2014 Purdue Football Recruiting: Cole Herdman Commits

Purdue is now up to 16 commitments with possibly two spots remaining. I will talk about that later this afternoon in a larger recruiting post, but the Boilers grabbed their third commitment in 24 hours when Cole Herdman, a 6'4" 225 pound tight end from Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia announced his commitment.

Herdman is a two-star recruit according to Rivals, is not rated according to Scout, and doesn't even have a page yet on ESPN's recruiting service. This, unfortunately make him Purdue's lowest rated commitment to date.

That's a bit of a surprise, as his receiving numbers were pretty good for a tight end in high school. This season he had 12 catches for 203 yards and seven TDs, showing he was a valuable red zone target. Last season he had 12 catches for 131 yards and three scores, giving him 24 catches for 334 yards and 10 touchdowns in three seasons.

Herdman also is an interesting prospect because he is a pretty good basketball player too. This year he is averaging 9 points, 1.7 assists, and 7.7 rebounds per game in just three games. Last season he averaged 8.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists.

Herdman could be a very underrated tight end prospect here. Look at Antonio Gates and and Jimmy Graham in the NFL. They both started primarily as basketball players and those skills are very apparent in the way they play. It certainly is not a bad thing that he is a basketball player in his spare time, though he isn't quite good enough to expect a reverse Patrick Bade and have Matt Painter steal him after two years.

Here are his senior year highlights. He is probably a developmental player for now, but there is some promise there.