PURDUE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 6, 2021

Jeff Brohm

Press Conference

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think our guys are definitely excited to get game number two under way this next Saturday, first road game of the year, which is always a challenge for your team. I do think we have a lot of experience, especially on the defensive side of the ball that's played a lot of football, so we've been here and done that before.

We understand that in order to win football games at this level, you've got to execute, you've got to play well, you've got to continue to improve, and that's going to be the goal. We're going to have to have a good week of practice, have to prepare hard, have to push ourselves to do all the small things correctly, and go out there and compete on Saturday against a UConn team at their place.

Q. You had a chance to look at the film, digest it. What did you see from Jack Plummer?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I thought Jack was a great leader throughout the game, did some good things. He was able to extend some plays with his feet, which helped us at times. He was able to buy some time to get a couple completions and buy some time to throw the ball away and not take a sack, and those are always beneficial, and then I thought that down the stretch, he played clutch for us and delivered. I think just -- that was due to the work ethic that he had and the preparation he put in. So I was proud of his performance.

There's still things we can improve upon there without question, and he knows that, but he did a very good job, and he helped us get to a victory.

Q. Week one to week two, what do you anticipate the team getting better at as you get that first one under your belt?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we definitely need to get better at a lot of things. I think special teams-wise, we can't have penalties that were costly. I don't like not being able to catch the punt. We had the ball hit the ground way too many times on that. I think we can actually punt the ball farther, do a better job in that aspect.

When it comes to offensively, spreading the ball around, running the football, finding ways to gain yards on the ground is going to be -- continue to be important, and we've got to make sure we do that. I do think we took care of the ball, we didn't turn it over and that was key in these type of games that we're getting ready to play it has to be key, as well, we have to win that battle.

On defense, I thought we did some good things. Gave up a couple easy plays, gave up a couple easy runs to some bunch looks that shouldn't happen where they got around the edge. A couple times when we rushed three, we gave them way too much time to throw.

Then a couple times we need to line up correctly faster and make sure that we're all set there, but I do think that they played hard and we make progress. Numerous areas to improve upon. We'll work on it all week and try to put it into effect on Saturday.

Q. How do you think Jalen Graham and George Karlaftis fit in the new scheme defensively?

JEFF BROHM: When we grade the film, those two played very well for us, and while George didn't maybe get statistically production, he was in the backfield all day long, and he was pressuring the quarterback and he was forcing him to move or throw it faster than he wanted. He was affecting the run plays. He was doing a very, very good job. Played hard the entire game.

Jalen Graham showed up, made plays. Not only in the running game but off the edge he was able to guard guys in man coverage with his length and athleticism, and I thought he played very well.

Those two guys in order for us to win need to play well and they need to be the leaders of the defense, and I think it was a good game one for both of them.

Q. Any significant injuries of note?

JEFF BROHM: Right now injury-wise just a few things that flared up. Hopefully nothing that will last beyond this game, and hopefully we can get everybody that played the last game able to play this upcoming week, as well.

Q. TJ Sheffield be back this week?

JEFF BROHM: We're anticipating to get him back this week.

Q. Just with DJ Washington, you've got him playing on the defensive side right now. Is the option still available for him to go back to offense, and why do you like him on defense as opposed to the two positions?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we looked at numerous guys in the spring at multiple positions. I know even Coach Hagen may have been a little reluctant early on, but after looking at DJ longer, you know what, he's 315-plus pounds, he's got good size, he's got some decent athleticism, and he's really our backup at an interior position right now.

I think while he was green and a little raw when he got out there, you know what, he occupies space, and he demands people to block him, and he's a bigger body in the middle, so overall we were happy with his performance.

Now, DJ, the depth at the offensive line position due to some injuries and some people being out is not exactly where we'd want it, so he is a backup on offense, and he works on the offensive side of the ball one day a week to keep him fresh and up to par. Even though we'll rotate him over on defense some that day, as well, but he will do offense, the offensive meetings to make sure he's able to be a backup for us on the offensive line.

