#FlashbackFriday: Purdue

Forget Iowa State. Forget Minnesota. Forget Wisconsin. Forget the Cornholers west of the Missouri River. This is frickin’ Purdue we’re talking about here, people. The amount of manufactured natural hate these two football behemoth’s have for each other is off the charts.

Ok, ok, if you don’t get the joke by now, you probably never will. During the infamous days of the Legends and Leaders divisions (I hope they fired the name guy), B1G overlord Jim Delany insisted each school have a protected cross over rival. Iowa and Purdue apparently were last on the list (because, ya know, Iowa and Wisconsin or Iowa and Illinois apparently made too much sense) and somehow ended up as “rivals.” And thus, a fake true rivalry was born. Purdue instantly became Our Most Hated Rival.

Now that we got the backstory (and hopefully some of our newer readers) taken care of, we can move on to the game itself. Newsflash: Purdue sucks and they’ve sucked for awhile. Purdue holds the all-time series lead at 46-37-3, but Coach Ferentz is 9-4 against the Boilers and has won eight of the last 10. This includes a win last year to clinch Iowa’s first-ever West Division championship and a spot in the B1G Championship game. That game followed a pretty good snowstorm in Iowa City and it was really damn cold. Game time temperature was around 20 degrees.

Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images

Iowa raced out to a 20-0 lead before Purdue fought back to make it 20-13. But Iowa’s rushing attack and TE combo of George Kittle and Henry Krieger-Coble were too much and Iowa pulled away for a 40-20 victory. Purdue actually outgained Iowa to the tune of 405-387 but Purdue was an abysmal 4-18 on 3rd down, which made them stall a lot.

How did Purdue’s season go? Garbage. Despite some close calls against solid teams like Michigan State, they finished 2-10 (with their only B1G win coming against Nebraska...lol). After the season, the starting QB for the first half of the season, Austin Appleby, transferred. Crazy enough, he and the transferring QB before him, Danny Etling, are starting for Florida and LSU respectively this season. That has left them with Sophomore QB David Blough, who Jordan Lomax knocked out of the game last year with a concussion.

Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

Who played well for the Boilermakers? RB Markell Jones had a solid game going for 87 yards and a TD on 24 carries. On the defensive side of the ball, DT Jake Replogle also had a pair of sacks and an additional tackle for loss.

Who played well for the Hawkeyes? RB Jordan Canzeri ran for 95 yards, which included a 42-yard scamper that was the clinching TD in the 4th quarter. That followed a performance from the year before when he went for 63 yards backing up Mark Weisman. The aforementioned TE duo of Kittle and HKC totaled 6 receptions for 125 yards and 2 TD’s.

Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

Who is returning that gave the Hawks trouble last time? Both guys listed above are back. The matchup I am really focused on is DeAngelo Yancey vs. Desmond King. Despite King lining up quite a bit on Yancey last year, Yancey was the Boilermakers’ most prolific receiver, having 9 catches for 117 yards. When Appleby came in relief of Blough, he was moderately successful targeting his big receivers on comebacks and hitch routes and letting them do their work after the catch. This will be something to keep an eye on this weekend.

Highlights (hello MUTE button):

Who hates Purdue?!?! Uhhh, we do!