TRANSPERFECT MUSIC CITY BOWL: PURDUE VS TENNESSEE

December 30, 2021

Jeff Brohm

Aidan O'Connell

Broc Thompson

Jaylan Alexander

Nissan Stadium

Purdue Boilermakers

Press Conference

Purdue 48, Tennessee 45, OT

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm.

We'll take comments from Coach Brohm.

JEFF BROHM: Well, a great day for our football team. Very proud of them. It was one of those games, a crazy game. A lot of big plays. Started off hot, both teams. Got a little low there in the middle, then it really picked up there at the end.

Anytime you play a great venue, which the Music City Bowl is a great venue, they did a great job, our players enjoyed it, NFL stadium, packed out. I think a lot of Tennessee fans showed up. Our contingent showed up, as well. Couldn't be prouder of our fans being as loud as they were. They were into the game, our players heard that.

Proud of these guys. They competed hard. It was football at a high level, football in bowl games. We got a group of guys that played till the end (indiscernible). Gave them everything we had.

As you guys know, there's some new guys on the field. You know what, they stepped up, played hard, so got to give them a lot of credit. These guys right here, they were tremendous, gave us great effort all year long. Awesome leaders. Our coaches really work hard, too, so they were very proud of them, as well.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. When you look at what you had to do to win this game, what does it say about what's in your building, what you're building from a chemistry standpoint?

JEFF BROHM: We try to never look at what we don't have, even though we're aware of it. We never want to be a team that makes excuses. It's our job as coaches and players to get everybody ready to go.

At some point and time they're going to have to go out there and prove themselves. Whether it's the last game of this year, the first game of next year, it's going to happen.

For these guys to step up, go in the game, play hard. We had other guys. Broc has to have two surgeries, guys that were sick before the game, getting IVs, playing as hard as they could. It's just a credit to a great group of guys that love to work hard. They're proud to represent what a Boilermaker stands for, which is hard work and never giving in, giving up, letting the chips fall where they may.

Just a great day for us. The ball bounced our way at the very end.

Q. Broc, what has this season been like?

BROC THOMPSON: This season has had ups and downs for me personally, just dealing with injuries and stuff like that.

Coach Brohm has trusted me every game. Every single time I step out there I know he has a thousand percent trust in me. My quarterback Aidan, he is a phenomenal guy. He is an upstanding leader. We all look up to him. We just trust he's going to lead us in the right direction.

I can't do anything without these guys next to me, the O-line, God, my Lord and savior. That's what has carried me through this season.

Q. (No microphone.)

BROC THOMPSON: I'm not going to lie. I don't know how I finished the game. God, that's how I finished the game. Jackson Anthrop has poured his heart and soul into this team. I promised him I would finish this game for him because he deserved it. He's a true Boilermaker. He will have my respect for the rest of my life. He's a great person and he's even a better leader.

Q. (No microphone.)

AIDAN O'CONNELL: Yeah, definitely never in a game like this. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kind of a weird play. I don't really know how it ended up like it did. Just ran an over-route. It was third down, I tried to put it on him. Put it on him early. He made a great catch. Got his head around.

Actually very similar to the play against Notre Dame earlier this year. Didn't connect, ended upped in an interception. Kind of cool to see it come full circle. Amazing play, ran for 20 seconds down the sideline, finally scores (laughter). It was a lot of fun.

Q. (No microphone.)

JAYLAN ALEXANDER: I was thinking we had to play ball, play our game. That's what I was telling the guys before we was coming out. We don't got to worry about nothing else, just play football, Boilermaker football.

Q. Aidan, how do you explain what went on tonight in this game, especially the last five minutes?

AIDAN O'CONNELL: I don't know. I don't have a good description. It's why you love the game. It's why it keeps bringing you back. The fact that it's unknown, no one knows what's going to happen, it's not a movie or TV show where the actors get retries.

I mean, it seems like the world's watching and anything can happen. I think that's what people love. That's what I love. You never know what's going to happen.

Just so proud of our guys. Unbelievable team win. I go down the list starting with these guys, coach, go on from guys that sacrificed to get us here. This is a great win for our program.

Q. We saw some mistakes from you that we haven't seen. How did you battle through those mistakes?

AIDAN O'CONNELL: Yeah, I think it's hard to kind of wipe those from your memory. Not just the interceptions, but, I mean, the first drive, kind of overthrew Broc on a corner route. Those are plays throughout the game that are difficult to snap out of.

I give credit to the guys around me. Coach instilling confidence in me, coming up and teaching me. This is what happened, but this is what we're going to do next.

I think the next-play mindset of the people around me is really what kind of guides me.

Q. (No microphone.)

JEFF BROHM: We had no choice. You know what, even when we first got Broc, he was a transfer from Marshall. He's from Indianapolis. I love to get a guy from the state that cares about representing their state. He knew a lot of guys on the team.

