100 Days to Purdue Football

When we last saw Purdue football Auburn was tearing us to shreds in Nashville. A lot has happened since then. Sadly, Tyler Trent passed. The basketball team when on an unbelievable run. Remember, they were just 7-5 at the time of the bowl game and there were no signs of the coming Big Ten title and Elite 8 run. Spring Football came and went. Jeff Bohm put the finishing touches on possibly the best recruiting class in school history with David Bell signing in February.

So, starting today, we begin counting down to the August 30th kickoff in Reno. The first player in our annual countdown via the roster will go up tomorrow, but we can still look back on the 2018 season.

For being a year with a losing overall record and an unmerciful beatdown in the bowl games it was a great year. After losing 18 consecutive games against ranked opponents dating back to 2011 Purdue suddenly has a three-game winning streak against ranked foes after beating Boston College, Ohio State, and Iowa (who were all in the top 25 at the time of the game). The home schedule was exciting as those three games were wins, while the other four losses that each came down to the final snap of the game.

Oh, and there was the memorable Ohio State beatdown, which goes down as one of the most memorable nights in Ross-Ade Stadium history. It wasn’t even that we beat the No. 2 team in the country. It was the fact that we dropped a bank vault on them while the entire college football world watched.

And, of course, there was Tyler. The 2019 season will be a strange one without Tyler Trent. I was able to read his book recently and the chapter that described his actual passing was touching. It dovetailed with he football team’s performance and ho as soon as the season was over, Tyler was spent. We know Tyler will always be with us in spirit. He has made an incredible impact on the university as a whole and when the season kicks off in August we may not see him on the sidelines, but we’ll know the is with us in spirit.

So let’s look back on the highlights for the 2018 season. Yes, it is mostly the Rondale Moore show, but there are plenty of appearances from Isaac Zico, Terry Wright, DJ Knox, and David Blough.

See you in Reno in 100 days.