Face it, friends, the honeymoon is over

[rwenger]

In 2017, it felt like the fog was lifted and the sun was shining again! Competing against the Heisman trophy winner? Killing Mizzou? The bumps along the road (Nebraska, Rutgers) could almost be excused as Hazel Hangover. (Although, in retrospect, they probably kept us in a bowl that was more 'in our league', not leading to a blowout loss.) The first crack I seriously detected (forget E. Michigan) was the Minnesota wax-job. No one saw that coming, nor what that blowout did portend. Auburn brought it all tumbling down to the ground. Hard to believe we were favored in that game. What an insult!
Now, with the blowout and disappointment of the last 2 weeks, the road ahead looks bleak. Youth and injuries occur with every program. This is year 3. Several ND coaches had National Champs in year 3. And how is Fleck doing in his year 3?
The real work on 'saving the marriage' has begun. No more excuses. Especially when you are earning the 8th highest NCAA FB coaches salary. (Confirmed?)

 

[DAG10]

In 2017, it felt like the fog was lifted and the sun was shining again! Competing against the Heisman trophy winner? Killing Mizzou? The bumps along the road (Nebraska, Rutgers) could almost be excused as Hazel Hangover. (Although, in retrospect, they probably kept us in a bowl that was more 'in our league', not leading to a blowout loss.) The first crack I seriously detected (forget E. Michigan) was the Minnesota wax-job. No one saw that coming, nor what that blowout did portend. Auburn brought it all tumbling down to the ground. Hard to believe we were favored in that game. What an insult!
Now, with the blowout and disappointment of the last 2 weeks, the road ahead looks bleak. Youth and injuries occur with every program. This is year 3. Several ND coaches had National Champs in year 3. And how is Fleck doing in his year 3?
The real work on 'saving the marriage' has begun. No more excuses. Especially when you are earning the 8th highest NCAA FB coaches salary. (Confirmed?)

I will admit to having some concerns that I did not previously after that Minnesota game that you referenced and the Bowl Game disaster...some additional after the Nevada debacle...some of the roster composition issues...but, the guy is a genius relative to his two predecessors, has done some good things, is still building something, and, as important as anything, he WANTS to be there. The honeymoon may be over, but, he is not going anywhere anytime soon, and, I believe he will do just fine with respect to having a solid program.

 

[Bullwhip Griffith]

My God the losses are bad enough...then you have posts like this.

I mean people that post this drivel just don’t have a damn clue

 

[hamcoboiler]

My $0.02...Brohm came to Purdue and saw how deficient they were from talent standpoint and set about recruiting skill and trying to backfill the lines in the transfer market. The early success was fools gold. The transfer market has not been good to Purdue and Purdue’s skill is better but their offensive and defensive lines are young and not as talented as the rest of the roster. Minny on the other hand recruited the lines (and it’s now paying dividends) and is having success with a QB that was going to row the boat at Western Michigan. I think Brohm gets its figured out just needs to develop some talent on both sides of the line.

 

[Bullwhip Griffith]

My $0.02...Brohm came to Purdue and saw how deficient they were from talent standpoint and set about recruiting skill and trying to backfill the lines in the transfer market. The early success was fools gold. The transfer market has not been good to Purdue and Purdue’s skill is better but their offensive and defensive lines are young and not as talented as the rest of the roster. Minny on the other hand recruited the lines (and it’s now paying dividends) and is having success with a QB that was going to row the boat at Western Michigan. I think Brohm gets its figured out just needs to develop some talent on both sides of the line.

Fleck also inherited a 9 win program with well recruited depth.

Brohm inherited a team that had won 9 games in four years.

Fleck has done nothing more than Kill/Clarey did, beyond play nice with the AD

 

[Bullwhip Griffith]

Brohm sucks as do all other things purdue.

Better take heed boys...when it comes to sucking...no one knows better than Hoosier fans

 

[SIBoiler2]

Threads like this do assist in building the ignore list.

 

[Wolegib]

This is the third year for both Fleck and Brohm. A post in a different thread that there are less than 10 players left from those that Hazell recruited! If true for Brohm, then I have to believe it’s also true for Fleck. Fleck brought a bunch of his Western Michigan commits with him to Minnesota. I hate to say it, but the vast majority of both teams are the doings of Fleck and Brohm. It’s time to stop blaming the predecessor. If our line was this bad, Brohm was smart enough to realize it in Spring and could have signed additional transfers while his recruits developed. He chose to sign more high school recruits instead.

