PURDUE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 8, 2021

Jeff Brohm

Press Conference

JEFF BROHM: Well, we've got a big week ahead of us and a tremendous opponent that has a ton of talent. They're well-coached. They play really good football. We're going to have our hands full.

We've got to get back to work and understand we've got to continue to improve and get better and shore up some things in all three segments and make sure that we can play as error-free as we can this week in order to have a chance to beat Ohio State. But we're looking forward to the challenge. I think our guys will practice hard and we'll go up there and see what we can do.

Q. Have you ever worked with a quarterback who's been on a roll like Aidan has? I think he's completed 74 percent of his passes the last four games. Have you ever seen a guy on a streak like this?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we've been fortunate enough to do a decent job with quarterbacks. I think we've had some pretty good ones. I think Aidan is really playing at a high level right now. He's in a rhythm. He's always done a great job with playing with poise and composure and not letting anything rattle him, and that's always been a strength of his since we started playing him.

But I think he's just seeing things better. He's understanding that, hey, lets get the ball out, let's get it to our playmakers, let's not turn the ball over. While they're going to happen occasionally, we can't really let it happen multiple times. So he's done a really good job of taking care of the ball and making sure that we don't give the team another possession, and that's been critical for our success, and then of course he's just been really accurate and decisive in his decision making.

Q. When you go into a game now with Jackson Anthrop, is there a prescription as far as number of snaps at wide out and running back? How do you balance that, or is it just a feel during the course of a game?

JEFF BROHM: We definitely want to utilize him more than we maybe have in the past, and getting him snaps at running back is something that will always be in the plan. We'd like to give him at least five a game in that area if we can, if we're having some success. If we're not, then maybe we won't. But I think he gives us some shiftiness in the backfield and some elusiveness and some shake and bake.

I think it also just gets him some touches. He's done a good job in all aspects. He's been good on special teams, he's been good when we throw him the ball at receiver. He's made plays whether we hand it to him or throw it to him behind the line of scrimmage. He's a Boilermaker for life.

We're proud of the work ethic he's put in, and he generally cares about winning and helping his program, and we want him to be as involved as we possibly can.

Q. Can you put your finger on why you've had success knocking off these highly ranked teams, the Buckeyes in 2018, of course Iowa and MSU this year? It's been a fun run for you. Can you put your finger on why you've had that type of success against those?

JEFF BROHM: No, I probably can't put my finger on it. I do think that we have an aggressive approach, an aggressive style that can sometimes look really good and sometimes not.

I think we're willing to take some chances against really good opponents that maybe others aren't. I think this year we've been better in all three segments of our team than we have in the past, which is really meaningful to me to see that happen.

I think that we're more of a complete team, obviously have a ways to go in all segments, but we've been better at all three segments, and we've made strides.

It helps your team compete against really good teams when maybe one side isn't doing quite as good as the other but you have solid units across the board. I think that has helped us, and when we get in a rhythm and we're aggressive, we can do some good things. So I do think that we're not afraid of the challenge, and we look forward to really tough opponents and seeing how we match up.

Q. Is it fun coaching this team now?

JEFF BROHM: Well, it's always been fun. I enjoy this team. They work hard. They put in the work. They're hungry. They want to go prove themselves. Really every team we've had has been to that aspect in my opinion. Maybe haven't had the results all the time that we would like, but they work hard. They compete hard. They learn from their mistakes. We learn from our mistakes. We admit our mistakes when we make them.

I think that we worked hard in the off-season to make some corrections and to do some things better, and I do think in general overall, that has been better, and we want to win to advance that as far as we can. We've got quality opponents on our schedule that can showcase whether that can happen or not.

Q. You know what it's like to almost win at Ohio State. Take me back to September 5, 1992, 29 years ago. I was looking at some stories this morning. You guys go for two late, you had 22 of 30 passes and of course your opposing quarterback was Kirk Herbstreit. I think Greg Brohm caught a TD pass. Have you been back there as an assistant with Illinois ever?

