Purdue spring practice: Day 1 analysis

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Purdue was outside for spring football Monday, and on Feb. 26 no less.

Unseasonably warm weather, and sunny skies, allowed for the Boilermakers to head outdoors for more than two hours. Following are observations of the pad-free first practice:

• With Purdue’s two projected starting offensive tackles out — Grant Hermanns will be all spring, while Eric Swingler is dealing with a lingering back issue — as well as injured left guard Shane Evans sidelined, the first-team offensive line had a different look.

Mike Mendez and Matt McCann, two offensive guards last season, were the starting left and right tackles, respectively. The positions, though, aren’t completely foreign, with the two having made starts there in 2016. Kirk Barron was at center, while Peyton Truitt was the left guard and Bearooz Yacoobi the right.

The combination puts the highest number of veterans on the field together with the 1s, allowing redshirt freshman like Mark Stickford and D.J. Washington to stay with the second group.

The rest of the No. 1 offense saw either David Blough or Nick Sipe at quarterback — Purdue is not going to rush Blough, who is coming off the broken ankle, back more quickly than necessary — with Jackson Anthrop, Isaac Zico and D’J Edwards as the starting wide receivers. Brycen Hopkins, with Cole Herman sidelined, was the 1 tight end, while D.J. Knox was the first running back. Markell Jones, a potential starter, was late arriving to practice due to a class conflict.

The No. 1 defense was also a new look.

The defensive line: Robert McWilliams at Leo; Ray Ellis at nose; Anthony Watts at DT and Gio Reviere at end. (Lorenzo Neal was in uniform and practice, taking individual drills with the 1s, but was held out of team activities, as far as I could tell).

Linebackers: T.J. Jallow at strong-side; Derrick Barnes in the middle; and Markus Bailey at weak.

Secondary: Tim Cason and Kamal Hardy at cornerback, and Jacob Thieneman and Navon Mosley at safety.

One of the biggest surprises there has to be McWilliams, who is still undersized at about 220 pounds (at 6-foot-4). Back in November, it was a little surprising how much Reggie Johnson praised McWilliams, pointing out the asset his speed could be coming off the edge. He had seemed so raw in training camp, completely unsure of what he was supposed to be doing.

But Purdue loves the raw talent. During early run-throughs Monday, new defensive coach Kevin Wolthausen — he’ll be helping on the defensive line — had some one-on-one time with the redshirt freshman. A couple times, Wolthausen waved McWilliams into the right position, then once the veteran coach replaced him on the field, showing him how he wanted him to drop into the open space to cover the flat.

Will be interested to watch McWilliams’ progress. He’s in there now, probably, for the injured Kai Higgins. But Purdue’s not had a quality speed-rush end in … well, a long time. If he could gain 20 more pounds, and continue to pick up an understanding of the scheme, then maybe he has a chance.

Reviere definitely does. The man, a redshirt freshman, has legs as big as tree trunks. We’ll see in time whether Reviere can play or not, but man he has the look, that’s for sure. Purdue wants a big run-stopping end who can move well enough to get to the quarterback at that non-Leo D-end position. Reviere is going to get every single opportunity, and then some, to prove it’s him.

He almost made one of the plays of the day in a team drill, when he jumped out on a swing pass and nearly intercepted it. He probably should have but got himself twisted up a bit.

Jeff Brohm wasn’t particularly happy that Reviere didn’t make the play, even if it would have been costly to his own offense. “Quit jacking around,” he screamed at Reviere.

• Quarterbacks for a moment …

Jack Plummer can sling it around. The freshman has a good fluid motion, not a whole lot wasted and not much wind-up. Perhaps once he reached back to grab a little extra on a fastball over the middle, but for the most part his throwing motion was compact.

Once he took a snap, then jumped his feet and shoulder to hit right to deliver the ball to the right flat. Brohm made mention of Plummer’s shoulder-squareness afterward, although it was hard to pick up his exact point.

In team late, he zipped a couple passes in a row, one over the middle to Hopkins between a couple defenders and another receiver. But the rookie wasn’t perfect; a few of his deep balls came up well short, underthrowing receivers who might have had a step. Plummer threw off his back foot once, which wasn’t good, but Hopkins made a great leaping grab with one hand near the sideline.

Nick Sipe took a bunch of first-team snaps in the last team period, as Purdue held out Blough. He can make a bunch of the underneath throws, and did — although a lot were dropped — but he tends to balloon balls down the field. One of those was picked off by Tim Cason rather easily.

That was a good comeback by Cason after the veteran cornerback was holding tightly onto Zico on a deep route up the seam. Still, Zico broke away from the hold, then made a juggling catch of a Sipe pass, one of his better of the evening.

And for Blough, it was good to see the senior back on the field far soon than many (aside from him perhaps) expected. He didn’t get a ton of team reps, mostly some skelly work, but looked about the same as always.

• JaMarcus Shephard is always an entertaining watch, and Monday was no different.

After Edwards made a catch, the WR coach (and new co-OC) screamed at the redshirt freshman: “What the hell are you doing? Tuck the ball away.”

Minutes later, Edwards did. “A lot better,” Shephard said. “That’s how games are won.”

After Terry Wright, who was playing outside receiver, made a sliding near-one-handed grab of a pass up the left sideline, with Dedrick Mackey hanging on him, Shephard sought out the cornerback: “Hold hands with your girlfriend, not with us on the field.”

When Mackey couldn’t square up Markell Jones for a sideline “tackle,” Shepard’s retort, “You look like 150 pounds.”

• Purdue did some mixing up with the 2s, but largely the second-team offensive line was (left to right): Mark Stickford, Eric Ferguson, Viktor Beach (or Bryce Brown), DJ Washington and Ethan Smart.

Rookie Amad Anderson got snaps as a 2 receiver, along with Wright and KeyRon Catlett. Darius Pittman and Jess Trussell mixed in as backup tight ends, and Alexander Horvath got a ton of snaps in an injury-depleted backfield.

The 2s on the defensive line: Rookie Jeff Marks, Alex Criddle, Allen Daniels and Jonah Williams (who is a linebacker). The 2 linebackers were often Cornell Jones, Tobias Larry and walk-on Zach Randall, with a secondary of safeties Brennan Thieneman and Simeon Smiley (the No. 1 nickel) and corners Mackey, Kenneth Major and sometimes Brandon Shuman.

Redshirt freshman Jacob Abrams was a safety, moving over from cornerback.

• A couple of turnovers on the day.

One when Mackey leaped in front of a pass thrown from walk-on QB Cameron Northern. Another when Knox fumbled after leaping in the air and coming down without the football.

That one drew the ire of Brohm: "Do we have a rookie in the backfield?"

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