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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 27 • 4 Y ou know as well as I know as well as coaches know that spring games are college football's funhouse mirrors. They show you real things in distorted form. Take a short-handed team as is, break it in half, sub - tract the injured, and what do you get? Hopefully nice weather, a good show for fans and a healthy team when all is said and done. But while those who saw the end-of-spring scrimmage might not have seen anything concrete, they saw interesting things, particularly on offense, the phase of the game most needing to reach respectability. Minus the recovering Danny An - throp — the player whose injury para- lyzed an already limited passing game at the end of the last season — the wide receivers corps showed a resur- gent DeAngelo Yancey, an emerging Bilal Marshall, a promising Anthony Mahoungou and the fruits of a wise coaching transaction this winter, that being Gerad Parker's move to over - seeing the position. At running back, there were no sprint champions in the Purdue back- field anymore. But there were two im- pressive young players in D.J. Knox and Markell Jones and a returnee, Keyante Green, who runs with all the subtlety and grace of a bucket of rocks being thrown down a flight of stairs, but wears it well. Point is: The weapons — if you want to call them that yet, when so few of them have done anything to this point — might be OK. Different, but OK. Very different. There's very little apparent speed on this offense. Last year, that's the one thing Purdue did have, that ability to hit home runs. Akeem Hunt's and Raheem Mo - stert's presences put constant strain on defenses, even if results painted a very different picture at times. Now, Purdue looks more like a singles-and-doubles sort of team. It has to take fields four yards at a time in the running game instead of hoping for 40. Emphasis on hope. Speed meant so much for the Boil - ermakers last fall but made for a for- midable offense for just a fleeting portion of the season. Now, Purdue has to improve offensively without its strength of a season ago. Purdue needs a new offensive identity. It will have to show it can cob - ble together extended drives, then most importantly, finish them off. Can it? No idea. What you have seen the past few seasons is little reason to believe Pur - due's execution and ball security can reach, and remain at, a level where it can be expected to go eight, 10, 12 consecutive plays without moving backward or giving the ball up. If tempo is to be the great equal - izer for Purdue, then great, if it works. Tempo can go both ways. It can be a decided schematic advantage when pulled off. Or it can be a pigeon bounc - ing off a windowpane when not. But while Purdue seems to be growing an improved defense organi- cally, it's the offense that has to make the biggest short-term jump. Wide receivers and running backs and even game plans can only play so much of a role. It has to start under center. Purdue has never been truly rel - evant, and may never be for all we know, without strong quarterback play. Finding it has been a years-long ordeal now spanning the reigns of multiple coaching staffs. The carousel has to stop some - where. Purdue can't keep starting over every season at a position where continuity and experience are cov- eted commodities. Someone has to put the brakes on the cycle. In a perfect world, Aus- tin Appleby transforms this offseason into that bedrock player, buoyed by experience, allowing Purdue to keep its more talented next generation, Da- vid Blough and Elijah Sindelar, off the fast track. In the worst-case scenario, the merry-go-round continues and the challenges of inexperience at quarter - back are an albatross for Purdue again this season. Purdue made progress last sea- son. It didn't finish the job, but it took a step forward nonetheless. It may never take that prover- bial next step, however, until the most important position on the field gets settled, finally. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com F R O M E D I T O R B R I A N N E U B E R T Breaking News: Quarterback Play Important ... all the services ... all the food ... all the comfort ... all the fun