Purdue football training camp opened yesterday, and the wide open quarterback derby is the top story. Coach Darrell Hazell has two choices: Austin Appleby (Jr., 144-272, 1,449 yards, 10 TDs, 11 INTs) or David Blough (R-Fr.) Hazell gave very vague and ambiguous statements on the QB situation while on dais at Big Ten Media Day. Nothing can be discerned from what he said there.
But during the breakout sessions, Hazell described how the Purdue QB1 job will be decided.
“We’ll alternate and do it buy days, and then my periods, we’ll see who can handle those situations and do it the best,” Hazell said.
Again, nothing Earth-shattering but at least we now know what the specific process will be. With Danny Etling gone to LSU (good luck trying to win that job, although to be fair to Etling, the Tigers quarterbacks are certainly not world-beaters) we do know one thing for certain- Purdue will continue one streak that’s been going since 2007-08.
Seven years ago, Curtis Painter was the last Purdue QB to start back to back season openers. That fact perfectly underscores what’s happened in West Lafayette since it was the “cradle of quarterbacks.” There hasn’t been the level of consistency, continuity and talent at Purdue in the 2010s that we saw under Joe Tiller. Appleby and Blough will not be a Painter or a Kyle Orton or a Drew Brees.
However, not one expects them to be. Substantial improvement, real legitimate progress, is what the Purdue football community wants to see.
Senior cornerback Frank Williams will go against the QBs everyday in practice, so I asked him thoughts on the current
“I see a want-to from all of ’em they attack me as if I’m Joe Blow, so that helps me get better, and helps them get better.
“They’re competitive as hell. may the best man win, it doesn’t really matter (who wins) the team would love all three of ’em”
Three? Huh?
I guess we need to include freshman Elijah Sindelar as a candidate too. Well, here’s what the other two Purdue players at Big Ten Media Day, senior wide receiver Danny Anthrop (go here to read the feature we did on him yesterday) and Senior Center Robert Kugler, had to say about all three quarterbacks competing for the starting gig.
Kugler-
on Appleby: “He’s got experience, and you can’t take away experience from anybody.”
on Blough: “He’s a little more dynamic with his feet. That’s always exciting.”
on Sindelar: “Great kid, he can sling the ball, I heard heard he can run real fast, I haven’t seen it, but we’ll get to see it come camp.”
Anthrop-
on Appleby: “His releases takes a little bit longer, but all three of these quarterbacks are going to start at Purdue, it’s just when.”
on Blough: “He’s got an extremely quick release.”
on Sindelar: “He’s got a cannon, it’s a heavy ball that you need to catch, when he throws it to you, I think that’s just him and his baseball experience. He was a heck of a baseball player and he was telling me he might end up playing baseball at Purdue at some point, if the coaches will let him.”
Also, be sure to check out our Purdue Boilermakers Never Too Early Season Preview, as well as the following video preview of Purdue’s season from Campus Insiders below:
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country.
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