2024 At First Glance: Week 14 Purdue Boilermakers

Written by: Hoosier Huddle Staff

The 2024 season concludes with the Old Oaken Bucket Game against the Purdue Boilermakers. The game will be played in Bloomington for just the second time since 2018.

Week 14: Purdue Boilermakers

Date & Time: Saturday, November 30 - TBA

Venue: Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, IN

TV: TBA

Boilermakers at a Glance

Head Coach: Ryan Walters

Entering his 2nd season as Purdue head coach

Record at Purdue: 4-8 (3-6)

Overall Record: 4-8 (3-6)

Last Season: 4-8 (3-6)

Boilermakers Returning Leaders

Passing: Hudson Card – 215 for 365 (58.9 percent) for 2,367 yards with 15 TDs/8 INTs

Rushing: Devin Mockobee – 172 rushes for 811 yards with six touchdowns

Receiving: Max Klare – 22 receptions for 196 yards 

Tackles: Dillon Thieneman – 106 tackles including 74 solo

Boilermakers Preseason Predictions

Athlon: 18th in the Big Ten

Lindy’s: 16th in the Big Ten

Phil Steele: T-17th in Big Ten

SP+: 68th Nationally

Impact Newcomers for the Boilermakers

-Reggie Love – Running Back – Transfer from Illinois

-Nyland Green – Cornerback – Transfer from Georgia

-CJ Madden – Edge – Transfer from Georgia

Biggest Questions Facing the Boilermakers

-How do the Boilermakers replace their top four pass-catchers from 2023?

Deion Burks is now an Oklahoma Sooner and Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen is with the USF Bulls. TJ Sheffield exhausted his eligibility. That means the top four pass-catchers from a merely decent passing attack are all gone. Purdue is not a program that can just reload without any hiccups and the wide receiver position is a potential major concern.

-Who Provides the Pass Rush After the Departure of Nic Scourton?

Nic Scourton was the first bullet point and item of focus on every opponent’s scouting report in 2023. He led the Boilermakers with ten sacks and was a force on the edge that drew attention and allowed others to make plays. Scourton is now at Texas A&M and Purdue will need Kydran Jenkins (7.5 sacks in 2023) and unproven CJ Madden to fill that void. This was not a good defense in 2023 and the best part of it is now gone.

Program Preview

What should the expectations at Purdue be? Since 2013, the Boilermakers suffered through the disastrous Darrell Hazell era (3-9 was the ceiling for that four-year stretch), took advantage of the weak Big Ten West and had two strong seasons in 2021 and 2022 including one Big Ten West title and then a 4-8 campaign last season under Ryan Walters. In total, Purdue has had eight losing seasons in that time frame and the Big Ten West is now a thing of the past. Jeff Brohm is entering year two at Louisville and young and unproven Ryan Walters has yet to show he can elevate a roster in nearly the same way Brohm did. Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell has a great reputation but the 2023 offense would not even be considered decent by national standards. Hudson Card is back but the Boilermakers lost their top players on both sides of the ball to the transfer portal. Is that an indictment on Walters? Purdue’s NIL resources for football? Just a product of today’s system where Oklahoma and Texas A&M can just outgun the Boilermakers? Maybe it’s all three. With a harder schedule than they are used to, including a challenging non-conference slate, Purdue was picked last in the Big Ten preseason media poll and they’ll need to exceed expectations to reach a bowl game. 

Offensive Preview

Purdue’s 2023 offense was supposed to be a fireworks show with Texas transfer Hudson Card at quarterback and hotshot offensive coordinator Graham Harrell joining with young head coach Ryan Walters with the promise they would let it fly. Purdue flailed to 5.34 yards per play and had poor performances against Syracuse (20 points), Wisconsin (17) and then a stretch of five out of six games with 15 points or less. The offense really only played well in four games and Purdue has to replace running back Tyrone Tracy and their top four pass catchers for the 2024 season. What to expect this season? Let’s start with the quarterback: Hudson Card. The senior is a perfectly adequate quarterback that would probably look quite a bit better with some better resources around him. He only completed 58.9 percent of his passes on just 6.5 yards per attempt, neither of those are great numbers. Card can hurt opponents with his legs but he is primarily a passer and he now has to try and improve his numbers with a totally rebuilt wide receiver room. They will be relying on major leaps forward from transfers Kam Brown, Jahmal Edrine, De’Nylon Morrissette and CJ Smith just to field a competitive group. Three of those players come from Power Four programs but they are largely unproven and without production. Someone will undoubtedly emerge but do three or four new reliable targets all emerge? Running back should be a strength as tough runner Devin Mockobee returns and is joined by Illinois transfer Reggie Love. Those two could form a nice “thunder and lightning” one-two punch. Gus Hartwig is the anchor and leader of the offensive line at center and they need better play around him. A pair of transfers are expected to start right away in DJ Wingfield and Corey Stewart plus IU transfer Josh Sales could make good on his former potential. 

