Burgess emerges; Purdue faces strong NU rush defense; more

More: Knox playing to honor father | Opponent View: Purdue at Northwestern

Last Tuesday, four days before Purdue’s game vs. Illinois, Jarrett Burgess was with the second-team offense, trying to make the kind of impact that would get him noticed.

It did.

The next day the junior receiver was with the 1s, elevated to a status that he has worked hard to attain, ever since he gave up the baseball cleats a few years ago to try football. Learning he was to move up with the starters for Wednesday’s practice, with the thought he'd have the same job on Saturday, came in a simple pre-practice message.

“They said, ‘You’re going with the 1s, know the plays and go out there and go hard’ and that’s what I did,” Burgess said following this Tuesday’s practice. “Every play, I go hard. I studied plays every night and I think I went out there and did pretty well my first game.”

He did. Burgess had three catches, more than doubling his previous career total, for 43 yards, including a 36-yarder up the right sideline in the third quarter that set up a Purdue score. It wasn’t even his production, however, that was the most surprising aspect of his day; it was that he was playing at all.

Prior to Purdue’s 29-10 win over Illinois, Burgess had played only one snap this season, and he’d not been a highly productive player in his first couple years. Then, Purdue would use him as a decoy at times or as a runner, and on special teams, but not often as a receiver. Last year, Burgess had a couple catches for only seven yards. In 2015, he had 20-yards receiving, without a catch, after being the recipient of a lateral.

But that was it.

It’s been a long development process for Burgess, 27, a former minor league baseball player who toiled in the Seattle Mariners’ farm system for four seasons. Burgess was extremely raw as a football player back when he arrived in West Lafayette, but showed athletic potential, mainly in his ability to run — he’s probably one of the fastest, if not the fastest, man on the team — and his physicality. He’s 6-foot-3, 220-pounds.

But Burgess had to start at the ground level, learning how to catch, run routes, get off defenders, block, etc., and that’s been a two-plus-year project. The latest teacher is wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard.

“I definitely feel like I’ve gotten a lot better, but I still haven’t reached the ceiling of my potential at all,” Burgess said. “Coach Shephard this year, he’s gotten me 100 percent better from my previous year, and I think I’m showing them that every year I can get a lot better and I can be the receiver they want me to be.”

But Burgess needs to stay healthy. He had made a positive move early in August’s training camp, but a hamstring injury pushed him off the field. And it lingered, staying with him so long that not only could he not get on the field offensively but he wasn’t on special teams either, and he had been an impactful coverage man the last two seasons.

But Burgess rehabbed — and he worked with strength and conditioning coach Dennis Love to shorten his stride, thinking that it would lessen the chance of re-injury — to get himself back on the field.

“I thought initially it was very frustrating,” he said of the injury. “But with my experience I know that I have to keep a straight head and it’s going to be down a little bit but I have to keep looking forward and taking it day-by-day. Just hope for an opportunity to play, and that’s what happened and I took advantage of it.”

Right now, Purdue wants playmaking outside receivers. It was lack of production there that made Jeff Brohm more willing to give Burgess an opportunity. Why not, especially considering Burgess was showing signs in practice.

“We needed, in our opinion, to get some type of spark in the passing game, get some life to it. Jarrett is a guy that has good size and he can run," Brohm said. "He has shown signs throughout fall camp, since we've been here, but he's been injured a lot, to be honest with you. At certain times we were ready to go with him, he would get injured before the game, a day or two before. That's been a little frustrating.

“He had a great week of practice. He knew we were going to try to go with him more, go from there. I thought for the most part he did a very good job. He was able to make some plays for us up the field, caught some balls underneath, I think provided some competition to the position.” (KC)

With Northwestern’s surge in Big Ten play as one of the league’s top defensive teams against the run and Purdue’s recent reliance on the running game, Saturday could be a matchup of strength vs. strength.

The Wildcats have allowed an average of 97.3 yards per game rushing in the last seven, holding each opponent under its season average during the stretch. That includes playing the conference’s most-accomplished backs and keeping them all under 100 yards. Though they still were impactful — Penn State’s Saquon Barkley had 75 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries, Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor had 90 yards and two scores on 19 carries and Iowa’s Akrum Wadley had 90 yards on 26 carries — they weren’t necessarily game-changing performances. All but the Penn State game was close, and Northwestern beat Iowa.

“I think it starts up front,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said about the success of his team’s run defense. “I think our D-line has been very fundamental sound, very unselfish. Those guys have just played very hard.”

The Wildcats have one of the Big Ten’s most promising players, redshirt freshman linebacker Paddy Fisher, who has been the beneficiary of the line’s ability to hold up. Fisher has been flying to the ball, racking up tackles at a ridiculous rate. His 88 tackles rank 11th nationally and he leads first-year FBS players in the category.

So, clearly, Purdue’s run game will be tested.

But, at least, the Boilermakers have several options in case one player seems unable to break through.

Over the last three weeks, Purdue has divided carries, largely, between Richie Worship, D.J. Knox and Markell Jones. They’ve all been productive, racking up 533 yards as a group and averaging 5.8 yards per carry over that stretch.

“We try not to over-evaluate it too much,” Jeff Brohm said of dividing the snaps between the group. “We want to make sure Richie gets plenty of touches. He’s running hot. I think D.J. has done a good job for us. He made a great run on the fourth-down play to get a touchdown. Then Markell has continued to be steady, and we want to make sure he gets his touches, and, really, we just kind of get feel of it as the game goes on.

“We want them all three to play, but if one is hot, we may ride him a little more once we get in the game.”

That division of snaps has its benefits, whether it’s offering a bit of a different style of play or allowing each player to stay fresh.

