Monday Presser - Re-trusting the Process

Purdue football heads to Ann Arbor as a team with the wrong kind of momentum after taking a 31-14 drubbing from Nebraska on the road last Saturday.

Head coach Ryan Walters' squad is now down to four games left in the regular season, needing four wins to get to bowl eligible. A lack of complimentary football, injuries, and a young roster has Purdue sliding on the offensive side of the ball while its defense plays some of its best football of the season. The one sided improvement has Purdue's trajectory looking like a snapped see-saw as Hudson Card and the Purdue offense struggles to move the ball.

Walters job was never going to be easy in the first season. Then the injuries started mounting, and now the losses are piling up with Purdue at 2-6. Still, the Big Ten West is Big Ten Westing and Purdue is only two games out in the conference.

Winning the Big Ten is most likely out of play for Purdue, and a trip to a bowl game looks just as wishful in thinking, but Walters first season at Purdue has a chance to build real momentum going into the off season with three winnable games to finish the 2023 campaign.

After this Michigan game.

Purdue's offensive struggles start at the top.

Hudson Card hasn't been himself. The transfer from Texas started off the season matching his billing as one of the best transfer QB's in the portal, but Card's stacked his three worst performances on top of each other after Purdue's win against Illinois.

At Iowa, Card already struggling from an injury against Illinois was sacked 6 times. He looked tentative in the back field, held onto the ball too long, and when he did let it fly, it found Iowa's hands too often. He was 25 of 40 in the game and threw two interceptions.

At Ohio State, Card avoided turnovers but took 3 more sacks and completed just 13 of 32 passes. The bye week couldn't have come at a better time for the Quarterback. Card's body still wasn't right and the week off gave himself time to heal and to look like himself again.

It didn't help. Card was 16 of 32, moved the ball just 100 yards in the air, and threw two more interceptions. He still looked tentative. He was still holding onto the ball too long.

It was clear, Card's play wasn't just the reaction to physical ailments. Through Purdue's toughest stretch of the season he looked like a quarterback who had lost confidence.

It's a problem that's plaguing Purdue as a whole. One that Walters said he addressed with Card this weekend.

"You've gotta go back and reset, refocus, and re-trust the plan, your teammates, your own ability," Walters said at his Monday press conference. "I was talking to Hudson, 'You know every snap you've got to trust that you're gonna get protected. You gotta trust that the receiver is gonna run the right route and they're gonna be at the right depth. Then you've gotta trust in your arm and deliver accordingly. And if you throw a pick that play, or you get hit that play, or the receiver's not in the right spot that play, the next snap you've got to re-trust that all those things are going to happen.' If we do that, we'll have a chance to continue to improve. If we don't, we're gonna the same results."

The same results has Purdue's offense as 175th in the national in scoring average, and Card as one of the least efficient Quarterbacks in the Big Ten. He's tenth in the Big Ten in passing yards per attempt while being second in the conference with 7 interceptions. His completion percentage has also dipped below 60% on the season.

But the full weight of Purdue's offensive collapse doesn't fall just on Card, nor is there a part of Purdue's team not culpable in its 2-6 start.

Walters and his entire team have already sat down together and watched the entire Nebraska game.

"We sat in and watched the game in its entirety as a full team. Staff, players, coaches alike," Ryan Walters said about his team's Sunday. "And really talked through every play. The good, the bad, the ugly."

Walters looks like a Head Coach unaccustomed to losing, and though there's a handful of excuses for his staff, players, and team to make, he's not having it. He expected more from his guys coming out of the bye week.

"We need to improve," he said flatly. "It was maddening Saturday to come off a bye week and put forth that type of performance as a team."

Unfortunately, Purdue's next test will come up against a Michigan team whose sign-stealing scandal is overshadowing the Wolverines' dominance on the football field.

Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh finally addressed the investigation earlier today, but his comments don't provide much insight or responsibility ahead of Michigan's game with Purdue.

"You just have to let it play out," Harbaugh said Monday. "Cooperate with the investigation and see how it plays out. Too much of a one-track mind with the team to engage with all the speculation."

For Ryan Walters, his remarks were equally succinct though perhaps not as dismissive as the old ball coach up in Michigan.

"We're very aware of what allegations are out there," Walters said Monday. "And we'll plan accordingly."

But scandal or not, stolen signs or not, Michigan has an advantage at almost every level on the field. Michigan has yet to be challenged this year after a cupcake non-conference schedule, the Wolverines rolled through Rutgers, Nebraska, Minnesota, IU, and Michigan State before heading into a bye week to prepare for Purdue.

Michigan is outscoring opponents 325-47 on the season and has given up a season-high 10 points just once in the season.

Walters summed up Michigan's dominance this way, "Yes, they have really good players, but they also have really good scheme on offense, defense, and special teams."

The investigation into Michigan continues, and it and Ohio State stands as the only real obstacles in the Wolverines way of potentially bringing a National Championship back to the Big Ten.

As for Purdue, frankly, it's just trying to show some improvement on Saturday, and trust in each other. A win, on the road, at Ann Arbor, against this good of a team would be a high-mark for any coach, but there's a big stretch between winning this game and just looking like a better team that Ryan Walters will hope his Boilers land in.

That starts and ends with his team playing complimentary football on both ends of the field.

Mostly, he wants to see a Purdue team with some grit.

"I want to see guys fighting to go win a ball game and not waiting to see what happens," Walters said Monday.