Barry Odom: Purdue ‘not good enough’ as Boilers seek answers before Minnesota

Awful. Disappointed. Frustrating.

Those are just a few of the words Barry Odom used to describe his team in the Saturday postgame glow following a 43-27 loss to No. 22 Illinois. Has his tune changed now that almost 48 hours have passed and he’s had time to watch the film?

“We all saw what we saw,” said Odom on Monday. “And it’s we’re not good enough yet. My staff and myself, we haven’t done a good enough job getting them ready to go play winning football for four quarters.”

The loss was Purdue’s third in a row after a 2-0 start. What made the defeat to the Illini galling was a raft of defensive breakdowns, as well as run of silly penalties. And turnovers remain an issue, too.

Purdue (2-3 overall; 0-2 Big Ten) can get right on Saturday, when it plays at Minnesota (3-2; 1-1) at 7:30 p.m. ET on BTN. The Boilermakers have won two in a row vs. the Gophers, including their last trip to Dinkytown in 2022.

“So, that’s the chase, and that’s the pursuit,” said Odom. “And I don’t like living in the world of the gray area, or what might have been or what could have been. The truth always comes after ‘but.’ We did all these things, ‘but’ we came up short. We got beat, and it’s my job to get that fixed.

“I believe in truth and honesty and reality, and you got to look in the mirror. It’s my job to get it fixed. And that’s our passion to do everything we can to get this team to play the way we need to win games.”

The offense did some positive things on Saturday. According to OC Josh Henson, the Illini was trying to mute the Purdue pass game, so the Boilermakers hit the run game, getting 151 yards on 25 carries with three TDs as the line got a consistent push. And QB Ryan Browne has his moments in passing for 302 yards and a TD.

It was the defense that floundered. Blame it largely on communication issues in the secondary, as Purdue allowed 507 yards–390 passing.

“We gave up eight plays for 300 yards,” said DC Mike Scherer. “That’s disappointing … those eight plays for the most part are inexcusable.”

Maybe going on the road will help Purdue focus and foster a bunker mentality. The program hasn’t won a Big Ten road game since winning at Indiana in 2002 under Jeff Brohm.

“You look at now the opportunity to go on the road, and we’ll use it in a way that it is us against everybody,” said Odom. “I think that’s one thing that most teams do when you go on the road, especially in conference, how important that is to approach it with the right mentality.”

Purdue is in pretty good health. Odom said No. 1 CB Tony Grimes practiced today after missing the Illinois game with injury.

“As long as he’s able to go practice tomorrow, I would say he would be ready to participate,” said Odom.

And Odom saw No. 1 left guard Jalen St. John leave the Illinois game with injury.

“He was limited today for any work that we did,” said Odom. “We’ll know a lot more tomorrow. I do think Jalen is a fast healer on what I’ve seen before. So, hopefully get some work in tomorrow, extended work, and kind of see where it’s at.”

For now, Odom is focused on who is available and getting the program back on track as the midseason mark of 2025 approaches.

“Not trying to be coach-talk with this, but I want to move past the last game,” said Odom. “You learn from your experiences. But if we’re sitting there letting that spend any time other than the lessons learned from that game, if we’re spending any more wasted energy on that, I don’t think that’s healthy for what a team and a competitor and a staff is supposed to do.

“You can’t just say, ‘Hey, it’s OK. We’ll go get the next one.’ You’ve got to take those experiences that you had, the good things and then the bad things that cost us to not play winning ball, and you’ve got to correct them. So, I use that more as the motivation than coming off a defeat.”

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