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This wide receiver in Florida, Travis Tillman, who tweeted that he's committed to Purdue, he's not even being recruited by Purdue, so this is either a misunderstanding on some kind on the young man's part or an outright catfish situation.
Either way, nothing to see here. (BN)
First off, just understand that everything will work out and everyone expected to be in the class will be in some form or another. The how is really immaterial, but it does affect when people will be joining a team, so it's not like it doesn't matter.
Anyway, we don't know for sure how it will work out, but we do have reason to believe that long-time commitment Chase Triplett has agreed to greyshirt, meaning he'd take classes for a semester, then join Purdue and go on scholarship mid-year. That would make him, in effect, a 2020 recruit with the benefit of an extra redshirt year. That's there's now a Chase Triplett enrolled at Purdue Northwest just outside Triplett's native Michigan City is probably a pretty good indication of what's going on.
Now, should Triplett moves off the books from the 2019 class — and that process did not just happen; it has been ongoing for months — that would leave two spots for Purdue under the 25-scholarship limit.
Jacob Wahlberg was recruited to maybe blueshirt and would be in position to, but if there's a spot now, he could also be free to sign early, and we think that could happen. Purdue would have reason to want to get Wahlberg signed, since he would now remain an unsigned player who people could still pursue, and that would remain true this summer as a blueshirt, too. Unlikely you'd lose him, but it could happen.
To refresh your memory, a blueshirt is when a player pays his own way in the summer, basically, until he can go on scholarship counting against the next class.
The last scholarship, of course, is David Bell's to accept. Did he quietly sign with Purdue yesterday? We don't have any reason to think so, but we probably wouldn't. That would be the whole point. Certainly Purdue would have welcomed it.
He'll announce his decision Jan. 5 at the All-American Bowl in San Antonio.
For those wondering, yes, Rondale Moore likely knew where he was going when the early signing day passed, but no, he didn't sign his letter early and ask Purdue to keep it under wraps. (BN)
Galloway was just offered by Notre Dame, which could be a significant offer for him. Michigan State and Xavier are among the bunch of others who've offered, too.
Texas point guard L.J. Cryer said his official visit is slated for February, and it would seem like the Feb. 9 Nebraska game weekend would make sense. Minnesota guard Kerwin Walton is supposed to officially visit, as well. It may be the same weekend, but that's a long way off now and things could change. (BN)
And that's exactly how this class just signed started out, with Purdue getting really good players on campus early and making a significant impression on them.
Purdue is benefiting tremendously from Rondale Moore's success, for one thing, and this weekend, he was one of the players it brought in to talk with recruits. Not quite the same as Purdue having Drew Brees talk to him during his unofficial visit a few years ago, but maybe not that far off either, in context, and Moore is one of the hottest names in college football right now and as committed as can be to Purdue and especially Jeff Brohm. Basically Purdue had him come in to do a Q&A sort of thing with recruits, specifically wide receivers, and there were really good ones on campus: David Baker, Abdur-Rahman Yaseen and Jadon Thompson among them.
If Purdue gets David Bell, it will be signing one of the best wide receiver classes anywhere, which it would love to follow up on with strong classes every year, but that will come with challenges if the depth chart appears spoken for long-term. Baker may be a good test of that. Purdue looks to be in a great spot there early — very early — but if Purdue gets Bell, Baker will know better than anyone what the Boilermakers have at wide receiver with him and others and that will be interesting to see. Purdue has done a nice job selling players on being something bigger than themselves if that makes sense. By that, we mean, getting wide receivers for example to understand how they can benefit from being part of a really group as opposed to standing alone as the man, as they say. Part of that is the simple practicality of the attention Moore will draw.
Purdue seems to be in very good shape early with Yaseen, also. He's been around a lot, and that may mean even more from him than it does Baker, because while Baker has traveled an hour up the road to visit five times, Yaseen has come down from Walled Lake, Mich., near Detroit four times.
A couple players to really watch in Indiana:
• Deontae Craig: He visited this weekend, too, and said he had a good time, and that Kevin Wolthausen has already been by his school, Culver Academy, four or five times and that he's been talking to Jeff Brohm on the phone since the start of fall. He's clearly a priority guy as a D-end. He plays basketball (with Galloway) and says he still has to decide which sport to pursue at the next level, but he'll come to his senses and go for football, we're sure.
• Gus Hartwig and Randy Holtz: The state has a bunch of good offensive linemen and these two's recruitments may be a bit more manageable than that of Josh Fryar, who is going to be a national recruit. Doesn't mean Purdue can't get him, just that it's more difficult the more offers a player has and Purdue may not have the positional and opportunity advantages with offensive linemen that it had with wide receivers in the 2019 class.
