column by Sam Mckewon
LINCOLN — The big-picture Big Ten football story of the spring didn’t come during a glorified scrimmage.
It arrived a few days after Purdue’s April 6 spring game, when the school announced a new seven-year, $36.8 million deal with head coach Jeff Brohm.
Brohm, 13-13 with the Boilermakers, wisely rebuffed a return to his alma mater, scandal-ridden Louisville, to become the league’s second-highest paid coach, just ahead of Nebraska’s Scott Frost. Brohm will make $5.35 million next season.
That’s Purdue’s coach. Purdue. I’ve been to Purdue when the program wasn’t any good. It was four years ago, when the collective mind of Husker nation touched the void as Nebraska lost to the 2-10 Boilermakers, 55-45. There were about nine Purdue fans there that day. It felt like the particularly sad moment in most Simon and Garfunkel songs.
Now Purdue is paying its football coach more than Ohio State pays its coach. Purdue signed a top-25 recruiting class in February, including a blue-chip crop of receivers to add to the league’s most explosive player, Rondale Moore.
"Jeff and his staff have done a remarkable job in two years of changing the culture, makeup and trajectory of our program and have boosted the spirit on campus and beyond,” PU Athletic Director Mike Bobinski said.
That 63-14 bowl loss to Auburn didn’t slow down enthusiasm one bit. Purdue opened its new football complex in 2017. In January 2019, it sent out a survey to stakeholders asking for input on eventual renovations to Ross-Ade Stadium, a horseshoe in need of more intimacy and modern touches.
Purdue’s all-in.
So is Minnesota with its new facility and its peppy head coach who does 45-minute opening statements at his press conferences. So is Northwestern, coming off a Big Ten West title with its new lakefront practice palace. You already know where Wisconsin and Iowa stand.
In 2012, the average recruiting rankings of the seven Big Ten West teams, according to the 247Sports composite, was 51.9. Ditto for 2015. In 2019, it was 37.6. Four of the seven made the top 40. Purdue drew the No. 25 class to West Lafayette, Indiana, which should not, on any day, be confused with Miami (No. 28), Arizona State (No. 31) or UCLA (No. 41).
You play out scenarios into the future, and perhaps Nebraska is a half-step or a step ahead. But it isn’t lapping the field like it once did with most of the Big Eight or Big 12 in the 1980s and '90s, when NU took the football fork in the road while schools like Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Missouri doubled down on basketball.
Nebraska enjoyed profound psychological and physical advantages on the gridiron as a result. From 1980 through 1997, NU played for six national titles, winning three. NU was within one game in 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1996 from playing for six more national titles. It lost one game — combined — to KU, KSU, Mizzou and ISU in those 18 seasons. That’s 71-1. Extraordinary!
NU has lost to each of its divisional foes at least once in the last four seasons.
Whatever window NU had to dominate the Big Ten West closed somewhere around the end of the Bo Pelini era and the beginning of the Mike Riley era. While Joel Stave-led Wisconsin cycled through three coaches in four years and Iowa muddled through some of Kirk Ferentz’s weakest seasons, Nebraska plateaued, then regressed.
In 18 short months under Frost, NU’s vibe has changed and its trajectory appears poised to dramatically turn upward. Watching Nebraska’s spring game again last week, you can see the fuller identity — especially on defense — starting to emerge. The Huskers didn’t look so different from Ohio State’s spring game, and frankly looked far better at quarterback.
But I watched Purdue’s spring game, too. The Boilermakers’ defense, which struggled last season, looks ready for a performance jump similar to Nebraska after it beat the offense 53-39 in a modified scoring system. PU’s presumptive starting quarterback, Elijah Sindelar, sat out the spring game, but the Boilermakers’ backups were about on par with Nebraska’s backups. Where PU is weak — a total reset awaits at running back — strengths (like tight end and receiver) can balance it out.
Nebraska and Purdue could be the top two teams in the division when they meet again on Nov. 2.
The Boilermakers might represent NU’s toughest road game in 2019. If it seems funny, consider the other options: Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and Maryland. Purdue will surely have more than nine fans at the game, too.
And by the time NU and Purdue play on Nov. 2, the Huskers will know exactly what it takes to win the West. Nebraska and Purdue could very easily be the two teams to beat. Or it could be Iowa and Wisconsin. Or Northwestern and Nebraska. Or Iowa and Minnesota. Really.
ESPN’s preseason Football Power Index ranked Wisconsin 23rd, Iowa 25th, Minnesota 28th and Nebraska 35th. Those rankings were before Alex Hornibrook chose to transfer to Florida State.
Still, you can see how tightly bunched together the teams are. Northwestern and Purdue lag behind — for now. Would you doubt either at this point?
What’s more, which of those six coaches — Frost, Brohm, Ferentz, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald, Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst and Minnesota’s PJ Fleck — is going anywhere soon? Frost, Brohm, Ferentz and Fitzgerald each make at least $4.5 million. These are rooted, invested programs.
Which is a great thing for Big Ten football fans even if it poses a challenge for Nebraska that didn’t quite exist in 2011.
Brohm is the face of that challenge. On the night Purdue stunned Ohio State 49-20 — keeping the Buckeyes out of the College Football Playoff — I speculated on Twitter that Frost's and Brohm’s offenses could go toe-to-toe for years to come.
The take was not received well — in part because of the prevailing belief that Brohm would ditch Purdue for Louisville, a far more accomplished football program that had just produced a Heisman Trophy winner.
Program fortunes change. Now, Purdue has a Heisman candidate. So does Nebraska. Purdue’s defensive front seven will be among the Big Ten West’s best. Nebraska’s will, too. If you had to buy Big Ten West 10-year bonds, Nebraska — and Purdue, of all teams — would be my picks.
Toe-to-toe. Here we go.
