VIDEO: Purdue Football Coach Ryan Walters Discusses 2023 Signing Class
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — With first-year head coach Ryan Walters at the helm, Purdue football welcomes 22 players to the program as part of the 2023 signing class heading into spring practices.
During the early signing period in December, 12 prospects signed their national letters of intent, with 10 more joining the group on the Feb. 1 National Signing Day.
Walters met with the media on Wednesday to discuss the newest members of the Boilermakers, which includes six transfers and is headlined by former Texas quarterback Hudson Card.
"Our staff spent the past month scouring the country for the newest Boilermakers to join the brotherhood," Walters said in a release. "This group, along with the guys we signed in December, will be a special one as part of our first signing class. I am excited for them to join us here in West Lafayette. The time is now!"
When Walters was hired in December to replace Jeff Brohm as Purdue's next head coach, the first national signing day for college football was quickly approaching. Without a fully constructed coaching staff, he prioritized speaking to in-state commitments first and foremost.
And with the departure of last season's starting quarterback Aidan O'Connell, Walters also knew he wanted to add a signal-caller via the transfer portal.
Card, who spent the last three seasons with the Longhorns, was the first big splash for the Boilermakers this offseason. Walters and newly-hired offensive coordinator Graham Harrell made their pitch, and Card announced his commitment to the team on Dec. 26.
"I thought Hudson was the best quarterback in the portal," Walters said. "It was good for Graham and I to go out and see him and his family, and ultimately to get him here."
With spring training camp coming up, Walters and the Purdue coaching staff will use that time to evaluate the players on the roster, both new and old, while identifying team needs entering the next transfer portal window in May.
"We try to identify and sign guys that love football for football, not for Twitter likes or Instagram followers," Walters said. "These guys, they love ball. The guys that we already enrolled have hit the ground running in workouts.
"They're doing overtime workouts and working on their craft in the indoor [practice facilities] by themselves. So I think we got the right kind of guys to make up the locker room and maintain and enhance the chemistry there."
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- Breaking Down Hudson Card's Starts at Texas: In three seasons at Texas, quarterback Hudson Card appeared in 22 games under center and made five starts. He's thrown for 1,523 yards passing, 11 touchdowns and two interceptions in his college career before joining the Purdue football program. CLICK HERE
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.