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THE Numbers volume 24, EX 11 • nov. 21, 2013 Inside | Illinois preview 9-13 | Seniors feature 18-20 Recruiting news 34-35 | Basketball notes 36-41 9 1 26 54 Purdue's losses to date, which equals the number that have come against teams that have at least six wins. Five of those losses have come against teams with eight wins. Schools in Big Ten history that have endured a longer losing streak than Illinois' current 20 game skid in conference play. Northwestern lost 38 in a row. Since 1953, conference schools that have gone through a conference season without a win. Purdue's winning percentage in the Cannon Series that began in 1943. Hoping To Finish Strong BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com N one of them expected this. Maybe they were naïve, staring down a schedule that figured to be loaded with bowl eligible teams and not flinching. Maybe they were just optimistic, Tom Campbell The final season for Purdue's seniors, pictured back in August, isn't finishing the way many expected, as the Boilermakers enter Week 11 as one of three teams in the Big Ten without a conference victory. But they're still hoping for Ws. thinking a new coaching staff could provide enough energy to overcome deficiencies in experience and depth. Maybe they were simply allowing themselves to hope, to think they could finish careers with a season that shocked everyone. Instead, Purdue's group of 21 seniors will play their final game Saturday in Ross-Ade Stadium desperately wanting a victory not just to finish their last home game with one but needing it to avoid a potential winless Big Ten season. Not what they expected at all. "Not even close," senior cornerback Ricardo Allen said. "It's tough. It makes the season real long. It makes nights hard and days extra long, too. "But you've just got to take it for what it is. You've just got to take every day as an opportunity because you never know if it's your last time playing or not. So you have to take every day as a blessing and go with what it is." Missing out on expectations, unfortunately, wasn't new to this senior class. Seemingly each season started with big dreams that usually fizzled by Big Ten play. There were the late-season runs to reach six victories and a bowl game twice during their stays, but there was never a GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 11 • 1