In Their Own Words: Iowa Football at Purdue

With seven extra weeks to prepare for the 2020 football season than originally planned, we collaborated with each of the Big Ten sites across SB Nation’s platform to get some in depth analysis on what to expect for the upcoming season. As each game approaches, we’ll share those insights from the weekly opponent in their own team site’s words.

The Hawkeyes kick off the 2020 season with a trip to West Lafeyette to take on the Purdue Boilermakers, our most hated rival. Here’s what to expect from Purdue in 2020, in their own words.

Key Departures

• Brycen Hopkins - TE Drafted by the Rams
• Markus Bailey - LB Drafted by the Bengals

Key Returnees

• Rondale Moore - Receiver/returner/All-American badass
• Lorenzo Neal - DT, missed all of last season due to torn ACL
• David Bell - WR, Freshman All-American
• Grant Hermanns - LT, 5th year senior and four year starter.

Instant Impact Freshmen or Transfers

• Tyler Coyle (UConn transfer safety)
• Greg Long (OL transfer from UTEP)
• Gus HArtwig, 4 star offensive lineman from Zionsville, IN
• DaMarcus Mitchell (LB) and Geovante Howard (CB), JuCo transfers

2020 Team Overview

Purdue was an extremely young team last year and had to play a lot of freshmen because of injuries. I believe at one point freshmen scored something like 17 straight touchdowns. We were also starting freshmen at QB, RB, WR, S, CB, and more. I feel this is a year of maturation. Our 2019 and 2020 recruiting classes were the best they have been in years and they will form a base for what I think is a real breakthrough in 2021.

Biggest Strength

Wide receiver. We have an embarrassment of riches there. Rondale Moore and David Bell are just the beginning. Purdue can legitimately go 7-8 deep in terms of either experience (fifth year seniors Jared Sparks and Jackson Anthrop) or highly rated talent (freshmen Maliq Carr and Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen).

Biggest Weakness

Offensive line has been an issue the entire Brohm era. They need to be shored up and protect whoever wins the QB derby. Also, doe someone separate themselves from Jack Plummer, Aidan O’Connell, and Austin Burton at QB? If one of those guys does and the line holds up, Purdue can fling the ball all over the field. At that point Rondale would just make the offense absolutely lethal.

Fanbase View of Coaching Staff

Pretty good so far. Brohm has been up and down. He has some great highs like beating the brakes off of Ohio State. He also has had some really curious losses to Rutgers, Eastern Michigan, and Nevada. Five times in the last two years Purdue has lost on the very last snap of the game. That’s a lot of narrow losses where it has just missed an even better record.

2020 Team MVP

David Bell. He is a stud and if Rondale does come back that dup will absolutely torment Big Ten secondaries.

Season Prediction

I am think 5-3 with a season opening upset of Iowa. Brohm has done very well against the Hawkeyes and Ferentz’s conservative nature does not do well against him. As for curious loss, I will pick Illinois. We played an awful game against them last year and I feel like we should beat them, but are they really getting better under Lovie?

What else should we know about your team this year?

I forgot to mention George Karlaftis, another freshman All-American and general terror at defensive end. If anything, I think he will be better in year two as the game slows down for him.

So there you have it, OMHR is planning on taking home a W in week one against the Hawkeyes. Special thanks to Travis Miller of Hammer and Rails for taking the time to provide a season preview of the Boilermakers. Be sure to check out HnR this week as they provide full coverage from a Purdue angle. You can find all their coverage of the matchup with Iowa in their game center here.