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Anthony Mahoungou wants to see Purdue’s receivers relax a bit more, not get caught up in putting too much pressure on themselves to make a play down the field.

If they go out and just play, he reasons, then the results might improve.

“Coach (JaMarcus Shephard) is preaching about paying attention to details and relaxing,” Mahoungou said of his wide receivers coach. “That’s a key. When the ball is coming, especially those deep balls, you see the ball coming and you have a lot of time to think. But no, it’s (simple), ‘See ball. Catch ball.’ That’s what I like to say to the guys. We’ve been doing it for a while now.

“… We have to slow it down and just have fun, because we know we have the talent and ability to be on the field.”

But production has been hit or miss, and too often the latter over the last couple weeks. The Boilermakers have double-digit drops total in back-to-back losses, as they lost games to Rutgers and Nebraska by a combined three points. And perhaps any one of the dozen or so of those missed opportunities could have made a difference.

Against Rutgers, it was particularly third-down mistakes early in the game that caused the Boilermaker offense to sputter until late. On Saturday vs. Nebraska, Purdue missed on two deep passes — and David Blough was a shade long on a third — when Isaac Zico and Jared Sparks dropped them. And Mahoungou couldn’t pull in a pass slightly behind him on the goal line.

“We’ve got to make those plays,” he said. “We get open, we’ve got to make those plays. Slow it down. We run all these plays in practice over and over again successfully, so when it comes to game day pay attention to details.”

Purdue is certainly working the issue. Mahoungou, always one of the last to leave the practice field during the week, welcomed the extra work leading into last Saturday's game.

“We drilled it,” Coach Jeff Brohm said. “We were creative with it. It wasn't just a JUGS Machine. It was a different drill of throwing balls to them hard, five or 10 yards apart, spirals, ducks, end-over-end. They caught a ton of balls. I can't say the work wasn't put in.

“Unfortunately we just had some drops. They were on some big plays, some good throws. Those guys just got to fight through it and stay with it. Those are our receivers right now. I think they want to win, they want to do well. They work hard.”

Purdue is starting to mix in its inexperienced receivers more frequently, a trend that might continue in the last third of the season. Zico, a J.C. transfer, and Sparks, a converted quarterback, started against the Cornhuskers. A second JUCO transfer, Terry Wright, also rotated into the slot, as he’s done when healthy. But while the trio gives Purdue a dose of athleticism, quickness and speed, it also comes at a cost.

Zico didn’t have a reception and was officially credit with two drops, one on the first drive of the second quarter, when the ball hit off his hands at the goal line, erasing what would have been a 55-yard TD. Wright had two receptions for 14 yards but also a drop. And Sparks finished with only a catch for six yards, but he had a drop up the left sideline, a difficult-to-track ball but one that was catchable.

Sparks, who had been splitting duties until Week 5 when he moved over to the wide receiver group, says big plays are contagious; Purdue just needs to make the first.

“Once you make a big play, you really get the other guys believing in themselves and wanting to do the same thing,” he said. “It gives us momentum on he offensive side to keep rolling and keep clicking. It’s a really big game-changer when you make a big play and make a couple, because the defense starts to respect you more. You have to worry about this or big threats down the field and you start getting the intermediate throws and the short throws, those are way easier than if you don’t make the big plays. It just makes the offense click easier when you make big plays.”

But it’s not all about the big ones, either. Purdue’s had intermediate drops, like the two early third-down attempts by Mahoungou in the Rutgers’ game. And the Boilermakers also struggled badly to block on the edges against Nebraska.

That was a bit of a surprise, considering the Boilermakers had been fair sound earlier in the season. Mahoungou speculated that players spent so much time concentrating on the passing-game aspects of receiving that they let other parts slip.

For Sparks, it might have simply been inexperience.

“I do need to block better and that’s going to come,” Sparks said. “That’s what my coaches are really putting emphasis on, just being more physical when it gets out there and learning your techniques on how to do it and positioning your body and knowing all those things I’ve never had to do it, but that’s still not an excuse.”

The Boilermakers are focused now on moving forward. Blough was at least encouraged that receivers were open more frequently vs. Nebraska — “they were running hard, running good routes, beating man coverage, which we’ve struggled with a little bit in the past,” he said —and now it’s a matter of completing the plays.

“It’s a lot of potential that we’re leaving on the table,” Sparks said. “I feel like we’re trying hard to make plays, we’re just not coming down with them yet. But I still have faith in my guys and still have faith in myself. I can take as much (blame) as anyone else for not making plays. That’s something we all want to work on. We know we all have it in us, it’s really just based on us to show it and make it happen.” (KC)

Kamal Hardy has an admission.

