#jeffbrohm

The Big Ten aligned its course with most of college football and made the announcement there would be fall football, to the enjoyment of fans everywhere. As a Purdue football fan it was definitely some good news in this abysmal apocalypse of a year because the football program isn't a source of dread as it has been in years passed. Maybe that's one of the more topsy-turvy things of 2020.

The good news didn't stop their for Boilermaker fans because the amended eight game schedule turned in to a huge break for the black and gold also. No Ohio State? No Michigan? No Penn State? No Michigan State? (Let's give them some benefit of the doubt that they're still solid.) Does AD Mike Bobinski have pictures of someone? Did money change hands? That's a very manageable schedule for coach Jeff Brohm's squad.

Now being a Purdue Boilermaker fan means you carry more than your fair share of cynicism. Perhaps it's the very manageable schedule that will get our hopes up and break our hearts this season, or it would have been if it wasn't for today's news.

Under the last two coaches there was very little Hope...well there was almost four seasons of that. Purdue football under Danny Hope and Darrell Hazell didn't have much belief and definitely very little magic. I mean Hope would have one game that got your hopes up just to break your heart the next chance he could. However, under Brohm there is more buzz and magic, you believe things could happen.

No poll was needed among Purdue fans, even after the Big Ten announced fall football. Most believed Rondale Moore was on his way to the NFL. Then it started circulating on Twitter Moore hadn't signed with an agent and was eligible to return, but still there's no way it happens. Most mocks already have him as a day two pick at worst, plenty have him as a first rounder, so why would he come back?

I thought number four was long gone but speed kills and in the blink of an eye the buzz is back for Purdue. With eight games on slate the top WR in the Big Ten, and one of the best in the country, will be suiting up for the Boilers and that's the type of magic Brohm has brought to this program. Something special can, and has, happened. We've seen it.

It has been a weird year for sports so of course my fandom is at all time high, but let's not start declaring Purdue a playoff team. Even with Moore back I don't think Brohm gets by Wisconsin, and even though I think the rest of the seven are winnable, consistency hasn't come to Purdue quite yet. That's why this season is so important because the tipping point feels like it's coming for Purdue.

Brohm immediately revitalized the Purdue dumpster fire his first season in West Lafayette. Then Rondale Moore was the sign that things had really changed when he put on the P hat. The recruiting has been something we haven't seen in Purdue and we've been teased, like the 3-0 against ranked teams two seasons ago, but it needs to be more. The talent has to lead to more W's.

Getting a 2020 season is big to continue to recruit the way Purdue has and work on building that consistency to take another step forward in the Big Ten. It's more reps for that young team, it's a season with the first year Boiler DC, and now it's another chance to see Rondale Moore highlights at Purdue. We want some Moore!

After the inconsistencies of Danny Hope and the bottoming out of the Purdue football program under Darrell Hazell it has been a huge win and era of excitement for the Boilermakers under Jeff Brohm. His coaching acumen was evident immediately when he took the dumpster fire 3-9 team to 7-6 with a bowl win in his first season. However, what has fans most excited is the amount of talent Brohm is bringing to West Lafayette.

If you're a Purdue fan you very familiar with the frustrations in recruiting, especially in basketball. There have been special seasons for the Boilermakers but rarely has that seemed to transition in the next step up led by a recruiting boost (football under Drew Brees, football under Kyle Orton, basketball after the Baby Boilers, basketball after Biggie). As a Purdue fan our teams have always been classified as hoping that once every graduating class something special could happen and then waiting four more years, an almost start over after success. (It's worth noting that Matt Painter has turned a corner with recruiting that has hopes high for more Elite 8's and more.)

The recruiting ranks under Jeff Brohm has been the biggest fuel of my excitement for the Purdue football program. Brohm is bringing in the amount of talent that hasn't been seen in West Lafayette almost ever. Each 4* committing to West Lafayette is still almost a shock because the level of success the program has had doesn't warrant that. It's way over the program's head and a shock that Brohm can do that at Purdue.

