Purdue will turn to Sindelar, Sparks with Blough out for season
More: Complete Illinois game coverage
Analysis ($): First thoughts | Boilermaker Breakdown | Report Card
No surprise Elijah Sindelar will be Purdue’s starting quarterback going forward with David Blough out for the season with an ankle injury.
But perhaps a bit of one with Jeff Brohm’s choice as backup. It’s Jared Sparks, who was converted to a receiver earlier this season and has been working almost exclusively at that position for several weeks. The other option would be true freshman Nick Sipe, but Brohm said Monday during his weekly press conference he would prefer not to pull the redshirt on the rookie.
So, starting with Purdue’s game at Northwestern Saturday, the Boilermakers will ride the Sindelar-Sparks combination.
It’s one Brohm feels relatively comfortable with, considering Sindelar has started four games this season and Sparks got a handful of snaps at quarterback against Illinois, though he didn’t pass the ball.
But the coaching staff still will manage practice snaps this week.
“(Sparks) has got to practice at receiver,” Brohm said. “We’ve done that before (of splitting positions in practice). If he doesn’t get the reps in at receiver, he’s not experienced enough to handle that. He’s young at that position. He’s going to go to all those meetings. He’s going to practice at that position, and then we’ll spend some extra time with him to school him up on what he needs to know on offense and he’ll run the backup position for us and get enough reps. We’ll probably even give Nick Sipe a few, just in case.
“I think (Sparks) is improving as a receiver, but he’s still very green and we want to continue to develop him there and utilize him back behind the quarterback some and he has to be ready in case something happens.”
Purdue was forced to adjust its plan at quarterback after Blough, the junior captain, suffered a gruesome injury in the fourth quarter against the Illini. After keeping the ball on the zone read, Blough started to go down to the ground in a pseudo-slide, but his left knee hit the ground — with defenders pursuing him — and his right leg stuck awkwardly in the ground. He dislocated his right ankle on the play, Brohm said, and also may have broken a bone and suffered ligament damage.
Blough is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday, Brohm said, and put the rehab time in the six-month frame. That means Blough will miss spring football but could return in time for summer workouts. Brohm was unsure whether Blough would be able to travel with the team to Northwestern — that'd seem unlikely, given the quick turnaround from surgery — or even to Iowa in two weeks.
Without Blough and his leadership, the load will fall on Sindelar, who likely will get the bulk of the game snaps, though Brohm did like Sparks’ change-up package and thinks the athletic QB has enough grasp of the base concepts and offense that he can throw, too, instead of just run it Wildcat style.
Sindelar, though, will be counted on to lead the group.
He has had success at points this season — perhaps the highlight was leading Purdue’s game-winning drive late against Minnesota — but Brohm also went back to Blough because he said he thought the junior was a better fit for the personnel. So Sindelar didn’t play against Nebraska, the only game this season Brohm didn’t play two quarterbacks. But when Sindelar entered the game in the fourth quarter after Blough’s injury, he completed the only two passes he attempted.
On the season, Sindelar has completed 53 percent of his passes for 939 yards and seven touchdowns. He has thrown five interceptions. Brohm said receivers have dropped more of Sindelar’s passes than Blough’s — probably referencing Sindelar’s strong arm — but unofficial statistics show it's actually pretty close. Still, Sindelar has been working on improving his touch, Brohm said.
Sindelar’s playing time this season helps, too, because it has allowed Brohm to form a good grasp on what the 6-foot-4 pocket passer does well and how he may need to tweak the offense — namely in likely limiting some of the option read game Purdue had recently incorporated more with Blough.
“We kind of know what he’s good at and what he likes to do,” Brohm said of Sindelar. “But, at the same time, I think we have to do what our team does well. … Elijah has worked hard on improving on all the things he needs to as far as touch and ability to make good decisions, run the offense. I think he’s a good athlete and a good runner. If we need him to run some, he can do that.”
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.