Sorry this was late. I left my laptop in the car and it melted.
Next up for the 2022 season is the Indiana State Sycamores.
Taking a look at the size and experience of the Indiana State Lines and LBs and seeing how they match up against Purdue's equivalents.
- Big but not experienced. The Indiana State O-line is on the higher end, size-wise coming in at 315.0 lbs., only a couple of pounds lighter than PSU’s line. Like PSU, they also only return 2 starters from last season but are actually younger than PSU’s with an average of 2.4 years of experience. Collectively, they have only 31 career starts with the right guard accounting for 21 of those (their right tackle has an additional 6). Their center, left guard and left tackle have the remaining 4 starts including the 3 they earned in their opening game. It may or may not be a typo but the ISU game notes have the tackles switching positions this game (e.g. LT moving to RT and visa versa)
- This week’s Purdue’s projected D-Line (Sullivan, Johnson, Dean, Jenkins) averages about 285.0 lbs, up about 2.5lbs from last year’s. They will be outweighed by the Indiana State line by about 30.0 lbs per man on average. Purdue’s average experience is 3.5 years, up a full year from last year’s line. As a unit they have 58 collective starts with Sullivan the only one with single digit starts.
- Purdue’s projected LBs (Graham, Douglas, Brothers) come in at 230.0 lbs, down slightly from last year and are at 3.67 years of experience, the same as last season. Representative of their experience, they have a collective 43 starts between them.
- Purdue’s projected O-line (Miller, Holstege, Hartwig, Mbow, Craig) will average 308.0 lbs per man, up by 2.0 lbs from last year’s 306.0 lbs. They average 2.8 years of experience, down slightly from last season’s 3.0 years. Collectively, they have a decent number of starts with 56, similar to last season’s unit.
- Indiana State plays a traditional 4 man front so no need to adjust player positions for comparison sake. At 276.25 lbs, they will be one of the smaller groups Purdue will face this season. They are also relatively young with a 2.75 year average. None of their starters have a more than a half-season of starts under their belts. They’ll be outweighed by Purdue’s O-line by 31.75 lbs per man. As mentioned, they’re largely all new starters so they’ll have just 11 starts (not a typo) between them.
- Unlike their line, the Indiana State LBs will fall in about the middle of the pack for teams Purdue will face this season at 228.33 lbs. They, like the other two units are on the young size with 2.33 years at the position and very inexperienced as the collective starts tally just 13. (That’s lower than PSU’s which I had believed to be the lowest number I’ve ever seen while doing TOTT, so we have a new record).
Vegas doesn’t make an early prediction as Indiana State is an FCS team. I have seen a line of Purdue -34.5
MasseyRatings predicts a 42-7 Purdue win
Sagarin predicts a 24.09 point Purdue win
CollegeFootballPoll predicts a 42.39 point Purdue win.
Compughter Ratings predicts a 51-11 Purdue win. (This site didn’t allow a direct ISU rating so Florida Intl., a similar rated team per Sagarin, was substituted.)
For those of you who care about recruiting ratings, here are the starter’s Rivals ratings:
Purdue...........................ISU
QB O’Connell NR...........Screws 2* (Troy/Butler CC)
RB Dorue 3*...................Hodge 3* (Tennessee)
WR Thompson 2*...........Barnett 3* (East Miss. CC)
WR Jones 2* (IA).............Hendrix 2*
WR Sheffield 3*.............. Daijon Collins NR
TE Durham 3*.................Ferrell NR
LT Miller 3*.................….. Joel Stevens NR
LG Holstege 2*................Schneider NR (Listed as a 6’1” WR in Rivals database)
C Hartwig 4*.....................Byrne NR
RG Mbow 3*.................... Vazquez IV NR
RT Craig 3*...................... Trost NR (Morgan State)
DE Sullivan 3*..................Casey Miller NR
DT Johnson 3*…………..….Belizaire NR (Southern Illinois)
DT Dean 3*…...................Lucas Hunter NR
DE/LB Jenkins..................Kris Reid, Jr. NR
LB Brothers 3*....……...... Johnny May NR
LB Douglas 3* ………..….…Geoffrey Brown NR
LB Graham 3*...………..…..Jarin Johnson NR
CB Trice 3*.........……........Bihal Kone NR (Iowa Central CC)
CB Brown 3*....................Johnathan Edwards NR
FS Allen 3*......…….….......Ethan Hoover NR
SS Jefferson NR...........…. Rylan Cole NR
As you can tell from above, Indiana State has about as many 3* starters as did Penn State. (Of course, the difference is the non-3* starters for ISU are Not Rated while the non-3* starters for Penn State were all 4* players.)
