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In the season's first three games, Cole Herdman and Brycen Hopkins were exactly what Purdue hoped they'd be: Playmaking tight ends.

The pair combined for 341 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 16 catches.

It was clear: They were the Boilermakers' best receiving threats, even if they weren't actual receivers. So defenses did what defenses do once there’s film to dissect — they adjusted to take away Purdue's weapons. And in the next seven games, Herdman and Hopkins combined for 20 catches for 246 yards and three TDs.

That means Herdman is off the pace to follow up a solid sophomore season when he had 35 catches for 344 yards. Entering Week 11, he has 16 for 284. Hopkins, who was poised to break out as a sophomore after a 10-catch, 183-yard first year, has 20 catches for 303. Each has three touchdown catches.

“Obviously, we haven’t made enough plays to have the record we want to right now, but we feel like we’re doing a lot of good things right now,” Herdman said of the group collectively. “The first three games, lot of catches, then after that, it’s kind of dropped off a little bit. I think that’s just part of football. Defenses made changes. I think they recognized that Brycen and I can make plays. But we can just continue to work and just try to get defenses the hardest look we can.”

Passing game coordinator JaMarcus Shephard said there’s “no question” defenses have been scheming to take away Purdue’s tight ends.

One way they’ve done that is by utilizing bracket coverage — which essentially is double coverage on one receiver, whether it’s vertical or horizontal brackets. But they’ve also manned up on the tight ends, who have struggled at times, like the rest of the receiving corps, to gain separation. It seems like they’ve had the most success finding holes in zone defenses, which is what this weekend’s opponent, Iowa, largely plays.

“We’re continuously doing things to try to help those guys and make sure we’re putting them in spots where they can’t just run the defense the way they want to and we can still get the ball in their hands,” Shephard said about the tight ends. “Obviously against (Illinois), Brycen did some really nice things to make some plays in the passing game. We’ve got to get him and Herdman the ball a little bit more going into this next one, but there is no magic number. It’s on feel. We do a lot of things to look at, ‘OK, what does the defense do? What are they showing us? Now, what do we like in our playbook that’s going to combat that?’ ”

Herdman had three catches for 25 yards against Northwestern last week, extending his streak of games-with-a-catch to 26 in a row. That’s the longest streak since current Purdue graduate assistant coach Justin Sinz finished his career with 24 in a row.

Would seem as though Saturday would offer an opportunity for Herdman to keep that going, considering the Hawkeyes largely keep their three senior linebackers on the field and utilize them in zone drops.

“That’s definitely a matchup that Brycen and I like, any time we’re matched up with a linebacker,” Herdman said, “especially on third down when we need to make one guy miss to be open for our quarterback, that’s something we like.”

Purdue’s quarterback will have to look for those opportunities, too.

Interestingly, the tight ends have caught more passes this season from David Blough than Elijah Sindelar. Sindelar moved into the full-time starting role last week after Blough’s season-ending injury.

Last week, Sindelar completed four passes to tight ends, a good sign, perhaps, going forward. But, total, through the first 10 games, Blough had 21 completions to Hopkins and Herdman, while Sindelar had 15, including those latest four.

Jared Sparks, who got first-team QB reps Tuesday with Sindelar taking what Purdue officials called a "day of rest" and got more Wednesday even with Sindelar back at practice, said he expects the tight ends to revive their early-season impact in the final two games.

“I think, honestly, it won’t be hard to get them back into the offense,” he said. “Of course, it trickled down because defenses watch film, too. So they saw them making plays, and they tried to fizzle them out. They’re going to get back into it. It’s not a problem.” (SC)

Nebraska was an eye-opener.

When Tim Cason didn’t come in for the second half vs. the Cornhuskers — Kamal Hardy replaced the injured Da’Wan Hunte — the junior had questions. A former starting cornerback who hadn’t played at all yet in 2017, Cason wanted to know what he could do to get himself back on the field.

So he headed up to position coach Derrick Jackson’s office for what turned out to be an honest assessment.

“(I) asked him, ‘What’s it going to take?’” Cason said. “He told me exactly what, and I did those things.

“… He basically told me to be more accountable on the field. Do my job and become more mature out here, and I think I did all of that.”

The changes took during the next practice and then the next and the next. And on the following Saturday, Cason replaced Hardy for the second half of the victory over Illinois, with Jeff Brohm citing his week of practice as the reason why he made his ’17 debut.

It’s been a lengthy journey for Cason. After starting seven games last season, then all of the spring, he was in academic trouble for training camp. And he didn’t come through, failing to complete a task in a class, resulting in Brohm and Co. deciding to hold him out the first four games of this season.

Worse than that, he’d lost the trust of the coaches. He wasn’t focused on his academics, wasn’t focused in practice and the film from last season showed that he wasn’t consistent enough in games, making the occasional play but giving up too many big ones, too.

Considering most of Purdue’s games have been close this season, with the Boilermakers frequently being within a possession in the second halves of their loses, the defense couldn’t afford to allow a big play.

