2024 Purdue College Football Preview: Key Players, Game Schedule, Season Predictions

Purdue College Football Preview 2024

This doesn't just apply to Purdue. Go ahead and instead insert 30 to 40 Power Four schools from their respective conferences.

Purdue will almost certainly never win a Big Ten championship in football for the rest of our lives.

The divisions are gone, so those days of 2022 when a Boilermaker team can go 8-4 and go down the road to Indianapolis to take a cut for a title might be history.

Maybe Purdue can pull off something big in a freakish season when everything breaks right, but in an 18-team league that just added three football powerhouses, and a UCLA program that will figure it out someday, all of the planets will have to perfectly align just to get there to a Big Ten Championship, much less win it.

But there's a whole lot of hope here, and that has to shine through in the second season under Ryan Walters.

Purdue, in a total rebuild, going 4-8 last season wasn't totally horrible considering the program won three games or fewer five times in the last 11 years. But Jeff Brohm proved it was possible to find the right niche to win in West Lafayette. Walters can do that, too.

It's been lost that Danny Hope went to two straight bowl games in the early 2010s, and, of course, the legendary Joe Tiller took Purdue to ten bowls in 11 years.

Walters got the first year out of the way, and this year his team will make a lot more noise. Bowl games are coming. A more fun campaign should be coming.

No, Purdue won't win the Big Ten Championship - and that goes for 16 other schools - but it's about to screw up a few teams that think they have a shot because ...

Purdue Football Preview 2024: Offense

- The offense showed signs of being special, and now it could blow up with a few breaks. Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell knows what he’s doing, but he didn’t have a ton of top parts to work with. At the very least, he has more experienced pieces for what should be a more consistent and explosive attack, but …

- The offensive line has to be as good as it was in 2023. The O was great when the ground game worked. The front five was somewhat surprisingly solid in pass protection, and it managed to pound out over 300 yards of rushing against both Minnesota and Northwestern.

This year, the line needs transfers Corey Stewart (Ball State) and DJ Wingfield (New Mexico) to be ready from jump around should-be all-star C Gus Hartwig and the rest of the parts in place. Be cohesive and consistent, and the 1-2 rushing punch of Devin Mockobee and Illinois transfer Reggie Love will be fantastic.

- The passing game was okay. When QB Hudson Card was clicking, things worked - Purdue was 4-3 when Card completed more than 60% of his passes, and 0-5 when the quarterbacks didn’t. As long as he gets time and limits the interceptions, he’ll keep the O moving.

Top receiver Deion Burks left for Oklahoma, TJ Sheffield is done, and Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen left for USF. The top four receivers have to be replaced, but TE Max Klare is back, Georgia transfer CJ Smith is promising on the outside, and the offensive style should put the receivers in a place to succeed.

Purdue Football Preview 2024: Defense

- The defense was the worst in the Big Ten against the pass, allowed 30 points per game, and struggled with its consistency.

Top pass rusher Nic Scourton left for Texas A&M, and now Georgia transfer CJ Madden has to step in and produce. The line has a giant force on the inside in 335-pound Cole Brevard on the nose, and there’s bulk in the rotation.

- The linebacker combination of Yanni Karlaftis and Kydran Jenkins should be a major plus. They’ll be volume tacklers on the inside, but Jenkins is a playmaker in the backfield. As good as Scourton was, Jenkins still led the team with 15.5 tackles for loss.

- Can the secondary start doing something to come up with big things? It had a hard time generating third down stops, and most of the interceptions came from one guy. S Dillon Thieneman picked off six passes and led the team with 106 tackles in an All-Big Ten season, and new S Kyndrich Breedlove (Colorado) and CB Nyland Green (Georgia) should improve the defensive backfield fast.

Key To The Purdue Football Season

Produce lots of big offensive moments.
The pass defense has to be night-and-day better, and the kicking game can’t be too much worse, but as long as the offense is doing its thing everything will be fine.

