Yes, the main reason for optimism is “Could it really be worse?”
For the past two decades I have been deeply invested in the fortunes of Purdue football. This entire site started 19 years ago as the creatively named “Boilermaker Football Blog”, and in that time I have read way too many articles about this team. I have hyped up two-star recruits and even believed in Darrell Hazell.
All that said, I have absolutely no idea what to expect from the 2025 edition of this team.
I cannot recall a time where a team not recovering from a massive NCAA scandal has entered a season with so many questions and new parts. When I look at the roster I see far too many names that even I don’t know who these people are, and it has technically been my job to keep tabs on this team. Obviously we don’t have an official depth chart yet, but the projected depth chart at OurLads.com shows that you can count the number of returning starters on one hand across offense, defense, and special teams.
There is Devin Mockobee, the lone truly known quantity on the entire roster who has hung on for his now third coach in four seasons as a starter. That’s a true rarity in this era of the transfer portal. There is Ryan Browne, who has started a handful of games and had a strange spring side trip to Chapel Hill before coming back to West Lafayette because no one really took hold of the quarterback position. De’Nylon Morrisette technically started four games at receiver and aside from Mockobee, has the most returning production in the receivers’ room with a grand total of 11 catches.
On defense Purdue has 11 new starters, and only two of them were even on the roster a year ago. The fourth returning starter anywhere on the roster is kicker Spencer Porath, who split time last season with Ben Freehill.
It is safe to say that Mockobee has more starting experience at Purdue than the rest of the roster combined. It is no wonder that for a second straight year Purdue was picked to finish dead last in the Big Ten. Purdue was very, very bad last year and it lost every major contributor (save Mockobee) to the transfer portal. The schedule does Purdue no favors, either. It plays 25% of last year’s CFB playoff field in Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Indiana. Michigan is still Michigan. Illinois is this year’s pick to be a fringe playoff team. Indiana is suddenly and shockingly competent at football. The rest of the conference at least has a modicum of stability.
So is there hope?
Well, one thing we can count on is that it will be very, very hard for Purdue to be worse than it was last year. The Boilermakers are currently on an 11-game losing streak, its longest since Teddy Roosevelt was in office since Purdue was 0-5 in both 1906 and 1907 and lost the season opener in 1908 to Chicago. It was shutout three times last year, held to 10 points or less in an additional three games, and was outscored 261-17 by the five playoff teams it faced. Of the 189 total points Purdue scored, 98 came in two games against Indiana State and Illinois. Technically, Purdue was the last FBS team to give up points last season, but it quickly made up for lost time in that week 3 Notre Dame game.
Last season was appallingly bad. It featured the two worst defeats in the program’s history dating back to 1887 and Purdue didn’t even hold a lead in the final 11 games for more than nine minutes total. It led Michigan State 3-0 for 4:53, Nebraska 3-0 for 3:53, and Illinois 43-40 for 43 seconds.
So yes, the primary reason for optimism is really “It can’t really be much worse”. The second reason for optimism is that the first two games of the season should be wins for any semi-competent Big Ten team. Ball State was 3-9 a year ago with wins over an FCS team and a winless FBS team. Southern Illinois is an FCS team and, as I have said before, there is no valid excuse for a Big Ten team to ever lose to an FCS team not from the Dakotas.
With even modest improvement Purdue should start the season 2-0, which is good. If you’re asking for two games to build confidence and get a nearly entire new roster to meld together those are two opponents you would want. It also gives the Boilers a chance to double last year’s win total right out of the gate. The players that Barry Odom brought in are (at least on paper) talented. They are also in West Lafayette because they may not have gotten much of a chance at bigger programs. Coach Odom’s primary selling point was playing time, and he has A LOT of it to offer.
That makes the week 3 game against USC at home incredibly interesting. I think we can all agree that if Purdue loses either of those first two games it is probably another lost season. If it wins both of those games comfortably then the week 3 game against the Trojans is very intriguing. USC will possibly be ranked and they have the name of USC in their favor, but they did not exactly set the world on fire last year in their inaugural Big Ten season. They were Maryland’s only Big Ten win, otherwise Purdue would have had at least some company in the conference basement. They have more talent than Purdue, but the proverbial “West coast team coming East” combined with perennial underachievement might give the Boilers a puncher’s chance.
That game will say a lot about this team’s overall fortunes in 2025. Should Purdue win, it is suddenly 3-0 and halfway to bowl eligibility. The schedule does get a lot tougher after that. Of the final nine games there are three (at Notre Dame, at Michigan, and Ohio State) where I would be absolutely stunned if Purdue somehow won. Could it go 3-3 against the other six, however? Two of those wins would likely have to come against Rutgers and Northwestern, but count me as not sold on Illinois. Yes, the Illini won 10 games a year ago and return a lot, but they still got extremely lucky to beat a terrible Purdue team at home (sorry, but that was a fumble by Luke Altmyer in the final minute of regulation). There is also “Meh”nesota as a very mid team in the conference. I am not sure what to think about Washington. I would say there is the “revenge factor” of facing Ryan Walters, but givent he number of players that left the team after he was fired are there enough to really care about that? Indiana actually has to play a real schedule this year, so we will see on them.
Obviously, the key for Purdue is that it has to just be better than last season. Even as bad as last year was the Boilers lost twice in overtime and against Michigan State it had the sure game-tying TD go right through a receiver’s hands. The fluke pick-six at Oregon State was also a season defining moment.
If Barry Odom can scratch this team to a bowl game like Jeff Brohm did in year one he should be in the discussion for Coach of the Year given the complete roster overhaul, but maybe that is what was needed. The Portal may have taken from Purdue, but as we saw from Indiana last year, it can also give. Coach Odom hit is hard out of necessity, and there are some decent guys there. The Boilers will not match the Hoosiers with a shocking run to the playoff this year, mostly because the schedule doesn’t come gift wrapped with eight wins like theirs did.
That USC game will be the key though. If a confident 2-0 Purdue team can spring an upset int hat one there is reason for optimism the rest of the way.