Because of it, the backup cornerback — he was pressed into duty in the second half of the Nebraska game and at times showed his inexperience — says he’s approaching this week differently, knowing that he might be called on again.

“I wasn’t prepared. I’ll be honest with you,” Hardy said following Wednesday’s practice. “But this week, I’m really prepared. I’ve been watching a lot of film. That’s completely on me.

“Coach (Derrick) Jackson says all the time, ‘If you’re not starting, prepare like you’re a starter.’ That game taught me a valuable lesson, from now on, (to) prepare like I’m a starter. That’s what I’ve been doing, from film studying to being on the field. You make some mistakes here and there (in practice), but we’re here to correct it.”

Hardy might start vs. Illinois on Saturday, depending on the status of senior Da’Wan Hunte, who is rehabbing from a hip flexor. Against Nebraska, Hardy, who played the second half after Hunte was forced to the sideline, had some struggles.

The Huskers came after the reserve frequently, running and throwing to his side of the field. Although it’s certainly not all on him, the Cornhuskers threw for nearly 200 yards in the fourth quarter alone, when they rallied from down 12 for a 25-24 win.

“Who wouldn’t?” Hardy said, asked if Nebraska targeted him specifically. “If you’re the backup corner coming in, it’s a no-brainer, come after him. I’m all for it. If you want to come at me, come at me. The corner position is one of the hardest positions, so you’ve got to be prepared and ready and I’m (now) prepared for it.”

Hunte, though, is hoping he can return on Saturday. But he’s not practiced yet this week, as he’s rehabbing the hip, first injured vs. Rutgers then aggravated against Nebraska. He re-injured it late in the first quarter, when he slipped during the third-down play that Stanley Morgan committed offensive pass interference. Hunte made it through the rest of the half, but when he tried to warm up for the second, he couldn’t get loose.

He says he’s day-to-day.

“I was a little disappointed I wasn’t able to finish the game just to help my team, but things happen,” Hunte said. “That’s why I’m working to make sure I can get back out there on Saturday.”

But if not, Purdue will likely turn to Hardy once again, although he’ll be more prepared, he says, looking harder at Illinois film and focusing more intently in practice.

“I learned my lesson,” he said. “I feel I made plays in the Nebraska game, just based off athleticism. But when watching film, it goes a long way as far as seeing it on the field, ‘All right, I know what’s about to happen.’ When I was out there, it was more of ‘OK, I’m out here, what’s he going to do?’” (KC)

Nothing has changed this week for David Blough, he said, even with Jeff Brohm declaring Blough the starting quarterback for Saturday during the week for the first time this season.

Blough said it “feels good” to know he’s going to start going into the week — he and Elijah Sindelar have started games this season and typically rotated during games — but he also knows only one real thing matters: Whether the game ends with a W or an L.

So far this season in Blough’s three starts, Purdue is 2-1, though in one of those victories Sindelar came off the bench to lead a game-winning drive. And earn Sindelar back the starting role against Wisconsin and Rutgers. But after two losses there, Blough was back as the starter last week against Nebraska.

“If you don’t play well and there’s no wins attached to it, it doesn’t (feel good),” Blough said after Tuesday’s practice. “At the end of the day, you have to go out there and perform on Saturdays. So we prepare the same. We work the same. We go back in, we study the film, we make corrections, we go out on Saturday and we’re ready to go. It feels good. I know they believe in me. They’ve believed in me all year with any chance I’ve had out there.

“So looking forward to go out there and trying to keep the Cannon.”

Blough hasn’t had a turnover since throwing two interceptions against Minnesota Oct. 7, and he earned the starting role back, in part, because of that ball security. But a key piece, too, was Blough’s ability to improvise when plays break down. Sindelar, more of a true pocket passer and only a sophomore, doesn’t do that as well.

Blough, too, is a bit more mobile than the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Sindelar, and Brohm took advantage of that by adding more zone read and speed option plays to the offensive package last week.

Blough had a 17-yard run on an option keeper and also scored a touchdown on it.

“It makes it harder for the defense to defend (because) it adds the quarterback into the run game,” Blough said. “You can read a guy instead of having to block him, so you get to use your blockers elsewhere. Football is a numbers game, so being able to read a guy and kind of be a threat with your legs and throw some of those run-pass option stuff, I think it’s good for us. It’s kind of where the game of college football has evolved to. We’ve got to do it. They gave me all the opportunities to do it, probably should have pulled a couple more than I did.