 

[SIBoiler2]

This is the third year for both Fleck and Brohm. A post in a different thread that there are less than 10 players left from those that Hazell recruited! If true for Brohm, then I have to believe it’s also true for Fleck. Fleck brought a bunch of his Western Michigan commits with him to Minnesota. I hate to say it, but the vast majority of both teams are the doings of Fleck and Brohm. It’s time to stop blaming the predecessor. If our line was this bad, Brohm was smart enough to realize it in Spring and could have signed additional transfers while his recruits developed. He chose to sign more high school recruits instead.

So maybe he's in it for the long game and not the quick fix. Tell us how you feel after year 5.

 

[iBoilermaker219]

Aside from inheriting a roster with many definciencies, Brohm and Co walked into a program whose culture/image had been ruined in the years since Tiller. Most of these recruits/players weren't raised Purdue fans nor come from families that are Purdue fans before they committed. The short term memory of our program was an absolute embarrassment compared to our peers. The fact we are getting the classes we are, killing the social media game with recruits, creating a buzz, etc. is laying the foundation for the future. It's mind-blowing that people want to throw in the towel, which will do what exactly? Oh I know, put us right back to step 1....If you don't have the patience or hope with this staff, go root for OSU, Bama, etc

 

[Wolegib]

So maybe he's in it for the long game and not the quick fix. Tell us how you feel after year 5.

Hazell also made similar claims and requests! He never made it to year 5.

 

[Wolegib]

The honeymoon was over when Louisville came calling and Purdue gave out more money to keep Brohm. Expectations became a lot higher on that day!

 

[FLAG HUNTER]

Let's see how the defense is this coming year. To me that's the key to a good season

 

[BoilerAndy]

I'm going to remember this as the Eeyore thread.

https://media1.tenor.com/images/af6771b8b5dfecd82a5343ca1f9ad7e8/tenor.gif?itemid=8798170

 

[Spinn]

Next year will be the tell all with this team. I would guess we are the youngest team in the Big Ten if not the country. We, for the first time, are finally getting some depth on both lines. When you have literally lost your 6 best players, what do you expect? Only a few teams would be able to recover from that kind of devastation. Sometimes shit happens, and this seems to be our year for that....so yes, write off this year, sit back and enjoy the young talent and you will not continued to be disappointed. If things don't change drastically next season, then I say get the pitch forks and torches, but until then relax and grab a beer or 3.

 

[CLOWN-2.0]

The way I see it, it's a lose-lose situation.

 

[IHATEIOWA]

Fleck also inherited a 9 win program with well recruited depth.

Brohm inherited a team that had won 9 games in four years.

Fleck has done nothing more than Kill/Clarey did, beyond play nice with the AD

What an uninformed post this is. There was no depth and no qb when Fleck took over due to suspensions and transfers. The program was going downhill from that 9 win season regardless of who was coach. Fleck went as young as he could with the roster then went even younger in year two. But things started coming together late last year and he’s 8-2 in the last ten games. Brohm took a different approach and put more emphasis on winning immediately. But right now these are programs heading in opposite directions.

 

[Bullwhip Griffith]

What an uninformed post this is. There was no depth and no qb when Fleck took over due to suspensions and transfers. The program was going downhill from that 9 win season regardless of who was coach. Fleck went as young as he could with the roster then went even younger in year two. But things started coming together late last year and he’s 8-2 in the last ten games. Brohm took a different approach and put more emphasis on winning immediately. But right now these are programs heading in opposite directions.

There was just over a dozen seniors on that 9 win team, and your going to claim no depth.

Be interesting to see where Fleck goes if he keeps doing well.

Tennessee could be looking again

 

[BoilerAndy]

The way I see it, it's a lose-lose situation.

Yeah, but you're a clown.

 

[Spinn]

What an uninformed post this is. There was no depth and no qb when Fleck took over due to suspensions and transfers. The program was going downhill from that 9 win season regardless of who was coach. Fleck went as young as he could with the roster then went even younger in year two. But things started coming together late last year and he’s 8-2 in the last ten games. Brohm took a different approach and put more emphasis on winning immediately. But right now these are programs heading in opposite directions.

Brohm had to have a win now approach. When you can barely sell 20k tickets to a game, something has got to change quickly. Fleck was going to have a longer leash with the fan base than Brohm was due to more past program success.

 

[BoilerUpThenHammerDown]

Star LB and DT (Bailey and Neal) out on defense

Star QB has missed 1.5 games
Offensive line is plagued injuries and inexperience. There's a converted DT starting at LG!?

Starting RB has a fractured jaw.
For the first few games we were starting a former walk-on converted FB at RB

When you consider all these things it's not surprising that the team has struggled.

If Purdue had Bailey, Neal, Fuller, Sindelar and no injuries on the offensive line then things probably would have gone differently.

