I dug out my 1997 G&B Football Yearbook and here are a few interesting things...
Gary Pinkel was the coach at Toledo and was the Mac coach of the year in 1997. He turned out pretty good.
Gary Barnett was still at Northwestern.
Hayden Fry was still at Iowa.
Nick Saban was still at Michigan State.
These players were still playing in the Big Ten: Ron Dayne, Tim Dwight, Charles Woodson, Curtis Enis, Andy Katzenmoyer,
Tom Lemming (remember him?) had our recruiting class ranked 10th out of 11. Minny was last. A young looking Drew Brees, Tim Stratton, Vinny Sutherland, Akin Ayodele, Jason Loerzel just to name a few turned out pretty good.
Tom Lemming quote, "I would say in 3 or 4 years, Purdue fans will have a lot to be excited about..."
Again, I was reminded just how decent the "Colletto roster" was. Colletto didn't win, but he understood the importance of linemen. Tiller inherited Alford, Mike Rose, Chukky Okobi, Chukie Nwokorie, Okeafor, Light, Gorin, Isaac Jones, Chris Daniels, Billy Dicken, Willie Fells, Mike Hawthorne, Adrian Beasley, Mark Fischer, Colvin, Edwin Watson, and Kendall Matthews...pretty good!
Chike Okeafor was in Tiller's doghouse and missed the entire 1997 season. But, had an impact in 1998 and then enjoyed a 10 year NFL career.
http://www.purduesports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/062598aaa.html
Matt Light was listed as a 6-4, 255 lb sophomore TE.
Good article on Brian Alford. He basically failed out of school after his junior year, went to junior college to get his grades back in good standing, and rejoined Purdue in 1997. Good Thing!
Purdue installed a "jumbotron" and was the first Big Ten school to get one in 1997.
The Boilermakers moved from the East sideline to the West sideline. 1996 was the last year being on the East sideline.
Tiller signed a 5 year contract that paid him an annual base salary of $129,999. Wow!
His coaching staff was impressive. Randy Melvin, Brock Spack, Danny Hope, Gary Emanuel, Jim Chaney, Greg Olson, Scott Downing to name a few.
G&B picked us to finish 9th in the league.
1997 was a great year and tremendous fun...
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