As 2018 closes painfully, Purdue's eyes turn to 2019

NASHVILLE — Purdue has a lot going for it, whether it be resurgent success of the past two seasons, its markedly upgraded recruiting results or simply the intangible of relevance, that the college football world is now more aware of the Boilermakers than it's been in years.

But, if there's any one clear reveal that came out of Friday's 63-14 loss to Auburn — a game that ended with the Tigers taking a knee a yard short of 70 — it's that in terms of where Purdue wants to be, it's not even close.

"You want your guys to remember that while we made strides, we still have a long ways to go," said Coach Jeff Brohm after his team finished the season 6-7, flipping its record of a year ago. "While we are improving, the difference between winning and losing is very small. When you get beat like that, the difference is even bigger. We have a lot of areas to improve upon. I think it will help our coaches and myself especially refocus, hopefully drive us to find a way to get us better."

More will be expected of Purdue than has been expected at any point since the mid-2000s and in Year 3 under Brohm and his staff, with most of the roster recruited under their banner, memories of Purdue's bottoming out pre-Brohm will grow fainter.

The reality is that while in many ways Purdue has overachieved to reach the postseason the past two Decembers, 6-6 and whatever postseason bid it would bring next season would likely be considered underachieving, barring anything unforeseen.

Purdue returns one of college football's best players in Rondale Moore, and it will have the luxury to replace a starting quarterback in David Blough with another starting quarterback in presumed No. 1 Elijah Sindelar.

Defensively, the Boilermakers return much of this year's young group, assuming linebacker Markus Bailey doesn't opt to take his shot at the NFL now.

The Auburn result obviously showed how much those returnees must progress.

But it also laid bare the depth-chart impossibilities Purdue dealt with on this day, down the irreplaceable Lorenzo Neal, among others at defensive tackle, and without key DB Kenneth Major. Purdue's defensive front had already essentially moved on to 2019, with defensive end Giovanni Reviere moving to defensive tackle and linebacker Derrick Barnes full-time to Purdue's hybrid Leo position.

Those issues will stabilize, presumably setting Purdue up to improve defensively next season, a must coming out of this often-painful transitional season.

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And, Purdue will welcome one of the finest (on paper) recruiting classes of its modern era, headlined by potential early-impact prospects such as D-end George Karlaftis, safeties Marvin Grant and Jalen Graham and wide receiver Milton Wright, and maybe fellow wide receiver David Bell, too.

"In the middle of December, Coach Brohm signed the best recruiting class in a long time at Purdue," outgoing quarterback David Blough said. "I think that's an indicator that the program is headed in the right direction."

The good news there? Purdue seems to be upgrading its talent level to close the gap in games like Friday's.

The flip side? When your better players are your younger players, you're young again, and Purdue may experience that good problem to have some next season.

But Purdue isn't going to be winning and losing because of freshmen next season.

It's the returnees that will shape the Boilermakers' immediate future, many of those who walked off the Nissan Stadium field having lost by 49.

"We got the chance to see how we would stack up against them," Bailey said of Auburn, a traditional SEC power that historically recruits accordingly. "Obviously from the results, we're not quite there yet. We have a lot of work to do in preparation for the off-season, going forward with our program."

Purdue may be inching closer, but it won't soon have the sort of top-to-bottom depth of talent some of these potential postseason foes will, and do.

That doesn't mean 63-14 shouldn't be considered an eye-opener at this stage of the Boilermakers' process.

It probably ought to be for those returning in particular, and Purdue may be better off heading into a promising season if it is.

"When you lose bad, it's going to force you to refocus even more, figure out ways to get better," Brohm said. "... We've got to get better in a lot of areas. You've got to bring in young guys, develop them, get them on the field. It doesn't happen overnight. You're playing an Auburn football team that's played a lot of great football games. They were big, physical. They had some really good players. We couldn't overcome that."

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