Purdue Football Recruiting: Friday Update

The long summer of our discontent is almost over. Fall camp has kicked off and college football is just around the corner. Recruiting, however, never stops.

I’ll be focusing more on the upcoming season over the next few weeks, but I wanted to give you guys another recruiting update before I transition into the actual season.

Jaylen Stinson

This one surprised me at first.

I thought we were pursing either Marcellus Moore or Jaylen Stinson. Turns out that “or” was actually an “and”. I knew we wanted to add a second corner in this class, but I wasn’t sure who we were looking at once Northwestern landed Garnett Hollis.

Turns out it was Stinson all along.

I initially thought Purdue would be looking for a taller corner to compliment Max Melton, but after taking another look at the roster, grabbing a guy who can cover the slot makes sense.

The Boilermaker coaching staff has prioritized taller corners in the previous classes, and there is a need on the roster for a quick player that can cover slot receivers. Stinson is just that type of player. Throw in the fact that new Purdue cornerback coach saw a bunch of Stinson when he was at Auburn (Stinson is from Opelika, which is essentially a suburb of Auburn) and the pick up makes more sense to me now.

Solid pickup for Purdue, and the Moore / Stinson kick returner could be deadly (if kick returns are still a thing in the near future).

Official Offers

Official offers went out this week. The offer lists you see on recruiting sites are hard to parse, but these offers are the real deal. They pretty much assure there is at least some level of mutual interest between a player and a program.

Some official offers that peaked my interest:

Eddie Watkins

Purdue is still in hot pursuit of the 3* Evergreen, Alabama (and current Georgia Tech commit) defensive end. Purdue hosted Watkins on an official visit, and is apparently looking to add another defensive end to the class.

Jayland Parker

Parker is a 3* linebacker out of Macon, Georgia and current Colorado Buffalo commit. I didn’t think there was room for another linebacker in this class, but the staff (who know way better than I do) thinks there is apparently, because.....

Ty Berrong

Berrong is a 3* linebacker out of Port Orange, Florida. Unlike Parker, he’s not currently committed and it appears Purdue is solidly in the mix for his services. You’ve got to think that it’s either Parker or Berrong (or possibly neither) but it doesn’t appear that Purdue is done with linebackers in the 2020 if they can land one they like.

Jontavis Robertson

Robinson is a 3* WR/DB out of Gray, Georgia. This is another interesting offer and could possibly be a Maliq Carr plan B. I just don’t see room for another DB in this class so you’ve got to think this is a WR offer. Again, there must be some mutual interest between Robertson and Purdue, so if you’re into recruiting, you may want to keep an eye on him.

Defensive Tackle

Defensive tackle is still a huge need for Purdue in the 2020 class. The roster is in desperate need of another nose guard, but I’m not sure it’s in the cards. Right now it looks like Bryce Austin is going to be the guy. Austin is a talented player, and I will be thrilled if Purdue can add him to the 2020 class, but he’s a converted linebacker who will be better suited to playing the 3 technique at Purdue (think Gelen Robinson).

The only real nose guard left on the board is Octavious Oxendine, and the big man from Kentucky looks like he’ll be staying in-state to play his college ball unless something drastically changes between now and signing day.