GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 74
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.
Grabbing another outside, playmaking receiver is next on Clardie's list.
Draft ticker: Nos. 1-73
Appreciate Alan whiffing on his receiver pick, going with one-game-claim-to-fame Selwyn Lymon, so I could snatch Aaron Valentin as my third receiver here.
Valentin was only at Purdue for two seasons after transferring from junior college, but in his senior season in 2009, he provided a key weapon for Joey Elliott and an offense that was explosive.
Valentin's size-speed combination meant he was a big-play-capable guy, and Elliott took advantage of that, connecting with Valentin for seven touchdowns in 2009. Valentin caught 59 passes for 621 yards, providing a nice complement to leading 1,000-yard receiver Keith Smith. Valentin was a guy who not only could use his size to box-out smaller DBs to make plays on the ball but also was athletic and agile enough to make guys miss in the open field. (That showed up as a return man, too, especially on a highlight-reel TD against a not-to-be-named Mid-American Conference team.)
I like the idea of a pair of bigger, physical but still-athletic receivers on the outside to allow Taylor Stubblefield and Tim Stratton to rule the middle. And I love the idea of having a versatile offense, being able to run different looks out of maybe unexpected groupings, so don't be surprised if I'm not quite done with pass-catching/blocking options.
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