GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 70
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 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.
Clardie finishes the O-line with her next selection.
Draft ticker: Nos. 1-69
To finish up my O-line at the guard spot, I considered a couple guys, including more-recent graduates Jordan Roos and Jason King. But I ended up going with Robbie Powell because I like his versatility to play either guard or center — he started at both positions, one year at left guard before the last two at center — and he fits the tough-guy personality I was looking for.
Having a dude smart enough to control the line as a center at my guard spot is something I like, too, and, if needed, he could be swapped with Kugler, who also started one year at guard.
Really, though, it's about Powell's physicality, and that'll show up at either spot. He is another guy on my team who earned the "pitbull" award for tenacity from coaches.
Pretty happy with the way my line worked out, even though I largely waited until later in the draft to assemble it. It has the kind of nasty personality I wanted — and there's a bunch of talented, smart guys, too. Not a bad mix.
Now if I could just figure out which QB to select for these guys to protect ...
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