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July 23, 2010

June 29, 2010

May 24, 2010

Spring Ball Plagued By Injuries; Questions Remain Heading Into 2010

BY BRIAN NEUBERT
BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com

Every year teams go through spring practices short-handed, whether it be because of off-season surgeries, nagging injuries picked up in winter workouts or simply the inevitable gap that lies between the loss of a senior class and the arrival of a freshman class.

But this bordered on ridiculous.

Last year, Danny Hope’s first set of spring practices was atypically injury-free, much to the coach’s relief.

It all balanced out this spring, though, as the Boilermakers went through spring with a slew of players — important ones, at that — idled. “It is kind of hard to make progress when you have a lot of injuries (in spring),” tight end Kyle Adams said, referring back to Purdue’s injury-riddled spring of ‘08, “but one thing it does do is build a lot of depth. You can see a lot of people perform.

And luckily, we’re going to have most of those people back for the fall. “But it really made us pull together as a team.” Defensive end Ryan Kerrigan and receiver Keith Smith, Purdue’s best returning players on defense and offense, respectively, missed most or all of spring ball with pre-existing ailments.

Kicker Carson Wiggs and offensive lineman Ken Plue, two others who’d sit right up there if you ranked players 1-100, missed most of the spring, too, but returned late. But the low point came when No. 1 running back and budding star Ralph Bolden was injured March 31, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Purdue is hopeful Bolden can make it back in time for 2010, but when the injury first came to light, Hope called it “huge for us” that Bolden still has a redshirt year available. His road to recovery will be a long one, as he well knows; he’s already done it. Bolden also tore his ACL as a senior in high school.

Bolden’s injury promoted sophomore Al-Terek McBurse to first-team running back. Indicative of Purdue’s fortunes this spring, McBurse soon after discovered a hairline fracture in his left arm. Best signifying the breadth of the Boilermakers’ injury plague this spring was the fact that every single scholarship running back sat out the spring game. That includes fullback Jared Crank and converted receiver Keith Carlos, who was moved to running back in direct response to Bolden’s injury. No matter the position, injuries were the story for Purdue this spring. “We started off slower,” Hope said.

“We always want to start fast. We talk about that every game, every practice: ‘Start fast and finish strong.’ We weren’t able to start fast this spring, because of the injury situation.”

MARVE’S DEBUT

Though Hope won’t come out and say it just yet, Robert Marve, assuming he’s healthy, will assume the reins of Purdue’s offense in 2010. So this spring offered the first glimpse at a player who’s so important to the Boilermakers’ prospects this season and next. But Marve was limited both by a knee that remains tender after being surgically repaired and by the personnel around him. Without Smith and with running backs going down one after the other, the Boilermakers weren’t running with the full complement of players in their passing game that they expect to have come August. “It’s hard when you don’t have guys out there like Keith,” Marve said.

“You have receivers that have played, but when you have someone like Keith who has been around here for a long time … he’s done an amazing job helping other receivers out. He is someone that has helped other guys understand the defense.” Hope said Marve started the spring healthier than he finished it and was held out of practices leading up to the spring game to give him a break. “I don’t have my knee back yet,” Marve said, “but treatment’s been great and … I’m hoping that by fall, I’ll get it.”

In the spring game, Marve, perhaps the most complete combination of arm strength, speed and athleticism Purdue’s had at QB in its modern era, completed 11-of-22 passes for 160 yards, with a 75-yard TD to Cortez Smith and a late tipped-ballinterception. Following the spring game, essentially his public unveiling at Purdue, Marve was visibly excited to have made his long-awaited debut, even if game conditions were tightly controlled. Quarterbacks were off-limits in the spring game. “I’ve got to get hit, man,” Marve joked, “and get a little headache underneath me. It makes me a little better.”

LINGERING WORRIES

Purdue’s two greatest positional question marks exiting spring are pretty obvious: offensive line and secondary. They just so happen to be the positions where experience and cohesiveness matter most.