LINCOLN — The big-picture Big Ten football story of the spring didn’t come during a glorified scrimmage.
It arrived a few days after Purdue’s April 6 spring game, when the school announced a new seven-year, $36.8 million deal with head coach Jeff Brohm.
Brohm, 13-13 with the Boilermakers, wisely rebuffed a return to his alma mater, scandal-ridden Louisville, to become the league’s second-highest paid coach, just ahead of Nebraska’s Scott Frost. Brohm will make $5.35 million next season.
That’s Purdue’s coach. Purdue. I’ve been to Purdue when the program wasn’t any good. It was four years ago, when the collective mind of Husker nation touched the void as Nebraska lost to the 2-10 Boilermakers, 55-45. There were about nine Purdue fans there that day. It felt like the particularly sad moment in most Simon and Garfunkel songs.
Now Purdue is paying its football coach more than Ohio State pays its coach. Purdue signed a top-25 recruiting class in February, including a blue-chip crop of receivers to add to the league’s most explosive player, Rondale Moore.
"Jeff and his staff have done a remarkable job in two years of changing the culture, makeup and trajectory of our program and have boosted the spirit on campus and beyond,” PU Athletic Director Mike Bobinski said.
That 63-14 bowl loss to Auburn didn’t slow down enthusiasm one bit. Purdue opened its new football complex in 2017. In January 2019, it sent out a survey to stakeholders asking for input on eventual renovations to Ross-Ade Stadium, a horseshoe in need of more intimacy and modern touches.
Purdue’s all-in.
So is Minnesota with its new facility and its peppy head coach who does 45-minute opening statements at his press conferences. So is Northwestern, coming off a Big Ten West title with its new lakefront practice palace. You already know where Wisconsin and Iowa stand.
In 2012, the average recruiting rankings of the seven Big Ten West teams, according to the 247Sports composite, was 51.9. Ditto for 2015. In 2019, it was 37.6. Four of the seven made the top 40. Purdue drew the No. 25 class to West Lafayette, Indiana, which should not, on any day, be confused with Miami (No. 28), Arizona State (No. 31) or UCLA (No. 41).
You play out scenarios into the future, and perhaps Nebraska is a half-step or a step ahead. But it isn’t lapping the field like it once did with most of the Big Eight or Big 12 in the 1980s and '90s, when NU took the football fork in the road while schools like Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Missouri doubled down on basketball.
Nebraska enjoyed profound psychological and physical advantages on the gridiron as a result. From 1980 through 1997, NU played for six national titles, winning three. NU was within one game in 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1996 from playing for six more national titles. It lost one game — combined — to KU, KSU, Mizzou and ISU in those 18 seasons. That’s 71-1. Extraordinary!
NU has lost to each of its divisional foes at least once in the last four seasons.
Whatever window NU had to dominate the Big Ten West closed somewhere around the end of the Bo Pelini era and the beginning of the Mike Riley era. While Joel Stave-led Wisconsin cycled through three coaches in four years and Iowa muddled through some of Kirk Ferentz’s weakest seasons, Nebraska plateaued, then regressed.
In 18 short months under Frost, NU’s vibe has changed and its trajectory appears poised to dramatically turn upward. Watching Nebraska’s spring game again last week, you can see the fuller identity — especially on defense — starting to emerge. The Huskers didn’t look so different from Ohio State’s spring game, and frankly looked far better at quarterback.
But I watched Purdue’s spring game, too. The Boilermakers’ defense, which struggled last season, looks ready for a performance jump similar to Nebraska after it beat the offense 53-39 in a modified scoring system. PU’s presumptive starting quarterback, Elijah Sindelar, sat out the spring game, but the Boilermakers’ backups were about on par with Nebraska’s backups. Where PU is weak — a total reset awaits at running back — strengths (like tight end and receiver) can balance it out.
Nebraska and Purdue could be the top two teams in the division when they meet again on Nov. 2.
The Boilermakers might represent NU’s toughest road game in 2019. If it seems funny, consider the other options: Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and Maryland. Purdue will surely have more than nine fans at the game, too.
And by the time NU and Purdue play on Nov. 2, the Huskers will know exactly what it takes to win the West. Nebraska and Purdue could very easily be the two teams to beat. Or it could be Iowa and Wisconsin. Or Northwestern and Nebraska. Or Iowa and Minnesota. Really.
ESPN’s preseason Football Power Index ranked Wisconsin 23rd, Iowa 25th, Minnesota 28th and Nebraska 35th. Those rankings were before Alex Hornibrook chose to transfer to Florida State.
Still, you can see how tightly bunched together the teams are. Northwestern and Purdue lag behind — for now. Would you doubt either at this point?
What’s more, which of those six coaches — Frost, Brohm, Ferentz, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald, Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst and Minnesota’s PJ Fleck — is going anywhere soon? Frost, Brohm, Ferentz and Fitzgerald each make at least $4.5 million. These are rooted, invested programs.
Which is a great thing for Big Ten football fans even if it poses a challenge for Nebraska that didn’t quite exist in 2011.
Brohm is the face of that challenge. On the night Purdue stunned Ohio State 49-20 — keeping the Buckeyes out of the College Football Playoff — I speculated on Twitter that Frost's and Brohm’s offenses could go toe-to-toe for years to come.
The take was not received well — in part because of the prevailing belief that Brohm would ditch Purdue for Louisville, a far more accomplished football program that had just produced a Heisman Trophy winner.
Program fortunes change. Now, Purdue has a Heisman candidate. So does Nebraska. Purdue’s defensive front seven will be among the Big Ten West’s best. Nebraska’s will, too. If you had to buy Big Ten West 10-year bonds, Nebraska — and Purdue, of all teams — would be my picks.
Toe-to-toe. Here we go.
