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Nebraska Football: Huskers vs Boilermakers, An Early Look at Purdue

By Brent Craig

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The Nebraska football team travels to Indiana for a Halloween match-up with another Big Ten West opponent, the Purdue Boilermakers.

ALSO READ: Nebraska Mid-Year Recruiting Review

The former Leaders Division opponent now sits in the same division as the Nebraska Cornhuskers due to the conference realignment that took place last season. The Nebraska/Purdue series is short lived and the Huskers lead the series 2-1. The first meeting between the two teams had the Huskers traveling to West Lafayette in 1958, only to receive a shellacking by the Boilermakers by way of 28-0.

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The second meeting in 2013 fared much better for the Huskers as they handed Purdue a woodshed beating in West Lafayette, 44-7. The game almost ended without a Purdue score, but with 39 seconds left in the game Purdue scored on a 55 yard touchdown pass, ending all hopes of a shutout.

In 2014, Purdue traveled to Lincoln for their second Big Ten match-up, in what turned out to be a dismal offensive performance by the Huskers. The final score reflected a Husker victory 35-14, but had it not been for the Husker special teams and defense, the score would have been much closer and with a possible different outcome. The Huskers lost their star running back, Ameer Abdullah, in the first quarter while he was trying to recover a Tommy Armstrong fumble, and suffered a mild MCL strain in his left knee. Purdue ended the game with 43 more total yards than the Huskers, but a win is a win, right?

Purdue is led by head coach Darrell Hazell who has an overall 20-30 record. He coached under Jim Tressel for seven seasons and eventually earned the Assistant Head Coach position at Ohio State. This was enough to Hazell noticed for a head coaching position of his own and he landed the Kent State Job for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.  In 2011 Kent State finished 5-7, but in his second season his team finished 11-3.

Jesse Johnson

-USA TODAY Sports” width=”300″ height=”449″ /> Oct 18, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Purdue Boilermakers head coach Darrell Hazell looks on during the second half against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium. The Gophers won 39-38. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

This brought a Big Ten conference team calling, and he was offered the Purdue job for the 2013 season. At Purdue Hazell went 1-11 in 2013 and 3-9 in 2014. With the right players, Hazell could prove to be a good coach, but getting them to Purdue is certainly a challenge. Nebraska head coach Mike Riley and Darrell Hazell have never coached against one another, so this will be yet another coaching series first this season.

Leading the offense is junior 3 star quarterback Austin Appleby who threw for 216 yards against the Husker defense last season. Appleby’s primary target last season was, now senior, wide receiver Danny Anthrop, who had 4 catches against Nebraska for 80 yards. For the season Anthrop had 616 receptions, averaging 16.2 yards per catch.

Gone is leading rusher, running back Akeem Hunt, who rushed for 66 yards against the Huskers, leaving rushing duties to three sophomore running backs, Keyante Green who rushed a total of 199 yards last season and will most likely be the starting running back, DJ Knox, and David Yancey. Not much experience at this position going into the 2015 season.

Defensively, the Boilermakers are a young team, with only three returning senior starters.  The Purdue defense struggled against the run last season allowing 194 yards rushed per game, but they did hold Nebraska to 179 rushing yards. Defending the pass wasn’t that good last season either as they allowed 229 yards per game, although they did hold Nebraska to 118 yards receiving! This defense is certainly going to go through some growing pains but will also gain some valuable experience leading up to the match-up with the Huskers.

I really don’t believe this will be much of a contest for the Nebraska football team. There are just too many questions on this season’s Boilermaker team. Another lack luster season could have people calling for Hazell’s head but a victory against Nebraska would certainly help solidify his position, although I think the chances of that happening are slim to none. Huskers will win this game easy, or at least they should! Go Big Red!

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