Last year's ankle injury looms large for Blough as he prepares for Illini
David Blough doesn't like to watch, remember or talk about the last time he faced Illinois.
The simple reason is in his last game vs. the Fighting Illini, Blough was left laying on the Ross-Ade Stadium turf with his ankle pointed in the wrong direction, before an ambulance hauled him off. At that moment on Nov. 4, 2017, Blough says he remembers using that ambulance ride to contemplate the short-term football ramifications and long-term life implications of the significant injury.
"When football gets taken away from you, it puts everything in perspective for you," Blough said. "That being the opponent, all the emotions get flooded back."
Before he's taped up for games, the Purdue quarterback sees three scars on his right leg, reminding him of the subsequent surgery that made him wonder whether he'd played his last game. All of these thoughts are motivational factors for Purdue's quarterback as the Boilermakers travel to Champaign on Saturday (3:30 p.m., BTN) to face the Fighting Illini for the final time during Blough's college career.
"I had never watched the TV copy of that game but eventually did and after watching that, there's some things that make me want to get after Illinois," Blough said. "Any human in this situation would want to have a great game against Illinois. You treat it like it's just another game but they'll get everything I've got."
During a fourth-quarter red-zone scramble, Blough suffered a dislocated ankle, a fractured fibula and ligament damage. Blough ended that eventual 29-10 win 16-of-24 for 194 yards then celebrated from the ambulance as Elijah Sindelar threw a touchdown shortly after Blough was injured. His reaction was one of the defining moments of Purdue's season.
"I think he was probably in shock like, 'Damn, I just broke my leg,' but obviously he was probably pissed because he was playing so well," Purdue center Kirk Barron said. "I think that was the second game he was the full-time starter and you get hurt like that, it breaks your heart for a guy that worked this entire off-season. He doesn't really talk about it much."
Initially, doctors gave Blough a six-to-nine-month timetable to return to football.
But Dr. David Porter, the surgeon based at Methodist Sports Medicine in Indianapolis who performed Blough's operation and, notably, consulted on Gordon Hayward's last year, then gave Blough an updated four-month rehabilitation prognosis.
Purdue quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm said Tuesday that Blough's injury is one of two plays from the 2017 season that his position group fast-forwards through in pre-game preparations, the other being Sindelar's knee injury at Northwestern. Barron, Blough's housemate and fellow co-captain on this Purdue team, said he remembers vomiting during the whole ordeal before and after looking at Blough's disfigured ankle before it was reset on the field by Purdue's medical and training staff.
"I was so proud of David and how he seemingly got back so rapidly because prior to spring ball, he was ready to go," Purdue wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator JaMarcus Shephard said. "Every challenge that has been put in front of that young man has been met head-on. That's all you can ask for. This guy, David Blough, has a chance to be one of those special men."
Add all these bad memories to the fact the Purdue quarterback says he doesn't feel he's ever played a full, solid game against the Illini and it's natural to think this game has been circled on his calendar since Blough returned from rehab this past spring. In his last trip to Memorial Stadium, Blough was 22-of-35 for 220 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Blough's first game against the Illini included two interceptions in a 48-14 blowout loss at Ross-Ade Stadium.
In this weekend's matchup against the Illini Blough understands his current streak of limiting turnovers will be challenged as Lovie Smith's defense is known for taking away the football. The last three games, Purdue (2-3, 1-1 Big Ten) has only committed three turnovers and didn't commit a giveaway two weeks ago in its first road test at Nebraska. The Illini (3-2, 1-1) are fifth in the nation in turnover margin and have forced 10 interceptions in five games.
"They have done a good job of getting turnovers. We have to be aware of it. We were not great in practice yesterday," Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said Monday. "We threw some contested balls that would have been picked off in a game, so we have to get back to being aggressive but knowing where the outlet is and making sure that in practice, we understand and we have to practice the ball security and make sure that we're not giving the other team another opportunity to convert by turning the ball over and for us, we have to win that battle."
In his fourth and final game against the Illini, Blough would like to be remembered for leading Purdue to a critical road win and not for having his ankle mangled the previous season.
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