PURDUE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 7, 2022

Jeff Brohm

Press Conference

JEFF BROHM: It's time to get back to work. Obviously a lot of things to work on. We understand that. When you're faced with challenges you got to respond, so our team needs to respond. We have a lot of work to do against a really good opponent who's playing at a really high level. Beaten the last two teams that beat us, both Iowa and Wisconsin.

Defense is aggressive. I think has been ranked No. 1 in the country. Done a great job. And offensively, really good running back. Quarterback come in and done a good job.

Going to their place is always going to be difficult. So we got our hands full. Our guys understand that. That's life in our conference, and we have to dig deep and work hard to improve and not feel sorry for ourselves.

We got to dig ourselves out of a hole and work hard to get better.

Q. After getting a chance to analyze the film a little bit, how would you evaluate just some of the things that are going wrong for Aidan O'Connell in this previous game? And when you're coaching a guy with as much experience as him, how to you move forward I guess trying to correct those mistakes, but also maybe trying to get him to flush the negatives and get back to what's made him so successful in the past?

JEFF BROHM: Well, like everything, it's a combination of things. As you look back on it, wasn't ideal conditions to throw, which is going to take off the ability to be precise in the passing game.

So we may have asked him to throw too much I guess. As you look around, Ohio State threw for 60 yards and won a game in similar conditions and relied on the running game.

So it means we have to be better and I have to be better at doing things in not ideal situations. We have not played well in bad elements. Even my brother, Brian, told me a story in. In the CFL in a key playoff game when they had Henry Burris who was the All-CFL quarterback and bad conditions were coming, real bad conditions, they played their backup. It was a running quarterback the entire game and won the game and didn't even play him at all.

Not that we would go to that extreme, but you have to be smart and make sure that you're doing things that are capable of being done.

At the same time, yes, he could have played better. The interception cost us. You know, he just missed by a little bit, and sometimes the elements affect that. Sometimes being able to have patience in the pocket affects it. It's a combination of all those things.

We were able to move the ball at times early on, and then the drives stalled and we weren't good on third down converting. They were able to get up and guard us and we weren't precise throwing the ball.

Unfortunately, we had way too many guys open for them early on for them for easy touchdowns. For us to win last year we were better as a overall team. We've got to play better as an overall team. All three segments have to do their part or we're not going to win the game.

Q. Falling behind the last two games, Iowa, Wisconsin. Obviously on Saturday against Iowa as well, kind of left your defense more susceptible to the ground game of both the Badgers and the Hawkeyes. Illinois is a similar team. They want to run the ball. Chase Brown, their running back, one of the best in the Big10. How important is it going to be to just get that early lead and get your defense in a favorable position to get them back to stopping the run the way they did in the first seven games of the season?

JEFF BROHM: Well it's always important to get the lead, but we have to be able to win games when we don't get the lead, and that hasn't happened. We have got to be able to stop the run against good running teams, which we are facing now, and that needs to be more consistent.

Really wide open guys in the passing game is what has really crushed us. That has to stop. It's a combination of coaching and putting them in the best position to do a better job. That's on us. We have to do a better job of that and making sure that doesn't happen.

You can't give up easy touchdowns. Our guys play hard. It's on us to get that fixed. As far as getting the lead, we have to be efficient. We can't turn it over. Whether we have the lead or not, we have to figure out a way to win when we don't, and that has not happened.

Q. You talked about the issues that persist in the secondary. I'm sure you're shuffling personnel. I am sure you've emptied your idea bucket. Is there anything that can be done ten games in that can shore the unit up back there?

JEFF BROHM: There is, and I think that's for us to figure out and get done. I do think we have not done a good enough job, including myself, to put them in the best position to succeed.

There are some things that I don't want to give away everything that we need to do different, but man coverage has hurt us. Man coverage without extra linebackers helping for crossers and middle-of-the-field throws has hurt us. Times we blitzed with no help has crushed us. There have been some times where we have a check or two on defense that did not get fully communicated across the board, which has hurt us more than a few times.

So that needs to stop. We need to play what we have called. There are just a multitude of small things. Yes, we need to do better job to put our players in the position to succeed and help them play better. That's our job to get that done.

