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Gold and Black Radio: Purdue aims to snap three-game skid against Minnesota

by: Dub Jellison10/07/25dubjellison
Screenshot 2025-10-07 at 12.04.28 PM


In our Oct. 7 edition, GoldandBlack.com’s Tom Dienhart and Dub Jellison plus host Derek Schultz break down Purdue football’s loss to Illinois and look ahead at the October slate for the Boilermakers, including this weekend’s trip to Minnesota.

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The 3-2-1: Now hear this–Purdue needs to fix communication breakdown in secondary

1 – Communication breakdown

In the words of the immortal Vince Lombardi: “What the he**’s going on out there?”

Illinois receivers were running untamed last Saturday. At times, it seemed as if the Purdue DBs didn’t know how to communicate. Turns out, that was at the heart of the defensive breakdowns that resulted in Illinois completing five passes of 35 yards or more. It didn’t help that No. 1 CB Tony Grimes was out with injury.

“They have to communicate amongst themselves and not have, let’s say, a coach out there communicating to them,” said DC Mike Scherer. “And now there’s a fine line between coaching at practice and letting them play, and we’re finding that. But there’s also ways, I think, that we have found just trying to make it more exactly like game day, because we’re doing some things in practice.”

Illinois QB Luke Altmyer sliced and diced the Boilers on 19-of-22 passing for 390 yards. And Illini WR Hank Beatty caught five passes for 186 yards, averaging a cool 37.2 yards per catch.

“We’re continuing, you know, every week we try and try to find some new add-on to try and fix those issues,” said Scherer. “There are some things that we’re doing within the positions, the defensive back positions in particular. That’s where it’s coming from. We’re doing some things in practice in particular to try and fix those.”

2 – Good vibrations

Purdue has lost three is a row. And the defeats haven’t been close, losing by an average of 19.3 points to USC, Notre Dame and Illinois. Despite the decided setbacks, Barry Odom says the mood of the team remains upbeat as Purdue wades deeper into October.

More: The 3-2-1: Now hear this–Purdue needs to fix communication breakdown in secondary

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