In his first full recruiting class in 2018 the Boilers finished 49th, a vast improvement over Hazell, with no 4* recruits. In 2019 Brohm brought in the 26th class with six 4* players and for 2020 it was another recruiting win with the 29th class and four more 4* recruits. The talent is there and this week featured two more wins for the Boilers by getting 4* QB Sam Jackson away from Minnesota and 4* CB D. J. Johnson transferring from Iowa to Purdue (if he gets a waiver will have three years of eligibility).

The last two seasons haven't ended in ideal ways after the 63-14 drubbing against Auburn in the Music City Bowl in 2018 and a rash of injuries leading to a 4-8 finish for 2019. Jeff Brohm's recruiting still has me feeling positive about the transition from where the Boilers were just a few years ago, but the truth is the great recruiting comes with great expectations.

After being courted by Louisville athletic director Mike Bobinski ponied up to keep Jeff Brohm with a new seven year deal worth 36.8 million dollars going in to the 2019 season. Coach Brohm will earn at least five million each season except 2021 ($4.9 million) and is being compensated as one of the top coaches in all of college football as he gets ready for season number four.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not off the Jeff Brohm hype train, but he is being paid well, is a good coach and is recruiting very well so now it's time to see Purdue take steps forward. I don't think the seat is warm for Jeff Brohm, but another sub par situation could start to make things uncomfortable. 13-13 with a 1-1 bowl record was a great start in the first two seasons, but with all that talent 4-8 wasn't good enough, even with injuries.

I'm not calling for a Big Ten championship in 2020 but Brohm needs to get the Boilers back to a bowl game. It is still a young team for the Brohm squad, especially with Elijah Sindelar calling it a career, but the team still has the immense talent to be competitive week in and week out. We'll find out quickly where this team is starting the season at Nebraska and then home against a very good Memphis team in week two. For 2020 Purdue will be on the road against Nebraska, Boston College, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and IU while hosting Memphis, Air Force, Rutgers, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Despite a 4-8 finish in an injury plagued year Purdue coach Jeff Brohm showed as long as he's wearing black and gold West Lafayette will be nationally relevant when it comes to recruiting. Brohm's staff put together a solid class before National Signing Day but had a busy finish flipping several big recruits on their way to 26th finish ahead of the February final day.

Of the 21 signed players the Boilermakers added four more 4* players; WR Maliq Carr, WR Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen (a big flip from Northwestern), DE Greg Hudgins and QB Michael Alaimo. Some recruiting sites had RB Tirek Murphy as a 4* as well. They join the six 4* players from last season as Brohm is bringing in talent that hasn't been seen since Coach Tiller.

Just as important as the talent in the class is the fact that Brohm's staff flipped JUCO LB DaMarcus Mitchell and CB Geovonte Howard while also flipping Yaseen from Northwestern and CB Geovonte Howard from FAU. Purdue continues to recruit well in Michigan with five commitments this season. Three players from New Jersey will come to West Lafayette but that will be an area to watch. Purdue has done well there with Rutgers down but with Greg Schiano taking up the helm again it will be a battlefield again.

Coach Brohm said linebackers and the offensive line were the areas of focus. The Boilers brought in five linebackers and four offensive linemen. Four WR were brought as well to join David Bell, a healthy Rondale Moore and big recruits Milton Wright, Mershawn Rice and TJ Sheffield to give the Boilermaker offense a ton of options on offense.

The big news outside of recruiting was Elijah Sindelar announcing he's done playing football in West Lafayette despite being granted a sixth year of eligibility. Alaimo is the highest recruited QB for Brohm to go along with solid showings from Jack Plummer and Aiden O'Connell this season, and redshirt Paul Piferi. Purdue is still in on 4* QB Malik Hornsby and there are rumors that tie former 4* QB Justin Rogers who entered the transfer portal from TCU.

Brohm is 17-21 and 1-1 in bowl games after his third season in West Lafayette, and despite the dumpster fire of a team he has taken over the heat may turn up a bit on the coach. AD Mike Bobinski has put his money where his mouth is in supporting Brohm. Purdue continues to bring in more and more talent and needs to take a step forward. That would seem to be a big factor in why DC Nick Holt was let go.