Purdue went 4-1 when it got past 405 yards and 0-7 when it got fewer. Combine the inconsistencies with the turnovers - the Boilermakers ran wild on Northwestern and lost because of four giveaways - and that’s the fix. It was 4-3 when not turning it over multiple times, and 0-5 when it did.

Purdue Key Player

Spencer Porath, PK Fr.
There are LOTS of Boilermakers who have to step up and make the team better, and it’s not like the kicking woes of last year were a direct problem - no game was decided by three points or fewer - but the offense has to start hitting field goals.

Last year’s kickers combined to hit 8-of-19 field goals, and they were a problem for a team that couldn’t score consistently in the red zone. Make field goals, and games will change.

Purdue Football Top Transfer, Biggest Transfer Loss

Top Transfer In: Nyland Green, CB Jr.
He only made 12 tackles with two broken up passes in his first three seasons of college football, but the 6-1, 185-pound former Georgia Bulldog has all the skills, upside and tools to be a major factor from Snap One as a starting corner in the Boilermaker secondary.

Top Transfer Out: Nic Scourton, DE Jr.
He’s one of the hottest players out there coming out of the transfer portal circuit. He blew up into an all-star with a team-high ten sacks and 15 tackles for loss with 50 tackles. After a dominant scrimmage in the Texas A&M spring game, he appears to be ready to blow up into a national star.

Purdue Key Game

Nebraska, Sept. 28
Purdue had a rough year, but it should’ve been stronger against a mediocre Nebraska team. The Huskers won 31-14 in Lincoln after two straight Purdue wins in the series.

This year, it’s the Big Ten opener, and with at Wisconsin, at Illinois, and Oregon up next, coming up with a victory to end September would be a big deal.

10 Best Purdue Football Players

1. Dillon Thieneman, S Soph.
2. Kydran Jenkins, LB Sr.
3. Gus Hartwig, C Sr.
4. Nyland Green, CB Jr.
5. Hudson Card, QB Sr.
6. Marcus Mbow, OT Jr.
7. Devin Mockobee, RB Jr.
8. Yanni Karlaftis, LB Jr.
9. Reggie Love, RB Sr.
10. Markevious Brown, CB Sr.

Purdue 2023 Fun Stats

- Field Goals: Opponents 17-of-23, Purdue 8-of-17

- 1st Quarter Scoring: Opponents 91, Purdue 37

- Total Yards: Opponents 4,585, Purdue 4,563

Purdue Football 2024 Win Total Prediction: What to Expect This Season

The team will be better, the defense will be better, and the offense should be more consistent and sharper, but it all comes down to winning all the games there for the taking.

Last year’s schedule was sneaky-brutal. Illinois, Nebraska, and Indiana were the only three teams on the slate that didn’t go bowling, and IU is the only one that didn’t win at least five games. This year’s schedule isn’t much better.

There’s no Michigan this time around, but the Ohio State game is on the road, Penn State is after that, and the season finishes up with road games against Michigan State and Indiana - both the Spartans and Hoosiers should be far better.

Illinois is a beatable team, but that’s on the road. Oregon State is a beatable team, but that’s on the road. Missing Iowa, USC, and Washington is nice, but going to Wisconsin and hosting Notre Dame isn’t.

Purdue should get to four wins again. It’ll take a bad day by some favorite, or everything clicking at once to get that fifth win.

It’s not crazy to hope for six wins and a bowl, but getting there will likely come on days when the offense goes ballistic.

Set The Purdue Win Total At … 5

Likely Wins: Indiana State

50/50 Games: at Indiana, at Illinois, at Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, at Oregon State, at Wisconsin

Likely Losses: Notre Dame, at Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State

2024 Purdue Football Schedule

Aug 31 OPEN DATE
Sept 7 Indiana State
Sept 14 Notre Dame
Sept 21 at Oregon State
Sept 28 Nebraska
Oct 5 at Wisconsin
Oct 12 at Illinois
Oct 19 Oregon
Oct 26 OPEN DATE
Nov 2 Northwestern
Nov 9 at Ohio State
Nov 16 Penn State
Nov 23 at Michigan State
Nov 30 at Indiana

Missing: Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Washington