Express Word: Purdue football camp, college sports ethics and more

The Weekly Word is Gold and Black Express’ weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s edition, we discuss the complexities of college sports these days and more.

ON PURDUE FOOTBALL TRAINING CAMP

I’m the last person to ask about Purdue’s football roster right now beyond the broad view of rebuilds nowadays, but as our staff readies to go cover this preseason, here are some questions I’d have beyond the obvious: Who are these guys and are they good?

• Offensive Approach: Obviously. Devin Mockobee figures to be your guy, one of the known commodities you have on offense, and there will presumably be mobility at quarterback that coaches are willing to utilize. But how does this all look? Is it man-blocking, zone blocking, misdirection, RPO? Regardless, is the offensive line — perhaps a strength given the UNLV connections there — big and strong enough to move people or mobile enough to get to blocks?

• Speed: Some of these fast guys they brought in, how do they get them the ball in ways that can leverage that speed? It’s one thing to have big-play threats, but they’re just paper tigers unless you can effectively use them. Offenses are getting more and more creative for that reason.

• Discipline: If Purdue can just get back to being tough, physical, disciplined and less self-destructive, it’s really not far off from what we know about things. These are areas where the total overhaul of the roster is a good thing, because everyone who left, they were all part of 1-11, whether they were good players, mediocre players or bad players. Purdue needed the slate wiped clean in that sense. Ryan Walters and his staff mismanaged all this, but in fairness they took on a program where the fundamental tenets of the game were glanced over by the Brohms, their M.O. being the fresh coat of paint that yields instant results and buzz, but isn’t built to last.

• Tackling: It’s a pretty simple game, really. Purdue has been a lousy tackling program for years and years now.

• George Burhenn: Being healthy is the biggest piece of this, but Purdue would seem to be in dire need of playmakers. If he’s healthy, and this is going to be a ground-oriented offense, can Burhenn wear both hats? Purdue bringing in a 6-foot-8, 275-pound transfer tight end was a tell in terms of what they may want from the position, at least situationally.

• Kickers: That. Kickers.

ON THE NEW ETHICS OF COLLEGE SPORTS

With the entire landscape of college sports changing the past five years or so and everything moving toward de facto professionalization, many other undercurrents change. I’m not sure big-time college sports have ever really been a bastion of ethical purity, but the ethics of the endeavor take on new meaning now, in my opinion.

Here is a thought I have grappled with: Now that young people are making grown-up money, what responsibility do schools have to provide the wisdom most of us didn’t achieve until adulthood? With big money comes big responsibility and when I was 18 years old, if you’d given me $100,000, I’d have been a scene from “Dumb and Dumber.” Most of the contemporaries would have been the same. Harry’s, Jake’s, Best Buy and the Structure store in the Tippecanoe Mall would have done great, though, at my expense.

What young people may not realize is that if you are smart with your money, invest smartly and have stand-up people around you, then not only are you debt-free, but at minimum, you already have a robust down payment on your first home paid for, and that’s a great first step toward “wealth.” Given that your earning power may never again be what it is right now, the time is right now.

Can friends and family and agents be trusted to be that sober voice of reason? Hopefully, but sometimes the world is what it is and not what we think it should be.

In my opinion, the athletic departments that invest in life-skills programs and money-management education and the coaches who give a damn about their players’ lives are going to not only be doing right by their people but also have advantages competitively.

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

• I keep seeing all these media reports of college coaches being taken aback by this new College Sports Commission enforcement system that we have known was coming for like a year. Coaches will complain about anything that doesn’t help them, and there were no surprises here, and I should add that when it’s coaches who don’t benefit from everyone’s players being paid complaining, it tells you what you need to know.

Are there problems with this new system? Sure. We’ll know for sure after a few years but problems are inevitable.

The question lies in the moving of the goalposts. Is a flawed new system better than an absolutely lawless prior order of things? That’s the question, the only one that really matters.

This has been (mostly) good for the athletes, so if this coach or that coach or this national media member or that national media member are upset that “cheating” will come back, then where were they during the bugged-hotel-room days? The old way was corrupt as can be and every time a national media member tweeted “(Dirty coach A) gets it done again” they were complicit.

This goes for football and basketball alike.

This new enforcement structure is only going to be effective if people want it to be. And based on all the apparent off-the-record bitching and moaning basketball coaches did to reporters in July, it’s not looking good.

• You ever been to an aquarium where you walk up to a tank full of fish and there’s a button you can push that activates a little voice that tells you about the fish?

Yeah, that technology would probably come in handy this weekend, when Purdue football has its autograph session for fans.

Jokes aside, the program deserves credit for taking the opportunity to do some community outreach. Connecting to local communities is going to be a challenge for everybody in this Portal Era.