Purdue has been on the wrong end of the transfer portal as well, especially on the defensive side and the criticism has fallen on Holt. Reviews of his tenure graded him as un-creative with his formations and very rigid in his use of depth. In the age of the transfer portal coaching staffs have to find ways to get players on the field or else lose them. Purdue's defense was far from dominate so there wasn't an excuse not to see what players can do besides injuries forcing the issue. The DC search continues and Brohm has said it will be a very detailed process.

Brohm's staff has brought in a ton of talent, especially in these last two classes, but now need to show they can build to the next level. The Big Ten West has been open behind Wisconsin, and Minnesota's great season ought to put more pressure on the West Lafayette staff. The class right now is only behind Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Nebraska in the Big Ten. It's time to show it.

Now in the family the saying is there is no such thing as a good loss, wins are wins and losses are losses but that doesn't mean you can't take away positives. The Boilermakers lost at Iowa 26-20 but an extremely young team looks like the coaches are earning their money and coaching this team up once again.

Already this season Purdue has lost starting QB Elijah Sindelar, LB Markus Bailey, S Marvin Grant and RB Richie Worship with DT Lorenzo Neal still out and WR Rondale Moore still sidelined. An already young team has had more youngsters needed to step in, at some of the most important positions. That would be a tall task for any team and reasonable to expect a bit of a lost season.

After the blow outs at the hands of Minnesota and Penn State it would have been reasonable to think post season play was already out for Brohm's squad this season, especially with the Nevada loss. However, the 40-14 win against Maryland gave fans hope. Now the team is 2-5 with Illinois, Northwestern and IU still on the schedule. The other two games are home against Nebraska and at Wisconsin. It would seem pretty safe to pencil the Badgers in for a win, even after the loss at Illinois, but those other four are possible.

With the consensus All-American out, and plenty of other WR beat up, it seemed like the offense may be dead in the water with no real running game but the big time WR recruiting class is showing up, namely David Bell. Back-to-back Big Ten Freshman of the week have fans salivating for when Moore comes back, and the future.

Bell is fresh off a 13 catches for 197 yards and a TD to go with 9 catches for 138 yards and 2 scores against Maryland. Let's not forget the NFL prospect TE Brycen Hopkins. Jack Plummer threw for 420 yards and 3 TD against Maryland and 327 yards 2TD and 1 INT against a tough Iowa defense. The kid is playing well despite a limited running game.

It was easy to jump off the Boilermaker Special with the team but Brohm's staff has shown it may take them a second but they can figure out their team in the season and play tough. Let's not forget a top 25 class came to West Lafayette this year with a #26 class on paper already for 2020. Already there's a 4* TE, 4* RB, 4* QB and 4* S with verbals to wear black and gold next season.

Bozos on the net were criticizing how much money Brohm was getting coming in to this season after a 13-13 record and 1-1 bowl record two seasons in, but how can you not look at what's happening and still feel very positive about Purdue. Yes the slow starts have to stop but the amount of talent coming to Prude each season is getting better and better. It'll still be a really young team next year with a few more freshmen likely to see significant time but having all these kids play just means there will be a lot of snaps returning for next season.

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.

The last memory Boilermaker fans have of their football team on the field was a drubbing against Auburn 63-14 in the Music City Bowl. It was a very big reminder of how far Purdue still had to go even with the huge recruiting get of Rondale Moore who surpassed the hype. There were even some internet trolls saying Brohm didn't deserve his raise despite the 3-0 record against ranked opponents and the turnaround from the dumpster fire that used to exist in West Lafayette.

While the last game left a sour taste for the 2018 season it still ended on a high note. Brohm brought in a top 25 recruiting class with 4* WR David Bell and Milton Wright, 4* DT Steven Faucheux, 4* DB Marvin Grant, 4* ATH Mershawn Rice and of course 4* DE, and West Lafayette native, George Karlaftis. Any thoughts that Rondale Moore might have been a lucky recruit quickly vanished and the coach showed he's a for real recruiter.