Q. How did the offensive line grade out after you watched the film?

JEFF BROHM: I thought our offensive line played hard. You know, there was some good, there were some things not as good. I think Gus Hartwig did a very good job for us, played solid, was the most consistent guy up front. Tyler Witt hung in there.

We've got to continue to get better at the other positions. I thought Greg Long and Eric Miller and Spencer played okay. They can play better. They can do things better.

The defense we played, there was a lot of movement, a lot of guys going in different areas. That just was their scheme. Having to block a lot of movement was a little challenging for our offensive line. Instead of having more -- in the Big Ten you've got a little bit more physical bodies that are coming off the ball and striking people and occupying space, so this was a little bit different scheme that we were facing, and we handled it okay. There were numerous things to get better at, but I do think our guys played hard. We just gave up one sack.

So there were things to build upon, and we'll continue to work to get better at all those small things.

Q. How did Cam Craig come out?

JEFF BROHM: Cam played some -- he's missing time due to injury, and he was rusty without question. I think getting him in there more, getting him up to speed, getting him to practice more and back to where he can get in a flow will help, but he needs to improve, and I think he will.

Q. You mentioned the penalties; some of them were delay of games and then the unsportsmanlike penalty early in the game. As you went back and reviewed it on the film and reviewed it with your staff, what needs to be better in those situations to avoid those?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think overall penalty-wise we actually played a very clean game, and that's a credit to our players who did a very good job of not having costly penalties, things that hurt us. The ones that did hurt us were the delay of game on our field goal team, which should never happen. They were sent out there early, and from the holder taking too long to get us set and going, that was a problem, and of course there was a 15-yard penalty after that for one of our assistant coaches going on to the field to express his frustration with our holders and kickers for not getting off in time, and the referee took it as someone getting after him. But our coaches should not go on the field, so that got us a 15-yard penalty from that aspect that can't ever happen. We had one last year on an assistant coach, as well. That should never happen from going out on the field.

We had a delay of game to start a drive on offense, and you know what, it's a little challenging now after kickoff and to start a series because the referees are going to hold the snap until the defense gets lined up. So we have to send our personnel out there early to make sure the defense gets out there early, otherwise they hold the clock.

On the one that happened to us, they held the clock while we were standing ready to go, so we've got to send guys out there right away and the play call has to be in right away because the referee is holding it for the defense to get set.

I think that was most of the penalties unless there's one I forgot about. But overall penalty yards, it was a good day for us, so we've got to continue to do that. We've stressed it.

I think our offensive players and defensive players did a great job. We need to do a better job as coaches.

Q. Back to the game on Saturday, the last two drives for you, you got Payne Durham involved. What did you see there that led to Payne really shining in those last two drives?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think we need to use our tight ends, and not over the middle of the field, which the middle of the field was where things were mostly open most of the day, but when you're running the ball and you're running some bootlegs off of it and some naked actions off of it and some play action, that's kind of where they can be beneficial, and we were able to hit our tight end on those, which was great for us.

You know, Payne has been a consistent performer for us, and if you're running the ball or at least trying to run the ball, the tight ends can get open for you with that type of action, and that definitely came into play. Jack did a good job executing it and delivering it over the top of defenders that were unblocked, but we have to do in order to run the naked and the bootleg action is to find a way to maneuver that throw to get it to someone, even though somebody could be in his face.

So I thought we just called those plays, they executed, it was off of the run game a little bit, and it helped us kind of move the football a little bit.

Q. We live in a world now where everybody sees everything, your players know everything that's kind of going on, and they see that you're a huge favorite on Saturday. How do you keep them where they need to be from a mindset standpoint and all that kind of stuff? I'm sure this is probably a big challenge to make sure that they're focused for this game.

JEFF BROHM: Week one of the season, this past weekend, and there were four games, four scores read to our team, or at least I did in our team meeting, I can repeat to them, one was Montana 13, Washington 6, and that was at Washington. Another one was I think East Tennessee State 23, Vanderbilt 3, and that was at Vanderbilt. And then there were multiple others that I can't recall off the top of my head, and that was in week one.

