Purdue Football Recap

The 2009 Purdue football season was an intense emotional rollercoaster. Uncertainty was a prevalent theme throughout the year. Before the season started, there were many questions to be answered. Will Danny Hope continue to run Tiller’s West Coast offense out of the spread? How will inexperienced quarterback Joey Elliott perform? Which running back will get the lion’s share of the carries? Will Ryan Kerrigan really be the next great defensive end in Purdue’s proud history at that position? For Purdue fans, the tremendous uncertainty surrounding our team did not stop after the season began.

Week 1 was a home game against Toledo. Toledo, although they play in MAC, are not a complete cupcake team. We saw quite a few things in this game. First and foremost, Purdue was going to run the ball out of a conventional I formation – and what a job we did! In his very first start, Sophomore RB Ralph Bolden ran for the third most yards in a single game in school history. He contributed 234 of Purdue’s 315 rushing yards and he ran for two touchdowns. Elliott threw three touchdowns and three interceptions – not overly surprising given his lack of experience. Although Purdue gave up 31 points to an inferior team, fans left rejoicing over Carson Wiggs’ school record 59 yard field goal.

The following week featured a highly anticipated road game at Oregon. Unfortunately, like the year before, Purdue lost in a heartbreaker, 36-38. There still seemed to be hope (no pun intended) because even after week 2, Bolden led the nation in rushing. Little did we know at the time, our heartbreaking loss to Oregon this season would have a similar effect as the season before. In both years, the Oregon loss seemed to rattle our confidence and both seasons seemed to unravel after losing to the Ducks. After the week 2 loss, we had no idea that the Boilers would proceed to lose the following four games as well.

The home losses to Northern Illinois and Northwestern were extremely upsetting. Losing by seven points or less is always a bummer, but losing to tiny schools that are almost always grossly inferior is worse. The home loss to Notre Dame was equally tough. Although we were underdogs against the Irish, losing to a fierce rival in the final minute of play was very hard to swallow.

Notre Dame was a night game and the Boilers came out wearing black pants to go along with their traditional black uniforms. At the time, I assumed this was merely for show, possibly a play on the fact that it was dark outside. However, this became the Boilermakers’ standard home uniform for the remainder of the season. I have nothing against the gold pants of yesteryear, but I must say, the all-black-look was pretty sharp.

A road loss at Minnesota (35-20) was our biggest losing deficit of the year – at least to that point. We had only fallen by a touchdown or less in each of our previous losses. Turnovers were proving to be treacherous week in and week out. Purdue went into the Minnesota game with the second most turnovers in the country and we committed three more in that game. Our defeat by the Gophers set us up with a 1-5 record heading in to week 7 against #7 ranked Ohio State.

By all speculation, the Boilers would get blanked 70-0, give or take. As we came to see each week, nothing was EVER certain with our Boilermakers. Purdue pulled off one of the biggest upsets in history, defeating the Buckeyes 26-18. This time it was Purdue who was forcing turnovers and capitalizing on them. Beyond that, Purdue was able to generate a solid pass rush. Ryan Kerrigan recorded three sacks – a sign that he could live up to his hype of being the next great Purdue defensive end. Joey Elliott beating a ranked opponent was very special. His predecessor, QB Curtis Painter, never beat a ranked opponent during his college career. The win over Ohio State was also special because it marked Danny Hope’s first Big Ten victory.

I was very interested to see Purdue’s performance the following week against Illinois. A loss would indicate that our victory over Ohio State was just a fluke. We didn’t lose though. By all appearances, Purdue had ignited a spark and was ready to make a late season run that would put us in bowl contention. Unfortunately, the following week’s 37-0 loss to Wisconsin gave us a huge reality check. Standing at 3-6, we had to win each of our final three games in order to be bowl-eligible.

That would be quite a task, especially given the fact that our next game was against Michigan… at Michigan. Purdue had not won at The Big House since 1966 when Bob Griese played quarterback for the black and gold. However, this game proved that nothing about the 2009 season was ever certain. Joey Elliott’s threw for 367 yards (his career best) and two touchdowns and he also ran for a touchdown. We beat Michigan by two points and kept our bowl aspirations alive as we entered our final home game of the season against Michigan State.

The game was a playoff atmosphere for our squad. It was win or die. A loss meant that the season would be over after the Bucket game the following week. Carson Wiggs hit a 49 yard field goal with 2:38 remaining to tie the game at 37. If Purdue could get a stop on defense, we would have a chance to pull off a victory. What happened on the next play? Michigan State returned the kickoff 84 yards to our 11 yard line. They had to settle for a field goal and we got the ball back with some time remaining. It wouldn’t matter though. Despite a late drive, Joey Elliott was sacked on the final play and with that tackle, the season was effectively over.

Purdue had lost seven games and was ineligible to compete in post-season play, even with a win over the Hoosiers. Even so, our season ended on a positive note. We beat IU and added a 56th P link to West Lafayette’s #1 resident, the Old Oaken Bucket. The Boilers finished with a 5-7 losing record, but there were still some things to celebrate.

We beat Ohio State and Michigan in the same season. We beat the Big Ten champion and only lost by two to the Pac 10 champion. Bolden ran for close to 1000 yards and Smith had over 1000 yards in receptions. Elliott threw for over 3000 yards and 22 touchdowns. Kerrigan recorded 13 sacks and Wiggs hit eight field goals from 40 yards or longer. If nothing else, the end of the football season meant that Purdue basketball was right around the corner.

In the BGR issue of The Purdue Review, I wrote a Purdue Football preview and I predicted that we would finish 7-5 and go to a decent bowl game. My hopes of a winning season that would propel us to postseason play did not come true. Looking back, however, my prediction was not overly outrageous. Five of our seven losses were by seven points or less. With a play or two going our way in each of those games, Purdue could have just as easily finished the year 10-2 and been headed to a very respectable bowl game. Even a compromising 8-4 would have been nice.

Next season might be a rollercoaster as well. What we do know going in is that we have tremendous talent returning in Bolden, Smith, and Wiggs. What we don’t know is what the defensive line will do without Mike Neal and Ryan Kerrigan. We also don’t know how new QB Caleb TerBush will play. They say he has a set of wheels, but he will enter next season with less experience than Elliott did when he started last year. I’m going to predict 7-5 again. If we can stop losing to small schools, avoid committing countless turnovers, and have Bolden run for over 1000 yards, I think we can have a winning season and go bowling again.