After pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the college football season last year, the Purdue Boilermakers look to roll past that end of the season whooping that the Auburn Tigers laid down on them.
Prestige Ranking: 2*
Purdue lacks any historical success, and they certainly don’t have a lot of recent success to brag about. Their bowl game record isn’t one to brag about either! (Insert grinning emoji.)
Last Year’s Record: 6-7
Projected Returning Starters:
Offense:
#4 Rondale Moore, #33 Jackson Anthrop, #12 Jared Sparks, #78 Grant Hermanns, #56 Viktor Beach, #76 Mark Stickford, #79 Matt McCann, #89 Brycen Hopkins, #2 Elijah Sindelar, #25 Tario Fuller
The offensive line this year will be the biggest key to this teams aspirations too competing for the Big Ten West title. If the Boilers want to have any chance, the young front five will have to give quarterback Elijah Sindelar enough time to get the ball to star player Rondale Moore.
Defense:
#9 Lorenzo Neal, #44 Anthony Watts, #55 Derrick Barnes, #21 Markus Bailey, #46 Cornel Jones, #29 Simeon Smiley, #27 Navon Mosley, #2 Kenneth Major
This might be one of the most talented defensive 11’s in the West. Led by Senior Markus Bailey, this defense is very athletic along with some of the best ball hawks to come into West Lafayette. I’ll touch on the most exciting part of the defensive front 7 later.
Specialists:
Returners Jackson Anthrop and Rodale Moore, Kicker J.D. Dellinger
Returning wise, this has the speed and versatility to create their own offense. Watch for this group to be a scoring threat outside of the offense.
Key Losses: David Blough
Blough was one of the biggest components as to why the Boilermakers even won six games last year. Him distributing the ball will be the biggest loss for Purdue this upcoming season.
Key Newcomer – Offense: WR David Bell
Bringing in the 5* recruit from Warren Central was one of the best signings Purdue has had in a VERY long time. He’s tall, quick, and is someone that could possibly take some pressure off of Rondale.
Key Newcomer – Defense: DE George Karlaftis
Getting George to stay at home for the next four years was very important for head coach, Jeff Brohm. George has received praises from multiple Purdue alumni (notably Ryan Kerrigan) to get him to stay after receiving offers from Miami, Ohio State, USC, Florida, and Clemson. It is amazing how much Purdue’s recruiting game has stepped up.
Breakout Player of the Year: Elijah Sindelar
It’s hard to call someone who had won the Quarterback battle a year ago to be a breakout player, but it will be critical that he steps up to what they thought they were getting in the second half of the Arizona bowl game.
Wins the Conference if:
They have the talent, but they HAVE to preform on the road this year to even have a shot of winning the conference. Here’s all of their away road conference games this season: Penn State, Iowa, Northwestern, Wisconsin. That is an AWFUL slate for conference away games.
Circle This Game on the Calendar: Vs. TCU
This game won’t really mean much in terms of conference standings, but it will be SO much fun to be able to watch this game. It’ll be extremely exciting to see Gary Patterson vs. Jeff Brohm.
Alcohol Prediction: Boiler Gold
This is very niche, but it embarked an extremely important part of the next step in Boilermaker Athletics. The fans have been dying to get excited for something, and like Boiler Gold, fans everywhere should be excited for the on field product.
Outlook 2019: 8-4
I don’t see any reason as to why this team can’t go 8-4. The West is up for grabs, and they shouldn’t lose any of their home games this year. West Lafayette should be very excited for what is coming this season.