GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 37
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's 10th player chosen is ...
Draft ticker: Nos. 1-36
Drew Brees and Vinny Sutherland.
It was a lethal combination in the Big Ten, especially in 1999 and 2000, and it was too good of an opportunity for me to pass up when the fleet receiver was still on the board for my 10th pick.
What Sutherland lacked in height, standing barely 5-foot-9, he made up for in explosiveness. He started making plays as a true freshman with Billy Dicken at quarterback, taking advantage of the bubble screen that Boilermaker opponents struggled to defend early in Coach Joe Tiller's tenure in West Lafayette. His career lagged a bit in 1998 but took a leap forward in his junior season when he was on the receiving end of the longest play you can have in college football, a 99-yard touchdown reception that helped Brees and the Boilermakers escape an upset at the hands of Northwestern.
But his senior year in 2000 was his best by far. He became Brees' go-to guy on the outside, earning All-Big Ten honors and becoming the only Boilermaker in history to catch a touchdown pass in a Rose Bowl. And he caught two, including the game-tying 25-yarder from Brees that pulled Purdue to a 17-all tie early in the third quarter against Washington.
Sutherland and Dorien Bryant were the two fastest receivers Purdue has had in the last 20 years. Bryant may have been a bit more productive and didn't have the benefit of playing with Brees. But if Sutherland was second, he was a close second.
With Joey Harris and Sutherland, my offense won't lack for speed on the outside. Any in this hypothetical situation, Brees would put both guys to work in ways that would be hard to defend.
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