Welcome to this week's “BOILING OVER,” GoldandBlack.com’s weekly Ultimate Ticket information-clearinghouse and analysis column meant for our subscribers and our subscribers only.
We appreciate everyone’s cooperation in helping us keep what is sometimes delicate information confined to this message board.
We certainly don’t want it to come to this, but if there are problems, subscriptions have and will be canceled over this.
We know there are a lot of blogs out there and a lot of you are on Twitter and other message boards, and we don’t want to come off like Darth Vader here, but we would be doing all our subscribers a disservice if weren’t proactive about protecting the value of their subscription. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Additionally, we address recruiting in-depth and often without filter in this feature and we do it behind a subscription-protected barrier for a reason, in hopes of avoiding situations where our reporting can impact the recruiting process, which can happen occasionally. So again, we appreciate everyone's cooperation very much.
Purdue is hoping to hear a verdict from Kostas Antetokounmpo - its last current 2016 recruiting target - by the end of this week. Doesn't mean it will, just that it hopes to.
Summer school starts Monday, so …
Anyway, even if the Milwaukee forward picks the Boilermakers over whatever else he's considering, not sure he'd be on campus Monday anyway. That would seem like too quick a turnaround to get him enrolled and physically present. He'd probably have to come later in the summer, like Caleb Swanigan did due to his USA Basketball participation last year.
Antetokounmpo has only visited Purdue. St. John's is out. We don't think Maryland is a factor. Florida, we've gotten some indications that maybe something could afoot there with space opening up, but at this juncture, you'd think the only thing it could be would be a qualification issue for an incoming recruit. If Florida gains a spot, then it immediately becomes a serious player for him, we'd think.
But by everything we've gathered and figured, the kid's Purdue visit was fine and there's positive sentiment there. It is conceivable that Caleb Swanigan and Vincent Edwards coming back eats into early-minutes opportunities, so if there's a hold-up, perhaps that might be it. But this was a drawn-out process before that news, too.
It's just been a deal where he made one visit and the camp probably wants to do some measure of due diligence here. Recruiting is new to this group, because neither Thanasis or Giannis went to college in the U.S., or at all.
Tommy Luce is the son of Jeffersonville (and former Richmond and Marion, among others) coach Joe Luce, one of Matt Painter's best friends. (BN)
But we'll say this after seeing Crown Point's Sasha Stefanovic play really well in that exhibition game Tuesday night: That might set up to be a player Purdue really looks at.
Painter has talked about taking "a shooter" every year and isn't that far from removed from having a team that was painfully short on offensive skill. Part of the fix was Dakota Mathias and Ryan Cline, among others, but those are two central ones. Those guys will be exiting the program same as all the big men Purdue is seeking to replace. And Stefanovic looks like a player who can really shooter, but also may cut from the same cloth as those two from a cognitive standpoint.
And he seems to want to be at Purdue. There's value in that when you're talking about a play with almost two dozen scholarships on the table before July, including a program like Xavier.
Here's our video of Stefanovic from Tuesday night, which we'll add to after Thursday night's game.
One way? Using the Wildcat.
The Boilermakers practiced it in the spring, using starting running back Markell Jones as the guy getting the direct snaps but also adding another wrinkle with former QB Bilal Marshall in the shotgun. Either variation could be used in the season to keep defenses off-balance, Malone said.
"I certainly plan on doing that. Absolutely," Malone said. "I watched — and I know they’re not in very good straights right now — but I watched Baylor play in their bowl game last year. They played without a quarterback. Honestly, in my past, if we didn’t have a quarterback, I really wouldn’t know where to start.
"But this gives us a whole different cat that will make defenses practice against it and have to have a plan against it and the beautiful thing about it is when we put Bilal in at quarterback (in the spring), we didn’t slow down. It was a natural (thing). He’s got great leadership abilities as a quarterback, and he’s got a good knack to take care of the football. That’s the two things you have to start out with."
Marshall finally is feeling comfortable as a receiver in his final season — he could be the team's No. 3 outside receiver, able to play either spot, as well as in the slot — but he likes the idea of lining up at his old position, too.
Marshall kept his arm warm and ready by having competitions with starting QB David Blough — they'd line up 40 yards away from a trash can to see who could sink it — and he also took snaps with backup centers nearly every practice this spring in early individual periods.
"It’s fun. Seeing the defense react, everybody screaming, ‘Wildcat, Wildcat’ because they know something is libel to happen," Marshall said this spring. "They’re going to have to respect (the throw option). If you’re going to load the box, I’m going to throw it right over the top of your head. Whether it’s complete or not, you’re going to have to respect it. You’re not going to be able to pack that box. When you back up, we’re going to take it right down your throat." (SC)
Terrill can probably go either way between offense and defense. Not sure if Melvin's involvement suggests Purdue is looking at him more for D or just comes from the fact that Melvin coached Craig for a while at Purdue.
