Previously: Purdue Offense In my nearly two full seasons charting college teams, I have yet to encounter a unit as "meh" as the Purdue defense. One that does not elicit my outright rage nor my admiration. In charting this defense, I was left without big-name stars like a Charlie Jones on Purdue's offense, nor individual players to drag through the screaming depths of hell. They're just.... there. Purdue's defensive ratings are also... fine. 39th in SP+ and 45th in FEI, right in the middle of the P5 (though probably boosted a bit by playing in the B1G West, even if these are opponent-adjusted)..... okay. If I haven't yet put you to sleep, let's dive in. The Film: Purdue has not faced too many good offenses this season and the two best they've seen, Maryland and PSU, both came in the first month or so of the season. Of those two, Maryland was much more recent, being on October 8 (compared to the season opening game vs PSU). As a result, I opted for that game to chart, though I also looked at tape from PSU, as well as later games against semi-competent offenses like Nebraska and Illinois for more clues. Personnel: Click for big or here for PDF. Purdue runs a pretty generic 4-2-5ish setup, with one of those DBs being a HSP who we have denoted on the diagram as the "STAR", a defense coordinated by Old Friend Ron English. The most rotation happens on the defensive line, where an injury to starting DT Branson Deen has scuttled things a bit. It is unclear if Deen will play tomorrow but the vibes make it seem unlikely. In that case, Lawrence Johnson and Sulaiman Kpaka are the starters, with PSU transfer Cole Brevard as the third option, followed by Prince James Boyd. I don't have a ton of notes on these players, other than that they have mostly held up this season but as I will show you, there is reason to think they can be shoved around by Michigan's mighty IOL. The edges are split between SDE Jack Sullivan and LEO Kydran Jenkins. Sullivan was one of the guys on this defense I liked the most. As you'd expect by the "LEO" name, Jenkins drops into coverage a decent amount and is a more versatile sort of player. Rotational edge rushers include Khordae Sydnor and Murray State transfer Scotty Humpich, both of whom had sacks in games I saw, as well as freshman Nic Caraway. Yes, that is his actual name, and yes, if you click this link you can see several good Gatsby jokes made by my twitter followers. The EDGEs rotate around a decent bit, in part because they have to do a lot of the pass rush themselves, with Purdue not being a terribly blitzy team. Have to keep 'em fresh. The LB position has dealt with injuries this season, which affected my viewing of them (they were not in full force against Maryland). Starter and Auburn transfer OC Brothers did not chart against Maryland but he was PFF's worst-graded starter and is in the "legitimately bad" territory in terms of his grade, so we slapped the cyan on him. Kieren Douglas did play a bit against the Terps, but the starters that day were Jacob Wahlberg and Semisi Fakasiieiki (our name of the week candidate). Wahlberg had a rough go of things against Maryland, receiving the cyan, but he and Fakasiieiki are now second-teamers. The "OLB" role, played Douglas and Fakasiieiki, gets a lot of work out of the box and in coverage, while the MLB role handles run D a lot more. This is because the "STAR" position does a lot of work in run D as well. The STAR is Jalen Graham and has been all season, a decent player. At corner the outside spots are held consistently by Cory Trice, our nominal dangerman this week (no star, though), and Indiana transfer Reese Taylor, who is not as good. Kentucky transfer Jamari Brown has played quite a bit at corner this season but he is a major weakspot. Nickel Bryce Hampton gets work out of the slot, and these four corners comprise the vast majority of snaps at the position. The safeties are pretty consistent, Cam Allen at SS and Sanoussi Kane at FS. Chris Jefferson is the third safety, but his usage dwarfs that of Allen or Kane. Like so many players on this defense, they are "okay" but not above massive busts here and there. [AFTER THE JUMP: meh]