For Purdue football, the work continues under second year head coach Ryan Walters during spring football drills.
A season ago, the Boilermakers went 4-8 under Walters in his first season. Purdue football found momentum down the stretch, winning two of its last three, including knocking off Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket in the season finale.
Now, the goal is to not only improve but be ready for a tougher Big Ten portion of the season that features a game against Oregon, including games against Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin and, of course, Indiana.
Familiarity exists this season for Purdue football
Walters said he has been pleased with how the team has performed thus far in the spring, noting the familiarity between the coaching staff and players is showing up.
“Yeah, you know, obviously, the recall from the guys that were here last season helps, you know, just the experience, knowing the whys within calls and what we’re trying to get accomplished,” Walters said.
Walters said he hopes the familiarity “pays dividends in the fall.”
“We got, I think, 102 guys on the roster right now and we’ll have 120 by fall camp. You know, I think this time last year, we only had like 60 guys on the roster. So we have to do a lot of teaching throughout the summer. So you got guys that are are new, I think we brought in 27 guys at mid-year to get those guys inundated in the program and the standard of how we operate and getting them, you know, having chemistry within the team, within the roster, get to know each other you know, that’s, to me, how you win in tight games is being able to rely on the guy next to you. Hopefully having that spring it’ll build a lot of trust and respect within the locker room,” the second year head coach said.
As for what has been the focus of Purdue football during the spring, Walters said a heavy emphasis has been on not giving up explosive plays.
“We were we were feast or famine a year ago, where, you know, we were either getting negative yardage plays or giving up touchdowns. And so just trying to harp on the details and the techniques and the fundamentals to be able to put ourselves in good positions to make plays,” Walters said.
Plenty of positives, few concerns for Purdue football
As one would expect, there have been both positives and areas of concern for the Boilermakers during spring practice.
Walters said Purdue football’s biggest positive has been there has not been a practice yet where there has been a letdown from an energy and enthusiasm standpoint.
“Guys have consistently improved. Some concerns are, you know, we got some vet guys that are making day one mistakes on routine plays and we gotta be able to make routine plays. You know, the other concern is because this team is tough, because they are physical and because guys are competing for spots. Sometimes we got to understand that we’re practicing against each other and learn how to take care of each other with pads on and then being in you know, a physical portion of practice doesn’t mean you know, I’m trying to clean up a teammate. We’re not playing against anybody right now, this is Purdue on Purdue. So those are some areas we got to improve,” Walters said.
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