McCann to get Day 1 nod at right tackle; Big Ten media day notebook

CHICAGO — When Purdue’s No. 1 offense trots out onto the practice field on Aug. 4 for its first training camp snap, redshirt freshman Matt McCann will be the right tackle.

Though McCann didn’t start taking first-team reps until late in the spring — Bearooz Yacoobi was the first option there before McCann replaced him — he did enough to impress Coach Darrell Hazell to get the nod on Day 1. Perhaps the biggest twist, though, in one of camp’s fiercest position battles is that fifth-year senior Cameron Cermin may not be the No. 2 option.

Hazell mentioned junior college transfer Jalen Neal as a factor at right tackle before mentioning Cermin, whom he said would bounce around between tackle and center. Cermin has starting experience at both tackle spots, and he played injured at left tackle to end last season. That injury — a shoulder — had to be surgerically repaired after the season, knocking Cermin out of spring ball. And giving McCann a chance to get first-team reps and, apparently, seize momentum.

“We’ll have a good battle there,” Hazell said at Big Ten media day. “I like how Jalen is moving this summer. But Matt had a really good spring those last few days. (Cermin) has got to get back and be healthy and then be productive once he does get back. But it’ll probably be a three-man battle between those guys.”

Perhaps just as important as figuring out a starting right tackle in camp is finding a starting cornerback, and Hazell said Purdue has plenty of options there opposite Da’Wan Hunte. But someone must emerge.

It’s likely Tim Cason will start at the spot on Day 1 of camp, Hazell said. Cason was the “starter” on Day 1 of spring ball, too, but didn’t end there.

“He’s a bigger body who can move,” Hazell said. “He doesn’t have great speed, but if he can play with good technique, he’ll be able to compensate for the lack of top-end speed. He’s got pretty good quickness.”

No. 1 receiver DeAngelo Yancey said Hunte typically has lined up opposite him this summer in 7-on-7 work, but Cason also has been eager to get snaps against Purdue’s go-to receiver.

Cason has impressed with his strength — Yancey called him one of the strongest players on the team, especially in his lower body — but he needs to match those physical skill sets to consistency and production on the field

“He’s physically gifted to do it,” Yancey said of Cason. “We just need him to do it.”

Yancey spent the summer after his most productive college season working to become the absolute best version of himself for Year 4.

What'd that look like?

Other than getting his body "right" by trimming fat and being the leanest he's ever been, gaining muscle and getting faster, he honed in on perhaps his biggest weakness: Gaining yards after the catch. The latter was an emphasis for the entire group of receivers in the spring, but it's an area Yancey especially targeted with work that continued in the summer.

It was about having better balance, being strong enough to fight off tackles and limiting horizontal running. Everything is about getting vertical, an element worked on by avoiding medicine balls rolled at their feet, making quick movements on the bag.

Another thing that could help with YAC: Being faster than the dudes covering him. Yancey says he's made strides there, too, though he may be, uh, boasting — to say it nicely — when he said he's in the 4.3 speed category. Brandon Roberts, Malcolm Dotson and Jarrett Burgess are in the clocked fastest-guys-on-the-team group. (Freshman Brian Lankford-Johnson could soon join that company.)

"We do speed workouts in the summer every Monday. We have three or four 4.3 guys on the team, and my name was first on that list and under me was three 4.3 guys. So that obviously makes me a 4.3 guy, right?" Yancey said, smiling.

Regardless of the validity of that statement, Yancey clearly had a good summer.

"I’m just ready to play now," he said.

• Maybe it’s not the most important name missing from Purdue’s roster entering training camp, but walk-on Alex Hilger’s absence is significant in a way. He was one of the team’s best special teams players, especially as a gunner on punt coverage, but he’s no longer an option. He’s not on the team, Hazell said.

“I think he’s going to be in school. He’s got some academic work to finish up,” Hazell said.

When asked about filling Hilger’s role, Hazell said, “We coach the guys we have.”

• Hazell called Purdue’s linebackers the team’s most-talented group. And yet it’s likely only two will be on the field the bulk of the games. With a substitution defense that will switch personnel on each play depending on the offense’s personnel, the Boilermakers could play primarily nickel. In that case, Ja’Whaun Bentley and Danny Ezechukwu would be the two linebackers on the first with the first-team, Hazell said Monday. But what does that mean for former starter Jimmy Herman and rising youngster Markus Bailey?

“You’ll see Jimmy and Bailey in that second group,” Hazell said, referencing the nickel. “Markus Bailey, I think, is maybe one of the most talented young guys on our football team right now. He is really a good player.”

Hazell said Bailey has applied for a medical hardship waiver after tearing an ACL last season but has yet to be approved, though that’d seem to be mere formality.

• Much has been made of new coordinator Terry Malone's simplifying the offense, per Hazell's directives. Why'd that matter?

"I thought we were coaching over their heads at times over the last couple years," said Hazell, whose previous coordinator and QB coach was NFL-bred John Shoop. "I thought we needed to coach to them, which has helped us a lot."

• Expect Purdue to spend a day on another campus this camp, similar to what it has done the last two seasons. Not that Hazell confirmed it, exactly. At least not with his words, though a broad smile seemed to lock it down.

"We may," Hazell said. "(People) may find out the week that we may go."

More Big Ten media day coverage: One newcomer out, another work to do ($) | Another camp, another QB 'competition' | Colmery recovering well from brain surgery | Hazell, Replogle, Yancey Video from Big Ten media day

More: Countdown to Camp series

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