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Purdue has produced some good tight ends over the years. Dave Young, Cliff Benson and Tim Stratton--a Mackey Award winner--among others. But Dustin Keller may have been the best.
The Lafayette Jeff product was a late flip from Toledo to Purdue in the Class of 2003. And he turned out to be a big addition for Joe Tiller. Keller went on to catch 142 passes for 1,882 yards with 16 TDs, earning second-team All-Big Ten honor as a senior in 2007 with 68 catches for 881 yards and seven TDs.
A tremendous athlete who was a star high jumper in high school, Keller was the No. 30 pick in the first round of the 2008 NFL draft by the New York Jets after wowing at the NFL Combine. The 6-2, 255-pound Keller played five seasons in New York, making 241 receptions with 2,876 yards and 17 touchdowns. Keller signed with the Miami Dolphins in 2013 but suffered a career-ending knee injury in training camp.
Dakota Simon of WLFI-TV caught up with Keller at a recent National Football Foundation event on campus.
Dakota Simon: What’s it like coming back home and seeing old friends, colleagues and people that are a part of the Purdue football program?
Keller: It’s so great to be back here. Especially running into old coaches, friends and obviously my old teammate, Peyton Stovall, being here and getting a new job with Purdue is amazing and I couldn’t be happier about the whole entire thing. I got to see my old high school football coach, and he’s the one that really first got me started to loving football. Because, I’ve got to be honest, I thought I was a basketball player for the longest time, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. But it’s so nice to be here and have my friends and my family all here, and just getting to share this experience with all of them.
Dakota Simon: What has life been like after leaving Lafayette, being with the Jets, and then after that?
Keller: I think once I made it to the Jets, I kind of realized the foodie in myself. I didn’t really know that about myself until I got there. I did a restaurant review called ‘I ate one’ for the New York Times. When I first got into the league and got my first big paycheck, my first investment was I bought some McAlister’s Delis in South Carolina and started off with six of those and we’ve grown that to many more. It’s just been a blessing and I think more than anything, when I had my big knee injury in the NFL, that made it a lot easier for me to kind of turn my back on the game and focus on the next part of life, and that’s business. And business has been pretty good for me.
Dakota Simon: What was your time like at Jeff and at Purdue playing for Coach Tiller?
Keller: At Jeff, it was really awesome, especially with my quarterback being (Mike) Vlahogeorge and we ran a five-wide offensive system, so the running back didn’t even exist for the most part. I wish I could’ve replicated that in college and in the NFL, because all I wanted to do was throw the ball. It was so amazing. That’s what made me fall in love with football, and then some of the best friends that I made were in college and a lot of those guys I still keep up with. That was the last time before it becomes a business, so those relationships are so tight. Then, on to the NFL, where it becomes more of a business, but it was just so amazing to look back on that journey of making it from this to that, finally in the NFL, and then it all abruptly ends. Then you have to turn into the business version of yourself because the NFL kind of affords you to be a little kid for the most part. You’re out playing a game to pay the bills, and I couldn’t be more happy about that. But once it all ended, I had to transition to the next part and that’s a hard transition for a lot of guys. I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to have things in place for me to make that step a little easier.
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Dakota Simon: What was it like being able to play in that “basketball on grass” system and, what changed your mind after first being committed to play at Toledo?
Keller: It’s kind of funny, I was originally committed to play at Toledo, and since then I’ve heard from about five to 10 different people trying to take credit for me ending up at Purdue. I actually just talked to (former WLFI sports director) Rex Trautman. And he said he was the one that called Coach Tiller. A few days ago, I saw Brock Spack at Jeff High School and he said he was the one that got Coach Tiller to change his mind. And right before Coach Tiller passed, I was out at his ranch talking to him, and he claims it was all him. So I don’t know who to believe. Basketball was what really built me. So when I heard 'basketball on grass,' I was like: 'I guess I can run with this and give it a go.' It really started for me in high school with Coach Kutruff, who changed his offensive system to a pass-only offense. Because to be 100 percent truthful with you, my junior year, I actually had quit the team to focus on basketball because we were running the ball so much. I was like ‘why am I wasting my time with this, I’ll just get ready for basketball.’ After a few days, Coach Kutruff came to my house and he said: ‘Look, we’re going to make some changes, and we’re going to start throwing the ball.’ That’s when we started breaking all kinds of state records and stuff. So, if you see him, tell him ‘good call.’
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