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f o o t b a l l f e a t u r e : j u s t i n s i n z 'Coaches' Dream' Former QB brings high IQ to tight end spot BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com it hard Justin Sinzafindsforefront.to remember time when football wasn't at the His dad, Jerry, has been a high school coach since the 1970s, helping build little Edgar High in Edgar, Wis., into a state powerhouse. As a toddler, Justin was attending games. Once he was in school, he'd spend nearly every day after it at practice. Before middle school, he was one of the managers on the high school team. By middle school, he was doing offensive chart sheets. By the time he finally reached high school, he was the varsity's quarterback as a freshman and led the program to a 27-1 record during his last two seasons, including a state championship. Justin Sinz took pride in not just running the offense but in being a master of it, knowing every player's responsibility and watching film to recognize op- posing team's defensive fronts and coverages. Then Sinz arrived at Purdue. And he was a tight end, choosing the Big Ten over playing quarterback at a smaller school. But the knowledge he'd built up, being raised by a coach, being groomed to play football, playing the team's most important position, had him primed to adapt to change. And it's helped him in a relatively short period of time — Sinz is a junior — develop into the most complete tight end on Purdue's roster and a crucial player in Purdue's pro style offense. "He fits it all well," tight end coach Gerad Parker said. "There's no doubt with some of the stuff we do in the pass game, if you're a guy that has a really good feel for the game, can sit down and find holes, whatever 'it' is for that, he's got 'it.' "I'm excited to see him play. The thing about him, too, he's so easy to watch and let him go play. You don't ever worry because you know his knowledge. You love having that as a coach. It's a coaches' dream to have that trust where you send him out, he's going to pick it up and go." Not that it was easy to get there. Sinz had never played tight end until he came to Purdue, and it took some time to get accustomed to a three-point stance, to learn to run routes, to pick up blocking schemes. Playing physically wasn't an adjustment — as well as playing quarterback at Edgar, Sinz also was a starting defensive back and wasn't afraid to deliver hits. His knowledge of football helped him progress quickly in other aspects. By last season, Sinz felt as comfortable with Purdue's offense as he did running his own Tom Campbell Justin Sinz will be making his second trip to his home state of Wisconsin in a Boilermaker uniform. He didn't record any statistics two years ago, but that'll change on Saturday when he's playing in front of about 50-100 family and friends. in high school. "I pretty much knew what everyone was doing on every single play," Sinz said. "That was nice because you heard a play, bam, you just knew exactly what to do and you went and did it." That all changed when the new coaching staff arrived. Not only was there simply a new scheme to learn, it also was an offense that required more from the tight ends. During spring ball, the installation of the offense was overwhelming. It was a week's worth of information each day, four or five runs and another three or four pass combinations. Sinz put even more pressure on himself to learn the offense quickly — he's not the type to be OK with not knowing what he's doing on a given play. "I don't really like that feeling. So I was in the playbook hard and trying to really figure out what we had to do and how they wanted us to do it," he said. "Even similar stuff, they taught it a different way and wanted it done a different way. It was a lot of asking questions and trying to look and drawing it up on your own. Finally, I'm GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 4 • 17