Right away he was a great leader. I think all the receivers will tell you that, he was a great leader. Unselfish. He played some. Then to go through what he did, still just continue to have a great attitude, work hard, be available. I mean, really was hardly able to practice at all. When he did, it was as light as we could do to kind of keep him fresh.

To want to play with those injuries, it was a credit to what he's all about, what his family is all about. Just a true representation of an unselfish great teammate. He made some tough catches now. Tough catches, tough runs. To do it with the legs the way they were, just a credit to him.

Q. Jaylan, how physical was this game?

JAYLAN ALEXANDER: It was physical. It was a nice game. I loved it. It was an experience that I will remember forever, definitely.

But we bring physicality, so... Not really worried about people bringing physicality. If we bring physicality, they got to match us. Physicality, we're going to bring it all.

Q. You were missing some key components tonight. Some of the tackles had to step up and other guys had to step up.

JAYLAN ALEXANDER: It's always next man up, whether somebody is down with injury, whether we miss somebody for a week or something. It's always next man up. Like coach said, we can't focus on what we don't have, we got to focus on what we do have. We got to go play ball.

Those guys stepped up big-time. They've been playing throughout the season. Every time they were coming in, they always stepped up. Getting prepared for this game, we knew they were going to make plays and come out and be ready to play.

Q. What does this mean moving forward, Jeff?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we're careful, cautious not to think too far down the road. We try to take care of the now and today. We hope if you figure out a way to win, it just continues to build steam.

The fact that we played really good at the end of the year, had some wins that we're very proud of, then to come in this bowl environment and pull it off, it's just a great victory.

I think it just proves if you have the right mindset, a really good group of guys, a good group of coaches that are willing to work hard, good things are going to happen. That's what we kind of pride ourselves on.

When you try to think too big of a picture as players and coaches, you can get too far ahead of yourself.

But with that said, yes, it gives us momentum. We want to be a team that can compete, try to win as many games as we can. We're going to have to have the loftiest goals we can each and every year, see if we can achieve them.

In this conference, the Big Ten, it's tough every week. You've got to play at a high level. In my opinion, offense, defense, special teams all have to do their part. If one's not, you're probably not going to win the game.

I just think for these guys to be great leaders, our team to step forward, hang until the end today, just great moments. We're going to enjoy it.

Q. How satisfying is this to know what happened three years ago, come back to the same venue?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I told Mr. Scott Ramsey, runs the bowl, even told Mike, when we didn't know which bowl we were going to go to, I said, No way the Music City Bowl is going to pick us, not after the last performance (smiling).

I knew when they did I was going to have to sign a waiver when I got here and agree not to get blown off the field (laughter).

We wanted to work hard and go out and prove ourselves, have a better showing. It just shows how far you can come if you just put your mind to it, learn from your mistakes, but then kind of wipe it out and move forward.

This is a big bowl game to us. This is playing a quality opponent that had some good wins. So this one does feel good.

Q. Does it show the progress you have made in a lot of areas, not just on the field but the progress to get back to this point?

JEFF BROHM: Yeah, I think so. I think anytime you lose some games, you want to work hard to not let it happen again. I think that was the mindset from the last game of last year. We knew we had a lot of work to do. It started with me, worked all the way down to coaches, players. We just went to work.

Like I said, finding ways to score points on offense, you just got to figure it out before the season, then adjust along the way because it's not always going to go perfect. I think we worked hard in the off-season. Our defense, they were hungry, wanted to improve. I thought our defensive coaches did a great job of that. That was good to see.

Special teams, we found ways to improve there. There's always going to be room for improvement in all areas, but I do think we were more of a complete team this year. Because of that we had some awesome wins. We were able to compete with a lot of teams.

Q. (No microphone.)

AIDAN O'CONNELL: I said it before the game. It's funny because as you go throughout the season, our top players are a lot of times banged up, can't always practice. A lot of times Milton, David, those guys are not able to practice on Tuesday, limited reps on Wednesday.

I mean, I've thrown probably more passes to Andrew than I have to David during practice. You get just reps with guys who are lower on the depth chart, but they come to practice, they work hard. Just proud of guys who didn't know if they were going to play in this season. To get to play in this bowl game and be part of this win is pretty special.

Q. For Mitchell to step up like he did, for the year that he's had?

JEFF BROHM: We were fortunate to add him to our team this off-season. I think we knew right away, very quickly, that his personality was exactly what we were looking for. Perfect for a kicker. Nothing bothers him. He's a great teammate. He's very levelheaded.

Started off really hot. Had a some miscues in the middle of the season. You know what, that's football. But he came back. We tried to put more pressure on him in practice to get him to focus and understand everything is important.

To be quite honest, as well, we adjusted some things with the holder, ways of doing that. I just think all those things mattered. Paying attention to details was important. So I think we helped him a little bit.

But he was clutch. He's been clutch the last half of the season. The fact that we can get him back next year, he'll do it again. He's a really accurate kicker. He cares. He's been a great teammate to these guys.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much.

BROC THOMPSON: Just to go on record, we call him Money-Making Mitch.