Indiana State is coming off an overtime win against North Alabama, a team that recently (2018) made the move from D-II to D-I.
It would be disingenuous to say I know much about the ISU football team as a) it’s early in the season and b) their game was not televised. Based on past performances and the talent they do have, expect ISU to try and run the ball as much as possible with their transfer RB from Tennessee. Their top WR, Dante Hendrix, also did not play in the opener, so look for him to be targeted often and, at 6’3” and 210lbs, he’s a big target and will be a tough cover.
That said, this is one of those games where it may not really matter the style of play of the opponent but more how Purdue approaches the game and how they perform on the field.
In the opener, there was some “rust” showing. Players like Thompson, who was limited in practice, had some uncharacteristic drops. Tackling by the defense, which was also limited in practice to keep players healthy, was at times lacking. Overall, Purdue which had been excellent last year in avoiding penalties, didn’t.
The good news is that all of the above should improve now, with a game under their belt.
On the positive side, the connection between O’Connell and former youth teammate, Jones picked up where they left off a dozen or so years ago. And, while it’s not unusual for the #1 receiver to get the bulk of the receptions as did Moore and Bell in prior years, O’Connell does need to distribute the ball a bit more, if for no other reason to keep the other players engaged.
Purdue’s running game, or lack thereof, has received a lot of attention. Realistically, I’m not sure they aren’t that far off from being where they need to be. Purdue got two short yardage TD runs against a credible defense. That didn’t happen in all of 2021. Doerue averaged about 4 yards per carry which, while “okay”, it would be much better if he could be closer to the 5.0 ypc mark.
Games like these are also good opportunities to work on fine tuning schemes for the Special Teams. While there weren’t any major gaffes on Special Teams against PSU, there also wasn’t a clear advantage (the addition of Charlie Jones should always provide an advantage).
Purdue’s kicking game was inconsistent. Fineran was fine kicking FGs and XPs and Ansell had a solid game punting placing one of his seven punts inside the 20 and boosted his average by 5 yards over last season. The kickoffs, however, need to be cleaned up. Kicking OOB and giving opponents the ball on the 35 yard line is not winning football.
On the Indiana State side, in what seems to be a full blown trend in college football now, ISU went Down Under to get a kicker as freshman punter, Harry Traum, comes in from Melbourne, Australia.
The primary “key” to this game is for Purdue to come away healthy, clean up their execution and eliminate the penalties. A side benefit would be for the backups to get some playing reps and the game to unfold similar to last season’s UCONN game (I could do without a starting RB being injured however).
It also would be nice for the defense to throw a shutout although, if they play enough reserves, that might be a tall task. Indiana State still has good players, a number of which played at upper level schools, and even more from in-state who would like nothing better than to play the upstart to a B10 program.
Purdue is 5-0 against Indiana State and in addition to this season, is scheduled to face them again in 2024 and in 2026. Indiana State, on the other hand, is winless against B10 teams (0-17) all time.
With the Indiana State team name being the Sycamores, a tree (not to be confused with their mascot which is a strange fox-like character), it’s vitally important to know how Purdue has fared against arbored named schools. I checked Purdue’s record against Stanford but the two teams haven’t played since John Elway showed up in 1982 and Stanford was still the “Cardinal” then (FWIW, the Stanford Tree is an unofficial mascot of Stanford and is more associated with their band anyway. Plus, for the record, Purdue is 3-1 all-time against Stanford.) I pondered if Purdue’s record against Ohio State should count but since that mascot is not a tree but a tree nut, I deemed it unworthy of inclusion. (For the record, Purdue at 5-9 this century has the best winning percentage of any team that’s played OSU 5 or more times). As my search of tree-named schools drew a blank thereafter, it appears that Purdue’s record is unblemished against such named schools. I don’t expect that to change this weekend.
Weather looks to be good with the temperatures expected to be in the low- 80s at kickoff and only a slight (17%) chance of rain. Winds are supposed to be light (5mph) as well.
Technically not a night game with the 4pm kickoff, it should finish under the lights and hopefully the crowd will be out in force again and a factor. Indiana State’s home field seats just over 12K so a loud and lubricated crowd should help the Boilers.
Indiana State’s home field is artificial turf so the transition to a natural turf could cause some issues with footing.
Again, assuming the Boilers don’t come out expecting this to be a cake walk, this game should be a cake walk.
