West Lafayette, Indiana. Although I had told you that I was going to blow the whistle on the Boilers, I’m not, because for a while, it looked like the Boilers were going to play the Irish hard and fair. But when you have a team that’s coming off a national championship, you never underestimate the heart of South Bend. I thought Boilermaker quarterback Rob Henry, a fifth year senior from Ocala Florida, played great last night. He and his Boiler teammates nearly upset number 21 Notre Dame. But you have to give credit to Tommy Reece. It was a game of adjustments, and Tommy made the right ones. As a result, the Boilers are 1-2. But Hope is not lost, because Rob Henry hasn’t even taken a snap in the Big 10 yet. So while your overall record may be one game below .500, we still have a lot of season to play. And 1-2 means nothing. It’s in the Big 10 where it really counts. It was a game of inches. A play here or a play there, and we might have been saying goodbye to the Irish for the rest of the season. Two and one for the Brian Kelly team is a great accomplishment. At some point, you have to look at the way the Boilers try and get players, because while it wasn’t coach Hope’s fault, the way the Boilers have to battle Notre Dame and IU for recruiting has to be a reason why they are struggling. I feel like Rob Henry and Akim Hunt are a great pairing. I obviously don’t know what the answer is to why the Boilers are struggling, but if I was a recruiter, I would want to try and sell a winning tradition at Purdue. Obviously, the Irish got a big win that could still land them in the national championship picture. It’s not coach Hazel’s fault that the Boilers are not on top, this is only year one of his Purdue career. The future looks very bright for the black and gold. While you certainly wanted a win against a good quality team, you should look at the scoreboard. The scoreboard will tell you it’s an L, but what I saw last night was very impressive from a Purdue standpoint.
