Our weekly visit with “enemy” bloggers comes to a screeching halt in front of the palatial mansion that houses the Boiled Sports braintrust– greatest building in the city limits, since they tore the West Lafayette Women’s Clinic down. The fellers were good enough to not kick us off of their porch, and instead gave us time for a little Q&A. Be sure to check out our side of the story over at their one stop spot for all things Boilertastic.
After Boiling the Zooks for Homecoming, Purdue has dropped two straight. What do you sense is the attitude of the team as the season enters it’s last month?
We think the team — the players, especially — has shown remarkable resiliency. We’ve seen teams nearly quit in the past or roll over or look scared and that’s one thing Danny Hope has going for him — these guys don’t seem to fear anyone. Which, frankly, is more than we can say for the coaching staff, who seem to get conservative at weird times and play not to lose, etc. The Illinois game is a good example — Purdue looks quick, dominant, fresh, prepared, etc., and races out to a 21-0 lead, doing many things right, few things wrong and seemingly turning a corner. Then in the second half they managed only three first downs, two of which came on the same drive. And why? It wasn’t the players decided the game was over — it was ludicrously scared play-calling.
The team doesn’t back down, though, as I said and despite being slapped around in Ann Arbor and Madison, we still saw our corners locking up with WRs and jawing after the play, for example. They may not be winning, but they’re not scared, and we sort of like that. Hey, you have to like something these days.
Two years ago, the Boilermakers defeated Ohio State in a game that has since been known as “Purdue Harbor” (when it is known at all). What does Purdue have to do to make this Saturday “Purdue Harbor 2”?
First off, we look forward to the Michael Bay epic. What’s funny about this is that one of our editors (boilerdowd) was at that game and had six tickets to it. The week leading up to it, he couldn’t get ANYONE to go with him, finally getting an old friend and former neighbor to go. Then the upset happened, and we feel in the spirit of full disclosure that we should tell you that he’s planning to bring the same friend to the game. So really, they might as well not even play now.
Seriously, though, what does Purdue have to do? I don’t know, is loosening the lug nuts on the OSU team bus inappropriate?
What is it about Danny Hope that makes the magic happen? It’s the mustache, right?
Partly. It’s also the LSD he keeps IN his mustache.
Which QB do you prefer: Caleb Terbush or Robert Marve? How do you feel Danny Hope has handled the revolving door at QB?
It’s positively infuriating to us. We think that anyone with even a remedial knowledge of football (you know, like casual OSU fans — oooooh, burn! In your FACE!) should be able to see that Robert Marve is the more gifted athlete, passer, quarterback, dancer, hopscotcher and bocce player. Yet the coaching staff is hesitant to take the reins off at all. Against Madison, Marve was only allowed to throw little screen passes, when he’s the FAR better vertical threat. Against Notre Dame, he gets put in the game and given the majority of the snaps — but only after Purdue trailed by two scores. How is that fair? And this is a guy who has been dying for a chance to lead Purdue and has fought through two major knee injuries to get healthy enough to do so. Yet he’s being left to twist in the wind and has the rare distinction of being a guy Coach Hope has sort of denigraded during a press confernece (saying he doesn’t stay within the system enough).
On the flip side, TerBush gladly does what the coaches ask and we’re certainly not AGAINST him (which makes writing about this on our site challenging because it comes across as “anti-‘bush” — hey-yo!), but we don’t understand why Marve hasn’t been given, say, an entire game or two from start to finish to see what he can do.
So to answer you, we think Hope and OC Gary Nord have done a terrible job with the QB situation.
Did you feel like Wisconsin was maybe taking out a little frustration last weekend? Do you kinda feel like you want to beat up OSU and MSU for setting Wisconsin off on you? You know you want to.
Absolutely they were and we knew it was coming. I said on Twitter that even when you know the beating is coming, it still hurts. That was embarrassing and painful for us — and there’s no joke here. It was awful and the 62 points was the most Purdue has ever given up in the history of the football program. Chew on THAT. We’re very proud of our alma mater, but we also know there have been some dark eras — for this staff to have the distinction of giving up the most points EVER, well, that’s just not something to be proud of.
As for beating up on OSU and MSU, well, we’d have to schedule MSU first since Purdue doesn’t play them this season (ooooh, in your face AGAIN! What? I don’t know.) but as for OSU, uh, yeah… watch out. Because now our boys are MAD!
Seriously, though, Purdue is actually a lot better at home than on the road — they usually look like a different team. Still poorly coached, but a different team. Must be the screaming tens of fans in Ross-Ade these days.
We’re asking everyone- Who would you want to see added to the B1G if expansion should happen? Who would you avoid at all costs? If there’s another team on board, should the conference kick Indiana out and keep it at 12?
How about kicking Penn State out? We were one of the sites who bashed the hell out of your program after the Pryor/Tressel fiasco and while we still think what went on there was wrong….well, it’s a little hard to be critical when there is a program with the lack of oversight that evidently has been going on at PSU for the past who-knows-how-many years? Booting them would be impactful, I think. But maybe I’m just still angry thinking about it.
As for programs to add, we love how this has been handled. The Big Ten is stable and desirable. Nobody leaves, but many would like to be in. Notre Dame would be a financial boon for the conference, but there’s a big part of us that would love to see them out in the cold if super conferences ever came to be.
Finally: If you could replace the Old Oaken Bucket with another trophy that represented your rivalry with IU what would you choose? Might we interest you in a wooden turtle?
There feels like there could be a joke in here about a trophy that somehow represents a basement or a cellar. Of course, while we’re feeling in the dumps about Purdue football, it’s still not quite basement-level, but it may well be heading there. Maybe it should be a paper bag that neither team can fight their way out of?
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