IU's back up tackle is going to be a Boiler. He was the primary back up the last two years and imo, can become a B1G quality starter if he gets his body in better shape. He has size and talent but needs to be a lighter to be a contributor.
Josh Sales to Purdue
- Thread starter BTBall
- Start date
I just like that we got him to cause their fans into a frenzy of a player leaving them to come to us.
Their last 2 transfers to Purdue got to play in Indianapolis. Never would have happened if they stated at IU.
Unless I'm forgetting someone, most of the guys that have left IU for Purdue have done very little. Only one that I can think of that had a good run was Reece Taylor who was solid for Purdue in his final year.
I wish Sales the best but he had every chance to be successful at IU and he never put it together.
I wish Sales the best but he had every chance to be successful at IU and he never put it together.
I will be pleasantly surprised if he contributes much here. Looks currently like a wasted roster spot to me.
Would be even funnier if he started and became All B1G. Not likely, but would be hilarious.
The guy I wanted was Cronk who should have been recruited by Hazell to begin with. In high school he actually v wanted to play for Purdue. Cronk played for IU as a freshman and left IU for Iowa
There was a lot of talk before Cronk went to IU that he really wanted to play for Purdue. If you look in the archives, you can find comments made by Cronk that he wanted to play for Purdue. But Hazell was too stupid to recruit him. Cronk just didn’t fit the template Hazell was looking for. Hazell didn’t even offer Cronk a scholarship. I will never forgive Hazell for his total stupidity in not even offering Cronk a scholarship.
After his 4 years at IU, there was some discussion that Cronk might come and play for Purdue as a grad transfer. He took a visit, but ultimately decided to play his last season at Iowa.
It’s sort of a historical trend that offensive linemen with Indiana roots that should go to Purdue always seem to go to Iowa.
And QBs from Texas come here. Most of the elite OL actually go to ND or OSU. Some went to wisconsin. Under Brohm it was WRs and under Walters it appears to be DBs. If you were a good OL why wouldn’t you go to those programs? Why wouldn’t you go to the best program for OL?
I wasn’t talking about elite linemen. I was talking about Cronk. He was from Lafayette. And when he was in high school he visited Purdue games many times. And Hazell actually scouted his team several times. And while in high school, Cronk made it public several times that he was very interested in playing for Purdue. In high school, Cronk played both defense and offense. He was rated as a 3 star offensive lineman. And at the time, Purdue was really hurting for offensive linemen. He was a no brainer of an offensive lineman to recruit. However, he didn’t fit the template Hazell was looking for. And Hazell didn’t even bother offer him a scholarship. So, he went to IU where he played for 4 years. He made a surprise announcement that he was going to leave IU as a grad transfer. Once again he expressed some interest in possibly coming to Purdue, but ultimately transferred to Iowa.
I can understand elite linemen in Indiana want to go to elite schools like nd, OSU and Iowa. But if Walters wants to make Purdue an elite school , he needs to find a way to recruit those elite Indiana offensive linemen.
Cronk was an example of a local lineman who wanted to attend Purdue. Like GK, he would have been a very easy target to recruit. Those who follow D1 football know that Cronk proved he was a decent lineman playing for IU. He was not some hidden nugget in high school. He didn’t all of a sudden develop at IU. He was a known commodity and a 3 star rated offensive lineman in high school. Indiana was glad to have him. Just another example: Hazell was stupid.
We all understand what happened. But that was 8 years ago and 2 coaches ago. I was more upset about more recently dewand jones under brohm. They will all miss recruits, everyone points out painters misses too. We all know hazell missed on cronk, just wondering what the relevance is here with sales?
Before you know who starts spreading nonsense on what happened with OL in this class and slam the old coaching staff about how they did not prioritize OL, let me just remind everyone on the facts.
Purdue was not going to get Blake Fisher (early commit to ND), Collinsworth (early commit to Cincy, he was closer to there and other obvious reasons), or Michalski (OSU). They offered their top 3 OL in indiana and got all of them except Sales. They were very much verbally committed to OL and did a good job. As soon as sales committed to IU they offered moussa and got him. They also got Mbow.
So what happened to sales before someone makes up a story? He was purdues to lose in addition to McCulley. A former recruiter screwed up (and was terminated as a result) and they grabbed a QB commit (Sam Jackson) on the near certainty we would also get his blue chip RB commit cousin which took McCulleys spot. McCulley committed to indiana the next day and admitted he decided on it that day (obviously as a result of losing his Purdue spot the day before). Early that morning wiltfong put in a crystal ball to indiana, had the early scoop. The same day he put a CB for… Sales. That stops the facts. I Can only speculate what happened but I will use facts to back it up not a spin to fit my narrative. Either someone negatively recruited Purdue and used the Jackson/McCulley situation or Sales bought into the Leo on his own after seeing what brohmco did. Had nothing to do with lack of priority of OL. Someone made a terrible recruiting decision on a non-OL position and was let go subsequently.
