Purdue fans thrilled with major sports teams

Purdue fans quite frankly have nothing to complain about right now. They won their rivalry football game. They play for the Big Ten Championship on Saturday. They went from unranked to #24 to #5 in basketball, knocking off two top ten teams. The Boiler community is ecstatic. 

This past week alone, the combined record between the football and basketball teams is 5-0. The football team looks great. They are unranked and playing #2 Michigan, who looks to be a team that could win the National Championship, but the Boilers have a knack for knocking off top five teams in recent years; the most recent being when they beat Ohio State. 

The Boilers knocked off their rivals, Indiana, in the Old Oaken Bucket game to secure their spot in the Big Ten Championship. The Boilers owe a huge thanks to Nebraska, who beat Iowa, putting Purdue at the top of the Big Ten West. 

The Boilers had a great showing against the Hoosiers, heading to Bloomington and winning 30-16. The Hoosiers starting quarterback was injured in the first quarter, and the Boilers took advantage of that backed by strong performances by Aidan O’Connell, Charlie Jones and Devin Mockobee. 

O’Connell threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns. Mockobee ran for 99 yards and a touchdown and caught five passes for 58 yards. Jones had four receptions for 143 yards and a touchdown, securing his spot on the all Big Ten first team with the most yards, receptions and touchdowns of any receiver. 

Boiler basketball fans, we are back! Playing in the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament, the Boilers won by a total of 49 points through three games, two of which were #6 Gonzaga and #8 Duke. Huge wins for the Boilers moved them up 19 spots in the rankings this past week into 5th. They also moved past Indiana the rankings as well. 

At some point I guess we might as well feel bad for the Hoosiers. 

The Phil Knight Legacy Tournament, which the Boilers won, awarded the Player of the Tournament award to Boilers center Zach Edey. Edey put up 24 points and 12 boards vs West Virginia, 23 points and seven boards vs Gonzaga, and 21 points and 12 rebounds against Duke. 

Other noteworthy players were freshman guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer who both played key roles in the wins this past week. Smith’s court vision along with Ethan Morton lead the team to great plays, and Loyer’s shooting was sharp all week. 

The Boilers are looking great when it matters most!

Purdue sports slow down

Purdue’s previously dominant sports have hit quite the cold streak in the previous days. Boilermaker volleyball has hit a rough patch losing three straight games, and football lost their most recent game, a very winnable one at Wisconsin.

Coming off of a big win at home against Nebraska in which the offense has a total of 608 yards, led by quarterback Aidan O’Connell (394) and running back Devin Mockobee (178). The Boilermakers were feeling good about their offense headed to Camp Randall to play the Wisconsin Badgers.

Unfortunately for the Boilermakers, they let up 21 points to the Badgers in the first quarter. This put Purdue in a deep hole right away. While they outscored Wisconsin 24-14 in the final three quarters, the Boilers were not able to come back from such a great deficit.

This is a tough loss for the Boilers who were looking as though they were on track to win the Big 10 West, but they will still have that opportunity to do so if they can win the remainder of the conference matchups. If not, the Boilers should still be set up for a pretty good bowl game.

In the meantime, the Boilers will look to bounce back after their bye week. They will have a home matchup against the Iowa Hawkeyes in which they are heavy favorites.

The Purdue volleyball team has hit a major rough patch. After a demoralizing 3-0 loss to Maryland, they dropped two more games in a row to rank #3 Nebraska and #9 Minnesota, 3-0 and 3-1, respectively.

This is a major disappointment to the Boilers, as they were previously rank #4, and are now rank #12. Their next 7 games are against unranked opponents, so their upcoming schedule should be pretty easy.

After a bit of a rough patch for Purdue’s major fall sports, they will look to regroup in the coming weeks. Go Boilers!

Purdue fall sports are looking up – October 25

Purdue sports this last couple of weeks has been booming. Major sports at Purdue, such as football, volleyball and cross country had great weeks, while secondary sports to the Boilers such as Soccer and Golf continue to not do very well.

Purdue football pulled out a huge victory at Minnesota who was ranked #21, 20-10. The Boilers went into the 4th quarter tied, hit a field goal to go ahead three, then freshman walk-on Devin Mockobee had two huge rushes to put the Boilers up 20-10.

The Boilers had three interceptions against Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan, showing a much-needed defensive outburst. Safety Cam Allen had two interceptions while cornerback Bryce Hampton led the team with seven tackles.

