No Sindelar, no Plummer, no problem. Brohm confident in O'Connell

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Injury adversity continues to batter Purdue. And today at his Monday press conference, Jeff Brohm confirmed more bad news: Jack Plummer is likely finished for 2019.

“Jack Plummer probably will be out for the year,” said Brohm, who stated after Saturday's 31-27 win vs. Nebraska that the redshirt freshman probably was done for the year. “He’s on his way to the doctor today just to see whether he will require surgery or not on a broken ankle.”

Plummer went down late in the fourth quarter vs. Nebraska. Purdue lost Elijah Sindelar back on Sept. 28 with a broken left clavicle. And last month, sophomore Nick Sipe retired from football because of a back issue, further depleting the depth chart. Now--with three signal-callers out--the Boilermakers will turn to Aidan O’Connell to run the offense.

The sophomore walk-on from the Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire, Ill., got his feet wet in a home loss to Illinois late last month when Plummer was pulled two times. Then, O’Connell came on late vs. the Cornhuskers, executing the game-winning drive in the final minutes.

Now, O’Connell will make his first career start Saturday when Purdue (3-6 overall; 2-4 Big Ten) plays at Northwestern (1-7; 0-6) in what will be a homecoming of sorts for O’Connell. He hit 6-of-7 passes for 62 yards vs. Nebraska. The week before in the aforementioned defeat vs. Illinois in the rain, O’Connell completed 8-of-14 passes for 67 yards with a touchdown of 11 yards to tight end Payne Durham.

“He has really improved,” said Brohm. “And he’s taken great strides. I give credit to my brother, (quarterbacks coach) Brian, for helping develop him. But he’s really done a good job. You guys have heard me say all year long that we weren’t hesitant to put him in even though he hasn’t played before.”

What does Brohm expect from O’Connell?

“He is a guy who can execute the offense,” said Brohm. “If the play is there, I think he’ll stand in there and try to make the throw, sit in that pocket and do the best job that he can. I think he is an accurate passer that has good fundamentals, technique and form.”

But, don’t expect O’Connell to run much for a couple of reasons.

“I think we are at the point where we can’t lose another one,” said Brohm. “We do want to somewhat protect him to a certain degree. He’s not as good a runner as Jack or even Elijah. That’s not his strength. So we have to do what he does best. Yes, it will be an adjustment. We are at the point where we wanna keep him healthy or we could have a rough go.”

Should Aidan O’Connell go down, who would come in?

“Paul Piferi is a freshman we brought in that will be the next guy up,” said Brohm. “After that, we’ll have to get an emergency third-string quarterback.”

That guy is Danny Carollo, a 6-1, 210-pound junior walk-on from Lake Forest, Ill., who has spent most of this year as a punter, but played his high school football in the same neighborhood as O'Connell. He is Purdue’s pooch punter, booting the ball five times for an average 28.6 yards. Carollo hasn’t played an offensive snap.

“Danny Corollo will be third on the depth chart,” said Brohm. “He had an injury all last year that kept him out. He’s back. But really, he hasn’t worked a ton at quarterback. He has kind of been more our red-zone punter, so to speak … Has been a good holder for us. But, yes, he will be available, as well.”

Wideout Jared Sparks—a dynamic prep signal-caller in Louisiana—would have been an option, but he is still dealing with an ankle injury that has kept him out the last two games and six of the last seven. True freshman defensive backs Jalen Graham and Cam Allen were prolific quarterbacks in high school who could possibly play in the most dire of circumstances..

When Elijah Sindelar was hurt vs. Minnesota on Sept. 28, Brohm subsequently said it likely would be a six-to-eight week recovery process. That would peg the return of the fifth-year senior for the game at Wisconsin on Nov. 23. But Brohm doesn't sound confident that Sindelar will suit up again in 2019.

“I’m not optimistic that Elijah will be back this year,” said Brohm. “But I don’t want to rule it out completely.”

Last week, Rondale Moore missed his fifth game in a row after hurting his left hamstring on Sept. 28 vs. Minnesota--on the same play that Sindelar got hurt. Could the sophomore wideout be back on the field at Northwestern on Saturday?

"We’ll see how that goes," said Brohm. "It’s gotten to the point where I’m not optimistic with anything until I see what we need to see. At this point, I’m not optimistic about this week, but we’ll see how it progresses."

Purdue punter Zac Collins had not one--but two--punts blocked on Saturday. What happened?

"It was a combination of a few things," said Brohm. "We blocked the wrong person one time. Really, both in general, Collins took too long to punt the ball. We do have the rugby punt that we have been using. But he has to be alert to what’s coming. And if something is coming, you gotta catch it and get it out. Only if we feel like we have some room can he kind of buy some extra time. And they got us."

For the second week in a row, Purdue didn't issue a depth chart. The reason: Myriad injuries apparently make it too difficult to do with any accuracy.

"It’s more than likely gonna be what we left it as (last Saturday, when a depth chart was included in an information packet in the press box)," said Brohm. "There are some guys nicked up this week. We have to figure out who will they be available by Thursday."

Two key players who probably won't play Saturday are wideout Jared Sparks and linebacker Cornel Jones.

"I’m not optimistic about Jared," said Brohm.

As for Jones.

"No, he won’t be ready this week," said Brohm. But otherwise, Brohm feels confident he could have a full roster at his disposal.

"There are a few exceptions," he said. "If they aren’t ready by Thursday, they’ve played before, they have experience, they still can go on Saturday. That’s kind of where it’s at. We did have quite a few guys—it was a physical game—get nicked up this past week. And some key guys that have played for us. That’s gonna be the challenging part. But, in general, other than Jack (Plummer), we have a chance for most of the others to be back."

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