The transfer rules in college football appear poised to change. And Jeff Brohm hopes that doesn’t lead to unscrupulous behavior by coaches.

“There's gonna be some things going on that shouldn't happen, without question,” the Purdue coach said on his radio show this week hosted by Tim Newton. “You hope that it doesn’t. But it is.”

Earlier this year, the Division I Council approved a proposal that would permit all NCAA athletes to transfer one time without having to sit out a season of competition. The proposal will be voted on in January. Currently, football, basketball, baseball and hockey players must sit out a year after they transfer as an undergraduate. Athletes in other sports have already had access to a one-time exception.

“But on the other side, I do think it's fair for players to have the opportunity to transfer one time, without penalty,” said Brohm. “If they don't like it where they're at, or there's a coaching change or maybe they're not getting to play as much as they want, they should have the right to go play somewhere else.”

The fear for Brohm and surely other coaches is that other schools will try to recruit players off their roster.

“You hope that (a transfer) has gone the right way,” said Brohm. “If it does, I'm all for helping the players and making sure they get a home and making sure they get an opportunity to play college football. If it's with us, great. Or if it's some other team, whatever works for them. You just hope that people don't come recruit your best players. That is a little concerning. I would hope that people will do it the right way and that we're able to control it somehow.”

With a roster dominated by underclassmen, Brohm anticipates signing a small 2021 recruiting class.

Perhaps that's a good thing given how the recruiting process has been a challenge due to the pandemic, which has seen the NCAA recruiting dead period extended from the summer and through the fall. For now, it runs until Jan. 1, 2021. That means recruits have been unable to take official visits, and college coaches haven’t been able to go on the road to evaluate.

“Recruiting is going to be different this year,” said Brohm. “I think we've adjusted like everyone has. With us, it's going to be a smaller class, we don't have a whole lot of seniors. We want to make sure that we don't over sign and do things that are gonna hurt us a little bit.”

The Purdue roster on the school website shows 11 seniors (nine redshirt seniors and two true seniors) along with two graduate students. Purdue has 12 players committed now in its 2021 recruiting class. Schools are permitted to sign as many as 25 recruits each year.

“We feel like we're in good position with the recruits we have now and are trying to just get a few more,” said Brohm. “I think now with the transfer rule changing, where you're not gonna have to sit out, we want to make sure we have some wiggle room, as well, when it comes to that market.

“Every year since I've been here, when we take a few key (transfers), they end up starting and coming in and doing a great job. So, I think at the end of the year, you assess where your team is at, where you think you need to improve and get better, see what you have from a developmental standpoint and see if those guys are going to be ready. If not, you've got to go out and try to get somebody to come in that’s ready to play now. And we definitely want to be active in that market.”

A big area of improvement after last year was the defense. To that end, Purdue parted ways with coordinator Nick Holt and brought in Bob Diaco to run the defense.

“Well, in general, I like our defense,” said Brohm. “Coach Diaco and the staff have done a good job. We understand the plan, we can fit in position. We get the call in, we're able to communicate it and change it when they're changing at times. And we've kept the points down, and that’s the number one concern.”

Purdue is just No. 11 in the Big Ten in total defense (466.0 ypg). And the unit is No. 11 vs. the run (186.0 ypg) and No. 12 vs. the pass (280.0 ypg). But the Boilermakers are No. 4 in scoring defense (22.0 ppg), the only defensive stat that matters.

And takeaways are up, as Purdue already has six … and a defensive TD. The Boilermakers are No. 3 in the Big Ten in turnover margin (plus-2). For perspective, the Boilers finished 12th in the league in turnover margin in 2019 (minus-8) and 13th in 2018 (minus-five).

“Teams have gotten yards,” said Brohm. “We got to improve upon that. We've worked hard to not give up the big play. We've done a pretty good job there. Now, we've got to probably tighten some things up. People are trying to get some underneath throws and getting yards and they're running for too many yards, as well.

“We have to make sure we have the perfect mix of four down (linemen), three down (linemen), blitz, all-out blitz occasionally, dropping eight, just mixing things up and making sure that while we don’t want to give up the big play, we're also being aggressive.”

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