With the loss of Albert Evans and Logan Link, Purdue will now be looking for someone to take the reigns in the safety spot. JuCo transfer Max Charlot is just the player to take on this roll. Charlot is a ball hawking, hard hitting player, who is mean muggin in his Purdue profile picture, and will be a key role in our secondary this year.
Max Charlot - Sr.
Hometown: Corona, CA (Corona Santiago HS)
Safety
6', 190 pounds
2012 Projection: Starter at safety
Charlot joined the Boilermakers in the fall of 2010 and showed us right off the bat that he could be a contributor to this team. He played in all 12 games, started 4, while notching 12 tackles, 2 pass deflections, and intercepted a pass against Minnesota.
Last season, Charlot appeared in all 13 of Purdue's games and, again, started in four of them. He finished the season with 41 total tackles and two passes deflected. His best games were at Michigan where he registered a career high 6 tackles, and at Indiana where he finished with five tackles. This past season was a solid one for Charlot, but it was a little disappointing that he didn't record any interceptions. But with Ricardo Allen and Josh Johnson having a better nose for finding the ball, I'm fine with Charlot focusing more on tackles and breaking up the passes.
Now, Charlot enters his senior year looking to be our starting strong safety, and seems to be highly regarded by Danny Hope. In an ESPN article covering the spring game, Hope says "We have a couple guys back who have played well, and one of them is Max Charlot. He played quite a bit last year, a junior college guy who's a good student, has a good body who runs fast. So he's a favorite to be our potential starter next year."
Hope seems to be hopeful (get it? is this thing on? hellloooooo?!) about Charlot, and for good reasons; he's a big, physical safety that is showing he can be a solid tackler. I think Charlot will come out this year feeling he has something to prove as the new starter for the Boilers and uses that as motivation to play like a madman. While we wait to see him get on the field, enjoy this high school highlight reel of him.