Purdue Football

Purdue's iconic Big Bass Drum has been seen and heard at football games for the past 100 years, but it will be conspicuously absent for Saturday's game against Notre Dame.

Gregg Doyel of the Indy Star noted the All American Marching Band will not be able to use the drum on the road at Notre Dame Stadium:

Known as the World's Largest Drum, the instrument made its first appearance at a football game in 1921 and currently weighs 565 pounds.

The band showed off the drum during a recent interview on This is Purdue:

Purdue will now have to go without the drum for Saturday's game, which could add fuel to the rivalry between the two Indiana schools.  

A Purdue softball player received a surprise from legendary quarterback Drew Brees. 

The former New Orleans Saints star joined a Zoom call between Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux founder Brandon Landry and Boilermakers walk-on Emilee Cox as part of her reward for being awarded a name, image and likeness deal:

Cox is in her junior year at Purdue. The Indiana native walked on to the Boilermakers softball team during the 2020 season. She made 19 appearances as a freshman, scoring five runs and stealing one base. 

Cox's role on the team expanded last season. She started 10 of Purdue's 44 games, recording two hits and a perfect fielding percentage on 28 chances. 

Before Brees became one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, he made a name for himself as a three-year starter at Purdue. The 13-time Pro Bowler set 19 school records, including completions (1,026) and passing yards (11,792). 

Brees was inducted into Purdue's Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009. 

Leroy Keyes, a two-time All-American at Purdue, died at age 74 Thursday, according to ESPN's Adam Rittenberg.

"Leroy was a two-way player in the way that matters most—a great athlete and a great person," Purdue president Mitch Daniels said in a statement. "You never saw him without a smile on his face, or left him without a smile on your own. Every Boilermaker lost a good friend today."

Keyes ran for 2,090 yards and 29 touchdowns while catching 80 passes for 1,204 yards and seven scores over three seasons as a member of the Boilermakers.

As a freshman, he helped Purdue beat USC in the 1967 Rose Bowl. While the school didn't reach those heights again over the next two years, the Virginia native thrived. He finished third in the 1967 Heisman Trophy voting and was runner-up to O.J. Simpson in 1968.

The Philadelphia Eagles selected Keyes with the third overall pick in the 1969 draft, but he struggled to carve out a pro career. He ran for 361 yards and three touchdowns as a rookie but was moved to strong safety by his third season in the NFL. He last played for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1973.

Still, Keyes' achievements at Purdue were enough to get him inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1990. 

"A throwback to the era of two-way players, Leroy Keyes did it all for the Boilermakers in the mid-1960s," said National Football Foundation chairman Archie Manning. "He was a great ambassador for the game throughout his entire life, making an impact in West Lafayette and in the Chicago area, where he became a valued participant at many NFF chapter events. He will be deeply missed, and our thoughts and prayers are with his many family and friends."

Star wide receiver Rondale Moore will not play Saturday when the Purdue Boilermakers make their season debut against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Purdue didn't give a reason for Moore's absence. ESPN's Mark Schlabach reported that he is likely to play next week against Wisconsin.

Moore initially opted out of the 2020 college football season amid uncertainty regarding when Big Ten teams would play during the COVID-19 pandemic, but after a Big Ten slate was announced, he opted back in last month.

The 20-year-old Moore is set to enter his junior season and can position himself as one of the top wideouts in the 2021 NFL draft should he choose to enter.

As a freshman in 2018, Moore burst onto the scene with 114 receptions for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns, plus 213 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. He was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and won the Paul Hornung Award as the most versatile player in the nation.

Moore was off to a strong start last season with 29 catches for 387 yards and two touchdowns in four games, but a hamstring injury cost him the remainder of the season.

In his latest 2021 NFL mock draft, Bleacher Report NFL draft expert Matt Miller predicted Moore will go 13th overall to the Atlanta Falcons, making him the fourth wideout off the board behind LSU's Ja'Marr Chase and Alabama's Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith.

Big Ten teams are playing a truncated, conference-only schedule in 2020, and Moore is expected to be the Boilermakers' primary offensive weapon.

Purdue has finished with a losing record in each of the past two seasons, going 6-7 in 2018 and 4-8 in 2019, but Moore gives fans hope for improvement and a bowl game in 2020.

