frosh, Will Lucas will show? But, in the Black/Gold game it'll create problems.

Keith Smith is out for the remainder of spring as is Ken Plue. The good thing about both of these guys is that they're pretty solid at their knowledge of the offense. The offensive line is banged up and depleted due to graduation and injuries. So, guys like Foy and Melton will get more reps...which is good.

Albert Evans and Nick Mondek are both out...I hope Evans is acting as a coach for the young DBs in his time off...because that unit will need it. There's plenty of reason for concern for this amazingly-underexperienced unit come the fall.

-Defenses always seem to come along a bit quicker...so it's OK to see the defense edging out the offense, especially early. But, I'm hoping the offense passes the eyeball test, for me, on April 17.

-Gary Bush seems to be the new apple of the coach's eye at this point. Bush put on some weight in the offseason and Hope likes what he sees from him. He's also talked a few times about how the battle between McBurse and Bolden will be fun to watch.

-Marve has been held out of practice from time-to-time due to soreness of his surgically-repaired knee. Not a concern, but it's helped give TerBush some more reps with the ones. The guy pushing Marve seems to be Henry. I think much of the Purdue fanbase is excited to watch him this spring.

-In a nifty team-unity move, Robert Marve brought his O-linemen with him to talk to the media last weekend to help him answer questions. So far, Marve's saying and doing all the right things as a team guy.

Best thing for the program is competition...

Right now, it looks like Joey Elliott will lead our Boilers in the fall. But next season, TerBush, Henry, Tyler and perhaps others will be making their play for the starting job. But, don't forget about this guy...sounds like he's heavily-leaning toward West Lafayette.

Like I said, I'm not sure how I feel about him, but he is talented and intra-team competition is nothing but a positive for a program looking to rebuild.

Thursday Gumbo

Practice, not a game...
Purdue's football team continued to quietly toil and prepare for next season...not too much is trickling out via GBI that's of note, but one thing that Coach Hope said that is noteworthy, was Royce Adams move to outside receiver. This is awfully good news as the receiving corp needs guys in a position to succeed. Plus, this is Adams' last shot as he'll be a Senior in the fall.

New Fields to be ready in the fall
If you've been by Macky/Mollenkopf recently, you've seen the massive amount of earth that's being moved around as the Sports Complex renovation gets underway. The first phase of the project that will be completed will be the fraternal-twin football fields where the Grand Prix track once was. One will be synthetic turf, the other will be Bermuda (cold strain) like the surface of Ross Ade. And, both will be fully-functional by the time fall practices start in August.

Tour de Forcier
Former 4-star, 2007 recruit, Chris Forcier is transferring out of UCLA. Forcier, who is brother of incoming-Frosh, Tate (at UM), and Stanford QB, Jason, was recently timed at 4.43 for his 40 yard dash...And as he didn't look to break the two-deeps, Coach Newweasel wanted to move him into a position where his speed could be used. Chris wanted only to be a QB...and is now on his way out the door in SoCal. The oldest of the three, Jason also transferred from UM early in his career.

Rumors are swirling as to where he might end up...and Purdue is in the mix as he will visit Purdue in the coming weeks. I don't know if he's the best fit for a pass-first spread offense, but maybe Hope knows something we don't. Transfers can be a great thing or a huge pain in the arse...so I don't know if I have an opinion on this kid other than speed kills...but so do ginormous egos.

Cut it out
Is anybody else sick of the Jay Cutler crap? Has a lousy quarterback ever gotten so much ink as this guy? He might be talented, but he's a lil' b*tch and I'm sick of seeing him in print and on TV...hopefully, he'll sign with Washington when that trade finally becomes public.