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  • Purdue players pose for photographs during NCAA college football media day on Friday, Aug. 10, 2012, in Ross-Ade Stadium at the university in West Lafayette, Ind. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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August 17, 2012

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Boilers hope to get back on national map

Purdue players set sights high, say they are ready to become Big Ten contender

By MICHAEL MAROT Associated Press

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue players quantify this season’s biggest goal in two four-letter words.

Rose Bowl.

Outsiders look at this once nationally prominent football school and see a program that has won only 15 games in three seasons with no clear path to Pasadena. Those inside the locker room, including the coaches, believe this is the year they can put the Boilermakers back on the map.

“The next step is winning big. We’re cocked and ready,” coach Danny Hope. “If we have a big season, it would be a quantum leap for this program.”

Boilermakers fans have been waiting to see that jump since Drew Brees left town after the 2000 season.

Could this be the year?

Hope calls this best team he’s had in four seasons at West Lafayette.

He has three quarterbacks with starting experience. He has depth on defense. He has speed all over the field. He has a schedule that includes five of the first six games at home, and no road trips outside Indiana until Oct. 20. Leaders Division foes Ohio State and Penn State are ineligible for postseason play, and December’s league championship game is in nearby Indianapolis.

While some coaches discourage brash talk, Hope seems to encourage it.

It’s all part of the plan for a bigger, bolder team that is brimming with confidence.

“The Rose Bowl is the biggest bowl game ever and that’s what we strive for, the Rose Bowl,” receiver O.J. Ross said. “The Rose Bowl is basically the national championship to us, so we want to go to the Rose Bowl. Who doesn’t?”

There are still issues to sort out before the Sept. 1 season opener against Eastern Kentucky, Hope’s alma mater.

First, Hope must figure out what to do at quarterback.

Caleb TerBush, who led Purdue to its first bowl game since 2007 last season, is attempting to hold off Robert Marve, who opened the 2010 season as the starter before tearing the ACL in his left knee, and Rob Henry, who finished 2010 as the starter and tore the ACL in his right knee one week before last season’s opener.

At the moment, TerBush still has the upper hand after completing 171 of 277 for 1,905 yards with 13 TDs and no interceptions in the final four games.

Suddenly, the injury-prone Boilermakers have depth at quarterback.

“We can keep defenses off balance and put some of our best football players on the field, so there’s a lot of plusses to it,” Hope said. “One thing I can say is that no one is nervous when a new voice steps into the huddle because of what we’ve done over the last three years.”

Another potential obstacle: Sorting out the picture at running back, where the Boilermakers have only four healthy halfbacks on the roster.

 

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