Painter Watch still on; tight end out

The weekly Curtis Painter watch continues.

"Well I'm the most optimistic I've been (since Painter was hurt)," Coach Joe Tiller said Tuesday, "only because Curtis made a point of coming to see me (Monday) and saying, 'Coach, I threw 50 balls today and I'm picking up the number of passes I'm throwing."

Painter threw around Monday under the supervision of trainers.

"It's feeling really good," Painter said. "I went out and threw quite a few balls - it was a pretty good workout - and it felt really good. Hopefully (Tuesday) we'll get to go through some drills and see how it does."

Tiller said he'd like to, at the very least, have the fifth-year senior available at Iowa Saturday to run Purdue's two-minute offense, should it be needed, citing Painter's experience.

Redshirt freshman Justin Siller has started the past two games.

"Justin, in his defense is not prepared to run the two-minute game. We haven't had time to practice it with him. You make the calls yourself," Tiller said. "I think perhaps Curtis Painter's best moment at Purdue was last year in the Motor City Bowl when he took the ball down the field. With the exception of the first call, all the rest of the calls were his. And that's what you need in your quarterback during a two-minute game.

"Justin isn't prepared to do that. It's not that he can't do it in the future, it's just how much you're going to heap on this guy now and what you're going to expect him to do, and give the guy a chance. So it would be nice if at least we had Curtis so that if we were in a two-minute situation that we could put him in there and let him call the offense and direct the offense from that point of view."

Tight end out

As expected, redshirt freshman tight end Colton McKey's knee injury is severe. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament and will likely require surgery. It was to be determined Tuesday exactly when he'd go under the knife, Tiller said.

McKey had been Purdue's second-string tight end, backing up senior Jerry Wasikowski, who's started since the first game, when No. 1 tight end Kyle Adams went down, as it turned out, for the year.

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