Knox said he hasn’t felt this good this late in a season before.

And he thinks it’s showing up on the field for him and his teammates.

Fitzgerald has noticed.

“We’re going to have our hands full with Purdue this week,” he said. “They’re running the ball really well. Playing very, very physical. Rolling three or four running backs through. They’ve all got their unique skill set. They’ve all got great speed. When you’re talking about Worship, you’re talking about a big man. So maybe his style of play is a little bit different. But they’re all very, very talented.” (SC)

Jared Sparks is going to talk to the Brohms — Jeff and Brian — as often as possible.

He’ll keep an ear to his other quarterbacks, mainly Elijah Sindelar and David Blough, when Blough gets back around the team after his surgery. He’s going to keep up the conversation as much as possible, because he knows that at a moment’s notice, he could be Purdue’s quarterback.

And considering the redshirt freshman is going mainly be practicing with the wide receivers, he still needs to stay as knowledgeable as he can about what would be needed at quarterback.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Knock on wood, I don’t want anything to happen to Elijah. I want him to be healthy and I want him to stay in the game and do what he does. But whatever happens happens and I’ll be ready for it. Whatever comes my way, I just want to help my team win, whenever I need to be. Period.”

It’s that attitude that helped push Sparks over to receiver, where he can help the Boilermakers now, with Saturday likely to be his third straight start.

The win over Illinois might have marked his most impactful game of his young Purdue career. Although he didn’t catch a pass, Sparks had five snaps as a Wildcat quarterback across two scoring drives, rushing for 40 yards.

But that was with Blough healthy. Now, the veteran is out, having suffered a dislocated right ankle — he had surgery Tuesday afternoon — pushing Sparks from QB3 to 2. He might be the only player in the country who is both a starting receiver and primary backup quarterback.

“My preparation is going to be the same,” he said. “I prepare myself as a quarterback and receiver every week, just to make sure I’m on top of my game. I never know what may happen. (Blough’s injury) did (impact) me, but it didn’t at the same time.” (KC)

The Boilermakers are spending their week making sure they don’t run into each other.

Because the cleaner they stay, the better off they’ll be in defending Northwestern’s passing game. The Wildcats, who have the country’s 35th-best passing attack in terms of yardage averaging 267.7 yards per game (fourth in the Big Ten), feature a scheme heavy on crossing routes, hoping they can rub defenders to get open receivers.

And junior quarterback Clayton Thorson makes it work.

“They do a great job of scheming you and attacking your zone,” said Anthony Poindexter, Purdue’s co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach. “(And) if you’re in man, (they) try to run some routes they can pick you off of the man. Their receivers work hard to get (you) off routes and get open and the quarterback is a really good player. He’s a veteran guy who has been playing for three years now and does a nice job of fitting the ball in windows. We’ve got our work cut out for us on the back end.”

Purdue could play more man defense vs. the Wildcats — safety Navon Mosley strongly hinted of its possibility — in an effort to stay with the Northwestern receivers. It’s not an easy task. In the scheme, the Wildcats are trying to muddy the coverages, overloading small areas and causing defenders to be slowed down.

But in man, Mosley said, there is a possible solution.

“If you’re man-to-man with somebody and you see a receiver take a real hard release down, (the key is) to almost get on his back and almost run with him, that will stop a lot of pick routes,” the sophomore said. “But it’s hard to do, because a lot of guys, when they’re in man-to-man coverage, the first thing they want to do is back up and give a lot of space to a receiver. That gives them the room to get under and now you’re getting picked because you’re not close to the receiver and you’re running into other defenders on the field. That’s how separation occurs with the mesh routes.”

Northwestern is good at it because it has good receivers and a good quarterback. Thorson, a 6-4, 225-pounder, has thrown for 2,287 yards this season (tied for 27th in the country) with 10 touchdowns, plus seven more rushing, and 11 interceptions. Five Wildcats have between 27 and 35 receptions this season, including running back Justin Jackson, a threat out of the backfield with 35 receptions.

Flynn Nagel also has 35 receptions, while Bennett Skowronek has 32, with team-highs of 427 yards and three touchdowns.

Purdue, meanwhile, ranks 69th in the country in passing yardage allowed, giving up 222.9 per game.

“They have veteran quarterback, veteran receivers, play hard, run good routes, have a good scheme,” Poindexter said. “I think their coaching staff does a great job of figuring out what their opponent does and attacking the weaknesses. They play hard and catch the ball. They scrap you and block out on the perimeter, they do a lot of good things, so we’ve got to be ready to go.” (KC)

Cornerback Da’Wan Hunte is adamant that he’s playing Saturday at Northwestern, after having missed the last game-and-half with a hip flexor.

“Oh yeah, of course,” he said. “I’m definitely (going) out there this week.”

It should be noted, though, that Hunte isn’t practicing fully, as he spent both Tuesday and Wednesday in his practice jersey but also sweatpants. It’s not as if he’s running around full speed yet, but the senior says he’ll be ready for the Wildcats.

“I just feel better,” he said after practice on Wednesday. “I’ve been working hard with the training staff and the coach has been taking care of me as far as reps. I’ve been feeling a lot better and I have the confidence that I’ll be all right on Saturday.”

Hunte wasn’t fine last Saturday against Illinois. He tried to warm up, he said, but couldn’t get his hip loosened up. Instead, Kamal Hardy started and Tim Cason played the second half in his place.

“I tried,” Hunte said. “I warmed up and it just wasn’t there. I didn’t want to put myself as well as my team in a bad situation. I felt like it was best for me to sit out and those guys did a good job without me being out there.” (KC)

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