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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 5 13 T here are great players and then there are great pres- ences. Sometimes, having the latter is just as important as the former. That's the position Purdue's two flagship sports find them- selves in these days. What's the most important, in- fluential, leadership-driven posi- tion, on and off the field, in football? Quarterback, obviously. What's generally the most important, influential, leader- ship-driven position in basket- ball? Point guard. What's the position Purdue football so badly has to get settled before it can move forward? Quarterback. What's the position Matt Paint- er's literally scrambling to get a Band-Aid over for like the third straight spring now? Yep, point guard. Both programs are in uncom- fortable positions because of issues at those positions, the is- sues themselves being inherently different. For football, quarterback chaos has simply been its normal, for whatever reason, a wheel that started turning years before Dar- rell Hazell's hiring. It's just a matter of finding the guy, a guy with the personality and intangibles Purdue's current quarterbacks seem to possess, but one who's talented enough to be a legitimate Big Ten start- ing quarterback and physically equipped to get through a season free of physical calamity. Austin Appleby is the most im- portant player in Purdue's pro- gram right now, not only because the Boilermakers are in dire need of someone to provide respectable enough QB play to win games, but also because greenhorns David Blough and Elijah Sindelar must be protected. One of these years, Purdue has to break this vicious cycle of hav - ing to throw freshmen (or oth- erwise untested) quarterbacks into the Cuisinart. Purdue's next generation of quarterbacks looks promising; hopefully they can make their youthful mistakes on the practice field instead of na- tional television. But there's nothing about Pur- due that holds down quarterbacks. It's just a matter of finding the right player. For basketball, it may look like Painter has a point guard prob- lem. Two formerly highly regarded ones have transferred in the past 13 months. In between, a well-re- garded recruit backed out of a commitment. All of them are tal- ented players and all of them, in one form or another, cited style- of-play concerns for breaking up with the Boilermakers. Such issues have made the po- sition where stability is crucial into a merry-go-round of freshmen and one-year transfers, breeding a perception issue over the posi- tion's role at Purdue, a perception based on shoddy logic and silly quotes in newspa- pers but a perception nonetheless. At any rate, Pur- due needs a capable quarterback in football before it can build a good team and Purdue needs a capable point guard in basketball in order to complete one. In football, Purdue needs to stop being young under center and to stop having to swap out QBs every September, thus the importance of Appleby, not only to solidify the position as a player but also to bring some rare expe - rience to it as an upperclassman who's played before. In basketball, Purdue needs another Jon Octeus, knowing full well that it may never find an- other Jon Octeus. As important- ly, though, is for Painter to find the next guy, the next player to be groomed as Purdue's point guard and actually stay. Stability for both programs is so important because both have weathered their share of tumult. But in both sports there is one position above all others most as - sociated with stability and that's where the most instability has oc- curred. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com Searching For Stability From Editor Brian Neubert