Purdue was not going to get Blake Fisher (early commit to ND), Collinsworth (early commit to Cincy, he was closer to there and other obvious reasons), or Michalski (OSU). They offered their top 3 OL in indiana and got all of them except Sales. They were very much verbally committed to OL and did a good job. As soon as sales committed to IU they offered moussa and got him. They also got Mbow.
So what happened to sales before someone makes up a story? He was purdues to lose in addition to McCulley. A former recruiter screwed up (and was terminated as a result) and they grabbed a QB commit (Sam Jackson) on the near certainty we would also get his blue chip RB commit cousin which took McCulleys spot. McCulley committed to indiana the next day and admitted he decided on it that day (obviously as a result of losing his Purdue spot the day before). Early that morning wiltfong put in a crystal ball to indiana, had the early scoop. The same day he put a CB for… Sales. That stops the facts. I Can only speculate what happened but I will use facts to back it up not a spin to fit my narrative. Either someone negatively recruited Purdue and used the Jackson/McCulley situation or Sales bought into the Leo on his own after seeing what brohmco did. Had nothing to do with lack of priority of OL. Someone made a terrible recruiting decision on a non-OL position and was let go subsequently.
My point was not directed at Sales specifically. But what seems to be a continual issue with Purdue recruiting elite linemen. There was a lineman several years ago from Indiana That was down to two schools and chose Iowa over Purdue. He played for Iowa as a freshman before injuring himself and ended up redshirting his first year. He came back strong the next year. But it begged the question why did he choose Iowa over Purdue? And how much emphasis did Brohm place on trying to recruit elite linemen?
Looking at Hazell, Brohm and now Walters, they each seem to have certain positions where they are very competitive at recruiting And certain positions where they can attract elite players to come to Purdue rather than go elsewhere. Brohm was good at recruiting receivers. Walters seems to be good at recruiting edge and DBs.
My commentary and question is why does Purdue always seem to get outrecruited for offensive linemen? Why do the elite linemen from Indiana sign elsewhere? One would think with a great passing attack, offensive linemen would love to play for Purdue. Is it our coaching staff? Is it our lack of development? Is it because the coaches don’t place a priority on recruiting Indiana linemen?
I named Cronk as one example. The boy who went to Iowa is another example. But I also recall two more Indiana high school linemen that were interested in Purdue that chose IU and were both NFL draft picks. And I ask myself why the F did they choose IU over Purdue? At the time IU suked but they still chose them over Purdue.
I’m happy Sales is coming to Purdue. But I have to wonder what it is and was about Purdue that turned him and so many other Indiana high school linemen off the first time?
Justin Britt? We recruited him hard and came close. He went to Iowa for the same reason people go to Purdue out-of-state for engineering from all over the country. They are good at developing OL.
We have kicked indianas butt at recruiting in-state OL. Only exceptions we lost under brohm and Walters was Sales (discussed above) and Wiginton. I don’t recall why we didn’t get Wiginton, he ended up being a bust and now plays at ball state.
Maybe you mean Dewand Jones? He ended up at OSU but briefly committed to indiana which is the one I felt like got away. But he and his coaches told brohm he wanted to play basketball until he turned it on late.
Or maybe referring to Caleb Jones? That was 2017 class when hazell was getting canned that entire class was awful. You can’t draw a conclusion from there as indiana dominated us across the board that year.
We haven’t recruited good OL because we haven’t been good at developing them since the tiller years. Walters and his staff are good at developing CBs and that is why they come here. An OL recruit doesn’t look at passing game stats to see how they can be showcased they want to be developed with the skills an NFL scout will be looking at. It’s not because of lack of priority. And it’s the head coach and their relationships in almost all cases not the school. If Walters had an elite OL coach relationship we might be recruiting elite OL now.
Ok, I looked back.
Britt was the player who went to Iowa. we recruited him hard, but he chose a school known for developing offensive lineman. Iowa has made it a habit of recruiting linemen from Indiana high schools. it would be nice if somehow Purdue could shut that pipeline down and get Indiana high schoolers to come to Purdue.
the one that i couldn't understand and it was around the Cronk timeframe was brandon Knight of Noblesville selecting IU over Purdue. I believe that was another Hazell failure.
