GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 23
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.
Charters selects at No. 23 ...
Draft ticker: No. 1-22
Few attacked and hit harder from middle linebacker than Niko Koutouvides.
And fewer can match his two-year production as the Boilermakers' starter at Mike, when he had 222 tackles, 17 for loss, 5.5 sacks and five interceptions in 2002-03. Purdue hasn't had a middle 'backer with that type of output since for a career, let alone over only two years. After his senior year, he was named first-team All-Big Ten.
Koutouvides is yet another of the '03 Purdue team, arguably the best of the last 20 years, who is on my team, joining Kyle Orton, Nick Hardwick and Shaun Phillips. Not sure that I've exactly intended to do that, but it's how it's happened. And not a bad thing; those four were some of the most critical to Purdue's success that season, ending just short of 10 wins with an overtime loss in the Capital One Bowl.
Koutouvides was in the middle of all of it. A great athlete at 6-foot-2, 240-pounds, he had few holes in his ability, capable of playing in the passing game — he had 12 pass breakups, plus the five picks as a junior and senior — but even better at disrupting the running game by getting sideline to sideline. His 11.5 TFLs in 2002 led the Boilermakers, a somewhat ridiculous number for a middle linebacker.
Although I have only two defenders on my team so far, I like the direction its heading.
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