GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 3
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 day over the next 10 weeks. Boilermakers who were on the Purdue roster between 1997-2017 are eligible for selection. The draft order is Alan Karpick, Stacy Clardie, Kyle Charters and Brian Neubert.
With the third overall pick, Charters selects:
Through the weekend, I had my eyes set elsewhere for my first pick, but as much as I wanted to go defense — or offensive line — I couldn't get away from quarterback.
Kyle Orton might not be the third-best player available over the last 20 years of Purdue football, but he is my choice for a couple reasons: 1) He was really, really good at his peak, perhaps better even than Drew Brees. Those first five games of his senior season in 2004 were as good as any quarterback ever, putting him at the top of most Heisman Trophy lists. 2) And the gap between Orton and the next-best quarterback at Purdue since '97 is significant.
So Orton is the selection at 3.
Great teams are built around great QBs. And Orton, a preseason third-team All-American before his senior year, was fantastic in the 2004 season, throwing for 3,090 yards with 31 touchdowns and only five interceptions, even though he was banged up much of the middle of the schedule and missed two games entirely with injury. No one in the NCAA was better for the first five weeks. Orton started '04 by throwing 18 touchdowns and only two interceptions with 1,642 yards in the first five weeks, helping Purdue to a No. 5 ranking in the country.
Then, the fumble happened. (But let's not talk about that).
And a week later, Orton injured his hip in a loss to Michigan. One of the toughest players to play QB for the Boilermakers — he missed only a series vs. Georgia in the Capital One Bowl the year before, while having a dislocated finger reset in the locker room — the 6-foot-4, 225-pounder never wanted to leave the field. But he sat for two games, as Purdue's season continued its unexpected slide. But Orton was back in the last regular-season game to lead Purdue to a win over Indiana, when he threw for 522 yards, then in the Sun Bowl vs. Arizona State.
Orton is a winner — and that's the goal here — capable of guiding this All-Star team to a make-believe 12-0 record. He is the only quarterback in Purdue history to take the Boilermakers to four consecutive bowl games. Orton won big with the '03 squad, which went to the Capital One Bowl; that was arguably the Boilermakers' most-talented group of the last 20 years, coming within a blink of a 10-win season.
With Brees and Orton off the board in our draft, it's likely that Brian and Stacy will wait for their quarterbacks. Who will be the next to go? And when?
Membership Information: 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.