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Come Fan with UsTuesday, August 4, 2026

THIS WEEK IN BIG TEN: Purdue calls timeouts so they can kneel

The most Big Ten moment in Big Ten history?

With less than a minute left in the half and Northwestern up 24-7 on Purdue, the Wildcats attempted to kneel the half out. Purdue had three timeouts left and did not want them to kneel the half out. So this happened:

Bold, smart stuff by Purdue coach Darrell Hazell. He had the timeouts, and if Northwestern wasn’t going to try to score, he’d use them and give his team a chance to score. He challenged the Wildcats to do something, and they didn’t. He earned his team an extra possession through nothing more than good game management.

And what did they do with their possession? Well...

bigten

(GIF via ESPNU)

They kneeled.

We see the reasoning here -- forcing Northwestern to punt allows the opportunity for a block or a bad snap, and it turned out to be a good punt. Plus, Purdue already had four turnovers on the day -- very nearly five, before an overturned call -- so there was risk in running offense.

But still. B1G.

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