Playing Nice: Purdue

Andrew Ledman of Hammer and Rails stops by to preview the Citrus Bowl

As Dan Fouts said in The Waterboy: “last game of the year, Brent can’t hold anything back now!”

Come Monday that will be LSU. Year one of the Brian Kelly era will wrap up in Orlando—in the same exact stadium where they’ll open the 2023 season—as LSU will line up against Purdue for the first time ever. Pretty neat! To help get us acquainted with the Boilermakers is Andrew from our Purdue sister site: Hammer and Rails.

Hi Purdue, we’ve never met before! We’re LSU, we like drinking, frying any number of things, and football. Tell us about yourselves

Good to meet you LSU. We are Purdue. We are a pass first team that suddenly finds itself without their QB, WR1, and TE. So we are relying on backups, the deep bench at WR, and a former walk-on running back who has surprised. Could be a run heavy day with Devin Mockobee trying to take on your hobbled defensive line.

2. What’s the mood surrounding the Purdue football program as the Boilermakers are in the middle of a coaching change? Is Brian Brohm for sure the new head coach in 2023? And if he’s not would a win over LSU be enough to convince Purdue to take the interim tag off?

I see you haven’t been following Purdue football. No worries. Brian Brohm is off to Louisville with his brother following this game. It’s weird that he’s coaching this game but I guess continuity is good. Ryan Walters is the new head coach but won’t be involved in coaching the bowl game.

I think most Purdue fans are cautious about where we are as a program. We won the West division this year and went to our first Big Ten Championship game but lost to Michigan. The schedule gets much tougher next season and Purdue loses their biggest weapons. It could make for a difficult season next year. We are holding our breath but for me personally I’m optimistic about Walters. I think he’s bringing in a good staff and has a lot of positive energy that this program needed.

3. You had mentioned that a good portion of the Hammer and Rail community hate Brian Kelly. Elaborate!

Well I mean he worked at ND and we Purdue fans hate ND. We used to play them every year until they got tired of it and wanted a more National schedule. Bunch of cowards. He just comes across as a real phony jerk. Also, man does he scream a bunch on the sidelines. There’s also the whole Declan Sullivan situation from years ago that was just an awful situation and I think shines a pretty bad light on him as a person.

4. Drew Brees will be on the Purdue sidelines as an assistant coach. Is coaching at Purdue actually in his future or is this a one night only special event type of deal?

It definitely seems like a one night only type of deal. Brees was going an exemption by the NCAA to recruit while he’s an assistant and it allegedly helped Purdue grab Card from Texas out of the transfer portal so the move has already paid dividends. Purdue fans are clamoring for him to stick around but I don’t expect that to be the case. The guy is a multi-millionaire who can do whatever he wants. Why stick around and chase after high school students. Seems like a lot of hassle.

5. Speaking of former Purdue quarterbacks, Aidan O’Connell won’t be playing in the Citrus Bowl and Austin Burton appears to be QB1 for this game. Burton won’t have All-American receiver Charlie Jones nor starting tight end Payne Durham to throw to, so how confident are you in this makeshift Boilermaker offense?

Not very. Not sure what else to say here. Purdue will be without 3 of their top 4 offensive weapons and due to injury and opt out are without their two best offensive lineman. No disrespect to Burton but I don’t think he’s being put into a position to succeed here.

6. At the time I’m writing this LSU is a 14.5 point favorite over Purdue. Is that too big, not big enough, or just right? And what would an upset win over LSU mean for the program?

Honestly the line should probably be LSU -21.5 which seems more reasonable. I know LSU has opt outs of their own but they also had a much more successful season than Purdue IMO. A victory over Alabama is nothing to sneeze at. Should Purdue find a way to upset LSU, as they did Tennessee in their bowl game last year, it would be incredible for the program. A win over an SEC school with a huge name could help bring optimism to the fan base.

7. How many pots of gumbo could I fit inside that big ole drum of yours?

How big is your pot? Our drum is pretty big.

8. How does your West Lafayette contrast to our regular ole Lafayette? UL-Lafayette wants to be known as Louisiana and hates LSU’s flagship status. Who does Purdue hate in that same kind of way?

Well it’s more west isn’t it? (It’s actually not, it’s to the East of UL-Lafayette) The obvious answer here is our in state rival Indiana University. They are down in Bloomington, Indiana and we hate them with the fire of 1,000 suns. Our hatred for them knows no bounds. Also, ND as mentioned above but not playing them every year anymore has really put a damper on that.