Radio Show Nuggets: Three Takeaways From Jeff Brohm’s Weekly Appearance
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue travels to Iowa to take on the No. 23 ranked Hawkeyes on Saturday (Noon ET, ESPN2).
Purdue coach Jeff Brohm talked about the offensive line, Jack Plummer, David Bell, and more during his Wednesday evening radio live from the Stacked Pickle on campus.
Here are the three biggest takeaways from the show:
Offensive line adjustments
Brohm discussed the Purdue offensive line, and the improvements the group made on Saturday. After allowing 10 sacks just two games ago against Penn State, they only allowed one against Maryland. Brohm credits that to some scheme changes and adjustments that were made during the week leading up to the game. He didn’t want to reveal too much and give away the secrets, but acknowledged that it was great to see the offensive line play so well on Saturday.
“We don’t want to give away any of our secrets, but we did some different things protection-wise that definitely helped,” Brohm said. "Those small subtle things that I don’t want to talk in too much detail about really did help, and it gave ourselves a chance to improve. It just really helped the offensive line do things better, and helped our quarterback have more time to throw.”
Jack Plummer’s improvement at quarterback
Brohm discussed the growth he’s seen from redshirt freshman quarterback Jack Plummer over the course of the season. With the injuries to Elijah Sindelar this season, Plummer has started three games for the Boilermakers and has appeared in four. After struggling against TCU and Penn State in his first two appearances, he had one of the best games in school history for a freshman in the win over Maryland. He threw for 420 yards — the second- most by a freshman in Purdue history — and three touchdowns. On Monday he was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.
“I think Jack will continue to get better,” Brohm said. “He’s got good escapability, he can run with the ball when he has to, but he also can see the field. He got in a groove, and his confidence shot up. To come out and really execute and lead this offense in his third start was great to see.”
David Bell’s approach
Brohm talked about the way that David Bell approaches the game and the big numbers he had on Saturday against Maryland. Bell caught nine passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns, which were all career highs. Brohm credits that to the way Bell approaches each game, even comparing him to Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice. Brohm even went as far as to call Bell, who’s just a true freshman, a team leader this season because of his consistent play week in and week out.
“In my opinion, he’s extremely smooth. He reminds me of Jerry Rice in the way that he approaches the game. He kind of makes the consistent hard catch look easy,” Brohm said. “He’s a smooth route-runner, he knows what he’s doing, he’s got a good feel, he’s very athletic and he’s tremendous at going up and getting the ball in tight coverage. He’s become a very good leader just by the way he approaches (the game) and his ability to make plays consistently every week.”
