The Preview in Review: Part 3

Time for the Indiana and Purdue preview review. Those links will take you back to the previews we did back in August. We were new and didn't know what we were doing -- cut us some slack. We got it wrong, way wrong, for Indiana; but we hit the nail on the head with Purdue. Well, one of us did, at least.

We'll start with Indiana.

Indiana has eight (8!) home games this year, including four against non-conference powers such as Western Kentucky and Murray State. And to top it off, they don’t play Ohio State or Michigan this year. While they should feast on their weak non-conference opponents, they will still struggle in the Big11Ten.

Our prediction for Indiana: 7-5 (3-5 Big11Ten).

Back in the real world, the Hoosiers went 3-9 (1-7 Big11Ten). Maybe we were living in a fantasy world or something, but we thought they would at least put up a fight. Sure, they had a couple close games and one of their non-conference losses was to a MAC team that ended up doing very well (Ball State) -- but there were far too many blowouts and complete ineptitude on both sides of the ball.

To finish the season, Indiana was 10th in scoring offense and 11th in scoring defense. When you can't score and you got stop people from scoring, you know it's going to be a long season.

It was rough year for the whole team. Marcus Thigpen didn't do much in the backfield, rushing for only 631 yards and neither of the two quarterbacks who got significant time seemed to do much. Ben Chappell and Kellen Lewis both saw significant time at QB, sometimes during the same game, and Chappell getting some solo time when Lewis was out with an ankle injury.

In the preview we made mention that Indiana insisted there was a battle for the QB position that might be resolved until the first game of the season. Unfortunately, that battle may never have been resolved. Quarterback tandems never really work out like people hope and perhaps that may have attributed to Indiana's disappointing season.

So, yeah, Indiana was bad. We were clearly wrong.
But on the other hand, there was Purdue.

Here's what we said:

Purdue’s schedule isn’t as cakey as some in the Big11Ten, but they do luck out by not having to play Wisconsin. We do think they will win their rivalry game with Indiana, mostly to get back at this guy:


However, four of their first six games will be against Oregon, Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State. That’s not going to be a fun run for the Boilermakers. Boiler down.

Our prediction for Purdue: 4-8 (2-6 Big11Ten).

How did they finish? 4-8 (2-6 Big11Ten). Yeah, it was a lucky guess. We know.

One of the high points for Purdue probably took place when Chris Summers was trotting out on the field to knock down a 44 yard field goal that would have beat Oregon, who was ranked 16 at the time. If you remember Purdue's game against PSU this season, you probably remember how reliable of a kicker Chris Summers is.

Yeah, he's not.

So, long story short, he missed. Then he missed another in overtime, and Oregon punched one in. Hey, at least he's probably better than that guy out at Cal Poly.

After that, Purdue would beat Central Michigan before losing 5 in a row. They would get 2 more wins against Michigan and Indiana. That win at Indiana would end up being the last of the Joe Tiller era as he retired at seasons end.

After the trouncing of Indiana by a score of 62-10, we found this gem of a quote in the AP recap:

"It just means I'm going to have one more Miller Lite," Tiller said. "I was going to limit myself to 12 or 13. This game won't change my mind [on coming back]. I'm done with coaching."

Sure, it was against Indiana, but maybe if Purdue had played that inspired all season long things may have been different. They're always right on the cusp of being a good team, so hopefully they get it together soon.