Q. I notice Cam Allen did not start Saturday. Will that continue to be the case?

JEFF BROHM: Well, everybody I think from myself on down needs to pick it up and be more efficient and coach better and play better. Everybody struggles at times. I think we can help Cam Allen play better and get back to playing the way he's capable of.

Now, we have to all be willing tacklers and be in the right spot when do have a certain call made. If not, we're going to rotate guys around quite a bit. I think we can play better. We need to play better. We can help our guys hopefully get that done.

Now, we're going to face a good team and be challenged, so we've got to step up to the plate and find a way to get it done.

Q. Obviously Charlie is the best receiver and the guy who typically always gets open. There is a comfort level with Aidan. Having said all that, do you still think that Aidan looks to Charlie too much? And the targets just seem like they're out of sight every week.

JEFF BROHM: Well, could always be a possibility. We have to continue to work to spread the ball around. All of our guys need to find ways to get open. There were multiple times that we didn't gain much separation, and sometimes Aidan will press and go to a guy that he trusts a little bit more. Sometimes he's actually right going to it a little bit more; sometimes he's not.

So, yes, continuing to improve that group, possibly continue to go find ways to get ball -- get some yardage on the ground, continuing to find ways to get touchdowns when we get inside.

I did a bad job of that in running the football and being physical there, but definitely there is a lot of things that -- small things that add up that can cause you to be very inefficient, and that happened.

Q. Is Aidan's health affecting his play?

JEFF BROHM: I don't think so. I think that he could probably be pressing too much at times. I think maybe in those conditions we may have asked the passing game to be too precise and we didn't get open a whole lot. When we did, they found a way to grab us on double moves and get the pass interference and not give up the big play.

So it's just a combination of things. I think Aidan knows that he can play better and we're going to try to help him play better.

Q. Brendan Cropsey took the last punt. Is there I guess now a competition at punter? What was the thinking there?

JEFF BROHM: Jack has been nicked up unfortunately. Some type of tendonitis in his knee that got worse as the week went on. Going into the game we knew we could play both, and then I think towards the end we just got Cropsey in.

Q. You brought it up earlier, but why do you think your teams have struggled inclement weather situations?

JEFF BROHM: I think when you're a precision passing team, that's not going to be as effective, so in those conditions, you have to have a sound run game. You have to be committed to the run game. When you do throw, has to be some type of easy completion that isn't going to be stuck up in the wind very much.

You have to be really good on defense. I'll take the blame for that. We had thoughts of going with a multi-quarterback package and had some of that ready. We did not choose to use it during the game, but probably should have.

Q. Could that be in play this week?

JEFF BROHM: As I look forward I don't know what the weather is going to be. Did look great during the week and cold and windy during Saturday. Yes, everything will be in play.

Q. With Illinois's running back, Chase Brown, how does he stack up with the couple running backs you faced the last two games?

JEFF BROHM: Well, he's done an outstanding job. He's one of the best in the country. Their offensive line is big and physical. They've done a good job running the football, and that's kind of their strength. No. 1 in the country in defense and a really sound running game and just been efficient enough in the passing game, with a couple good speed receivers. That's why they're playing well.

But he's tough. He's been tough. He's physical. He's got good hands. We're going to have to figure out a way to keep him in check or could be a long day.

Q. Just two of 16 on third down. Was that more of a by-product of what didn't happen on first and second down Saturday?

JEFF BROHM: Well, third down, that's when they got up in our face and challenged us, and we weren't able to win one-on-one battles. When we did, we weren't precise enough to complete the pass in those conditions. As you look back on it, we need to run the ball more on third down.

Q. Charlie doesn't have a lot of yards after the catch the last two games. Are defenses playing him a little bit differently? Is there something else where he just can't get away from defenders or kind of how do you sum up what's happened there?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think Charlie has played very hard. He's been very tough. He's been limited more in practice than we have ever had a receiver be limited, but we have to do what we can to get him to the game. I think that hurts him.

He has more probably from what I saw contested catches than anybody in the country. That means he's not getting real open, not as much room to run.

So whether or not it's his strength or not, it's just a combination of a lot of things. They're trying get up and guard him in his face and he's working hard to get open and catch balls.

But when he's the focal point, he's going to demand a lot of the attention, and we have to improve in areas around him.

Q. It's always dangerous asking you a big-picture question, but despite the two losses, despite what's happened, you're still in a position to achieve one of your goals coming up this week. Do you even attempt to motivate your team? How do you address that with your team, if at all?

