Football Notebook

News, notes and what-not as Purdue gears up to welcome Southern Illinois (7:30 p.m. ET, BTN).

On occasion, Purdue will bring in an extra offensive line man (Jude McCoskey) and directly snap the ball to a running back. We saw Purdue use what it calls its “hippo personnel,” with Devin Mockobee taking a direct snap and charging four yards to pay dirt for a 21-0 lead last Saturday.

TV broadcasters called it a “Pete Package” in homage to school mascot Purdue Pete. Maybe that’s a better moniker for the formation.

“I mean, I can go with that,” said OC Josh Henson. “I mean, that’s good, whatever. I like it. I mean, it’s kind of like when I think about Purdue Pete, I think about a hammer hitting an anvil, right? You know what I mean? And some sparks flying. So, maybe it’s appropriate for what we’re trying to do in that package.

“I mean, we wanted to invest in something that basically gave us an attitude, that we’re going to line up. Everybody kind of knows what’s happening. We know what’s happening. The defense does and we’re going to go get a couple yards and get a first down or a touchdown, or whatever that might be. So, that’s basically what that’s all about, just having an attitude we can run the ball downhill and score in short yardage and goal line situations.”

EMBRACING QB HERITAGE

Purdue is the “Cradle of Quarterbacks,” producing a litany of standout passers from Len Dawson to Drew Brees. Henson wants to embrace that heritage.

“I want to continue the quarterback tradition while I’m in charge of it here,” said Henson. “So, you know, I thought we took a good step Saturday.”

Ryan Browne hit 69 percent of his passes (18-of-26) for 311 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-0 victory. Browne was the lone signal-caller in the Big Ten to throw for over 300 yards in the opening week.

“There’ll be some days where it’s tough, and those things happen,” said Henson. “But we got to be able to throw the football to win games. It’s just the way it is. I mean, the teams we are going to play in this league, you’re going to get up against teams that the line of scrimmage gets harder and harder to move the ball when you’re running it … So, we’ve got to be in a really efficient passing team.”

NOTES

• Purdue scored 14 first-quarter points last week vs. Ball State in a 31-0 win. Purdue tallied a total of 13 first-quarter points in all of 2024.

• The last Purdue coach to open his career 2-0? You have to go all the way back to 1916, when the venerable and iconic Cleo O’Donnell toppled DePauw and Wabash before falling at Iowa. The hot start was not a sign of good things to come, however.

Hired from Everett (Mass.) High, O’Donnell went 5-8-1 at Purdue (0-8-1 Big Ten) from 1916-17. He went on to coach his alma mater, Holy Cross, from 1919-29, going 69-27-6. After retiring from coaching, O’Donnell operated a tile manufacturing company. He died in 1953 at 69 years old.

• Last week, Devin Mockobee became the eighth Purdue player to reach the 2,500 career rushing mark. He has 2,525 yards in his Boilermaker career.

• Purdue saw 43 players make their Boiler debut last week. The squad has 82 newcomers including a national-high 54 portal additions.

• Purdue posted a season-opening shutout in consecutive years for the first time since 1964-65.

• Arhmad Branch nabbed three passes for 101 yards to become the first Purdue wide receiver to eclipse the 100-yard receiving mark since Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen in 2023 vs. Syracuse. Branch became the first Purdue player to reach 100 yards receiving on three or fewer receptions since 2008.