JEFF BROHM: You know what, I have played there I think maybe once or twice since as an assistant coach. When I played in college for Coach Schnellenberger we were an independent, so we played one of the toughest schedules every year. We had Ohio State a couple years and Florida and Florida State and Tennessee and Texas A&M and Texas and Arizona State and Alabama. You name it, we played them. We got a chance to go down there and they were really talented, really good. Had Robert Smith at running back and a couple of really big guys on defense. I can't remember their names, but they were scary when I lined up on the other side because they were way bigger than me.

But you know what, we played them well, we were efficient, we had a chance to win at the end, and that's back before the overtime period really existed. So we scored, went for two, and I still remember the exact play. Back then we didn't use the shotgun; we were under center every snap, which was a little behind the times, but that's how we executed and got the snap on a mess play underneath center and our right guard really played well, blocked out and just let big daddy will kin son come right at me and had to scramble to my left and try to make a throw to an over route and just went out of the reach of our receiver's hands.

I can still remember the play vividly. If we make it, we win the game, and it would have been a huge win for our program.

Q. Is that play in your playbook today?

JEFF BROHM: It is, but since I didn't complete it I don't call it maybe as much as I should.

Q. From the trick play the other day, does it have a name?

JEFF BROHM: Well, yes, it does.

Q. Can you share?

JEFF BROHM: I guess I can share it. It's Money One.

Q. Any reason for that?

JEFF BROHM: You know, we have a lot of plays in our playbook, and some plays we call in the huddle, some plays we don't. Sometimes we want to give things a one-word name that has meaning, and sometimes when you give a little tag to it like that, people remember what it is. Really it encompasses the whole formation, motion and play.

Normally we practice it just once a week because we don't want to over-coach it. Sometimes you can over-coach trick plays and us as coaches can screw it up, so it's a once-a-week practice play. I haven't called it in a while, and luckily for us it worked. Of course the ones I call that don't work don't look good, but this one did, so we'll take it why it worked.

Q. Do you remember the high school you got it from?

JEFF BROHM: You know what, someone asked me that. I really don't remember. I just remember -- I'm not great on my phone, but my son is, and just saw something on YouTube and popped up and here was a play and it just looked very intriguing to me. It was a high school team, I just can't remember who it was.

I brought it in and I told our offensive staff, we're going to try this in practice, and they're like, what are we doing, this isn't going to work, and I said, well, let's just try it and see. Luckily I was the head coach then so I could kind of do what I wanted. I said, let's just try it and see, even though they weren't on board, and we ran in practice. Normally what we do with some new trick plays we'll run it in practice against the one defense and see how it does. It worked then, so then it was kind of put in the bank, and the first time we actually ever called it, it went for a touchdown, as well.

Q. Is that when you were at Western?

JEFF BROHM: Yes.

Q. With Aidan, was part of the plan to maybe push the ball a little bit more downfield Saturday and get beyond the sticks more than maybe some other games?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we always want to have a combination of vertical shots and completions and rhythm throws and get it to our playmakers, and I just think that these guys played the pass at times, but occasionally they would sneak down in there and give us some one-on-one match-ups. Sometimes the calls go your way from the referees, sometimes your calls work more than other games. I just think we were hitting on the calls. We were executing the calls, and when we called some vertical shots, we got open, and we made plays.

It was just kind of one of those days where things were going our way.

Q. Is part of Aidan's recent trend here he's getting time in the pocket and the offensive line is giving him that time so he can get through his progressions?

JEFF BROHM: I think it's a combination of everything. Our offensive line has worked hard, and when you throw the ball a lot, it puts more pressure on them, but we've done a good job of mixing in quick throws and easy completions to kind of get it out quick, and then occasionally you've got to push it up the field. They've done a good job, and Aidan has done a good job of standing in there.

There were some times where he had to kind of move slightly or let the pressure kind of get in his chest and still make the throw, and he made a couple little scrambles where he got through there, which hadn't happened in the past, so that was great to see and it was a huge difference. And to not turn it over when he did that was big. I think it's just a combination of all those things.

Like I said, I think it was just an everything-was-clicking day for us, and our guys were executing, as well, at a high level.

