9/8/2026 Boilermaker Water Cooler Chat: Friday Night Lights Edition

Rants, ravings, and somewhat sensical opinions following the wild, wacky, and wide-wide world of Purdue sports.

After a long, hot, brutal summer, and an off-season filled with as many questions and antacid pills as possible, the Purdue Football team made their triumphant return to the gridiron. As luck would have it, the Boilermakers took home a victory!

September 1st is meteorological fall, which makes Labor Day the fall “coming out” party, if you will. Fall is my time of year. Flannel shirts. Soups. Pumpkin spicing things that shouldn’t be pumpkin spiced. Colorful leaves falling to the ground on a breezy October day. My favorite holiday, Halloween. You just have to love fall.

Or summer can keep its grip on the Midwest, and we can have a 95 degree real-temp kickoff for a Friday night game. Oof.

The Game:

Indiana State 19, Purdue 44

A slow, sloppy start to the game, kept it relatively close early. A halftime pep-talk led to a 3rd quarter surge, putting the game away for good.

Ryan Browne threw for 23/29 for 317 yards and 3 touchdowns. 11 different players caught passes led by Asaad Waseem’s 107 yards. Waseem, Tra’Mar Harris, and Chauncey Magwood all received for a TD. The Boilermakers rushed for 177 yards, led by 87 explosive yards from Fame Ijeboi. Ijeboi added a TD as well.

Defensively, the Boilermakers only gave up 19 points, despite allowing the dynamic ISU QB Elija Owens to extend plays. The Boilermakers were led in tackles by Mister Clark and Jojo Hayden, who had 5 a piece. The Boilers tallied 3 sacks, 8 tackles for loss, and a Don Saunders pick 6 to blow the game wide open.

Purdue – ISU Photo Gallery by Mark Elsner: https://iscpurdue.com/purdue-football-vs-indiana-state-9-4-26/

Break It Down:

For what its worth, I was broadcasting my prep football show during this game… so I did not watch it live. I did, however, catch it immediately on replay. The text messages and tweets that I was reading during my show were concerning.

Then I watched it, and I relaxed. Yes the Boilermakers started out slow. They were moving the ball, they were just not capitalizing on their opportunities. Settling for field goals instead of paydirt. The Boilermakers used the most basic of playbooks, using a ground heavy attack to chew away at the clock. This style of play is not very eye pleasing, nor super exciting. It wore down ISU, led to a lopsided victory, and showed very little on tape for Purdue’s next opponent. That is a win in my book.

What Went Well:

What Can Brown Do For You?: QB1 came out and did exactly what he needed to do. Bomb away when needed, manage the rest of the game, and spread it around to your teammates. Control the ball, don’t turn it over, and win. 317 yards and 3 TD with no turnovers. That’s a good game.
Ijeboi: Is my guy. I knew that he would be a solid player for the Boilermakers, however, he balled out week one. Now as the flavors of this team meet, and players get used to each other, the cohesion in the line play will improve. Look for Fame to have a big season if this week is any indication of things to come.
Wide Receivers: Did what WRs are supposed to do. Receive. It is a breath of fresh air to see few, if any drops, coming off of a 2025 campaign plagued by receiver dropsies.
To The House!: Saunders’ pick 6 is telling as to what potential there is in the secondary. He made an excellent read, stepped up, and took the pick to the house. Defensive scores have been pretty rare these last few years, so you have to give props when they happen!
Jacobo Echeverria Lozano (JEL): Wanted his first collegiate kick to be an extra point. It wasn’t. What he did do, however, was drill 3 field goals, and go a perfect 5/5 on PATs. Hes JEL’n.

Opportunities for Improvement:

Laundry Day: Should be when I collect my work clothes and give ’em a good wash. When there is a ton of laundry on a football field, it means the referees are throwing their flags far too often. 9 penalties for 85 yards, many of which called back huge plays/scores or stalled out offensive drives, needs to be corrected. The good news, week 1 games are expected to be sloppy, and the biggest jump of the season often comes between week 1 and 2.
Vanilla: is the best base flavor for a specialty ice cream. As Purdue ran a vanilla offensive set, there wasn’t any frills. No chocolate chips. No peanut butter swirls. No cherries on top. I believe this is by design, as the toppings on this Purdue banana split will need to be added next week. Well, they better be… or we’ll be scooping vanilla bean all season…

One Last Thing:

This time of year always amazes me. The pageantry. The friendship. There is a twinkle in my eye. The little kid in me has returned.

What was the most amazing thing this week, you ask? In this, the year of our lord, 2026, we witnessed history. An invention was unveiled, this week, that changes the time and space continuum!

Engineering students at the University of Michigan are some of the brightest students in the world. They somehow invented a machine that can turn back time better than a Cher Album! Better than Peabody and Sherman could ever imagine! Not a time machine, per se, it only can bring back a fraction of seconds in alternative universes. In a moment of pure generosity, this invention was given to the Big Ten. In a show of good faith, the Big Ten used this invention to manufacture a fraction of a second after the Western Michigan had defeated the Wolverines to open the season. Bing bam zoom. Michigan improves to 1-0 on the season.

That is the most plausible explanation for what happened.

Such an invention raises several moral questions. Now that the Big Ten Conference has the ability to time travel, who gets the benefit of such a mechanism? Surely, it wouldn’t be used for Michigan only. Who has access to this? Does Ohio State get it too? Is the ability to use the time machine precluded by NIL spending total? When can it be used? Is it only used when there is an embarrassing outcome for a college football blue blood brand? Can it be used immediately prior to Kyle Orton fumbling? What if sports books in Vegas get their hands on this machine? So many questions.

Ok, I have digressed. What happened during the ending of the Michigan game is purely asinine. The Big Ten put out a statement about alternative clocks being used in the booth rather than in the stadium, that weren’t synced appropriately. Nothingburger of an explanation. This is going to go away. Nobody will remember this in week 7, and that is a problem. The Big Ten blew one of the biggest calls in college football history. To paraphrase George Orwell’s 1984…

The Big Ten told you to ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. Go Blue.

-2026

But hey, at least Michigan won! Would’ve been a total embarrassment had they lost. Glad the students got to rush the field, too! Storybook ending!

A Look Ahead:

Purdue as a game on a Saturday this week! In what will be a defining contest for the 2026 season, Purdue welcomes Wake Forest to Ross Ade for a nooner (FS1). Wake Forest had an excellent year last season, and opens up as a 3.5 point favorite. The ESPN matchup predictor gives Wake Forest an over 60% chance of victory. We will see.

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