Boiling Point

Pre-game against Ohio State

"Challenge" was perhaps the most used word by Purdue coaches this week when talking about trying to defend or produce points against Ohio State.
I asked coach Joe Tiller, defensive coordinator Brock Spack and play caller Bill Legg if getting an opportunity to game plan against such a talented team was exciting or a bit nerve-wracking.
They all opted for challenging.
"It's a real test to see what you can get done," Tiller said. "When it's all said and done, my message to our players is the game is about players. That's one thing, you do your planning and do your best guesstimates, but there hasn't been a play drawn yet that has been successful without a player going out and executing it. I think it's more of a challenge to get your players to play at an extremely high level with a low margin of error than it is maybe the strategy itself."
Tiller said he didn't think Ohio State's defense had any weaknesses, and when I repeated that to Legg, he said, "If they do, they haven't been exposed yet."
And that's coming from a guy whose play calling this season has been nearly flawless for one of the nation's top offenses in terms of yardage and points.
Legg obviously wouldn't give up the game play for today, but he said the most important element will be to quarterback Curtis Painter's ability to spread the ball around to all the team's weapons.
"We've got to execute what we're capable of executing, which starts with blocking up front, distributing the ball from sideline to sideline and making sure everybody is involved because that way they can't gang up on one area of your offense and stop you," Legg said.
Ohio State's offense may not be as highly touted, but Spack praised nearly every unit. He'll have to decide whether to stick with his base 4-3 defense for much of the game or continue to frequently use the nickel package that has only two linebackers but adds a physical safety in Torri Williams.
"This is what you came to play for," he said. "You came to play a game like this. This is real big-time football. I tell players, 'These guys are NFLers. If you want to play on Sunday, these are the kind of guys you'll play against every week. See what you're made of.' It's going to be fun.
" I think it's going to take a great team effort, but I think we're capable."

• Ohio State is favored by seven points, and Purdue linebacker Anthony Heygood told me he likes being the underdog. "It gives you motivation to go out there and play tougher if you're an underdog and nobody thinks you can do it and nobody knows who you are. It's like, 'You just snuck into the polls at No. 23 and now you're playing this ranked team.' They're like, 'Oh, well, Purdue hasn't played anybody, so they're probably going to lose.' We don't see it like that at all."
• Tom Dienhart, The Sporting News college football writer and Purdue grad, picked Ohio State to win, 27-24. Fellow TSN college writer Matt Hayes also picked the Buckeyes, 24-20.

-- By Stacy Clardie, The Journal Gazette

Ohio ties don't run deep

Just because he's a native of Ohio, Greg Orton insists he's not more hyped up for playing Ohio State this weekend.
Orton, who wasn't recruited by the Buckeyes, said he wasn't too big of an Ohio State fan growing up in Dayton. But he did attend some games in Columbus as a kid.
More exciting for Orton is getting a chance to play against high school teammate and good friend Marcus Freeman. Freeman is the starter at weakside linebacker.
"He left me a message and just told me to keep my head up looking over the middle, (saying) he'll get me," Orton said. "I told him the same thing. We were just talking a little friendly trash."
Orton is one of eight players on Purdue's roster who hail from Ohio, and coach Joe Tiller is from Toledo. Tiller said he didn't consider playing Ohio State more special because he's from the state, unless Woody Hayes was coach. And he's obviously not anymore.
"I was a University of Toledo fan (growing up)," Tiller said. "Columbus was a long way away for me."
Running back Joe Williams will have an interesting twist for the game. He attended Ohio State (but didn't play football) before transferring to Purdue in 2005 and walking on to the team. His mother, Sandra, got her master's and PHD at Ohio State and will be in the stands wearing OSU apparel but rooting for her son.

• Tiller has been praising his offensive line but rarely has mentioned highly touted guard Jordan Grimes when doing so. So I asked Tiller what he thinks of Grimes' play so far, and the response was "OK." But Tiller did say he thinks Grimes has "stepped his game up in terms of trying to be a more physical player. I noticed that on tape. He's trying to be more physical in what he does, and that's encouraging." Grimes has been unavailable for interviews since the season started.
• Purdue is one of 11 schools that would become bowl eligible with a victory Saturday.

-- By Stacy Clardie, The Journal Gazette

Painter's flop; more notes

Curtis Painter doesn't have a traditional kneel down.
Instead, it's more like a flop to the ground. And he's been taking a bit of flak for it.
At the end of last week's game against Notre Dame, Painter looked like he was going to kneel and then just fell to the ground and kind of rolled.
Coach Joe Tiller joked Tuesday that Painter "wins Ugliest Kneel Down in America, hands down." Last season, Tiller thought Painter took a knee too quickly and flicked the ball to the official right away, thus not utilizing milking the clock. So the coaches had to tell him to go to the ground.
"He's taken it to a new level," Tiller joked.
Painter said quarterbacks coach Ed Zaunbrecher is the one who told him to go to the ground and not simply kneel. If he falls, he makes the referee come and take the ball from him.
Painter would love to finish Saturday's game the same way.
"If we're up and that's the situation, I'll do two rolls on the ground," Painter said, smiling.

• I saw Jaycen Taylor strolling to the locker room before Tuesday's practice was wrapped up. He gave a wave and was smiling, per usual. Tiller said earlier in the day that Taylor is doing well and even had pads and a helmet on Sunday. Taylor only was able to run around, not enough for him despite he's only a couple weeks removed from breaking his left arm against Central Michigan.
• No changes to the two-deep this week.
• Tiller wasn't surprised when former quarterback Drew Brees donated $2 million to expand an academic facility as part of the Mackey renovation project. "Nothing Drew Brees does surprises me," Tiller said. "He's one of those rare guys. I remember telling our coaches while he was here, 'Enjoy him while he's here because you get one like this about every 15 years in coaching. So you can expect about two of them over the course of your career.' "

-- By Stacy Clardie, The Journal Gazette