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There had been much hype about the 2019 Purdue freshman class and the impact it could have on this team. It didn’t take long for that to come to fruition.
Purdue played seven true freshmen on this night: DE George Karlaftis, S Jalen Graham, S Marvin Grant, WRs David Bell and Milton Wright, RB King Doerue and P Brooks Cormier. Karlaftis had the best night of the true freshmen. He finished with four tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and half a sack. He was a whirl of motion and effort.
“It was good on a personal level,” said Karlaftis. “We didn’t win, so none of that matters.
“I know I can bang with these guys. I know I can play, and that’s one of the positive takeaways from this game.”
Time and again, he was pushing the pocket and came close to notching sacks on several occasions. The result wasn’t what Karlaftis wanted on this night.
“We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do,” said Karlaftis. “It wasn’t good enough.”
Graham had his moments, too, on defense, making four tackles, while Grant came close to making a pick.
Bell made the most of his one catch, racing 49 yards for a TD. He caught the pass after Elijah Sindelar had handed off to King Doerue, who pitched it back to Sindelar. The senior signal-caller found a wide-open Bell who streaked to paydirt in the third quarter what would be Purdue's last TD of the game.
Wright was the first freshman wideout to make a catch, finishing with three for 21 yards. Alas, he lost a fumble after one of his grabs. Doerue ran two times for three yards. Cormier showed a strong leg by averaging 46.3 yards on three boots.
"I think they will be good players," said Jeff Brohm. "But guys have to be ready to perform and make plays consistently. They did some good things. And they just have to continue to get better. We have to live with a few mistakes and hope that they can be contributors for us most of year."
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