Q&A with Purdue quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm
Day 1 coverage: Depth chart changes | Analysis ($)
Brian Brohm hadn't gotten a live look at his quarterbacks until Monday, when the Boilermakers held their first spring practice.
And the QB coach and co-offensive coordinator liked what he saw, with the quarterbacks — David Blough took mostly first-team snaps; Elijah Sindelar the 2s and Jared Sparks the 3s during team drills — largely managing to get the Boilermakers to execute correctly in the new offense.
Following is a Q&A with Brohm.
Gold and Black: What are your thoughts on today?
Brohm: “I thought it was high energy. They came out here with some juice, with some pop. You could tell they were eager to get out here and get the first day going. Obviously, the first day everything isn’t going to go perfect but I thought the energy was good, the competition was good and overall, I’m very happy with it.”
Gold and Black: What do you want to see from your quarterbacks in these early practices?
Brohm: “We want to see them transitioning from learning it in the classroom to applying it on the field. That’s not always going to happen first day out. We want to see steady growth practice to practice. This is Day 1, sort of their starting point, and hopefully everyone will get better from here.”
Gold and Black: What are some of the indicators that they’re starting to pick those things up?
Brohm: “Well, when you start to see them get assignments right. The mechanics of offense went pretty well today, (with) the quarterback relaying the play to the line, to the receivers. Guys being in the right spots, sometimes we have to fix their eyes, make sure they’re looking at the right things. But overall, they seemed to know what they were doing, which is good for Day 1.”
Q. From a tempo standpoint, did you like how they were getting in and out of the huddle?
Brohm: “I thought we did pretty well (Monday). They came out with some juice and we actually had to slow them down at points. Their tempo was good. We’d like to keep a fast tempo. I think they’ll notice the tempo at practice is pretty fast, which I think it was (Monday), so I was happy with that.”
GoldandBlack.com: You seemed to do a lot of 11-on-11 teams drills. Is that fairly typical of a practice or are you looking to get some things on film?
Brohm: “That’s pretty typical. We want to practice what we’re going to be doing. It’s going to be 11-on-11 on game day, so we’re going to do our individual and work on drills and stuff, but the important stuff is when you have 11 guys on 11 running your stuff.”
Q: How much of an opportunity did you have to evaluate the QBs before Monday?
Brohm: “We recruited most of January. We had a couple weeks to really dive in and watch some film of these guys in the past and get to be around them and have a few meetings with them.
“I like to start everybody with a clean slate. I don’t want to judge all the guys by what they’ve done in the past. I want to come out here and see what they can do.”
Q. What’d you see out of David Blough and Elijah Sindelar?
Brohm: “David is a natural leader, he was spinning the ball well, making good decisions, had pretty good control of the offense.
“Elijah has a lot of talent. He was throwing it really nice, a few really nice throws out there.
“We have some things to work with and I’m happy with that.”
Gold and Black: Are they starting even? Or how do you approach the competition?
Brohm: “There’s nothing really set right now. We’re just throwing them out there and seeing how they react and seeing what they can do. Hopefully give each one of those guys an opportunity to show what they’ve got.”
Q. From what you’ve seen with David on film, what do you see as his next step?
Brohm: “Obviously, the turnovers were the issue last year that you want to see cleaned up. You want to see him protecting the ball within the pocket and when he’s throwing it. Those are the things we’ll be working on, keeping him clean in the pocket and avoiding turnovers.”
Q. How much do you mix and match them with the first team?
Brohm: “Oh, there will be a lot of mixing and matching. We don’t have anything set. We don’t really know those guys yet, so as we go through spring ball we’ll get to know our players better and have a better idea of who is going to be out there come game time.”
Gold and Black: What do you look for in a QB, what attributes?
Brohm: “Well, you have to make good decisions, that’s No. 1. You can’t make a good decision, then the play really isn’t going to go very far. So decision-maker No. 1. Accuracy is No. 2, you’ve got to be able to put the ball where we want to put it. And then, toughness, both mentally and physically. If you can have all three of those things, then you’re going to have yourself a good quarterback.”
Gold and Black What is your goal for the end of spring? Do you want someone to have separated themselves so much that you can tell who the starter is going to be? Or general improvement?
Brohm: “I just want them all to get better. I’m hoping they all can be as good as they can be, and hopefully they make it a tough decision. I want to them all to get better.”
Gold and Black: On one drill Monday, you stood in the secondary to watch the quarterback, rather than behind the QBs. Do you like that perspective?
Brohm: “Yeah, it’s a different perspective. It allows me to watch the receivers a little bit in that (receivers vs. DBs) drill, but it’s also a different perspective to watch the quarterbacks from, see their feet, see their eyes. It’s the way we’ve done that specific drill in the past.”
Gold and Black: How is offensive installation going?
Brohm: “We’re going to put a lot in very fast, so these guys are going to have a lot thrown at them and they might be swimming these first few days, but they’ll get it and understand it. We want to make it so we can teach it off the film, so the more we can throw at them the better.”
Gold and Black: You pull it back then a little, or just keep giving them more?
Brohm: “We’ll pull it back a little (eventually), but we’ll keep throwing it at them, see what they can handle, see what they can take. Really you can learn the most then. If you keep it too simple, you’re not challenging them to learn new things and you’re not getting better.”
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