WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The biggest takeaway from Saturday’s Purdue football scrimmage was who didn’t participate.
Starting quarterback Elijah Sindelar wasn’t available after tweaking his knee, “a little hyperextension,” coach Jeff Brohm said. Sindelar also didn’t practice Friday and is probably finished for the remainder of the spring.
That left redshirt freshman Jack Plummer to lead the No. 1 offense.
“It’s unfortunate,” Brohm said. “He’s having a good camp, but he is somebody we’re going to have to police more and make sure we get him to the game healthy and do everything precautionary to make sure that happens.”
The fifth-year senior suffered a torn ACL late in the 2017 season at Northwestern but continued to play and led the Boilermakers to victories over Iowa, Indiana and Arizona in the Foster Farms Bowl.
Last year, Sindelar started the season opener against Northwestern and played the next week against Eastern Michigan. But the Kentucky native developed tendinitis in his knee and also suffered an upper-body injury prior to facing Missouri. Sindelar didn’t see action the final 11 games.
Other takeaways from the two-hour scrimmage, which was held in the Mollenkopf Athletic Center and before more than 50 recruits who were on hand for the program’s junior day:
• Simeon Smiley would know how much progress receiver Amad Anderson, Jr., has made. The junior cornerback doesn’t defend the redshirt freshman on every play but enough to gauge his improvement.
Wrong question. Smiley isn’t about to toss praise toward Anderson or any receiver.
“I’m building my confidence; not theirs,” Smiley said.
That was just fine with Anderson.
“I’m not a friend of the defense either. I’ll say the same thing about him,” Anderson said.
Regardless, there’s no denying the 5-foot-11 Anderson has made strides on the outside. The New York native delivered a handful of big plays during the scrimmage, falling in line with what we’ve seen throughout spring practice.
He caught a 64-yard touchdown pass from Aidan O’Connell and hauled in a 52-yarder from Plummer.
“I don’t praise myself for making big plays,” Anderson said. “I’m supposed to make the catches; the coaches expect that in me. I just know when a ball comes I have to do something that stands out.”
He has accomplished that in the eyes of Brohm.
“When we recruited Amad, the thing he showed is he had a knack for making plays,” Brohm said. “He stood out on film and he was a guy that showed up and made the hard play. So far, he’s done the same thing. It’s a matter of him knowing what to do and being smart on the play and knowing the adjustments that could take place with it and going hard.
“He’s risen toward the top. To this point, we feel like we can count on him to go in there and do things and produce.”
• The secondary is playing more man coverage than last year. In fact, Smiley estimated the defense was in man coverage about 85 percent of Saturday’s scrimmage.
“We’re going to be a man team,” Smiley said. “We ran man about 12 plays in a row. I like playing man.”
• Which leads us to the next takeaway – generating pressure on the quarterback.
Although the defensive line is lacking some of its main players, including Lorenzo Neal, the front has been winning the battles against the offensive line. Not on every play but enough to get noticed.
Freshman George Karlaftis is helping set the edge from the end spot and also create havoc in the backfield. The West Lafayette graduate had a sack Saturday. Redshirt freshman Elijah Ball produced a tackle for loss, bringing down running back Tario Fuller. Throughout spring practice, defensive tackle Giovanni Reviere has been batting down passes.
“We have more guys,” Brohm said. “We’ve worked hard to figure out ways to get to the quarterback, whether it’s by technique, it’s by fundamentals, whether it’s by alignment, whether it’s by bringing more guys, whether it’s by giving more looks. All those things have to come into play.
“There are more capable bodies on the defensive side. I think we can rotate guys in. The competition has been better, and I’ve seen improvement, but we need to be more consistent.”
• The good news – the defense created a handful of turnovers. The bad news – the offense committed a handful of turnovers.
“While we’ve made some good plays and good throws, there were certain times we made some bad decisions and forced the ball,” Brohm said. “On defense, we want to pressure more. We want to get after the quarterback. It was good to see it from our defense, but it was not good to see from our quarterbacks.”
• Projected starting center Viktor Beach participated in parts of the scrimmage, a positive sign. Beach has been battling a back injury and will likely see limited action in the final three practices next week.