“There’s no question about it, but there’s some potential there,” Hope said of those groups being Purdue’s biggest areas of concern. On the offensive line, junior starters Plue and Dennis Kelly return at right guard and left tackle, respectively. But it was a figurative merry-goround alongside them this spring, as a group of less experienced players — some young, some old — rotated from position to position as Hope and his staff sought to identify their eight best linemen and figure out positions from there. “We have to lead by example,” said Kelly, of he and Plue.

“A lot of the guys we have who haven’t played a lot are still new to the offensive line.” While players like sophomore Rick Schmeig, Andrew Brewer and Peters Drey at least came to Purdue as offensive linemen and have two full seasons now training as such, others are only now learning the position.

Five Boilermaker offensive linemen were playing different positions when training camp opened last August; three of them — junior ex-tight end Colton McKey and redshirt freshmen converted defensive tackles Xavier Melton and Cody Davis moved to offense in the winter — have been offensive players for merely a matter of weeks. Junior Nick Mondek, a likely starter at defensive tackle if healthy, was moved to offensive tackle midway through spring, underscoring the urgent need there. Redshirt freshman Trevor Foy and injured sophomore Monroe Brooks, at least, had all of last season to learn offense after starting out as defensive linemen.

“Kenny and I have to take that leadership assignment,” Kelly said, “and take them aside and tell them what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong. Anything we can do to help them become better players.” Schmeig exited the spring looking like the No. 1 center, though he says his snapping must improve.

“That was honestly the biggest (adjustment),” said Schmeig, who played mostly guard in 2009, “… and it’s still the biggest. Some days I feel like I’m snapping it perfectly; other days, it’s high. Once I get that down, I don’t think there will be too much else.”

Drey, listed as a tackle, started the spring game as a guard; Brewer has pushed Schmeig at center, but could probably play either interior position. Coaches are high on Foy, but like for most linemen his age, progress is needed in the weight room. And some experience wouldn’t hurt, either. Hope thinks Mondek can impact the offensive line once he gets past the broken foot that cut short his ‘09 season. With as much work as there is to be done in the offensive front, it’s not even the Boilermakers’ greatest rebuilding chore. The secondary is.

“We’re further along rebuilding our O-line,” Hope said, “than we are our secondary right now.” While the options on the offensive line are mostly players who’ve been in the program for some time now, the Boilermakers could hardly be any greener in the defensive backfield. Juniors Albert Evans and Charlton Williams are the group’s only scholarship upperclassmen and look like probable starters at safety and cornerback, respectively. But they’ve played sparingly to date and Evans sat out the spring after undergoing ankle surgery. Other than those two, true sophomores Chris Quinn and Josh Johnson are penciled in as starters at safety and corner, respectively.

For more on the secondary, see Page 13. On special teams, Purdue was working with a fraction of what it’ll have at its disposal come camp, particularly with Wiggs out for much of the spring. In 2010, the Boilermakers will have three scholarship kickers, hoping in a perfect world that Cody Webster can punt and Jonathan Linkenheimer can kickoffs, while Wiggs kicks field goals and pointsafter.

But Webster and Linkenheimer are still in high school right now. Hope said his team could have the most raw special teams talent in the Big Ten next season, though much of it will be undeveloped heading into the season. It will very much be an unknown commodity. And considering all that occurred this spring, it’s pretty apparent that Purdue in general is, as well.

But during the past month, the Boilermakers might have taken a step backward, by no fault of their own. Injuries ravaged Danny Hope’s team to the point he actually canceled practices because of them. Well, he postponed them, actually, but still …

The hex began with Ryan Kerrigan re-injuring his broken foot in the first week, sending the All-Big Ten defensive end into the summer wondering if he’d need more surgery. It continued with the disastrous knee injury suffered by Ralph Bolden, jeopardizing the budding-star running back’s 2010 season and costing Purdue for the time being one of its foremost offensive weapons.

And it finished appropriately, with every single scholarship running back on the roster sitting out the April 17 spring game.

“We were calling it ‘The Curse of the Running Backs 2010,’” Dan Dierking, part of the carnage himself with a hyper-extended knee, joked. Kicker Carson Wiggs had minor knee surgery; offensive lineman Ken Plue nursed a tight back. Linebacker Jason Werner’s sixth year of eligibility started with him idled by a tender heel; Robert Marve’s first year of eligibility began with his surgically repaired knee still sensitive. Keith Smith, one of the best wide receivers in college football, if you ask me, can’t catch a football again until mid-May as he recovers from wrist surgery.

Albert Evans, a pillar-by-default of a depleted secondary, could only watch. He had ankle surgery. Am I missing anyone? Yeah, I left some people out, a bunch of them, but space is dwindling here. Injuries dominated spring football the past four weeks, forcing a team that needed to take a significant step forward to, at best, stand still. I can’t claim to know all that went on behind closed gates in April and certainly there were positives that occurred during those closed practices, in whatever form that progress might take.

Yeah, I know: Depth. For every player that sits out with injury, that’s more work for someone who might not otherwise have gotten any. While there’s something to be said for that, time will tell how many of those pressed into added repetitions this spring can have any real impact on the field come fall. In most cases, we’re talking about walk-ons — with all due respect to walk-ons — and older players who haven’t played yet for a reason.

Again, we’ll see if the Boilermakers’ touted incoming freshmen can make a difference immediately, at a variety of positions. Purdue has never been, and may never be, a program loaded with stud on top of stud, filling out a depth chart on which every guy’s just as good as the guy next to him, across the board. In order to make strides, the Boilermakers need to put together solid starting units with standouts like Kerrigan, Smith, Marve, etc., sprinkled in here and there. And then it needs to stay healthy, move forward with continuity and consistency.

It couldn’t do that this spring. And so it enters the summer with catching up to do, with injury worries hovering over some of its most important players. And so you wonder if the spring of 2010 was a step in the right direction or the wrong one.

Bolden’s Injury Puts RB Position In State Of Flux

BY DOUG GRIFFITHS
DGriffiths@GoldandBlack.com

Purdue assistant coach Gary Nord has reason to be exited about the potential of the Boilermaker offense.

After all, as Coach Danny Hope points out, there is more talent at the skill positions than in any other time he can remember during his years at Purdue.

And as Nord proved last year, he has the ability to move the football.

This spring, the Boilermakers did miss the Big Ten’s most productive wide receiver in Keith Smith, who was sidelined due to a wrist injury, and one of the league’s top returning running backs in Ralph Bolden.

He went down with a knee injury, which will require surgery in the coming weeks. Smith will be back for fall camp and Nord thinks Purdue has the Big Ten’s best pair of tight ends in Kyle Adams and Jeff Lindsay. Add much ballyhooed transfer quarterback Robert Marve to the mix and the Boilermaker offense definitely has the potential to be potent. If it weren’t for some question marks with the offensive line and Bolden’s injury, Nord would really be giddy about the kind of offense he’ll put on the field come September.

“We have the ability to be pretty explosive, but we have to have a really good summer,” Nord said. “We’ve got to get bigger and stronger up front and have a real good summer throwing and catching.”

Gold & Black Illustrated talked with Nord following the Black & Gold Game April 17 and got his thoughts of what he saw from the offense this spring. Following are excerpts from that interview.

GBI: What did you see this spring that you liked from your offense and what concerns do you have?

Nord: “I liked the way they competed. They played fast and did everything we asked them to do. Our execution was a lot better this spring than it was last spring. “We still have to make sure we take care of the ball better and have to continue to get better up front.”

GBI: How crippling were some of the injuries from an offensive standpoint?

Nord: “Well, when five of your top six backs are out and we like to run some two backs so it made it very difficult. We didn’t have a back on scholarship in there in the backfield (in the spring game). “To execute the offense, we have to get some of those guys back.”

