Purdue's Next Challenge

This weekend the Purdue Boilermakers travel to play the unranked Iowa Hawkeyes. Just because Iowa isn't ranked doesn't mean they won't be a challenge. The Hawkeyes are one of the under rated teams this year. Their defense may be their only weak point on the team because their offense has done amazing this year.

The Hawkeyes leading running back Shonn Greene has led the team rushing for over 1300 yards this season. With 13 touchdowns and an average of 6.1 yards per carry, I would consider him one of the best running backs in the Big Ten. The only bad thing about him is that he is not that great of a catcher. He only has 8 catches this year for 49 yards. At least the Boilers don't have to worry about his catching the ball that much.

The biggest struggle that Purdue will have is containing their quarterback Ricky Stanzi. Stanzi has thrown for almost 1500 yards this season and has an average quarterback rating of 134.1 which is quite remarkable for this late into the season. On the bright side for the Boilermakers, he has only thrown for 10 touchdowns while throwing 7 interceptions.

A large part to Stanzi success has been his wide receivers. Iowa has 4 receivers with 200 or more receiving yards, all with an average of over 12 yards per catch. Purdue's defense needs to limit the big plays down field and force the quarterback to throw shorter passes. If we let them get a couple big plays down field, it will kill our team's morale.

If Purdue can stop the run and force their quarterback to throw shorter passes, our defense should be successful and it will be up to the Boilermaker offense to put points on the board. This is going to be a test for our defense and their ability to shut down their big play makers.

No Bowl Game for the Boilers

For only the second time in Coach Joe Tillers career of 12 years, his team has not made it to a bowl game. A sad occasion since this is the last year that Joe Tiller is going to be head coach. It is too bad that Joe Tiller's last season did not turn out the way that he or his players thought that it would.

"This definitely hurts," senior wide receiver Greg Orton said. "So far, this season has been really disappointing. It's another loss that really hurts. We're tired of losing." This was not been a very good season for the seniors on the team, but they are not giving up yet. "It's time to respond to the situation we're in," senior wide receiver Desmond Tardy said. "There's no bowl now, so we can either give up or come out still fighting. I believe everybody has the mindset to come out fighting." The seniors on the team are definitely not going to give up since this is going to be their last 2 games of football. They need to rally the rest of the team and encourage them not to get down or give up. The Boilers have a good chance to win both of the remaining games this year if they come together, play well, and don't give up.

Starting Quarterback Against Iowa?

Purdue head coach Joe Tiller has not yet said who the starting quarterback will be this weekend against Iowa. He believes that Curtis Painter has recovered enough from his shoulder injury that he should be able to start for the Boilermakers. If Painter is able to play this weekend, I would bet that he will be the starting quarterback for Purdue.

However, Painter has not recovered perfectly from his injury yet. It was just on Sunday that he was able to put his arm above his head and start throwing a couple of passes. He most likely will not play the entire game. He won't be able to throw the deep ball as well as he used to, but Tiller believes that he can still get the job done as quarterback.

Siller is recovering from a couple of injuries from the Michigan State game. He left the game with a hyper extended knee and a bruised sternum. The team doctors don't think the injuries are serious and they cleared him for practice on Sunday. There is no doubt that Justin Siller will be ready to play this weekend.

Quarterbacks Curtis Painter and Justin Siller are battling in practice to see which one is going to be able to perform the best this weekend at Iowa. Joe Tiller likes his senior quarterback Curtis Painter so if Painter has recovered enough and is able to play, he will be the starting quarterback for the Boilers. I would expect Justin Siller to take over a quarterback throughout the game.

Coming Off a Solid Win

Purdue played some great fundamental football last weekend. They connected on a lot of their passes and ran the ball very well, and yes, a couple of huge trick plays helped their stats quite a bit. But what impressed me the most was Siller ability to play smart football. He never got in trouble and just heaved a pass up just to get rid of it. He held on to it and would either take the sack or throw it away out of bounds. There is no need to throw an interception when you could easily just lose a down and maybe a couple of yards.

Justin Siller will have to play another great game this weekend at number 18 Michigan State. If Purdue has any chance for an upset, Siller cannot turn the ball over at all or else the Michigan State defense will make us suffer. Kory Sheets needs to be at the top of his game and be a playmaker for the Boilers. He needs to break a couple tackles and get some long runs to open up the passing game and play action. Michigan State could be one of the toughest games we will play, but if we play good fundamental football, Purdue has a chance to come out on top.

????Texas Knocked Off???

Texas vs. Texas Tech…I mean I every knows of the Texas Long Horns and how they have been one of the top twenty five teams for the last couple years I mean Vince Young brought a new idea of how a quarterback could run and pass the ball in college and also made it known that a Black player could be good at something other than wide receiver, running back and defense. Texas also is known for its football program, unlike Texas Tech who is widely known for the basketball program mostly because of Bob Knight who coached the men’s basketball team from 2000-2008 and was widely known before then for the disputes of what happened at Indiana University. The Texas Tech football team, on the other hand, has only been growing in public’s eye since they have been winning and winning more; you could also count on the stats that Graham Harrell is putting up. He has been completing seventy percent of his passes and has thrown for 30 touchdowns along with thirty six hundred yards. He has brought fame to this otherwise dead program for college football.

Now to the Texas vs. Texas Tech game, it began as if Texas Tech was going to go away with game, for Texas’ defense was just giving away points because they could not stop the Texas Tech Raiders high powered offense. By the end of the second quarter, halftime, the Score was Texas Tech 22 and Texas 6. This just shows how Texas Tech is growing as a team and becoming one of the dominant teams in D-1.

Then after halftime and almost ten minutes into the third quarter Jordan Shipley ran back a punt forty five yards for a touchdown. Texas then thought that they had the momentum and stopped the Raiders (Texas Tech) three and out and got the ball back after a punt of 30 yards by Texas Tech Punter Johnathan LaCour. Then after an incompletion and two penalties the Texas Longhorns were backed into their territory on the seven yard line and then the momentum was changed again when Daniel Charbonnet intercepted a pass from Colt McCoy on the eighteen and returned it into the end zone for a touchdown. This made the score 13-29, Texas Tech, after the extra point made by Matt Williams. Then later in the quarter Colt McCoy threw a thirty seven yard touchdown to Malcolm Williams and that score of 19-29 (Texas failed on the two point conversion) was the score after three quarters. The Texas Longhorns had outscored the Raiders in the third and were eager to extend this into the fourth quarter and win the game to keep their number one spot in the BCS and AP polls.

It started out this way with a touchdown nine minutes into the game, on a ninety one yard pass from Colt McCoy to Malcolm Williams. This brought the score to 26-29, Texas Tech, and thus the comeback was on for the Texas Longhorns although the Texas Tech Raiders began to come back but only scored a field goal on their next drive and then the imaginable happened with one minute and twenty nine seconds left in the game Texas running back Vondrell McGee ran in for a touchdown which put the Texas Longhorn up by one point. Texas had came back from being down the entire game and now the Texas Tech Raiders had only one minute and twenty nine seconds left to either score or get into field goal range. Texas squib kicked the ball down to Texas Tech’s forty nine yard line. Then Graham Harrell completed four straight passes, down to the Texas twenty eight yard line. Then with ten seconds left in the game instead of going for the field goal Graham Harrell threw the ball to the best wide receiver in the nation, Michael Crabtree, who then caught the ball and spun out of what would have been a tackle and then side stepped another defender and walked right in to the end zone and scored for the winning touchdown for the Texas Tech Raiders. The knock off of Texas just shows that even a Powerhouse that everyone thinks is going to go all the way may not win the one game that gets them there.

Heisman Won…Already?

I have talked about the Heisman multiple times and have good reason too because of all the changes that have taken place throughout the season. I mean at the beginning of the season I could have sworn that Tim Tebow would be at the top of my list throughout and at the end of the season. As you can tell the last time I talked about him was about four weeks ago, so I can officially say that Archie Griffin will still be the only player to win the Heisman twice after this year in College Football. Now picking a winner is going to be much more difficult than I had assumed at the start of the season because well there are just too many damn quarterbacks that are having phenomenal seasons. Although Tim Tebow is still in the running he is coming in at number four for me. At number three I have Michael Crabtree because of his exceptional versatility as a wide receiver. The man can catch pretty much anything thrown at him, he can block about as good as a fullback, and he can run through or around you with his quickness and strength. At number two it is going to be Colt McCoy because of the numbers he is putting up and the fact that his team is 8-1. At number one though is Graham Harrell because his thirty touchdowns and number one offense is just making his stock shoot up and up. It also doesn’t hurt that he only has five interceptions, it also helps that he has a passer rating of 165.9 which is the highest it can possibly go. As long as Texas Tech keeps their win streak alive and Harrell keeps posting these numbers then he WILL win the Heisman.

Trick Plays Keep Purdue Alive

On a fourth and long for the Boilermakers, it looked like Purdue would have to give up the ball with only minutes remaining in the Fourth quarter and a tied score. Joe Tiller had other plans. He pulled the fake punt out of his playbook. Justin Siller threw the ball to Anthony Heygood who ran with it for 61 yards on a fake punt. Anthony Heygood is a linebacker right? Yes, a linebacker ran the ball for 61 yards down field, but one thing that I never would have guessed was that Heygood used to be a running back. Purdue got pretty lucky that the play actually worked since the Michigan coach knew the fake was coming. He could tell that the formation was a little off from what a normal punt looks like and he was yelling to his team to adjust and be ready for the fake, but Purdue hiked the ball before he could get the word to his team. Can you believe that the fake punt to Heygood was not even the best trick play of the game for the Boilers.

With less than a minute left in the game, Siller threw a curl route to Greg Orton and right when Orton was about to get tackled, he lateralled the ball to Desmond Tardy who was running an under route right behind him. Tardy grabbed the ball and ran up the sideline without being touched since the defenders were caught flat footed and off-guard. Yes, Purdue just did the hook-and-lateral, the most effective, yet risky play in football. For this play to work, everything has to be perfect. Orton has to get enough space between himself and his defender and Tardy has to run right behind him right before Orton gets hit. I have no idea what happened to the Wolverine safeties on this play. There was nobody left for Tardy to beat after he got the ball. He only had to outrun the opposing cornerbacks who were trying to come from the opposite side of the field. Michigan never knew what hit them. It was my favorite trick play executed to perfection. Hopefully Purdue has a couple more of these trick plays they will use in the few remaining games this season.