Weekly Word: The ground game, a golden opportunity and more

The Weekly Word is GoldandBlack.com's weekly, obviously, column covering Purdue football, basketball and recruiting, as well as college sports issues, the true meaning of life, or whatever other topics might come to mind in a given week.

For all the important questions/concern/curiosity around Purdue's 2020 football season regarding unproven quarterback play and retooled defense, there's another goliath key to the Boilermakers' success this season: The running game.

Coming off a season in which Purdue averaged only 2.9 yards per rushing attempt, it's important, really important.

Granted, much went into those running-game struggles.

Now, though, for an offense highlighted by a few elite weapons, likely to benefit from more experience up front and with a solid young running back in King Doerue, the Boilermakers need an about-face.

Does Purdue need to run for 200 yards every game to win? Nope. Does Purdue even need to generate the sorts of home runs it schemed itself to back in 2017? It would be nice, but it's not a dealbreaker.

What Purdue does need is to command respect and manufacture balance, to have enough credibility in the running game to where defenses must recognize it, and to have options in short yardage. The Boilermakers were abysmal running the football on third- or fourth-and-short last season, and that reality strapped a lead balloon to the offense as a whole at times.

A lot went into those running struggles, obviously. The offense was short enough weapons and the passing game not quite fearsome or consistent enough to provide the sort of upper-cut threat that sets up the body blow. A revolving door at quarterback, youth at running back and struggles on the offensive line didn't help.

Now, some of those considerations may remain in play.

While Doerue sure seems like a budding standout at running back, the actual ball-carrier controls only so much.

The quarterback play may turn out just fine. Purdue would love that to be the case, but we don't know yet, and it's an enduring truth any time there are questions at quarterback, that you'll take all the help you can get from the running game in order to decentralize the burden to produce.

The offensive front should improve with experience, but an offensive line doesn't transform in a single off-season, especially a dysfunctional one like this one was. Purdue won't soon be that team that just lines up and jams the football down anyone credible's throat.

To invigorate the running game and achieve coveted balance, Purdue may have to get creative in its offensive design, its personnel usage and it may have to be willing to zig when some would zag. Unpredictability can be a running game's best friend, as the 2017 season highlighted.

Rondale Moore matters here, too, not just because I'm sure he'll take the occasional jet sweep, maybe line up some in the backfield and so on, but because his mere presence should apply ultimate pressure to defenses and make everyone else on the field that much better, including the running game. He's an elite player, but also an elite decoy.

However Purdue goes about it, generating more on the ground is an absolute must this season if the Boilermakers are going to have the sort of season they'd like to and it may come down more to the ingenuity on the sideline than anything else.

All due respect to Taylor Stubblefield and Larry Burton and Calvin Williams and on down the line, but I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that the two finest wide receivers in Purdue history are currently teammates.

I get that Rondale Moore has played just 17 games in his Boilermaker career and David Bell just one season, and thus their résumés may lack some heft as all-time greats, but if you've watched these guys play, you know what they're capable of, and how special they each are.

And you probably have an idea just what Purdue could be capable of with both of them on this year's team, for what'll be their last run together. Last season, they played together but not all that much and never when Bell had started rolling (or ringing, I suppose).

The elephant in the room, of course, is quarterback play, but the moment Moore opted back In, the quarterbacks all got better, as did the other receivers, the running game, the tight ends, and even if the defense, because the better the offense, the more margin for error a defense gets.

The reality is that Rondale Moore and David Bell put Purdue up against anyone in college football in terms of a 1-2 offensive punch, and there's only so much special attention to go around here from defenses. Something's going to give.

This Is unique in Purdue history. It's had great offensive weapons before, notably during the Joe Tiller Era, but right now, Jeff Brohm might have two of the 10 best wide receivers In the game lining up alongside one another, representing a unique opportunity.

That's what came to mind the moment Moore announced his return: Opportunity.

His reversal came shortly after the reveal of a Big Ten schedule that shows just one AP preseason-ranked team on Purdue's slate, that being No. 19 Wisconsin.

Does that mean Purdue's schedule is easy? Of course not. Easy is relative, and there's no such thing as easy in a conference like this, but with a Big Ten West schedule plus crossover games with Rutgers and Indiana, that's about as user-friendly as it gets.

I've said from the onset of coronapalooza months ago that this college football season, the results are going to be more randomized than ever — check this past weekend's scoreboard, by the way — and thus may matter less than ever.

That doesn't mean, though, that they don't matter at all, barring circumstances that nullify the whole season's meaning.

And for Purdue, coming off an injury-drenched 2019 season and preferring to regain momentum, Bell and Moore plus a golden schedule might be the formula to do just that.

• You know, the pairing of Moore and Bell affords Purdue a rare luxury, but there's another position where the Boilermakers haven't always been great the past decade or so where it stands to be pretty salty this year.

The defensive line.

George Karlaftis is a star, a healthy Lorenzo Neal and Anthony Watts could represent one of the best pair of tackles Purdue's had in some time and if Derrick Barnes plays defensive end again, he'll have a chance to build on the positive things he did last season in his first year in that role. (That's three seniors, by the way.)

That's the rub, though: As Purdue looks to be new and different, it will want to make sure its assets are best positioned to be assets.

But Purdue may actually have some depth, too, Lawrence Johnson, Jack Sullivan, Branson Deen, etc., all having gained some experience last season when pressed into action earlier than was ideal.

Purdue's got a lot to prove on defense, but it may have some foundational elements in place to make some improvement.

• One of the biggest unknowns on this team, but the one with the greatest upside, may complement that defensive front. The secondary may be virtually brand new, and if transfers Geovonte Howard, D.J. Johnson (once his eligibility is rubber-stamped, which it has to be) and Tyler Coyle pan out, it's transformational. Throw in promising second-year players Cory Trice and Jalen Graham (however you want to define his role) and I'm not sure Purdue's had a secondary in the past 15-plus season that will look the part quite like this one. That promises nothing from a productivity perspective, but being talented and physically mature is a fine place to start.

• A quick basketball note: Here's hoping the Crossroads Classic gets played this season and gets a proper send-off. The event is due to end this season, done in by other programs' disinterest, that very disinterest leading me to assume it may get dashed this year. Scheduling flexibility is a precious commodity right now, 'cause there's not going to be a lot of it, and if Indiana and Notre Dame wanted out of this anyway, I doubt they're gonna stand up for it now, and the fact that this event depends on four teams and not two, that complicates things.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'll be surprised if there's a Crossroads Classic this year, or ever again. Here's hoping there is, though. It's been a worthwhile event, good for the state and it'll be interesting to see what Purdue replaces it with on its schedule when it's gone.

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