Anyway, a name on the radar after it didn't seem for a long time like Purdue was very involved at all with him.
But he's backing off that now and seems like he's going to play the announce-a-top-10-first game on Twitter, so this will probably draw out.
But either way, he's going to visit Purdue again this summer, he says.
Taylor said Purdue made a big impression on him when assistant coach Gerad Parker stood out in the rain watching him when he visited the school when he could have left. Little stuff like that sometimes matters. Wake Forest and Vandy have both also offered.
This may be a recruiting class where Purdue has to win some head-to-heads against programs like that, good academic schools who are struggling on the field right now. Those two in particular are showing up on a lot of the same offer lists as Purdue. Doubtful anyone's piggy-backing anyone here, but some years, that stuff just happens where schools just seem to gravitate to the same kids.
The volume of running back offers out there has been pretty significant, especially considering how young and potentially deep (pending players like Richie Worship's and Tario Fuller's development) Purdue is at the position once it gets D.J. Knox back, presumably after a redshirt year.
Names we've heard: South Carolina wide receiver Tyler Hamilton (with his high school as part of a camp tour), Ohio wide receiver Brevin Harris, Ohio defensive tackle Tyrone Chambers and maybe JUCO linebacker Marquise Blair, an Ohio native.
Again, Derrius Mullins told Givler that he's visiting Purdue again this weekend. He previously visited in the spring, then was going to visit again for the spring game shortly thereafter, but didn't. Significant visit.
Indiana is in pretty solid with Mullins, and Michigan State's going to get him to camp soon to determine whether he's someone they'd take at this point. (BN)
Elliot Bloom said that Purdue will use campus' Cordova Recreational Sports Center - i.e. the Co-Rec, as many of you know it - for its camp on the 10th and both the RSC and Cardinal Court for its camps on the 16th and 23rd.
It does cost the athletic department money to use university facilities, but those sorts of expenses should be the final insurance tab when all is said and done here.
Among the teams slated to be at Purdue's team camps - Park Tudor (Jaren Jackson), McCutcheon (Robert Phinisee) and Zionsville (Isaiah Thompson). (BN)
Jeff does have a facility that can accommodate a crowd.
And, air-conditioning, and anyone who attended the last one of these things may see the value in that.
Recruits mentioned after the fact how hot it was in the arena that day.
• From a broader perspective, it is a little difficult for us to determine precisely at what phase the AD search process is. We do know some initial interviews/inquiries have been conducted by search firm and/or search committee members, and we still think it is likely that a new AD will be named in July or early August.
When that person is actually seated at the desk in Mackey Arena that is still up in the air, but it is clear that the start of fall football camp makes sense for a timeframe to have a person in place. The emphasis of this search is to find a candidate that excels in facilities, fundraising/marketing and football and the latter category begins in earnest the first week of August.
One random name we have heard as someone who may have been contacted is Tim Pernetti, who was A.D. at Rutgers from 2009-13 before working for Major League Soccer and now serving as president of IMG College.
Pernetti played football at Rutgers and has an extensive background in both college football and media.
• A couple more names to throw in to the baseball candidacy list — and perhaps one to throw out — although the search still seems to be in the early going.
This is just a contact, if true, and there's no reason to believe this is a "target" or even serious "candidate," but FYI. (staff)
Rob Smith: The head coach at Ohio was the Boilermakers’ pitching coach for five seasons from 2001 to 2005, during which Purdue nearly won the Big Ten title twice. He also was the volunteer assistant at Purdue in ’99.
He coached some very highly successful pitchers at in West Lafayette, including Chadd Blasko, the 36th overall selection in the 2002 MLB Draft.
Since, Smith has had a solid career, being the pitching coach at Creighton through 2012, helping the Bluejays to three NCAA Regionals.
In his third season at Ohio University in 2015, the Bobcats posted a 25-win turnaround, won the MAC Championship and made an Regional appearance, their first since 1997.
Jaime Sailors: Another former Purdue pitching coach (2007-08), Sailors has been away from the game since leaving the position in 2008.
Since, he’s been a high school teacher and football coach, and is now in his first year as the athletic director at Frontier High School, his alma mater.
But he had success as a coach, helping Matt Bischoff become one of the Big Ten’s best pitchers as a freshman in 2007, and helped University of Wisconsin-Platteville to a turnaround as a head coach before that. And he and Spencer Allen, now the Northwestern head coach, were integral in the recruiting class that ultimately landed Kevin Plawecki, Cameron Perkins and others.
Through some third-party channels, Sailors has expressed interest in the open Purdue position.
As for an unlikely pairing, it seems as though Wright State’s Greg Lovelady will not be a candidate. Seems like — whether it was from his side or Purdue’s — that wasn’t a great match. (KC)
--------------------------------------
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2016. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited
