Painter Benched?

Purdue suffered a rough loss of 6-20 to Penn State over the weekend. The Boilermaker offense struggled to get anything going their way. Senior Curtis Painter was eventually pulled out of the game in the fourth quarter and replaced with the fan favorite, junior Joey Elliott.

Painter continued to struggle throughout the game, not being about to make any big plays through the air. He only completed 13 passes out of 22 attempts. He was able to produce 112 passing yards, but he threw no touchdowns and 1 interception. With this letdown by the star quarterback, head coach Joe Tiller decided to put in back-up quarterback Joey Elliott to try and jump start the Boilermaker offense. This was a start. Elliott completed 3 passes out of 5 attempts resulting in 46 yards and set up the only touchdown that Purdue was able to produce all game which was a 1 yard run by running back Kory Sheets. If you were at the game, you could tell that the fans wanted Elliott on the field instead of Painter. Purdue fans were booing Curtis Painter when he would make a bad choice or a horrible throw, especially after his interception. I remember at the game, as soon as Elliott made the completion near the end zone and Sheets was able to power run it in the end zone for six, the Purdue student section began cheering "Joey, Joey, Joey."

Since Curtis Painter is leading the Big Ten conference in passing yards, head coach Joe Tiller says that Painter is still his starting quarterback since he has the most experience and gives Purdue the best chance to win football games. The Boilermaker football fans may disagree, but he is the coach and gets to decide things like that. We will wait and see if Joey Elliott makes another appearance and replaces starter Curtis Painter.