Where is the Hope? Week Seven | Boiler Jim's Blog

Purdue is a school of engineers so perhaps it's no surprise the football team is dropping the ball.

In 1589, Galileo Galilei showed his University of Pisa students the error in Aristotle's theory that speed of fall is proportional to weight. He dropped two objects of different weight simultaneously from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to prove that Aristotle was wrong. Although Galileo was correct, he lost his job because he contradicted the faulty theory of the famous Aristotle.

What Purdue fans are learning is that dropped balls tend to occur deep in Boilermaker territory and opposing forces quickly weigh their side of the score board with points in an offsetting nature.

Have we learned enough from this futile experiment yet or are we waiting for another outcome? How many times must this team drop the ball to figure out it's not a good thing?

Okay, let's take a deep breath, hit the books, and review some constant variables.

Despite the record and the shrinking number of possessions caused by fumbles, there is evidence of some good offensive talent. Purdue outgains their opposition 410.2 yards per game to 379.7. Quarterback Joey Elliot is ranked first in the Big Ten in average passing yardage (262.5) and total offense (283.7). Believe it or not, Elliot is 15th nationally in total offense. Boiler running back Ralph Bolden is second in the Big Ten and 20th nationally in rushing average (99.8) and third in the Big Ten and 49th nationally in all-purpose yardage (128.7). Wide receiver Keith Smith is second in the Big Ten and tied for 17th nationally in receptions per game. Smith's 97.5 receiving yards per game average is second in league play. Finally, wide receiver/kick returner Aaron Valentin leads Big Ten players in both punt return average (13.7) and average all-purpose yardage (145.2). The senior is 17th nationally in returning punts and 27th in all-purpose yards. Defensively, linebacker Jason Werner only seems to get better each passing week. He has racked up 11 tackles for loss this season, a figure that averages out to 1.8 per game and ranks him third in the conference and tied for ninth nationally.

Purdue's talent needs the catalyst of an error free game if they have any chance of repelling THE Ohio State Buckeyes. Ohio State is undefeated in the Big Ten and suffered its only loss to Pac Ten rival USC. For a minute, forget about a Buckeye defense that only allows opponents 12 points a game. Don't think about an offense that scores almost 30 points a game gains and average of 338 yards. The free radical in this week's Ross Ade experiment will teeter on Ohio State's special teams ability to cash in like it did against Wisconsin last week when it guaranteed good field position and ran back a kick off.

According to Coach Hope during this week's press conference, any time a special teams unit can score twice, that team is likely to win 90 percent of the time. Sounds like the musings of a Purdue engineer that went to the moon and back.

Oh-oh.

What can you say about an opponent that has only allowed four touchdowns in the last 19 quarters of play, who won their last 16 previous conference road games, and whose head coach is 13-0 against first year coaches?

Then again, nobody gave Navy a chance against Ohio State in the opening game of the season in Columbus. A Middie mistake late in the 4^th quarter was the only thing that kept the Buckeye's from losing so a Boilermaker win on Saturday isn't out of the question. Mutations exist in biology, there are black holes in space, and the truth is stranger than fiction.

Simply put, Purdue needs to prevent turnovers and keep the ball away from the Buckeye offense.

This weekend's game "theme" is "Gold Rush." Purdue's 1-5 season looks more like a lump of lead. Centuries ago, alchemists tried in vain to turn lead into gold. It wasn't until Glenn Seaborg, a 1951 Nobel laureate in chemistry, claimed to do that very experiment. Scientifically speaking for Purdue engineers and scientists, lead is a stable element. Forcing an atom of lead it to release three protons to equal the atomic weight of gold requires a vast input of energy. Thus, the cost of transmuting greatly surpasses the value of the resultant gold. Yet on the football field, a resultant victory over the Buckeyes will also require exorbitant energy and sage coaching. That Purdue victory won't be worth its weight in gold. It would be priceless.