Purdue Football - Chucky Dolls and Winning Shrieks

"You'll not be seeing the Chucky doll anymore, I promise," Ryan Walters says into the microphone, head football coach for a Big Ten program. "You know, I didn't notice it until we were right about to leave the tunnel and we were on the field. By that time, I thought if I would have done what I wanted to do, it would been a distraction. So we've had that conversation and Chucky will be put to rest."

No, that's not the start to my Chucky Does Football script about a head football coach who curses a team towards the end of a trying season.

Instead, it's a moment of respite at a time where Purdue's Ryan Walters can stop answering questions about an underwhelming and losing football team because just a couple days prior, Walters and staff had one of its most convincing wins of the season against Minnesota.

Purdue looked like the team that Walters had envisioned since the moment he took over the program last winter. It's his second home Big Ten win, and the start of a final three game stretch that features three winnable games. It was the first step in winning the final leg of the season and building momentum for this team heading into the off season.

The joke is easy, the haunting Halloween music following Walters after what seemed like good fortune. Ignoring the Chucky doll's role in Purdue's win, and discarding him just for him to rise up and take revenge.

With the way Purdue's schedule lined up this season, it might not be the most horrific story line of the season. Walters first year on campus has seen Purdue run through what some sites have called the toughest schedule in the country.

"There isn't a team that we've played that has a losing record," Walters said when asked about where this offense has been all season.

Between quality of opponents, a bare roster, and injuries that have struck Purdue roster like extras on a movie set, Purdue has not been able to be the best version of themselves. For no one is that more true than Hudson Card, who was touted as an athletic quarterback with a big arm. But injuries early has kept Card away from using his legs efficiency both to by time in the passing game and picking up first down with his legs.

He was able to both again against Minnesota. Card's long touchdown pass to Burks was directly created by his ability to threaten with his legs and by time for the route to develop. He also picked up timely first downs, and was a threat that Minnesota's defense had to account for on the way to Purdue running for well over 300 yards.

Figuring out what works for a roster as depleted as Purdue has been part of the difficulty for Walters and staff. Graham Harrell appeared to find the right buttons to push against Minnesota.

"From a schematic standpoint, our offensive coaches have done a good job at identifying what works with this roster," Walters said. "And then what is realistic to ask them to do coupled with Hudson feeling healthy and being able to utilize him in the run game as well. Just our guys willingness to go fight."

Walters has been in this position before. He's won two other times, a road win on the road against Virginia Tech after a long, weird weather delay, and then Illinois at home when he was taking on his previous staff and team.

Both times, Purdue couldn't capitalize on the momentum of the win. Purdue lost 35-20 on the heels of the Virginia Tech game and 20-14 at Iowa.

After losing four games in a row, Purdue will look to string wins together for the first time and keep the momentum going.

"You win, right?" Walters said about the difference in energy with his team coming off a win. "You put a lot of effort and sweat equity into trying to come out victors... everybody was obviously excited to see the results of what you worked hard for throughout the course of the week. But then again, Sunday was like, okay, we put the game to bed. Now it's reset, let's go do it again. So you get back, refocus, and not riding the high of success."

For Walters and his team, it'll be about keeping down their head, getting to know their opponent, and preparing for a fight against a team that's playing to turn its interim coach into a permanent coach.

"They hit adversity more than anyone else did right from the jump," Walters said of the Northwestern team and the firing of long time coach Pat Fitzgerald during the off-season.

Which means Purdue and Ryan Walters knows how they'll have to meet the moment, and it'll be by finding consistency its strived for but missed most of the season.

"We'll have to play the way we played on Saturday. That same type of effort. That same type of physicality. That same kind of confidence," Walters said of trying to win two in a row.