The recruiting momentum didn't stop with a huge get in 4* RB Tirek Murphy, the top prospect from the state of New York. Murphy will come in to a wide open RB depth chart that'll have tons of talent on the outside with all the WR talent that should be established when Murphy is ready to take snaps.

Getting Murphy was a big win for several reasons, besides the obvious of getting a top RB to come to West Lafayette, because murmurs were the black and gold were off to a slow recruiting cycle that had some murmurs of maybe a slow down after signing a top 25 freshman class for this year. Murphy joined OL Josh Kaltenberger who gave his verbal the the day before and is already the third OL in the 2020 class.

That was enough to bring a sigh of relief over the fandom but Murphy was just the start. Less than a week later 3* DB Antonio Stevens joined the 2020 class and then Brohm finally got a high ranked QB that seemed like a foregone conclusion with the offense Brohm puts together. 4* New Jersey QB Michael Alaimo is the highest quaterback recruit since Kyle Orton. Next season there will be 4* recruits at QB, RB and WR for the offensive genius that is Jeff Brohm. 3* WR Collin Sullivan committed today and that's five players in a week that has moved the needle and moved the class to 42nd in the nation.

Summer is Jeff Brohm's season. For the 2018 season Brohm had 12 commits in June and another four in July. Last year Purdue had 12 more verbals in June and two more in July. That's more than half of the class each season. For the 2018 class Brohm got commitments from two 4* players to go with two already locked up. June isn't over and there's two more 4* saying they're coming to West Lafayette.

In just a little more than two recruiting cycles Brohm already has nine 4* prospects coming to West Lafayette with plenty of room to do more damage for 2020, and let's not forget Brohm has had a big recruiting win at the end of both cycles (Moore and Bell). More importantly, after Moore's season he has shown those top players can also produce at Purdue unlike some of the one off higher end prospects that wore the Purdue P in the past. With Murphy in the fold you can expect him to start recruiting for Brohm just like several of the top prospects did for the 2019 class.

The last time we saw Purdue on the field fans got a reminder of how far Jeff Brohm still has to take this team after a 63-14 drubbing at the hands of a down Auburn team. As fans we aren't strangers to these kind of losses but with spring practices underway there's a different kind of excitement surrounding the black and gold at Ross Ade Stadium.

Growing up a Purdue fan during the Joe Tiller era was such a treat and all you knew was winning and bowl berths. Even being born in 89 I remember expecting a bowl game each year, the huge Rose Bowl berth and how excited everyone was about those teams. And who doesn't remember the fumble and the echo that carries for the football program when it seemed like the team was never the same.

Tiller is the all time winningest coach at Purdue with 85 wins. I was working at an apparel store during the 2008 season as the countdown was on to see that record set. I watched the Oregon game on the computer while we were waiting to see if we could put the shirts out only to suffer heartbreak losing to the #16 Ducks in 2OTs. Then the next week when he finally set the mark by beating Central Michigan when Kory Sheets sealed it.

Drew Brees, Dorien Bryant, Sheets, Jaycen Taylor, Keith Smith, Ryan Kerrigan all some of my favorite players to wear the black and gold, and the dominating end to Tiller's tenure with the blowout 62-10 win against IU. Five bowl games before Tiller and from 97-08 he only had two losing seasons with 10 bowl games and five wins. What was going to happen with Tiller gone.

I was underwhelmed when Danny Hope was named the replacement and that's how his tenure went, but he did just enough to give you hope each season. From the head scratching timeout late that gave Notre Dame a chance to score the winning touchdown to the massive upset of Ohio State it was up and down the entire time, but I still believed that last season. Even the coach said they would win the Big Ten and then Shoelace and Montee Ball got on track in back to back weeks in combined 82-27 wins. I left that rainy Wisconsin game early. The writing was on the wall and you knew the team wasn't going to do anything.

Then Darrell Hazell got hired, fresh off a double digit winning season at Kent State. He had ties to the Tressel Ohio State programs. Someone that had success leading a team and said all the right things. One brick higher brought legitimate rejuvenation to West Lafayette. Then the team went 1-11 in his first season. Okay well he had to reshape the program, but then things never got any better. No more than three wins in a season and only nine in four years despite losing his job before the fourth season finished, and let's not forget how frustrating Morgan Burke was as an AD. I liked Hazell, have his autograph and even had a nice conversation with im down in Indy at the mall, but he couldn't lead this team anywhere.

