With training camp having closed, we're going to take some time this week to take a look at some things about Purdue football heading into the 2012 season.
Today's topic: The Key to the Season.
There are any number of considerations here; the possibilities are damn near infinite, 'cause this team is going to need a lot of things to go right.
Obviously there are personnel questions that need to be answered at some very important positions on offense. There will be questions about a defense under mostly new leadership and the new stuff it will be doing. If you'll recall, new stuff wasn't kind to Purdue's defense last September. Purdue has to be able to kick field goals, it must overcome new kickoff rules to maintain its return team's place as a strength. The Boilermakers have to stay healthy. Blah, blah, blah. You know all this by now.
Me, I'm going with the passing game as the key to the season.
Purdue is going to transition right now. A year ago at this time, it had two NFL draft picks on its offensive line, two good running backs and virtually no experience at quarterback.
Now, it's down one of those running backs (at least for the time being), down both those pros up front and has seen its experience cache centralized in the QB merry-go-round.
As Gary Nord said on the BTN practice special, Purdue is going to be a team this year that passes to set up the run, not vice versa.
And when discussing the passing game this year, we've focused on the quarterbacks, a position where people just love drama.
I got asked on a radio show last week why Purdue hasn't found its quarterback yet. I said that Purdue didn't rotate quarterbacks last year and won't rotate quarterbacks last year because it's looking for a quarterback, but rather because it thinks it's already found, uh, three. I agree with Danny Hope that Caleb TerBush, Robert Marve and Rob Henry can all win games for Purdue.
Now, they have to.
While we've been talking about the quarterbacks, perhaps we've turned a blind eye to the fact that Purdue is expecting to be good in the passing game this season with mostly the same pieces it had last season.
And Purdue was not a great passing team last season, a middle-of-the pack team in the Big Ten in passing offense yardage ? on the fourth-most attempts in the league, making for one of the least efficient passing games in the league - and one that averaged the third-fewest yards per completion in the conference, behind only the dysfunctional quarterback rotation at Penn State and the cluster behind center at Indiana.
Many of Purdue's biggest plays came on well-executed screens, a key component to this offense in any year. But this year it will need to be more credible as a downfield passing team.
Purdue needs to be a threat throwing the football.
A year ago, it passed for just four touchdowns of 20 or more yards, one of them being the 30-yarder to Crosby Wright where Wisconsin apparently thought Wright was playing for them and thus didn't cover him.
Two of those scores came on screens, short passes that were executed well.
Considering all the speed Purdue is banking on having on the field this season on offense, it just needs more. The Boilermakers want to be "explosive," per Nord this summer.
Instability and inexperience at quarterback have not allowed them to be prior to this season.
Those aren't issues anymore.
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