TRANSPERFECT MUSIC CITY BOWL: PURDUE VS TENNESSEE

December 29, 2021

Brian Brohm

Brad Lambert

Nissan Stadium

Purdue Boilermakers

Press Conference

BRIAN BROHM: Just like to open up and say our team is very excited to be here in the Music City. Offensively our guys are excited. They've had fun week of preparation, and they're itching to get back out on the field after a long month of hard work.

BRAD LAMBERT: Yeah, I would echo the same things. Defensively I've got a great challenge in front of us, but the guys are excited about it. Had good preparation. They're excited about playing. It's always an opportunity to play one more game, and the guys really want to do that. It's an opportunity for some guys that haven't played to go out and play and show us what they can do.

Obviously without George being here, a guy like Jack Sullivan, he's been waiting his turn and he's excited about the opportunity that lies ahead of him.

I would echo what Coach says, just excited about being here. Had a good month of practice, and in and out for us as a staff, but it's been a lot of fun getting ready. Thanks to the Music City Bowl, it's been a lot of fun to be here, taking care of our guys, and we really appreciate it.

Q. Coach Lambert, can you talk about the uniqueness that Tennessee brings to the table? You talked about the challenge. What are some things that stand out in maybe being different than you might have seen?

BRAD LAMBERT: Well, number one thing is tempo. Normally in a game you make 60 to 70 calls in a game, you get about 30 seconds in between each play. With these guys you get about six seconds in between each play. The tempo of it is the difference. We had an opportunity to play Coach when he was at Central Florida, so got a decent feel for the pace of the game. The guys will have to get a feel for that. We've tried to replicate that. Our offense has helped us with that, playing fast in practice.

They're a very talented group across the board. Hooker is doing a good job for them, playing at an extremely high level. The tailback is really good, Small. He's running the ball, and they've got good balance offensively, so they create some issues for us so, you've got to stop the run. If they get to running the ball on you the tempo can become a problem for you.

And they're a big play offense. They've hit people with big plays, whether it's Georgia, Kentucky, whoever, they have the ability to hit you with the big play. That's what we've been emphasizing with our guys is get lined up, make sure we've got our cleats in the dirt and we're ready to play.

Q. Brad, when you came to Purdue, one of the appealing parts was coaching in the Big Ten and coaching at Purdue. What have you learned about this season coaching in the Big Ten and coaching at Purdue that maybe you didn't know before?

BRAD LAMBERT: Well, you know, the line of scrimmage is really different in the Big Ten. Like I hear Coach Hagan saying say it all the time, it's a lineman's league, and that's been the biggest difference. You've got to buckle up and be really good on the line of scrimmage.

I think that's been the biggest difference for me is whether you're playing Minnesota or Wisconsin or Iowa, just really good offensive lines in this league.

I think that's the thing that's been different for me, and it's been -- it's stretched you as a coach. Okay, how do we defend this. I've been in conference USA, the ACC, the SEC where it's a little bit more wide-open, spread out. Our offense gives us the opportunity to do that every day, so we get to see both sides of it. Our offense does a great job spreading the ball out and spreading it around.

So we get both sides of it, but that's probably for me the biggest thing in the Big Ten is just the line of scrimmage.

Q. Brian, just talk about how Aidan can use this game maybe as a setup for next year, and now he really can take ownership of this offense and maybe become the face of the program?

BRIAN BROHM: Yeah, I think Aidan O'Connell has done a tremendous job this year and really just a great story for him coming in as a walk-on quarterback. As you know, starting basically ninth on the depth chart and working his way up to getting some starts a couple years ago, winning the starting job, then being the backup to start this year. The kid has never lost focus. He's never lost that hunger, that desire to be the best player that he can be.

This last stretch of the season I think he's played phenomenal, the last six games. His QBR was up to third in the country. His completion percentage is through the roof. He's been playing some really good, sound fundamental football.

I think he's gone -- I don't know, on the national picture I think he's gone a little slightly unnoticed. I think if you talk to coaches around the league, I think they're noticing what he's done and how efficient and effective he has been.

And yes, I do think this is a big opportunity for him where basically the only game on TV, everyone is going to have their eyes on this game that's watching football, and they'll get a chance to see what he can do, and hopefully he can go out and show case what he's been doing the last six weeks with how effective he's been executing our passing game and how efficient he's been.

If he plays like he's been playing and plays a good game, hopefully he can open some eyes and he can have some high expectations going into next year for him.

Yeah, he's going to take over the franchise, be the face and be the guy.

Q. What has made Aidan efficient and effective as you mentioned and how much do you think he will be impacted by not having David Bell and Milton Wright?

BRIAN BROHM: Yeah, so Aidan's biggest strengths are he's very accurate with the football. That is number one, and that comes from just having really clean, efficient fundamentals. He's become a great decision maker. The more he's played, the more comfortable he's been getting at making the decision, and he gets the ball out quick. So he may not have the athleticism and elusiveness that a lot of guys have, and that's what a lot people are looking for these days in those quarterbacks, but he has the ability to get the ball out of his hands.

Sometimes that can help you out in protection, help you out not taking negative plays where some guys might not get it out as quick or be able to make that quick decision. He might be taking some sacks. He's able to get it out quickly and make that quick decision.

It's come from a lot of hard work. He's been in our system a long time and he's worked really hard at it. He's become very comfortable, like I said, the back half of this year, and you just really see him taking on that leadership role and being the leader of the offense.