JEFF BROHM: We brought it up briefly last week. Obviously that didn't work. No, we're going to get right back to our only goal is to win the game and play better football.

We have to do it against a team that's really hot. I know they lost last week, but they been playing really good football. Last year we had to score on like the last drive to come back and win.

As we go back and look, really last year against us was the first game that they brought out this new style of defense they're playing, which is somewhat of a 5-1 package, guys stacked on the line of scrimmage.

But that's the first time they ever played it against us. They mixed it in and it was very effective. Then from there, they've taken it and it's almost all they run at this point. They're that good at it.

So it presents challenges. It's going to cause you to have to figure out way to run some. They're going to load the box and make you throw the football more than you like normally.

But they have a lot of mixtures off of it. So this is something we have studied a lot because it's basically what they've ran the entire year. After our game last year they started to run it more. It helped them upset Penn State and played a lot of other really good teams.

Now they've got really efficient quarterback play with the transfer and an outstanding running game. When you have that, makes for a really good team.

Q. Why do you think it has worked for them?

JEFF BROHM: Well, it's a great scheme in my opinion. We studied it. Really haven't -- we ran it a couple times this past week. It works because they, like I said, they got guys up on the line of scrimmage, guys in the box. It's hard to run against.

When you pass you got to get it out faster because they have a lot of guys coming after the quarterback, and their secondary has played well. They don't press a lot so that you get an easy completion, but they're going to play off and a little bit of catch technique and sit on some routes and make you double move them.

Like we did with the last team, they grabbed us every time we did and just and took the PI. You have to be patient enough to figure out a way to get something over the top.

So it's been very efficient for them this year. They've shut down teams. And to be ranked No. 1 in the country in total defense, you're doing something really good.

Q. Any update on King Doerue or Chris Jefferson?

JEFF BROHM: Chris will not be available this game, and King, as of right now, probably will not.

Q. So some of the success you had against Iowa over the years, you have been able to hit them deep down the sideline, things like that. Seemed like they got everything funneled to the middle of the field. Was that anything they did schematically different from the past? Was it conditions? What went into that?

JEFF BROHM: Well, as you look at it, they blitzed us less in this game. Last year they blitzed us a little more and gave us single coverage on the outside and we were able to hit quite a few things.

This game, especially when they got the lead, they cover you down with two safeties and get up in your face because they know they have help, and that makes it hard to pass against. We've always known that.

Last year I was surprised they came after us as much and it helped us quite a bit. And of course, they probably did because we had the lead and they wanted to be more aggressive. This year they got to play their base system. You have to be able to run the ball against that. You just have to be able to it.

There is a reason they're in the Top 5 in the country every year in defense with good players, but they're not getting the five star players. They're getting the most out of their guys. They're very sound in what they do. They keep it in front. They challenge routes. They know where their help is.

In two-high looks they walk out on the slot receivers all the way, get up in their face, and it causes you to work hard to get open.

So yes, they did a good job. And yes, in those conditions the holes were smaller and we aren't able to hit the few we had. It was not a good day for us.

Q. At the start of the year seemed like you wanted to involve Elijah Canion is a very specific condensed field role. Is he going to be back this season?

JEFF BROHM: Doesn't look like it. There has been quite a -- not quite a few, but obviously some guys that haven't been able to play for us. I don't see to happening any time soon.

Q. You mentioned before the importance for this team of going out and getting the lead first, not falling behind early. How does that factor into your approach on the first few drives?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we talk about that. That is important. We were able to move the ball early. Got stopped on third down a couple times getting yards and then got down.

And then from there, that's when we turned it over the first time, which caused them to score the second they touched it. Went up 14-nothing. Then we got down to the red zone again, threw another interception, and that made for a long day.

Now, like I said earlier, that's a perfect world. We have to be able to win when we don't get the lead. That we have not been good at. We have to get better at it. That's the way it is. We have to have a better plan, we have got to be tougher, we have to fight through it, and we have got to not make mistakes, continue to eliminate -- well, try it eliminate as many big plays as we can and get touchdowns.

So it's just a combination of all these things. We have a lot to work on, and we have to man up and see how tough we can possibly be, because it's going to take everybody pulling together to try and get it done.