Purdue could be without weapons vs. IU; Brohm addresses job rumors; more
More: Coordinator's Corner: Nick Holt ($) | Senior vignettes: Bentley, Hunte, Mahoungou, Robinson | Opponent view: Indiana | Players grasp Bucket stakes
At this time last season, with Western Kentucky on the verge of a conference championship and another bowl berth, Jeff Brohm was one of the hottest names in coaching to move on to another gig.
But Brohm’s name has surfaced some again this season, spurred by Purdue’s resurgent season. The Boilermakers have a chance to reach bowl eligibility with a victory over Indiana Saturday.
Brohm said he didn’t expect the chatter again this year, but he understands how the business side of the coaching world works.
And right now, he said his focus is only one thing: Getting Purdue back the Bucket.
“I love it here,” Brohm said after Thursday’s morning practice. “Got a lot of goals in front of us that we want to try to achieve. This is a huge game. We want to try to get this one.
“Things go well, sometimes that stuff always happens. But I want to help this football team win and this is the goal I have. I know our coaches feel the same way. This is a game we’ve worked really hard for. It’s going to be a great challenge. It’s not going to be easy. Our guys are going to have to execute and play well. We want to make sure we’re ready to go.”
• After playing full strength on defense last week — with the actual players, at least, though they’re not all actually 100-percent healthy — now the Boilermakers’ health concerns shift to offense.
Starting receivers Jackson Anthrop and Jared Sparks and backup tight end Brycen Hopkins all are gametime decisions for Saturday, Brohm said. Those three players have combined for 80 catches and eight touchdowns.
Sparks appeared to significantly injure his right ankle late in the first half at Iowa when his leg was bent back awkwardly while was carrying the ball after a Wildcat snap. He played the final series of that game, but Purdue ran the ball every play.
Hopkins, the team's top receiving tight end despite being a non-starter, fielded Iowa's onside kick late in the fourth quarter and appeared to be clutching his lower back after taking a hit.
Anthrop, who has a team-best 39 catches and a team-high-tying five TD receptions, has an unknown injury. His final play against the Hawkeyes was the onside kick, but he wasn't involved in any way and didn't get hit.
"They all were limited in practice. We’ll see how they are when we get there and hopefully we can get at least a few of them back, but probably not all of them," Brohm said.
• Running back Tario Fuller's surgery earlier in the week was a success, and fellow back Richie Worship's surgery is scheduled before the end of the month, Brohm said.
Brohm isn't sure if Fuller will be back by spring ball. He said he'd prefer to be cautious.
"We’ll see where we’re at. He may be able to get back for some of it," Brohm said.
Brohm initially had termed Fuller's injury as a bone bruise, but he offered more details Thursday, saying the surgery had to address "some extra bones in his ankle, down in his lower ankle, that he to get fixed the right way."
Worship has a knee injury — Brohm's never called it an ACL, but that's likely — and Brohm said he hopes Worship will be back with the team by August.
• Purdue didn't wear pads during any of its three practices this week, and that's not unusual for Brohm-coached teams. What was different: Brohm usually would have gone padless sooner in the season than he did this year.
"I think we were struggling toward the end of the year, so we needed to make sure we got at least a little bit of work in pads. We have a lot of improvement to make, and we felt like we needed to continue to do that to a certain degree," he said. "But we want to take care of our guys and make sure they get to the game. This week, it’s late in the season and we have some people who need that time and recovery to get ready for Saturday, so we were a little bit smarter with it."
• There aren't plans to revive the famed "Turkey Bowl" festivities that were so prevalent in the Brohm household when Jeff and his older brother Greg were growing up. But that didn't stop Jeff Brohm from providing memories about the event this Thanksgiving Day.
"It used to be a huge family ordeal," Jeff said of the tradition that started with his father Oscar and his uncles and developed into a neighborhood battle yearly. "Football was being played by ourselves, whether it was tackle football or not. It was a football day and an active day. Ever since we’ve got into the coaching world and moving around, it hasn’t happened as much. But those were fun days. We’d bring out the flour, we’d line the field and then it was tackle football, winner take all. Trophies were given out. It was filmed, and you watched it. You brought it out after the Turkey Bowl and you reminisced and it was a lot of fun.
"... We always handed out an MVP and an LVP for the least valuable player. After my dad started to talk about all his stats always and how great they were, which were totally exaggerated, we would always hand him the LVP, regardless of the score."
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