10/15/2018 football Edit

Notebook: Jeff Brohm's weekly media conference

Matt Stevens • BoilerUpload

Staff

Monday, with his team coming off a blowout win at Illinois and moving on to a visit from second-ranked Ohio State, Jeff Brohm met with the local media for his weekly press conference.

Some notables from what he he said ...

• Brohm said he's "hopeful" senior tight end Cole Herdman could be available this weekend as Purdue hosts No. 2 Ohio State (7:30 p.m., ABC). The fifth-year senior was held out of the 46-7 win at Illinois due to what Brohm has called "stringers" over the last few weeks. Herdman has been held without a catch in Big Ten play this season, but has long been considered one of the offense's most important pieces, along with fellow tight end Brycen Hopkins. In his absence Saturday, sophomore Darius Pittman played 34 snaps and junior Jess Trussell played three snaps with a wrap on his right hand.

• Brohm seems drastically less encouraged about the idea of getting junior fullback Richie Worship (ACL recovery) back from last season's knee injury this season but declined Monday to rule him out for the remainder of the 2018 season.

"All things are on the table and we'll be smart about it," Brohm said. "We'll talk to him about it as soon as we get to that point."

• Brohm said that not getting backup quarterback Elijah Sindelar in the game late during the blowout win at Illinois was a situation where the coaching wanted "to make sure he's fully healed and ready to go before we put him in" and maintained the junior would be the first option off the bench if something were to happen to David Blough.

"We feel very good about Elijah and I have all the confidence in the world that he can be a productive quarterback and he has been for us and he will again," Brohm said. "There's no lack of confidence in Elijah. If given another opportunity, he can be ready to go and perform at a high level. Everybody struggled throughout the beginning of the year (including) myself, our whole team and I think when he gets back in, he'll do a great job for us."

- Blough confirmed the trick play on a fake reverse where Jared Sparks threw a touchdown pass to David Blough is called "Six Pack."

"Sometimes with certain plays you just have one-word names, code names and we've actually had that one in for years as a coach," Brohm said. "I think we've really only ran it one other time before and ran something off it one other time. On this one, we practiced it, got the look we wanted and it worked the way it is supposed to."

• Brohm on the possibility of fans changing the "IU SUCKS" chant to "CANCER SUCKS" in honor of Tyler Trent: "I'm all for our fans and what they want to do. The Tyler Trent situation is dear to us and he continues to fight the fight with courage and energy. We're hopeful he can get to the game and see what they can do for him."

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