Purdue's Rose Bowl Season Reflections--Scott Downing

Our July 28, 2025, edition of Chariot Auto Group 2001 Rose Bowl recollections features former assistant coach (special teams and running backs) Scott Downing. A key component of coach Joe Tiller’s staff from 1997-2002, Downing served 10 years at Wyoming before coming to Purdue.

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Downing experienced it all in 2000

Purdue didn’t make it easy on itself for much of the 2001 Rose Bowl season, especially in special teams area.

And for Scott Downing, who directed the Boilermakers’ third unit, it was finding a way to reverse course throughout the season that ultimately helped the Purdue to earn a Big Ten title and trip to the Rose Bowl.

“I am in my late 60s now, I wake up in the middle of night with cold sweats in the stadium at Penn State, and you’re in Beaver Stadium, and you’re getting two punts blocked back to back,” said Downing who now serves as the top athletic administrator at his alma mater Sterling (Kan.) college. “Even now, that’s a nightmare for a special teams guy. But our team responded all season.”

Purdue had six punts either blocked or unable to be launched early in the season, it was special teams that also delivered Purdue to key wins over Michigan (Travis Dorsch’s last second field goal) and a Ashante Woodyard’s scoop and score after a blocked field goal at Wisconsin were key.

“Coach (Joe) Tiller did a a great of keeping us on an even keel,” Downing said. “When you have an offense with (senior quarterback) Drew Brees you always have a chance, so even if we were down, we preached about finding ways to keep our intensity up.”

And that wasn’t always easy for Dorsch, who was at the center of a couple of punting calamities late in the game at Penn State, and missing a potential game winning field goal in the closing minutes against Michigan, only to get another chance a reprieve to win the game with a handful of seconds left.

“Travis never lost lost confidence in himself,” Downing said. “I knew that second one was going in. It didn’t go in by much but it got in. He was so very talented and a pleasure to have an opportunity to coach a talent like that. We always talked about in special teams that we only get one down and you’re judged different from everybody else. Travis accepted that, and we accepted that.”

Fans often forget, it was a longer-than-normal kickoff return prior to the Brees-to-Seth Morales game winner against Ohio State that put the Boilermakers in better-than average field position at their own 36-yard line.

“I remember we hada really good kickoff return, didn’t get stuck back there and that was a key,” Downing said. “We had a great offensive staff with (offensive coordinator) Jim Chaney, (receivers coach) Kevin Sumlin and an offensive line coach like Danny Hope. We knew how to execute the two minute drill and when you have a quarterback like Drew with that level composure, we knew we could get it down. We worked on it twice a week, every week, and spent time with it. Our plan was our guys knew what we were going to do, and they knew how to execute it every which way possible, and it didn’t matter who was in the game as personnel, we were going to get it done.”

Twenty-five years later, Downing is as proud of the accomplishment of the 2000 Purdue team as just about any other accomplishment in his nearly 50 years in coaching and administration.

“You look at what this team accomplished as men, what they’ve accomplished with their with their families, how they treat their families, the successes they’ve had in life, but the fact that most of them, have gone on and contributed to their community, I am just so proud of them, proud of our coaching staff,” Downing said. “You don’t go to the Rose Bowl, you don’t go to to a championship game like that all the time. And I think the joy of that moment not only on the players faces, but the fans. I mean, our fans They were going crazy, but yet they were respectful of of everything and showed they understood the moment.

“They understood it was a time of joy, but it was also a time to say, wow, look at what this team has done. And I thought they had a great time, because they did.”

More: Rose Bowl Recollections: Chukky Okobi | Vinny Sutherland | A.T. Simpson

Gold and Black Illustrated Archives–2000 season game stories

Game 1: No. 15 Purdue 48, Central Michigan 0
Game 2: No. 14 Purdue 45, Kent State 10
Game 3: No. 21 Notre Dame 23, No. 14 Purdue 21
Game 4: No. 21 Purdue 38, Minnesota 24
Game 5: Penn State 22, No. 22 Purdue 20
Game 6: Purdue 32, No. 6 Michigan 31
Game 7: No. 21 Purdue 41, No. 17 Northwestern 28
Game 8: No. 17 Purdue 30, Wisconsin 24 (ot)
Game 9: No. 16 Purdue 31, No. 12 Ohio State 27
Game 10: Michigan State 30, No. 9 Purdue 10
Game 11: No. 17 Purdue 41, Indiana 13
Game 12: No. 4 Washington 34, No. 14 Purdue 24