Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/215100
b r i a n n e u b e r t sad send-off no day colThere's athlete'sintoahold lege career when they deserve pregame have been through hell at Purdue. Understand how difficult things have been for them, what with last winter's coaching change and all. Danny Hope was ferociously loyal to his players, the consummate players coach, for better and worse, the worse being part of the reason he's now seeking employment elsewhere. For all the rosy springtime chatter of returning players sticking it out and "buying in," the reality is that it was hard, real hard, and the results of 2013 make it perfectly reflective of a round hole/square peg sort of situation between inherited players and debuting coaches for one reason or another. These players made up Hope's first real recruiting class at Purdue; they're the ones who bought into that last staff's vision and stood by their coach until the bitter, literally, end. They had forged the deepest connection. This was not a clean break. I remember those angry looks in players' eyes when it was very clear change was forthcoming late in 2012; I remember those GO BOILERMAKERS GO BOILERMAKERS GO BOILERMAKERS CERAMIC • ENGINEERED HARDWOOD LAMINATES • MARBLE CARPETING Specializing in • Homes • Churches • Businesses • Schools Where Contractors Buy Their Flooring Builders! Call our Contract Department and ask for our Contract Specialist 3437 State Road 26 E. 765-447-9393 800-403-6889 FAX 765-448-9978 Across from the Post Office GO BOILERMAKERS GO BOILERMAKERS GO BOILERMAKERS their heads higher than on senior day. Yet, Purdue's seniors will take the field Saturday dealt one final indignity in this brutal transitional year, this group being the collateral damage caught in a painful building process: They'll be underdogs at home to a team that hasn't won a Big Ten game since Peyton Manning was a Colt, LeBron didn't have a ring and Barack Obama had only just begun his reelection campaign. They'll play this game in front of nobody, relatively speaking, unless there's a run of biblical proportion on all those tickets selling for nickels on StubHub. But that's life, you know? Guys deserve better, guys like Ricardo Allen and Rob Henry, guys who can be given the ultimate compliment of having given everything they have during their careers, whether the collective results have reflected it or not. But there are no trophies to be given out for participation here, not at this level, where it's simple: You either win or you don't. There is no inbetween. This season has been too much of the latter. It's been a grueling week-to-week death march that Purdue can only hope provides some glimmer of encouragement when this season mercifully meets its end. Other than experience being gained by young players, however crushing that experience may be right now, there have been no overt positives to come from 2013 to date. And that's unfortunate for the 21 guys who'll be introduced to the Ross-Ade Stadium crowd — and we might be using the term "crowd" loosely — prior to Saturday's Donut Bowl, a game between two Big Ten-winless teams that one of them has to win, a coaching matchup between two former Ohio State assistant coaches whose teams are car-bombing the title-hopeful Buckeyes' strength of schedule right now. The seniors being honored shocked, eyes-glazed-over looks Again, for better and worse. on their faces when Hope was This season's been almost all fired, as if the players were the worse. only people in West Lafayette who And that's going to taint on didn't see it coming. Saturday anything that might othHope wasn't just their coach; erwise be celebrated. That's too bad. j to many of them, he was their buddy, their father figure, or Neubert can be contacted at maybe more appropriately, their BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com cool uncle. GO BOILERMAKERS GO BOILERMAKERS GO BOILERMAKERS e d i t o r GO BOILERMAKERS GO BOILERMAKERS GO BOILERMAKERS f r o m GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 11 • 5