devin mockobee
After a tumultuous bye week, the Michigan Wolverines are back in action this weekend as the #3 team in the country, per the first CFP rankings. Coming to Ann Arbor on Saturday are the Purdue Boilermakers, in year one of a rebuild under new head coach Ryan Walters. This Purdue team is a very different one than the one Michigan saw in Indianapolis, with its stars on offense moving on to the NFL and so much of the team's meaty core being hollowed out by the transfer portal. It's been a long season on both sides of the ball and today we start on offense:
The Film: For Purdue, this task was pretty easy. The Boilers have mostly played the usual cadre of B1G West garbage, plus a surprisingly strong non-conference slate, but one team stands out in particular as an easy team to use for FFFF this week... the Ohio State Buckeyes. OSU went to West Lafayette a few weeks back and since PSU does not play Purdue this season, Ohio State is the obvious team to use as the comparable to Michigan on both sides of the ball. As an added bonus, we get some advance scouting on the Bucks as well.
Personnel: Click for big
Purdue has been starting Texas transfer Hudson Card at QB this season and I'm making him the fourth straight opposing QB to wear the cyan circle around his neck. Card hasn't been as bad as Athan Kaliakmanis or Katin Houser, but the numbers are not pretty and he didn't show me much in the game I charted. I admit that Card is far from the only problem and the combination of factors on this offense (subpar receivers and a poor OL) has rendered him to be a much worse performing QB than he did in his time at Texas last season. I was relatively high on Card's talent coming into the season but I don't think he's been put in a position to succeed and well, he hasn't. 59.4% completion, 8 TD, 7 INT, 6.2 Y/A, not great!
The RB spot finds the lone star on the offense and the Dangerman for the piece, Devin Mockobee. One of the few names you'll recognize from last year's Purdue FFFF, Mockobee is the ex-walk on (now scholarship) RB who salvaged Purdue's run game last season. It's continually tough sledding for Mockobee behind this OL but I remain a big fan of his for grinding out 4.6 YPC on this offense. Speaking of strong YPC clip, let's give a shoutout to Tyrone Tracy Jr. and his 5.4. The half-RB/half-WR one-time Iowa transfer is now mostly a RB and has had a nice season. He didn't appear in the game I charted, but I will toss some video of him in from his other games. Dylan Downing is the 3rd back for Purdue, but he hasn't shown me a ton.
Last season's Purdue team had a pass-catching group that revolved around superstar WR Charlie Jones and quality TE Payne Durham, both of whom have now moved on. The last man standing from the 2022 group is their #2 WR from last season, slot guy TJ Sheffield. I described him as "a solid option but not particularly exciting" and I think that analysis still holds up, leading the team in catches but not popping on the tape. The leader in receiving yards is Deion Burks, a background character on last year's team who has gotten a much bigger role with all the attrition in the receiving corps. At 5'11", Burks, like Sheffield, is also on the smaller side. Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen has been a reliable receiver for the Boilers but has been banged up recently, having missed the most recent game against Nebraska. His status against Michigan is unknown. In Yasmeen's absence, characters like Jayden Dixon-Veal and Mershawn Rice have filled the gaps but no one at WR has made a major splash or is likely headed for NFL success.
Injuries have been a major story for this Purdue team, which leads us to discussion of TEs. Max Klare, their best TE, is out for the season, meaning that Garrett Miller is now the starter. I was not impressed with his blocking ability against OSU and he is a long ways off from Durham as a receiving TE. Drew Biber is now the backup TE, a lackluster blocking TE, and the absence of Durham is definitely felt.
Where injuries have had their greatest effect is on the OL, with two of the three returning starters from last season out for the year, Marcus Mbow and Mahame Moussa. This has left the starting tackles as Daniel Johnson on the left side and Ben Farrell on the right, both of whom are major weak spots. The guards, Preston Nichols and Jalen Grant are both players Purdue picked up in the transfer portal from Michigan non-con opponents, UNLV and BGSU, respectively. They have been better than the tackles and avoided the cyan, but neither are terribly good. Gus Hartwig is a returner at center but he missed the B1G title game last year with injury. He's probably the best OL on the team, but even he looked pretty bad in the game I charted. With injury ravaging Purdue's depth, the little-used Luke Griffin is one of the 6th OL candidates.
[AFTER THE JUMP: Not good!]
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