Purdue Football: Am I The Only One Getting Excited?

December 5th, 2016. The day our fortune began to turn around. The day Jeff Brohm was named our new head football coach.

I know, everyone then was like, yay a new head coach, but what an uphill battle he has to gain success again. This is true, but if there is someone that can do it, Coach Brohm can.

A while back when people were speculating who was going to be our head coach, names were being thrown out, Les Miles, PJ Fleck, assistants from O$U, Penn State assistants, Michigan assistants. Coach Brohm wasn’t mentioned much.

In the Hammer and Rails group me, I brought him up a few times, the guys agreed, he would be a good fit. We all said, possibly a Joe Tiller 2.0, basketball on grass, offensive innovator, solid assistants around him, an NFL pedigree. Jeff Brohm isn’t a fluke like the last guy. The last guy had one successful year and we hired him.

Coach Brohm had three successful years in a row at WKU. His offense always in the top 5 of the nation. His defense, sneaky good. When hired, people worried about the defensive side of the ball. I dug deeper, I saw that his run defense at WKU was one of the best under his defensive coordinator Nick Holt, he had long, rangy defensive backs, disciplined linebackers and mean defensive linemen. When has Purdue really been known for holding opponents under 20 points per game anyway?

We outscored everyone with Coach Tiller, the same will be done with Coach Brohm.

This last week alone on the recruiting trail has gotten me even more excited. He preached he was going to recruit the Midwest hard, something we haven’t had since Coach Tiller as well. Coach Brohm has lived up to that. Five commits in the past week. Four coming from in state or a surrounding state. Jaylan Alexander who got the ball rolling is from the Chicago area, Jack Cravaack from Ohio, Kadin Smith from Coach Brohm’s Kentucky ties, and Elijah Ball from in state power house Ben Davis, our first Ben Davis recruit in over 34 years. He preached he will get the best quarterbacks from anywhere in the nation, enter Jack Plummer from Arizona, a highly touted 3*, with a plethora of offers. He was our most sought after QB apparently, Coach Brohm landed him.

Listen, this year will have growing pains. Don’t expect 7-5, 6-6, 5-7 (MAYBE). Vegas put at our over/under at 2.5 wins, tied for the lowest in the nation. I would go ahead and take the over on that.

When we take our bumps and losses this year, they won’t be nearly as ugly in years past. We will probably lose in shootouts, 38-31, 45-35, etc. Coach Brohm won’t get shutout, he is too much of an offensive mastermind. But, we will probably allow a lot of points, even with transfers and returning players, he has to get his defensive guys in for his system to be perfect.

We could upset some teams as well, with that offensive fire power, a returning QB that lead the B1G in passing yards and touchdowns (Interceptions as well but we stay quiet on that). Teams like, Missouri, Minnesota (Brohm will put Fleck in his place), Northwestern and Iowa better be on upset alert. Those are teams that have beat us in the past because how inept we were on offense, leading to easy scores for their offense. That won’t happen this year.

I could go on and on. The Brohm era is here, I couldn’t be more excited. A new staff, new complex, new offense, new defense, 6.5 million put into football, a swagger. Can the season get here already?

LET’S PLAY FOOTBALL!