I believe our line will improve. however the same can be said about the lines of the teams we play. While we will be better than this year's current Purdue line, will we be better than next year's UW and Iowa, Nebraska, and NW line ? All football teams improve as the season progresses. it's not like ours will improve while others will not.
I like the linemen Brohm recruited this year. I liked the linemen brohm recruited last year, but he didn't sign the two elite guys he was after. Signing Britt would have been nice. I thought the linemen he recruited two years ago in Beach's class were more of an afterthought.
Looking around, all the big schools usually redshirt their players. But looking at the depleted talent on our team, many of those players red shirting at places like OSU and UW probably would have started this year at Purdue. I'm not saying inexperienced talent should start over experience. I'm saying inexperienced talent should start over players who are obviously not getting the job done. We need to develop our linemen faster. Tiller's teams were very good at developing linemen.
When you look at the teams that win 8-10 games, their most talented players and strength are usually their linemen, not their wide receivers. having a good line enables your team the ability to keep your defense off the field, and run out the clock. It also gives your QB time to read the defense and throw to his best option, and also make those 3rd and 1 plays that keep drives alive. I have doubts that either Fuller or Worship's return will improve our running game.
Beach, Stickford and Washington were all part of Brohm's first recruiting class. They all redshirted, and are listed as sophomores. however, this is actually their third year at Purdue. All three were listed as very low 3 stars ad 2 stars on some sites.. I'll ask a dumb but pointed question. How much were they expected to learn and develop? Will we have to wait another year when they become juniors to expect them to be capable linemen? Admittedly, Beach had an injury. but this is not their second year. It's their third year. Shouldn't they have received some experience last year ? Going forward, how much should we expect? or should we expect Miller, McKenna, and Bramel to overtake them ?
in defense of Brohm, he recruited Kinnard, Boateng and Britt who all would have been great additions to our o-line. and he signed Charles Allen, who left the team. All of those 4 would have made a difference. So Brohm and his coaches have an eye for talent. but they need to do a better job of convincing them that Purdue is the place for them. they didn't go elsewhere because of a potential lack of playing time. Kinnard, Britt and Boateng all went to teams with better winning records. The idea of selling recruits on playing time didn't motivate them enough to come to Purdue.
I'm also not saying we should beat out OSU, Mich, Alabama, ND, and Clemson for talented players. But I believe if we aspire to be as good as Iowa and UW, we also need to be able to sign the same level of linemen as they do. We also should be able to out recruit schools like UK, IU U of I, ISU, Minn, MSU and NW for talent . losing out on Knight and Cronk to IU still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I felt positive both players wanted to come to Purdue.
I like our future. But I would like it a lot better if our current coaching staff could develop our current linemen like tiller's coaching staff did.
