Purdue’s had a good run of late, going 8-6 with a B10 Championship Game appearance last year, and 9-4 the season prior as former head coach Jeff Brohm got things rolling behind star quarterback Aidan O’Connell. Brohm’s now with Louisville, while O’Connell is playing for the Raiders and a few of his favorite targets are likewise in the league. Former Illinois DC Ryan Walters is the big whistle; he had some good crews at Illinois, and I like listening to him talk about the game, though as we saw firsthand last year, there can be a bit of a learning curve. Meanwhile, the new quarterback Hudson Card* is looking to turn the page after a disappointing run at Texas.

A close loss to Fresno State started things on a sour note for the Boilermakers, and that’ll be the focus for us today.

Purdue Offense

The new OC is Graham Harrell. There’s been a lot of talk about him being an Air Raid coach owing to his playing days at Texas Tech, but as you’ll remember from last year’s game against WVU, he’s one of Dana Holgorsen’s guys, and he spent some time in the NFL, too. Not surprisingly, then, his scheme’s a marriage of Air Raid passing structure with the more varied running/option stuff from power-spread schemes. Harrell and Walters have a risk-taking mindset that had them going for fourth downs numerous times, including a 4th and inches on their own 24. In a bit that’ll be familiar to Hokie fans, that aggressiveness isn’t always rewarded, as they’ve had just a tiny little bit of a struggle with blocking:

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