GBI: How big of a blow is it to lose a player the caliber of Bolden?

Nord: “It is a big blow whenever you have a guy that can do it all. He could run between the tackles, run outside, catch the ball and also block. “We made some moves. I like the Keith Carlos’ move that we made in there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to go the last couple days, but at least he’s played the position and has a chance to take it the distance when he touches it.”

GBI: So Carlos and Al-Terek McBurse are going to have to carry the load pretty much, right?

Nord: “Yeah. I feel really good about both those guys. They run the ball very well. They have good eyes and feet. They have the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. “Then we have two other guys that I feel really good about. I feel like (fullback Jared) Crank is probably one of the most improved guys on the offense. He probably had the four or five hardest hits of the spring on both sides of the ball. He’s been real physical so I’ve been real happy with him. Then, we get Danny Dierking back, too, who can play both in front and in back (in the backfield).”

GBI: There were a lot of question marks with the offensive line. Have things kind of sorted themselves out there during the course of the spring and do you feel comfortable with the guys you have up there?

Nord: “Well, there was so much juggling around inside with the kids trying to figure out who our best five was so we really didn’t get much continuity up there. That was the thing that was probably most disappointing. We didn’t get a true starting five. “Kenny (Plue) missed a lot of the spring. We have to get him back. We moved (Nick) Mondek over and he got a little bit (of action in the spring game) for the first time.”

GBI: What did you see from Marve this spring?

Nord: “I saw him start off really fast and tail off a little bit. His knee really got sore on him. We pushed him and held our breath every play to make sure we got through this without him re-injuring it or hurting anything. “He’s got a lot of ability and a lot of potential.”

GBI: Marve has all the makings of being a good one, doesn’t he?

Nord: “He’s very fast and has a very strong arm. Those other two quarterbacks (Caleb TerBush and Rob Henry) did a good job, too. “Caleb TerBush ran the offense very well. Rob Henry has come a long way.”

GBI: Is it safe to say Marve is the one that will have to be beaten out come fall?

Nord: “I wouldn’t say that at this point. I still think we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”

GBI: Could Marve be as good as advertised?

Nord: “Yes. Ability-wise he’s very good.”

GBI: One of the better ones you’ve been around?

Nord: “Probably the best I’ve been around ability-wise.”

GBI: Even without Bolden, does the offense have the makings of being pretty good?

Nord: “We’ve got a chance to score from any position. We can take it the distance from the Z or X (wide receiver positions). Cortez (Smith) has really come along. He’s probably our most consistent receiver right now. Keith Smith and Justin Siller are weapons and then you can put Keith Carlos out there, too, in and out from the backfield. I really think Kyle Adams and Jeff Lindsay are as good as any two tight ends in the conference so we’ll use those guys a lot, too.”

GBI: Is the wide receiver position a little unnerving when you don’t have a guy like Smith in there all spring or do you pretty much know what you have in him?

Nord: “We know what we’ve got in him. The thing it hurts a little bit is the confidence in the quarterback. When you have a receiver that led the Big Ten in catching and had 1,000 yards receiving, whenever there’s a decision to be made as a quarterback, you can throw it to him. It made the quarterbacks read their progressions and stay with their progressions and probably will make us a better football team in the long run, but immediately and executing right now it probably slowed us down a little bit.”

McBurse Ready To Fill In For Injured Bolden

BY DOUG GRIFFITHS
DGriffiths@GoldandBlack.com

Coaches are constantly telling players they’re just one injury away from seeing their role significantly increase.

That’s exactly the scenario that unfolded for sophomore running back Al-Terek McBurse this spring. The Winter Springs, Fla. native was thrust into the limelight after the knee injury to Ralph Bolden.

McBurse went from Bolden’s backup to perhaps Purdue’s starter in the backfield in a span of just a few days.

