Purdue Football Records Watch: Bowl Edition

With an appearance in the Big Ten championship game Purdue is playing 14 games in one season for only the second time. The only other time this happened was 2006, and that was the result of a scheduling quirk. That was the first season that the NCAA made the 12th regular season game permanent. Purdue was already scheduled to play a 12th game that year because of the Hawaii rule (at the time, you could play an extra game if you played at Hawaii at the end of the year). The Boilers went to Honolulu to end the season, but added a season opening game against Indiana State at the beginning of the year, so it played 13 games plus a bowl game.

The extra game opened the door for some single season records to fall, just like this year. For example: It is Curtis Painter, not Drew Brees, who has the single season passing yards record at Purdue. A late completion that would have otherwise been meaningless in the 24-7 Champs Sports Bowl loss to Maryland gave Painter the record by two yards over Brees, despite the fact that Brees had set it in 13 games in 1998 (which in itself had an “extra’ game because of the kickoff classic that year at USC).

Let’s take a look at where some of Purdue’s stars stack up in the record books as we head into the bowl game.

Aidan O’Connell

AOC is already all over the record book and even holds a few all-time records. He has a career completion percentage now of 66.7%, which is two full percentage points above Jack Plummer on the all-time list (minimum 300 attempts). He also set the single-season completion percentage record last year with a 71.8% mark. He also has the school’s best career passer rating at 141.6, with an astounding 158.8 as the single season record last year.

For his career O’Connell is now at 9,219 passing yards, good enough for 6th on the list. He will likely pass Kyle Orton (9,337) in the bowl game for fifth, but he would need an effort like last year’s bowl game against Tennessee to get to fourth place David Blough (9,734). He had 534 yards passing against the Volunteers, and if he somehow repeated that he would not only pass Blough, he would become the first single-season 4,000 yard passer in Purdue history. He needs 510 yards in the bowl game to get there, and 496 for the single season record.

O’Connell is currently fifth on the school’s all-time list with 65 touchdowns behind Painter (67), Blough (69), Mark Herrmann (71) and Brees (90). He will also finish as the 6th player at Purdue to accumulate 9,000 yards of total offense. He is currently at 8,945 because he has -274 rushing yards in his career.

Charlie Jones

Jones may be a one-year hired gun, but he will leave with at least one single-season record. On Saturday night in the third quarter he broke the school’s single season receiving record and he currently has 1,361 yards on the year. The previous mark was John Standeford at 1,307 yards in 2002 (which was also a 13 game season). It should be noted David Bell would have likely broken it last year had he not missed the Illinois game and sat out the bowl game, as he was at 1,286 yards in 11 games.

Jones has also joined 2018 Rondale Moore and 1999 Chris Daniels as the only players with 100 receptions in a season. He is at 110 on the year, 11 behind Daniels and four behind Moore. That record is within reach in the bowl game given his usage rate.

Saturday night was also Jones’ eighth game this season with over 100 yards, which is the most in a single season. 1984 Steve Griffin, 2002 Standeford, 2018 Moore, and 2021 Bell each did it seven times. Jones’ 12 touchdowns this season have him trailing only Taylor Stubblefield (16 in 2004), Vinny Sutherland (13 in 2000) and Standeford (13 in 2002), while he is tied with Brian Alford (12 in 1996) and Moore (12 in 2018).

Payne Durham

Speaking of touchdowns, Durham is doing very well there on the all-time list. He has found the end zone 8 times this year, giving him 21 for his career. That ties him for 5th in receiving touchdowns all time with Bell, Dorian Bryant, and Stubblefield. He is close to the top 20 in overall receptions (126), and he has a respectable 1,275 yards in his career.

Devin Mockobee

Mockobee has had a fantastic year, as he has rushed for a freshman record 920 yards. With 80 yards in the bowl game he can notch only the ninth 1,000 rushing season in school history. Purdue has not had a 1,000 yard rusher since Kory Sheets went for 1,131 yards in 2008. He has been over 100 yards in a game four times this season, and was one yard short of getting there against Indiana. His 1,168 all-purpose yards give him a great start on some of the career lists.

Mitchell Fineran

It is cold comfort, but Fineran’s five made field goals Saturday set a new record for most made field goals in a Big Ten championship game. It was only the third time in school history a Purdue kicker has made at least five in one game. Rick Anderson kicked five field goals against Michigan State in 1980, while E.C. Robertson had a whopping seven made field goals against Rose Poly on October 27, 1900. To put that record into perspective, a mere 13 made field goals gets you into the top 20 on the school’s all-time list, and Robertson never got to 13.

Fineran has now made 42 career field goals in just two years at Purdue. With one more he will tie Ben Jones for third on the all-time list. He has now had four games where he has gone at least 4 for 4, and he has the ONLY 5 for 5 game in school history. With a career accuracy of 79.2% Fineran is also currently the most accurate kicker in school history (minimum 15 attempts). All told h has scored 206 points in a Purdue uniform, which is 10th all-time and three behind Chris Summers. He could get as high as 7th with 16 points in the bowl game, passing Summers, Jerod Void, and Leroy Keyes. His 112 points last season was two short of the single-season record held by Keyes, and with six points in the bowl game he will have only the seventh 100 point season in school history. It would also make him the first player with TWO such seasons.

Cam Allen

Allen currently has 10 career interceptions, making him only the 12th player at Purdue to have double digit picks. With one more he joins a logjam of six other players who had 11, while Ricardo Allen at 13 and Stu Schweigert had 17.

Cory Trice

Trice’s late pick six against Indiana was the second pick-six of his career. He joins Ricardo Allen (4), Mike Rose (3), Rod Woodson (3), Derrick Brown (2), and Dennis Cribes (2) as players with multiple pick-sixes in their careers.

Jalen Graham

That list of players with multiple pick sixes should have one more on it, as Graham had the second of his career against Northwestern, but it was wiped off the board due to a taunting penalty. It would have been the third defensive touchdown of his career, as he recovered a fumble for a score at Illinois in 2020 and pick-sixed Nebraska last year. For some reason the media guide does not have the number of fumble returns for touchdowns in school history, so it is difficult to gauge where Graham would be on the total defensive touchdowns list.

The three official interceptions returned for touchdowns this year (Chris Jefferson, Allen, and Trice) are the most pick-sixes Purdue has had as a team in one season, and it really should be four because of Graham’s being called back.