Purdue Practice Report: The First Few Days

After two days of practice for Purdue football there are no immediate answers. From what I am reading, the team appears to be more focused and on the same page. This is likely a result of so many players playing two years ago as freshmen and now they are juniors. The consensus seems to be that the team as a whole is bigger and stronger. It actually looks like a Big Ten team, as opposed to the physically overmatched team that we have seen the last two years.

Perhaps some of the biggest news is the addition of a pair of walk-on receivers that are coming from out of nowhere to compete. The first is Jarrett Burgess. Yes, he is a freshman, but he is 25 years old. He is getting a late started because he was playing minor league baseball he last few years before ending up at Purdue. The 6'2" receiver is already developed physically, but has not played football since he was in high school at Florida Christian School in Miami. He got $150,000 as a signing bonus for baseball as a 6^th round pick of Seattle out of high school, but it did not work out. I cannot find anything about his football days. He hasn't played football in 7 years, but he has made an impression so far, so we will see.

The second walk-on is a receiver by the name of Malcolm Dotson. He played the last few years for Cathedral in Indianapolis and has a decent highlight reel. He is a big receiver at 6'2" 200 pounds and reportedly has 4.6 40 speed. He is intriguing because he is mostly a track speedster that could develop into something solid. He had a touchdown for Cathedral in last season's state championship game.

Other Highlights:

• There is no official separation between David Blough and Austin Appleby at quarterback. Appleby practiced with the No. 1's on Friday and Blough was with them on Saturday. Neither has thrown an interception.
• D.J. Knox has pretty well entrenched himself as the No. 1 running back. Markell Jones and Keyante Green are 2A and 2B.
• According to Mike Carmin, Brandon Roberts is practicing at safety with the No. defense as a redshirt freshman.
• The official depth chart as of this week has a couple of freshmen, redshirt or otherwise, on it. Cole Herdman is on it at TE and played with the No. 1s today after Jordan Jurasevich suffered a hip pointer. Bearooz Yacoobi and Martesse Patterson are in the mix on the offensive line at least as backups. Blough and Roberts have already been mentioned. Ben Makowski is supposedly the top long snapper for now as a true freshman and Brian Bravo is backing up Paul Griggs as kicker. He could handle kickoffs.
• Antoine Miles and Shayne Henley are both coming along well to replace Gelen Robinson during his suspension.