2017 National Signing Day: Purdue’s Wrap Up

National Signing Day has started to wind down a bit and Coach Brohm’s first class is mostly in the books. We’re still waiting on a couple of players to make the deal official. The first is Tobias Larry, a linebacker from Kathleen High School in Florida who will sign later today:

The second player we’re waiting on is Mykelti Williams, who has long been rumored to be coming to Purdue, but nothing has been made official yet. Finally, graduate transfer Corey Winfield from Syracuse is still out there, but since he is a grad transfer he is not beholden to signing day. He can come at any time, and he has one year of eligibility left to use immediately.

First off, the following players were already signed before today and are enrolled for the spring semester:

T.J. Jallow – DB (JuCo Transfer with 2 years left)

Ethan Smart – OL (JuCo Transfer with 2 years left)

Kai Higgins – DE (JuCo Transfer with 3 years left)

Tyler Hamilton – WR

Jalen Jackson – OL

DJ Edwards – WR

There were four new commitments today, all of them linebackers:

Derrick Barnes – Barnes was an all-state selection and two-way player at Holy Cross High in Covington, KY. He had 126 tackles as a linebacker and as a running back he had 1,567 yards and 22 touchdowns. He brings speed and size to the field and seems like he will likely stay on the defensive side of the ball at Purdue.

Robert McWilliams – McWilliams comes literally from Da U’s backyard as he is from Coral Gables High down in Florida. At 6’3” 195 pounds he is likely a project at either defensive end or outside linebacker. He had a major conference offer from Pittsburgh and visited them this past weekend, but jumped to Purdue.

Cornell Jones – Jones is another linebacker from the Miami area, having attended Miami Central high. Colorado and South Carolina were trying to get the 6’2” 225 linebacker, but coach Brohm was able to get him on signing day.

Tobias Larry – Larry had offers from Illinois and Louisville as major conference programs, but he will sign with Purdue later today according to Twitter. He is a 6’2” 190 pound linebacker that is probably an immediate redshirt candidate. He was still a 3-star commitment according to 24/7.

So where does the class rank?

Well, according to both Rivals and 24/7 Purdue comes in at 67^th nationally. It is not great, but it is a slight improvement over Darrell Hazell’s last classes. When you consider coach Brohm had about a month and a half to throw it together that is probably as good as we can expect. Hazell’s 2016 class was 74^th on Rivals, his 2015 class was 71^st, and his 2014 class was also 71^st. Those were the three classes entirely recruited by Hazell (2013 had many Hope holdovers), so we’re already doing at least a little better. Many of these guys were players Brohm was recruiting at Western Kentucky, too.

In terms of the Big Ten Purdue’s class is dead last. There is not much you can say about that. Purdue has gone 3-29 in the Big Ten the last four years. It just made a mid-recruiting cycle hire. Getting out of the basement would have taken a small miracle from Brohm. Purdue is relatively close to Indiana for 13^th, but the real recruiting test will be next fall and winter. The only thing that will truly help is winning more games.

That’s why Brohm was brought in.

Who are the instant impact guys?

T.J. Jallow was brought in to be an immediate starter in the secondary and he will be. ESPN has him listed as a 4-star prospect and if Williams and Winfield end up at Purdue the secondary will be a major, major strength with four really good starters.

Tyler Hamilton is also a 4-star commitment at wide receiver (per ESPN) and should play immediately, but you can say that of nearly every receiver Terry Wright and Isaac Zico are JuCo guys brought in to play right away. Overall, Purdue signed five receivers because it has very little depth at the position. Given the pass-happy offense Brohm wants to run, all five could play from day 1.

Ethan Smart will almost certainly be a starter at offensive guard as a JuCo transfer. Kai Higgins will probably see playing time on an incredibly thin defensive line. Freshman Allen Daniels may have to play out of necessity at defensive tackle because we just don’t have anyone else (more on that later).

As far as the other positions, well, when you go 9-39 over the last four years and have a new coach virtually every position should be up for grabs. There are very few spots where I would say Purdue has a stone cold lock starter at the position. Kirk Barron at center, David Blough at quarterback, Markell Jones at running back, and both Markus Bailey and Ja’Whaun Bentley at linebacker. That’s about it.

What spots were addressed the most

Purdue has several offensive linemen coming out of redshirt and it added five more in this class. That’s good and very necessary. With Martesse Patterson’s status still a question mark Purdue has only two definite starters returning. Both guards need to be replaced and to say the tackles underperformed last year is an understatement. There are several good prospects here, but it may take a redshirt year for Mark Stickford and Jalen Jackson to be ready.

Purdue needed serious depth at linebacker, with almost no experience behind the three projected starters. It got that depth in the form of five linebackers, as mentioned. We also talked about the receiver position, which was a major priority.

What was missing?

Purdue had a few guys back out at the last minute at defensive tackle, and it only added one in Allen Daniels. It is no secret that our run defense sucked out loud last year, and a dearth of talent (or even bodies) at defensive tackle will continue to be a major weakness. On the official roster going into the spring Purdue has seven defensive tackles. One (Will Colmery) is recovering from getting a brain tumor removed, has never played, and there are questions if he will EVER play. Two (Fred Brown and Keiwan Jones, are third and fourth year guys, respectively, that have played very little in their time here. Another, Anthony Watts, is coming out of his redshirt year. Eddy Wilson’s status has been all over the place as he was briefly off the team, but is now back on. Lorenzo Neal and Alex Criddle are raw sophomores that have talent, but are still young guys.

So the defensive tackle spot is basically as a full-on red alert crisis.

How does the scholarship chart look?

By my math, Purdue is two OVER the 85 scholarship limit before Winfield and Williams come on. That makes things very interesting, and it probably means some guys currently on the roster aren’t coming back. I can think of at least 4 seniors that have played or will play very little this coming season, so who knows. I don’t want to kick guys off the roster at all, but at the same time guys like Johnny Daniels, Keyante Green, Dezwan Polk-Campbell, and Keiwan Jones have done almost nothing in their time at Purdue.

Here is the chart as I have it right now, subject to change: