Eleven Warriors - A Buckeye Sports Blog

Danny Hope brings a new sense of excitement.

We’re counting down the weeks until kickoff by profiling a different Big Ten team each week. We decided to switch up the order to reflect 11W’s predicted finish for the upcoming season, which can be found here and we also reached out to fellow bloggers for their inside opinion on important matters.

This week the new regime of Purdue is up and the fellas at Boiled Sports were kind enough to answer a few questions.

With only 12 returning starters from last year’s 4-8 squad, it should come as no surprise that Purdue is picked to finish near the bottom of the conference standings. However, they have 49 returning lettermen, mostly on defense and with a new coach, there is reason for optimism within the Purdue circles.

COACHING: Hope was named coach in waiting before 2008, after spending 5 years as head coach of Eastern Kentucky, where he went 35-22. Tiller obviously brought a certain style of football to the gridiron and Boiled Sports think Hope will approach things a bit differently.

Yes, we expect some changes, mainly being able to move the ball. Everyone still refers to Purdue as “basketball on grass” even though that term was last used on campus probably close to a decade ago. Danny Hope is a defensive minded guy and that’s good, because the defense is the key this season. It’s experienced and actually pretty good — it had to be last year, as the Boilermakers could not move the football for good portions of the season. What will change, most likely, is that we won’t just be a spread offense with a traditional drop-back passer under center (such as Curtis Painter, Kyle Orton, etc.). Joey Elliot will likely be the starter and he is kind of an unknown, but supposedly a “coach on the field” type. We think you’ll see more multi-back formations and the usual assortment of sneaky tricks that Purdue’s offenses have seemed to have in the bag over the years.

OFFENSE: With the spring dismissal of Justin Siller, the aforementioned Joey Elliot should win the starting job as a senior. He has barely played in his previous 3 seasons, throwing just 49 passes, but he created some buzz with his play coming out of spring practice and will have the benefit of a veteran offensive line.

Purdue also has the services of Jaycen Taylor, who is returning from a knee injury that cost him last season. In the previous 2 seasons before that, Taylor ran 1237 yards on 220 carries and scored 8 touchdowns. There isn’t any proven talent behind him, but Boiled Sports tells us to look out for Ralph Bolden, a sophomore who stepped up this spring and is ready to become a horse this year and beyond.

The receivers will be lead by junior Keith Smith, a converted safety, who caught 49 balls last year for 486 yards and could have an All Big Ten season. Behind him is a wide open race, as the Boilermakers lost 5 of their top 7 receivers from last year, but JUCO transfer Aaron Valentin could be a name to remember once the conference season rolls around.

The offensive line should be the strength of this unit, as they return 4 players with starting experience, including sophomore LT Dennis Kelly and senior RT Zach Jones, who each have a chance at All Conference honors. Danny Hope was the OL coach for Purdue from ‘97-’01, but they have only averaged better than 4.4 YPC once since the ‘02 season.
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Indiana RB Roderick Smith surprised the staff Wednesday when he committed during an unofficial visit, becoming the 7th member of the 2010 class.

This setup looks familiar

A Rivals and Scout four-star, he’s the former’s 5th-rated running back prospect, while the latter has him 6th at his position.

ESPN has this to say about Smith:

Smith may be one of the more impressive backs in this class in terms of a size to speed ratio. He’s tall with great bulk but still lean enough through his waist and lower-body to remain fluid with some wiggle.

After piling up 3,580 rushing yards in his freshman and sophomore seasons, Smith was on pace to challenge the state record for career rushing yards (7,560), but was held to just 1,475 yards his junior year. Outside shot of still getting the mark, but he’ll have his work cutout for him.

His negatives: supposedly goes down low a lot and does not posses child-bearing hips suitable for running back greatness.

Still, he’s a pretty big win for the staff and at 6-2/220, the comparisons to Beanie are out there and valid, especially when you check out his film. He hits the hole quickly and shows nice acceleration on longer runs, while showing the shake needed to make a man miss up close. He might not have Beanie’s love for mangling opponents’ facemasks just yet, but that can be acquired.

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Ahhh, Summer. Boating, bored people talking on cellphones wishing they were anywhere but the baseball game they paid $120 to attend, and the frightening aftermath of catfish reared on nothing but Skyline.

All-American, All-Buckeye, All-Awesome.

Worry not Buckeye backers: the run on weddings is behind you, a short work week is likely nearly 3/4 complete, and Ohio State’s pre-SC tussle with the Naval Acacdemy is but 66 short days away. Speaking of our enlisted men & women, let’s take this moment to suspend all snark and borderline inappropriete levels of hero-worship for young twenty somethings, and instead pay homage, with our nation’s Independence Day rapidly approaching, to those actual heroes who make both our independence and ability to kill the doldroms of the workday by studying unofficial 40-yard-dash times possible.

Lee Tressel, the father of our beloved sweatervested one, diligently served in the Navy instead of serving on the football field for the Bucks during World War 2, joining 18 other returning tOSU letterman from the 1941 team who also put aside their scholastic, athletic, and personal interests to fight for their country. The great Chic Harley also dutifully responded when his country came calling. The realities of foregoing our favorite distraction in favor of one of the highest forms of responsibility imaginable is but a concept alone in many of our minds, which all the more adds the importance to both thank those that have risked their lives and think of the countless many who make these moments of introspection possible.

Let us resume our regularly scheduled sarcasm and thinly veiled attempts at sporting dialogue.

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Can Pryor pull off a Heisman upset in 2009?

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks Terrelle Pryor has a more than legitimate shot at the 2009 Heisman Trophy.

The odds for college football’s most prestigious individual award have started to be released and Pryor is gaining some respect on a lot of sites around the net. BetUs.com and Sportbet.com have Pryor fourth on their list at +800 and +700 respectively behind Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, and Colt McCoy, and other sites such as Gridironexperts.com give an easier-to-understand odds on Pryor (for those that don’t understand the money line) winning the Heisman at 8:1 odds.

So Buckeye Nation is clearly not alone in seeing that LiC has the potential to be an absolute star at the college level, but the one thing that will be tough to convince the rest of the nation is why Pryor should win the Heisman Trophy over the three players unanimously ahead of him in all of the odds listing: Tebow, Bradford, and McCoy.

After much deliberation and tossing back and forth ideas with the rest of the 11W crew here is a list of five things Terrelle Pryor must do to win the 2009 Heisman Trophy:

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Turner’s summer league digs (photo: USA Hoops)

On the heels of earning props from various NBA scouts during three days of tryouts for Bo Ryan’s World University Games squad, Evan Turner has seen moderate success in the three exhibition games making up the 2009 Serbia International Invitational preceding the start of the actual World University Games slate tipping off July 3rd.

In a game one win over Canada, Turner played just 11 minutes scoring seven points with four rebounds. Again forced to come off the pine, Turner responded in a game two loss against Serbia with team highs of 16 points (6/7 FG) and six boards in 18 minutes of action.

Presumably seeing the error of his ways, Ryan inserted Turner into Monday’s starting lineup and he responded with eight rebounds but went 0/6 from the floor and 2/4 from the stripe in a 67-63 win over Russia. Though Turner’s shot wasn’t falling, Ryan was impressed with ET’s effort at the defensive end:

“The guys got it done tonight with hustle opportunities. (Evan) Turner, (Robbie) Hummel and Deon (Thompson), those guys, especially at the end, they were everywhere. Corey (Fisher) and Talor Battle. I just really like the way they stuck their noses in there.”

With the exhibition tilts complete, Turner and company open the World University Games on Friday against Finland then Saturday against South Korea. Pending the outcome of those contests, they’ll play the second round next Monday and Tuesday with the quarters, semis and championship game set for next Thursday through Saturday.

Whether you care about the WUG or not, it can only help Turner - and Ohio State - to have him participating in the games. With a near static roster from last season, team chemistry is already in place so having Turner and Zisis away from Columbus should not be deemed a handicap as it was when Kosta and Butler weren’t on campus leading up to the ‘07-’08 campaign.

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With just under 70 days until Navy steps into the Shoe, cretins like us everywhere are starting to turn our focus away from summer lounging and towards the start of the ‘09 season. There are Steele data points to digest and preseason composite rankings to scrutinize, after all.

Part of the countdown to kickoff are predictions out of people barely qualified to do so (though not us, of course). Corey got the ball rolling with his Indiana preview last week, and this week we check in with our ballot for the annual Lake The Posts Big Ten Blogger Preseason Awards. Many thanks to LTP for putting this together and now on to the ballot.

Not amused

Coach of the Year: Mark Dantonio

There’s a genuine feeling of optimism in East Lansing these days. Not the “John L might get the boys back to the Alamo” variety, but a very real sense that better things are on the way. And maybe, just maybe, now is a good time to close the gap on the snooty bunch down the road. We’re buying it.

Dantonio followed up a solid debut at Michigan State by winning nine games last season — good enough for a third place finish in the Big Ten. His Spartans had a chance to tie for the league title heading into the final week of the season, but were dropped by Penn State in what is quickly becoming one of the conference’s better rivalries.

Though topping nine wins will be tough, we won’t exactly be shocked if Dantonio pulls it off, either.

