Two-A-Days: Purdue & Northwestern College Football Season Preview

I’ll have college football season previews for all Big Ten teams and Notre Dame as we lead up to the 2023 campaign. Today it’s the defending Big Ten West champion Purdue Boilermakers and last season’s basement-dweller, Northwestern. While Purdue won the division last fall, they had some big changes in this offseason. As for Northwestern, obviously, they’ve had their share of off-the-field issues this offseason. We’ll try and stick to the on-field aspects of the Wildcats program in this post.

Purdue Boilermakers

• 2022 Record: 8-6 (6-3)
• Head Coach: Ryan Walters
• 2022 Result: Won Big Ten West, Lost 63-7 to LSU in Cheez-It Citrus Bowl
• 2023 Odds
  • National Championship: +30000
  • To Win Big Ten: +8000
  • To Win Big Ten West: +1800
  • Regular Season Win Total: 5.5 (Over: +145, Under: -165)

It’s been quite the wild ride for Purdue since the beginning of last offseason. Coming off an electric 2021 Music City Bowl win over Tennessee, Purdue had high expectations and a Heisman dark horse in Aiden O’Connell beginning in 2022. Then they opened up the season 1-2 with losses at home to Penn State and at Syracuse, in games they really should have won. Following the slow start, they ripped off a 7-2 run to close the season and win the Big Ten West. After rallying to win the Big Ten West, they lost to Michigan in the Big Ten Championship, Lost the Music City Bowl 63-7, and lost their head coach to Louisville.

Ryan Walters now enters the Purdue program as the man in charge. Walters led the Illinois defense last season to some elite levels. U of I led the nation in takeaways and interceptions and finished third in total defense. The new Boilermaker boss will have his work cut out for him in West Lafayette on that side of the ball. Purdue’s defense wasn’t terrible last year, but it wasn’t anything special. They struggled to get to the quarterback and make plays in the backfield. They did their best to address that in the transfer portal by bringing in a trio of defensive linemen from the SEC.

Something Purdue did well defensively last season was take the ball away. The Boilermakers finished third in the Big Ten with 15 interceptions in 14 games in 2022. They’ll bring back their two INT leaders from last season in Cam Allen and Jamari Brown, but they’ll have new faces in the rest of the secondary. One name to keep an eye out for there is Penn State transfer Marquis Wilson.

Offensively, Aiden O’Connell is onto the NFL, and Texas transfer Hudson Card will be the man under center. He’ll have Graham Harrell as his offensive coordinator, who’s had some success as a play caller at USC. His tenure at West Virginia was just average, but that wasn’t all on him. He won’t be full-on air raid like the Mike Leach system he played in at Texas Tech, but he’ll certainly be able to keep the ball moving through the air for an offense that averaged nearly 27 points per game last season and over 400 yards.

Card was the backup at Texas last season to Quinn Ewers but saw quite a bit of playing time when Ewers got injured against Alabama. Card came in and nearly led the Longhorns to an upset of the Tide. So while Purdue will miss Jeff Brohm and Aiden O’Connell, they did about as well as they could with their replacements offensively in Graham Harrell and Hudson Card.

While the Purdue running game didn’t get a lot of attention last year, it was solid, and its success often led to wins. The Boilers bring back their top two leading rushers from last season, including near-1,000-yard rusher Devin Mockobee. On the offensive line, they’ll bring back some continuity from last season on the interior as well as some help from the transfer portal.

As for their pass catchers, they’ll have some big shoes to fill. Payne Durham and Charlie Jones are onto the NFL. They do bring back some production from last season in TJ Sheffield and Mershawn Rice, but they’ll be looking for some new faces to step up there.

Key To The Season

Consistency in the running game is paramount for Purdue this season. Hudson Card is a really nice addition at quarterback, but he might not be the pure passer Aiden O’Connell was. The receiver room is looking for some new faces to emerge, and it might take some time for the passing game to take form. As I mentioned, Purdue brings back some experience and talent at running back. Card himself can be mobile too. The Boilers were 7-1 last season when they ran for 95+ yards. Now that the defense should take a step forward in theory with Walters running the show, establishing the run game can go a long way.

Prediction

It’s not the most difficult schedule for Purdue this season, but there are quite a few tossups on there. They start the season at home against Fresno State, at Virginia Tech, and then at home against Syracuse. Following those three, they have a really tough stretch of six Big Ten games that include Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. The Boilers will need to go at least 2-1 in that opening stretch of games if they have hopes of matching their 8-win mark from 2022.

