Purdue Football Recruiting: Monday Update

Into the Dead Zone

College football coach wedding and vacation season is upon us.

The summer dead period starts June 24th and ends July 24th. During this time period, coaches can’t meet face to face with recruits or their families. They also can’t watch recruits compete or visit their high schools. Phone calls and letters are still allowed.

Purdue crammed in several official visits before the start of the dead period, and now the coaches get to sit back and check out the returns on their hard work, and maybe spend a bit of that hard earned money they’ve been making on a nice vacation.

Swing and a Miss

Garnett Hollis Jr.

Hollis is a big miss for Purdue. There isn’t any blame to be assigned. The Boilermakers took their best shot and Hollis decided he wanted to go to Northwestern...such is recruiting.

I had Hollis as the number 1 outside CB on my wish list, and I think he had a similar position on Purdue’s recruiting board. The Boilermakers are still in the market for a tall, physical outside CB to compete with the increasing trend toward bigger receivers and back shoulder jump balls.

I don’t see many other options on Purdue’s CB offer list to replace Hollis. Expect the Boilermakers to spend this dead period checking out some more film and handing out a few more CB offers.

Chris Mayo

Purdue has been successful in raiding New York and New Jersey for talent this cycle, but missed on one of the biggest targets (both literally and figuratively) in the region. Mayo was seen as an early lean towards West Virginia and Purdue just couldn’t close the gap.

What makes this even worse is Illinois guard Marcus Harper is trending towards Oregon after visiting both Purdue and Oregon. One place Purdue needs to shore up recruiting is interior linemen.

Missing on both Mayo and Harper would be tough.

Hunter Dekkers

This is just a little house keeping, as Purdue is set at quarterback. Sometimes it’s interesting to see where prospects end up. I thought Dekkers was going to end up at Iowa State after the Cyclones offered, and I was right.

Hope Springs Eternal

You miss on way more guys than you hit on in recruiting. That’s just the nature of the business. Any of the following players would put a smile on the Boilermaker coaching staffs face.

Marcus Harper - OG - 3*(86) - Commitment Date - June 27th - Prediction - Oregon

Sanoussi Kane - S - 3*(83) - Commitment Date - June 28th - Prediction - Purdue

Max Melton - CB - 3*(85) - Commitment Date - July 16th - Prediction - Purdue

Keeping Tabs on “The Freak”

Maliq Carr doesn’t commit until October 11th, but Purdue appears to be at the top of the leader board for the multi sport athlete from Michigan.

Carr is 6’4, 230 pound WR/TE, SG/SF from Oak Park, Michigan. Even though Carr is listed by most recruiting sites as a TE, Carr wants to play WR in college, and Purdue is happy to offer him that opportunity.

If he grows out of the position, he can still play tight end, but there’s no harm in letting the uber athletic Carr try his hand at wide receiver first. He would be match up nightmare on the outside in Purdue’s offense.

I see this as a 2 receiver class with the possibility of 3 if the right guys (read Carr and Redding) want to play sign up. I think you’ll see Purdue be extremely selective with the remaining receiver slots. I don’ think the coaches will be accepting commitments until they hear from Carr and Redding.

If Purdue can land either Carr or Redding (or both in a best case scenario) I think the WR position will be shut down.

Oh, and Carr is also interested in playing both football and basketball in college. He doesn’t project as highly as a basketball prospect as he does a football prospect, but it looks like Painter would be willing to give him a shot if he decides to play for Purdue. It’s one of the big advantages Purdue has in Carr’s recruitment.

What’s Next?

Other than the upcoming commitment dates, the Purdue staff gets a chance to catch their breath, reorder their recruiting board, do some tape evaluations, and get ready for late July recruiting.

There’s also that pesky little football season right around the corner.