Four freshmen among move for more depth for Purdue

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As expected, Purdue added more freshmen to its list of contributors this season.

In the win over the Bobcats, the three rookie linebackers — Derrick Barnes, Cornel Jones and Tobias Larry — played significantly on special teams. Barnes and Larry were on all four (kickoff, kick return, punt and punt return), while Jones was on three, taking a break on punts.

The emergence of the three freshmen linebackers was part of a Jeff Brohm plan to go deeper into his roster. Purdue did so on the offensive line in particular, rotating in guards Bearooz Yacoobi and Mike Mendez.

And the Boilermakers tried to work in newcomer receivers Isaac Zico, Corey Holmes and Terry Wright, who finished the game with 30-yards receiving and nine rushing.

The Boilermakers also played defensive tackle Keiwan Jones for likely his most career snaps; he started in place of Eddy Wilson and had two tackles. His play was helpful with fellow interior D-lineman Lorenzo Neal suspended for the first half.

Freshman tight end Darius Pittman also got onto the field late, after Purdue’s 44-21 win had been decided.

“We did play more guys,” Brohm said. “We were able to rotate the offensive line early in the game. And the other guys came in and did a good job from what I saw from the sideline, so it was good to keep certain guys fresh and add competition.

“We played a few more receivers early on and had a few drops, so they’ve got to fight their way through that. But they came back, responded. You’ve got to get their feet wet. We have a lot of guys, believe it or not, on offense that haven’t played a whole lot, so you’ve got to hang with them, let you know you believe in them, let them know you’re going to put them back out there. I think all of our guys responded. We’ll be able to improve upon this. Playing more guys helps the morale of the team, and really that’s what we want. If it was up to us, we’d play as many as we can and rotate them in here and be very aggressive with it.”

Between Sunday and Friday’s kickoff, more than 13,000 tickets were sold to the Ohio game, boosting attendance to 45,633.

It created a good atmosphere under the new permanent lights at Ross-Ade Stadium, particularly with the events of earlier in the day. Purdue had also held the dedication to its new football performance complex.

“Our players thoroughly enjoy where they house themselves right now,” Brohm said. “I know I do. It’s tremendous. When you play at home, you have to try to make that an advantage for you.

“And tonight, as you guys saw, the fans turned out. There was tremendous student support. I looked up in the first half, back behind me, and I had no idea there was that many people there but there was. They were into the game. And when you have that turnout, it makes you feel good as coaches and players and makes you want to work a little bit harder.”

QB David Blough was appreciative.

“It was phenomenal,” he said. “You look up and you see your own student body supporting you, wanting to see the football program turnaround. Then you see all the (donors) at the luncheon this afternoon and all the people who supported the new building and the fan turnout for a Friday night game under the lights, man, we’ve been dying for it."

Purdue can feel better about its special teams on Friday than it did less than a week ago.

Granted, Ohio executed a first-half fake punt for a first down, but otherwise the Boilermakers were clean on teams.

Joe Schopper again had an excellent day, averaging 50 yards on three punts — he didn’t have to make any tackles — while J.D. Dellinger and Spencer Evans combined to make all three of Purdue’s field goal attempts. Evans had seven touchbacks in eight attempts, equaling Purdue’s total for the whole season last year.

Ohio had only 50 yards of returns on three attempts.

“I think I noticed the ability to cover a little bit better,” Brohm said. “I thought we had some young guys step in there and do a decent job, from what I saw from the sideline. Obviously, you don’t want to give up the fake punt, but we’ve kicked it through the endzone a lot, we’re covering fairly well. We’re going to get better.

“Coach (Tony) Levine and our guys coach extremely hard and we take a lot of pride on special teams. We want to work hard to improve. We want to be creative with it. I think we’ll continue to get better.”

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