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Complete spring coverage: Primer

In his first spring, Jeff Brohm tried to foster a competitive environment.

Early in many of the 15 practices, he’d have the offense line up against the defense, broken down by appropriate positional matchups, to go head-to-head in, basically, pummeling each other. Players often would start in a three-point stance — or at least a squat — and, on the whistle, explode out to lock the other up, with the ultimate goal of physically winning the drill by overpowering the other.

It set a tone.

Then the bulk of practices were full of team periods, 11-on-11 work, instead of individual drills in position groups or 7-on-7 skelly periods. And in those team periods, Brohm almost solely pitted the first-team offense against the first-team defense and the 2s vs. 2s, etc.

It was purposeful. Games are played 11-on-11, obviously, and they’re best against best.

Brohm wanted to see who would rise, who would respond to the challenge, who would bounceback after getting beat on a play, who would rebound after making a mistake, who would battle even when stuck in an unfavorable matchup as the offense switched formations and groupings or the defense mixed up its fronts and blitzes.

It all was part of trying to create a culture in Brohm’s first season.

“I do think that certain guys have the mentality we want,” Brohm told a small group of local reporters Monday in a post-spring wrap.

But Brohm also felt some push-back, some players who weren’t exerting exactly the kind of effort he’d like. So that’s another step to establishing the culture: Making sure those players understand what’s expected and what happens if they don’t deliver.

“I think the want-to is there with most of our guys, we’ve just got to make sure everybody is on the same page and everybody is willing to do their part. I think if all of us are willing to go the extra mile, including coaches, including myself, normally you can get something out of it,” Brohm said. “But everyone has to understand that don’t be surprised when tough times happen and say, ‘What the heck?’ No, those are going to happen. So I think if we can prepare accordingly and understand if you’re willing to fight the fight, let’s go. If not, then maybe this isn’t the place for you.”

Brohm said he thinks everyone has a competitive spirit and drive, but it just may be up to the coaching staff to bring it out of some players.

He said he thinks all of the players want to win, but he and the staff need to figure out how badly that’s the case for some.

“In order for us to be successful this year, we’re going to have to dig deep and get a lot of that. I think I’m happy with where we’re at with some of our players and I think they do want to win and it means something to them, but we just have to make sure that all are on the same page and that all are willing to do their part and they understand it’s not going to be an easy task, and it’s something we’re all going to have to be committed to,” he said. “Be willing to fight the fight and battle through some times when maybe it’s not going well and not always give in and give up and say, ‘Here it goes again. It’s happening again.’ I think that has to be erased out of your mind. It just has to be a constant, fight and battle til the end and when it’s over, you look at the score and move on for it.”

Part of that fight could be toughening up to play through bumps and bruises.

Unofficially, Purdue had 24 players who missed at least one practice with an injury over the spring, and that doesn’t include players who missed the entire spring because of offseason surgeries.

Running backs coach Chris Barclay said during spring that availability is the best ability. He probably was particularly frustrated because his room had David Yancey out for the spring (knee), Markell Jones (back) missed six of the 15 practices, Brian Lankford-Johnson (hamstring) miss the second half of spring and D.J. Knox (knee) missed a couple.

But the receivers were equally affected — D’J Edwards, Anthony Mahoungou, Jarrett Burgess, Tyler Hamilton and Gregory Phillips all spent at least one day on the sidelines.

Not everyone seemed to have a sense of urgency to return to the practice field, though some of that could have been directives of athletic trainers being cautious. Either way, the absences were noticed by the coaching staff, though there always is a fine line with guys being “hurt” or “injured.”

“We were disappointed certain guys weren’t out there,” Brohm said, “but I get it. If someone is injured and they’re not able to go, it is what it is. Would we maybe have liked them to have done some things before that to prevent or did we think they could have worked harder so it doesn’t happen? Maybe. But injuries happen. How they work now, how they get healthy, how they work in the summer and into fall camp will really determine what we can do with them. I’m not going to hold any injuries against anybody. They happened. But if they’re committed to working out and we see them rehabbing and wanting to be out there, that’s very important. I do think for the most part most guys are doing that. There’s just a few that sometimes you have some questions on and you want to make sure they understand how it works and they’re committed to working their tail off to be the best, and sometimes that pops into your head.”

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