Starting quarterback Elijah Sindelar wasn’t available after tweaking his knee, “a little hyperextension,” coach Jeff Brohm said. Sindelar also didn’t practice Friday and is probably finished for the remainder of the spring.
That left redshirt freshman Jack Plummer to lead the No. 1 offense.
“It’s unfortunate,” Brohm said. “He’s having a good camp, but he is somebody we’re going to have to police more and make sure we get him to the game healthy and do everything precautionary to make sure that happens.”
The fifth-year senior suffered a torn ACL late in the 2017 season at Northwestern but continued to play and led the Boilermakers to victories over Iowa, Indiana and Arizona in the Foster Farms Bowl.
Last year, Sindelar started the season opener against Northwestern and played the next week against Eastern Michigan. But the Kentucky native developed tendinitis in his knee and also suffered an upper-body injury prior to facing Missouri. Sindelar didn’t see action the final 11 games.
Other takeaways from the two-hour scrimmage, which was held in the Mollenkopf Athletic Center and before more than 50 recruits who were on hand for the program’s junior day:
• Simeon Smiley would know how much progress receiver Amad Anderson, Jr., has made. The junior cornerback doesn’t defend the redshirt freshman on every play but enough to gauge his improvement.
Wrong question. Smiley isn’t about to toss praise toward Anderson or any receiver.
“I’m building my confidence; not theirs,” Smiley said.
That was just fine with Anderson.
“I’m not a friend of the defense either. I’ll say the same thing about him,” Anderson said.
Regardless, there’s no denying the 5-foot-11 Anderson has made strides on the outside. The New York native delivered a handful of big plays during the scrimmage, falling in line with what we’ve seen throughout spring practice.
He caught a 64-yard touchdown pass from Aidan O’Connell and hauled in a 52-yarder from Plummer.
“I don’t praise myself for making big plays,” Anderson said. “I’m supposed to make the catches; the coaches expect that in me. I just know when a ball comes I have to do something that stands out.”
He has accomplished that in the eyes of Brohm.
“When we recruited Amad, the thing he showed is he had a knack for making plays,” Brohm said. “He stood out on film and he was a guy that showed up and made the hard play. So far, he’s done the same thing. It’s a matter of him knowing what to do and being smart on the play and knowing the adjustments that could take place with it and going hard.
“He’s risen toward the top. To this point, we feel like we can count on him to go in there and do things and produce.”
• The secondary is playing more man coverage than last year. In fact, Smiley estimated the defense was in man coverage about 85 percent of Saturday’s scrimmage.
“We’re going to be a man team,” Smiley said. “We ran man about 12 plays in a row. I like playing man.”
• Which leads us to the next takeaway – generating pressure on the quarterback.
Although the defensive line is lacking some of its main players, including Lorenzo Neal, the front has been winning the battles against the offensive line. Not on every play but enough to get noticed.
Freshman George Karlaftis is helping set the edge from the end spot and also create havoc in the backfield. The West Lafayette graduate had a sack Saturday. Redshirt freshman Elijah Ball produced a tackle for loss, bringing down running back Tario Fuller. Throughout spring practice, defensive tackle Giovanni Reviere has been batting down passes.
“We have more guys,” Brohm said. “We’ve worked hard to figure out ways to get to the quarterback, whether it’s by technique, it’s by fundamentals, whether it’s by alignment, whether it’s by bringing more guys, whether it’s by giving more looks. All those things have to come into play.
“There are more capable bodies on the defensive side. I think we can rotate guys in. The competition has been better, and I’ve seen improvement, but we need to be more consistent.”
• The good news – the defense created a handful of turnovers. The bad news – the offense committed a handful of turnovers.
“While we’ve made some good plays and good throws, there were certain times we made some bad decisions and forced the ball,” Brohm said. “On defense, we want to pressure more. We want to get after the quarterback. It was good to see it from our defense, but it was not good to see from our quarterbacks.”
• Projected starting center Viktor Beach participated in parts of the scrimmage, a positive sign. Beach has been battling a back injury and will likely see limited action in the final three practices next week.
