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The Boilermakers picked up a verbal commitment on Saturday from Brycen Hopkins out of Nashville, TN. The 6'5", 240 pound tight end from Ensworth High School is the 22nd commitment for the 2015 class and comes as a sigh of relief as the tight end position has not been addressed at all until now. Purdue only has three scholarship tight ends on the roster for 2015.
Hopkins has NFL ties as his father was a first-round draft pick and played 13 seasons with the Oilers/Titans organization. The younger Hopkins was offered by Purdue over the summer after playing just one year of high school football. He had some smaller schools offer but was starting to show interest from schools like Vanderbilt, Georgia, Auburn, and N.C. State. He is a 2-star recruit according to both 247 and Rivals, and I think that is mostly because he's only been playing for 2 seasons.
Be sure to check out the videos below of Hopkins in action. The first video is his junior season (first season playing TE) and the 2nd is from this past season. You can see how much he improved over the summer and he looks like a legit tight end. He has good hands and sheds tacklers very well. He will almost certainly see some playing time in 2015 as Purdue can't afford to redshirt a tight end unless they go out and get a few more here soon. Welcome to West Lafayette, Brycen!