I can understand recruiting battles losing to OSU, ND and Iowa. But not Indiana.
these were some names that I thought we had a good shot at, but got away. Burgess, Lauck, Goodwin, Rodgers, Jones, Moore, Lawrence, Spriggs, Martin, and Stepaniak. there are many others i knew we had no shot at.
that's why i say, if only we could keep the instate guys instate, we would have a very talented offensive line. The above names were all players Purdue recruited that were from Indiana or from midwest high schools. there is a lot of talent in Indiana.
Britt was the player who went to Iowa. we recruited him hard, but he chose a school known for developing offensive lineman. Iowa has made it a habit of recruiting linemen from Indiana high schools. it would be nice if somehow Purdue could shut that pipeline down and get Indiana high schoolers to come to Purdue.
the one that i couldn't understand and it was around the Cronk timeframe was brandon Knight of Noblesville selecting IU over Purdue. I believe that was another Hazell failure.
I can understand recruiting battles losing to OSU, ND and Iowa. But not Indiana.
these were some names that I thought we had a good shot at, but got away. Burgess, Lauck, Goodwin, Rodgers, Jones, Moore, Lawrence, Spriggs, Martin, and Stepaniak. there are many others i knew we had no shot at.
that's why i say, if only we could keep the instate guys instate, we would have a very talented offensive line. The above names were all players Purdue recruited that were from Indiana or from midwest high schools. there is a lot of talent in Indiana.
Brandon Knight was 10 years ago…
why do you worry so much about Iowa? If they don’t pick Iowa they will likely pick OSU, Wisconsin, Michigan, ND etc over Purdue. Some of the names you mentioned we didn’t want like Moore. Under Brohm and Walters we only lost 2 OL non-elite recruits we recruited and one is coming here and the other was a failure and is now at ball state. We did very well in the transfer portal at OL. I don’t know what else more you want? We don’t get elite recruits right now except for DBs due to our staffs history of developing them and Texas QBs thanks to Harrell and Brees.
My thoughts are if we can get elite players at other positions, we should be able to get elite players at the o-line positions as well. my thoughts are our coaches didn't want certain players, but other coaches did and while we complain about our offensive line struggles, those players we didn't want did very well elsewhere. That's probably my biggest gripe/concern. you talk about players our coaches didn't want. they guys they did want didn't pan out, and the guys they didn't want did well.
I talk about Iowa because I've been there. it's nothing special. it's in the middle of nowhere. Iowa's NIL is not great. their facilities are not great. what is there to like about Iowa? yet each year they have a winning team. each year they produce NFL players. and each year, they come to Indiana and Illinois and convince our high school players that iowa is an awesome place to be. I can understand players wanting to go to UW Madison. But Iowa??? is there a more boring place than Iowa?
the other reason I bring up Iowa, is if you look at Indiana offensive linemen, Iowa recruits more Indiana lineman than any other BIG 10 school. I'm being realistic. I know Purdue can't beat out Mich or OSU or ND for a high school lineman in Indiana. but just think if Purdue could stop the Indiana players from going to Iowa. Purdue would have a pretty awesome offensive line. Instead of spending all that time going down to texas, if Purdue dedicated some stronger efforts in Indiana, we might improve our line.
and yes, I bring up guys like Knight and Cronk and admittedly they are almost 10 years ago. But I've been complaining about our lack of recruiting elite offensive lineman for over 10 years.
and what is the most common reply i receive. Well you can't expect Purdue to beat out OSU ND, and iowa and Mich for offensive lineman. and my reply is why not? we beat them at other positions. Going back 10 years, Purdue has probably the highest average rating for QB of any BIG 10 schools. Most bIG 10 schools sign 3 star QBs. if we can recruit elite Qbs, we should be able to recruit elite lineman.
not going to happen. Even with Davila coming in next year OSU, UM, and ND have 3 of the top 7 QBs and beating us. Only time I ever remember beating out one for QB was Brady Allen from ND and that was the QB whisperer offering Allen a schollies before ND did so we didn’t really beat them out. Get over it, we won’t be able to recruit an elite OL over these programs until we have an elite OL program or we have the football program lease luxury apartments from their moms.
So basically the answer is we suk, we always will suk and we shouldn’t try to improve our lot in life because we suk. And we should accept that as fact. We shouldn’t try to recruit elite linemen because it’s a given all the elite athletes will always go to nd, much, OSU and Iowa. That’s the way it’s always been and that’s what we must accept as the way it will always be.
So what’s the point of even trying and recruiting if that’s the way it always is. If we don’t stand a chance, why waste our money? Why have a recruiting budget? Why ask for NIL from. Donors? If we have no chance recruiting players? If we have no chance beating out OSU or Mich or usc or ucla or Oregon or PSU, why even play the game?