Every week, you know what, there's good football teams across the country. It's about are you going to play well, are you going to prepare well, are you going to execute, are you going to stay focused. Anybody can beat anybody on a given day. I think our players understand that. We're definitely not at a stage to ever take anything for granted.

And going on the road is always a challenge, as well. All the games I read to them were at home where teams lost that on paper I guess you could say they should have won.

We know that we have to get better as a football team in all three segments. We've got to have a great week of preparation. We've got to stay locked in and we've got to execute, and if you don't do that you're going to get beat, and we're going to get beat. Our guys got to prepare well and go out there and play well.

Q. After Saturday's game you just mentioned wanting to get more players kind of in the rotation as the season kind of goes on. Jamari Brown was a player you mentioned specifically. Who else are you kind of looking towards to kind of step up during this week of practice and kind of help the team this upcoming Saturday?

JEFF BROHM: Well, depth is always going to be something we work on. We want to try to continue to improve that every day of the year, even during the season. Now, when it comes to game time, I do want us to err on -- we're going to have our players play. You know what, they can rest when the game is over.

While we'll continue to rotate as much as we can, at the same time if we feel like certain guys are playing well, they need to be out there playing.

With that, it's a 12-game season. You've got to have other guys able to play at any time during the year. Someone could get injured during a game, they could be out the next week, they could be out the rest of the year. I think we have a handful of players that could have played more that are ready that we did not rotate in as much, so we'll continue to try to work on that and get them out there where we feel comfortable.

You know, the corner position, safety position, those guys played a lot. Jalen Graham played a lot. So we've got to continue to build depth there and figure out ways to get more people involved if we need to.

Offensively I think we played multiple receivers. We played multiple running backs. Offensive line, we'll see if we can rotate a little bit more, but there's not a whole lot of experienced depth right now. We've got to continue to improve those guys each and every day in practice.

That's always a concern, and we'll always try to do what we can, but come game day we're going to do what we can to win.

Q. Unless I missed somebody on special teams, I don't think you played a freshman. Is that a function of the transfer era do you think?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think we have some very capable freshmen, but I'm always leery to play a freshman the first game of the year unless they're for sure ready. We've made some mistakes before putting guys out there too early, and they've fumbled the ball, they've made a mistake, and then their confidence is shot, and then it's a hard time getting it back in.

We want to kind of be a little protective of young players and make sure that we're being smart and doing our due diligence and making sure that we're not putting them out there and exposing them before they're quite ready.

Some guys may not want to hear that, but we want to be very cautious with it, and we'll continue to try to improve that. As the season goes on, they're really not freshmen anymore. They've seen a game, they've been on the sideline, they've been in practice. Maybe they've been in a play or two at some point, and then we'll continue to work them in there.

But yes, we do have multiple transfers that saw the field and we'll continue to do that, that have much more experience. But there are a few freshmen that I think when it's all said and done will end up playing for us this year.

Q. Just looking at UConn, what will fans and us expect to see from them? Obviously they've struggled so far, but what kind of scheme and what do they do offensively that you've got to really prepare for?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think they're playing some football right now, the ball hasn't rolled their way, and sometimes that's due to execution, sometimes that's due to a little luck. But you know what, any week, anything can happen.

I know they're going to come ready to play. It's a home game for them. Every player in college football has pride, and they want to go out there and win.

Any time you can get a win, it can spark your team to many more.

We will have our hands full because yes, we have to be able to look in the mirror every night as a player and coach and say we've done everything preparation-wise to help us win, and if we're not doing that, then we're not going to have a good chance of winning. That's just the way football works. We've got to challenge ourselves this week to prepare, to work hard, to put a good plan together, and then to go out there and try to play better than we did last week, and that's the challenge.