Q. Do you know if Payne Durham will be available this week?

JEFF BROHM: You know, Payne is a tough individual. He's got an injury. I think he'll be healthier than he was this past week. We were going to use him in some short yardage blocking situations, and I think he maybe played one play. I don't think he will be 100 percent, but we're going to hopefully maybe be able to use him a little bit more.

Q. Just what Garrett Miller did in his absence to step up and make the plays that he did, what made him stand out on Saturday?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we're very proud of Garrett. Garrett is nicked up himself. Most guys wouldn't have came back as fast as he had. He played injured. You know what, he wasn't as sharp in the blocking game as he had shown earlier in the year, which a couple games he was really good, but he played hard, and he made some really good catches. He's got some athleticism. For his size, he can run, he's got some athleticism, and it was a little hard for him to cut and make breaks with his injury, but he made some big catches.

He really has made some big catches for us that I don't know if other guys would have at that position, so he's kind of got some sneaky athleticism for his size, and hopefully he can get a little healthier this week because we're going to need him.

Q. What did the four field goals do for Mitchell's confidence?

JEFF BROHM: Well, Mitchell was outstanding. We worked hard. I think everybody has seen us miss some kicks. We went back and in great detail studied every little thing about the kick from the snap to the hold to the placement to everything, and I think we made some slight adjustments because in my opinion it was affecting the kicker.

We've tried to shore up some of the protection, which sometimes that traffic can affect the kicker. So it was just a combination of everything, and we worked at it all week.

He had a good week of practice. I wouldn't say he had one of his best, but it was a good week. I think we just kind of had some reasonable field goal position. Wasn't too many long ones, and he was kicking it solid. The key was hey, let's kick the thing -- I'm not a kicking expert, but let's kick the thing on the meat of your foot, don't cheat it and get it on the toe and kick it like you know you can and cut it loose, and he did, and did a really great job.

Really Ben Freehill did a really good job of kicking off for us. Really was outstanding. It was our most complete special teams game without question, and that was another reason we were able to win the game.

Q. Ohio State's offense, why did they put so much stress on the defense? Is it just the playmakers? Is it something else that they do that really allows them to put up a lot of yardage and points?

JEFF BROHM: Well, they've got a lot of playmakers. That's on offense, on defense. On defense they play a ton of guys up front. When they bring in new guys they're still just as fast and as big and as good. They've got a lot of talent. They're well-coached on offense. Yeah, they've got really good receivers. They've got a quarterback who's athletic. They've got a really good offensive line. They've got running backs. Sometimes when you play those teams, they can run it every play if they wanted to, but they want to spread the wealth and get it to their playmakers. They do a good job with that.

I just think they're very talented. In order to beat a team like that you've got to maybe good do some things that they haven't seen before, and you've got to really apply some pressure, and you've got to take them out of their comfort zone. There's risks with that. You can get beat bad and fast or you can make some headway.

I think we've got to be conscious of doing some things that are going to maybe have some risk but might be able to help us because they're very, very talented.

Q. You're in a four-way tie for first of the Big Ten West with three games to go. A lot of things have to happen for you to be there at the end, but do you address anything like that with your team, just about the opportunity that this deep in the season that they're facing?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we have before. I think at this point we've been on a ride where we've really just concentrated on getting better and winning the next game and letting things take care of itself.

I think our guys can look at the newspaper and read reports online and see where they're at, and they understand winning takes care of a lot of things. This will be our biggest challenge to date, playing against this opponent at their venue. If you don't win this, then yeah, then you've got to battle and scrap and continue to fight.

But this is really all we're focused on, and we're hopeful to get an opportunity to compete and hopefully figure out a way to get it to the fourth quarter and see if we can do something special.

Q. Where is Zander at since coming back from his injury? He's been a little bit limited since coming back. What are your expectations of him moving forward?

JEFF BROHM: You know, Zander has gotten back as fast as he can. We've been talking to the doctors even when he was able to come back, they said he wouldn't be exactly what he was. It would take a while. That's been the case a little bit. I think he can play better. But he's a valuable piece to our offense, and I think just the more work he gets, the more confident he'll get not only running the football but in overcoming his injury. I think he can really help us.