So what’s the point of even trying and recruiting if that’s the way it always is. If we don’t stand a chance, why waste our money? Why have a recruiting budget? Why ask for NIL from. Donors? If we have no chance recruiting players? If we have no chance beating out OSU or Mich or usc or ucla or Oregon or PSU, why even play the game?
Forget leasing! Just give them ownership! And sing a new song. On the financial banks of the Wabash…….
Moore didn’t want us. But to your point, Brohm recruited him like he didn’t want him.
Amy Karlaftis’ dad Joe Weida is a big WL apartment dude. Don’t know if he rented to Purdue AD, but would assume so.
No the point is until you start winning and/or getting guys to the NFL, recruiting is tough sledding. If you are an OL or TE why wouldn't you go to Iowa? Huge track record. Just like back in the day with us and DE and QB to a lesser extent. You win games, get exposure, develop guys, get them drafted, cycle up. Takes time.
you really lack reading comprehension and logic. That’s the opposite of what I’m saying where you keep saying we don’t prioritize OL and I say we do. And I’m not going to continue to rebut all the nonsense you spew out. But I’m being a realist. Notice how we don’t offer top 150 players generally and focus on the ones that we have a good shot at landing. We should go after every Indiana elite player ther shows just a hint of interest. We may get the Gus Hartwig or Kirk Barrons. my entire point here is we do prioritize OL, we just have to be realistic on our expectations.
And my former landlord! That still owes me $75.
I was asking if that's a known fact for other teams, as I took it to imply.I know exactly what you’re saying. That has been the Purdue recruiting philosophy for the past 50 years! Go after and only recruit the players you believe you have a chance to sign. Accept the fact that the 4/5 star athletes don’t want to play for Purdue so contest your time and energy trying to recruit them. I can also read. I can see how few 4/5 star athletes we extend offers to. I can read where athletes talk about their top ten they are considering and Purdue is not even included. It’s not a matter of we finished second. It’s a matter of we didn’t even try to recruit the big fish. And that’s what bothers me!
Look at all the 4/5 star athletes for the past 10 years. And then look at how few received an offer from Purdue. And then look at all the MAC teams and look at how many of their athletes received an offer from Purdue. For the past 10-15 years, rather than trying to compete against Michigan and OSU for the recruits they target, we are competing against MC teams and Marshall for the players they target.
Realistically you can never beat Michigan or OSU or PSU or nd unless you actively recruit the same players they recruit and actually win a few of those battles.
Recruiting only players you believe you can actually sign is a losers’ mentality. If your goal is only mediocrity that is surely what you will achieve!
That’s why I laugh at people who think we have a chance to beat teams like OSU and Michigan. We don’t even try to recruit the same caliber players, so why should we expect our team to be competitive against them on the field? Because if our coaching staff? Our strength and conditioning program? Our player development? Our redshirting philosophy?
You admitted we don’t try to recruit the elite lineman. We don’t try to compete with OSU for the players we recruit. We don’t. Even try to recruit the vast majority of 4/5 star players. We just recruit the players we believe we can sign. And then hope We find a nugget .
If that’s the plan. We should leave the BIG 10 and join a conference that we can compete in. If all we want to do is recruit MAC players, then we should join their conference, get our 6-10 wins and be like Liberty and go to a bowl game.
If you want to be a BIG 10 team, you have to recruit like a BIG 10 team and actually go after the same players OSU is going after. That’s what our basketball team does. Why doesn’t our football team have the same philosophy?
It takes time you say. How many more years are we going to do the exact same thing and expect different results? That’s called insanity! It’s been over 20 years! How much more time do we need? Another 50 years?
Or do we do what I said? We suk. We know we suk. We’ll always suk. So we should just be happy and accept the fact we suk. That’s Boilermaker football. And with the addition of usc, Oregon, Washington and UCLA, we will dunk even more. And we should just be realistic and accept the fact.
Maybe we should cancel football and have a big 10 hockey team!
That’s everyone’s recruiting strategy. You obviously have not recruited young people as an employer. If you chase the elite you will burn your energy and lose out on others. These young kids need their rings kissed and an unbelievable amount of attention with visits and texts. You only have so much time and energy to recruit, go after the best damn class you can. I’m not saying ignore higher recruited players but you will know quickly if there is zero interest and just move on.
And you are unbelievable to suggest we can’t be competitive. One year removed from a big ten basketball championship (and best on country) and from playing in big ten football championship game… we also were competitive in almost every big ten football game and am excited about pulling from the portal. And it’s fun. That’s what it’s all about.
Similar threads
