VIDEO: Purdue Football Coach Jeff Brohm Discusses Season Opener Against Oregon State

Purdue football coach Jeff Brohm met with the local media Monday to discuss the team's season opener against Oregon State on Saturday. Here are the highlights from what he had to say, and what we should expect from the Boilermakers to start the season.

Author:
D.J. Fezler
Publish date:
Aug 30, 2021 12:19 PM EDT

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It's officially game week for Purdue football, and coach Jeff Brohm met with the local media to discuss the team's season opener against Oregon State on Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium.

The game against the Beavers starts at 7 p.m. ET. As of Monday morning, the Boilermakers are a 6.5-point favorite at home according to sports gambling website Fanduel.com. The over/under is 65.5 points.

Here's a look at the highlights of what Brohm had to say ahead of Purdue's first matchup of the year, plus video from the press conference. Check it out:

Opening Statement:

Brohm: We're definitely excited to kick off this season this Saturday. I think our players, our staff, we put in a lot of hard work, just like every team across the country, to get ready to have hopefully an exciting and successful season. There's been a lot of preparation, a lot of work put into it, but it's still about going out there and performing, putting it all together, being able to execute and do things efficiently throughout an entire game and find ways to win in the fourth quarter.

I'm excited to see our team compete and play. I think it's important that we continue to preach play hard and play tough and play smart and play to the end and continue to find ways to get better, but I do think that our guys are very eager to get on the field and play against an opponent, and we welcome Oregon State this weekend, who had a very good year last year as far as being very competitive in every game.

They had a big win against a top-25 team against Oregon. They were in pretty much all the other games. Only one game I think was by double-digit loss, so they had a chance to compete and win to the end. When you watch them play, they play hard, they play tough, they play to the end, and they're going to come in here wanting to get a W.

I think getting back in front of our stadium, in our stadium in front of our fans will be exciting for our players, exciting for all the Purdue fans, and we want to try to go out and execute, play hard-nosed, tough, physical football and play the game the way it's supposed to be played, and that is competing to the very end.

This Saturday at 7:00 we'll be ready to kick it off.

On the level of excitement around the program:

Brohm: Yeah, I really feel that myself, our staff right now, our players, you put in all this work all year long, you dedicate a lot of your life to finding ways to improve and get better and win football games. There's no reason not to go out there and be excited, lay it all on the line, cut it loose each and every week, play free, want to make plays, want to be aggressive, want to go for the win.

When the game is over, you move on to the next one. Without question, throughout the course of a season, you hope to have a lot of high moments, but there are going to be some moments that aren't as good. You've got to be able to handle those, the adverse situations, to be tough, to be strong-willed, to believe in yourself and the preparation that you put in and understand that that's football.

Every week, everyone believes they're going to win, which they should, but half the teams win, half the teams lose, so you've got to be tough enough to handle the wins correctly but also handle the losses correctly and come back the next week and find ways to improve.

I am excited for our players. I think they've worked extremely hard. They've given us everything they have up until this point, and I know they want to go out on the game field and try to prove that.

On aggressiveness on offense and defense:

Brohm: Well, I hope it makes us look better. That's the approach we want to take this year. We had a good practice last night under the lights on the game field, trying to simulate some game conditions, getting lined up, people being off the field, communication, making calls.

To this point our defense, other than one scrimmage where we weren't up to par, has done a really good job, and we've guarded things tighter. (Internet interruption) that we could have, does have some depth.

Yes, the secondary is a little thinner, but we've got to continue to progress the other ones behind them, but at linebacker and defensive line we will have the ability to rotate a little bit and make sure that we're keeping guys fresh.

But I anticipate them playing well, and I think they've gained some confidence throughout spring and summer and fall camp, and now they've got to carry it over to the game, and they've got to keep that confidence, no matter if we're up by 14 or down by 21, and that's what you've just got to make sure of is that our guys understand that every game something new and different is going to happen. You've got to be able to handle it and react, but I anticipate our defense playing well.

Of course on offense we always want to be aggressive, but we do want to have some balance, and we do want to be physical in our approach, and we do want to be able to run the ball downhill and hit some play action off of it.

Taking care of the football, being efficient, avoiding negative plays, creating a few big plays throughout the course of getting chunks of positive yardage will be important.

On what Oregon State presents on offense and defense:

Brohm: Well, when you watch Oregon State you can tell that they're a hungry football team. They're out to prove themselves, as well. They want to make a name for their program and continue to improve.

Beating Oregon when they were in the top 25 was big for them. They were competitive in almost every game to the very end and had a chance to win.

We're going to have to play well. They want to run the football. They want to control the ball. They want to be physical in their approach. They want to play sound defense. Their defensive coordinator has a Wisconsin background, so they do some things very similar to that, which Wisconsin has always been great on that side of the ball, especially here recently.

We've got to play well. We've got to do the small things while we continue to try to create plays, and we've got to win the special teams battle, but they're going to fight to the end. When you watch on video throughout the entire game they play to the very end. Our guys need to understand that and they need to know it's going to be a full 60-minute game that we've got to hang in there and play as hard and as well as we can throughout the entire game.

POSITION BREAKDOWN — QUARTERBACKS: After a quarterback battle during fall camp, junior Jack Plummer was named the starter for Purdue football. There's plenty of talent behind him this season as the Boilermakers search for consistency at the position. CLICK HERE
GEORGE KARLAFTIS NO. 11 NFL DRAFT PROSPECT: Purdue junior defensive end George Karlaftis posted 54 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks as a freshman in 2019. Despite appearing in just three games last year, he is one of the top NFL Draft prospects for the upcoming season. CLICK HERE
DAMARCUS MITCHELL FUELED BY OPPORTUNITY: DaMarcus Mitchell's father never had the chance to play college football, but the person that introduced him to the sport will be in the stands cheering for him at every Purdue home game. CLICK HERE
JACK PLUMMER NAMED STARTING QB: Jack Plummer has appeared in 10 games for Purdue over the last two seasons. In his career, he's totalled 2,541 yards, 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He earned the starting nod over Aidan O'Connell and Austin Burton. CLICK HERE
JACK ANSELL ADDS STABILITY TO PURDUE PUNTING UNIT: Jack Ansell trained at Prokick Australia to prepare for his opportunity to play in America. Now, after adjusting to the Purdue football program, he's looking to contribute to a special teams unit that struggled last season for the Boilermakers. CLICK HERE
KARLAFTIS IMPROVING LEADERSHIP: There's no denying George Karlaftis' impact on the football field. But the Purdue junior defensive end has taken it upon himself to become a better leader ahead of the 2021 college football season. CLICK HERE