What might have seemed to some a passing comment was validation of a career path from David Blough.

Blough had just put his team of high school athletes through a few practice drills at the Manning Passing Academy this summer when he saw who was watching his drill. Mike Shanahan waved Blough over with a smile on his face. Blough, a football geek who admittedly spends hours in the film room, and typically has football on his television at home, knew he immediately had to meet the Super Bowl champion coach and pick his brain.

"We sat down for a few minutes and what I remember most about the conversation is saying to him, 'I hope I get an opportunity to pursue this (coaching) and get anywhere close to where you've been in your career and in this game,'" Blough recalled. "He said, 'Oh you will be, based on how I've been watching you with your team of young players here, you have the skills to do this if you want to.'"

Coach David Blough.

To Purdue's fifth-year senior quarterback, who will be playing his final game at Ross-Ade Stadium Saturday, that title seems to fit perfectly. Blough said after Tuesday's practice that he wants to take the bachelor's degree in organizational leadership he has already earned and the master's degree in health and kinesiology he's pursuing and them to work toward an opportunity in the coaching industry.

And of course, Blough has to look no further than his current coach, Jeff Brohm, on how to transition from player to coach.

"I've got great examples of that in front of me right now at Purdue to help me," Blough said. "Whether it's my position coach (former quarterback Brian Brohm), or head coach (or the other coaches), they've given me a chance to look at things and see if that's something I like, or if it's something I don't like."

Blough got more validation from Jeff Brohm this week as the second-year Boilermaker head coach thinks his current quarterback would make a great coach at any level of football.

"As far as after his playing career, he'd be a great coach," Brohm said. "He's very smart. He takes a lot of pride in doing the right thing, and he's been nothing but a perfect example of a student-athlete for us, and I think the sky's the limit whatever he wants to do."

Grant Hermanns, Purdue's starting left tackle when injuries haven't gotten in the way, was blunt in his response to Blough's future.

"David is a good coach already," Hermanns said with a chuckle in September. "He's a coach right now for this football team. He's an emotional leader. He holds us accountable. He's there for us if we need him. Don't think David isn't a coach now just because he's not done playing yet."

One of the people Blough readily admits is a big part of his desire for a long future with football is his mother, LuAnn. She has been on the field for Blough's lowest of lows, when he suffered the devastating leg injury last year that left him badly scarred. LuAnn was also one of the first people to hug her son immediately after the 49-20 win over Ohio State last month before the Ross-Ade Stadium playing field was swarmed by fans.

Blough says it was his caring and insistent mother that made her youngest son into a quarterback. And, jokingly, he said he will "probably" keep listening to her wisdom.

After attending his first football camp in suburban Dallas, Blough came home and told mom that he wanted to play wide receiver. LuAnn shook her head and said no and wanted to have a conversation with the camp director.

In the meeting, she explained that she was determined her son would be a leader and a quarterback. But there were ulterior motives at play. She didn't want her son to see physical contact on every play thinking that the quarterback position would somehow protect him.

"His mom never allowed him to play football as a young kid," said Andre Ruiz, camp director and certified personal trainer for World Champ Training in Carrollton, Texas. "He wanted to play those flashy positions of wide receiver and defensive back. I told her to give me four weeks with David and see what he can do.

"Once he got to throwing the ball, I saw some natural raw talent as a quarterback that could be developed and told his mom that she was right. I remember telling her there’s something in him we haven’t had in Carrollton, Texas, at quarterback in a long, long time."

Despite eventually make it to the Elite 11 finals in 2014, Blough was rated as a three-star recruit coming out of Creekview High School in Carrollton, Texas, and Purdue was his only Power Five-level offer at the time of his summer commitment.

"Without a doubt he was snubbed because of his lack of height and size," said Jay Cline, Blough's high school coach. 'You wanted to go up to scouts and college coaches and ask them if had they seen his competitiveness and ability to lead in games?"

Cline and Blough's offensive coordinator, Rob Paschall, both believe the constant doubt Blough faced during his playing career will serve Blough well in the coaching profession. He even had to tell his coach that he was going to beat out an older kid on the team. It wasn't bragging; it was confidence.

"When I got the offensive coordinator (job) at Creekview, David was at a 7-on-7 tournament and I asked who this sophomore of ours was," Paschall recalled. "When I was told, I said, 'That kid is a sophomore? The kid that's coaching and telling older kids what to do?'

"'Well, he must already be a leader.'"

David Blough verbally committed to Purdue immediately before the Boilermakers suffered through a 1-11 season in Coach Darrell Hazell's first year. The pitch to Blough was twofold, yet simple: You can turn the program around and be a piece of Purdue's quarterback history.

Three years into his time in West Lafayette, Blough had doubts either of those things would happen. In 2015, John Shoop, Blough's offensive coordinator and the coach that recruited him, was fired following Blough's redshirt freshman year. In 2016, Blough led the Big Ten in interceptions with 21. In the middle of that 2016 campaign, Hazell was fired and Blough faced the reality of playing for new coaches.

"The thing about David that I appreciate is his whole 'football teaches about life' attitude is real to him," Paschall said. "He let me into the inner workings of why some of those struggles were happening at Purdue and I would say (to Blough) it isn't all on him. He would tell me, 'Yeah, but I have to get better' and then start rattling off these skills he needed to improve."

During the first spring practice under Brohm, Blough understood how committed his head coach was to turning the program around.

"I remember him coming in and watching film with me and in the middle of it, he said, 'Wait a minute, I've got to go brush my teeth and take a shower, but I'll be back' and it occurred to me that he's sometimes sleeping in his office in this facility," Blough said. "That's commitment to a group of guys and to a cause."

Brohm's win-now mode at Purdue was going to force Blough and Elijah Sindelar to buy into a two-quarterback system early in his first season, which the former roommates on the road were fine with.

"The guys on this staff have been great to me," Blough said. "Even though they didn't recruit me or a lot of the guys who will be honored on Saturday, that is the reason we've had success."

During the 2018 season, Blough has broken the school's single-game passing yards record and will leave campus in the top five of Purdue's career records in total offense, passing touchdowns and 300-yard passing games.

After starting this season as the backup behind Sindelar and earning the job back by the third week of the season, Blough will trot onto his home field for the final time Saturday as the starting quarterback in a critical contest. Blough will be in charge of leading Purdue to a sixth win and bowl eligibility in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2012.

"All the emotion probably won't hit me until afterwards because we know what's at stake in the game," David Blough said. "There's been a lot of ups and downs here but that's life. The cool thing about my whole college career is no matter what, (I've learned) you just get up the next day and go back to work. I think those lessons will serve me well as a dad, husband and whatever I'm doing in life."

However, maybe Blough will one day return as "Coach Blough." For everyone around Blough, that title seems to fit.

"I think David will be a great coach because he understands the game, understands people and relates to everybody well," Brian Brohm said. "The guys in my quarterback room are pretty good and there's probably times I could just sit back and let David take over because he knows his stuff."

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