LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- This will be a column about Purdue head football coach Jeff Brohm without talking about You Know What.
Because at least one Big Ten Network analyst picked the Boilermakers to win the West Division this season.
Because Brohm has taken a former walk-on (Aidan O'Connell) with no Division I scholarship offers and developed him into the second-best quarterback in the Big Ten and a likely NFL Draft choice, and nobody does stuff like that any more. Considering the work Brohm has done at Western Kentucky and Purdue, I call him The Quarterback Whisperer.
Because Brohm delivered victories over No. 2 Iowa (on the road) as well as No. 3 Michigan State last season before the Boilermakers put an exclamation point on their 9-4 run with a delightfully entertaining 48-45 victory over Tennessee in the Music City Bowl.
And, most of all, because Brohm and the Boilermakers have a monstrous opportunity to make a national statement when they open the first full week of the 2022 college football season by hosting Penn State for a Thursday (8 p.m.) game that will be televised nationally by Fox.
Purdue is listed as a four-point underdog at Ross-Ade Stadium. The Boilermakers are not showing up in many preseason top 25 polls.
Their world will change if they drop an upset on the Nittany Lions and stretch their record to 4-0 by following up with victories over Indiana State, Syracuse and Florida Atlantic.
"The last time we played Penn State a couple of years ago, it was not a good day for us," Brohm said Thursday during Big Ten media day at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. "They had 28 points before we could blink. We had to fight just to stay in the ball game."
That was 2019 in State College, Pennsylvania. Purdue was behind 21-0 after one quarter. The Boilermakers were out-gained, 460-104. They lost 19 yards on 28 rushing attempts. They started 1-4 during an ugly 4-8 season that also included losses to Nevada, Illinois and Indiana.
There will be no 4-8 this season. With three winnable nonconference games (Notre Dame is off the schedule), Purdue will aim for 8-4 or better.
Put Joshua Perry of the Big Ten Network in the "or better," category." In a world where everybody is conditioned to pick Wisconsin or Iowa to win the West, Perry picked Purdue, primarily because of O'Connell.
O'Connell was a zero-star recruit when he committed to the Boilermakers out of Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. O'Connell was not a Must Have recruit the way Brohm was at Trinity High School before he committed to the University of Louisville.
It's not like O'Connell was hidden in French Lick, Indiana. Lincolnshire is a northwest Chicago suburb, an easy drive from O'Hare Airport.
Plenty of coaches saw O'Connell. No Division I schools thought offered a scholarship. O'Connell was committed to Wheaton College. That's a Division III program. You know, like Centre or Hanover Colleges.
Before O'Connell enrolled at Wheaton, a guy who runs a passing academy in the Chicago area convinced Brohm to let O'Connell visit Purdue and talk to the coaches. Brohm learned that O'Connell was a late bloomer who stopped playing baseball and basketball in his prep career to focus on football.
O'Connell threw for more than 2,700 yards and 26 touchdown passes as a senior. But he only carried 170 pounds on his narrow 6-foot-3-inch frame.
Brohm was interested — if O'Connell was interested in competing without a scholarship.
O'Connell was interested in walking on — if Brohm was interested in eventually letting O'Connell earn a legitimate shot at playing time.
Brohm is something on an Old School soul. He believes in patience and player development. O'Connell is Example A.
He did not play in 2017. He did not play in 2018. He split the job with Jack Plummer in 2019, throwing eight touchdowns and four interceptions. He split the job with Plummer again in 2020, throwing seven touchdowns and two picks.
In 2021, O'Connell played like a guy determined the list of great Purdue quarterbacks, a list that includes Drew Brees, Bob Griese and many others.
He completed nearly 72% of his throws for more than 3,700 yards with 28 touchdowns and only 11 picks. He is considered one of the 15 best quarterbacks in America, second to Ohio State's C.J. Stroud in the Big Ten.
"He's earned his spot as our starting quarterback over the years," Brohm said. "He's earned it the hard way. He's a man of great faith.
"He's worked from the very bottom all the way to being our starting quarterback and really the last half of the season played at a very high level. ... I do think the last half of the season, he did play at an elite level. He helped us win a lot of good football games. He put up some big numbers. He threw for a lot of yards. He did it against a lot of really good football teams."
Of course, O'Connell also did it with David Bell and former Louisville Christian Academy star Milton Wright, two top receivers who are no longer with the Boilermakers. Bell was drafted round three by the Cleveland Browns. According to a report by the Lafayette Journal & Courier, Wright left the team in May because of academics.
Brohm said he will fill the holes with younger guys and two players Purdue recruited from the transfer portal.
"We haven't gotten there by any means," Brohm said. "I do think that we have a hungry group. We're looking forward to trying to make strides this year and improve upon that win total.
"But it's going to be a challenge."
Starting with Sept. 1 against Penn State.
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