Walk-on carving out spot, possibly as a starter, at Purdue
Quick Count: Day 5 | Purdue mixing in safeties to find right fit
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Jacob Thieneman keeps showing up.
While making his first career start against Indiana at the end of last season, he had an interception. He had another during the April 1 spring scrimmage — a play that was negated by a teammate’s pass interference and also, unfortunately, resulted in his shoulder injury — and he picked off two more passes on Friday, the second day of Purdue’s training camp. He very nearly had another one on Saturday.
It’s become such a common occurrence that Purdue is seeing the safety move up its depth chart. In the last few days of camp, the junior walk-on has been rotating in with the first-team.
“He knows how to be in the right place at the right time,” fellow safety Navon Mosley said. “I’ve even been trying to steal a little bit of his game from him, because for some reason he knows how to get a pick. He knows how to get a pick. Players like that need to be on the field, players who know how to get turnovers. He has a good feel for a game.”
That seems to be the overriding theme for Thieneman. The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder might not have overwhelming speed or imposing strength, but he’s a heady player who lets his natural instinct take over. A mechanical engineering major — safety T.J. Jallow affectionately calls him an “IQ player” — Thieneman is known to watch a lot of film and take a lot of notes, a tactic that Mosley observed then replicated last season.
“He’s understands the game, has good instincts, has a good feel,” Coach Jeff Brohm said. “He can read the quarterback’s eyes. He gets our guys lined up. He has great knowledge not only of the game of football but what we’re doing from a defensive standpoint. I think he’s a good leader, doesn’t talk too much but leads by example, but he’s done a very good job in camp.”
Thieneman, a Guerin Catholic graduate from Noblesville, Ind., had a couple of good role models when he first arrived on campus in 2014, when he chose to come to Purdue over FCS and D-III opportunities. Then, Landon Feichter was a fifth-year senior, while former player Logan Link was a graduate assistant. Both had come to Purdue as walk-on safeties before earning starting jobs.
Thieneman says he had a few conversations with them about their paths, but more than anything else they provided him with a first-person look at what it takes.
“I knew it was put your head down and grind,” he said, “and do as well as you can. … They were able to make it and do phenomenally here.”
Thieneman didn’t hold any unrealistic expectations. He didn’t think he’d play early in his career — and he sat for the ’14 and ’15 seasons — but last season he was starting to get a chance. He not only was playing on special teams, but getting in on defense too, especially at the end of the year.
Then, against IU, he was called upon to start. It was a big moment, to say the least.
“I wasn’t that nervous,” said Thieneman, who grew up a Purdue fan, attending games with his dad, a Purdue graduate, over the years. “I had gotten the nerves out (before) with it being the last game of the year. I was more excited. It was my first start against my rival IU. It’s a big family deal because I have a lot of family from IU. So I was excited to get out there, knew I was going to play well and could prove what I could do.”
Then, Thieneman made an interception against the Hoosiers when he raced to grab a hurried pass.
“When we got the hotel room (before the game), I said, ‘Bro, I’m so proud of you’ because I know how he worked, how good of a player he is,” said Mosley, Thieneman’s roommate in Bloomington. “I would tell him, just don’t let up. I tell him now, just don’t let up. He’s a really good player and I respect him so much for that. His hard work shows in his play. That Indiana game, I was so proud of him, then I saw him get the pick I was so happy.”
Thieneman might get more opportunities, having put himself in position to possibly win a starting job. Tuesday, secondary coach and co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter said Thieneman is probably, overall, performing the best among the Boilermakers’ safeties right now.
Jallow likes having him on the field.
“He can drive the defense really well,” Jallow said. “He has years in the program. He’s one of those guys who works hard at everything until he gets it right, so having Jacob next to me is definitely a plus. How he approaches things and goes about things, kind of mimicking him so that I can be on the same level intellectually when it come to the playbook, as far as getting guys lined up.”
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