Purdue sports talk with GoldandBlack.com’s Brian Neubert and Gold and Black Radio host Derek Schultz. Neubert breaks down Purdue hoops and what is the latest in recruiting and prep for the 2024-25 season, while Schultz talks about his role in Indianapolis, plus his nearly two-decade career in sports media in Naptown.
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More: Purdue AD Bobinski addresses key topics
ON LOW EXPECTATIONS FOR PURDUE FOOTBALL BY EXPERTS:
There’s very rarely an original thought given. Once somebody issues a prognostication, everybody sort of falls in line with the same sort of lazy approach, in my opinion, having watched this a long time. None of those folks had actually been here and seen or really dug deep into the flip and the changes to our roster and our personnel.
They looked at, well, Nic Scouton left, and the four top receivers. Nic is obviously a great player. And our receivers, they worked hard, but were they All-American-caliber? No, let’s be honest, they weren’t. And so, you know, it wasn’t the loss that maybe on paper it appeared to be.
So, I would tell you that I think that was a lot overblown, and a lot of not very deep in-depth work was done analyzing where we are going forward. That has, I think, certainly hit home with our locker room and the whole building over there. Not that we need anything more to get us ready to compete, but it’s always nice to say, hey, you know what? We didn’t receive a lot of respect. People don’t really believe much in who we are, and now we have a chance 12 times during the regular season to go out and prove who we are.
We’re not going to talk about it. We’d rather just go do it. And I think that’s the approach. And I like that. There’s a very sort of resolve about this group that I really like where they, you know, they believe in each other, they believe in what they’re capable of. And I know they’re anxious to get out there and show it.
ON SCHEDULING:
As we think about it going forward, we want to be as balanced as we can be. Last year was a heavy lift early on. This year, Indiana State is a nice lead-in to the year. In Big Ten rules, you’re only allowed to play one FCS. That’s the scheduling guideline, unless there are some incredibly extenuating circumstances where you’re up against it and couldn’t find anybody but another one. But, typically, one FCS per year.
We’d like to balance that out and have, over time, work it to where we maybe have a Group of Five and FCS and then a Power Four team as sort of our lead-in to our year. It’ll take some time. We’re not going to bail out on a bunch of contracts, unless there’s a mutual interest to walk away from future games or series. And that, I think, is something that you never know.
As the world shifts, as conference alignment is different today than it was, and who knows if nine conference games is the end-all-be-all for the Big Ten. Who knows? As we get closer and closer in alignment with the SEC from a partnership perspective, maybe we end up with a scheduling arrangement where Big Ten and SEC play each other every year in a game. So, there’s lots of things that could happen that might affect our future schedules.
But in terms of what we would like to do is really strike a balance. I don’t think any coach, I know our coach, Coach Walters, as with Jeff Brohm , nobody thinks three layups is a great idea. When you’re getting ready to play in the Big Ten, you’ve got to be tested. You got to know what it looks like to play against real people. That being said, you want to come out of it in a reasonably confident and healthy way to the best of your ability. And so having some more balance, I think, is the plan going forward.
Sept. 7 College football scores
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