Jeff Brohm Press Conference Highlights- Pre-Illinois

Jeff Brohm stepped up to the mic prior to the Illinois game and spoke about the win against Nebraska and the upcoming game at Illinois that could bring Purdue back to .500 on the season. Fresh off the bye week Purdue is building back up after a disappointing start to the season. Let’s see some highlights shall we?

Opening Statement:

It’s back to the grind to win the next football game. Our team understands there is no margin for error. We have to come out at the work and give ourselves a chance to win the football game.

I think Illinois is improved from last year. Had a lot of young guys last year on their team and you can see the improvement that they have made. They have a strong running quarterback. Lovie’s done a good job and he’s back healthy and did a job this past week running the football. Passing a little bit but he’s a runner and their defense has improved because of the experience now that they have playing the young man last year.

This team is 3-2. They lost two games. Had a chance to win both of them. Had a lead on Penn State in the second half and was up on South Florida the second half, so they definitely are a good football team that has improved and we’ll have to play well and do all the small things in order to have a chance to win.

Update on Cole Herdman:

He’s improved greatly, Cole has, and we’ll give it till Tuesday to see where he’s at. We’re hopeful that he could play. Now, whether that’s the whole game or as much as he used to, that remains to be seen but I think he has shown considerable improvement.

On defending Illinois:

This week, this quarterback is going to run the ball and he’ll run it strong and he’ll mix in a pass, but whether it’s the zone read, the zone slice read, or they have a tight end coming, arcing across the back side to help him; quarterback draw, they will drop back and run routes and he’ll run it, even if it’s design run, to run late.

But we have to contain him, have our eyes on him and make sure we are not giving up easy big chunks, and we have got to get after the quarterback, which means we have got to make them do things they are not good at, and hopefully we can have a good week of practice and see what we can do.

But the athletic running quarterbacks are always a danger because it just takes one or two big plays of them breaking loose and they are going to go the distance. So we have to make sure we eliminate the big plays and the big chunks.

On seeing a new play and how to put it into your arsenal:

Well, we definitely want to stay ahead of the curve and anybody that’s doing something that’s productive that looks good, whether that’s in college or the NFL, we are going to take note of it. Each of us are watching not only our opponent and ourselves each week but we are watching certain teams each week just to see what development we can add to the mix with what we do.

It’s important that you have wrinkles. You look at the top teams in the NFL right now, the Rams, the Chiefs, they are as college-like as you’re going to get and they have different wrinkles, and it’s not traditional base plays every single time. They are definitely having some creativity to it, and because of that, they have become really good.

You want to make sure you have enough. You want to make sure you don’t do too much. But it is important you give yourself a chance to win and we definitely want to err on the side of being creative.

On connecting on big plays:

I mean, I think to this point we have found a way to create big plays and it’s helped us be more productive. That’s always going to be a challenge, and we want to continue to do that, whether it’s the same plays we’re running or whether there is a new mix that we’re going to add.

But yes, in order to be a productive offense, you’ve got to get some big chunks. Yes, we have been pleased with where we are at to this point but we have to keep it going and continue to be good at it.

On the change in play-calling for Blough including more down field shots:

Yeah, we feel great with the way David’s been playing. When you look back at our team since we’ve been here, last year we had a hard time throwing the football at numerous points in the season. We had a hard time catching it, and it was costing us games that we were not productive with it and it was not all on the quarterback but he’s going to take the blame.

But it does cause you -- okay, we are going to do a few different things here because this isn’t working and we’re not as productive, and these costly series are hurting us and not giving us a chance to win.

With that said, I think we have gotten back to being more aggressive. We’ve played some good football teams where we knew, hey, we’re going to have to take some shots in order to win the games, and really, based where our defense was at a certain point, we’re going to have to take some more shots to win the game; let’s go down and be aggressive.

I think we’ve kind of evolved and we want to go down swinging each game. If we happen not to win, it’s not because we played scared. We are going to play aggressive, take shots. David has gotten better at it. He feels comfortable with it and our receivers have made plays at certain times and they have improved and our offensive line has made a little more protection at times to give us a chance to throw it up the field.

But David definitely has taken the reigns and ran with it, and his ability to be aggressive up the field, but yet sometimes pull it down and get his first downs when it’s not there has definitely helped our offense.

Yeah, we feel great with the way David’s been playing. When you look back at our team since we’ve been here, last year we had a hard time throwing the football at numerous points in the season. We had a hard time catching it, and it was costing us games that we were not productive with it and it was not all on the quarterback but he’s going to take the blame.

But it does cause you -- okay, we are going to do a few different things here because this isn’t working and we’re not as productive, and these costly series are hurting us and not giving us a chance to win.

With that said, I think we have gotten back to being more aggressive. We’ve played some good football teams where we knew, hey, we’re going to have to take some shots in order to win the games, and really, based where our defense was at a certain point, we’re going to have to take some more shots to win the game; let’s go down and be aggressive.

I think we’ve kind of evolved and we want to go down swinging each game. If we happen not to win, it’s not because we played scared. We are going to play aggressive, take shots. David has gotten better at it. He feels comfortable with it and our receivers have made plays at certain times and they have improved and our offensive line has made a little more protection at times to give us a chance to throw it up the field.

But David definitely has taken the reigns and ran with it, and his ability to be aggressive up the field, but yet sometimes pull it down and get his first downs when it’s not there has definitely helped our offense.

On Drew Brees:

Well, I think it’s tremendous. He’s a great ambassador for the program. He’s been great to me. I reached out to him last week and he responded right back like that. He wants to win. He’s a winner. He wants Purdue to win. He follows our games. He’s a guy that defied the odds and played at a high level and now will go down as one of the great quarterbacks in the history of the game. Does everything right off the field, great ambassador, like I said. Couldn’t meet a finer person and I think it’s because of his background and his family and the ability to play here and be so productive for this university and take it to a Rose Bowl and all the things that he’s done after his playing days, we couldn’t have a better ambassador than Drew Brees.