Purdue’s mission: Contain QB Tate
Purdue opened the season against the 2016 Heisman Trophy winner and will close out the year against one of 2018 favorites.
Lamar Jackson ran for 107 yards and threw for 378 in then-No. 16 Louisville’s season-opening 35-28 victory over the Boilermakers, and they know they’ll have to limit Khalil Tate to far less production in Wednesday’s Foster Farms Bowl if they’re going to have a chance against Arizona at Levi’s Stadium.
“We worked all spring, summer and fall to figure out a way to stop (Jackson), and it didn’t work,” Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm said in Tuesday’s news conference. “We’ve had to go back, regroup and maybe adjust a few things. We understand that stopping the quarterback and containing him is the ultimate goal. He’s going to make some plays, but we can’t let him be the deciding factor.”
Tate has been the deciding factor in every game he has played since replacing Brandon Dawkins on Oct. 7 at Colorado. The sophomore set FBS quarterback rushing records with 327 yards and four touchdowns in that game, the first of a conference-record four straight Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week performances.
In flabbergasting the college football world, Tate threw for 1,289 yards and ran for 1,353 more. His 10.2 yards per carry leads the nation, and the 6foot-2, 215-pounder from Inglewood averaged 37.2 yards per play on his 21 total touchdowns in leading one of the country’s best offenses.
Arizona is among the nation’s best in scoring (41.8 points per game), total offense (494.5 yards per game), rushing (324.4 yards per game) and fewest sacks allowed (15).
“When you can take away somebody’s manhood and do whatever you want to, it’s a pretty cool feeling,” said right guard Jacob Alsadek, one of the Wildcats’ six offensive linemen who have combined for 150 starts. “I’d say in about three-fourths of the games, we did that. … Almost every game, the whole team is in the box, but we still run the ball.”
Purdue presents one of the best front sevens Arizona has seen, a major overhaul for a program that won just nine games in the past four years and is playing in a bowl game for the first time since 2012.
The Boilermakers allowed a school-record 38.2 points per game in 2016, a number that has been sliced to 19.3 under Brohm in his first season. In Big Ten games, Purdue trimmed its points yielded from 42.6 to 19.2.
“I came in and watched some video of Purdue from the season before. For whatever reason, you could tell that we needed to play harder,” Brohm said. “For us, it’s all about playing hard, playing tough, playing smart and making sure that we try to win that battle every game.”