Thanks to the Boiler Business Exchange, I had the chance to spend a bit of my afternoon with Purdue’s AD, Purdue football’s head coach and some fellow alums and fans.

If you’re in Indy, you know it was hot and humid…a bit ahead of schedule, but nothing too out of the ordinary. But the heat and humidity fueled some pop-up rain that affected the day.

I’ll be honest, Jeff Brohm could read a few pages of the encyclopedia, and I’d probably listen. Further, we all know that the coach doesn’t love divulging too much info that he doesn’t have to…and today was no different. But he had a lil’ help from nature.

When Coach Brohm took the mic, it was cloudy…moments later, It. Was. Pouring.

Then he lost power to his mic, so he started yelling to the crowd…but as we sheltered in tents and he grabbed an umbrella, his words were completely drowned out by the tympanic rain beats against the temporary tents. All kidding aside, he talked, drowned out in white noise for five or six minutes…and no one heard a word of it. My brother said he read his lips- he said something about being excited about transfers and new additions to the team…but most of his talk was inaudible…and Coach Brohm probably chuckled to himself about it.

Before the weather derailed him, I heard him say the biggest news of the day-

The team is 100% Covid-free and the staff remains diligent as news of outbreaks on other campuses pop up. He expressed thanks to the support staff for all they’re doing…that’s all I heard from him.

Teams in the Southeast US have had a lot of asymptomatic positives…and a handful of similar positives have popped up at Rutgers, Iowa, UND and Wisconsin. Brohm and Bobinski alike said they will remain diligent on testing and keeping athletes healthy as they move forward with practices and workouts.

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Mike Bobinski took the mic, and they figured out how to get it working again, which helped. Purdue’s AD was more blunt than I had ever heard…and continues to be a guy that I love to listen to.

Some of my highlights were:

He said he is asked to provide a ‘state of the program’ at events like this. He called the last few months a “sh*t show” as he and the entire athletic department have dealt with adversity that isn’t unique to Purdue, but is just the year 2020, for everyone. But topping it off with Burke’s death has made a tough year even more difficult.

A silver lining for the second academic semester of 2020 is the average GPA for athletes was 3.45…highest ever. He said lots of the athletes ‘took to the e-learning’…also (my opinion), so many of these young men and women had so much less to do than their usual schedule, academics were probably a welcomed distraction from dealing with Mom and Dad or doing absolutely nothing (for at least 60 days this semester).

He interjected a little logic in a season filled with conjecture and flat-out guessing from websites like this all the way up to national media hacks spouting off. He told the crowd of a few hundred people that the B1G ADs have met via phone/video conference around 70 times since the isolation period began back in March…and opinions have changed often. He reminded all of us to take public guesses of what’s coming next with a grain of salt…and added NOBODY truly knows what is coming next and everyone who has a real say is trying to protect the athletes and find solutions.

BUT, he said that he, Coach Brohm and the greater department are all continually trying to find solutions instead of focusing on problems…and are preparing for football season and beyond.

He reiterated the scalable 25% capacity of Ross-Ade number for football Saturdays. At this point, he sounds cautiously optimistic, but said he doesn’t see capacity crowds in West Lafayette too likely this fall.

When comparing Purdue and the greater B1G to the SEC, he said (in some different, colorful words) that the SEC fans have different priorities to the B1G fans…and he predicts that they will be more aggressive with how they move forward in their stadiums this coming fall.

Stadium News

He mentioned a few plans about Ross-Ade that I hadn’t heard articulated this way before.

First, he said the South End Zone scoreboard is nearly complete, which we all know, but said the plans for the area surrounding it have changed, and he loves the ideas.

Having a large student section, including the band, beneath the new scoreboard looks to be a real possibility. He is planning on meeting with students and allowing them to make it their own.

He said there will eventually be a mezzanine level with seats that are more ‘on top’ of the action. He laments that Ross-Ade’s fans are so far from the action. He really stressed that Purdue needs to gain some homefield advantage with the renovations of Ross-Ade since fans are simply too far from the action.

He referred to the North End Zone specifically- he reminded us that the front row is 40-plus feet from the field of play…and that must change. He hinted at a major change in the configuration of the North, which I had not heard before today.

He said it’s time for innovation and advancement for Ross-Ade and thinks the upcoming changes will help Ross-Ade prepare for the next 25-30 seasons.

A few more takeaways

I had the chance to talk to a handful of fellow Purdue alums/fans/staffers at the event…it’s always good to put personalities with the perception and none of them were anything but positive about the future. One account of new Purdue DC, Bob Diaco from an insider was- “He has a lot of the energy that Nick Holt had, which is a big positive. But, he seems to be a bit more focused and serious when he needs to be.”

One note, Coach Brohm was wearing a golf shirt with the Music City Bowl logo on the left sleeve…it seemed odd since Purdue had never been to that bowl, but I hear Nashville is a nice city to visit.