Express Thoughts From The Weekend: A big opportunity for Purdue rained out

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 USC

Purdue missed out on a real opportunity Saturday morning/afternoon/evening, not just because its offense threw three interceptions and its defense dropped two, but because circumstance produced the greatest takeaway of the night.

Purdue needed this to be a moment. It was all set up to be, as there was going to be a great crowd primed for a revival sort of moment. Such situations have produced extraordinary moments in this school’s sports history.

But there turned out to be the wrong kind of electricity in the air and the game wound up barely running longer than the delay that preceded it. By the time fans refilled the arena, there weren’t quite as many of them, unsurprisingly. Those who did return suddenly didn’t outnumber a robust USC contingent quite as overwhelmingly. The morning’s liquid enthusiasm had come and gone. How could fatigue have not set in?

The moment passed.

Not surprisingly, USC is better than Purdue. It has markedly better talent and looks way better in uniform, which is to say the physical gulf between the two teams was clear. No surprises there.

But the thing about the Big Ten is that when you go to Iowa City at night or Madison at any hour the bars are open, the playing field is not even. It is tilted toward the home team.

Purdue needed that. It would have had the weather cooperated. Would it have changed the outcome? I doubt it, but who can say? If USC had made a few mistakes beyond its penalties plague, who knows? Purdue had a chance to have a chance at the end here as it was.

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ON PURDUE AND NOTRE DAME

Again this week Purdue’s going to be an underdog by a big number, this time Notre Dame, the Irish again agitated before meeting the Boilermakers. That was a Molotov cocktail for Purdue last season, which has nothing to do with anything except to remind that in sports, sometimes anger is a weapon.

There’s a real possibility again that Purdue is overmatched at Notre Dame in many of the same ways it was against the Trojans before they loaded up their wooden horse and headed back to L.A. with a win.

Yes, Purdue was overmatched and beat itself in some ways. That’s a bad combination. But Purdue should have walked off that field feeling OK about itself. It did compete; it did give SC some reason to squirm.

This is a low bar, I know, but Purdue looked like it belonged on the field. That’s a backhanded compliment but in the context of where the program is right now in a total rebuild, it’s a compliment nonetheless. It probably wasn’t going to beat USC even if there was extraordinary energy in that stadium at kickoff; it probably won’t beat Notre Dame in South Bend.

But while coaches and players can’t accept losses as part of the big picture and celebrate moral victories, it is what is right now.

If USC and Notre Dame make Purdue better, there are wins on that schedule down the line.

Purdue was picked in the preseason to be the worst team in the Big Ten; it has already proven it’s not.

It’s going to get better. Ryan Browne should improve with experience and if/when his feel for the position and command of this offense take a step, there’s upside there to be realized.

ON TIGHT ENDS

Watching that Purdue-USC game and how those teams used their tight ends then seeing Tyler Warren — the best college football player I saw last season — play for the Colts Sunday really highlighted how much that position has evolved in football. Some of these guys are probably the best athletes on their teams and now that it’s cool to be a tight end — look where it got Travis Kelce — hopefully you see more of the better athletes at the high school level embrace growing into that position.

And if I’m a college coach, I’m looking at every 6-foot-5 wide receiver I can find through that lens and trying to find prospects to develop. Not just high school. The portal, too. Why can’t somebody’s else’s 215-pound receiver become your 240-pound tight end in a matter of months. The move should be an easier sell now than it might have been in the past.

There’s not a mid-level power conference team in America that shouldn’t still be looking at big high school running backs as potential linebackers, athletic high school quarterbacks as potential safeties, big high school linebackers as potential defensive ends, giant high school tight ends as potential offensive tackles and so on.

Tight end can be a destination for a bunch of different types of athlete.