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.
VALIDATION
I don't know how this season's going to end, but to be honest with you, it doesn't necessarily matter, because I think one of the things that had to happen for Purdue this season already has.
Validation for its veterans.
As promising as Purdue's freshmen and redshirt freshmen are, and as good as they've been, this always had to start with the juniors, the players the program needed to both grow up this season as competitors, but also serve as leaders, particularly in light of the total absence of seniors.
It had to start with the veterans. There was no way around it. Teams where the tail wags the dog are bound to struggle.
Last year's Purdue team, I don't know, to be honest, how much losing really bothered them. We've been through that before and what's done is done and there's no sense in throwing more dirt on those who left.
But those who returned were part of all that, too, and that reality hung over the heads of all these juniors coming into this season.
