David Blough Named QB1 for Spring Practice

When we last saw David Blough he was being carted of the turf of Ross_Ade Stadium, attempting to excite the crowd after dislocating his ankle. As he was being loaded into the ambulance he gave the touchdown signal as Elijah Sindelar completed the TD drive against Illinois with a pass to Cole Herdman.

Since Blough missed the final three regular season game and the bowl game with ankle surgery and Sindelar had ACL surgery following the season it looked like Purdue would be really young during spring practice.

Not so fast:

Workouts start Monday and Blough will be the No. 1 quarterback on the depth chart, despite undergoing surgery to fix a dislocated ankle in November. He was injured in the Nov. 4 victory over Illinois.

“He’s doing a great job and he will be out there at spring practice and will be participating,” Brohm said Friday. ‘Whether it will be fully that remains to be seen. He will be out there Day 1 and doing some portions of practice.”

Elijah Sindelar, who played the final 3 ½ games with a torn ACL and led the Boilermakers to a bowl victory, won’t participate in spring drills.

“He is progressing very rapidly and faster than we thought,” Brohm said of Sindelar.

The Boilermakers will be without several key players in spring practice.

Brohm said running backs Tario Fuller and Richie Worship are out along with left tackle Grant Hermanns, guard Shane Evans, receiver Jarrett Burgess and former quarterback turned receiver Jared Sparks.

Sparks underwent ankle surgery after Purdue’s bowl game.

“He is going to concentrate at the receiver position but we’ll always have a small package for him (at quarterback),” Brohm said of Sparks. “He’s going to work at the receiver position.”

It seems likely Blough won’t be a full go, leaving many reps for Nick Sipe and Jack Plummer, but he at least gives Purdue an experienced quarterback to work with the incoming receivers. Otherwise, the most experienced QBs would be walk-on Aaron Banks and receiver Jackson Anthrop, who each have one completion in their careers.

Blogh is approaching some decent career numbers heading into his final season. He has thrown for 6,029 yards, which is 7th in school history. he also has 44 touchdown passes, just one behind Scott Campbell for fifth. His 566 completions is 7th in school history and his 957 attempts is also 7th.

Of course, Sindelar will be back by the season opener in August, and the two almost equally split time before Blough was injured last season. Should Blough start the season against Northwestern it will continue Purdue’s streak of not having the same starting QB in consecutive years since Curtis Painter:

2008: Curtis Painter

2009: Joey Elliott

2010: Robert Marve

2011: Caleb TerBush

2012: Robert Marve

2013: Rob Henry

2014: Danny Etling

2015: Austin Appleby

2016: David Blough

2017: Elijah Sindelar

Sean Robinson and Justin Siller also started games in that stretch.