Mike Bobinski was brought in to replace Burke, an actual football guy. That's a great start but who will he get as a coach? P. J. Fleck to Western Michigan to a New Year's Six Bowl, will he come to West Lafayette. Instead Purdue got Brohm who masted some extremely powerful offenses at Western Kentucky and was on Bobby Petrino's staffs. This looks like a good hire and it has been.

Brohm has gone 13-13 in his first two seasons and 1-1 in bowl games but this is an entirely different feeling then the last back-to-back bowl games that happened at the end of the Hope tenure. There's the obvious 3-0 against ranked teams in 2018, and there's comparisons to the Hope seasons with the inability to put the whole season together especially after the blowout loss to Minnesota, but this is different. How about going to bowl games with the terrible Hazell recruiting classes and now securing a top 25 class and getting players that Michigan, Penn State, Texas and Alabama wanted? How about a true freshman getting Heisman consideration?

Of course it was a major disappointment for Purdue to get absolutely dominated by Auburn 63-14, with Jeff Brohm at the helm it really does feel like the Boilermakers could beat anyone, but this program just isn't there. The expectations for Auburn at the beginning of the season was national title contention and for Purdue it was just to get to a bowl game.

The ending of the season seems to be appropriate for a team that was up and down all season. 0-3 start, 3-0 against ranked teams including the upset of Ohio State, and bowl berth that was a massive blow out. The truth is at the beginning of the season a second straight bowl berth would have been considered a success after the dumpster fire that existed in West Lafayette before Brohm arrived. And those players are still what Brohm is working with. The teams that went 9-39 and 3-30 in the Big Ten is the base of this team that just finished 13-13 and 9-9 in the Big Ten over Brohm's first two seasons.

But what we saw this year is what Brohm can bring and will continue to bring to West Lafayette. Rondale Moore was a consensus All-American in his freshmen season, with Heisman consideration. So often this season he was the best player on the field, he is the type of player that belongs on a National Championship roster, but was the lone one. That will not be the case for the 2019 season. A top 25 class is coming to West Lafayette, those reinforcements to close the talent gap Purdue had when it lined up across from an Auburn.

During the 2017 season Jackson Anthrop was the leading receiver for the Boilermakers as a true freshmen. Then Moore stepped on campus and the JUCO WR got better and Anthrop disappeared. Now 4* Milton Wright, Mershawn Rice and 3* TJ Sheffield are coming to campus and there's still 4* David Bell as a possibility to join the class too. Jared Sparks going to disappear off the depth chart for 2019? That gives Brohm so much offensive talent to scheme with, and we've already seen what he can do with just Moore.

The defense is going to get a massive influx of talent also. 4* George Karlaftis is the gem of the class and is joined by 4* DT Steven Faucheux. Both are expected to be major contributors from day one and add a lot more bite to the front four to the Purdue line that got pushed around by Auburn. And behind them is 4* S Marvin Grant and 3* Jalen Graham from Detroit that are expected to step in at safety. Those are just the tops of the class and the Purdue coaching staff has already shown had they can coach up the players on the team.

Talent is coming in on all levels to a team that has already set a bowl berth as the floor. Now there is going to be much more talent to raise that floor even higher. In a 6-6 season Purdue was in the Big Ten West race late and now a top 25 class will become Brohm's foundation for a possible springboard in to something really special not seen in Ross Ade stadium since Joe Tiller.

Moore's success is a massive feather in Brohm's cap because he brought in a top player and he was a consensus All-American. Purdue has seen top talent come in the past but not had a lot to show for it, but Brohm made Rondale Moore shine and now has a top 25 class to do the same. After what many were expecting to be a retooling year 2019 will now be a crucial year. Brohm has to do what he did for Moore for this class to keep winning, bringing in those classes and building up the program like many are expecting now.