GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: No. 65
To help commemorate the 20-year anniversary of Purdue's magical turnaround 1997 season, GoldandBlack.com's staff will break up the rosters and select the best players to wear a Boilermaker uniform since Coach Joe Tiller's first season on the sidelines.
GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft will have 100 players chosen — two picks each weekday over 10 weeks. Boilermakers who were on Purdue rosters between 1997-2017 are eligible for selection. The draft order is Alan Karpick, Stacy Clardie, Kyle Charters and Brian Neubert.
Karpick likes this somewhat unsung addition to his all-star team.
Draft ticker: Nos. 1-64
If you would have blinked, you might have missed him. After all, this junior college transfer missed most of his junior year at Purdue due to injury. But, as a senior, Billy Gustin was near the top of the list for productivity, as far as safeties go, in the best two decades of Purdue football.
In Joe Tiller's first season in 1997, Gustin earned a starting nod but broke his clavicle in three places in the ill-fated season-opening loss at Toledo. He returned for the final handful of games in '97 and contributed, with 14 tackles and an interception, but he was never up to full speed.
But Gustin got it going in '98.
The Ft. Lauderdale native, who played at Georgia Military Junior College, had a team-high four picks in '98 and led the team with 18 pass breakups (the highest single-season total in the last 20 years). I hadn't forgotten the combined 100-yard pick-six he had with Michael Hawthorne where Gustin carried it the final 35 yards after receiving a lateral from his teammate in a early-season win over Central Florida. His great speed at the free safety position was on display on that record-setter, but he also had good size (6-2, 203). And he could bring pressure from the position, something that complements my defense, which has great speed on the edge.
Purdue was not blessed with tons of choices at the safety position, so to get a guy with the talent Gustin possessed this late game is a great thing for my defense.
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