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46 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 f secutive season for the first time in 20 years. They see the blatant missed opportunities for more vic- tories, most obviously the blown games at Minnesota and Indiana. They see a lack of the team to galvanize the fan base, largely because of the inability to finish strong. The North- western game was the home finale, and Purdue self-de- structed, committing four first-half turnovers and was routed. The Boilermakers' schedule certainly seemingly was conducive to at least a couple more victories than they had — what happens if Purdue beats Mid-American Confer- ence member Central Michigan and the offense doesn't disappear against Iowa? "It's now getting over the hump and creating a winning culture," departing senior captain Justin Sinz said. "Start- ing fast next year will be a huge key, like it was this year. Everyone always says if the offense and defense were able to play well on the same weekend, we could have probably won seven, eight games this year. That's the type of stuff that teams that win, they do well. If you start 5-1, then you go up to Minnesota being 5-1 and when you're up at half- time you don't think, 'Oh, this is going to be an upset.' You just think, 'We're just going to finish them off and win.' "No. 1, (is) winning the games you certainly can win and No. 2, getting that win you're maybe an underdog in or it's a 50-50 game because that kind of creates the con- fidence and then it kind of shows this is how hard we've worked and here it's paying off. I'm not saying we worked harder than any other team, but when you put so much into it and then don't see the results in terms of wins and losses, that obviously can be frustrating." FIND A QUARTERBACK Could Purdue start over again in 2015 at the most im- portant position on the field? Perhaps. Danny Etling seemed to get overwhelmed by the coach- es' expectations and couldn't settle down enough to allow his natural abilities to take over. So he was benched in Week 5. That gave Austin Appleby a chance, and he had a dra- matic debut, leading Purdue to its first Big Ten victory un- der Hazell on the road at Illinois. He delivered what the coaches said they wanted: A spark. But that fizzled when the offense lost its top two playmak- ing receivers, B.J. Knauf and especially Danny Anthrop, to injuries. Without them, the Boilermakers' inability to pass protect consistently was exposed, meaning Appleby was under intense pressure the final couple games of the sea- son. He couldn't overcome it, especially not when his pri- mary options were true freshmen receivers. When they did get open, Appleby didn't always throw ac- curate balls. When there were small openings and he de- livered in them in tight spaces, the receivers rarely made plays. It was a bad mix, and one that left coordinator and quarter- backs coach John Shoop talking about lack of "production." Neither QB completed better than 55 percent of his passes, and neither was able to stretch the field by consis- tently completing intermediate and deep balls. Combined, they had 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. So instead of having a locked-in leader in Year 3, Hazell and Shoop still are searching. They've deemed it a "com- petition" again, and it'll include redshirt freshman David Blough, a player Shoop has described as having "fight." Players have seen it, too. "I like his attitude. I like how he's kind of cocky a little bit — the cocky you are supposed to have as a quarterback," departing safety and leading tackler Landon Feichter said. "I just like how he handles himself. I went up against him every single week and there were some throws he made where it's like, 'Man, that's a starting quarterback right there.' " Tom Campbell The Boilermaker offense faded down the stretch when quar- terback Austin Appleby couldn't rise above protection issues and youth at receiver. So Purdue could be looking for another leader under center in 2015 after Appleby and Danny Etling got chances in 2014.