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On Saturday night the volleyball program hosted Indiana in Mackey Arena, establishing a new high attendance mark for a Big Ten Conference volleyball match. Nearly 15,000 people watched the Boilermakers sweep the Hoosiers, and nearly 15,000 more will be back this week to see Purdue take on Wisconsin in a nationally televised match.

That was a welcome sight from football, which suffered yet another heavy defeat at the hands of a highly ranked opponent. Some thoughts on that defeat begin this week’s Boilermusings.

More of the Same

On Friday night Purdue had another national audience watching Ross-Ade Stadium, and for the second time this year Purdue was blown out in a game that was never seriously competitive. The 35-0 win by Oregon is on of the worst kinds of blowouts a team can suffer. The Ducks racked up 254 yards in going up 21-0 on their first three possessions, including a 99-yard drive that looked far too easy in just six plays.

It was a TKO at this point. Oregon was so efficient at moving the ball they almost could have been playing Canadian rules, as Purdue only forced a single third down in those first three drives. Purdue did get a stop on that third down, but Oregon needed to move the ball a handful of inches on fourth down right at the goal line to score.

From that point on the game was over. You never got the sense Purdue was going to come even close to getting enough stops to get back in the game, so Oregon put its offense on cruise control. Defensively Oregon didn’t need to do much. After Purdue missed a short field goal the Boilermakers valiantly went for it on fourth down three times and failed all three times. Oregon needed a "C" level game to win by five touchdowns.

For the fourth time this season the Purdue offense failed to generate 150 yards passing. For the second time it was held under 100 yards. Oregon is now the No. 1 team in the nation, and with good reason, but it is very telling that they needed a mere 20 minutes to put away Purdue on its home field.

Purdue has now played six FBS level opponents and it has scored 10 points or less in four of those games. Offensively, it has played one good half of football since the Indiana State game, and in that second half against Illinois the defense could not get the stop it needed.

It is safe to say that things are dire right now. The offense cannot throw the ball with any consistency and cannot score points. The defense cannot get stops. Combined with a dwindling recruiting class that is down to just 11 commitments it makes for a situation where Mike Bobinski may have to make some hard decisions in early December.

Three of the five remaining games are near certain losses to Ohio State, Penn State, and Indiana. Every other team in the conference has at least one league victory now, but Purdue hasn’t looked like it belongs on the same field as the other 17 members of the league except for the first half against Nebraska (defensively) and the second half against Illinois (offensively).

Simply put, this is not sustainable. Yes, the schedule is tough and was always going to be tough, even with the surprising rise of Illinois and Indiana, but right now Purdue barely looks like an FBS level football team. It has suffered the wAfterorst home loss in program history, has yet to score a competitive touchdown in a home FBS game, and promising recruits are fleeing the commitment list seemingly en masse.

Right now, there is no good way forward for Purdue football. Nothing is working, and every week seemingly has another big step back. It looks like Ryan Walters was a big, expensive miss after a somewhat promising year last year, and things are so bad that giving him a third year risks punting the entire program to 2026. It is hard to imagine the program in a worse spot right now.

Welcome Home, Monon Spike

After holding the Monon Spike for 15 years Purdue shockingly lost it last season in a road loss to Indiana. On Saturday night in Mackey Arena this year’s team made sure it came back home where it belongs. In front of a boisterous crowd volleyball had an emphatic sweep of Indiana 25-18, 25-14, 25-9.

This was a thoroughly dominant performance by Purdue. The Boilermakers out-hit Indiana .333 to .061 and played an errorless third set. Purdue also recorded nine aces to Indiana’s zero. Eva Hudson had 17 kills while Chloe Chicoine had 12 kills and 10 digs.

Purdue will host Ohio State on Wednesday in Holloway Gym before going back to Mackey Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm for a top 10 matchup with Wisconsin.

Men’s Cross Country Wins Wisconsin Pre-Nationals

For the second time this year the Purdue men’s cross country team scored a meet win, this time on the course at Wisconsin that will be used for the NCAA Championships later this fall. Four of Purdue’s runners were in the top 20 of the “B” 8,000 meter race to give Purdue 73 points. Nathan Walker finished third and Douglas Buckeridge was fourth to pace Purdue.

A total of 25 programs took part in the B race, and Purdue finished well ahead of conference opponents Illinois, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Northwestern.

Soccer Falls 2-0 at Michigan

In the penultimate game of the season Purdue dropped a 2-0 decision Sunday afternoon at previously last place Michigan, giving the Wolverines their first conference win of the season. Jewell Campbell and Jenna Lang scored goals for Michigan, and Purdue managed just three shots on goal in the match as the Wolverines dominated.

The loss eliminated Purdue from making the Big Ten Tournament with a top 10 league finish. The Boilers will close the season at Michigan State next weekend.

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