There is a huge drop off in talent for Purdue that other teams don't have.
If all teams had to bench their starters and play their 2nd team, I don't think Purdue would have a good season.

Ben Holt seems to struggle without Bailey beside him at LB

 

[Boilerbub73]

In 2017, it felt like the fog was lifted and the sun was shining again! Competing against the Heisman trophy winner? Killing Mizzou? The bumps along the road (Nebraska, Rutgers) could almost be excused as Hazel Hangover. (Although, in retrospect, they probably kept us in a bowl that was more 'in our league', not leading to a blowout loss.) The first crack I seriously detected (forget E. Michigan) was the Minnesota wax-job. No one saw that coming, nor what that blowout did portend. Auburn brought it all tumbling down to the ground. Hard to believe we were favored in that game. What an insult!
Now, with the blowout and disappointment of the last 2 weeks, the road ahead looks bleak. Youth and injuries occur with every program. This is year 3. Several ND coaches had National Champs in year 3. And how is Fleck doing in his year 3?
The real work on 'saving the marriage' has begun. No more excuses. Especially when you are earning the 8th highest NCAA FB coaches salary. (Confirmed?)

 

[Boilerbub73]

Well anybody that knows anything about football seen this coming. Moore's class was his 1st but I don't count it because he had no time to recruit . His actual 1st full class is the freshman's now. You are jumping the gun my young jedi. The track has been laid Now set back and let the man build the Train for the track. If you can't see positive things So far then maybe you need to go get that book Called 101 football for dummies

 

[Purdue85]

The honeymoon was over when Louisville came calling and Purdue gave out more money to keep Brohm. Expectations became a lot higher on that day!

B.S.

Yours might have. Mine didn't.

 

[mille736]

Aside from inheriting a roster with many definciencies, Brohm and Co walked into a program whose culture/image had been ruined in the years since Tiller. Most of these recruits/players weren't raised Purdue fans nor come from families that are Purdue fans before they committed. The short term memory of our program was an absolute embarrassment compared to our peers. The fact we are getting the classes we are, killing the social media game with recruits, creating a buzz, etc. is laying the foundation for the future. It's mind-blowing that people want to throw in the towel, which will do what exactly? Oh I know, put us right back to step 1....If you don't have the patience or hope with this staff, go root for OSU, Bama, etc

This.

 

[Matt Tiger]

In 2017, it felt like the fog was lifted and the sun was shining again! Competing against the Heisman trophy winner? Killing Mizzou? The bumps along the road (Nebraska, Rutgers) could almost be excused as Hazel Hangover. (Although, in retrospect, they probably kept us in a bowl that was more 'in our league', not leading to a blowout loss.) The first crack I seriously detected (forget E. Michigan) was the Minnesota wax-job. No one saw that coming, nor what that blowout did portend. Auburn brought it all tumbling down to the ground. Hard to believe we were favored in that game. What an insult!
Now, with the blowout and disappointment of the last 2 weeks, the road ahead looks bleak. Youth and injuries occur with every program. This is year 3. Several ND coaches had National Champs in year 3. And how is Fleck doing in his year 3?
The real work on 'saving the marriage' has begun. No more excuses. Especially when you are earning the 8th highest NCAA FB coaches salary. (Confirmed?)

Wasnt Holtz the last ND coach to win a National title in his third year?Heck that was thirty years ago and they may have the only school that had multiple titles with third year coaches.Nobody thought Brohm would earn a natonal title in year three.I doubt if many teams lost as many key guys by the fourth game as Purdue has.Purdue was favored vs.Auburn?Or Minnesota/?Please name another College team without their projected starting RB,two WRS,starting QBbackup o lineman,all league lb,and best DL.Brohms salary has been talked to death.Maybe you so called fans would have preferred to see Bobinski let him go and bring back Colleto,Akers,DH 1 or DH2,Yes the honeymoon may be over,but lets be patient and Boiler Up.

 

[Wolegib]

Well anybody that knows anything about football seen this coming. Moore's class was his 1st but I don't count it because he had no time to recruit . His actual 1st full class is the freshman's now. You are jumping the gun my young jedi. The track has been laid Now set back and let the man build the Train for the track. If you can't see positive things So far then maybe you need to go get that book Called 101 football for dummies

Moore’s class was technically Brohm’s second recruiting class. He had 1 1/2 years to recruit that class . His first class was technically in 2017 when he recruited and signed Beach and all the jucos and transfers!

 

[jindy]

Moore’s class was technically Brohm’s second recruiting class. He had 1 1/2 years to recruit that class . His first class was technically in 2017 when he recruited and signed Beach and all the jucos and transfers!

