85 Days to Purdue Football: Alex Maxwell

It is always good to see walk-ons earn playing time, and that is what we have with today’s player.

Alex Maxwell - So.

St. Leon, IN (East Central HS)

6’, 195 pounds

Wide Receiver

2022 Projection: Special Teams contributor

It is a little bit of a surprise that Maxwell is at Purdue as a receiver. He comes to us from East Central HS in the southeast corner of Indiana down by Cincinnati. As a sophomore there he led the Trojans to the Class 4A state championship as an option quarterback. Heading into the state title game he had rushed for 989 yards and 19 touchdowns while completing 53 of 89 passes for 607 yards and 4 TDs. In the state title game he ran for 94 yards and his six yard TD run with 2:02 left gave East Central a 14-7 win over Lowell. He also had a second quarter TD pass.

For the next two years East Central went 22-3, but two of the losses came in the state tournament. That sent him to Purdue as a walk-on. For his career he had almost 3700 yards rushing and over 2500 passing with 66 rushing TDs and 24 passing TDs.

In 2020 saw some action on special teams as a true freshman, making a tackle in the opener against Iowa. He held on to his redshirt and last year he played in 12 games on special teams. As Purdue basically played everyone it could play against UConn, he even saw some action on offense there. He caught a nine yard pass from Austin Burton in the fourth quarter as Purdue was in extensive garbage time up 49-0.

Maxwell looks to be a special teamer for many years to come, and he could see some time within the offense in blowouts. That’s a great achievement for a very accomplished high school player.