There has been a lot of news that has broken recently in terms of Purdue, thus prompting the move for Boilermakings up from Friday to today. This means the final "Know thy Opponent" won’t be published until later Thursday or early Friday. After that, you can expect and interview with The Hoosier Report about the bucket game, followed with a new series that should take us pretty close to the season.The main reason for moving Boilermakings into this spot, however, has nothing to do with Purdue. In this spot I had scheduled an interview with the good folks over at Black Heart, Gold Pants about the 2008 Hawkeyes. Recent developments with the Iowa program, however, have prompted them to back away from their university, and rightfully so.
I didn’t comment on this yesterday in the Iowa preview because I had finished a week ago and was in a rush to put it up before heading off to work, but a big fat distraction, to say the least, reared its ugly head this week. Apparently the Iowa administration has covered up a rape case involving a couple of former football players, and it is getting even uglier. Black Heart Gold Pants has done a much better job of going over the situation than I can, so I’ll direct you over there. After the news broke on this case their response to my interview request was as follows:
Hey, I've been looking at your questions and I can't, in good conscience, answer any of them.
I'm ashamed of my program right now and can't pretend to look forward to the season.
Sorry.
I don’t blame them one iota. I’ll welcome the guys to stop by at any time once matters clear up, but in this case I don’t blame them one bit for being disgusted with the University of Iowa administration.
Purdue to Face Davidson in Wooden Classic, Ed Kowalczyk sues OTT for copyright infringement.
Because of Purdue’s affiliation with the legendary John Wooden, the Boilers have become a fixture in at least one of the annual events that bears his name. I like this. It normally gives us a very solid non-conference game at a neutral site. In the case of last year’s win over Louisville, it was the first of many big wins for a program that has come a long way in a very short time. The Boilers will be playing in the Wooden Classic (not the Tradition, like last year) again at Conseco Fieldhouse against another team that has come a long way in a very short time.
Stephen Curry and the mighty Davidson Wildcats were the darlings of the 2008 NCAA Tournament, coming within a missed last second 3-pointer of advancing to the Final Four at the expense of the eventual National Champion. They rely more one player in Curry than the upstart George Mason from a few years ago, but they are still a solid team. They ran unbeaten through the Southern Conference last season, but missed on a couple of in season opportunities against North Carolina and others to grab a huge win. As a result, they may have not even made the tournament if not for the Southern auto-bid. Running through the conference unscathed again is a tall order, so you can bet they will be looking toward the Purdue game as some insurance.
I liken this game to when we played Butler in the 2006 event. I expect a hard fought-close game as Curry does his best to attack our team defense. I’m already looking forward to the chess match of Chris Kramer against him when he has the ball, with others to step in if beaten. Curry is a talent to watch because he has a sweet jumper that he only needs the smallest of windows to drain. This is also a rare opportunity to boost our own resume against a "mid-major", as a win over them would certainly be a good. Since we’re thinking seeding instead of bid for next season we’ll take all the help we can get. It’s time to queue the music
Kyle Williams is successful in beating Double Jeopardy, Trebek pales
I sincerely hope this kid gets his act together, because he is still going to have quite awhile to think about his actions. After what he did to multiple women in multiple states it still sickens me some to know we had a Jumbotron gimmick and graphic for the very brief time he was on the field for us. Originally recruited by Iowa, we ended up with him where he truly went off the deep end. As a gesture of good faith toward the Hawkeyes I’ll put this one on our ledger since their plate is full at the moment.
Cases like this sadden me. This kid was given everything in the world. If he had his head on straight there is a good chance he would be making lots of money right now playing on Sundays. He apparently had the raw talent to do so. Unfortunately, the mental aspects prevented him from making an impact in this way. Clearly something was wrong with this young man, and he is paying for those mistakes. I sincerely hope he can make something of his second chance when it eventually comes, but he has a long time to find out about that.
CFN predicts potential 9 win season, says defense is much improved
The fellows over at College Football News published their Purdue preview this week, and I was surprised to see that they predict a big year for the Boilers. They are saying a 9 win season is what it will take for 2008 to be considered a success. They have the same questions we already know about, but they seem to think Curtis Painter can overcome them and win 9 games. They have done this before, as 2005 was supposed to be a dark horse national title year for us. I haven’t been as optimistic in my own previews, but I certainly think it is possible.
I think that everything fires on all cylinders this year we can win 10 games. I think Ohio State is the only opponent we have a very small chance against, and we always botch at least one game we should win. Other than that, I think we have a good shot of beating everyone else if everything else comes together. I also think the possibility is there to win just four games as we struggle mightily. It’s that wide open. It is good to see the positive press from these guys, but we’ve got to go out and back it up. These are the same people that predicted earlier that we wouldn’t even qualify for a bowl, for what it’s worth.
A new recruit in the fold
Danny Hope has his third unranked Florida commitment, and it is quarterback Rob Henry. There’s not a lot I can say about him, especially since the earliest he will likely be playing is 2011 unless there is a disaster with Justin Siller, but I like the schools that were interested in him. We’ll see where his final ranking ends up, like with the other guys we have. I for one welcome him, and I am glad he feels that Purdue is a perfect fit.
Two final notes I discovered tonight.
First, ESPN is doing this bizarre prestige ranking thing for all Division college basketball teams. Purdue surprisingly came in 29th, meaning the five year period from 2001-06 didn’t hurt us too badly. Still, a 1994 national title would have been really nice with the Big Dog.
Second, ESPN has gotten into college football blogging, and only about 2-3 years late. We officially have a Big Ten blogger there, and he writes to mixed reviews. I don’t know if he is a true blogger since he came from mainstream media, but he does have a very large area to cover now. He recently had a pretty good interview with Jason Werner found here. Judge for yourself if he meets blogger standards, if we have any.