Darius Pittman Leaves Purdue Football

There was some surprise news tonight, as confirmed by Tom Dienhart at Gold and Black Illustrated:

Pittman only had two receptions for 23 yards in his career and a random kickoff return for 16 yards back in 2017. Still, he was a major contributor as a blocking tight end and on special teams. He had played in 24 of a possible 27 games to this point, including last Friday night at Nevada. He had a random kickoff return of 11 yards on Friday night on Purdue’s final possession, but that was the only time he touched the ball.

It is interesting that Pittman decided to leave like this so suddenly when he had been a contributor since the first game of his true freshman season in 2017. He wasn’t getting the targets of a Brycen Hopkins, but he was playing.

His departure leaves Payne Durham as the clear No. 2 tight end. Durham did play some on Friday. Garrett Miller and Kyle Bilodeau, both true freshmen, will likely see more action. Neither played on Friday. Durham, Miller, Bilodeau, and Hopkins are the only four tight ends on the roster.

This also frees up a scholarship for 2020 and beyond. We are down to just 11 scholarship seniors for next season now, counting Alex Criddle and Elijah Sindelar. Richie Worship and Tario Fuller might be potential sixth year guys, but we won’t know until after the season.

Once again, to illustrate our youth, Purdue is set to have 9 scholarship players finish their elligibility, 11 in 2020, and 13 in 2021. That’s 33 upper classmen including this year’s sophomores and the rest are freshmen or walk-ons.