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Purdue will punctuate its season on Saturday vs. Indiana in a battle for the Old Oaken Bucket. It has been a challenging season for the Boilermakers, who were eliminated from bowl consideration with Saturday’s loss at Wisconsin.

But the Boilermakers (4-7 overall; 3-5 Big Ten) can finish the season on an up-note by beating Indiana (7-4; 4-4) in Ross-Ade Stadium (noon ET kickoff) as they honor the 2019 seniors. What will be Jeff Brohm’s lasting impressions of the class?

“Well, I think our seniors that have been here, they've been through a lot,” said Brohm. “They've overcome a lot, had some good moments. Now, it's time to try to finish off on a good moment against your rival team.”

The seniors signed with Purdue when Darrell Hazell was coach and have helped flip the script in West Lafayette with bowl appearances in 2017 and 2018. While there will be no bowl this year, the seniors can know they left the program on better footing.

“A lot of these guys have seen all the ups and downs they could see,” said Brohm. “They've had a great attitude with it. They've done everything we've asked, worked extremely hard. I think they'll be very productive football players and citizens when it's all said and done. We'd like to try to finish the season strong for them.”

There are 12 players listed as seniors on the school-issued roster:

(*denotes fifth-year senior)

LB Markus Bailey*

CB David Day

WR Malcolm Dotson

RB Tario Fuller*

DL Kai Higgins

LB Ben Holt*

TE Brycen Hopkins*

OL Matt McCann*

S Navon Mosley

DT Lorenzo Neal

QB Elijah Sindelar*

RB Richie Worship*

Be advised: Just because a player goes through Senior Day ceremonies doesn’t mean he won’t be back in 2020. Some players could petition for an extra year of eligibility. There are a lot of moving parts as the team manages the roster moving forward.

One guy to keep in mind is Sindelar, who was granted a sixth season of eligibility last spring and could return. He has been out since injuring his left clavicle vs. Minnesota on September 28.

“Whether or not certain guys go through Senior Day will not fully determine if they're coming back or not,” said Brohm. “There's certain guys, like (Sindelar), a few others, that need a little more time to figure out exactly what they want to do.

“No, I do not know a final answer (on Sindelar).”

Jeff Brohm has done a lot of good things in his three seasons at Purdue. One of the best in the minds of fans: He is 2-0 vs. Indiana.

“We're on to our last game,” said Jeff Brohm. “This is an important game. I think our team and seniors need to understand that we need to do our very best to finish the season off, play with great effort, go out there and compete, try to find a way to win.”

Brohm's two wins ended a run of four victories in succession by the Hoosiers in the series. Indiana already is bowl eligible but has lost its last two games (at Penn State; vs. Michigan). No doubt, the Hoosiers would like to end that mini-slide and win back the Bucket to enhance their postseason prospects.

“I think they've opened the playbook up more this year, tried to utilize their talent, spread things around, be more aggressive in their approach,” said Brohm.

“Defensively, they've really done the same thing: been much more aggressive this year on defense than we've seen the first two years. More of an attacking style, more of a style where they're challenging things, making you find a way to beat them. That will make them out of position occasionally.”

It’s seven games and counting since sophomore Rondale Moore hurt his left hamstring vs. Minnesota on September 28. And senior defensive tackle Lorenzo Neal has yet to play after undergoing offseason knee surgery. Have they been shut down for the season?

“I wouldn't say that fully,” said Jeff Brohm. “But we haven't seen them to this point.”

Purdue opened up its playbook last week at Wisconsin, running two trick plays in the first half. Both were a success.

One play was a flea-flicker, with Zander Horvath taking a hand-off, pitching back to Aidan O’Connell who connected with Milton Wright for a 38-yard gain. The second trick play was even better, as O’Connell threw a backward pass to Wright, who chucked it to Brycen Hopkins for a 37-yard TD that gave the Boilermakers a 17-14 lead midway through the second quarter.

“The question and concern was throwing it out to him, was he going to throw it regardless of whether he was open or not?” said Jeff Brohm. “That's what scared me, because I didn't want an interception. We had to reinforce, 'Hey, if it's not open, pump that thing and run it.’ We had to make sure he fully understood that.

“Fortunately, it was wide open. Couldn't happen any better. It was a good throw. Gave him a chance to make the throw. Didn't overthrow a wide-open guy. We scored a touchdown. That play was a lot of fun.”

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