Purdue not only gunning for the Zips...

[Captain Kangaroo]

Can Purdue have a perfect football season?

By Jeremy Poston

Assistant Sports Editor

With 20 starters and 41 letterwinners returning to the Boilermaker football team, the idea of a perfect season is realistic.

With the talent returning, the Boilermakers are garnering national recognition. The Boilermakers are ranked in several preseason polls, including No. 16 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

The Boilermakers went 7-5 in 2004, including 4-4 in the Big Ten. They finished the year with a 23-27 loss to Arizona State in the Sun Bowl.

During the Purdue football media day last week, several Boilermaker players hinted that due to the returning players and favorable schedule which lacks Michigan or Ohio State this could be a special year for Purdue.

"It feels that our team is very good and our team is in place. Everybody is back on defense and a lot of people back on offense and people that understand what we want to accomplish," said junior quarterback Brandon Kirsch. "We have the opportunity to win every game on the schedule and it starts with the first game."

Quarterbacks

Kirsch finally gets his chance to be Purdue's opening day starter at quarterback after waiting three years behind former Boilermaker Kyle Orton. Last year Kirsch appeared in six games, including two starts, completing 58 of 94 passes for 711 yards with seven touchdowns and three interceptions.

During the course of his career, Kirsch has encountered several off the field incidents. Kirsch said that his position on the team forces him to lead by example.

"Any time you're a backup you get a mindset that you don't matter to the team and it just took me a while to realize that," Kirsch said. "That was definitely the old Brandon Kirsch. I'm a grown up kind of guy now ready for a leadership role."

Redshirt freshman Curtis Painter is backing up Kirsch and could challenge Kirsch by the end of the season. Although Painter is not as mobile as Kirsch, Painter might have a better arm than the starting quarterback.

Running Backs

Three running backs comprise one of the deepest positions on the offense. The two leading rushers from last year, seniors Jerod Void and Brandon Jones, return to bring experience to the rushing game. Void and Jones combined to rush for 1,102 yards and five touchdowns last year. Redshirt freshman Kory Sheets will serve as the third string running back.

Void said that due to the talent and depth at running back, the players will have to battle for playing time, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

"At Purdue you've had to compete at running back since I've been here," Void said. "With three running backs, it's not like your getting reps taken away from you, now you can just have more quality reps, you won't be so tired."

Receivers

Despite losing the all-time NCAA career receptions leader, Taylor Stubblefield, the Boilermakers return every other member of their receiving corps. Junior Kyle Ingraham returns as the leader in receptions with 51 and seven touchdowns. Sophomore Dorien Bryant and senior Ray Williams make up the other two starting slots for the Boilermakers and had 584 and 146 yards receiving, respectively.

Bryant said defenses will have problems trying to stop Purdue's receivers because of Purdue's depth at the position.

"If they key on one guy then we've got five or six other guys that can make the play. It's only going to make us harder to defend.

Senior tight end Charles Davis is a candidate for the Mackey Award, the award for the nation's best tight end, after coming off a season where he had 34 catches for 416 yards and three touchdowns.

Offensive Line

The offensive line returns three of the five starters in juniors Mike Otto at left tackle, left guard Uche Nwaneri and senior center Matt Turner. Sophomore right guard Jordan Grimes and redshirt freshman right tackle Sean Sester are newcomers to the offensive line. Sester is the lone offensive line starter who has not played.

Defensive Line

With 80 combined starts from the four returning defensive lineman, experience is not a concern. Junior defensive end Ray Edwards led the team with eight sacks while senior defensive tackle Brandon Villarreal lead the team with 17.5 tackles for loss last year. Senior Anthony Spencer is the other defensive end starter and senior Brent Grover is the other starter at defensive tackle. The top backup, senior defensive end Rob Ninkovich, was tied for first on the team with eight sacks last year.

Defensive coordinator Brock Spack said that this year's defensive line could be one of the best he has seen in his eight years at Purdue.

"They look like a defensive line. One of the few fronts we've had here who look the part," Spack said. "I think we'll have a good rotation up front and that's where the game is won and lost."

Linebackers

All three starting linebackers return from last season. The leading linebacker, junior middle linebacker George Hall, was second on the team in tackles with 92 and led the team in interceptions with two. He is joined on the right side by senior Bobby Iwuchukwu and on the left side by sophomore Stanford Keglar. Keglar could be battling for his position with highly-touted freshman Kyle Williams.

Iwuchukwu said that the talent of the returning starters isn't getting as much respect as he believes they should.

"We've seen where we're ranked No. 6 in the Big Ten and we're just using that as motivation. We know we're one of the top linebacking corps in the nation," he said.

Cornerbacks

The secondary could be a concern for the Boilermaker defense. As a team, Purdue intercepted eight passes, while in 2003, Purdue intercepted 14 passes. Junior Paul Long and senior Brian Hickman are slated to be the starters at cornerback, each having one interception in their career. Sophomores Lance Melvin and Fabian Martin will see the field as the top backups.

Safeties

Junior strong safety Bernard Pollard and senior free safety Kyle Smith round up the secondary in the Boilermaker defense. Pollard, an All-Big Ten candidate, led the team in tackles last season with 96.

During media day, Pollard addressed the need for the defense to come up with more turnovers this season.

"Our coaches have gotten us into getting into the habit of getting the ball into our hands," Pollard said. "I think we're doing a great job of attacking the ball at its highest point and just snatching it from the offense."

On Monday, Pollard was thrown out of practice for three days by coach Joe Tiller. Pollard was kicked out because he was trash-talking his teammates and when told to stop, Pollard continued. Pollard will be allowed to return to practice today.

The top backup at free safety, Torri Williams, will be sidelined for the rest of the season with torn ligaments in his foot.Special Teams

Handling kickoff and kicking duties will be senior Ben Jones. Jones is coming off a disappointing junior season in which he went 10-18 in field goal attempts. Sophomore punter Dave Brytus is coming a freshman season where he averaged 40.0 yards per punt. His best game came against Arizona State in the Sun Bowl where he averaged 48.9 yards per punt on eight punts. Handling kickoff returns will be Void and Bryant while punt returns will be Bryant and redshirt freshman strong safety Lance Melvin.

The Boilermakers open the season Sept. 10 against Akron at Ross-Ade Stadium.

[GP1]

Purdue has a relatively easy schedule this year and going 11-0 may not be that far out of the question.

They travel to Arizona the week after us. AZ hasn't been good for some time. They have Notre Dame at home. They have played well against ND in recent years and playing them at home gives them quite an advantage. The only difficulty may be later in the season when they go to Wisc. and PSU back to back weeks. Other than that, their schedule is real easy. OSU and Michigan are two teams picked to not only win the Big Ten, but also to compete for the national championship. Purdue doesn't play either.

[Zips Win!]

Agree on Purdue.....yet in years past Tiller has had problems with MAC schools. I think he lost once, and was scared a couple times..... Maybe we can surprise.