It’s an opportunity McBurse plans on taking full advantage of. “For him to go down, that’s a setback on the offense in some ways, but that just means it’s an opportunity for me to step up and become a key player on the offensive side of the ball and help out,” McBurse said.

Coach Danny Hope says Mc- Burse’s time to shine has arrived. “He’s going to have to (step up),” the second-year Boilermaker boss said. “We’re counting on him to. It’s his turn, his shot. I’m sure he’ll seize the moment and do everything he can to cash in on the opportunity. “He’s an outstanding athlete, an excellent ball carrier. He’s fast, has great vision, great feet.”

The major thing preventing Mc- Burse from making more of an immediate impact as a true freshman last season was his lack of blocking prowess, a necessity for his position at the major college level. Now, however, with a year of experience under his belt, McBurse seems to be much more at ease at his position and is embracing the blocking part of it. Blocking was completely foreign to McBurse when he arrived in West Lafayette.

“They never asked me to block (in high school),” said the 6-foot-1, 198-pound McBurse admitted. “Every play if it was a run, they just told me to run or if it was a pass, to just do a swing so I really never had to block until college, so it’s a big difference. “You have to do it if you want to be one of the best.” The coaching staff feels as though McBurse has made “tremendous” progress in the strength department during the off-season embracing the physical nature of game.

“Al-Terek grew up quite a bit,” offensive coordinator Gary Nord said. “He got a lot more physical. That was what we were concerned about. He was a high school guy coming in here who never was asked to block. We put him in some situations where he had to get physical and he did that. “He’s as good as any of them with the ball under his arm. He has to get better in his protections and blocking.”

Hope liked what he saw from No. 5 this spring, too. “He’s doing a better job of pass protecting, picking up the blitzes, finishing runs,” Hope said. “I think Al-Terek will rise to the occasion. He’s a player.

“He was not a very good blocker last year. He didn’t block much in high school. He carried the ball almost every down and blocking was new to him. He still has a long way to go, but he fits up on them a lot better and he’s throwing his body in there a lot harder. He has done a better job of picking up blitzes. He’s a more physical player. We still have to help him become even more of a physical player.”

Unfortunately for Mc- Burse, he couldn’t stay healthy for the entire spring. He suffered a hairline fracture in his left arm, which caused him to miss some practices as well as the spring game. With that said, had this been the season, McBurse would’ve played with a cast on his injured arm.

“We could have used Al- Terek in the spring game” Hope said. “Still, when Ralph went down, he stepped up his game some and was doing a good job of taking on the new role.”

With Bolden on the shelf now indefinitely, Hope’s decision to pull the redshirt off of McBurse halfway through last season appears to be a very wise one. Especially when one considers how much McBurse will now be expected to play. Last season, there appeared to be no reason not to redshirt McBurse, who was the highest regarded player Purdue signed in the Class of 2009. After all, Bolden and Jaycen Taylor were carrying much of the load in the backfield and there just wasn’t enough playing time to go around. But Hope decided to play Mc- Burse, knowing he would be the one they turned to in 2010 to spell Bolden when necessary.

McBurse ended up playing in the final six games, running the ball just four times for a total of 10 yards (gross). His biggest contribution came in the season finale at IU, when he took the second-half kickoff and returned it 87 yards for a touchdown.

“(Scoring in Bloomington) was momentum for me to carry over into spring ball,” McBurse said. “I just have to keep working and try to become a key player on the offensive side of the ball.”

“We made a decision towards the end of the season to pull the redshirt off of him because we knew he was going to have to play this year,” Hope said. “It was a tough call in some ways, but he got some experience last year. He’s come a long way.”

Talk about coming a long way, it was just a year ago that McBurse was playing the waiting game with the NCAA Clearinghouse after he graduated high school early so he could participate in spring ball. However, the governing body took its time before green lighting McBurse as it reviewed his high school transcript and entrance test scores. Due to the delay, he missed all of spring practice.

