Behind Enemy Lines: 5 Questions With Purdue Expert

With the Oregon State football team (2-1) set to host Purdue (1-1) at Reser Stadium on Saturday, BeaversEdge catches up with our sister site BoilerUpload to learn more about the Boilermakers!

1. Purdue's two games have been two very different results - Which one is closer to the team you expect to see this season?

Publisher Travis Miller: "It is really hard to say. Indiana State is often one of the worst FCS programs in the country and went a combined 3-19 the last two years, including 1-11 last year with their lone win coming over a Western Illinois team that hasn’t won a game since 2021. That said, it was at least a better day than in 2013 when an eventual 1-11 Purdue got its only win over an Indiana State team that also went 1-11 thanks to a late interception 20-14.

If I had one word to describe the Notre Dame game it would be “appalling”. I really thought the game would be more of a competitive 35-24-ish game, and after they lost to Northern Illinois I even thought there was a chance at winning. Instead, they did to Purdue what Purdue did to Indiana State. In the six second-half drives aside from the one where Purdue scored the Boilermakers lost a combined 18 yards and had zero first downs. That is shocking since it was starters against backups.

I really do think Purdue is a lot better than this (it is really hard to be worse). Purdue’s offense really struggled all afternoon and it put the defense into a hole. The defense also was absolutely terrible tackling and once the Irish scored three times in the last two and a half minutes before halftime it was well over. I think it was some combination of an awful game by Purdue against a very motivated Notre Dame team coming off of an embarrassing loss."

2. How does the fanbase feel about HC Ryan Walters in year two? On the right track or concerns?

TM: "If you had asked me this a week ago I would say on the right track. Purdue was 4-8 a year ago, but it had narrow losses to Fresno State and Northwestern (when Hudson Card was hurt) where it suffered from a lot of self-inflicted wounds. The Syracuse game also had a rash of turnovers and poor tackling of a running QB that made that game get out of hand. With a couple of breaks, Purdue is in a bowl game last year.

After Saturday we started seeing some “This guy is as bad as Hazell” posts referring to the abysmal 9-33 in 3.5 years under Darrell Hazell. I don’t think it is anywhere near that bad, mostly because Ryan Walters won as many Big Ten games last year as Hazell did in his entire tenure to produce… that in a big home rivalry game coming off of a bye week? It did him no favors. This game against Oregon State is a real test to see if he can get the team to bounce back."