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 the next 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.
With the next selection, Clardie chooses ...
Draft ticker: Picks No. 1-13
Perhaps there is a better interior defensive linemen in Purdue's last 20 years than Kawann Short, but it'd be a tough argument to present.
After coming to Purdue as an out-of-shape 340-pounder who was unable to play with a consistent motor, Short left as one of the program's most productive, durable players. He was good for several reasons, but perhaps none more important than his incredible athleticism, which went well with brute strength.
Of all the impressive statistics Short amassed in his Purdue career — he ranks No. 8 all-time with 49 tackles for loss and among those is 19.5 career sacks, which also rank No. 8 overall — the most telling of his incredible talent may have been his school-record six blocked field goals and 15 pass breakups. Short's quickness and athleticism didn't only allow him to swim past guards and centers, it helped him elevate quickly to get his hands on passes and kicks.
The combination of the athleticism and power consistently overwhelmed opponents, and Short was a two-time first-team all-Big Ten player, getting selected as a junior and senior after being a second-team pick as a sophomore.
Another reason I appreciate Short: When I was preparing for a big feature on him for our magazine before his senior year, I spoke with his sister for the story and found out his name was not pronounced the way everyone had been pronouncing it for four years. (Phonetics was the only class I actually dropped in college, so this probably won't be correct but ...) People were saying it "Kuh-wahn" when it was actually "Kay-wahn." He had never bothered to correct anybody. This was a guy who likely was going into a season in which he was going to be a high NFL draft pick. I told him it was probably time people started getting it right, and he, begrudgingly it seemed, said OK, so I wrote a separate, small story on how to actually say his name. Fortunately, lots of people call him by his nickname ("KK") anyway. But I thought it said a lot about the kind of guy he is and how he views himself. Though I think he knew going into his final season, especially, that he was one of the better players at his position in the country, he never seemed to take that status for granted or expect anything because of it. He just did his job, flashed that shy smile when he'd talk about his monster games afterward and move on.
Oh, and just because this is my pick and in this space I can say whatever I want, one of my most cherished times on this job was being present at Short's draft party. To hear a room erupt in screams and cheers when he was selected in the second round by the Panthers, seeing how happy he was to share the moment with his family and close friends (like E'Twaun Moore, who he won a state basketball championship with at East Chicago, and Albert Evans, who became one of his best friends while they were teammates at Purdue) and having him getting emotional even talking about the moment afterward, such a blessing.
He's of my favorites, for sure.
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