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74 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 f edge off some of the pass rush. If you're mixing up when you're throwing it and when you're not. There's no doubt, and Coach (Jim) Bridge is as good of a coach as there is in the country, we need to make the same strides that we made from Year 1 to Year 2, we need to double down on those improvements from Year 2 to 3. Every- body in the offensive line that played a snap this year is returning, and most of those guys are returning for two more years. Then we get some guys we also redshirted that are going to fit in, so we've got a lot of confi- dence moving forward at that position. "But I think one of the things that will really help them pass protect is if we can get significant- ly better passing the ball on first and second down with some quick game, with some throws where they don't have to protect quite as long." Gold and Black: I keep a chart with how far the passes actually travel in the air. So maybe it was an 80-yard touchdown, but the pass only went four yards. When you look at it like that, the quarter- backs completed only 28 percent of their passes that traveled at least 11 yards in the air. Why didn't they complete more? Shoop: "There's never one thing. People want to make it one thing. That's our tendency. Heck, I do. If it's one thing, you can pinpoint that. But if you want to throw the ball downfield, you have to (No.) 1, protect your quarterback, (No.) 2, have a quarterback that can find the safe spot of the pocket, we call it the eye of the hurricane in that pocket, and (No.) 3, you have to have wideouts who are get open and not leave the ball on the ground. They're going to go up and win some 50-50 balls. Each one of those we have to get better at. There were moments where we did win those situations and there's moments where we didn't. "I think Dan Anthrop was another guy who was real- ly playing at a high level and really making some plays for the ball in the air for the quarterback. I think of the Nebraska game specifically where he went and got the ball, and I tell our wide- outs all the time, 'That's what good players do.' What some of our guys think are sensational plays, those are common plays whenever we get good. That's what we ex- pect our wideouts to do. B.J. Knauf and Danny Anthrop sure gave us a lot of juice in the middle of the season and losing those two guys maybe added a guy to the box that wasn't there in some of the run game." Gold and Black: I think there was a gen- eral consensus among coaches before the season that this of- fense had a bunch of playmakers. Did you find that to be true? Shoop: "I think we had some and I think some of those guys proved to be Akeem Hunt, and I think Danny Anthrop has the ability to make a play. But we sure had a lot of other opportunities throughout the season to make big catches on third down, to make big blocks on third-and-short, to make a guy miss in space that we didn't quite get done. So we think we've got some play- makers, but we need a heck of a lot more of them. 'Make a play' isn't just a vague term to our guys. We show them pictures of wideouts winning 50-50 balls. If you're one- on-one, you have to go up and get it. You've got to com- pete for the ball. If you're one-on-one as a running back vs. a defensive back in space, he can't make the tackle. You have to beat him. We show our guys a lot of those pictures of pro players doing it, of college players doing it, of them doing it on occasion. We just need to do it more. So to our guys, sometimes a coach says, 'Make a Tom Campbell When leading receiver Danny Anthrop suffered a season-ending knee injury against Nebraska, Purdue's offense lost one of its few consistent playmakers.