The Boilermakers will also be without head coach Jeff Brohm against Iowa on Saturday, as he has tested positive for COVID-19.

Brohm said this week that Purdue would likely be without five or six players against Iowa, although he didn't provide a reason for their absences.

Purdue announced football head coach Jeff Brohm has tested positive for COVID-19, according to The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach. 

Brohm is isolating at home while awaiting the results of a PCR test for confirmation. The Boilermakers open up the season against Iowa on Saturday. 

The 49-year-old is the eighth FBS head coach to have a reported positive test for COVID-19, joining Les Miles (Kansas), Kevin Sumlin (Arizona), Chip Kelly (UCLA), Blake Anderson (Arkansas State), Jason Candle (Toledo) and Mike Norvell (Florida State). Alabama's Nick Saban tested positive this week, but he was cleared to return to the field for the Crimson Tide's 41-24 win over Georgia on Saturday following three consecutive negative tests.

Purdue and the rest of the Big Ten are scheduled to begin their football season on Saturday after reversing their Aug. 11 decision to postpone this season because of the coronavirus pandemic. Teams will play eight games in as many weeks, with no bye week before the Big Ten championship is played on Dec. 19. 

In August, the league's presidents and chancellors voted 11-3 to push the season back, prompting commissioner Kevin Warren to create a task force focused on creating guidelines for returning to play that  including daily testing.

The Big Ten has tested its football programs daily since Sept. 30, and players who test positive must wait three weeks before they return in order to undergo "comprehensive cardiac testing," per ESPN. Auerbach reported that coaches who test positive will follow recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; they should isolate for 10 days and then can return to their team if they are symptom-free for 24 hours afterward. 

If that is the case for Brohm, the fourth-year Boilermakers coach can return to the team for its Oct. 31 game against Illinois. 

Rondale Moore announced Thursday on ESPN2's College Football Live he's opting back into the 2020 college football season and will return to Purdue.

Boilermakers head coach Jeff Brohm provided a statement about Moore's decision:

A hamstring injury limited the receiver to four games in 2019. Before that, he was one of the Big Ten's most explosive players. He caught 114 passes for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns while running for 213 yards and two touchdowns as a freshman 2018.

Moore announced in August he was planning to leave Purdue to focus on the 2021 NFL draft after the Big Ten postponed fall sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, ESPN's Adam Rittenberg noted the junior pass-catcher didn't hire an agent and remained enrolled at Purdue.

That allows him to make an easy transition back to the team after the Big Ten changed course and laid out plans to begin a football season on Oct. 23. The adoption of tighter COVID-19 health and safety protocols and daily testing played into the conference's reversal.

"The Big Ten figured it out, Purdue was doing a great job of keeping us safe, and I felt safe coming back," Moore told ESPN. "For me, it was a no-brainer to come back to school and go prove what I think I'm worth."

Purdue will now have one of its best players when it opens the year Oct. 24 against Iowa.

Moore, meanwhile, can stabilize or perhaps improve his draft stock following his underwhelming campaign a season ago. In his most recent mock draft, Bleacher Report's Matt Miller projected the 5'9" wideout to go 13th to the Atlanta Falcons.

Purdue football head coach Jeff Brohm has released a plan for spring football after the Big Ten conference postponed all fall sports Tuesday amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The proposal features the start of training camp Jan. 16 followed by an eight-game season that runs from Feb. 27 to April 17. There are also plans for how to prepare for the 2021 season, which would also be delayed:

"When it got canceled, it was heartbreaking," Brohm told Adam Rittenberg of ESPN. "You feel for guys that have worked their whole lives to get a chance to play football, and now they don't have that. It made me angry, and it made me want to just do something about it. That's why I put this together."

The plan also breaks down advantages of playing games in the spring, including the higher probability of having fans in the stands and added television buzz.

Brohm even compared the weather in each Big Ten city in March and November to showcase the viability of playing games, though it did not include coronavirus-related safety measures beyond reduced practices and contests as conferences around the country have continued to postpone or cancel fall sports.

"This isn't a perfect plan, but it will prove that it can be done if people are willing to make sacrifices," Brohm said."

The 49-year-old was a standout quarterback at Louisville and was going into his fourth season as head coach at Purdue. Combined with his three years at Western Kentucky, he has a 47-31 career record as a coach, with a 4-1 bowl record.

