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 the next 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.
Neubert has Pick No. 20 ...
Draft ticker: Picks No. 1-19
Full disclosure: I really wanted Brian Alford here and figured him being 19 years removed might have made him likely to slip through.
But between Alford and my pick, John Standeford, it's a quarter in one hand, 25 cents in the other. Standeford was tremendous and will serve as an ideal complement for my slot receiver, Dorien Bryant.
Standeford came to Purdue as a meek, almost uncomfortably skinny freshman, but someone had to catch the ball from Drew Brees in 2000. There was definitely some product-of-the-system going on that year as Standeford was amazingly productive for a championship team as a raw rookie, catching 67 passes and scoring six touchdowns.
But when he left four years later, he was a grown man.
Standeford's junior season — 75 catches, 1,300-plus yards and 13 touchdowns — was the most impressive season a Purdue receiver has enjoyed during the timeframe we're working with here.
You can talk about Brees-to-Morales all you want and you should, but Orton-to-Standeford at Michigan State was pretty damn surreal.
(This isn't it, but watch it anyway.)
I'm drafting on talent and team-building considerations more than productivity, and in terms of talent Standeford showed that year, he was legit, a towering, gliding wide receiver who was as good as any receiver Purdue's had as a downfield threat and end-zone finder. It was too bad injuries limited him as a senior. But that junior season was one for the ages.
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