Jeff Brohm is waiting.

Will Purdue play at Wisconsin on Saturday? Will the game be cancelled? An answer is expected to be delivered from Wisconsin on Tuesday, as the Badger program is in the midst of a seven-day pause due to a COVID-19 outbreak that saw its game at Nebraska last Saturday cancelled. Wisconsin is scheduled to end its pause on Wednesday.

It has been reported that Wisconsin has 22 positive tests among players (12) and staff (10). Head coach Paul Chryst is confirmed to be infected. He is slated to return from a 10-day isolation on Thursday. Offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph and quarterbacks Graham Mertz and Chase Wolf are believed to have the virus, according to various reports. Per Big Ten protocols, players are required to sit out 21 days following a positive test.

Until Brohm receives word on the game's status, it’s business as usual.

“I would assume by tomorrow, we'll have an answer,” said Brohm via Zoom at his Monday press conference. “But even with that, I'm not for sure exactly truly how it works. But we're preparing full-speed ahead as of right now.”

Purdue is coming off a 31-24 win vs. an Illinois team that had players miss last Saturday’s game (some due to contact tracing; some due to positive tests) after opening the season with a 45-7 loss at Wisconsin. Is Brohm aware of any Boilermakers who have tested positive?

“Not to this point,” said Brohm. “Now, it is a little concerning sometimes. Illinois was a little concerned that maybe they got some things through their game at Wisconsin. I don't really know exactly, truly, how this virus works. So, there's always a concern that we want to continue to do everything we can to stay safe and get our guys to the game and keep everybody free from the virus.

"Every precaution we can think of, we're going to take, because there has been some pop-ups on the team we're getting ready to play, and the team that we played this past week. So, that is a concern.”

Brohm’s team is looking to maintain momentum after a 2-0 start that has included victories vs. Iowa and at Illinois. Winning at Wisconsin would be a landmark achievement, when you consider the Badgers have won 14 in a row vs. Purdue dating to a Boilermaker victory in Madison in 2003.

Should the game be cancelled, it won’t be made up. The Big Ten has deemed scrubbed games as “no contests.” Brohm says Purdue has no plans to seek a fill-in opponent and would treat the off week like a bye.

“No,” said Brohm. “I know no backup plan. I know in the Big Ten, we're playing every week, and if a game doesn't happen, you move on to the next one.”

For Purdue, that next one would be Nov. 14 at home vs. Northwestern, which is off to a 2-0 start and plays host to Nebraska this Saturday. But for now, Brohm is all about getting ready to play the Badgers.

“At our end, we're going to prepare for the next game,” said Brohm. “We've got a great opponent that we've got to do everything in our power to get ready to play.

“So, when those decisions are made, we'll adjust, but as of right now, we're going full-speed ahead and we're going to let (athletic director) Mike (Bobinski) and those guys handle (discussions about the game). I think by tomorrow we may know an answer, and I know there's concerns. There's concerns on both ends, and we realize it. So we're going to leave it to the smart, intelligent people to figure it out. … “

Purdue's list of injured players continues to grow.

The Boilermakers suffered a big loss on Saturday at Illinois, when star sophomore defensive end George Karlaftis suffered what appeared to be a left leg injury.

“Well, we'll have a little more information tomorrow on some of these situations, so I'll have a little bit more tomorrow to be able to give you on some of those,” said Brohm. “We're still getting certain guys evaluated thoroughly.”

Purdue also lost starting junior center Sam Garvin to a likely left leg injury on Saturday, too. Purdue entered last week’s game without several other key players, including redshirt freshman left guard Cam Craig, sophomore running back King Doerue and, of course, sophomore wideout Rondale Moore.

“As you know, we're always hopeful to get Rondale back,” said Brohm. “As soon as that happens, we'll all be excited, and we're looking forward to it. I don't have any more information than that as of right now.”

Purdue was without two wideouts on Saturday: true freshman Maliq Carr and redshirt freshman Mershawn Rice.

“Both those guys are out because of injury,” said Brohm. “So, they're two guys that we'd like to get back. Mershawn was having the best camp that he's had. Unfortunately, I don't know if he's been healthy for one game since he's been here, so he's got to do his part. I thought he was making improvements and he showed up in fall camp and in scrimmages and had another setback injury-wise. So, yes, we'd like to get him back.

“And, of course, Maliq Carr was having a good camp, as well, and unfortunately got injured in the Iowa game and wasn't able to play the past game.”

Through two games, junior Zander Horvath has been the only Purdue running back to carry the ball, rushing 43 times for 231 yards and a TD and with eight catches for 60 yards. He has rushed for over 100 yards in his last three games dating to 2019.

Sophomore King Doerue has been out with a hamstring injury after leading the team in rushing as a true freshman in 2019. The only other veteran back on the roster is redshirt freshman Da’Joun Hewitt, who played on special teams on Saturday.

“Well, Da'Joun is working hard and he had an injury for a while that set him back” said Brohm, “so he's just getting back from that. We want him to continue to improve, and we want to make sure that he's ready to do all the things that need to happen for us to put him in the game. We want to feel confident with it.

“We want to make sure that we continue to improve that position, and right now Zander has shown that he's ahead of the others. But yes, we would like to gain confidence, and I think the more Da'Joun practices healthy and improves, hopefully we can get him in there and let him do his thing.”

Sophomore punter Brooks Cormier endured a tough game on Saturday. Consistency continues to be an issue.

Cormier got off two poor kicks in the fourth quarter to set up Illinois in good field position during a tight game. One punt spanned 19 yards and went out of bounds at the Illini 45. (Illinois subsequently scored a TD to cut Purdue's lead to 31-24). The next punt traveled 28 yards and was returned 16 yards to the Illini 48 (Illinois drove to Purdue’s 8-yard line before tuning the ball over on downs).

Could junior Zac Collins get a chance? He averaged 39.0 yards on 33 punts last year, when Cormier averaged 40.3 on 28. Cormier is averaging 42.6 yard on nine punts this season.

“Job is wide open,” said Brohm. “Yes, it is. You know, as I told (special teams) Coach (Marty) Biagi, every position on our team is wide open. I told them, I said, look, the quarterback position is always wide open. Our guys know if we're not performing we have other guys on the team that are ready to play.

“So, I want to make sure that we have competition at the punter position. Brooks has improved and he got more consistent. Did a good job the first game. He just kind of got in a slump here the second game. And yes, we're going to have another punter ready and be able to rotate guys in there and make sure that there's competition.”

Purdue's players--like all of the Boilermaker student-athletes--will be free of team activities on Tuesday so they are able to vote on election day.

"I think it's important that they represent our country and go out and put their vote in," said Brohm. "We've talked about it a lot. We've done a lot of things to make sure that everyone is getting out and voting and making a difference.

"I think quite a few of our guys have already voted to this point. But with (director of football player development) Coach (Sean) Pugh we have a time set aside tomorrow that whoever hasn't we're going to provide them an opportunity to go over there and vote and it's important that everyone learns at an early age that we all can make a difference and we all need to do our part."

Brohm plans to cast his ballot tomorrow.

"I was going to go early," said Brohm. "Our players and Coach Pugh may go at a later time. So, whether I go with them or go early, I haven't figured it out yet."

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