GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 25
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.
Karpick is up with the first pick of the seventh round.
Draft ticker: Picks No. 1-24
Gilbert Gardner is a guy that good teams are built around.
He was tenacious as evidenced by multiple selections of the Pit Bull Award given after spring football for tenacity, and a team leader recognized by his peers for unselfishness and dedication (Leonard Wilson Award). And he could make big plays.
Gardner overcame a position change as a freshman from receiver to linebacker and subsequently earned a spot on Rivals.com freshman All-American team as a key contributor on the Boilermakers' magical Rose Bowl team. He broke his leg late in the sophomore season, and rebounded the next year to make THE big play with a scoop and score in the Boilermakers' furious second half rally to defeat Washington in the 2002 Sun Bowl.
He just always seemed to be around the football. And despite his 233-pound frame, he was never afraid to stick his nose into things as both an outside and middle linebacker.
Which brings me to why I picked him. Gardner played in the middle as a freshman before Niko Koutouvides blossomed, and he played on the outside for most of the rest of his time at Purdue. He did both well.
Gardner gives me options on defense, and if you can't tell by now, I like having guys that can play more than one place. Because it is hard to know how this will all shake out as my colleagues continue to pick Purdue's best players over the next few weeks.
And if you can err on the side of having an effort guy willing to play multiple spots, I like my chances of having him be productive.
Membership Info: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?
Follow GoldandBlack.com: Twitter | Facebook
More: Gold and Black Illustrated/Gold and Black Express | Subscribe to our podcast
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2017. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.