If you want to be any good in football, you've got to challenge yourself to raise the bar and have your best performance each and every week, and if you're not doing that, it'll catch up with you and you won't have a good season. So this is an important week for us, and we need to play some good football.

Q. We've got to get your reaction to Randy Edsall announcing this will be his last year, the impact you think that could have on Saturday's game.

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think it'll motivate their team. I think Coach Edsall has done a lot for the UConn program over the years. Multiple times I've played against him back when I was an assistant coach at Louisville. He did a heck of a job. They had some really good football teams, and he's coached a lot of football for a long time.

You know what, I know their guys will be energized and fired up and ready to play, and they've got a Big Ten opponent coming into their stadium, and when that happens, teams get ready to play.

We've had numerous opponents come into our stadium here that probably on paper should have won through the course of myself being here, and we've found a way to win because our players were hungry and they wanted to prove themselves. I guarantee you, UConn will be ready to prove themselves this week.

Q. What did you see from Cory Trice this week and how is he going to be a weapon your defense?

JEFF BROHM: I thought Cory played outstanding. His effort was tremendous. He's a big, tall, long corner that can run and will challenge things. He's had a great spring, great summer, excellent fall camp. I thought he performed well.

They had one double move that they got in his blind spot and made it on him and made the throw. You know what, he recovered and made the tackle, or at least the guy caught it and fell down. He recovered on a 4th down play action where the guy had him beat, and just due to tremendous effort and want-to, he was able to make the play and he didn't panic at the end and interfere the receiver, which a lot of times happens with young defensive backs. If they get a little bit beat, they think they've got to recover so fast and they'll interfere the receiver and give him an automatic 1st down. Cory did not do that; he trusted his speed, he trusted his length, and he was able to just get there at the last minute and make the play.

I thought our defensive backs, him and Mackey and even Jalen Graham when he was guarding somebody man-to-man and he was the guy to step on him, just trusted their technique and their length and didn't panic and get a PI when we didn't need to. So I thought it was played extremely well for our defensive backs on some of those occasions, and definitely Cory Trice I thought played outstanding for us.

Q. Obviously new defensive staff; just how did the game day operations work from that standpoint in your opinion?

JEFF BROHM: I thought Coach Lambert, Coach English, Coach Hagen, Coach Adams were outstanding. I think that they were very composed. They kept their composure. They were into the game. Their demeanor was exactly what you want. It was a great week of preparation, and I thought they handled game day outstanding.

We'll continue to work through that and see what things we can get better at, but fortunately I thought it was kind of what I thought it was going to be, a great group of guys who wanted to help their team win and worked together in collaboration to get it done, and they went out there and did everything they could on their part to help us win.

Q. Any weekly Sampson James update?

JEFF BROHM: No update yet. We'll see what comes back from that. We're always hopeful. But no answer yet.

Q. Saturday obviously is the 20-year anniversary of 9/11. You're playing a game, but kind of where were you 20 years ago, and how did that event impact your life?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think you may have asked this one time before. 9/11 actually when it happened years ago, I was on a plane, so I was -- had a shoulder injury from playing. I was flying back down to Birmingham to get my shoulder looked at again after surgery. Got off the plane and the airport was vacated. They were escorting people out. I really didn't know what was going on until I got to the rehab center where the doctor was and saw it on the news like everyone else.

You know what, it was a tragic day for a lot of people, and I think because of it, there's been some things that the world has tried to improve upon, and so has the U.S., and our hat's off to all the people that have suffered and gone through that tragedy. We'll always remember those that lost their lives and people with families that lost people, so that was a tragic day for all of us.

Q. How come DaMarcus Mitchell didn't start?

JEFF BROHM: Well, DaMarcus missed quite a bit of camp due to injury, so we felt that Kydran deserved a start, and both guys played quite a bit, and they'll continue to play quite a bit. If one is hotter than the other during the game, they'll play even more.

He was out extensively throughout camp due to an injury and just missed a lot of time. So we'll get him back going, and I think the more he practices and gets in the flow, I think the more productive he'll be.