Purdue augmented its roster in the offseason by using the transfer portal … a lot.

In all, the Boilermakers are bringing in eight players via the transfer portal, along with one JC transfer. The focus was defense, with six of the nine overall transfers coming on that side of the ball:

DE Joe Anderson (South Carolina)

DT Damarjhe Lewis (Indiana)

LB OC Brothers (Auburn)

CB Jamari Brown (Kentucky)

FS Christopher Jefferson (Findlay)

DT PrinceJames Boyd (JC)

And that total on defense would have been higher, but defensive back C.J. McWilliams (Florida) and defensive end Marcus Cushnie (Alabama A&M) didn’t pan out after committing. McWilliams suffered an eye injury that has ended his career and Cushnie flipped his commitment to Florida State.

Purdue still could add Virginia Tech defensive end Alec Bryant.

Did Brohm anticipate using the portal that much after the 2020 season?

“Actually, yes we did,” Brohm told GoldandBlack.com. “We wanted to be active and make sure that we looked at all options and all things that can help our team improve. We feel good about the additions that we have and they've done some good things to this point. They are good people and I think they're hungry and they want to prove themselves. We like what we've done to this point.”

In addition to the help on defense, Purdue has added via the portal kicker Mitchell Fineran (Samford), wideout Broc Thompson (Marshall) and guard Tyler Witt (Western Kentucky). Fineran and Witt are expected to win starting jobs.

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