Confident Arhmad Branch poised for breakout with Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The name that continues to pop up over the first two days of Purdue’s fall camp is perhaps an unknown to many on the outside. Every time you look up, Arhmad Branch is making a play. Teammates talking to the media, raving about Branch. It’s time for people to start learning about the sophomore wide receiver.

Being under the radar is nothing new to the Festus (Mo.) product, who emerged as a late addition to the 2023 recruiting class under former head coach Ryan Walters after having no scholarship offers to his name. A three-sport star at the prep level who didn’t pick up football until his junior year, playing basketball and being an all-state jumper prior to his late start on the gridiron, is now coming into his own in year three on campus.

Teammates are taking notice of the improved Branch, who has been consistently making plays all over the field and is one of the top standouts through two fall practices thus far. Safety Sterling Smith and wide receiver De’Nylon Morrissette are among the fellow Boilermakers raving about the rising redshirt sophomore.

“Arhmad Branch has been going crazy, man. That’s my guy, too, but Arhmad Branch, I’m expecting a big year out of him, a big fall camp out of him,” Morrissette said. “He’s making plays. He’s doing his job. He’s making plays down the field. Every time the ball comes to him, he knows what to do with it.”

“He’s a confident player. Like, that’s the biggest thing. He has confidence. He has belief in himself. He plays with a lot of swagger. He’s a smart kid, like, he’s smart. He knows how to sit down in zones, but, I mean, he’s a speedster. He can take the top off a route, he’s shifty, he can pretty much do it all. So, I definitely I expect big things. That’s my brother, so I definitely expect big things out of him this year,” Smith said.

That confidence has been key for Branch’s emergence, which comes after he started to come on late in spring practice. The flashy pass catcher credits his new head coach with helping instill that confidence in him over the last eight months together in West Lafayette.

“I got a lot of confidence back. Well, I always had confidence, but it’s like with Coach Odom, Coach Odom, instilled more confidence in me. So, to come out here, and you know you got coaches that are rooting for you, teammates that are rooting for you every day, knowing what you got to do, it just feels great, and I’m ready for it,” Branch said.

Odom’s coaching style was one that Branch was excited to receive upon his arrival to Purdue this winter and one that he knew he could thrive with. His high school coach, A.J. Ofodile, was on Odom’s staff at Missouri. After getting the run down on the Boilermakers’ hire this off-season from his former head coach, Branch was all in on returning to West Lafayette.

“Once he told me, Coach Odom is just like him, it was a no brainer. So, I knew it was gonna be hard, smart and tough. We got to come play hard, and he gonna play who balls. So, it was a no brainer,” Branch said.

Branch is jumping at the opportunity to show what he can do when the season starts later this month, after having a brief introduction to the college level with a touchdown against Illinois last season. Could that be a sign of more to come in a potential breakout 2025 campaign? Branch says, “yes.”

“A lot of people gonna see very soon, but I’m a deep threat. I’m a route runner. So, it’s like, I can run any route, bubbles, it don’t matter. So, I just feel like we got a lot of routes and a lot of plays, a lot of schemes that just everybody can be open. So it’s like, when you know all four guys around you can be open, it’s like, you just want to get open first,” Branch said.

To do so, Branch will have to continue competing against a wealth of fresh faces in Purdue’s receiving corps, which features additions of Nitro Tuggle and Michael Jackson (Georgia), as well as Charles Ross (USC), Chauncey Magwood (UCF), EJ Horton (FAU) and others.

“The coaches told us day one when they came in, you’re gonna compete. So, it’s like, whenever the receivers left and more came in, they told us ‘compete.’ Like, nobody got a job. So, I just kept competing, because I felt like I still didn’t have a job,” Branch said.

If the first two days are any indication, Branch could be inching closer toward getting said job when the Boilermakers open up the season against Ball State on August 30th.