Minnesota Gophers at Purdue Boilermakers Game Day Info

I think it's a bit cliche, but I'm going to use it anyways: This is a possible turning point for Coach Hazell and his coaching career at Purdue. They're coming off yet another close loss and "moral victory" against Michigan State, a game where no one expected it to be a competitive match-up in the 2nd half. The question for Hazell is: Can he get his team to build off their second half performance and beat the Gophers, building momentum for the rest of the season? Or will Purdue lose and begin the discussion of this team going 1-11 again?

Purdue absolutely needs to win on Saturday. Purdue should have won in Minneapolis last season, but collapsed, as usual, in the 4th quarter. Minnesota has shown its weak spots, but both of their losses have come against really good teams (TCU and Northwestern), and they are looking to bounce back at getting shut out at Northwestern this past weekend. If Purdue can get the win on Saturday, then the rest of the schedule looks somewhat winnable for Purdue, and then we could even consider the MSU loss to be a "moral victory" as it actually proved to be a turning point for Coach Hazell. If Purdue fails to win, we might need to talk about going 1-11.

Golden Gophers vs Boilermakers coverage