Let’s play football!
Next up for the 2022 season is the Indiana State Sycamores.
Taking a look at the size and experience of the Indiana State Lines and LBs and seeing how they match up against Purdue's equivalents.
- Big but not experienced. The Indiana State O-line is on the higher end, size-wise coming in at 315.0 lbs., only a couple of pounds lighter than PSU’s line. Like PSU, they also only return 2 starters from last season but are actually younger than PSU’s with an average of 2.4 years of experience. Collectively, they have only 31 career starts with the right guard accounting for 21 of those (their right tackle has an additional 6). Their center, left guard and left tackle have the remaining 4 starts including the 3 they earned in their opening game. It may or may not be a typo but the ISU game notes have the tackles switching positions this game (e.g. LT moving to RT and visa versa)
- This week’s Purdue’s projected D-Line (Sullivan, Johnson, Dean, Jenkins) averages about 285.0 lbs, up about 2.5lbs from last year’s. They will be outweighed by the Indiana State line by about 30.0 lbs per man on average. Purdue’s average experience is 3.5 years, up a full year from last year’s line. As a unit they have 58 collective starts with Sullivan the only one with single digit starts.
- Purdue’s projected LBs (Graham, Douglas, Brothers) come in at 230.0 lbs, down slightly from last year and are at 3.67 years of experience, the same as last season. Representative of their experience, they have a collective 43 starts between them.
- Purdue’s projected O-line (Miller, Holstege, Hartwig, Mbow, Craig) will average 308.0 lbs per man, up by 2.0 lbs from last year’s 306.0 lbs. They average 2.8 years of experience, down slightly from last season’s 3.0 years. Collectively, they have a decent number of starts with 56, similar to last season’s unit.
- Indiana State plays a traditional 4 man front so no need to adjust player positions for comparison sake. At 276.25 lbs, they will be one of the smaller groups Purdue will face this season. They are also relatively young with a 2.75 year average. None of their starters have a more than a half-season of starts under their belts. They’ll be outweighed by Purdue’s O-line by 31.75 lbs per man. As mentioned, they’re largely all new starters so they’ll have just 11 starts (not a typo) between them.
- Unlike their line, the Indiana State LBs will fall in about the middle of the pack for teams Purdue will face this season at 228.33 lbs. They, like the other two units are on the young size with 2.33 years at the position and very inexperienced as the collective starts tally just 13. (That’s lower than PSU’s which I had believed to be the lowest number I’ve ever seen while doing TOTT, so we have a new record).
Vegas doesn’t make an early prediction as Indiana State is an FCS team. I have seen a line of Purdue -34.5
MasseyRatings predicts a 42-7 Purdue win
Sagarin predicts a 24.09 point Purdue win
CollegeFootballPoll predicts a 42.39 point Purdue win.
Compughter Ratings predicts a 51-11 Purdue win. (This site didn’t allow a direct ISU rating so Florida Intl., a similar rated team per Sagarin, was substituted.)
For those of you who care about recruiting ratings, here are the starter’s Rivals ratings:
Purdue...........................ISU
QB O’Connell NR...........Screws 2* (Troy/Butler CC)
RB Dorue 3*...................Hodge 3* (Tennessee)
WR Thompson 2*...........Barnett 3* (East Miss. CC)
WR Jones 2* (IA).............Hendrix 2*
WR Sheffield 3*.............. Daijon Collins NR
TE Durham 3*.................Ferrell NR
LT Miller 3*.................….. Joel Stevens NR
LG Holstege 2*................Schneider NR (Listed as a 6’1” WR in Rivals database)
C Hartwig 4*.....................Byrne NR
RG Mbow 3*.................... Vazquez IV NR
RT Craig 3*...................... Trost NR (Morgan State)
DE Sullivan 3*..................Casey Miller NR
DT Johnson 3*…………..….Belizaire NR (Southern Illinois)
DT Dean 3*…...................Lucas Hunter NR
DE/LB Jenkins..................Kris Reid, Jr. NR
LB Brothers 3*....……...... Johnny May NR
LB Douglas 3* ………..….…Geoffrey Brown NR
LB Graham 3*...………..…..Jarin Johnson NR
CB Trice 3*.........……........Bihal Kone NR (Iowa Central CC)
CB Brown 3*....................Johnathan Edwards NR
FS Allen 3*......…….….......Ethan Hoover NR
SS Jefferson NR...........…. Rylan Cole NR
As you can tell from above, Indiana State has about as many 3* starters as did Penn State. (Of course, the difference is the non-3* starters for ISU are Not Rated while the non-3* starters for Penn State were all 4* players.)
