Aidan O'Connell is a man in motion. See if you can keep up.
He's lifting weights ... He's throwing passes ... He's running a football camp ... (deep breath) ... He's attending the Manning Camp. ... Oh, and he's getting married, too.
"It's probably the thing I'm most excited for this summer, like 48 days from now," said O'Connell on Sunday of his impending marriage to Purdue volleyball player Jael Johnson. "It should be a lot of fun.
"The end of July down in southern Indiana. We're gonna basically go right back to West Lafayette, right back to camp the next couple of days. So, it'll be a little crazy. But then we'll take a honeymoon later on or in January, so should be fun. Definitely looking forward to that."
Sunday, O'Connell was on the move, again, during his busy summer. The Boilermakers' sixth-year quarterback picked up the Drew Brees Mental Toughness Award at the Purdue Memorial Union during an Honors Brunch & Honors Reception conducted by the Joe Tiller Chapter of the National Football Foundation.
The day before, O'Connell conducted a football camp at Harrison High School in West Lafayette.
"We had a bunch of kids come out and definitely some skill instruction, but probably a lot more just having fun than that," said O'Connell. "It was a great time. So, I cherish those opportunities. With anything, there's definitely good and bad. And that's definitely the good of the NIL. You get to do things like give back to the community, be a part of the community. So, I'm looking forward to my teammates taking advantage of things like that, really just using their platform to benefit themselves and their families."
From June 23-26, O'Connell will be a coach at the Manning Passing Academy at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, La., joining the likes of Ole Miss' Luke Altmyer, N.C. State's Devin Leary, Utah's Cameron Rising and Indiana's Connor Bazelak, among others. The last Purdue quarterback to take part was David Blough.
"In high school, I wasn't very highly recruited," said O'Connell. "So, I didn't get to go to a lot of big camps with a lot of the top quarterbacks in the country. So this will be kind of my first experience doing that. I'm eager to see how I stack up against some of the best quarterbacks in the country, and getting to interact with the Mannings is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So, it should be a great experience."
Against that busy backdrop, O'Connell also is working out in preparation for a much anticipated 2022 season for a Purdue program coming off its first nine-win season since 2004. Workouts have begun for players. The season opener is Sept. 1 vs. Penn State in Ross-Ade Stadium in prime time on FOX.
"I'm very happy with the start of the summer," said O'Connell. "Our guys are working hard. We definitely have motivation. We have a taste of winning like we probably haven't had in a long time. It's a great season last year, so we're trying to capitalize on momentum and have another good year."
O'Connell, a consensus second-team All-Big Ten quarterback in 2021, will have a new target to throw to: Charlie Jones, a transfer from Iowa who got to campus not long ago. The two are acquainted, with both hailing from the Chicago area and working out at Throw It Deep, a receiver and quarterback academy.
"He's a special player, a really, really talented player that we're super lucky to have now," said O'Connell. "He's a smart player. He's picking up the offense quick just in the first week and a half, learning. He's a hard worker. He's a professional in how he goes about his business. We're looking forward to him having a big impact."
Membership Info: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?
Follow GoldandBlack.com: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
More: Gold and Black Illustrated/Gold and Black Express | Subscribe to our podcast
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2022. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.
