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Today we have two more players that should, at minimum, provide the elusive but valuable “quality depth” that everyone needs.
Markus Bailey - Fr. (RS)
Columbus, OH (Hilliard Davidson)
6’1”, 235 pounds
Linebacker
2016 Projection: Contributor at linebacker
Bailey is technically a redshirt freshman despite playing last season. he played int he first three games before tearing his ACL and being knocked out for the rest of the year. He looked solid, however, before the injury, and as a result should play quite a bit this season.
He finished the year with 12 tackles, half of them coming against Virginia Tech before he was injured. That makes him a very promising player going forward. He is probably one of Purdue’s best players coming out of a redshirt year and should be a contributor for years to come.
Anthony Mahoungou - Jr.
Paris, France (West Hills Community College)
6’3”, 210 pounds
Wide Receiver
2016 Projection: Contributor at Wide Receiver
Mahoungou was a JuCo transfer that played in all 12 games last seasons and should be a solid receiver coming forward. With Purdue losing a ton of experienced receivers at the end of this year he will likely be a leader next season even if his time is limited this year with three seniors in front of him.
Last year Mahoungou caught eight passes for 93 yards, but about half of that came in the season opener at Marshall. Like many things in that game, it was almost like John Shoop saw something was working extremely well for three quarters and decided to never do anything like that again.