2011 Little Caesars Bowl, Purdue Vs. Western Michigan: Boilermakers Channel Their Inner MACtion For Win

This is an interesting approach. By focusing on athleticism, Hope is gambling that he can find a position for these players once they get on campus. There’s a certain requisite amount of athleticism required to be competitive in BCS football. Without it, coaching really doesn’t matter all that much. In that way, Hope’s approach makes sense.

And Hope can certainly find a position for these players. The question is whether he can find that position soon enough in their careers to give them time to develop at those positions. The plan won’t work if a player bounces around for two years before settling in.

0.7: Average gain by Western Michigan in goal-to-go situations. Same exact story: five carries gained two yards, and Carder completed two of five passes for five yards. For the game, Western Michigan gained 485 yards, with a healthy per-play average of 6.0 yards. But apparently Bill Cubit’s offense prefers a more wide-open canvas. Plenty of spread offenses have figured out how to move the ball in tight quarters; Cubit’s, evidently, has not. Purdue’s defensive line completely dominated when it had to, and while a Big Ten defense should not necessarily receive too much credit for “holding” a MAC offense to 485 yards, one might want to make at least a small exception in this case.

18: Hits and hurries faced by Carder. Officially, Carder rushed 13 times for 29 yards, was sacked once, and was “hurried” four more times. In reality, however, he faced quite a few more hits than that. Purdue’s general defensive strategy was simple: be really mean. Hit Carder before he throws, hit him while he’s throwing, hit him after he’s thrown, hit him well after he’s thrown. (The Boilers committed five personal fouls.) It certainly worked, though. Carder’s decision-making and accuracy were lacking at times, and even though star receiver Jordan White still made him look very good at times (we’ll get to him in a moment), there’s no question that he found the going tough in “need yards now” situations.

It was Purdue’s first bowl game under third-year head coach Danny Hope.

The Boilermakers grabbed control with a 20-point second quarter, and Western Michigan (7-6) wasn’t able to catch up. The Broncos have not won a bowl game in four tries.

If folks didn’t know who White was coming into the bowl game, they do now. As a senior this year, White led all FBS players in total receiving yards (1,646), total receptions (127), receiving yards per game (137.17) and receptions per game (10.57). He was named an All-American by multiple associations, was a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist and first-team All-MAC.

White is the first “consensus” All-American in school history at Western Michigan.

Western Michigan opened the second-half with a nine-play drive that led to a 31-yard field goal. Three Purdue penalties helped their cause along the way.

After a Purdue three-and-out, the Broncos had the chance to get back in the lead. However, for the second time in the game, the Boilermakers stopped them on fourth down at the Purdue 20 and killed WMU’s momentum.

In a first half that included two recovered onside kicks, a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, a flea-flicker touchdown, an extra point fake, a fourth-down stop and four turnovers, Purdue overcame a 15-7 deficit to take a 27-15 lead into halftime.

Purdue’s lead justifies its advantage in the total yards battle (275 to 184). Their issues has been turnovers. The Boilermakers have fumbled the football five times, two of which led to turnovers. The first turnover directly led to Western Michigan’s first score, a 49-yard flea-flicker bomb.

Let us never doubt the Little Caesar Bowl ever again (Little Caesars Pizza, however, remains suspect).

Down 8-7 heading into the 2nd, Purdue immediately fumbled away the ball. Western Michigan was also in the giving mood, giving the ball right back with an interception. That led to a Purdue field goal, giving them a 10-8 lead at the 12:49 mark.

It’s been a game full of trick plays including halfback option passes and onside kicks, not to mention a kick return for a touchdown and four turnovers. Every time you think you’ve seen the last exciting trick in the playbook, someone pulls out a new one, though not always on purpose.

The Little Ceasars Bowl might not sound like an exciting game, but it sure has become one.

As the first quarter ended, Purdue upped the ante by kicking, and recovering, an onside kick on their own 41.

If the first quarter is any indication, we’re in for a surprisingly-exciting Little Caesars Bowl. Crazy bread for everyone!

The Broncos have come out firing so far. Carder has five pass attempts and WMU has tried multiple trick plays so far. I don’t think they’re done yet.

By the way, it’s the first bowl game lead that WMU has ever had. They’re certainly living up to their signage so far (via mocksession.com):

But don’t tell that to WMU faithful and their MAC bretheren. Where you see another bowl game between middling teams that you didn’t watch at all this season, they see opportunity. Where you see a 7-5 MAC team and a 6-6 Big Ten squad, they see a chance to make a statement.

SB Nation’s MAC blog The Hustle Belt explains...

NOTE: Confused? See the quick glossary at the bottom.

A rock solid, exciting MAC program takes on a “Wait, they’re bowl eligible?” team from an entrenched, major conference. This is certainly not one of the most exciting games on the bowl docket, but if MACtion is involved (and with WMU, the odds are good), you may want to stay tuned just in case something crazy happens.

Western Michigan Quarterback Alex Carder leads the nation’s eighth ranked passing attack against the Boilermakers, as the Broncos hope to knock off a Big Ten team. “It means a lot to play another game, and it’s exciting to play against an opponent from a power conference like the Big Ten,” All-American wide receiver Jordan White said. “Hopefully, we can do well.” White leads the Broncos with 1,646 receiving yards on the season and is just 110 yards away from being the MAC all-time leader in receiving yards. The Broncos played both Michigan and Illinois this season, losing both games. WMU nearly pulled out the win in their 23-20 loss to Illinois however, so knocking out Purdue would be a nice feather in their cap.

Both teams really need a bowl victory to cap off disappointing seasons. The game can be live streamed online at ESPN3.com.

Game date, time: 4:30 p.m. ET, Tuesday, December 27th

Location: Ford Field, Detroit, MI

The Makers rebounded to a 6-6 finish in 2011 after seasons that ended 5-7 and 4-8 in Hope’s first two years.

Hope was hired by Purdue in January 2008 as the associate head coach under Joe Tiller, who retired after the 2008 season. Hope was previously the head football coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 2003 to 2007.

It goes without saying that it is a bad thing when three of a team’s defensive starters get arrested in three days. Danny Hope has a bit of work to do.

For more on the Boilermakers, visit Purdue blog Hammer and Rails.

The good news for Purdue fans: Hope says he doesn’t expect any players to miss the game for academic reasons. Purdue fans, however, appear to have shifted primarily to basketball mode. Can’t blame them!

For more on the Boilermakers, visit Purdue blog Hammer and Rails.