You know, there was a couple times people got at his feet and tripped him up and he wasn't able to kind of run the way we normally see, but I think it was a combination of what I said and maybe we need to have a little bit of a bigger hole, maybe he needs to drive his knees up and maybe he needs to run in there hard. All those things are a part of it. He had the one fumble but he bounced back. We got him back in there, and I think in order for us to win, he needs to play well for us, and we need to utilize him this week.

Q. Obviously the secondary has stepped up the past few weeks. You already talked about Ohio State's weapons, just the challenge stepping up and having the match-up with a really strong receiver corps that the Buckeyes have this week?

JEFF BROHM: Well, this will be our biggest test for sure. They've done a great job to this point. I do think we can shore up some tackling issues that we haven't been as good the last couple games at just making tackles and wrapping people up in the secondary and now we've faced some teams so it's going to happen, but we've got to work hard at that. I think just really working on the technique and fundamentals of that position and trusting it is going to be critical.

I think getting a pass rush and making sure he can't hold it all day long is going to be critical. I just think all those things tie together. But we'll still try to play the same exact way and let our guys go out there and compete and not back down. But yes, it will be the biggest challenge to date for our secondary against these receivers.

Q. Just give us your thoughts on Jack Sullivan. Looked like he played very well Saturday. And DaMarcus Mitchell had limited snaps. His health moving forward?

JEFF BROHM: Well, you're correct Jack had one of his better games. He played more snaps. We've been able to utilize him on both sides at the defensive end position. He plays hard.

I think that he needs to have a good week this week against a really good offensive line. DaMarcus will begin to get healthier and hopefully be in there a little bit more, and Kydran Jenkins was banged up and limited but he played, so it's really about -- probably Jack is our healthiest guy now, but we just want to continue to progress this week, and I think you'll see them all in the game.

Q. Was your screen offense so much more effective in this game because of how Michigan State was defending you, because everything else offensively was working? What all went into that?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we've actually had some really good success in the screen game, and we've had some games here in the past four games where it hasn't been as good, and it's just kind of been some little subtle things that have happened that have caused me not to call it as much.

I think when teams are playing deep and playing the pass, you've got to be good at, okay, if you can run it, great, but if you can't run it, you've got to get it to people behind the line of scrimmage or in that area to take the place of a run. Anytime you can drop back and get guys to rush and get guys at linebacker and the secondary to drop back, it gives a little space there in order to get that done.

We've worked really hard at kind of cleaning some odd things that have come up that have not made it work, and we called it one time early off a play action and they kind of stepped up and were in man coverage, and even though we had a chance to run, we kind of tripped, wasn't as open.

I cleaned that up and we called it off the drop-back passes after that, and we got those guys to drop and we had a lot of space to run. Our linemen got out cleaner. Our back got our cleaner. We got more accurate with the throw.

We need to continue to do a good job if not even better at making sure we can utilize that in different ways if we're not able to -- especially if we're not able to run the ball as effectively as we would like. These guys were slanting up quite a bit and gaming up a little bit up front, and we didn't have quite the success running the football as we did the week before.

Q. Has something clicked with Milton Wright lately? He seems like he's been really important for you, especially considering you're playing four and a half wide receivers right now.

JEFF BROHM: You know, I can't say enough about Milton and his work ethic. He's a guy in our receiving corps that practices probably harder than anybody. He goes hard every single snap. He's got great get-off. He competes. Even when he's nicked up, he wants to practice.

You know, he understands -- we've had Rondale Moore for a while, we've had David Bell. You know what, he's not getting the ball maybe as much as he deserves, so to speak, and he hasn't complained one time. Our quarterbacks have trust in him. He's gotten more consistent catching the football. But he runs his route hard and he's got good speed and he's got good size, and I think our quarterbacks have trusted in him more.

He's always there, so even when maybe he's not the priority in the route or in the concept, he's running it hard, so our guys know when they look to him, he's going to be running hard, and he's going to have an opportunity to catch the ball.

I'm proud of his work ethic. I hope that he can continue to make plays for us and stay healthy, and we'll continue to get the ball to him because teams are going to try to take away David and the other guys are going to need to be viable options.