Blough's recovery 'ahead of schedule;' Purdue bowl prep continues, more
Purdue completed its fifth bowl practice Saturday morning before it'll ramp up next week as it prepares to face Arizona in the Foster Farms Bowl Dec. 27.
The Boilermakers have kept it it light and focused on fundamentals, mostly, in the early practices, but they've done some scout work, too. They have yet to practice with pads, but that likely will change next week when the schedule will include probably five practices, including on Sunday in California.
After Saturday's practice, Coach Jeff Brohm spoke with reporters, taking a break from the two busloads of recruits that pulled up and watched the end of practice, to talk Arizona, scout team prep, David Blough's health and, of all things, In-N-Out Burger.
• Blough watched parts of Purdue's Saturday practice — but wasn't rocking a certain accessory.
Blough didn't have a boot on his right foot, the one that required surgery after he broke his ankle, among other damage, against Illinois late in the season. The initial timeline was a June return, Brohm said.
"He’s much farther along than you would think. He’s out of the boot way quicker than I thought he would (be). He’s walking on it with a shoe," Brohm said. "I saw him in there rehabbing (Saturday), and he looked really good. We’re going to allow him to push it as hard as he can, but I do want to make sure it’s fully healed and we get him back when he’s ready. I don’t want him to rush it, even though he wants to. We’ll have the perfect medium. But he is way ahead of schedule and really wants to fight hard to get back fast."
Blough dislocated his ankle and had resulting ligament damage after his right leg got caught after an attempted slide against the Illini, and he had surgery soon afterward. Even if Blough feels better and heals quicker than thought, Brohm said he wouldn't risk the QB in any team work in spring ball. It's possible Blough could throw throws or participate in 7-on-7, but that's more of a wait-and-see approach.
"If he’s able to, it would be in a limited role where we make sure he’s not getting hit or has bodies around him," Brohm said.
• Purdue's toughest task against Arizona likely will be defensively against running quarterback Khalil Tate. Though the Boilermakers' have gone full-go yet in terms of game plan and preparation, they still are having some scout periods in practice of running the Wildcats' offensive looks. So who gets the job of playing Tate?
Brohm has opted to go with a receiver at times.
"We need the best athlete on the field to play that position, that’s what (Tate) is," Brohm said. "We’ve had multiple guys run it. We put in an athletic receiver who has speed and quickness. I think that has helped our defense understand how fast he’s going to play. Obviously, we don’t have anyone to replicate him exactly, but we’re definitely putting in a fast guy back there on the service team."
• Though Brohm knows anything can happen, he's hopeful Purdue will retain its assistant coaching staff for 2018.
"I feel good they want to be here," he said. " I don’t want any of them to leave."
• A report broke on Friday night about the potential of the XFL returning.
That's the league that produced Brohm's most-talked-about soundbite — "Do I or do I not currently have a pulse?" — and so, naturally, he was asked Saturday if he was ready to step back on the field.
"It’s very tempting," said Brohm, giving a wry smile to support his I'm-kidding tone. "I’ll have to start my workouts back up again, throw the ball out here with my team, get a few reps and see if I’ve still got it in me. I may only last a half game, but I may want to give it a shot."
Brohm played in Orlando, and he joked he'd need to see where the new locations for teams would be before he'd really decide on returning.
But perhaps the revived league would have a stricter policy on concussions, which is what ultimately led to Brohm's "let play football" line years ago.
"I don’t know if they will," he said, smiling. "That’s one of the reasons they’re probably bringing it back — there’s too many rules (now). They want to play without rules. So we’ll see."
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