Purdue likely without starters McCollum, Hermanns for Rutgers

More: Matchup preview | Neal working to become complete ($) | Coordinator's Corner: Tony Levine | Ezechukwu thriving; Swingler preparing; more Wednesday notebook | Blough waiting

Analysis ($): Most important matchup | Maibag: Dividing carries | Vs.: Run or pass?

For the second consecutive week, Purdue will be without one of its leading tacklers, linebacker T.J. McCollum.

But the Boilermakers could be missing another pivotal piece Saturday at Rutgers, too: Starting left tackle Grant Hermanns.

Hermanns re-injured his left knee against Wisconsin last week, and, though he missed only four plays before finishing the game, Hermanns didn't practice this week. When asked if Hermanns would play Saturday, Coach Jeff Brohm said "probably not."

That was the same phrasing Brohm used for McCollum, the aggressive, high-motor weakside linebacker who initially injured his ankle and knee on the final play against Minnesota on Oct. 7.

Last week without McCollum, Purdue shuffled through two freshmen linebackers before settling on senior Garrett Hudson, who had seven tackles. Brohm said Hudson will get the starting call again Saturday.

“Without question, he came in and did a good job for us the last game,” Brohm said. “He’s got a lot of experience. He understands the game of football. He sees things and can create and play downhill better. I’m hopeful that he’ll play a great game again.”

Former walk-on Eric Swingler is in line to get the start in place of Hermanns. Swingler actually started a game earlier this season, but it was at “tight end.” Essentially in those situations, he’s been an extra blocker either in the run or pass protection and hasn’t run a route. That spot is where the bulk of his snaps have come this season, too, not at tackle. But he’ll load up on those Saturday in the biggest opportunity of his career.

“Swingler has had a good week,” Brohm said. “He’s always had a good attitude. He worked hard all spring and summer. He has some limitations without question, but I think if he just plays hard and believes in himself and really goes out there and understands what we’re doing, I think he’ll do a good job. We’re hopeful that he steps up to the challenge. I think he will. I think he’s looking forward to taking over that role, and this is a great opportunity for him.”

Purdue will get receiver Terry Wright back, Brohm said. Wright’s had ongoing right shoulder issues, which kept him out last week at Wisconsin. But Wright practiced this week. He’s one of the team’s potential weapons at a skill position because of his speed, but he’s also lost two fumbles this season. Both of those, he was carrying the ball in his right arm.

“I think it causes some of that. He’s just got to find a way to understand you can’t let it go. He’s so quick and athletic that you’re going to get in some traffic, and you’ve just got to find a way to really squeeze and protect it. If a lot of guys are around, you’ve got to really roll over it and make sure it doesn’t come out as much as you. I know sometimes it happens, but he’s had some issues even when he hasn’t fumbled where it looks like he could have. But he’s had a good week-and-a-half of getting better at that.”

David Blough couldn't believe it when he was told his play caller Brohm actually used the word "conservative" this week.

"I didn't know that was in his nature," Blough said Tuesday. "He likes to take shots. He makes it fun. We’ve got to figure out ways to keep moving the ball, keep getting first downs and be efficient. I think we’ve shown through the first half of the season, we’re not as home run as maybe we have been. We’ve got to figure out a way to get first downs, move the chains and punch it in when we get down in the red zone. I feel like for the past three, five, four weeks, we’ve been kicking too many field goals."

There have been too many negative plays, Brohm said, which seemed to be a reason the coach and play caller uttered the "C" word.

Against Wisconsin, Purdue was sacked three times, had four false starts, recovered its own fumble for a seven-yard loss and was tackled for loss six times. In Week 5 against Minnesota, Purdue was sacked four times, had a false start, two holding calls and was tackled for loss six times.

Brohm wasn't happy that the two biggest plays generated by the offense against Wisconsin were on slow screens, one on a flea flicker to the tight end and another to the running back. But it was just another piece of evidence for him on where the offense sits now — and that's not where he'd ultimately like it to be.

Brohm built his reputation as an offensive guru, in part, on having explosive offenses that created big-chunk plays consistently. That hasn't been the case in Purdue's first six games, though the Boilermakers do have 22 passing plays of 20-plus yards this season.

So, perhaps, there will be a shift in approach, at least slightly, moving forward.

"Maybe you just have to grind the thing out and figure out a way to be more physical and non-risk-taking at times in order to score points," Brohm said Thursday. "I think any time you have a game when you don’t score many points, it’s disappointing. You want to try to find a way to get better. We were tested greatly in the last game, and hopefully we’re learning some things out of it and we come out and try to execute better. But we’ve got to make sure we’re all into it and we’re all trying to get better. Our team, hopefully, will come ready to play.

"I have been very disappointed all week, and I’m not fun to be around when that’s the case. It’s important that myself, our coaches and our players really hate losing. It’s got to bother you. I think if we just find a way to dig deep and pull out the grit inside of us for 60 minutes. Whoever the 11 are on the field, that’s how you’ve got to find a way to win. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t ask them to do too much. But yet they can execute the simple and small things and find a way to be more physical and not beat ourselves. I think we’ve just had way too many negative plays lately. Sometimes when you’re having that, you say, ‘OK, maybe I’m being a little too risky.’”

Perhaps Brohm will move the pocket more this week to try to generate time for Purdue’s receivers to get open. The expectation is Rutgers will play man coverage and press on the outside, which has been an issue at times for the Boilermakers’ outside receivers.

Brohm tried to take a couple deep shots last week against Wisconsin when the Badgers played the same way, but Purdue couldn’t connect. That affects the entire game plan because one or two of those verticals loosen up the defense a bit.

In practice this week, Brohm said receivers were working hard against press, especially when it came to being more physical at both the point-of-attack as well as at the top of the route.

“Sometimes you can motion and shift and all that, which we’ve done at times, but other times, you have to line up and come off the ball and just find a way to win,” he said. “We’ve worked hard this week. … I think we’d all like to get better. We’re working hard to get better. Maybe one of these games we kind of get over the hump, but it hasn’t happened to this point. We can’t lose our confidence. We have to continue to try to take some shots, but maybe just not as many and figure out ways to move the chains and score otherwise.”

After opting not to pump in crowd noise entering last week's game at Madison and then having too many crowd-noise penalties — "That disturbs me," Brohm said — the Boilermakers played loud music for portions of practices this week.

Purdue started the Wisconsin game using a cadence before switching to a silent cadence. If it needs to on Saturday, it'll use the latter.

"For the most part, we’ve been pretty good with that all year, other than maybe one other game," Brohm said. "I hate having the silly penalties that, in my opinion, cause you to play not very smart. We’ve got to get that fixed. I think when you get in passing situations and it gets loud and it’s a silent cadence, you’ve really got to concentrate at O-line because you’ve just got to sit in there. You’re going to want to backpedal and get in position, and we’ve just got to make sure we work it. We worked it the last two days, and hopefully we’ve gotten better."

• Brohm said Purdue will wear its chrome helmets again Saturday. But he had "no idea" what the uniform combination will be.

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