Tressel was our runner-up selection and let me say one more time that it’s a TRAVESTY the man has yet to win the award despite owning the conference for the better part of this decade.

Best Heisman Candidate: Terrelle Pryor

This one was pretty much unanimous when we discussed it. We try to put the homer shades down and realize that there are other great players in the league — Benn, Williams, Royster, Clark, Decker and others — but Pryor has everything working for him heading into this season.

Despite being just a sophomore, he’s the league’s most well-known commodity, playing for the league’s highest profile (and likely highest-ranked) team and if recent history is any guide, the Stiff-Arm Trophy likes quarterbacks.

If Pryor wants the award, he’ll have to be ready by week two. But could you ask for a better campaign kickoff event?

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Mullens to call OKC home (D. Harker)

Well, so much for B.J.’s tweet that the Bulls would take him at 16.

In a not so surprising draft, Mullens fell to #24 before being traded to Oklahoma City (#25). The move to OKC could prove to be a good thing as Mullens can develop in relative obscurity and with less pressure. The lack of pressure will only be helped by the fact OKC also had the 3rd pick in the draft taking James Harden out of Arizona State.

The proverbial “we told you so” could certainly apply in this case but what’s done is done so good luck to Mullens. Something tells me he’ll fit in nicely in the bustling metropolis of Oklahoma City.

Chappell must lead a young offense.

We’re counting down the weeks until kickoff by profiling a different Big Ten team each week, in order of the 2008 finish. Today, the Indiana Hoosiers are up and by the looks of it, they probably will lead it off again next year.

After making their first bowl appearance in 14 years during the 2007 season, the Hoosiers returned to normalcy with a 3-9 season in 2008, including a 1-7 Big Ten record, matching the conference win total of their basketball program.

The Hoosier program has averaged less than 4 wins over the last 9 years and have suffered through 13 losing record in their last 14 seasons. They return a veteran defense, including a fierce DE duo, but their offense is green and unless the D steals a game or two, Indiana fans will have to hope Tom Crean can turn things around this winter.

COACHING: Bill Lynch is squarely on the hot seat and is probably entering his last season in Bloomington. The schedule doesn’t help him out at all, with 2 OOC away games at Akron and Virginia, but if he can hover around the .500 mark all season, he may buy himself some extra time.

OFFENSE: Ben Chappell appeared in 9 games last year, completing 80 of 153 passes and will take the reigns full time this season, as Kellen Lewis was dismissed in April. Chappell will play behind a somewhat veteran offensive line, but will have to break in a new running back and a couple of wide receivers.

Redshirt freshman Darius Willis, the scout team MVP last year, is slated to start at running back, but he has to beat out 2 seniors in Bryan Payton and Demetrius McCray, who combined for almost 600 yards rushing last season. Lynch may choose to rotate all 3, looking to control the clock and win some close games with his defense.

The Hoosiers have to replace their top 2 receivers from last year, losing Andrew Means to eligibility and Ray Fisher to the defensive side. Damarlo Belcher (25 for 337) and Terrance Turner (29 for 289) are the leading returners, but Tandon Doss is a name you could hear from before the season is over. The offensive line was decimated by injuries last year, staring 7 different lineups, but they return 9 of their top 10 and should have more stability in the trenches.

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Where will BJ and his crustache call home this year?

As Chris mentioned briefly in his post yesterday, BJ Mullens will hear his name called Thursday night at the 2009 NBA Draft in Madison Square Garden. While it is not a question of if the 7-foot freshman will be drafted, there is a big question of where he will be selected.

Just a year ago, another promising 7-foot Buckeye frosh, Kosta Koufos, left OSU to pursue a career in “The League”. After a strong Big Ten Tournament and NIT Championship run, Kosta seemed to be in prime position to be a lottery selection, and was possibly even mentioned by some to be a top 10 pick. Unfortunately for Koufos he fell to 23rd in the first round out of 30 picks and averaged a mere 4.9 points and 2.7 rebounds per contest while appearing in just 48 out of 82 games (spent some time in the NBDL).

BJ Mullens enters the draft just a year later and while he edges Kosta with an NCAA Tournament appearance, his accolades on the court are far below what everyone’s favorite Greek did in Columbus. Mullens averaged a pedestrian 8.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game after coming into school as Rivals #1 rated player. You can argue he played just 20.3 minutes per game, but the bottom line is that he never earned more time than that. His play consisted of a familiar routine to OSU fans in which he was inexistent on the defensive end of the court, took plays off throughout the game, failed to make a basket that was not a dunk, and a display of butter fingers underneath the hoop, all contributing to his inability to grab more minutes off the bench, thus stunting his growth as a player.

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