Q. Coach Brohm, without Bell and Wright in that receiving corps, can you talk about some of the other guys that will have their roles elevated in this game?

BRIAN BROHM: Yeah, so the way it's played out, we're going to have some guys that are going to have to step up in either an enhanced role or in a new role for our offense.

I think obviously Jackson Anthrop has been a mainstay for us for -- he's been here since we've been here and is in his sixth year and played a lot of football. So he's somebody that's reliable, that we can count on. We know where he's going to be. We know what he's going to give us. Obviously looking to get him the football.

Payne Durham at tight end is a guy that's been very consistent and done a great job. When you get outside of that, you're starting to look to Broc Thompson to step in and play a bigger role.

You're looking at TJ Sheffield, a local guy here from Nashville. His role is going to have to step up and be a little bit bigger of a role. We might have to move some guys around in some different spots.

It'll be fun to see. It's been fun to try to piece it all together here in the bowl practice.

But going into the season we thought that was one of our strengths, our receiver room. We were deep. We had a lot of guys that could play, that could do a lot of things for us. It's getting tested out here a little bit here at the end of the year, but I think it's a big opportunity for these guys to go out and showcase what they can do and hopefully propel into next year with some positivity.

Q. Coach Lambert, has there been anything that you guys have been doing in practice to try to simulate the speed that Tennessee plays at or have you been doing anything different in practice leading up to this bowl game?

BRAD LAMBERT: Yeah, we ask our offense to help us because they have the ability to go with tempo, so they've helped us, and I think that's the biggest thing is our offense has really done a good job of helping us get through that and just understanding the pace of it.

We'll hold some calls on them during practice and kind of stress them, so to speak, so we'll give them a call late so they've got to find the formation and get lined up, trying to simulate some pace.

But there's no way to really simulate until you get in the game, and so they'll get a feel for it early, but I think the biggest thing we've done is our offense has really done a good job of helping us get ready for this game.

Q. Brian, you mentioned some young receivers there. Regardless of what happens in the game on Thursday, just the experience that a Broc Thompson, a TJ Sheffield and maybe some of your younger tight ends have gotten during this practice. How much is this going to benefit them as you get into next year?

BRIAN BROHM: Yeah, it's always valuable to get the extra practice reps. Any time you get to that bowl game and get these extra practices, it's big time for your young players. We're going to have some young players stepping up into some more prominent roles here in this game, so they've had a lot -- we've had 12 practices, I think, to start to get into that role and to work at that spot. So it's valuable. It's very valuable heading into the off-season, heading into spring ball for next year.

These guys have been waiting. They've been waiting for these type of opportunities to show up, and now is the time to go seize it and show everybody what you can do.

Q. What are some things in studying and preparing for Tennessee that you see from Tennessee's defense?

BRIAN BROHM: You know, they're very multiple. They do a lot of different things, a lot of different fronts, a lot of different coverages, bring a lot of different pressures. They do a good job of really mixing it up. A lot of times when you're trying to study a team, you're trying to find some tendencies, and they do this in this certain situation, and they do a very good job of keeping it balanced. They obviously do a good self-study to make sure that they're not tipping their hand, so to speak.

Very multiple, a team that really you're probably happy that you have extra time to prepare for because there's so many different looks that they like to present. In a normal week, it's hard to cover all of those. We've had some more time, so able to show our guys a lot of different looks versus things that we're going to try to do on offense.

Very multiple. I think they're stout up front. Those guys on the inside do a good job, kind of similar to some teams we've faced in the Big Ten where they're real stout on the run on the inside. They're athletic in the back end. They've got length. They're going to be a challenge for us offensively, but our guys are looking forward to it.

Q. Brad, talk about the wide splits of the Tennessee offense, some of the things they're trying to achieve out of that and that poses issues for you guys.

BRAD LAMBERT: Yeah, they try to split you out; they use the whole field; they get as wide as they can. They want to take advantage of all the grass. That's the way I look at it. He's pretty good at throwing the inside, the glance routes, the inside skinny routes. He's pretty good at that. He gets you spread out and they run the ball.

The impressive thing about them offensively is they've got really good balance. They're going to rush for 200, they're going to throw for 250. They want to have balance, and they want to have the ability to run the ball, so they can spread you out and run the ball and then they can create space for some routes.

So they create some problems for you and they do it at a fast pace, and you get misaligned and then there goes a big play. I think that's the biggest thing for us is understanding we've got to get lined up and defend the run. That's going to be a big piece.

Q. Coach Lambert, how do you keep your team composed if things start to look like they did in 2018?

BRAD LAMBERT: Yeah, I wasn't here in 2018, but I played against them in 2019 when Coach was at Central Florida. I think the number one thing in leadership when you talk to the guys and in any leadership, whatever room you're in, the number one thing is composure. We tell the guys all the time, you can lose your composure when I lose mine. So I think that's the number one thing.

Coach English has really done a good job with our guys, Coach Hagen on the defensive side. It's just one play, right? Like that was a play. Okay, we've got to play the next play.

You really try to keep the guys in that mode of, hey, that was a good play, that was a bad play, but we've got to play the next play.

Like we talk to our guys a lot about maintaining your composure, and it's going to be like the experience I had in the Gasparilla Bowl against Coach Heupel. It's going to be four hours of chaos. We know that. It's getting ready to break loose. That's okay. We'll spit it out, we'll get them playing, and I think our guys will show up and play fast.