Express Thoughts: Creativity, bye week, basketball and more

Gold and Black’s Express Thoughts from the Weekend column, with analysis of Purdue football, Boilermaker men’s basketball, recruiting, or whatever else comes to mind.

ON PURDUE AND NOTRE DAME

To the surprise of no one, Notre Dame physically overmatched Purdue, same as it has about 75 percent of the time during the hundred or so years these two teams having been playing football against one another, at least in the modern era. Maybe in the 1930s Boilermaker players smoked fewer cigarettes before the games and could stack up better, but in industrialized times, Notre Dame has almost always been bigger, stronger, faster and more talented.

That was all true Saturday, too, but Purdue’s new staff illustrated a very important characteristic — self awareness. They got silly, running some really fun “deceptive” plays.

This Purdue staff isn’t going to reinvent football. Purdue hired Barry Odom not for frills, but for a foundation. But regardless, you have to be creative at Purdue. You just do. History tells us success here belongs to the open-minded, to the boundary-pushers. You have to even the playing field one way or another at Purdue. People don’t always want to hear that, but it’s true.

Purdue is going to have to keep finding ways to sucker-punch people and steal first downs and points in unconventional ways.

But most importantly, it has to keep getting better, because trick plays don’t work when your offense isn’t. You have to be good at what you do in order to get defenses off balance enough to throw that occasional curveball. After that, you need a deep back of tricks.

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ON PURDUE’S BYE WEEK

The past two weeks, Purdue faced up-hill battles, games no one should have credibly expected them to win. That the Boilermakers hung in there through much of those games amidst some weird circumstances was more of a positive than the final scores were cause for alarm.

What Purdue really needed, though, was to stay healthy, and that’s what’s troubling now, as important defensive lineman T.J. Lindsey was lost for the season and critically important tight end George Burhenn wound up in street clothes in South Bend.

There are winnable games ahead during this Big Ten season, but they’ve got to be something close to whole. How much bye weeks really matter in that sense, I don’t know. Purdue is still going to practice — and you get hurt in practice sometimes, too — and needs to. It’s not just about having your best assets in games, but practices, too, and this is a really important practice window coming up.

ON PURDUE BASKETBALL

Purdue formally starts preseason practice Wednesday and if its summer and early fall practices were any indication, the Boilermakers are going to live up to their grand expectations this season.

There are some things to be ironed out and newcomers to keep onboarding, but these practices since June have been the best I’ve ever seen during off-seasons. They’ve been the sharpest — returnees look like they’re sharing a brain — and certainly the most competitive.

Last year at this time, there were players you kinda knew had to really step up in order to play who weren’t really responding to the moment. Today, Purdue has double-digit starting candidates, more than one at most positions, plus versatility enough to force-multiply its depth. It has a really interesting blend of veteran professionalism and youthful ambition, no one out there just spinning their wheels. That might be flowery wording, but I’m not sure how else to describe it.

Purdue, to me, had the best off-season it possibly could have.

It brought back everybody who really mattered, filled needs in best-case-scenario fashion, stayed healthy, saw individuals really improve (Gicarri Harris to name one) and all of that really showed in practice and will continue to, I’d imagine.