Of course
Purdue fans had hope coming in to this season. Two seasons in for
Jeff Brohm after starting with a dumpster fire of a roster he went
13-13 and 1-1 in bowl games including last season’s 3-0 against
ranked opponents. Facing one of the tougher schedules in football,
playing all FBS teams, there was definitely going to be a challenge
but the Hope for the black and gold may not be the one you’re
thinking.

Every
Boilermaker fan would love to forget the Darrell Hazell tenure but
before that was Danny Hope. The inconsistencies of his teams is
ultimately what did him in, but with Hope at the head you could
expect three things; one win Purdue maybe shouldn’t have gotten, a
loss they shouldn’t have had and just scraping in to a bowl game the
rest of the way. Sound familiar Boiler fans?

Now don’t get
me wrong, Brohm is a much better coach than Hope. What he did in year
one shows that and the recruiting has taken several steps up. A top
25 class coming in this year and already four 4* recruits for next
year with the class currently sitting at 31, but it has been an up
and down tenure for Brohm’s staff.

For the wins
against ranked teams last year there was also the Ohio loss and the
eggs laid against Michigan State and Minnesota. This year was going
to be different right? That recruiting class with a senior QB meant
more consistency and maybe a threat for the Big Ten West right?
Instead fans are left scratching their head after the Boilermakers
blew it against Nevada and now Brohm is 0-3 in season openers.

Sindelar
looked like the bowl game Sindelar in the first half as Purdue
cruised out to a 24-7 lead. The black and gold didn’t come out in the
second half and lost 34-31 on a last second field goal, including
getting outscored 17-0 in the fourth quarter. The defense was solid
but couldn’t make the big plays and the offense gave up five
turnovers, and could have been more with how many balls they put on
the turf.

This is a
young football team; starting 10 freshmen or sophomores and another
16 in the two deeps but what a bad loss. With one of the toughest
schedules in the country Brohm’s team can ill afford losing games
they’re supposed to win. Vanderbilt and TCU are up next and Purdue
could be 0-3 to start the season. There are also four ranked teams
already on the schedule and three of them are road games.

I’m not
hopping off the Boilermaker special, and honestly as a Purdue fan I’m
used to these kind of losses, but the coach should take some heat for
a loss like this in year three. Brohm will coach the team up and more
talent will continue to flood West Lafayette, but that Boiler doubt
has to sit in the back of your head after watching the Hope tenure.

Purdue is
definitely ahead of schedule in year three from even the most
optimistic Purdue fans, and the raised expectations are solely on
what Brohm has been able to do for West Lafayette. No one was
expecting a Bit Ten West title, yet, but the team should be better
than that choke job. There shouldn’t be headlines for ‘biggest
comeback in school history’ against Purdue. With so much youth there
will be some up and downs but with better talent and the quality of
coaching this team is better than the second half they showed against
Nevada. What will the rest of non-conference look like for this young
Purdue team?