Purdue quarterback dynamic in spring could have youthful bent

When Purdue begins spring ball in just over one month, it’ll be interesting to see who gets the first snap at quarterback with the No. 1 offense.

David Blough wants it to be him.

Nick Sipe probably wants it to be him.

Early enrollee Jack Plummer, apparently, is in the mix, too, based on what Jeff Brohm told a Fort Wayne radio station. (Brohm hasn’t spoken to local media since the bowl game.)

And Elijah Sindelar is going to have to watch. But certainly will be fueled by however that situation develops.

“I’m happy for Nick Sipe,” Sindelar said earlier this week, making the obvious assumption that the only potentially fully healthy returning QB would get the No. 1 snaps in the spring. “He’s going to be getting all those reps, which is only going to be beneficial for him. But it’s also going to push me because I know I have to get back. Now, when we get in to the summer and fall camp, now there’s potentially … four guys who are competing for the same job now.

“I look at that as a blessing, to be honest, because I liked being pushed. I like competition. I like knowing that my spot is on the line. If I know my spot is sealed, then I might not work as hard. Whereas if I know someone is right behind me, I have to perform day-in, day-out, to keep my spot. Personally, I like that better.”

Blough desperately wants to be considered as an option in the spring, in part, because he wants to participate in what will be his final spring ball session at Purdue.

The fact he even has a final spring ball session in West Lafayette is only because Blough chose it to be so.

Instead of taking the route of recent Boilermaker QB Austin Appleby, Blough opted to stay at Purdue despite graduating in December and, thus, being able to enroll elsewhere and be eligible immediately, without the NCAA penalty of sitting a year. (Danny Etling transferred, too, but not after graduating, so he had to sit a year at LSU.)

But transferring never entered Blough’s mind, he said.

“A lot of people asked me, ‘What are you going to do?’ If I'm being honest with you, I didn’t think I could ever just get up and leave the guys I’ve worked for four years with to be in the position I am,” Blough said this week. “It’ll be a battle to get back on the field again next year. But it’s been a battle to get on the field every single year I’ve been here. C’mon. Bring it on. I’ve been on the winning end, I’ve been on the losing end of some of those battles. I’ve had ups and downs. But what I’m not going to do is walk out on my guys that are still in that locker room that have been here for four years because I think there might be a better opportunity for me somewhere.

“Diligent hands produce good rewards. I’m looking forward to seeing what harvest comes and seeing what happens, whether it’s for me, whether it’s for Purdue. At the end of the day, whatever happens, I think it’ll be exciting for sure to step back on to the field in Ross-Ade when we host Northwestern. Whether I’m the starter, whether I’m the eighth-string quarterback.”

Plummer enrolled early in hopes of getting this precise opportunity: A head start. He probably didn’t realize when he committed, though, just the kind of chance he could get this spring.

Blough’s season-ending ankle injury happened in early November, and without needing a second surgery to repair the dislocation, he had about a 4-month recovery window. Sindelar injured his left knee against Northwestern on Nov. 11, the severity of which wasn’t revealed publicly until after Purdue’s 38-35 victory over Arizona in the Foster Farms Bowl Dec. 27. Sindelar had surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament only two days after the game — he’d postponed the surgery about a month because of the postseason — and he’s ambitiously targeting the short end of a 4-6-month timeline to return to the field.

So unless Brohm allows Blough to participate to some extent this spring — and Blough really, really wants to try — Sipe and Plummer likely will be at the top of the depth chart, with Jared Sparks probably a full-time receiver now and Griffin Alstott likely still recovering from in-season shoulder surgery.

When Sindelar was told of Plummer’s potential spring role, he said, “He better start in his playbook now. That starts in two months. There’s, like, 270 plays.”

Blough, who, like Sindelar and Plummer, also enrolled early at Purdue, echoed Sindelar’s thoughts about the amount of workload and pressure on a should-still-be-in-high-school rookie.

“That’s a huge challenge,” Blough said. “I was literally just thinking about it and talking about it with some of the guys in the locker room, Kirk (Barron) and those guys. It’s tough. As an 18-year-old trying to learn the system, getting my feet under me, in the cold, I literally have been there. Elijah has been there, too. It’s really hard. The stuff is just flying at you. It’s fast. But then you look at kids like the kid from Alabama, playing in the national championship game, I would not underestimate anybody’s capacity to be able to do anything. That was special, too, and that kid is only 18, 19.

“I believe in (Plummer). You’ve got to put in the work or else you’ll get exposed pretty quickly. Sometimes that’s what it takes for you to realize what it takes. Maybe it’ll be good for him in that sense. That’s another reason I want to be out there, just in case, I want to be an option where we could have full practice. I’m not saying they’re not going to be options, but I do know it. Nick knows it. I want to make sure I get some of those reps.”

There’s no telling how Sipe’s and Plummer’s performances in the spring could influence training camp and the 2018 season.

Brohm’s preference would be to choose one quarterback and have that person be the full-time starter. But he utilized a two-quarterback system in his first season in West Lafayette when neither Blough nor Sindelar emerged to seize the job. Ultimately, Brohm chose Blough, but as a full-time starter, Blough played only one complete game: Against Nebraska. He was injured the next week against the Illini.

Blough and Sindelar said they’d prefer to be “the guy,” not sharing game snaps. But they also were quick to say Brohm’s decision is the best one, whatever that may be.

“It’s about Purdue, at the end of the day,” Blough said. “Of course, yeah, I want to be on the field. I want to be the starting quarterback. I’m going to work my butt off to be the starting quarterback. But if Coach Brohm decides I’m in a funk and we need a spark and somebody comes in and plays well and we win, then I’m just as happy as if I would have thrown for 7,000 touchdowns and 7,000 yards in the game. I don’t know if it’s weird for people to hear, but that’s how I feel about it. Of course, I want the ball in my hands. That’s why we rehabbed so hard. That’s why I’m working so hard now to be able to get back and prove to them that they can trust me and that I can make the right decisions, like we were headed in that direction.”

Sindelar, too, said once he’s recovered from ACL surgery, he expects to be fully in the mix and competing to be the exclusive starter. Sindelar, a sophomore who started for the first time in his career this season, said he sees “pros and cons” to the two-QB system. One pro: He thinks he and Blough handled the situation well, supporting each other and strengthening their relationship. But one “con” he mentioned seemed potentially significant: How the back-and-forth affected the rest of the team.

“I think it’s hard for a team to rally around one guy when you’re constantly switching quarterbacks. I think for an offense, I think it might be more beneficial to have one guy,” Sindelar said. “But we had success doing the two-quarterback system. I know, for me, it was beneficial because I got to learn from David and watch what he was doing and when I went in, he told me what some of the things they were doing and vice versa. So those things were really cool because I kind of had an edge when I went into the game if I didn’t start, and I tried to give that edge to David when I started and he came in. So that was beneficial to us, but as far as the whole unit, I’m not sure whether the guys like it or not.”

There’s certainly the possibility if Brohm stayed with two QBs, the rotation wouldn’t be Sindelar and Blough.

And Sindelar knows that, too.

But, if anything, at least there’s been groundwork laid at how it could work — and work well.

“I think David and I have set the foundation and the example of how to do a two-quarterback system and will bring the guys along, regardless of who the two quarterbacks are, if that’s what we do,” Sindelar said.

Membership Info: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?

Follow GoldandBlack.com: Twitter | Facebook

More: Gold and Black Illustrated/Gold and Black Express | Subscribe to our podcast

Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2017. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.