Old National Presents: 3-2-1

Three things learned. Two questions. One bold statement. It’s The 3-2-1, a look at Purdue football as it heads to Michigan.

Three things learned

1 – Brutal November here

Does any school in the nation have a more daunting slate in November? Doubtful.

By now, you have the final four games memorized: at No. 21 Michigan, vs. No. 1 Ohio State, at Washington, vs. No. 2 Indiana. The record of Purdue’s four November foes: 16-3 in the Big Ten; 27-4 overall. The Wolverines and Buckeyes won the last two national titles; the Huskies played for the 2023 title; the Hoosiers made the playoff last season.

Woof.

Purdue figures to be a double-digit underdog in each game. (It’s +21 at Michigan this Saturday.) Could it pull an upset down the stretch? Or is a 2-10 record and winless Big Ten season the Boilermakers’ fate?

Barry Odom won’t allow himself to look past the moment he’s in. Probably a good idea. He may pass out contemplating what’s on this plate.

“Be where your feet are, the right here and the right now,” said Odom. “If you don’t focus on those things, you’re going to be all over the place. And I’ve got a checklist of the things that I’ve got to do every single day. And if I get off that, or let your mind wander into something else, then I’m not doing right by these kids. And I’m not going to do that.”

2 – Practice outdoors, or indoors

It has not uncommon to see Purdue practice inside the Mollkenkopf Athletic Center on cool-but-perfectly-fine days when it would be OK to work outdoors.

What’s up with that?

“We’ll look at those (weather reports),” said Odom. “Do we need to be in the elements or not? I’m not concerned about the cooler temperatures (for games on Saturdays). We get enough of that early morning here, so we’ll be OK.”

3 – Bonded

A close team is a good team. Or, at least that’s the belief.

Purdue? Is it close? Odom thinks his team showed more togetherness last week.

“It was the first time I really felt like a team, from the emotional investment, to guys really celebrating each other’s success,” said Odom. “And you could feel it building up last week that it really meant something to it.

“I am not saying that it hadn’t meant something to us in the previous seven weeks or so. Saturday, we look like a closer team that had made progress.”

MORE: Barry Odom: ‘Purdue has been very aggressive in giving us every single thing that we need’ | The 3-2-1: Fearsome foursome of November foes looms for Purdue | First look: Michigan | First and 10: Purdue at Michigan | Gold and Black Radio: Purdue preps for No. 21 Michigan

Two questions

1 – What happened on Ryan Browne‘s fateful fumble?

It’s a play that Purdue fans won’t soon forget, taking a place in the program’s infamous archive of heartache.

The set up: Game tied, 24-24; 1:06 to go; Purdue has the ball at its 30-yard line. Let’s have OC Josh Henson pick up the story from here.

“So, obviously, what you don’t want to do is rip three straight incompletions, they’ve got the ball back with 54 seconds and two timeouts,” said Henson. “Because then it becomes advantage them very quickly. And so what we were looking to do was throw a high-percentage RPO with a run and execute it.

“I was hoping to get five, six yards on the first play to see what their mentality was going to be, if they were going to call a timeout and they’re trying to conserve time, or they were just gonna let us run the clock. And if they were, then we would start moving on with our two minute drill to go score and win the game.

“Obviously, we didn’t execute it in a catastrophic way. I’ve got no more to say about that. I’m not going to talk about the little details of it in the media. But yeah, wasn’t good.”

2 – Why did Purdue close its practice to media on Monday?

They had been open all season. But Odom said there was nothing to hide. The practice started later and was structured differently than other Monday practices, per the Boiler boss.

“We weren’t trying to hide anything,” said Odom. “So, I don’t want you to read into it why we closed practice. We didn’t do anything crazy.”

So, there’s that.

One bold statement: DE CJ Nunnally is Purdue’s biggest portal surprise

Don’t know about you, but I didn’t expect the transfer from Akron to lead Purdue in sacks (5.0) and TFLs (7.0) when he arrived. But, here we are.

“We have a coach (Neal Renna) who works with the linebackers that came from Akron,” said DC Mike Scherer. “He thought very highly of him, and I think highly of that coach. …

“But, no, I didn’t think he’d be our top pass rusher. But he is, and it’s because of the work he’s put in, the belief he has in himself, and the belief he has that he’s gonna beat the man across from him.”

Others should follow Nunnally’s lead.

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