Record: 6-6

Northwestern Wildcats

• 2022 Record: 1-11 (1-8)
• Head Coach: David Braun
• 2022 Result: Missed Bowl Game, Last in Big Ten West
• 2023 Odds
  • National Championship: +100000
  • To Win Big Ten: +30000
  • To Win Big Ten West: +10000
  • Regular Season Win Total: 3 (Over: -110, Under: -110)

As I mentioned in the intro, I’m going to stick to the on-field stuff with Northwestern. Things got very bad, very fast for the Wildcats following their Big Ten Championship appearance just three seasons ago in 2020. The following fall in 2021, Northwestern went just 3-9, and last year they were an abysmal 1-11, including losses at home to Southern Illinois and Miami of Ohio. The Wildcats failed to put up even 10 or more points in six of their nine Big Ten matchups last season. They allowed 31+ points in 7 of their 12 contests.

The Wildcats were seemingly on the up and up after that 2020 season with a head coach in Pat Fitzgerald who’d been there forever, a brand new stadium on the horizon, and some of the best facilities in the Big Ten. Yet somehow, things came to a crashing halt both on and off the field.

David Braun is now the man tasked with bringing stability to Northwestern – at least for this season, as he still has the interim tag. He came from North Dakota State, where he did a very nice job as a defensive coordinator, including a pair of national titles. That said, taking over a Big Ten program in turmoil is a whole new beast.

Starting with the offensive, Northwestern simply has to develop some sort of a passing game. It was essentially non-existent once Big Ten play kicked in last year. They got next to no production through the air while tying for the Big Ten lead with 17 INTs thrown. Long story short, the Northwestern QB position was nothing short of a disaster last season. The Wildcats had three quarterbacks take the majority of the snaps last season – Ryan Hilinski, Brendan Sullivan, and Cole Freeman. Those three combined for 10 TDs and 15 INTs. Not great!

Braun said there would be a three-man QB battle in camp between Sullivan, redshirt freshman Jack Lausch, and sixth-year transfer from Cincinnati Ben Bryant. Given that Bryant was brought in after spring practice and had a successful 9-2 record and 21-7 TD-INT with the Bearcats last season, he’s likely the frontrunner for the job.

In the transfer portal, the Wildcats brought in former Michigan Wolverine and Lincoln-Way East standout AJ Henning to help the receiver room. Henning played a limited role in Michigan’s passing game the last three seasons but made some standout plays from a special teams standpoint. Northwestern also brought in Cam Johnson from Arizona State. Johnson struggled to get much attention at ASU last year but does have a 500+ yard season under his belt from his time at Vanderbilt.

The Cats will also have to replace their best offensive player from last season – running back Evan Hull. Hull racked up over 1,500 all-purpose yards last season and was second on the team in receptions. A bunch of question marks remain over who will take over the running back spot in a position battle that truly seems up for grabs in camp. The offensive line will have some work to do with the loss of first-round pick Peter Skoronski to the NFL. They’ll have some young pieces to work with, but it might take some time.

Defensively, Northwestern does bring back some production. Their best defensive player and leading tackler, Bryce Gallagher, will be back starting at linebacker alongside the second-leading tackler Xander Mueller. The defensive line lost Adetomiwa Adebawore, who was a high first-round draft pick. They’ll lean on returning production from Sean McLaughlin, Aidan Hubbard, and Najee Story, as well as a few transfer portal pieces.

In the secondary, the Cats return starters Jeremiah Lewis, at safety and Rod Heard at cornerback. Both of them topped 65 tackles last fall. Garnett Hollis Jr also returns at corner after forcing two fumbles last season and picking off one pass.

All in all, Braun has a tall task ahead of him, not only revamping the defense but now running the program as a whole.

Key To The Season

Take care of the football. With teams like Northwestern at the bottom of the conference, it comes down to doing the little things right and not beating yourself. The Cats turned the ball over 31 TIMES in 12 games last season. That just can’t happen again if they want to start to get this thing back on the rails. Take care of the football. Don’t beat yourself. Keep the defense off the field.

Prediction

Northwestern gets to avoid Michigan and Ohio State, which is always nice. They open up the year at Rutgers – another projected Big Ten basement dweller – in a game that could set the tone for their season, either good or bad. Given all that’s gone on with the program not only over the last few months but the last few years, it’s probably going to be a long season in Evanston.