He didn't have "1 1/2 years" to recruit the 2018 class. Brohm started at Purdue in December 2016, the early signing day for football is in December. The vast majority of that class signed in December 2017, with Moore signing early the following February.
Don't let facts get in the way of your story though - you never do.

 

[Wolegib]

What makes it so difficult to evaluate is that usually when a coach takes over a program, his first recruits provide depth to the existing team. Unfortunately Brohm’s recruits were more talented than many of the more experienced players on the team. And the experience players either graduated or just plain left leaving the younger talented players with very little game experience .

If the older players that left had stayed, our depth would be a lot better with the younger players backing them up. However, if those older players had stayed, Brohm would not have had the available scholarship resources to attract all the talented players of his last two classes.

We all know Brohm’s first year was filled with quick fixes to put fans back in the stands. Last year was basically his first year to start building the foundation for the future success of this team. Injuries have decimated this year’s team.

Last year Brohm brought in a grad transfer for the o line. He didn’t start but provided great depth. This year he brought in Holt for the linebackers. My initial thought was that he was brought in to provide depth rather than start. I’m a little disappointed in our lack of linebacker depth that has allowed Holt to become the starter.

I’ll give Brohm a pass for this year. But in looking at the talent he has accumulated and a look at other teams having success playing young players, and with his salary, the honeymoon is over.

 

[goboilers2]

My God the losses are bad enough...then you have posts like this.

I mean people that post this drivel just don’t have a damn clue

Agree. Right now things could not get much worse with nearly all of our best sidelined, and you have crap posts from fairweather fans to add insult to injury, in all literal sense of the phrase

 

[SIBoiler2]

Agree. Right now things could not get much worse with nearly all of our best sidelined, and you have crap posts from fairweather fans to add insult to injury, in all literal sense of the phrase

Hey the Ainters have to vent their wrath somewhere since Painter is getting harder to bitch about.

 

[Wolegib]

He didn't have "1 1/2 years" to recruit the 2018 class. Brohm started at Purdue in December 2016, the early signing day for football is in December. The vast majority of that class signed in December 2017, with Moore signing early the following February.
Don't let facts get in the way of your story though - you never do.

Look it up! Moore was a member of Brohm’s second class! Beach was a member of Brohm’s first class! Brohm flipped Beach from a previous commitment to a different school. Brohm had over a year at Purdue before signing Moore! In Brohm’s first class he signed those two juco receivers!

I don’t care if you don’t believe me! But at least do some research before arguing ! Look at your comments! You said you don’t count Moore’s class because he had no time to recruit? He had as much time to recruit that class as every other NCAA coach did! You even said Brohm arrived at Purdue in December, 2016 and Moore signed in February 2018 ! And you said you give a pass to Brohm because he had little time to recruit that class? How many years does he need ?

 

[hamcoboiler]

Dabo took over a 9-4 Clemson team and in his third year was 6-7. Clemson should have sent him packing.

Football isn’t basketball one or two recruits don’t change everything. You have to string together good classes, develop players and changed the culture in losing programs.

 

[jindy]

Look it up! Moore was a member of Brohm’s second class! Beach was a member of Brohm’s first class! Brohm flipped Beach from a previous commitment to a different school. Brohm had over a year at Purdue before signing Moore! In Brohm’s first class he signed those two juco receivers!

I don’t care if you don’t believe me! But at least do some research before arguing ! Look at your comments! You said you don’t count Moore’s class because he had no time to recruit? He had as much time to recruit that class as every other NCAA coach did! You even said Brohm arrived at Purdue in December, 2016 and Moore signed in February 2018 ! And you said you give a pass to Brohm because he had little time to recruit that class? How many years does he need ?

Again, don't let facts(or in this case ACTUALLY READING MY POST) get in the way of your normal bullsh!t. WHERE did I say a word about Beach? WHERE did I say "don't count Moore's class because he had no time to recruit "?? WHERE did I say "give a pass to Brohm because he had little time to recruit that class"??? I'll answer for you - NOWHERE!
I simply pointed out that you claimed "1 1/2" years to recruit the 2018 class, which is factually incorrect.
But again, you consistently misstate and fudge things to throw out yet an endless supply of bullsh!t.

 

[BlkGoldHoops]

He didn't have "1 1/2 years" to recruit the 2018 class. Brohm started at Purdue in December 2016, the early signing day for football is in December. The vast majority of that class signed in December 2017, with Moore signing early the following February.
Don't let facts get in the way of your story though - you never do.

