5-7. Brohm always starts out the year losing to somebody we have no business losing to. Brohm's best season was his first year with the talent Hazell collected. it's obvious Brohm knows his talent assembled has under achieved. Just look at his transfer portal signings this off season as quick fixes in a win now mode. He hasn't added this many quick fix experienced players since his first year. I really like that kicker he signed. brohm is a great judge of talent. he wouldn't be so active in quick fix actions unless there was a reason. Either he knows he needs to win now, or he's not impressed with the current players returning. or both.
Several points most people don't talk about much.
Several posters pointed out Purdue still lacks depth. this is hard to believe. But it's hard to build depth when your mediocre players with experience keep leaving and are replaced with transfers and first year players. at some point in time, purdue needs to see the importance of keeping mediocre experienced players rather than constantly bring in classes of 25+ new players. at some point in time, you need to stop blaming previous coaches and ask yourself, why does this team always have a lack of depth? the main reason is this team does NOT develop its players who are not starters. there is a tremendous drop-off between the starters and their replacements. look at Iu and cronk. whe n he became injured, they found another player who was even better and he replaced him. return your eyes to purdue. When our star players were hurt, we found nobody really capable of replacing them. our second string players were nowhere close to the ability of our starters. That's not a knock on recruiting. that's called lack of development.
I will readily admit Purdue has made a lot of progress under brohm. his offense has scored a lot of points. The players' talent level has significantly increased. the facilities are a lot better. and fan interest has increased. Purdue football is a lot better since brohm arrived. it's a lot more exciting.
BUT ....................................
the same exact statement can be said for every team Purdue plays. Drop by a UW or IU forum. they believe their team has made tremendous progress and is the best ever. Minn fans and ND and OSU fans all say the same thing. Even illinois fans think their team has improved.
For some reason the Purdue AD decided it was a brilliant idea to eliminate the cream puff out of conference opponents, and build a much stronger non-conference schedule. the end result is we're more competitive, but with more losses.
this forum has a tendency to compare our current team against our past team. That is flawed logic. I've said it before, we are not playing ourselves. While we may be better than our previous teams, are we better than our opponents? We spend very little time talking about UW, Nebraska, iowa, Minnesota , Illinois and all the rest of the BIG 10 teams. Purdue is definitely improved. and purdue has a lot of talent. But all those other teams have a lot too. Iowa and UW are great teams. ND is a great team. OSU is a great team. one day Nebraska will figure it out. Northwestern, Minnesota, MSU, and IU are no longer push-overs.
I recall two magic days in football history. The first was when the New Orleans Saints returned to play in the Super Dome following hurricane Katrina. You knew it didn't matter who their opponent was. They were going to win that game. and the result wasn't close. the other magical day in football was Purdue playing OSU. You knew with all of the outside activities leading up to that game, with all the emotions of the fans and the players, that Purdue was going to win that game no matter who the opponent was. if Purdue had played Alabama that day, they would have won. those two games and their memories will last a lifetime. but you can't expect just because Purdue won that day that they are close to beating OSU in the near future.
all of you make some great points.
I raise the question. What do you really want? Do you want tough opponents? Do you want a high scoring offense? Do you want a high powered flashy passing attack? Do you want a lot of fans and to generate a lot of revenue? a bowl game ?
personally, I prefer wins. I prefer boring, low scoring games, where the offense keeps the ball for the last 5 minutes and just runs out the clock to secure the victory. I prefer winning 8-10 games every year and going to a bowl game I've actually heard of. I prefer being in BIG 10 championship games. i prefer being ranked in the top 25. i prefer the boring Steelers, packers and bears over the pass happy Chargers and Dolphins. How many Super bowls did marina and Fouts win verses McMahon, Bradshaw and Starr?? i look back to the Bob Greise team that won the Rose Bowl and also to the Bob Greise Dolphin and the Troy Aikman Cowboy teams . They were known for their ability to win games more than their flashy offense. then i look at the packers with Rodgers and Favre. Their teams were built to score a lot of points.
if points and a lot of offense is what you crave, you will love brohm and be excited each year he is your coach. But if a lot of wins are what you seek, you will most likely be disappointed. growing up, i respected Penn St and Joe Paterno. their offense was never very flashy, and they seldom ran up the score on anybody. they just won. At the end of the year, they always had their 8-10 wins. those are my dreams for purdue.
i'm not even going to discuss, recruiting, redshirting, players or posters. I'm just looking at our team and our schedule. and i agree with the majority of posters here. i see 5-6 wins. i wish there were more. i never want to see purdue lose. when a purdue recruit receives a 4/5 star rating, you say those national analysts are smart and know what they're talking about. these are the same people predicting 5 wins. NAT is probably the smartest and most knowledgeable poster on this board. he says 5-6 wins. I can't argue with him.
I don't know how many people have said this before. They said you win games in the trenches. I'll admit people hate me because I'm a broken record about recruiting undersized linemen and then redshirting them for a year trying to add pounds and strength to their bodies. When was the last year Purdue emphasized the trenches as their priority? When you look at winning programs, look at their trenches. when you look at the 4th quarter, what wins games? Wide receivers and hail Marys? or trenches? For every hail Mary Favre completed, he threw 3 interceptions.
Would firing brohm and hiring a new coach solve the problem? NO. Do i have the answers? Not really. if i were the AD, I'd hire a coach with a proven winning record at a power 5 school. i would stop hiring supposed up and coming young coaches. if a guy over 70 can handle the job of being President of the U.S., surely a guy over 60 can coach a football team. look at lou Saban. was he he a better coach when he was young? or now that he's old? look at Coach Wooden. was he better when he was younger or older? if you hire some 60 year old coach, he should still have 10-15 good years left. IU is thinking of hiring larry brown. last time i looked, he's OLD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the problem is while i may seek to hire some old coach with a long resume of winning, would that old guy actually want to come to purdue to coach? Would Tony Dungy want to come to Purdue? Would the coaches recently fired at auburn and texas want to come to purdue? or would the Purdue AD go after another young coach and hope it gets it right this time?
I'll ask again, what is it you seek and crave? i seek and crave wins. I really don't care about the score. unfortunately, like most people here i only see 5-6 wins. for some people, they call that progress and they're happy and satisfied. For some , all they care about is just beating IU. beating IU makes their entire season. . i call winning 5-6 games another forgettable, losing season. pardon me for being disappointed in our progress over the past 5 years. rather than seeing progress, I'd prefer to see wins.
