61 Days Until Purdue Football: Ryan Flaherty

I feel like I am running out of ways to say “we have a promising walk-on lineman” here on the countdown, but it is true. Today’s player is a promising scout team player doing all the hard work in practice.

Ryan Flaherty - Junior

New Carlisle, IN (New Prairie HS)

6’3”, 290 pounds

Offensive Line

2018 Projection: Deep Reserve on the Offensive Line

Flaherty hasn’t played a down yet, but last season he was one of several players that received Academic all-Big Ten honors. He did this in his second year as a walk-on with the program.

Purdue lists Ryan’s high school as New Carlisle in northern Indiana, but he played at Chicago’s Mount Carmel HS for three years before moving. that school is the in the Chicago Catholic League, which is a pretty good football league in the Windy City.

While at Mount Carmel he played with Steve Richardson at Minnesota and Enoch Smith at Michigan State under Frank Lenti, who has been there for more than 30 years. He was a member of two teams that won state championships when he was a freshman and a sophomore.

Ryan came to Purdue for its engineering program, much to the chagrin of his family, who are Notre Dame alums, students, and supporters.