Today, GoldandBlack.com continues a new weekly feature. We're calling it the Weekly Word.

Why? Because it has words, it's posted weekly and we're just that unimaginative. (Actual feedback from Week 1: Definitely like the content, but a new name would be useful.)

Anyway, here are some random thoughts for the week, most of which will be Purdue-related.

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It's sort of trite to say that a bowl game represents the start of a team's next season, and in Purdue's case, I'm not sure the thought applies because David Blough will be gone and he's been such an important piece of what the Boilermakers accomplished this season. While 6-6 may not seem on its own like anything groundbreaking, 6-3 since starting 0-3 is much more notable, and Blough was probably the face of that surge, if there was one.

While it's a significant continuity advantage for Purdue that it will be positioned to replace a starting quarterback with a starting quarterback, Blough's loss changes things, and that says nothing of Kirk Barron, whose looming departure will present no small challenge.

But that being said, Purdue returns enough to where expectations next season should be as considerable as they've been in many years, even if much of next season's offense won't be starting the Music City Bowl, or even at the Music City Bowl.