Jeff Brohm: 'Now it's about going out there and cutting it loose'

The practices are finished. The film has been watched. The weights have been lifted. It’s time for Purdue to open the season on Saturday night in Ross-Ade Stadium at 7 p.m. ET vs. Oregon State.

“I think we definitely had a good week of practice,” said Jeff Brohm on Thursday. “I think our guys are ready to play a different opponent and get out there in front of our fans and showcase what we're all about. I know they've put in a lot of hard work. This is something that's been worked upon since the end of the game last year in January and a lot of time has been spent and now it's about going out there and cutting it loose.”

Purdue is looking to get back to a bowl for the first time since the 2018 season. And it will do so with junior Jack Plummer at quarterback. He won a training camp battle for the job, the first time Plummer will open a season as the Boilermakers’ No. 1 signal-caller. He has started nine career games.

“Well, Jack has worked extremely hard" said Brohm, who expects to have a healthy team on Saturday night. "He wants to do well, he wants to please his teammates, he wants to perform well. He prepares very vigorously and spends a lot of time understanding exactly what the opponent is doing. He's worked a lot on his game in the offseason. He wants to be a leader ... "

In the offseason, Brohm re-made his defense, hiring a new staff, adding multiple transfers and installing a base 4-3 scheme that will focus on being aggressive.

"I want to see what I've seen in practice," said Brohm. "I think we've had some good days. I think we've done some good things. Going against a different opponent, they've got to trust their instincts and the preparation to go out there and play aggressive. I feel like we've spent a lot of time putting the package together, getting everyone up to speed, some new players here and there, getting in there, but they've gotten plenty repetitions. Now, they got to go out there and trust the call, play fast and play together."

Purdue will face an Oregon State team also looking to make its mark, coming off a 2-5 season. The Beavers have a veteran offensive line, deep unit of wideouts and good tight ends, but the defense has some concerns.

"Well, I think Oregon State, if you watch them on film, you can tell that their head coach (Jonathan Smith) played at Oregon State, takes a lot of pride in representing his school, his team and they play hard," said Brohm. "They've been very close in a lot of games. They want to turn the corner just like a lot of programs do, but they are close ..."

Brohm said former Boilermaker quarterback great Jim Everett will speak to the team on Friday night. Brohm does not have any special pregame words for this squad, but he knows the importance of this opener.

"You always want to get off to a good start," said Brohm. "And, you know, so we know the importance of this game. Playing at home is important for us. We want to try to win our home games and we want to try to get off to a bang. It's a 12-game season. So, we're not going to put any more on this game in any other game. We realize that, win or lose, we've got to come back and win the next week and same thing the next week. But, yes, we want to play well, we want to see kind of how we stack up and measure up, what things we need to work on and improve upon.

"But I just want our guys to play hard. I want them to play aggressive in all three segments of the game. If they are doing that and they're playing together, whatever the score is, we'll handle and move on to the next game."

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