The Bucket Game Preview: Indiana Hoosiers vs. Purdue Boilermakers

Who, Where, When: The 117th football game between Indiana and Purdue, but more importantly the 90th battle for the Old Oaken Bucket, is this Saturday at noon on BTN. Eric Collins and Chuck Long have the call, with Rebecca Haarlow on the sideline. Purdue leads the overall series 72-38-6, and the Bucket battles 58-28-3, but last year in Bloomington, IU won 56-36 to reclaim the Bucket for the first time since 2010, and the fourth time since 2000 that IU held the Bucket. The Bucket game is also Senior Day for the Hoosiers, who see 26 players graduating.

Tevin Watch: With his 228 performance against Ohio State, Tevin Coleman broke the Indiana single season rushing record formerly held by Vaughn Dunbar. Now at 1,906 yards for the season, Tevin looks to becomes the 18th NCAA player to run for 2,000 yards in a single season. Tevin's 228 yards set an Ohio Stadium record, and his 90 yard touchdown run was the longest ever given up by the Buckeyes and second-longest in IU history. Tevin is also 6 yards out of 5th place (Levron Williams) on IU's all time rushing leaderboard. For his accomplishments so far this season, Tevin was named a Doak Walker Award finalist, alongside fellow Big Ten backs Melvin Gordon and Ameer Abdullah.

Purdue notes, courtesy of OTE's babaoreally: Purdue comes into the bucket game off a terrible performance against Northwestern. After playing fairly competently for a stretch of three or four games, it seems like the Boilers are regressing as the season winds down. Part of that may be due to Danny Anthrop's ACL injury a few games ago; he was Austin Appleby's main target.

Speaking of injuries, Indiana looks like they are finally starting to figure out how to play offense after losing Sudfeld. Purdue will obviously need to try to keep Coleman to under 300 yards or so to have a chance.

Random Facts About Purdue: The "sport" of cricket spitting was invented at Purdue in 1997. The Purdue Grand Prix, a 160 lap go-kart race, helps fund some scholarships, and is occasionally won by teams from IUPUI, as it is open to all Purdue campuses, unlike IU's Little 500 bike race, which is only open to students in Bloomington. (C4B Note: This is the nicest way I could phrase this. You're welcome.)

Notable Purdue Alumni: Neil Armstrong (astronaut, first man to set foot on the Moon); Chesley Sullenberger (airplane pilot, Miracle on the Hudson); Jim Gaffigan (comedian); Herman Cain (former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, 2012 presidential candidate); Orville Redenbacher (popcorn); Birch Bayh (former US Senator); Joe Barry Carroll (former NBA player); Rick Mount (former ABA Indiana Pacer); John Wooden (Hall of Fame basketball coach); Drew Brees (QB, New Orleans Saints); Bob Griese (QB for only undefeated team in NFL history); Bernard Pollard (noted wrecker of New England Patriots' seasons); David Boudia (US Olympic Diver); Ryan Newman (NASCAR driver); Matt Painter (current Purdue men's basketball head coach)

Predictions:

baba: Since I am a pessimist by nature, I will guess that IU wins this one 27-20.

C4B: It's rivalry week. Throw all the logic out the window. IU wins 35-17.

Next Week: Hope and excitement for next season starts building. Until then, happy Thanksgiving.