After walking away with a skin of his teeth victory against FAU Jeff Brohm now has to prepare for a 4-0 and ranked Minnesota team. On the road. In a stadium that Purdue has never won a game in. Against a coach that Brohm has struggled against (1-4 overall). So, with all that in mind Jeff Brohm faced his contractually obligated members of the press to give us some updates.
First impressions of Minnesota:
Great running game, big offensive line, an experienced running back, big tight ends, sixth or seventh year quarterback that runs their offense very, very well.
Defensively very sound, physical up front, experience in the secondary, really good linebackers. They’re definitely doing a very good job. You’ve got to credit their team right now. Really, really solid football in Big Ten fashion with great defense and a solid running game.
We understand this is a tough match-up. We’re going to have to do a lot of things right. We’re going to have to find ways to get scores and take advantage of possessions, get some stops on defense, and once again, the key is can we find a way to get a lead and take them out of what they really want to do. That will be important.
Injury updates (compressed from multiple questions):
Aidan we’ll see later on in the week where that’s at.
[Jalen Graham] - That one we’ll have to see later on in the week, as well.
Broc and Cam are doubtful. Reese we’ll see later in the week, and King we’ll see later in the week.
Brohm confirms that AOC suffered his injury in the 1st quarter against Syracuse:
Well, I don’t want to disclose what his injury is for his safety, so a lot of times when you get injured during the game, you’ve got adrenaline and then you’re able to play through it.
It’s not until later on do you feel sore and then you get things checked and you diagnose what it is and you have to adapt.
I think that probably is more common than you think, unless it’s extremely, extremely severe that you can’t play with.
I just think he’s tough and he wanted to finish, and he did a really good job in the Syracuse game.
I just want to pause for a second here. It’s been reported on numerous outlets (including us) as well as during the actual broadcast against FAU that the injury was the ribs. Why are we hiding this at this point? What’s there to gain. It’s not as if the QB can really be tackles without hurting his ribs. What advantage does Brohm hope to get from this? It’s just incredibly silly. Moving on.
On Tanner Morgan and what Purdue will have to do against him:
Well, I think he does a great job in their system. He’s very smart. He can throw an accurate football. He knows how to run their offense, which is let’s be big and physical in the run game and run them against the looks that we can over and over again, and then when they start to cheat and try to play the pass, they have enough run pass RPO options and enough play actions off of it that it allows him time to make throws.
I think the key when you play that is you’ve got to figure out a way to make them uncomfortable, figure out a way to create pressure, you’ve got to figure out a way to put them in more passing situations than they would like. Because if you don’t, they’re in control of the game. They have been very, very effective doing that.
They’re back this year with the new coordinator doing even more so what they had in the past, which has been very effective, and they’ve just got really big linemen and big tight ends and a sound running game.
They make you bleed. They make you bleed, and if you don’t find a way to bandage it up or do something to strike back, it can be a long death.
How do you solve a problem like Mo Ibrahim:
Well, you have to have the perfect balance of making the right calls to get enough guys down in there. We went back and watched our game last year against them, and we did a decent job against the run, and then they hit two wide open play action passes that crushed us off of that because we were too low with our safeties and too aggressive.
So there has to be that fine line. There has to be that fine balance. When we got them in some obvious run situations, they brought in seven linemen and multiple tight ends, and not until we loaded the box with everybody and bigger personnel did we find a way to stop them.
So that’s the challenge, is you’ve got to give your players a chance by your calls, but yet you have to understand that the max protect play action is what they’re good at, and they hit us at least three times last year, once for a touchdown and two times for 40- to 50-yard chunks that we can’t allow.
On Charlie Jones workload:
Well, that’s with any of our big-time playmakers over the years. David Bell had to play a lot of snaps, Rondale Moore had to play a lot of snaps. If they want to play football at the highest level, that’s how they’re going to have to perform. I think he’s adjusted.
Yes, he has gotten tired in games at times. He hasn’t played this much and been depended on this much, but I think he’ll continue to battle through it.
We’ve got to make sure we continue to try to balance this out, and while we are smart by utilizing him, other guys step up and make plays, and I think that’s just something that we’ve got to continue to work at, and our guys are, they’re working hard, and we’ve got to have our quarterbacks gain confidence in the rest of our guys and distributing the ball to all of them.
I again would just like to take this time to thank Iowa for having no idea to do with this guy for 2 years and him being able to walk on East to Purdue because what a gift this guy has been.
Brohm’s assessment of Austin Burton’s play against FAU:
Well, I thought Austin for a first start for us did a really good job. Took us down right off the bat and scored a touchdown. He was able to extend some plays with his feet. E was able to buy some time.
When he had to, he made accurate throws, and he did a good job. We were proud of Austin and his effort.
Now, did we get as many plays down the field? No. Do we need to continue to work on throwing on timing and in rhythm? Yes. But as long as he’s able to step up in the pocket, buy time with his feet, get some yards on the ground, that can be beneficial, as well.
So I think that you adjust to who your quarterback is and try to play to his strengths, and we’ve got to continue to try to adapt to that as much as we can to make sure we’re doing things he feels comfortable with.
What is going on with the kicking game?:
Well, he’s been dinged up a little bit, and no, he hasn’t performed the last two games like he normally has. A couple mis-hits he’s had where he just really hasn’t hit the ball solid, and that’s not like him.
We’ve talked about it. I think while we think we give a lot of quality reps under pressure, at the same time, we probably need to practice more kicks with him with the defensive line and our offensive line protecting, maybe not necessarily full-speed live, but somewhat where there’s people in his face, there’s guys coming at him, and he has to be able to block that out.
Because I think sometimes you can — even a quarterback play, if you’re throwing versus air or against the scout team or just Skelly, you don’t have guys in your face, it’s not real life.
So I think we’ve talked about adapting that this week and making sure he gets more live kicks so that he feels comfortable with things and people coming across his vision off the edge and even with some push in the front, because he hasn’t hit it as solid as he’s had some low kicks, and that’s not like him.
On Mockobee:
Well, Devin has no fear. He’s exceeded our expectations. We just want to continue to get better. I think he does run hard. We’ve just got to continue to get him to lower his pads and run through tackles and bounce off people which he does a really good job. He got better in the passing game which was good to see. He made a couple really good catches and Austin utilized the backs more than we had in the past, and then I think in pass protection, that’s where he’s struggled, as well. He was better at that.
It’s just an everyday grind of him working hard, but you know what, he’s been durable. He loves to compete. He loves the challenge of playing at this level, and normally when you have guys that are hungry like that, they do great things for you. So I think he’ll continue to get better.
So there you have it. You can read the entire transcript here if you’d like.
