Advertisement
football Edit

GoldandBlack.com's 20-year Purdue player draft: Pick No. 90

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 completes her backfield with a fiery, efficient QB.

Perhaps the signature moment of Joey Elliott's career came against Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2009.
Perhaps the signature moment of Joey Elliott's career came against Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2009. (Tom Campbell)
Advertisement

Draft ticker: Nos. 1-89

As soon as Kyle took Kyle Orton with the third overall pick in this draft, I knew who my quarterback was going to be. Selecting him this late — with only a couple rounds to go — is not an indication of his worth.

Joey Elliott was going to be my guy over Curtis Painter, over Billy Dicken and over Robert Marve for a couple reasons.

No. 1, the way he played the position. Elliott wasn't the most physically skilled guy out of the "others" QB group — not including Drew Brees and Orton — but he was incredibly smart and understood his limitations well enough that he was going to be efficient and effective. That's who he was during his only full season as a starting QB in 2009: When Purdue nearly had a 3,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard receiver and 1,000-yard rusher for the first time in school history.

No. 2, his personality. Hard not to love Elliott's moxie. He was straight-forward with his teammates, expecting a lot but also holding himself to a high standard, and led with his heart. He was confident in his abilities, didn't care who said otherwise, and enjoyed every minute of his opportunity. He had a fire in him that Painter, for one, never did.

I remember talking to Elliott in a hallway at Northwestern in 2008, after he'd separated his shoulder in the game — he opted to take a safety head-on because he wanted to get a first down — and you could just feel the disappointment oozing out him. He knew it was a missed opportunity. Perhaps a solid game there could have meant he'd finish the season as the starter — he was in because Painter had gotten yanked. But he knew there wasn't anything he could do and said he wasn't going to "mope" about himself: The focus needed to be on picking up his teammates, improving for the next week. That's the type of leader he was.

He was also a pretty good player.

That 2008 experienced sharpened him for his turn as a senior in 2009.

And he came back ready, strong and intent to lead.

Maybe no game better showcased all the reasons I wanted Elliott as my QB than the one at Michigan that year. Elliott not only threw for a career-high 367 yards with two TDs, but he also ran for another score, leading the Boilermakers to their first victory in Ann Arbor since 1966.

Purdue didn't get to a bowl game that season — a devastating succession of four consecutive losses by two, seven, three and six early in the year and then a three-point loss late to Michigan State sealed it — but Elliott finished with 3,026 yards passing, 22 touchdowns and completed 62 percent of his passes.

Membership Info: 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.

Advertisement