So he had 13 months to recruit that first 2018 class, instead of the 18 months (1 1/2 years) @Wolegib said...so Brohm did have the full time to recruit them. He came to Purdue as the 2018 class was just finishing their junior season in high school. He had the winter, spring, summer, fall of their Senior season, before the early signing period in December 2017. It’s not a couple of years like some coaches court a player, but the kids usually don’t get serious about their decision until summer before their senior season. He had enough time to evaluate and recruit Rondale class.

 

[jindy]

What an uninformed post this is. There was no depth and no qb when Fleck took over due to suspensions and transfers. The program was going downhill from that 9 win season regardless of who was coach. Fleck went as young as he could with the roster then went even younger in year two. But things started coming together late last year and he’s 8-2 in the last ten games. Brohm took a different approach and put more emphasis on winning immediately. But right now these are programs heading in opposite directions.

How many Seniors and Juniors started for Minnesota Saturday - 13 or 14? Those guys have(for the most part) obviously been in the program for awhile, including prior to fleck.

 

[jindy]

So he had 13 months to recruit that first 2018 class, instead of the 18 months (1 1/2 years) he said...

Actually 12, since almost the entire class signed in December. And in recruiting 12(or even 13) months is a big difference versus 18 months.
I'd love to see more starter ready recruits on the lines, but that's not a common occurrence. Also, even if you had 2 or 3 of those guys they'd be asked to be leading Purdue's lines, not be part of one with established, upper class starters. Having the majority of the lines made up of freshmen and sophomores is Purdue's biggest challenge right now.

 

[BlkGoldHoops]

Actually 12, since almost the entire class signed in December. And in recruiting 12(or even 13) months is a big difference versus 18 months.
I'd love to see more starter ready recruits on the lines, but that's not a common occurrence. Also, even if you had 2 or 3 of those guys they'd be asked to be leading Purdue's lines, not be part of one with established, upper class starters. Having the majority of the lines made up of freshmen and sophomores is Purdue's biggest challenge right now.

I agree that’s the biggest issue. We only signed 3 OL in that 2018 class, which I consider as Brohms first full cycle class. All 3 of them are in the 2 deeps now as RS Freshman. Bramel starting. McKenna and Miller are second team . They are 19 year olds who have only been on campus now for 16 months. That’s tough in the Big 10

 

[Wolegib]

Again, don't let facts(or in this case ACTUALLY READING MY POST) get in the way of your normal bullsh!t. WHERE did I say a word about Beach? WHERE did I say "don't count Moore's class because he had no time to recruit "?? WHERE did I say "give a pass to Brohm because he had little time to recruit that class"??? I'll answer for you - NOWHERE!
I simply pointed out that you claimed "1 1/2" years to recruit the 2018 class, which is factually incorrect.
But again, you consistently misstate and fudge things to throw out yet an endless supply of bullsh!t.

You’re right! You didn’t say those things. My reply was to another poster, but you decided to argue about it, so I thought you were that other poster. The original poster I replied to never responded back.

Brohm arrived in December 2016. Moore signed in February, 2018. That’s 1 year and 3 months. That’s pretty close to 1 1/2 years. And since Rondale went to a Louisville high school and Brohm sort of had some personal ties to that high school, I believe Brohm was probably recruiting Moore for a few months while he was still at WKU! Brohm actually signed a lot of players he was recruiting before he actually arrived at Purdue.

Many people have made the case that Brohm had very little time to put that 2017 class together. But the class was filled with jucos and transfers that you really don’t start recruiting until around December anyway Brohm brought in a bunch of players he was previously recruiting at WKU, and he added a few flips. And many here will say you can’t compare WKU recruits with Purdue recruits. But the truth is at the time Brohm was hired, his WKU class was actually rated higher than Hazell’s Purdue class. Admittedly they were both in the 70’s.

 

[Wolegib]

Brohm’s first class included 5 o linemen. Beach and Stickford remain. Smart was an ok juco and left. Washington and the other lineman recruited left! Stickford committed after Hazell was fired. Beach was a guy Brohm thought well enough of that he flipped him from his existing commitment. If not for an injury, Beach would have played last year. Stickford and Beach are now RS sophomores. Neither was recruited by Hazell. So no matter how much time Brohm spent recruiting them, he did bring both to Purdue!

Where I differ from most here is that I give Brohm credit for recruiting the players of his 2017 class even though he arrived at Purdue in December of 2016. If you look at their personal profiles, you can see that most list WKU as giving them an offer and many had committed to Brohm while he was still at WKU. I disagree with those who say most of that class were early signees before Brohm arrived. Of that class only 4 that ended up signing had actually committed before Hazell left. You can argue all you want, but to me, Brohm had started recruiting these players long before he became Purdue’s head coach.