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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 6 75 the program's struggles under prior coaches. "You can just tell — and Coach Brohm and his coaching staff hav- en't even coached a game yet — that it's already going in the right direc- tion," said Bramel, a player Purdue's coaches had begun recruiting while at Western Kentucky. "I can't really explain it. You can just see and feel that things are on the rise, with their new facilities and the new coaching staff, everything about it." A few things stand out about Pur- due's recruiting start in the context of what Brohm and his staff have sought to accomplish. At the time of his hiring, Brohm said he hoped to get a "three-hour ra- dius" established that Purdue would emphasize heavily in recruiting, per- haps knowing the Boilermaker brand in recruiting has slipped considerably in Indiana and the greater Midwest in recent years. Without taking the "three-hour" part too literally, Purdue has enjoyed success to this point in its regional base. Eleven of the first 14 commitments come from either Indiana or bordering states, including four from Kentucky, where Brohm's and his staff's ties run PURDUE TARGETS Committed players in bold. Name Pos Ht Wt Hometown/School Jaylan Alexander LB 6-1 225 Hoffman Estates, Ill./Hoffman Estates Charles Allen OG/C 6-3 295 Louisville/Doss Elijah Ball DB 6-1 190 Indianapolis/Ben Davis Will Bramel OT 6-6 265 Danville, Ky./Boyle County Jack Cravaack TE/DL 6-5 225 Cincinnati/Madeira Andrew Cunningham RB 6-0 220 Tampa/Cambridge Branson Deen DE 6-2 240 Indianapolis/Lawrence Central Justice Dingle LB 6-2 235 Bowling Green, Ky./Bowling Green Nick Fulwider DE 6-6 245 Tyrone, Ga./Sandy Creek Vincent Gray CB 6-2 175 Rochester, Mich./Adams Clay Harris RB 6-0 200 Norcross, Ga./Norcross Hassan Haskins RB 6-2 195 Eureka, Mo./Eureka Antwuan Johnson LB 6-1 230 Dayton, Ohio/Dunbar Lawrence Johnson DT 6-4 305 Fort Wayne, Ind./Snider Trenton Kennedy RB 6-0 210 Cypress, Texas/Cy-Fair Travon King DE/LB 6-4 205 Camden, N.J./Wilson Chase Kline LB 6-3 225 Chardon, Ohio/Chardon Gavin Lewis OL/DL 6-5 265 Madison, Ala./Bob Jones Jeff Marks DL 6-3 260 Mobile, Ala./Davidson Miles Marshall WR 6-3 200 Lilburn, Ga./Parkview Cornelius McCoy WR 5-10 165 Deerfield Beach, Fla./Deerfield Beach Jimmy McKenna OT 6-5 250 Avon, Ohio/Avon Eric Miller OT 6-6 265 Mason, Ohio/Mason Ryan Montgomery RB 5-11 185 Franklin, Ohio/Franklin Israel Mukuamu S 6-4 190 Bossier City, La./Parkway Jalen Nailor WR 6-0 175 Las Vegas/Bishop Gorman Madison Norris DE 6-5 210 Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern Grant Norton OT 6-8 255 Camdenton, Mo./Camdenton Michael Parker TE 6-6 235 Huntsville, Ala./Westminster Christian Connor Parks DE 6-4 230 Orlando/Colonial Byron Perkins DB 6-2 180 Chicago/DeLaSalle Jake Plummer QB 6-5 215 Gilbert, Ariz./Gilbert Devan Rogers DT 6-1 305 Sidney, Ohio/Sidney Deporess Schletty DT 6-2 285 Alpharetta, Ga./Alpharetta Noah Shannon DT 6-2 285 Oswego, Ill./Oswego Kadin Smith DB 6-2 190 Louisville/Spencer County Caleb Steward RB 5-11 195 Jacksonville/Ed White Terez Traynor WR 6-3 175 Louisville, Ky./Doss Cory Trice S 6-4 190 Hopkinsville, Ky./Christian County Keaton Upshaw TE 6-7 215 Lima, Ohio/Lima Senior Brian Neubert Byron Perkins is a member of a DB class defined by its collective height and length, priority elements for Purdue's defensive coaches. Brian Neubert Purdue wants to re-establish itself recruit- ing Indianapolis. Landing Elijah Ball, it hopes, was just the start.