GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 31
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 protects the blindside at No. 31 ...
Draft ticker: No. 1-30
I'm more than pleased to get Purdue's second-best left tackle, and not only that but get him at No. 31 in our 100-player draft.
The pick has great value.
And so does Mike Otto. The 6-foot-5, 304-pounder started 50 games as a Boilermaker from 2003-2006, becoming second-team All-Big Ten as a senior. He was about as steady a player could be, not flashy but extremely efficient, and that's what is desired in a blind-side blocker.
Otto wasn't a top prospect out of Maconaquah High School, only a two-star recruit by Rivals.com, and he came to Purdue weighing only 245 pounds. But it didn't take the Bunker Hill native long to make an impact. After redshirting, Otto was in the mix to earn a starting job after receiving Purdue's most improved award in the spring. He won it, then was named a freshman All-American.
Otto never missed a game, starting 13 as a freshman, 12 as a sophomore, 11 as a junior and 14 as a senior. He spent the first couple years blocking for Kyle Orton, and will do so again for my All-Star team. Can't argue much with that combination.
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