By: Dakota Isgrigg | October 7th | @dakota_isgrigg | @BoilerInTexas

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks you’ll know a few things, 1) Big Ten football, and therefore Purdue Football, is back for the fall 2020 season starting on October 24th. 2) With the return of the season, Rondale Moore decided to return to West Lafayette after initially deciding to opt out of the season citing COVID-19 safety concerns. Taking everything into account, this is exciting news after over a month of uncertainty surrounding the college football season. But, it does beg the question, have any expectations for 2020 changed?

I think to answer this question we need to makes some distinct differentiations. I think the biggest separation to make is the difference between football performance expectations, and the tangential results of the season that aren’t directly gameday related.

Big Picture Expectations

We should start with the bigger season expectations first as, at least for me, the expectations for the season have absolutely changed from even the beginning of 2020. Before the virus rocked the country and really threw everything off balance, there were very high expectations for the 2020 season. Especially after a 2019 season that was plagued by injury, fans were looking forward to a season where players stay healthy and we get a full season with our favorite players. Fans wanted to see the offense finally take off with the weapons Head Coach Jeff Brohm has amassed going into the season, and they wanted to see a revamped defense improve after a few years of less than stellar performances.

As we sit now at the beginning of October, my big picture expectations have shifted to this:

• Survive the season with no major injuries to anyone.

• No major COVID outbreak amongst Purdue Athletes

That’s it.

I know that seems a bit simple, but in a year where it will be remembered more for what happened outside of football, just getting through the season, get the younger guys more experience safely, and provide a safe product to put on the field that will get fans excited for the future. I don’t need a Big Ten West championship in a year that has a built in asterisk. I want to see how our guys have improved, and what the future of Purdue football may look like.

On Field Expectations

This next section is where the difference between our pre-COVID expectations and our current expectations may be closer together than we think. That’s because, if we take a step back, nothing has really changed in terms of on the field product. Aspects of the season has changed, we obviously went from a full 12 game schedule down to the new format of the 8 games + 1, there are less limitations on incoming freshman so we may see more guys get some playing time that we may not have before, and there will be no fans in the stands (at least as of right now) to name a few.

While the expectations may be similar, I will be looking at them in a slightly new way. Here are the expectations and some explanation into them:

• Offense should average north of 30 points per game: It’s no secret that Jeff Brohm has recruited a lot of weapons to the squad. With the return of Rondale Moore, there is no reason that this offense shouldn’t be averaging a minimum of 30 points-per-game. I’ve seen some people point towards the Vanderbilt game from 2019 as an example of what this offense is capable of with all the weapons available. With a vast cast of receivers available, including but not limited to Rondale Moore, David Bell, Amad Anderson Jr, Milton Wright, Mershawn Rice, TJ Sheffield, Maliq Carr, etc. Opposing Big Ten defensive coordinators will be having nightmares about coverage schemes when facing the potential of this Purdue offense.

• Defense shows improvement: One thing that didn’t change at all during the year was the fact that Purdue has a new DC after Nick Holt was let go after a disappointing 2019 season. There are a lot of questions surrounding this move to bring in Bob Diaco as the new defensive coordinator. The most obvious question is the difference in schemes between Diaco and Holt. Holt brought with him a 4-3 base defense that the Boilers have been playing in for a while. Diaco on the other hand has primarily utilized a 3-4 base defense. This brings up the question as to what will Purdue march out on October 24th? Either way, my expectation for this season is just improvement and more consistency in getting stops and generating turnovers.

• Consistency all season: While there have been very high highs in the past, there have also been some frustrating lows as well. The biggest moments I think all fans would agree on would be the Nevada game from 2019 and the Eastern Michigan game from 2018. There are other frustrating games I could mention as well, but those are the most frustrating just because there was no reason that Purdue should lose those games. For 2020, I just want to see consistency through the whole season. Primarily, I want to see the Boilers avoid the one game that they just lay an absolute egg out of nowhere. If they are able to avoid that, I will be happy with that moving towards the future.

Conclusion

So, things are happening, and as we draw nearer to the season, more and more excitement builds. 2020 will always be remembered as a very weird year and hopefully the primary memory will be that the Boilers got through the whole season healthy, the young guys got some live-game experience, and the Purdue offense showed what it was capable of!

What are your expectations for the 2020 season? Let me know down below!

As always, Boiler Up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!