Wouldn't be nice if everyday had that feeling of Saturday afternoon in the fall...or if kittens never became cats? One can dream.
Over at BigTenNetwork.com, they've begun dreaming about the upcoming football season...And in this Purdue-centric universe at BS, I only saw two points that were noteworthy-
First- One of their writers believes Curtis Painter is the best QB in the Big Ten. I think that argument can be made. He throws for a high percentage, throws for an absurd amount of yards, lots of TDs and got much better last year at controlling turnovers. That said, I don't know if I'd go this far: Brent Yarina thinks our boy is going to blossom into a handsome man this year and throw for nearly 3,800 yards, throw 30 TDs and a mere 8 Interceptions all while completing over 63% of his passes. To me, the completion % is about right, but I don't know if I see Curtis leaping all of the other tall buildings on this list. If he did do that, his Senior year would be better in all major statistical categories than Brees' Senior campaign. Brees came second in the Heisman voting that season...
My response to this prediction is simple- If Curtis reaches Mr. Yarina's marks, he will win the Heisman Trophy. This schedule seems to get tougher every time I look at it. Think about these fun facts-
Purdue has replaced a MAC cupcake from previous seasons with a ranked Pac-10 opponent in Oregon, Purdue plays at Notre Dame (only won there once in the last 25 years), then welcomes a PSU team they haven't beaten in 3 seasons, heads to Columbus (where they haven't won there in 20 years), a few weeks later, hosts a UM program that they haven't beaten since Brees was QB, then after playing a tougher MSU team in East Lansing, goes to Iowa (haven't won there since I was a Senior in High School ['92]). In a not-so-succinct way, I'm just saying it's going to be tough.
Now, if he does have such a season, he must have someone to throw to that's of note...Here's my second focal point from the Top-Five blog over at BTN.
Brees had Stratton and Sutherland. BTN.com thinks Greg Orton will most definitely become Painter's go-to guy that many around here think he can be. So much so, that Brent's Blog only has two better receivers in the Big Ten- Robiskie from aOSU and Benn from Illinois. His predictions for Orton are more human than those for Painter- just over a thousand yards receiving and 13 TDs. To put it in Purdue terminology, that would be, almost exactly like Vinny Sutherland's 2000 season w/ Brees at the helm. I've compared Orton to the Colts' Reggie Wayne for a few seasons- he's got good size, great body control, but performs inconsistantly. To do what Brent's blog prognosticates, he'll have to become an every game guy.
In his Purdue preview, Pete Fuitak over at CFN thinks aloud that Painter's not as good as Brees, but is better than Orton. Honestly at this point in his career, I'd say Painter isn't as good as Brees or KO coming into his Senior year. But, he has one more season in black and gold to become one of the best QBs in the Cradle and definitely under Tiller. For that to happen, he has to learn how to look off of the first and second receivers and definitely NEEDS to beat some teams that are real contenders for the Big Ten title. I'm not saying he can't do it, but you might be dreaming if you think he definitely will.
I'm not telling BTN's Brent, or anyone else not to dream...I'm just saying that some dreams are just that...But, it would be awfully, awfully nice.
Painter for Heisman?