Aug. 20, 2008

The Purdue Boilermakers enter the 2008 season looking to send head coach Joe Tiller out as a winner. Tiller will coach his final season in West Lafayette before handing over the reigns to his successor Danny Hope. The hope this year is that Purdue's high-powered spread-attack offense that Tiller brought with him 12 years ago from Wyoming will take the Boilermakers to their 11th bowl game under Tiller's watch.

Purdue opens the season by playing catch up, as the Boilermakers have a bye on Aug. 30. While other Big Ten teams will be playing in their first game, Tiller's bunch will still be hitting each other before turning its focus to Northern Colorado -- its first of three straight home games. The "second quarter" of the schedule is expected to be Purdue's toughest. After facing a strong Central Michigan team in West Lafayette, Games 4-6 involve road trips to Notre Dame and Ohio State with a home contest against Penn State stuck in between. And after seeing Indiana win the Old Oaken Bucket in the final minute of the regular season finale last year, you can expect the Boilermakers will want to do the same for Tiller one last time and take the Bucket back to West Lafayette.

OFFENSE: Purdue is one of the few Big Ten teams this season that enters knowing exactly what it is going to get at the quarterback position. Senior Curtis Painter has thrown for 8,763 passing yards and 54 touchdowns in his three years at Purdue and has continued to get better and better throughout his career. Last year he completed 63 percent of his 569 pass attempts for 3,846 and 29 touchdowns and threw eight fewer interceptions than the 19 he tossed in 2006. Senior Kory Sheets is the primary running back, having raced for 2,210 yards and 37 touchdowns in his career. Fellow classmate Jaycen Taylor, who averaged 5.2 yards per carry last season for 560 yards and four scores, learned this week he will miss the 2008 season. Taylor tore his ACL in his right knee at practice on Tuesday and has since had season-ending surgery. Two men who contributed a large number of yards to Painter's career total are now gone. Wideout Dorien Bryant ended his career second in Big Ten history with 292 career catches and third with 3,548 receiving yards, while tight end Dustin Keller is now fielding passes from Brett Favre after being selected in the first round by the N.Y. Jets in the 2008 NFL Draft. Expect senior Greg Orton to be Painter's primary receiver as he hauled in 67 balls for 752 yards last year. Seniors Joe Whitest and Aaron Valentin (10 TDs in 2007) are slotted as the other two receivers, while junior Kyle Adams will get the nod at tight end. Linemen Sean Sester (LT), Zach Reckman (LG) and Zach Jones (RT) return to their strating roles, but all three have had to overcome injuries as well. Sester has had back surgery and Reckman and Jones both have had shoulder issues. Is there hope this year for the O-line? Sure there is. Danny Hope is spending his one year of prep work as associate head coach and head of the offensive line.

BIG TEN TONIGHT in West Lafayette Chatting with Tiller (6:19) | 7-on-7 Drills (7:50)

DEFENSE: Purdue returns six starters to the defense, including three on the line. Seniors Ryan Baker (DT), Alex Magee (DT) and Keyon Brown (DE) are back in the starting lineup and will anchor the line that includes sophomore newcomer Ryan Kerrigan (DE). Senior linebacker Anthony Heygood is on the 2008 Butkus Award watch list after he made 81 tackles and 15 for loss last season. He is the lone returning starter at linebacker and will be mentoring junior Kevin Green and senior Jason Werner in their new roles. Werner did manage to make 28 tackles last year in limited time. The linebackers must step up this season to fill the void of Cliff Avril, who departed last season having recorded 15 TFLs and three forced fumbles. The Boilermakers also lost 2007 second-team All-Conference honoree Terrell Vinson on the corner. Junior David Pender will fill that spot as the team's top cornerback and will share his half of the secondary with senior free safety Brandon King, who posted 44 tackles and an interception in 2007. Junior Royce Adams is expected to take the spot at the other corner, while senior Torri Williams gets the nod at strong safety.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Boilermakers' special teams unit enters the 2008 campaign with several question marks. Junior Chris Summers returns at kicker, but will his consistency improve as it did last year? Summers made just eight of 20 field goals as a freshman, but found a steady leg last year by making 18-of-22. No backup is listed on the Boilermakers' two-deep and with the graduation of punter Jared Armstrong, Summers is also slated as the team's punter this season... with no backup. Also gone is Dorien Bryant, who returned everything that fell from the sky in his years at Purdue. Bryant averaged 25 yards per kick return last year and ended his career with 6,219 all-purpose yards, which ranks fourth all-time in the Big Ten. Expect senior wideout Desmond Tardy be the returner this year. Last year Tardy did return eight kickoffs for 229 yards (28.6 average) and one touchdown.

MISCELLANEOUS: Week 3 of the season will be a rematch of the 2007-08 season finale. Purdue defeated Central Michigan in a 51-48 thriller in the Motor City Bowl. The Boilermakers also defeated the Chippewas in the regular season by a score of 45-22 on Sept. 15. * Curtis Painter needs 3,030 passing yards to become the Big Ten career leader, passing Purdue's Drew Brees (1997-2000) and his record of 11,792 yards. * In his 11 years at Purdue, Joe Tiller has averaged 7.5 wins per season and led the Boilermakers to the Big Ten title in 2000. * Tiller (83-54) needs two victories to become Purdue’s all-time winningest coach - Jack Mollenkopf won 84 games from 1956 to 1969. * Danny Hope was hired as the Boilermakers' next head coach on Jan. 11, 2008 after recording a 35-22 record at Eastern Kentucky from 2003-07.