The Boilermakers have a lot of questions and they’ll need some progression from unproven players just to replicate the numbers they achieved in 2023. A second year in Graham Harrell’s system should help Hudson Card but many of the pieces around him are new so a large bump could be asking for too much. The ideal scenario for Purdue is likely to get improvement from their running game and be able to lean on the duo of Love and Mockobee to shorten games as they then mix-in play action passes with their unproven receivers making plays deep.

Defensive Preview

When he was hired as Jeff Brohm’s replacement in 2022, former Illinois DC Ryan Walters had the ambitious plan to turn “The Cradle of Quarterbacks” into a defensive powerhouse. Purdue struggled with this transition during the 2023 season, finding it difficult to get acquainted with Walters’ scheme. As year two begins, it is likely that these growing pains will ease as players become more familiar with the scheme.

The strength of the Boilermakers defense last season was their pass rush, but they suffered a major offseason loss when their undisputed leader Nic Scourton transferred to Texas A&M. This is going to force Georgia transfer CJ Madden and Boston College transfer Shitta Sillah to step up and put pressure on opposing QBs. At the nose tackle position, the Boilermakers have a force in 335-pound Cole Brevard, who has struggled to produce consistently but looks to have a breakout season.

At the linebacker position, the Boilermakers have two undisputed starters in Kydran Jenkins and Yanni Karlaftis. Jenkins was a major contributor last season, totaling 7.5 sacks and leading the team with 15.5 tackles for loss. Karlaftis, (the younger brother of Purdue legend and 1st Round pick George Karlaftis) started 7 games last season with 55 tackles. The glaring weakness for Purdue’s defense is that there is almost no depth behind Jenkins and Karlaftis, just a walk-on redshirt sophomore and three redshirt freshmen who did not see the field last season. This could pose major problems for the Boilermakers if either Jenkins or Karlaftis get injured.

This season, the strength of the Boilermakers defense will be their secondary. S Dillon Thieneman returns, looking to build on his breakout true freshman season, where he totaled 106 tackles and 6 interceptions, earning 1st Team All-Conference selection. In addition to Thieneman, The Boilermakers got two more impact players in the Transfer Portal, bringing in Georgia CB Nyland Green and Ole Miss CB Markevious Brown, both former 4-star recruits who look to drastically help the Boilermakers pass coverage.       

Special Teams Preview

This season will feature an entirely new Special Teams unit for the Boilermakers. Purdue has three kickers on the roster who could all compete for the starting job. The only returner is walk-on Ben Freehill, who went 6-11 on Field Goals and 21-22 on Extra Points. In addition to Freehill, the Boilermakers brought on UCLA transfer/walk-on RJ Lopez, who also went 6-11 on Field Goals last season. Finally, the Boilermakers only scholarship kicker is freshman Spencer Porath, who went 7-7 on Field Goals and 44-46 on Extra Points. Given the similarities between their stats, don’t be surprised if the Boilermakers use multiple kickers this season or split up field goal and place kicking duties. In terms of Punters, the likely starter will be Mississippi State transfer Jack Ansell, who averaged 40.9 yards per punt last season.

It is unclear right now who will be the Boilermakers return man following the departure of Tyrone Tracy Jr. for the NFL. Running Back Devin Mockobee saw limited snaps at returner last season, but with him likely being RB1 this season, it appears unlikely that he will continue in this role. Andrew Sowinski also saw a couple reps last season, so he may be the presumed starter; however, don’t count out a running back lower on the depth chart looking to prove themselves.