Indiana State is coming off an overtime win against North Alabama, a team that recently (2018) made the move from D-II to D-I.
It would be disingenuous to say I know much about the ISU football team as a) it’s early in the season and b) their game was not televised. Based on past performances and the talent they do have, expect ISU to try and run the ball as much as possible with their transfer RB from Tennessee. Their top WR, Dante Hendrix, also did not play in the opener, so look for him to be targeted often and, at 6’3” and 210lbs, he’s a big target and will be a tough cover.
That said, this is one of those games where it may not really matter the style of play of the opponent but more how Purdue approaches the game and how they perform on the field.
In the opener, there was some “rust” showing. Players like Thompson, who was limited in practice, had some uncharacteristic drops. Tackling by the defense, which was also limited in practice to keep players healthy, was at times lacking. Overall, Purdue which had been excellent last year in avoiding penalties, didn’t.
The good news is that all of the above should improve now, with a game under their belt.
On the positive side, the connection between O’Connell and former youth teammate, Jones picked up where they left off a dozen or so years ago. And, while it’s not unusual for the #1 receiver to get the bulk of the receptions as did Moore and Bell in prior years, O’Connell does need to distribute the ball a bit more, if for no other reason to keep the other players engaged.
Purdue’s running game, or lack thereof, has received a lot of attention. Realistically, I’m not sure they aren’t that far off from being where they need to be. Purdue got two short yardage TD runs against a credible defense. That didn’t happen in all of 2021. Doerue averaged about 4 yards per carry which, while “okay”, it would be much better if he could be closer to the 5.0 ypc mark.
Games like these are also good opportunities to work on fine tuning schemes for the Special Teams. While there weren’t any major gaffes on Special Teams against PSU, there also wasn’t a clear advantage (the addition of Charlie Jones should always provide an advantage).
Purdue’s kicking game was inconsistent. Fineran was fine kicking FGs and XPs and Ansell had a solid game punting placing one of his seven punts inside the 20 and boosted his average by 5 yards over last season. The kickoffs, however, need to be cleaned up. Kicking OOB and giving opponents the ball on the 35 yard line is not winning football.
On the Indiana State side, in what seems to be a full blown trend in college football now, ISU went Down Under to get a kicker as freshman punter, Harry Traum, comes in from Melbourne, Australia.
The primary “key” to this game is for Purdue to come away healthy, clean up their execution and eliminate the penalties. A side benefit would be for the backups to get some playing reps and the game to unfold similar to last season’s UCONN game (I could do without a starting RB being injured however).
It also would be nice for the defense to throw a shutout although, if they play enough reserves, that might be a tall task. Indiana State still has good players, a number of which played at upper level schools, and even more from in-state who would like nothing better than to play the upstart to a B10 program.
Purdue is 5-0 against Indiana State and in addition to this season, is scheduled to face them again in 2024 and in 2026. Indiana State, on the other hand, is winless against B10 teams (0-17) all time.
With the Indiana State team name being the Sycamores, a tree (not to be confused with their mascot which is a strange fox-like character), it’s vitally important to know how Purdue has fared against arbored named schools. I checked Purdue’s record against Stanford but the two teams haven’t played since John Elway showed up in 1982 and Stanford was still the “Cardinal” then (FWIW, the Stanford Tree is an unofficial mascot of Stanford and is more associated with their band anyway. Plus, for the record, Purdue is 3-1 all-time against Stanford.) I pondered if Purdue’s record against Ohio State should count but since that mascot is not a tree but a tree nut, I deemed it unworthy of inclusion. (For the record, Purdue at 5-9 this century has the best winning percentage of any team that’s played OSU 5 or more times). As my search of tree-named schools drew a blank thereafter, it appears that Purdue’s record is unblemished against such named schools. I don’t expect that to change this weekend.
Weather looks to be good with the temperatures expected to be in the low- 80s at kickoff and only a slight (17%) chance of rain. Winds are supposed to be light (5mph) as well.
Technically not a night game with the 4pm kickoff, it should finish under the lights and hopefully the crowd will be out in force again and a factor. Indiana State’s home field seats just over 12K so a loud and lubricated crowd should help the Boilers.
Indiana State’s home field is artificial turf so the transition to a natural turf could cause some issues with footing.
Again, assuming the Boilers don’t come out expecting this to be a cake walk, this game should be a cake walk.
Let’s play football!
