Number Crunching: Week 1

Here's our eclectic look at 10 numbers that are surrounding Purdue football this week;

Purdue received eight votes in the most recent AP Top 25 poll. The last time Purdue was ranked or received votes was in 2007 when it not only received votes but was ranked 23rd in the Sept. 30 poll. Six days later, Purdue was beaten by Ohio State 23-7 and fell out of the polls and hasn't been ranked since. The Boilermakers currently hold the longest streak of being unranked among all Power 5 schools.

In the Jeff Brohm Era, Purdue has held Big Ten opponents to a field goal or less in the second half six times. Purdue held Iowa to three points in the game's final 30 minutes last week. The Boilers only did so once last year holding Maryland scoreless in the second half during its 40-14 win over the Terps on Oct. 12.

Alexander Horvath has rushed for 125+ yards in two consecutive games. Two years ago, D.J. Knox did the same against Illinois and Ohio State. Before that, you have to jump all the way back to 2000, when Montrell Lowe hid the mark against Michigan and Northwestern.

Along those same lines, Purdue is 21-5 in Big Ten games where they have a running back gain over 125 yards rushing.

Since 2000, the typically disciplined Iowa has only been penalized for 100+ yards eight times, the most recent before this weekend being in 2018 against Indiana. Iowa was penalized 10 times for 100 yards against Purdue, while the Boilermakers were called for three infractions totaling just 21 yards.

David Bell put on a show against Iowa, and his 13 catches for 121 yards and three touchdowns have only been matched once this season (by Jaelon Darden of North Texas). Such stats have only been surpassed 58 times since 2000, and only once by a Boilermaker - Taylor Stubblefield, )who wore jersey No. 21) in a 63-24 win in 2004 against Indiana (14 catches, 138 yards, three TDs). Bell's last four games: 48 receptions, 480 yards, 6 TDs (12 rpg / 120 ypg).

Brooks Cormier's performance against Iowa makes him only the fifth Purdue punter and the first since Joe Schopper in 2015 to average 47.5+ yards per punt on at least six attempts in a game.

Iowa's Spencer Petras' 56.4% completion percentage is the lowest against an opposing QB since Purdue held two different TCU QBs combined to complete less than 40 percent in Week 3 of the 2019 season, nine games earlier.

Not only is Aidan O'Connell the first former walk-on quarterback to ever start an opening game (heck is the only former walk-on QB to EVER start a game at Purdue in the Modern Era), but he is also the first quarterback to wear No. 16 to start a season opener for the Boilermakers dating back to Len Dawson in 1956. This week, we will be researching how O'Connell's three fourth quarter come-from-behind wins stacks up among other Purdue quarterbacks in the last 50 years.

According to the Purdue Football Record book, the smallest crowd on record to see a home Purdue football game in Ross-Ade Stadum was the 8,000 fans that witnessed Purdue's 21-14 win over Wabash on Oct. 9, 1926. The official attendance for Saturday's game was 900.

Griffin Herdegen, is a former GoldandBlack.com intern who now works as a financial analyst for Amazon.com and lives in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

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