Hard to get a read on Hartwig early, but the early impression is that Purdue sits in a good spot with him, with a player who's talking about making a pre-April decision.
Haven't spoken to Holtz since his most recent visit but he sure has visited a lot.
Safety Ryan Brandt is clearly a player who likes Purdue a great deal, and has a Purdue offer.
Of course, all the requisite reminders apply here. It is very early and "offer" and "take" are sometimes two different things at different stages of the process and January and the spring eval period can change the board considerably, so keep all that in mind with any player who looks like a target now.
Also, we don't know what Purdue's philosophy will be on taking pre-summer commitments should it be in position to do so, so there's going to be a process involved with most of these players probably. (BN)
On George Karlaftis
"I'm excited to have George, big-time player for us. He committed and stayed true throughout the whole process. The more you get to know that kid, the more you love him. The kid is loyal, smart and has a great family, great football player. You never want to put too much pressure on the kid but he's got a lot of great qualities already. We're going to get him in here and help him immediately make the transition from being a great high school player to a great college player, which I think he'll do."
What did George committed to Purdue on your birthday mean to you?
"That was a hell of a birthday present right? He came up here with the whole family and I mean everybody in the family, and told us he was coming to Purdue. George and I have a great relationship, a pretty special one. The first time he came up here as a sophomore in high school and I asked his grandfather if I could help point them in the right direction and I didn't know who the granddad or George Karlaftis was. That's how our relationship built from there.
What do you need out of him in his first year?
- "First of all, I want him to relax and enjoy everything. I want him to come in here and learn the system. I want him to compete and be who he is and we'll take it from there as far as it'll go. We don't want to put too much pressure on these guys right? But we want him to come in and play and learn. And it's not too hard, he'll learn it all. He'll be fine."
"Steven Faucheaux. He's an inside guy at defensive tackle and nose guard tackle. 6-foot-4, 290 pounds that is just a big, strong young kid already. They're the real deal looking guys even at 18 and I think George is only 17. These guys are going to be good players. I'm also really excited about Dontay Hunter too as a defensive lineman."
On Steven Faucheux, did recruiting him hard as a DT when others may have wanted him at OT, help Purdue's pitch to him?
"Derrick Jackson did a wonderful job recruiting those kind of guys in his territory. Obviously you go in there as a defensive coordinator and make your pitch but he took some trips and didn't feel comfortable at some of those big-time places. He came here and we were all around him in the summer. He trusted what we were telling him that he'd be a defensive tackle in our system. He saw it and trusted us."
"I'm excited about our safeties and all of our defensive backs we got. I like the linebackers we got because of their athleticism. They need to get bigger and stronger but they're good athletes that can run with great ball skills. They were multiple-position guys in high school."
"My concern is they have to make the transition to Big Ten football, which is extremely physical and extremely competitive. I like what we got but it's on us now to coach them up and love them and in time, we'll look back and realize this was a good class."
How excited are you about the depth you could finally have at certain positions when these freshmen get here?
"Well, we're finally getting to that point since we've been here. We're getting there. We'd love to get in a position that we don't have to count on true freshmen to be in the depth chart, especially at linebacker. It's starting to get to be a relief. Now we've got to take it to the next level and we're building a great foundation."
What do you like about the guys on defense in secondary who have played on offense and understand concepts before they get here?
"Exactly. What I can add to that is they're going to have good ball skills if they've played offense. It's a lot like anything where just because you're doing a different job doesn't mean you'll lose these athletic skills you've acquired. Khali Saunders and Crishawn Long had to play in the backfield some and that will translate into you having a smart football player. Like Jaylan Alexander, he played receiver in high school and so they can use those skills on defense. We look for that when we recruit guys." (MS)
You will note that when asked if this means Williams could play more now, which people seem to be very interested to know, Painter does indicate that the sort of consistency coaches look for in practice isn't there yet and whether this is on the video or not, I don't remember, but he did specifically talk about Williams doing well vs. ND in part because he kept things simple. Painter said that when Williams just worries about being simple and plays to his strengths (i.e. posting up and being patient and physical) he's better than when he's not.
You'll notice too then that Williams is already talking, when asked about still maybe moving out to forward, about wanting to dribble past people and shoot jumpers more and that would seem to fly in the face of what Painter said about being simple.
But the reality for Purdue is that it has a bunch of centers. Asked yesterday whether he'd have any ability to play two of them together in any way, he suggested it would have to be Matt Haarms at the 4 alongside on of the others, but that's more hypothetical than actual right now, because it doesn't seem like something they'll actually do. They did in preseason scrimmages some in a split-squad format just out of simple practicality, but it doesn't seem like an emphasis.
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