Purdue Football: Quarterback Depth Chart

Another year, another quarterback competition.

Since Jeff Brohm has come to West Lafayette, there has never been a clear cut starter at Purdue to begin the season. 2020 is no different.

The departure of Elijah Sindelar, even though he had a 6th year, left a gaping hole at quarterback, one with options that do not have a ton of experience.

We are familiar with Jack Plummer’s game. The tall, lanky quarterback threw for 1,600 yards, 11 touchdowns and 8 interceptions before a season ending injury. He was healthy for 7 games. The sophomore is healthy and prepping for the season.

AOC, the to be junior walk on, filled in admirably when Plummer went down. At the start of the season, we never thought we would get to our 4th quarterback, but we did. Sindelar down, Plummer hurt, Nick Sipe retirement. AOC isn’t a typical walk on clipboard QB, he was ready to go when his name was called, a tip of the hat to the culture being built at Purdue for that.

But, outside of that, there isn’t a ton known on the other Quarterbacks. You have to be junior, UCLA transfer Austin Burton, who didn’t play a ton at UCLA, but when he did, he played well. He has two years of eligibility left, something tells me he came here for a reason. His workout videos have been impressive.

Paul Piferi, the RS Freshman has also put out a few videos that have been impressive and it looks like his development is on pace. Then of course, you have incoming 4 star quarterback, Mike Alaimo, who is as big and strong as it gets at the quarterback position, he is around 6-4, 230 Pounds.

But, anyway, here is my guess at the QB Depth Chart.

1. Jack Plummer - 6-5, 225 Pounds, Sophomore
2. Austin Burton - 6-2, 200 Poumds, Junior
3. Aidan O’Connell -6-3, 215 Pounds, Junior
4. Paul Piferi - 6-5, 220 Pounds, RS Freshman
5. Mike Alaimo - 6-5, 225 Pounds, Freshman

I have Plummer as essentially the incumbent, but he is going to be pushed GREATLY by Burton and AOC. I think this is a situation, where whoever the starting QB is, you better not mess up a ton or your job will be on the line.

There are other options and we saw Coach Brohm with David Blough even have a short leash - he is in the NFL now.

Burton’s mobility really intrigues me. If that is a direction Coach Brohm is wanting to go, I could easily see that Burton could be the starter. Recent recruiting tendencies shows he wants more mobile guys. Piferi was a great HS track sprinter, running low 11s in the 100 meter dash, then of course, we flipped Sam Jackson from Minnesota a couple weeks back, who is the definition of a Mobile QB.

Alaimo also has some pretty good wheels to his game. Don’t be surprised if you see Burton in there for some of his own RPO packages. We saw Brohm do this with Elijah Sindelar and David Blough many times during their careers.

While these guys are not truly prove, none of them have a full season under their belts as starting quarterbacks, they all have high potential, and I believe they will continue to get better.

All besides Burton have been Brohm recruits, Plummer was truly Brohm’s first quarterback commit, so really his first project, one that I am sure he wants to see succeed.

It is going to be an interesting battle the remaining part of the summer and fall for the starting job. Again, this is my best guess, I truly have no idea what will happen.

As always, Boiler Up & Hammer Down!