Purdue Football Recruiting: Markus Bailey Commits

In a surprise move, Markus Bailey, a 3* 6'1 205 pound outside linebacker from Hilliard, Ohio decided to become the next member of the 2015 class, hereby known as THE CLASS OF DESTINY. Bailey, considered a Duke lock at the end of June, decided to join Wyatt Cook and Sawyer Dawson to form a devastating triad of linebackers. Purdue needs linebackers in this class, and adding Bailey has to be considered a home run.

Bailey has an impressive array of football teams desiring his services, including: Duke, West Virginia, Pittsburg, Northwestern, Boston College and Illinois. Bailey also holds an Indiana offer, but as you know, that is far from impressive, and one can only assume Bailey uses Indiana recruitment letters to line the inside of his parrot cage (Disclaimer: I don't actually know if Bailey has a parrot, but I like to think that he does, and that he is currently teaching it to whistle the Purdue fight song).

Strengths:

Football Player: Purdue needs football players, and Bailey is a football player. If you take the time to watch his highlight film you will see him play running back, fullback, outside linebacker, and safety. You can see him run, catch a pass, block, rush the passer, drop back and intercept a pass, work through traffic to make a tackle, chase down a ball carrier, stop a ball carrier in the back field, and generally be an unstoppable force everywhere on the football field. In a strange world where kids specialize from the time they are 5, "Sorry coach, I only play left outside linebacker in a 4-3 scheme," Bailey does it all for his team. I'm almost certain that he helps little old ladies across the street before the game, leads the band onto the field at halftime, and does post game interviews for the local television station.

Pass Rusher: If Purdue is going to stick with this hybrid 3-4 scheme, they are going to need to find outside linebackers that can come off the edge and get to the quarterback, and Bailey appears to fit that need. He has good timing on the snap, gets to the edge, gets to the quarterback, and last, but certainly not least, gets the quarterback on the ground. This is a useful skill and one that might get Bailey on the field sooner rather than later.

Pass Defense: As mentioned earlier, Bailey plays a little bit of safety when he isn't busy burying quarterbacks, and here's the crazy thing...he's pretty good at intercepting passes. It appears that the Purdue coaching staff also watched the games we were forced to watch last season, and came to the same conclusion we did: the linebackers can't cover anyone, and other teams apparently know this inconvenient fact. Bailey looks like he can drop into coverage and make a play, or, and I know this is crazy, actually man up on a tight end and cover him downfield. The days of only having to install the 5, 8, 11, and 17 yard crossing patterns when you play Purdue are coming to an end.

Weakness:

Size: Bailey is going to have to get bigger to play linebacker at the Big 10 level. This shouldn't be an issue because he has the frame to put on plenty of weight, but at the moment, he is a little on the skinny side of things. Right now, speed and athleticism are two of Bailey's best traits. Will he be as fast and athletic at 230 as he currently is at 205?

Overall:

This is a big pick up for Purdue. They got Bailey on campus and sealed the deal. Purdue needs linebackers in this class and they have 3 pretty good ones on the hook so far. I like Bailey, Cook, and Dawson with Bailey and Dawson being quick outside linebackers and Cook being a big banger in the middle. Purdue has their eye on one more linebacker, and here's hoping for Reagan Williams. He is currently considered an I.U. lean, but Hazell had Williams on campus recently, and he seems like a smart kid. I can't imagine he will end up in Bloomington.

Junior Highlights: