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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2010

Danny Hope

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to week 7 of the Purdue football season. The Boilermakers will be traveling to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes of Ohio State. The game is at 12:00 noon on the Big Ten Network.

Q. Coach, first question. Can you talk about the resiliency of your team. After the Toledo game, things are looking a little grim, and then the way you've bounced back these past couple weeks.
COACH HOPE: We didn't think they were all so grim. We knew we had to play better. There were areas of our football team that were really young. We're still really young in some areas, but we do have game experience. As we've gained some experience, we've gained some confidence and have played better. Proud of our guys. We have a close football team and a really good football family, and they always have a great willingness to comply, and they're always very willing to prepare.
We practice really well as a football team. Even when we weren't executing as well as we wanted to earlier in the season, we knew we were practicing really good, and maybe we weren't playing at times as well as we were practicing. So we felt like we were getting it done and preparing ourselves. So it never was quite as dismal to us when we lost a couple games early. We thought we could be a pretty good football team, and we still can.
We can be a good football team, but we have to get better. That's probably the most important thing for us right now is to continue getting better, as we have every day and week by week.

Q. What's been the key? You've gotten a lot better in stopping the run the last couple of weeks. What's been the key in that?
COACH HOPE: There have been several things. I think we've become more physical across the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and we're still -- we still have a lot of work to do, and we're not near where we want to be. But I think we've increased our physicality across the line of scrimmage running the football against each other in practice helps in some ways. That's the style of offense. And we have featured the run a little more the last couple of weeks. I think that helps your team become more physical, just become a by-product of it.
We weren't as physical as we needed to be early in the season, and we recognized it and had an opportunity to work on it in the open week. Came out in full pads, not as a punishment, but to go out and work on playing physical across the line of scrimmage, and our guys stepped up some at that point in time.
I think our linebackers are playing a lot better. We have an experienced group of linebackers. Most of the guys that are playing are experienced. You know, Beckford has a year and a half now as a starter. The other guys have been there a long time. I think Joe Holland has more starts than anybody on our football team.
But I think our linebackers started reading their keys, recognizing the keys and reads a lot quicker, and started playing downhill a lot faster and a lot more physical. That in conjunction with our front getting better. We have young guys that played on the inside that are still learning how to line up and knock the front back and take care of their gaps.

Q. You've had a lot of success the last couple -- or the last four or five weeks in running the football. Now you're going against an extremely strong run defense. How important is it, or how confident are you that, if necessary, you can throw the ball well?
COACH HOPE: We're going to have to be able to have a formidable passing attack in order to be balanced on offense, and I think being balanced on offense is very important, and it's very important to us. So we're going to have to be able to throw the football, and we're comfortable with the progress that we've made and feel like we can throw the football and have a strong passing attack.
I think we have a quarterback that has good arm strength. He's a very good decision-maker. He's starting to become more confident in his reads and his throws and being more assertive with his throws. I think that shows some real progress the last couple of weeks. So we feel like we can pass the football. We want to be able to run it too.
We'd like to be balanced from an offensive attack. So it's important we're able to throw. It's going to be really important this week because we're playing against a football team that's really strong across the front seven. They're excellent against the run. We're going to have to have some thread of the passing game in order to help our run game out. So we'll go into every Saturday with a plan to try to be balanced. I thought last week we would throw the football for 200 yards and rush the football for about 200 yards, and the play calling would be about 50-50.
I mentioned this before. I think Coach Nord has a really uncanny way about him to keep things balanced. Obviously, we ran a little bit more than we threw for last week, but we weren't far off late in the game of being balanced, almost 50-50.

Q. And the last question for me and more of an issue thing, the story last week, you probably saw it or may have seen it in "Sports Illustrated" about agents. From your perspective, how concerning is that? Is there anything coaches can do to deal with the issues of agents and players?
COACH HOPE: There is some concern. I haven't had time to read the article. I saw the headlines when the magazine came in the mail, and that's as far as I got with T I heard a lot of people talking about the article, and there are a lot of concerns of communicating with your players, your seniors, your seniors to be and the current seniors on your roster, about the agent situation. I think it's really important.
The biggest concern is the effect that it has on graduation. There's a time and a place for agents, and they can be a big part of it. But the important thing is get these guys graduated, and there's too many guys that get led off track in some ways from graduation by agents that really are not top level NFL prospects. You know, so the graduation part of it is the biggest issue, I think. You've got to get them graduated. We try to get our guys graduated by December. That's huge.
If we get them graduated by December, then they can do whatever they want to in the spring in regards to pursuing their NFL career. Leave town, go to training camp, sign three or four agents if they want to. We've got to get them graduated. That's the issue really.

Q. Thanks, Danny.
THE MODERATOR: Doug Griffith.

Q. Hi, Danny. How much do you relish the role of being an underdog? Is that something you play up with your team as the days come closer to the game time?
COACH HOPE: Well, it can be a motivating factor in some situations. I don't think anybody on our team is surprised that we're an underdog going into this game. What we need to focus on is the great opportunity that we have in front of us this weekend and that we need to play well. We'll have to get better as a football team to win this football game this Saturday. We'll have to play really well. We'll have to minimize mistakes and take care of the football.
You know, the opportunity that we have in front of us this weekend is huge. It's an outstanding opportunity. We'll focus on that and not focus on being the underdog.

Q. Danny, do you subscribe to the theory of it's not who you're playing but when you're playing them? Of course with that in mind, Ohio State comes off the loss to Wisconsin. So you know they're not going to be a happy bunch coming into Saturday's game.
COACH HOPE: Regardless of what happened in their game last week or where they're at, they're a great football team that's always competing for the top spots in college football. You're not often going to catch them on a down day. We can't count on that.
What we have to do is focus on our game plan and get our guys lined up with a plan that allows them to be as successful as they can and focus on executing. When we play them and where they're at, that's all irrelevant to us. We have to play really well to beat this Ohio State football team, and that's what we have to focus on, not if they lost last week or won last week or if they're going to be mad when we get there. Those are just elements, just like the big crowd and crowd noise is your elements. There are no excuses.
We have to play well, and we have to execute well to have a chance to beat this outfit.

Q. When you look back at last year's game, you guys did a good job of containing Terrelle Pryor. How were you able to do that, and what kinds of things does your team have to do this year to keep him under wraps?
COACH HOPE: The things that were important last year will also be important to achieve this year. You might have to go about achieving them in a different fashion, different play-calling in a lot of ways. But he's a great player, and we're going to have to go out there and play really hard and really well to have any chance to limit or contain him because he's an outstanding player.
Any time that you can affect the play of the quarterback, you can affect the outcome of the game. A team often goes as their quarterback goes. So we'll have a plan, but they have a great football team, a lot of great players. Our defense will have to play very well in order to minimize what these guys can do from a point scoring standpoint. They're a great football program.

Q. Last thing from me. In the NFL, there's a lot of talk of trying to end the violent, flagrant hits via suspensions or heavy fines to help protect players. This past Saturday a Rutgers player was paralyzed from the neck down. Does college football need to follow a similar path, or at the end of the day, do people just need to realize that football is a violent game?
COACH HOPE: Every phase of football that's stepped up in regards to safety. The helmet-to-helmet rule has been enforced, and it's been a point of emphasis. A lot of people get lost in the interpretation of it. But the bottom line, if you strike an opponent above the shoulder pads that's defenseless, there's a foul. You know, that's a good rule in a lot of ways. Sometimes it's a judgmental call, if guys are just playing football hard. And the intent is what they're looking for, in my mind.
So if a person intentionally strikes a blow to an opponent above the shoulder pads, that's a serious foul. I think they're doing a good job at all levels of enforcing that. They've changed that in a lot of ways. There's no running up the field and hunting down someone in a different colored jersey because of the rule. But everybody has stepped up in that regards, and I think there's been a lot of progress already made.

Q. Hi, Danny. I'm wondering how important was the fact that you had two weeks to retool the offense, and did that extra time make possible what has followed? And along with that, would you like to maintain the run/pass ratio moving forward that you have now no matter who your quarterback is or receiver or running back?
COACH HOPE: We want to be balanced, balanced offensively, like we talked about a little bit earlier. You know, I want to be in the spread, in the shotgun, and throw the football. That's certainly signature to Purdue. And score a lot of points in the spread offense. But also want a future running style quarterback in the offense, what I talked about when I first came back to Purdue.
The open week that you referenced to earlier was critical in us rebounding as a football team. We were a very young team when the season started, and we accrued some injuries to our very, very best players. These players are some of the very best players in our league. The open week came at a great time to give us a chance to get reorganized, realigned offensively, address some issues in regards to our level of play in some other positions in our football team and get acclimated to a new quarterback and what he could do to help us win right now.
I don't believe, if we had the open week, that we would have won the last two ball games. I think it's taken us some time to adjust, and the open week came at a perfect time. No doubt about it. That helped us have some confidence going in the Northwestern game in that the open week came just at a perfect time. And the players knew that too.
COACH HOPE: I read that you were the one that nicknamed Ryan Kerrigan Superman. I wonder how you came up with that. Did that have anything to do with "Remember the Titans"?
COACH HOPE: It has a lot to do with the way he plays. He can do anything from a player standpoint. He can go longer and harder than most. He's faster than most. He's bigger than most. Stronger than most. Smarter than most. Better looking than most. He's Superman. He's our Superman.

Q. And last thing, a kid from the area, Logan Link, was pressed into service, I guess after not playing the previous three years. I just wondered if you could tell me a little bit how this rise has happened for him and what's your reaction to what he's been able to do.
COACH HOPE: Well, he came here as a walk-on. He's a smart guy and a good football player and really has pushed himself and developed himself physically in the weight room. He's a smart guy that understands football, and he started playing faster and playing with more confidence, and he was always a good hitter, and he was where he was supposed to be at on most of the plays throughout his career at Purdue.
And over a period of time, he won a starting job. We had a complete turnover in the secondary from last year to this year. We lost all four starters in the secondary, and we didn't have many defensive backs, healthy defensive backs on scholarship out there in the spring. And Logan had a chance to compete, and he emerged out of spring as a number one.
So the timing of it was really good for him to step up, and he hasn't slowed down a bit, and he's kept the starting job. We're really proud of him, and you guys should be proud of him too because he plays hard, hits hard, and really loves to play the game.

Q. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Anything else from callers on the line? Okay. We'll go ahead and get started here in the room.

Q. Somebody we didn't ask you about on Sunday. Mike Eargle. Do you expect to have him this weekend?
COACH HOPE: He and a few others dinged up in the game, we'll see how they do today. We're optimistic we'll have everybody back for this weekend with the exception of Kitchens. Justin Kitchens probably won't be back this week, and Justin Siller probably won't be back this week. I think the others will be okay.
We didn't do hardly anything on Sunday. We went outside and stretched them in the warm sun and stretched them twice and did a few striders and walked through their mistakes they made on Saturday and got them out of here.

Q. You mentioned Sunday Rick Schmeig played as well as he has at Purdue. What was it different that he did on Saturday that he hadn't done before that allowed him to play at that level?
COACH HOPE: He played a lot harder and a lot more physical. He has the past couple of weeks. I don't think he came in the training camp in great shape. He wasn't terrible, but not in camp shape. If you're out there surviving because you're not in the best shape, sometimes it's hard to shine in camp. He didn't compete as hard in camp. He's practiced himself in camp. He's lost some weight. He's a little under 300 pounds. I think he's about 298, 299. So he's lost 15, 18 pounds the last few weeks and gotten himself in good shape.
He's able to go a lot harder. He was really good from a technical standpoint Saturday. He was really good from an assignment point Saturday and did a really good job fitting up on his blocks. He played very well. He's a good football player. He's a guy that can really make a difference on our football team right now.

Q. How much did last year's Ohio State win help you get O.J. and Ricardo?
COACH HOPE: I think they had had a great experience here for that -- for the same in Ross-Ade Stadium, and the fans poured out on the field. So that was great to be a part of that so you could see the school spirit we have here at Purdue. I think it gave them a great feel for Purdue.
This past weekend we had some great recruits in, and we didn't beat Ohio State, we beat Minnesota. It was homecoming, and great fans were there. Tons of the students were there and had a great atmosphere. They left with a great feeling about it too. It added something to the day in Ross-Ade Stadium.
I think it also -- they maybe brought some credibility to the direction of the program, and they could see themselves coming on board. Timing in life is really important. Timing in the recruiting process can really be important, that you land at the right spot at the right time. You could see what the timing did for a guy like Drew Brees or Stuart Schweigert, what those guys did for Purdue timing-wise.
From a timing standpoint, a lot of guys are looking at our program right now and seeing some great promise and the fact that they can fit in and make a difference, and they feel the timing is right. I think that aided with the timing part of the recruiting process with those guys as well.

Q. Antavian got the ball in his hands a bunch of times in the passing game on Saturday. Is it important to your offense to get him the ball in the passing game a little bit because of his ability to make people miss and get RAC yards?
COACH HOPE: Obviously, it's his quickness. I think he's a good football player and a confident football player, and he's a play maker. Coach Nord has his way of doing things from a play-calling standpoint. I know he always on a weekly basis lists who the top play makers are on offense, gets input from the staff, who you think the top play makers are this week and try to figure out how to get those guys the ball.
And Antavian is usually going to be on the short list of guys we consider our top play makers. He's a smart play maker, and he's a low rip guy. You don't have to show him a bunch of times, and he maintains the assignment part and the memory very well. He's a good football player and has good composure about him.

Q. Just one quick one from him. You got Sean Robinson in. Where do you see him fitting in, and what is his role going to be through the second half of the season as I imagine you try to get him a little bit of experience?
COACH HOPE: We're going to play him and get him in a position to help us win, and we're going to do that now. That's important to his development, and we're going to take the redshirt off of him -- and we have to in order to get him ready to play. So we're going to play him now and help get him ready to help us win now.
That's what I anticipate seeing him do some this weekend and even more so with the weekends to come.

Q. Was that an easy decision to make to take the redshirt off of him or was it --
COACH HOPE: Really easy. We got to win, got to get ready to win. You got to get your ammo ready. He's good ammo. Again, he was recruited for the style of offense we want to run here at Purdue. That's the spread offense. And it has a way to manufacture a strong running game that can feature the quarterback and have a guy with a strong arm that can throw the ball all over the field, like we've done in the past. He's an excellent prospect for what we want to do and a good fit. So I think it's going to happen pretty quick, and he's going to help us win.
He's a good prospect, really into it. He's a smart guy, asks a lot of questions. He'll learn his lessons, and they'll be sound with him when he does. He won't forget him.

Q. You mentioned a lot of things that you like about Kerrigan. Is there one thing that really impresses you about the way he plays?
COACH HOPE: He's a team first guy. With all the accolades and all the great things that he does and all the great qualities that he possesses, he always puts the team and the teammates first, 100 percent of the time. He really does. That's really impressive to me.

Q. How can he be better?
COACH HOPE: There's going to be other positions that he'll -- other positions he'll be utilized at at the next level. They'll play him some with his hand down, and some people play him thumb up. Maybe like what they've done with Okeafor over the years and some of our other defensive end prospects. So there are some things down the road he's going to have to learn to do on a regular basis at the next level.
The things that he does really well, you know, effort-wise, and he's really strong. You know, he's got -- you can have a guy that can bench press a lot of weight, but he can't land his punches and get all this force behind him, and Ryan can. He can get all the force behind him, and he has a great knack, or a sense of timing, when he strikes a blow with his hands. Those are things that I think separate him in a lot of ways. You see him knocking a bunch of 300-pounders back in the quarterback slap because he plays out the blow with his hands and plays great leverage.
The biggest difference maker as a lineman going from the college level to the NFL level is probably the use of hands. You know, the quickness and the speed and the different weapons and the methodology of using your hands. So he's still certainly developmental in that phase of it like most college linemen are.

Q. You're at the halfway point here, depending how you look at it. What does this team do well?
COACH HOPE: The last two games, we showed up in all three phases. We showed up on offense. We showed up on defense. And we showed up on special teams, all three phases. And we're getting better, and we practice well, and we have a great willingness to prepare and a great willingness to comply and a desire to win.
I think that we have really good potential right now as a football team and great potential for the future. I think that we're about, you know, 50 percent, 60 percent along to where we could be at some point in time this year, to be the team that we could be this year. We're not there yet. I like the potential that we have as a football team for this season. We're going to keep getting better and better as long as we can keep them healthy.
I see great potential. We do a lot of things well. We have a lot of redeeming qualities as a football team. Number one is we're getting better.

Q. You talk a lot about earmarking specific areas of improvement. Is there a priority number one right now at this point? We absolutely have to get better doing this.
COACH HOPE: Every position has an area earmarked just for today. We met this morning. I don't have the list on me. But each coach has an area at his position earmarked to make some improvement on.
For example, our defensive line the last two or three weeks has been to line up and play more physical and try to get more knock-backs, knock the front back more. We've done better at that. We still have a ways to go, but we're doing it some. We're doing it more each week. Eventually a point in time will come when we do it every play. That's when you're really ready. We also need to knock them back and maintain our gap integrity. You can't get covered up while you're knocking them back and not be able to play the gap that you're responsible for.
So earmarked area for our defensive line today would be knock them back and maintain your gap integrity. That's an area, if we stepped up in that area this week as a defensive line, we get better as a football team. If every position can do something a little bit better this week, we're going to be better this weekend when we play, and we're going to have to be if we want to win. And we want to win, so we have to get better. We have an area for every -- earmarked area for every position on our football team starting with today's practice. We had that meeting this morning.

Q. Back to Kerrigan. When you reflect on last year's game against Ohio State, his individual performance, what he did that way, where does that rank in your mind as far as his individual performances?
COACH HOPE: It was a great performance, but sometimes you can be mesmerized by the numbers. I thought he had a great performance this past Saturday for the number of different ways people try to contain him. You know, he's not all the time landing your punches. You know, he's getting close enough just to swing them. It can impact the play of a quarterback. Even though he didn't accrue any sacks this past Saturday, he still applied pressure on the quarterback.
So I think he always plays very well. His play last year and almost every Saturday impacts the outcome of the game. You know, it did last year, and if you look at every game we played this year, his play affects the outcome of the game in some ways. But his really did last year.

Q. How is Terrelle Pryor better as a passer this year?
COACH HOPE: I haven't done a year-to-year study of his development. I hear about it and read about it, but I know Washington played last year in the bowl game. He was very confident in the pocket, threw very well. He has a big league arm. He's more consistent throwing the ball now. I don't know what his numbers are. But as far as the rhythm and timing part of it, I think he's improved from where he was when I first came back to Purdue. He certainly has improved a lot.
But he's a great talent. He's a great talent.

Q. Did Robert and Keith have surgery yesterday? And if so, how did that go?
COACH HOPE: Yes, and things went fine.

Q. Coach, can you talk about some of the things that teams are doing to kind of slow down Ryan Kerrigan. I've seen several -- what do you do against a guy like that? What are some of the teams doing?
COACH HOPE: They've tried, and you can't. People slide the protection that way where that way he has someone facing him regardless of what gap he comes in. People double-team him with the linemen. They double-team him with the backs. They double-team him with the tight end. They do everything that you can possibly do to try to slow him down some.
It creates opportunities for everyone else, but that would have some kind of game plan too if I was playing against him. You know, run away from him a lot.

Q. There's going to be a lot of talk about last year's game. Obviously, around campus, there's going to be a lot of talk about it. Players aren't going to be able to avoid it. Do you feel like you need to address last year's game and put it in perspective and talk to them about it as you prepare?
COACH HOPE: Obviously, a big win like that is good for your football team. It gave our football team some confidence last year. It certainly, you know, helps us as we prepare, knowing that we've had some success in the past. But this is a different football team, and you have to play the game. So we have to get ready to play.
We know we have to play very well. We're outmanned in some ways, great personnel, a lot of great, great players. We have to play very good on Saturday in order to beat an Ohio State team at home, and we know that. We can't focus a whole lot on last year. Everybody can talk about it and read about it and have fun with it. We have to get ready to play. The reality part is we have to play really well, and we know that. But we can.

Q. Is there more confidence coming into the Ohio State game this year than there was last year?
COACH HOPE: We had a lot more seniors last year on our football team, and that was a good thing in some ways. The games that we had lost last year going into the Ohio State game, the turnovers were a factor. We had played hard and competed down in Eugene, Oregon, and played those guys to the wire, played Notre Dame right to the wire, played a very good Northwestern team and sported them six turnovers, most of them in scoring position.
So we knew that we would have been a winning football team if we had taken care of the turnover issue. So we had some confidence going into that game, and we have some confidence again this year going into the game. We've managed some areas that were areas of liability to our team last year. They've become areas of reliability this year in 2010.
We've had some rough sledding along the way as well as injuries to key players, but the things we've focused on and things we were hanging our hat on, we've been on task all along.

Q. Do you allow players to think about being second place in the Big Ten, to be two wins away from Bowl eligibility, or do you want them focusing on the game at hand?
COACH HOPE: We need to focus on the game. They can do the math. But how you go about your business is important this weekend. They're a big place, and they're a great team, and there's going to be a lot of emotion.
But one of two things is going to happen on Saturday. We're going to come out of there tied for first place, or we're going to come out tied for second place. That's the way we've got to look at it as a football team. You can't go into an atmosphere like that afraid you might lose. We can't do that. We have to go down prepared and have fun and fire out of both holsters, believe in the game plan, and minimize our mistakes.
But one of those two things are going to happen on Saturday. We'll be okay.

Q. Ohio State has one of the better, if not probably the best defense statistically and talent-wise in the Big Ten. What weaknesses do they have, and how do you plan to exploit them?
COACH HOPE: I don't think they have any weaknesses. I really don't. It's going to be about execution, the team that plays the best. We'll have to play very well to match up with them. I don't see a weakness. They're very physical across the defensive front. They're the experts with regards to talent at the next level, the NFL level, and they probably have five or six or early second round picks in their front seven that will happen this year and maybe a couple next year. So they're extremely talented.
Their linebackers run really fast and hit really hard. They're great tacklers. They tackle very, very well. I don't see them having any weaknesses. We're going to have to play well, and we're going to have to execute the game plan.
We have a plan. We have a plan we think -- we always go into a game with a plan we think gives us an edge somehow in every phase of the game. But we have to execute that plan in order to have a chance.

Q. It's going to be extremely loud there. What are you going to do this week to prepare the team to get ready for the volume?
COACH HOPE: We have a noise control plan for our offense. It's irrelevant really to the defense. But to our offense. And we have two or three different things that we can do. Some teams are better at dealing with noise than others are, and I think this football team this year does it very well. I've been surprised how well they've done that part of it.
The first time we practiced our noise control offense, we were really good at it and kind of had a knack for it. It's going to be really loud. It's an element. You know, it's not an excuse. It's one of those mind over matter things, where if you try not to mind, it won't matter so much. And so go out there and do what we do in order to deal with noise.
We have a plan, and our offense is good with that plan. We've used it twice this year already, and we haven't had any miscues. If you put all the film on from the season, you can't tell when we're using it and when we're not, and that's a good sign. That's good for Saturday. We're comfortable with that.
Now, it's going to be loud, and there will probably be a hiccup along the way, but hopefully it's not going to be a difference maker in the game. We don't think it will be.

Q. Danny, after the Notre Dame game, to paraphrase, one of the things you said, you talked about how many guys were playing their first game, and you saw your team growing up in that first game a lot. I just have noticed, it seems like a lot of these young guys on your team that are very talented just seem to be -- their confidence just seems to be growing substantially.
I'm asking, if I'm seeing this, are you seeing the same thing? Not only in games but in practice and when you're looking back at the practice and game film?
COACH HOPE: I think we've gained a lot of confidence as a football team. I think it's really evident, when you go from no experience to having half a dozen games experience, that's a lot. That's a lot compared to where they were at.
But some of these guys are players. They're players. They were great players in high school, and they're players. Players make plays. That's a good sign. We've done well in the recruiting process. We went out and recruited some guys that had other options, other great schools to pick. We went into recruiting areas and took some of the best players out of recruiting areas, and they came to Purdue because they had the confidence enough to know they can impact the program and become a success right away. So we've recruited some confident guys anyway in the recruiting process, or they wouldn't be here.
They came to Purdue because they felt like they could come here and impact the program and play and start. I think we've recruited some good talent, but we've recruited some real players. So I feel good about our young guys. And anybody that's been following us, you can see a lot of our best players are brand new to their position.

Q. Danny, and I go back to the first game again. After the game, you thought the offensive line, considering the circumstances, played pretty well, and it just seems like how happy have you been with their progress now that we've reached the halfway point of the season?
COACH HOPE: They're further along than we thought they'd be right now. I always thought they'd be okay. I never was in a panic because we had a couple of really good players back. Some of the guys that we're plugging in were guys that had been in the system for a while. The concerns were that you had a guy that was going to take over the center spot that had never played in a college football game and never played center until we started camp.
He's done a heck of a job. He's one of our better line prospects, or we wouldn't have put him in that position. It's the toughest position to play on the football team, next to the quarterback, is the center position. I think Peters Drey is going to be a great player at that position. His development has made a huge difference.
And the development of Nick Mondek has made a huge difference because he was nullified through his position and struggled throughout camp to be proficient at his blocking skills and techniques. We were getting into practice number 25 and 26, and he still was not practicing his position well enough to think that we might -- that he could get it done in a game yet.
He has turned into a really good player on the offensive line. He's really become more natural for him now, and he's able to assert himself a lot better. His talents are able to kick in. He's able to utilize his talents a lot more now that he's used to the position.
So his development and Peters' development, those guys being good players because they're big, strong, big bodied guys that run good. So their improvement has really impacted our offensive line. I think our offensive line is playing really good right now. They're aggressive. They play really well together. They've been technically sound, and they've been getting better every day and every game.

Q. Can I ask you one followup about Peters? You threw the word out saying the potential would be great with him. Is it more what he's doing on the field or what he does away from the field preparing to be on the field, or is it a combination of both?
COACH HOPE: His development has surprised me some because he was underdeveloped in some ways coming out of high school because he was a big guy that played a lot of basketball and had not had a great commitment to the weight room. He's only been here at Purdue for a couple of years. His weight room numbers, the things that he shows weight room-wise to me are an indication that he could be really strong. And there's some correlation between athleticism and being really strong, and this guy could have really good weight room numbers.
You look back over the years, at your best offensive linemen, you look back and say which one of those guys could play anywhere across the front? He could be our starting tackle right now. He could be our starting guard right now, and he's our starting center right now. I haven't had many guys that were good enough to be a starter at all three of those spots, and he could be. That's why I'm looking at him and going this guy -- he's 6'5" and 300 pounds. That's a good size center with 2 1/2 years of eligibility left, and he runs fast and has good weight room numbers, and he's just getting started.
I think he has the ability to be a good offensive line prospect, an upper tier offensive lineman and one that has a chance to play on Sundays.

Q. Coach, your team has won the last three conference road games. I know talking about last year's team is completely different to this year. What's really been the difference in going on the road and winning in the Big Ten? Even with the hostile atmospheres you played with at Michigan, IU, and Northwestern?
COACH HOPE: I think that we have mentally a pretty strong football team. I think we do a good job of preparing our guys. I think that we want to win. As we keep getting better, it increases our odds and chances of winning on Saturday, regardless of whether we're at home or on the road. I'm pleased with our football team that we played well on the road, but, again, it's kind of been a product of where we've been at in development as a football team in those wins.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.
COACH HOPE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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