“That kind of set me back on my chances,” said McBurse, referring to playing right away, “but (now) I’m bigger and stronger and I’m just ready to go out there and do my best.”

Spring Provides First Step In Reloading Defensive Backfield

BY KYLE CHARTERS
KCharters@GoldandBlack.com

After their month-long spring schedule, the Boilermakers entered the offseason without all the answers to reloading their secondary, not that they should have expected them at this point.

Replacing four starters in the defensive backfield — a quartet that totaled 164 games and 112 starts over the last half-decade — takes time, and Purdue’s only begun to assemble the pieces. But the Boilers feel as though the spring’s 15 practices provided their first step forward.

“There’s been a lot of progress made,” Coach Danny Hope said following the spring game, “but when you’re neophyte it has to go in that direction.” And the Boilers are inexperienced, there’s no doubting that. Only Albert Evans, who played nickel back primarily last season, has seen significant playing time, and the junior safety was out for the spring as he rehabilitates from ankle surgery. That left the Boilers with only six scholarship defensive backs and an emerging walk-on, a group that’s had only 42 games of action, with most of those being for only a few snaps here and there, or on special teams.

“All the young guys have some redeeming qualities,” Hope said, “but none of them are very consistent right now. … They’re a long ways a way, but they show promise. We’re just not there yet.” During the April 17 spring game, sophomore Josh Johnson and junior Charlton Williams started at cornerback, with sophomore Chris Quinn and junior walk-on Logan Link at safety for the “Black” squad’s first-team defense. Junior college transfer Mike Eargle, an early enrollee, played significantly as well.

Although he’s a junior, Williams’ a veteran only in longevity, having played only sparingly during his first three seasons in West Lafayette. The big corner — he’s an enviable 6-foot-2, 200 pounds — played as a true freshman in ’07 but redshirted a season later. Last year, he played in eight games, progressively more late, including a dozen or more snaps in the finale vs. Indiana, when he had two tackles.

“It was a great opportunity,” Williams said. “It let me see what it’s going to be like when I get out there this year when I’m out there playing.” Johnson got equally valuable experience last season, although like Williams, he didn’t often show up in the final box score. Knowing that they’d need to replenish the secondary following the departures of David Pender, Brandon King, Torri Williams and Dwight Mclean, the Boilers thrust Johnson into action as a rookie.

Although he’d play only a couple defensive snaps a game, if that, it’s thought to have prepared him for more this season. “It helped with his confidence No. 1,” secondary coach Lou Anarumo said. “ … He plays with confidence, so that goes a long way, especially at that position. I think just being around those (former) guys, just being in the room with them, meeting with them, and playing with them, it definitely has helped.”

Quinn got a taste as a rookie last season, too, although at a different position than where he plays currently. Last year, the 5-11, 185-pounder played cornerback and practiced some at safety, but now he’s focusing only on the latter. His transition hasn’t been seamless, but he’s making progress.

“Chris Quinn is a fast safety and a physical safety,” Hope said. “He’s probably performed a little bit better than the other safeties. The other safeties have been kind of rotating in and out with the different units and it’s kind of a toss-up.” But even with Quinn’s emergence, and the expected return of Evans, the Boilers left the spring feeling the need for more help at safety. They got some in junior college transfer Max Charlot, who signed with Purdue after visiting for the spring game.

The 6-foot, 190-pounder from Fullerton College will be thrown into the mix in the fall, as will rookies E.J. Johnson and Ricardo Allen, along with four other first-year defensive backs. Anarumo says it will be into the fall before the Boilermakers fully find their answers.

“In my mind, I kind of have it how I’d like to see it shake out, but I don’t think we’ll know until the freshmen get here because I really want to see what they can do,” he said. “… We’re not closing our doors to anything because I think that’s a real possibility. A guy like E.J. Johnson or Ricardo Allen may show up and be the best guy, and that’s why we recruited them, so we’ll see what happens.”