Boilermakings for 9/8

Now that football season is in full swing, it means other fall sports are in swing as well. As a result, We get a Boilermakings Tuesday before turning our thoughts toward Oregon.

Ralph Bolden is the toast of the nation - I suppose that being the nation's top running back after week one will do that. ESPN's Adam Rittenberg recently praised Ralph, He was featured in The Sporting News today, and he was of course named as the Big Ten's co-offensive player of the week. I don't expect him to put up the same numbers against Oregon, but if he does I have a hard time seeing us losing. Credit also needs to be given to the O-line and fullbacks Jared Crank and Dan Dierking for freeing him.

Plenty of Ralph Bolden to see here

Katie Douglas is up for WNBA MVP - This is a great honor for the Purdue grad, as she tried to lead the Fever to the WNBA title. Indiana has the best record in the East heading toward the playoffs, and before the season many people expected that the only thing that would keep them in Indianapolis is a WNBA title. Fortunately, Katie Douglas has not been seen shooting up the 8 Seconds Saloon over on the west side unlike some of her co-tenants at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Women's soccer climbs in the polls - The women's soccer team used its upset of #6 Texas A&M to achieve a #14 ranking in last week's top 25. With wins over Valparaiso (1-0) and Ball State (6-1) this past weekend Purdue should have little trouble maintaining its ranking. A trip to #4 Stanford looms on Friday, followed by a game at #22 Santa Clara on Sunday.

Volleyball goes 2-1 at Baylor Classic - The ladies' volleyball team may have fallen out of the top 25, but they were able to notch wins over Texas-San Antonio and Central Florida before losing 3-2 to host Baylor. Next up is the Kansas State invitational against Portland, Kentucky, and #21 Kansas State.

Final Four or Bust for the men's basketball team - Credit to the guys at Boiled Sports for finding this, but the basketball blog Rush The Court has come out with their Purdue preview. I agree with its assessment as well: Final Four or Failure.

Only one segment left of Livin' Large to enjoy - And Basketbawful has been a truly artful story teller for this entire series. I knew those guys from Kokomo were alright.

Painter makes the Colts' roster - He received lots of good news on a day when many former Boilers did not.

Tim Cary has us all covered - Tim posted some fine work from his visit to Ross-Ade last weekend. He has a great conversation with Curtis Painter, a feature on Jason Werner and Torri Williams, and a discussion with Carson Wiggs about his 59-yard field goal on Saturday.

Go Duck yourself - Addicted to Quack is beginning to move on and look forward to the Purdue game. We'll have more from them later this week as I work to set up another podcast tomorrow night.

The ranked losing streak will continue - No matter what happens, our wait to beat a ranked team will continue as Oregon fell out of both top 25's after their loss at Boise State. Personally, I think they should have held on to #25 based on defense alone, but I am wrong.

Suddenly not so bad - The Rivalry, Esq. sums things up best. We have gone from "Surely putrid" to "mildly intriguing" with our week one perfomance. This is all the more reaqson that an upset at Autzen would be very good for our program. I am thinking this is becoming almost as pivotal of a swing game as last year's was. A win in Autzen would be just as positive as us choking away last year's game was negative. Bring on the Ducks!