The Boilers went for more of a ground-and-pound look, as most scouting reports for the Boilers said they could only pass. This surprised the Minnesota defense, and the Golden Gophers were not able to adapt to the new look on the Purdue offense. The Boilers were able to rush for over 150 yards without lead rusher King Dourue. This win is huge for the Boilers who will look to keep this momentum alive against Maryland this weekend who is coming off of a big win vs Michigan State.

Purdue Volleyball continues their hot streak moving their record to 13-1 and winning every one of their games this past couple of weeks. They beat #8 Minnesota at their Big Ten home opener 3-0, beat Iowa and Illinois on the road 3-1 and 3-2, and beat Rutgers at home 3-0. The Boilers are now ranked #5, the highest, and only, ranked Purdue fall sports team.

Purdue soccer lost all three of its games these last couple of weeks, moving to 3-8-1 on the season. Purdue golf got 8th place at the Intervess Intercollegiate Invitational, and 5th place out of 15 teams at the Marquette Intercollegiate Invitational.

Purdue Men’s and Women’s cross country got 18th and 17th at the John McNichols Invitational, which is good considering there were 8 teams ranked in the top 20 at this meet.

Purdue athletics performance sparks disappointment among fans – September 30

Another decent couple of weeks for Purdue sports may be causing some fits of disappointment among fans. Especially in football, the Boilers have failed to beat lesser teams.

The Boilers lost to unranked Syracuse, which isn’t the worst loss, but it was a very winnable game from the start. Quarterback Aidan O’Connell had a fantastic game throwing for 424 yards and 3 touchdowns, but the only low point of his game came late when he threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown, which sealed the win for Syracuse. The final score was 32-29.

Two weeks ago the Boilers trounced the Indiana State Sycamores 56-0 but that was overshadowed by the disappointing loss last weekend. The Boilers will look to bounce back this week against Florida Atlantic, which should be a shoe-in win heading into conference play.

The Boilermaker men’s and women’s cross country teams both finished 3rd behind Illinois and Toledo in the John McNichols Invitational last weekend. This is a pretty successful finish, but the Boilers definitely would have wanted to beat the non-power 5 team, Toledo.

Purdue volleyball have lost only one game this season, and that was to rank #2, Louisville. The Boilers have gotten off to a hot start going 9-1 and are now ranked #11 in the country.

Purdue men’s soccer has gotten off to a horrible start losing both of their games to Wisconsin and Northwestern in the last two weeks and lowering their record to 3-6. The Boilers will hope to turn their season around in the next couple of weeks in the midst of conference play.

Purdue women’s golf had a disappointing first match at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship, hosted by Tennessee. The Boilers placed 10th out of 14 and having their highest finish be a tie for 21st place.

Overall, Purdue athletics had a below average couple of weeks, and will look to bounce back in the coming weeks. Once again, go Boilers.

Purdue athletes open with moderate success – September 16

Last week, Purdue University entered their first week of athletic events. As the students get settled into their new schedules and lives, attending sporting events is a good way to relieve some stress and cheer on their team. 

Purdue’s football team opened their season against Penn State who was ranked just outside of the AP Top 25. The game was aired live on Fox and the stadium was electric. Waves of black and gold filled Ross-Ade Stadium and excited students roared when Purdue completed passes and made defensive stops. 

Purdue lost the matchup 31-35, but they definitely saw some positives. Quarterback Aidan O’Connell completed 29 passes for 356 yards and a touchdown, King Doerue rushed for 57 yards and two touchdowns and wide receiver Charlie Jones, a transfer student from Iowa, had 12 receptions for 153 yards and a touchdown. 

Purdue men’s soccer went 1-2 last week. They fell to Kansas 1-0, but bounced back with a 2-1 win against Kansas State. After that, they lost to #9 Notre Dame 3-1. Losing to a top ten team certainly isn’t an issue and beating a power-five team in Kansas State is promising. Soccer fans should be excited about the upcoming season. 

Women’s volleyball is ranked 9 in the country right now. They have gotten off to an amazing start going 6-0 and beating Bowling Green, Loyola Chicago, Tennessee, Bradley, Utah, and Milwaukee. They have a huge game Friday against the #4 ranked Louisville. Things are looking great right now for Purdue volleyball. 

The first week in sports all together went pretty well. There are a lot of games to look forward to such as the volleyball against Louisville and Purdue’s football game this weekend against Indiana State. Go Boilers!