“I think we had a good mixture of handing it off, pulling a couple, throwing a couple out there to keep the defense honest in all regards. Now your play-action fake means a little bit more when they have to respect the quarterback and the running back and you can throw it over their head a little bit better. I think it helped in the run and in the pass. We have to keep getting better at it.” (SC)

Lovie Smith acknowledges there are different approaches to rebuilding a program.

In his first season at Illinois last year, he played mostly upperclassmen — only nine true freshmen got snaps — though the 28 first-time starters were the most in the country.

In Year 2, Smith and the Illini have fully bought in to the youth movement, playing 22 true freshmen through the first eight games. That includes 15 rookies who have started games, including at key spots like quarterback.

First-year coach Brohm has gone a different direction, playing only a handful of true freshmen — and only one, linebacker Derrick Barnes, considerably on offense or defense — but having four graduate transfers who have started games and two junior college players he recruited in the rotation on offense.

“I think each situation is different,” Smith said Tuesday on the Big Ten’s teleconference. “We’re doing it based on our young players being our best players. It wasn’t a wholesale decision right away, ‘We’re going to start playing all younger guys.’ It was just based on them getting here and us evaluating who we had on our football team and, again, most of the guys we ended up playing right now have just been the best ones we’ve had. But we went with the process with it.

“In an ideal world, I would rather be playing all fifth-year seniors right now. It just hasn’t worked out that way. When you play this many young players, you just have to realize when you are dealing with young people, there are steps you have to go through. … There’s been some growing pains we’ve gone through. But a lot of these guys been playing a lot of football so far, and I wouldn’t necessarily just consider them young guys anymore.”

Certainly, though, playing younger players has been a factor in Illinois’ struggles this season. The Fighting Illini have won only two games, and they rank among the Big Ten’s worst teams in most major offensive and defensive statistical categories.

What that means Saturday, specifically, is that Purdue’s experienced, older, physical defensive line will be matching up with an offensive line that is playing as many as four freshmen, true and redshirt.

Blough will be looking into a secondary that could have as many as three of four first- or second-year players. There are other rookies scattered across the defense, too, and typically young players lack discipline. That’ll be an area the Boilermakers could attack.

“They pursue hard. They play hard. Because that’s all they know as freshmen — they just want to get to the ball. So, every once and a while, you see a misfit or somebody slants the wrong way or something, it doesn’t look exactly right,” Blough said. “But they’re young. You can tell they’re young guys. It doesn’t mean they don’t have talent. That freshman class has some players in it. Corners that I know Purdue recruited. Definitely kind of eager to go at them a little bit, test them. But they’ve made plays. Just hopefully we can catch them out of a gap or something.” (SC)

Few expect a punter to do much more than punting.

Not so at Purdue.

In the last two weeks alone, Joe Schopper has converted two fourth downs, one with his legs and another with his arm.

Sort of.

His fourth-and-19 pass on the fake punt against Nebraska was well inside of intended receiver Sparks, but it did draw defensive pass interference, resulting in 15 yards and an automatic first down. Three plays later, Purdue scored a touchdown.

Schopper, a junior, had practiced throwing all week, in anticipation of potentially using the fake on Saturday. Purdue had two fakes in, per Jeff Brohm, thinking the one it used could be successful because the Huskers’ blockers had a tendency to peel away from the gunners. But Schopper’s throw was worse, way too far inside of Sparks, than he wanted.

“It was not good,” he said. “Looking back, it would be really nice if I could get that ball out a little farther and maybe complete it, maybe change the mojo of the game a little bit. But we got the first down, so that’s what my job is. We’ll take it I guess.”

Schopper’s fake the week before, on a fourth-and-four against Rutgers, might have been a bit easier. That one was also called from the sideline, but at least gave him a punt/run option, based on what he saw from the Scarlet Knights. Schopper saw the attempt was open, so he took the ball for a first down.

This season, Schopper has hit his 43 punts for an average of 41.8 yards per attempt, the seventh-best mark in the Big Ten. But he also has two tackles, both in Week 1, and two fourth-down conversions.

“It’s fun getting to try new things out,” he said, noting that special teams Tony Levine always has something new each week. “I haven’t had a lot of experience doing stuff like this before, so he called those plays and my eyes lit up and I was ready to go. I’m excited about that kind of stuff.” (KC)

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