The Big Ten has not yet announced further plans for the postponed games, but noted in its release that it will "evaluate a number of options regarding these sports, including the possibility of competition in the spring."

Purdue wide receiver Rondale Moore announced he's opting out of the 2020 college football season to focus on the 2021 NFL draft.

"Given the unprecedented circumstances we are currently living in, the best choice for my family and I is to opt out of the upcoming season and prepare for the 2021 NFL draft," Moore said in a statement. "This is a bittersweet decision because I always assumed I had more great moments at Ross-Ade Stadium ahead of me, and I will greatly miss the entire community."

The Boilermakers star is the third notable player from the Big Ten to opt out, joining Penn State defensive end Micah Parsons and Minnesota wide receiver Rashod Bateman.

Their decisions come as the COVID-19 pandemic jeopardizes the status of college football in the fall. USA Today's Dan Wolken reported on July 2 that the NFL isn't interested in moving the date of next year's draft. As a result, a spring football season would almost certainly overlap with the draft.

That gives at least one incentive for players with NFL aspirations to be proactive and make a final determination now rather than wait a few more weeks or months.

Moore caught 114 passes for 1,258 yards and 12 touchdowns as a freshman but was limited to four games in 2019. He finished with 29 receptions for 387 yards and two touchdowns.

That appears to have done little to hurt his draft stock. Bleacher Report's Matt Miller ranked Moore as the No. 16 player on his initial 2021 big board:

"Built in the mold of a Marquise Brown or Jalen Reagor, Moore is a blur with the ball in his hands. At 5'9" and 180 pounds, he might be short, but he isn't small. His explosive lower-body strength allows him to quickly accelerate with the ball in his hands.

"Whether it's in the return game or passing game, Moore is a threat to make house calls any time he touches the ball. As long as he can stay healthy in 2020, he looks like a first-round lock."

Losing Moore is obviously a huge blow for the Purdue offense. The Boilermakers already had to replace Brycen Hopkins, who was the second-leading receiver a year ago. 

The team should be able to count on David Bell after he cracked 1,000 receiving yards last year but will need a lot more from sophomore wideout Amad Anderson Jr. He caught 31 passes for 343 yards and three scores in 2019.

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a video conference hearing Thursday titled "COVID-19: Going Back to College Safely" with representatives from several universities.

Purdue president Mitch Daniels stated his athletic program would "shut it down" if the coronavirus began spreading through one of the Boilermakers teams, in response to the following question from Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy:

USA Today's Steve Berkowitz reached out to Daniels for further comment and received a response from Purdue spokesman Tim Doty: 

"Like other universities, we do not yet have firm answers about the return of college athletics and the scenarios that may impede competition. What we do know is that we will prioritize safety and will follow the guidance of the Big Ten, NCAA and our medical advisory team to do our part to protect student-athletes, coaches, employees and fans."

The NCAA's Division I Council ruled May 20 to let voluntary basketball and football on-campus activities resume June 1. However, there is uncertainty among Big Ten programs as to when student-athletes will be permitted to work out on campus.

The 2020 college football season is scheduled to begin Aug. 29, and Daniels relayed Thursday that Purdue's plan is to allow no more than 25 percent of fans into its 57,000-seat Ross-Ade Stadium.

Detroit Lions quarterback David Blough will use his cleats to represent an inspirational person from his college days.

The former Purdue signal-caller is honoring Tyler Trent, a Boilermaker superfan who died of bone cancer.

"I wanted to honor Tyler Trent and his life...obviously a good friend of mine," Blough said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN). "Really cool deal...some guys put this together for us, so I thought it'd be sweet to be able to honor Tyler and his life with that."

Trent gained national attention last year as a rallying figure for Purdue while undergoing chemotherapy. He was in attendance as the team defeated No. 2 Ohio State.

Blough was the quarterback of that upset before moving onto the NFL, where he made his first pro start on Thanksgiving Day. The undrafted rookie could get his second start Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings while wearing cleats with Trent's likeness.

"To be able to wear them after last week with all the attention for Tyler is just special," Blough said. "It brings light to his legacy, his life, his story, what he stood for, and I hope with my actions and play that that can be well represented."