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.
I think there were two foundational quarterbacks available in this little project we're doing, and they're both gone, so I'll go with maybe the most impactful player Purdue's had who doesn't get the credit for it he deserves.
Rosevelt Colvin.
The guy was an absolute monster for Purdue in '97 and '98, a player you absolutely had to game plan for if you were an opposing offense and player who had that special knack for changing games with big plays.
This isn't just about sacks, but turnovers he caused, kicks he blocked, returns he made, the whole thing. He was one of those players that sometimes you thought there were four or five of him out there, because he seemed to be all over the place, with a distinct right-place, right-time knack. He was a special player at Purdue and a great starting point for any theoretical team to be built around.
Purdue has had a lot of great defensive ends over these past two decades, but Colvin was the original, the guy who set the blueprint and got that ball rolling.
At a time when offense was Purdue's identity, and deservedly so, Joe Tiller and Brock Spack didn't get the credit they were owed in the moment for crafting a defense ideally suited to complement that pinball-machine offense.
Knowing full well their personnel limitations in that era's Big Ten and the challenges that would exist with an offense that was as likely to punt in a minute as it was to score in a minute, Purdue went for big plays, turning loose speed off the edge in hopes of making drive-killing plays and forcing turnovers.
It worked beautifully and Colvin was the face of it.
That's what I'm hoping happens for this paper-tiger titan I'm building.
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