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We are three days away from three weeks away. Holy hell, we are getting close. The Boilers have now grabbed a pair of 3 star recruits amidst the firing of everyone's least favorite box wearer in football, there's enough excitement to go around to award the one walk-on Grady Eifert a little something something.
Grady Eifert - SO
Fort Wayne, IN
6-6, 220 lbs
Forward
2016-17 Projection: Bench Enthusiast
Before we get a little silly, it’s a privilege to play on any division 1 team, but hot damn it’s also a lot of work. Especially for the guys that don’t go out and play. The ones who don’t have the glory attached to their names. (Though, I suppose, you could say they also don’t get the blame either.) So it’s great when you hear about someone like Grady Eifert, who was granted a scholarship for this year with the many Purdue had just lying around with half scribbled out names of 5 star recruits we had dreamt about.
That being said. Grady Eifert is not very good at basketball. He’s decently sized and pretty mobile, as far as that stuff goes, but his game most closely resembles a six foot six, goofy-grinned cannonball darting towards the hoop with the excitement of a dog chasing his tail with the soft, slippery hands of said poodle.
Could he beat you or I in a pick up game? I’m sure(well, kinda, I’m pretty nice), but fortunately, that’s not a relevant question outside of playing Rutgers this year. In which case, I fully hope and expect to see Eifert get some serious run and try very hard to smash the backboard with an ill-advised layup at too quick a speed.
There’s no real metric to look at when it comes to being a teammate, but if there were, my hunch is Grady would score off the charts. And despite the ribbing, that is the thing. The bench players, the walk-ons, they’ll never be measured in the stat sheets, but players like Grady Eifert affect every game by working hard in practice, helping create a culture, and representing all the values we associate with Purdue.
It’s easy to forget about the players behind the scenes and at the end of the bench when the season starts, so let’s go ahead and make today Grady’s day.