“Those were things Tim had not shown the consistency at the level we needed that, all of a sudden, the last three weeks of practice, it was like the light came on,” Jackson said. “Maybe the urgency struck that, ‘Hey, the clock is ticking in my career that all of a sudden I want to get involved.’ His focus has been better in practice. His attention to detail has been better. His urgency in practice, just in terms of being a guy who finishes plays. That was one thing I talked to him a lot about — it’s not you’re not in position, it’s, 'Hey, we need you to now make plays.'

“Really, in about a 2-3 week span of time, he probably either broke up or intercepted more balls than anybody in the backend (in practice). It gave me more confidence to feel if we put this guy in in a game situation, I trust he’s going to do what we’re asking him to do and I trust he’s going to be in a position to make plays.”

Cason might have a role over the next couple weeks, after again playing in the second half of Purdue’s last game, when he replaced Josh Okonye at Northwestern. If he does, he can credit the lessons learned from the past few months, when he says he became a more humbled person and humbled player.

He says it still bothers him that he let teammates down in the first half of the season.

“It’s been difficult, but to a certain extent, it needed to happen,” Cason said. “It got me better, I would say, as far as certain things, becoming more focused in on plays, knowing that you can’t take anything for granted and making sure I’m more humble with the way I approach the football field. I just feel a lot better now that I’m playing and out there.”

“… I feel like I’m becoming a better player and being more consistent, like everybody else has been saying, that’s been the biggest thing and getting my coach’s trust back. … Hopefully I can continue to keep his trust.” (KC)

There will be nothing as drastic as jumping around or dancing without abandon, as is done in certain stadiums across the country, during a break in the action Saturday in Iowa City.

Instead, the Hawkeyes implemented a new tradition between the first and second quarters this season. Fans and players direct their attention to the nearby children's hospital where kids getting treatment are perched at windows, watching and waiting. To wave.

Purdue players, and some coaches, said they're eager to participate.

"It’s great. I love what they’re doing there. It’s such a cool thing to do for those kids," Herdman said. "Coach (Tony) Levine and I both said we’d wave. That’s something that’s really cool. It’s bigger than football."

In August, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and his wife donated $1 million to help create a program for neonatal research at University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, a $360-million facility that was completed in early 2017.

Parents and kids get to the "press box café" on the 12th floor before home games to get seats and start making their way closer to the wall of windows toward the end of the first quarter.

"I think it’ll be really, really cool. I’m looking forward to it," Sparks said. "I think that’s tremendous, how they set that up to get those kids an opportunity to be a part of a great experience like that. I’m going to wave." (SC)

Ben Makowski could see the defender.

He also knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, with the long snapper highly unlikely to ever again have a chance to catch a pass. So as Northwestern cornerback Montre Hartage closed in, Makowski concentrated.

“Honestly, I told myself if I ever get the chance to do this, I’m not going to mess it up,” the junior said, describing his 22-yard reception on a fake punt at Northwestern Saturday. “I saw he ball coming and was like, ‘OK, here it comes’ — I could see (Hartage) out of the corner of my eye — and I thought, ‘You better just tuck this and squeeze this thing as hard as you can because he’s coming in hot,’ so that’s exactly what I did. I remember seeing the ball in the air, caught it and brought it in and held on for dear life.”

And received a jarring hit.

Not only did Purdue pick up 22 but 15 more, driving the Boilermakers down to the Northwestern 13-yard-line after officials called Hartage for an illegal hit and ejected him from the game. The play was schemed well by special teams coordinator Tony Levine, with Purdue breaking into what looked like a typical punt formation on the fourth down late in the second quarter.

But Purdue shifted, leaving Makowski uncovered — and eligible — as the last man on the right side of the line. It’s a play Purdue’s practiced, Makowski said, probably hundreds of times.

Punter Joe Schopper did have other options: Rolling right, he could have rugby punted or he could have run — it was fourth-and-seven from the Northwestern 49 — but he saw Makowski and delivered.

“To Joe’s credit, that was a gorgeous throw, probably the best ball he’s ever thrown, even in practice,” he said.

It’s been, Makowski joked, a life-changing experience. Generally, long snappers are recognized only when something bad happens, like an errant snap, but seldom for making a big play. But after Saturday, several college long snappers and a couple from the NFL tweeted at him. Former Colts’ punter Pat McAfee said in a tweet, “Just a couple freak athletes playing catch on 4th.”

“As far as my life after the catch, maybe two or three more people recognize me in class,” Makowski said, laughing. “It hasn’t really changed, to be honest, maybe a couple more Twitter followers.

“I’d like to see it as a trend-setter. Just proving that long snappers are athletes, we can get out in open field and do whatever we’ve got to do to help this team, whether it’s going out for a pass or if we run a fake and I’ve got to go block somebody. I’m all for the team, and that’s what I wanted to do for the guys and hopefully I proved that on Saturday.”

Makowski, and the rest of his specialist teammates, know they’ve got to be prepared because Levine is likely to scheme something up. This season, Purdue has successfully executed three fake punts, a run, a drawn pass interference and now the catch.

“That was a dream come true, what happened on Saturday night,” said Makowski, a former Penn High School center and long snapper. “When I committed to Purdue, I never thought I’d be running a 15-yard out route. I was so happy I got a chance to do it.” (KC)

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