It’s time for the staff roundtable and this week I again wanted to focus on football so here’s what I asked the staff: If you’re Coach Odom, who is the starting QB and why?
Ledman:
I’m not going to pretend to be a QB whisperer or have any advanced knowledge of what to do here, but I have a couple of opinions. First, I want one consistent QB, I don’t want to run out 2+ guys unless there’s injury or garbage time to be had. Two, I’ve seen Ryan Browne play football and I think he’s got the talent to win
some games. Plus, he had to have come back to Purdue after spending some time at UNC with Billy Bellicheck for a reason. Right? So I’m going with Browne until proven otherwise.
Travis:
I think it has to be Ryan Browne. This team does nit have a sure thing in anyone else. There are some upsides to Malachi Singleton, but Browne is the only QB on the roster with starting experience. He wasn’t that bad, either, in the last two years, as Walters’ teams were significantly flawed elsewhere. To me, it is telling that Browne was fished back out of the Portal after Singleton, Chuba, Et al went through spring practice with Purdue. It was an open competition and no one emerged above others. If Browne instantly comes back and is the favorite then it is probably his job to lose.
Drew:
I’ll half answer because the real answer is I think Coach Odom may be leaning towards a QB, but I don’t think he knows who will start until a good portion of the way through camp.
With that said, I’m starting the guy who shows he can make drive extending plays outside the offense. Purdue needs first downs to avoid seeing the defense die on the field in the second half like last season. This should be an open competition.
Jed:
It’ll likely come down to either Ryan Browne or Malachi Singleton who gets the nod as the starting QB. Both provide what Odom wants in a QB in his offense: an ability to run an RPO passing game with the QB as a threat in the running game. We’ve seen how Browne can potentially be in his start against Illinois last season and that level of ability is tantalizing but Singleton looked really good at times for Arkansas last season.
It’ll come down to who doesn’t turn the ball over, who can make the correct reads, and who can hit more explosive plays. From every indication I’ve gotten, that’s been Singleton so far.
However, I think both get their fair shot in game one to run with the 1’s to make their case.
Ryan:
I think Ryan Browne gets the nod but I don’t feel great about it. I think what hurts Browne’s chances is that this is basically a brand new team so any continuity that Browne may have from being on the team last year is practically non-existent. The fact that we are less than 3 weeks out from the opener and we don’t know the starting quarterback should mean that the competition is neck and neck (Barry Odom doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would hide the depth chart to take advantage of matchups against Ball State of all teams). Now, while I think Browne gets the nod, it feels like it could be a short leash if he struggles. Should the USC game roll around and Browne is having trouble with the Trojans, I think we could see Malachi Singleton take over. That is a slippery slope but to me, they are in a 1A and 1B situation at the moment. Slight advantage still goes to Browne in my eyes though.
