Old National Presents: Six who moved the needle in 2017

The year 2017 was a pretty good one for Purdue athletics, especially in its two highest profile sports of football and men's basketball. And Wednesday night's momentous win at the Foster Farms Bowl served as icing on the cake, and forced us to adjust our list a bit due to the incredible drama in the game.

There were lots of contributors and lots of things that had to go right for it all to work as it did. Yet, when you boil it all down, there are six people who arguably moved the need the most for the Boilermakers to have that memorable year. So without further adieu, and in alphabetical order, here is our Gold and Black sextet of difference-makers.

It would be hard to have a better year than Mike Bobinski did.

He hired the right guy in football coach Jeff Brohm in the last month of 2016, but when the calendar turned to 2017, things started to happen.

A basketball guy at heart, he presided over Purdue's 23rd Big Ten basketball crown, and watched it get done in Mackey Arena against arch-rival Indiana. He oversaw the finishing touches on the Football Performance Complex be completed. And when the 2017 football season began, he seized momentum with the Boilermakers' early season progress by discounting single-game football tickets to make sure as many fans as possible could get into Ross-Ade Stadium to experience the excitement of the Brohm Era first hand.

Bobinski took the solid administrative foundation that he inherited, and he ramped it up a notch. Yes, circumstances helped him accomplish the goal, winning titles and winning football can do that. But his likable, personable style has won over many Boilermaker fans in a way that has the entire program, and all that are part of it, thinking big.

Brohm and Bobinski might go hand-in-hand, but you simply can't minimize what the first-year coach brought to the entire program by making Boilermaker football relevant again. When most were predicting two or three victories for Purdue in 2017, Brohm refused to stand pat as he found several transfers to help bolster a team that needed a shot of confidence and experience.

While Brohm's offense struggled at times during the season, he was able to change direction and strategy enough to get the Boilermakers the six wins necessary to earn bowl eligibility. All the while, he made watching Purdue football fun again. With a host of trick plays, and an offense that showed flashes of potential, there was little doubt that Purdue has a coach that not only knows what he is doing, but also that his best days are ahead. And, from the fake kneel down play to the last-minute game-winning drive against Arizona, Brohm's wizardry was on full display with the sense there is more to come.

I don't think anyone saw this coming. Purdue's run defense, near the worst in the FBS in 2016, finished the regular season ranked 30th.

It truly was one of the great stories of college football in 2017.

While co-defensive coordinator Nick Holt is one of several that can take credit for the success of the Boilermaker defense, he deserves the credit as much, or more, than anyone for setting the tone how this defense was to play. It was an attacking, risk-taking, stop-the-run-at-all-costs unit that seemed to feed off his energy. Brohm was ultimately responsible for the culture change that happened in Boilermaker football program, but Holt was the face of it. His demonstrative approach on the sidelines seemed to energize the entire team, making the Boilermaker defense the thing to watch during the Boilermakers' November stretch run.

The defense had its flaws, and some of it showed up in the Foster Farms Bowl. But in the end, Purdue's ability to stop the run proved key to the Boilermakers' ending the season with seven wins.

Whether it was the Ross-Ade Brigade/Paint Crew or alumni, Purdue fans played a key role in making this a memorable year.

Not only did the Boilermaker football program have the biggest single-season increase in attendance in the FBS by some 13,000 fans, it was the environment that was the difference. Ross-Ade Stadium was alive for the first time in well over a decade. Achieving the first sellout in the facility in nine years for Homecoming was a clear signal that the fan base was back, and much faster than many expected.

But Mackey Arena's atmosphere has also ramped it up a notch or two. Yes, the crowds were raucous in early 2017 with big wins leading to the Boilermakers' 23rd conference title, but there is a buzz in the facility for its 50th year celebration that seems to be present whether the opponent is Tennessee State or IU.

Purdue fans set the tone in 2017 and it made all the difference in the world.

Elijah Sindelar's end-of-season effort epitomized the grit that was shown by the Boilermaker football team. Not only did he play the final three-and-a-half games with an torn ACL, but he did it with amazing skills. The junior quarterback led Purdue to an improbable late-season run, including upset wins at Iowa and vs. Arizona in Santa Clara.

No, the sophomore quarterback wasn't perfect in game situations, but the guts and resolve he showed down the stretch playing effectively with a typically catastrophic injury will forever secure himself in the annals of Purdue football. Couple that with the injured Anthony Mahoungou making the game winning 38-yard touchdown catch from Sindelar, and you have an amazing and improbable football story that will likely be told by Purdue fans again and again.

If it seems like months since Caleb Swanigan ran roughshod on the backboards of Mackey Arena, I guess it's because it has been. Swaningan played his last game on Keady Court on the last day of February, but his impact was so vast, it certainly carried him as a person of impact for the entire year.

And for Swanigan, his impact at Purdue spilled over to June 22 when he was drafted in the first round by the Portland Trail Blazers.

Statistically, his 28 double-doubles made it the most prolific single-season in scoring and rebounding (combined) in Big Ten history, and just the three short of the NCAA record.

All of those numbers led to a season of rare distinction. Swanigan was tabbled consensus first-team All-American, something that doesn't just happen everyday at Purdue or anywhere. He is just the third Boilermaker in a quarter century to earn such honors.

True, the numbers were great, but it was the story of Swanigan's personal journey, and all that he has overcome in recent years, that helped make it so compelling. And, it was all about team for Swanigan, as he led Purdue to its first undisputed regular season Big Ten crown in 21 years and a trip to the Sweet 16 for the first time in seven seasons.

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