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.
Charters has Pick No. 15 ...
Draft ticker: Picks No. 1-14
Before Dustin Keller arrived at Purdue, he had been skinny two-star wide receiver at Jefferson High School.
That's not what he was as a Boilermaker, however.
The local product developed into one of Purdue's biggest offensive play-makers of the last 20 years, turning himself into a major pass-catching option in his final two seasons at Purdue in 2006-07. In those two years, the 6-foot-2, 255-pounder had 124 receptions for 1,652 yards and 11 touchdowns. As a senior, he was second-team All-Big Ten and a Mackey Award semi-finalist.
He was a stud.
And the combination of Keller's deep-threat ability with Kyle Orton's arm gives my offense, only four picks into our draft, the chance to keep any defense on its heels. Keller was a matchup nightmare, too fast for linebackers to keep up with — he was a half-step slow as a collegiate wide receiver but a half-step fast as a tight end — and too strong for cornerbacks and many safeties.
Even if he wasn't catching passes, he put a strain on the middle of the field for defenses, pushing up the seams and opening up underneath for others. Dorien Bryant is good in his own right certainly, but helped too by Keller's occupying of other defenders in the middle of the defense.
My offense — and it's odd how this has turned out, since I'm generally more defense-focused — is likely to be built around the long-ball, with Keller giving it a huge weapon.
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