Player / Beer of the Week: Robert Marve and Upland Wheat

Player of the Week: Robert Marve, QB Purdue

In what could have been the last game of his long and injury-prone college football career, Robert Marve led Purdue into the postseason with a gutty performance. Playing on a torn ACL, which he re-injured in the Notre Dame game earlier this year, Marve compiled the best passing stats of his career in the win over Indiana.

If you haven't heard the Robert Marve story, here's the short version:

• Florida Mr. High School, played for Miami for one year (after sitting out a year to heal a broken arm)
• Transferred to Purdue, tore his ACL during the transfer year
• Tore his ACL in the fourth game in 2010
• Came back for 2011 to back up / platoon with Caleb TerBush, but was still somewhat injured
• Re-injured his ACL the second game of the 2012 season while platooning with TerBush
• Came back to become the starter at the end of the 2012 season; led Purdue to three straight wins to end the season

He's obviously been through a lot. That makes his play late in the first half of Saturday's Old Oaken Bucket game even more impressive. At around the IU 20, Marve threw a pass that got batted around by players from both teams. Greg Heben, a Hoosier DB, ended up with it and ran down the sideline. Marve and his torn ACL sprinted after him, caught up to him and dove at his legs to tackle him. The tone was set for the rest of the game. Despite giving up a TD after that play, Purdue came out in the second half and scored 42 points. In my opinion at least, that play was the catalyst for the great second half.

As the Purdue person on OTE, I don't get too many chances to write about players for POTW. I'm thankful that Robert Marve has persevered through everything to give me a chance to write a post that includes beer, and I'm even more thankful that he gave me the chance to watch him play in a Boilermaker uniform. Thanks and good luck, #9.

Beer of the Week: Upland Wheat

via uplandbeer.com

There is a brewery based out of Greenwood, Indiana called Oaken Barrel Brewing Company. I was hoping to find some of their Indiana Amber to taste for the BOTW. The liquor store didn't have any, so I decided to have a taste test of what was available at the store to determine this week's drink of choice. The challengers were People's Pilsner from People's Brewery in Lafayette and Upland Wheat from Upland Brewing Co. in Bloomington.

As you can tell by the title of the post and the section, I liked Upland Wheat better, so it is the beer of the week. For my taste, the People's was too heavy for a pilsner and the Upland was a solid wheat. Unfiltered and cloudy is how I like it, and this beer is both. So even though IU lost on the field, Bloomington won this round of the beer battle.

I don't drink too many bottled Indiana beers, but I enjoy visiting the brewpubs around the state. If you are ever fortunate enough to be in Lafayette, head over to the Lafayette Brewing Company. If you're in Bloomington, check out Function Brewing, which is a new brewpub run by an college friend of mine that should be opening soon.

Don't drink and drive.