2023 Purdue Week Cocktail Party!

Hello readers, and welcome to Purdue week 2023 on Offtackleempire! It’s hard to believe I’m coming up on two years writing for this site. My goals remain the same that they were when I first started. 1) Ensure that Purdue is covered on a Big Ten site. 2) Give Purdue fans a place they can discuss Purdue athletics for free. 3) Share some information in an entertaining manner. 4) Set the foundation for the rise of the boiler bots as we plan our takeover.

I remain as I always will be: more interested in basketball than football. Despite that, I’ll do my best to muddle through this football heavy week before we kill time until November. No promises, but I’ll also do my best to prevent further Big Ten expansion this week.

2022 Season In Review

Purdue fans had a lot of fun during the 2022-23 athletic year. How much fun did we have? Well, take a look at the diagram below.

In case that doesn’t fully get the point across, let me share this super handy list I was able to put together. I call it the “List of Big Ten programs that have not been to the Big Ten football championship game as recently than Purdue”:

• Iowa Hawkeyes
• THE Ohio State Buckeyes
• Northwestern Wildcats
• wisconsin Badgers
• Penn State Nittany Lions
• Michigan State Spartans
• Nebraska Cornhuskers
• Illinois Fighting Illini
• Minnesota Gophers
• Indiana Hoosiers
• Maryland Terrapins
• Rutgers Scarlet Knights

That is truly a marvelous list. The best list. My hope is that I can add four teams to it this time next year.

Last year’s Purdue football team went 8-6 on their way to winning the Big Ten West division championship! The offensive passing attack remained successful behind the arm of Aidan O’Connell and the catching ability of Charlier Jones and Payne Durham. The ground game was effective for the first time since 2018 due to the surprising emergence of walk-on Devin Mockobee. The defense did ... well, they did just enough to allow the team to win the games they needed to win. The entire coaching staff has left and half the roster has been replaced, but there remain reasons for optimism when it comes to the upcoming season among the Purdue faithful.

2023 Purdue Football Schedule

2022 records in ()

Saturday September 2, 12PM Fresno State Bulldogs (10-4) - BTN

Saturday September 9, 12PM AT Virginia Tech Hokies (3-8) - ESPN2

Saturday September 16, 7:30PM Syracuse Orange (7-6) - NBC

Friday September 22, 7 PM wisconsin Trash Pandas (7-6) - FS1

Saturday September 30, 3:30/4/7:30 PM Illinois Fighting Illini (8-5) - TBD

Saturday October 7, 3:30/4/7:30 PM AT Iowa Hawkeyes (8-5) - TBD

Saturday October 14, TBA THE Ohio State Buckeyes (11-2) - TBD

Saturday October 28, 12/3:30/4 PM AT Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-8) - TBD

Saturday November 4, TBA AT Michigan Wolverines (13-1) - TBD

Saturday November 11, TBA Minnesota Gophers (9-4) - TBD

Saturday November 18, TBA AT Northwestern Wildcats (1-11) - TBD

Saturday November 25, TBA Indiana Hoosiers (4-8) - TBD

The Boilermakers start out with three challenging non-conference games. They will face a Fresno State team that is coming off a Mountain West championship and then have a road game against Virginia Tech. Sure the Hokies were down last season but it’s still a road game. After that, Purdue returns home seeking vengeance for last year’s loss to the Orange.

As conference play gets going in earnest, Purdue opens with what are probably the top 3 teams in the West this season in wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. I’d be happy to go 1-2 in that stretch. Following them, Purdue kicks off the second half of the season with their typical home victory against the Buckeyes. I suspect the TV network will have a story about walk-on freshman Ethan Trent and his older brother Tyler.

Road games to Nebraska and Michigan will be a challenge and then the schedule lightens in the last three. If Purdue has managed 4 wins before Minnesota, they should be in great shape for a bowl appearance this year.

Food

Robots have no need for food.

I’ve told you guys about my favorite Purdue food places in the past, and I didn’t grow up in Indiana - nor do I live there now. So rather than repeat myself or talk about Cincinnati food specials like Skyline or goetta, I’ll let the other boilerbots sound off on their favorite local foods in the comments.

What to discuss when talking with Purdue fans

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

• What happened the year after 2018 Virginia basketball
• The 2022 Illinois football defense
• Hudson Card
• 25 Big Ten championships
• Zach Edey

What to avoid when talking with Purdue fans

• Postseason games
• 16 seeds
• The state of New Jersey

The Week Ahead

Noe Padilla/Journal and Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK

We’ve got 2-3 articles planned a day. In them we will take one last look at the Jeff Brohm era, discuss the coaching changes, massive roster upheavals, and preview the offense, defense, and special teams. I’m not sure enough time has passed but I may even write an article about what the hell happened in March and preview the upcoming Purdue basketball season. At the end of the week, we will see BuffKomodo’s hate on full display in his vicious and spiteful hate article before hearing from the rest of the “writers” how they think Purdue will do this season.

To your call once more we rally...