60 more days till the Boilermakers take the field for what will be an interesting season, to say the least. It's wild how fast this summer is going. Seems like yesterday was the end of senior week, and we were wishing the best to our graduating Boilers. However, today we are taking a look at one of the incoming freshmen who looks to start his new journey with Purdue.
Chuck Ayres - Fr.
Hometown: Eau Claire, WI (Eau Claire Memorial)
Offensive Tackle
6'4" 225 pounds
Projection: Redshirt
Ayres enters Purdue listed as an offensive tackle, while he played defensive end in high school and had great success as a three year starter. Ayres is one of the few walk-ons this year, and was looking at football colleges like Notre Dame, Texas, and Ohio State as well as colleges that excelle in academics like MIT, Princeton, and Harvard. I don't think there could be a more unique group of schools on a prospective college athlete's list.
Ayres made it clear that regardless of where he ended up going to school, football was going to be second to academics. As someone studying education, I love guys like this. Ayres elected Purdue over the other universities because he could do both football and biomedical engineering. This kid is one smart cookie.
I always love having a guys on a team that are going to work hard both on and off the field. However, I question if Ayres will ever get any playing time as an O-linemen for Purdue. He is really small to play that position. Like really really small. To ever have a chance at playing he'll have to put on at least 40 pounds, and Ayres knows that he needs to put on muscle. This is a big reason to why I see him redshirting this upcoming season. Ayres seems like a great kid who is going to put forth the effort to get better, and you can't have enough of those caliber of players. I just don't see him as a guard or tackle. I'd look for Ayres converting back to his original defensive end position or maybe be converted to linebacker.