WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A long-standing relationship dating back to the mid-90s between Barry Odom and Josh Henson led the former USC offensive coordinator to leave sunny southern California for West Lafayette this off-season in hopes of a revival of Purdue’s offense. The new offensive coordinator for the Boilermakers has his hands full gearing up […]
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A long-standing relationship dating back to the mid-90s between Barry Odom and Josh Henson led the former USC offensive coordinator to leave sunny southern California for West Lafayette this off-season in hopes of a revival of Purdue’s offense.
The new offensive coordinator for the Boilermakers has his hands full gearing up his unit for the season-opener against Ball State on August 30th with all but one position set to have a fresh face atop the depth chart in 2025. It’s early in camp, with just four practices in the books, but Henson sees the Purdue offense as one that is making progress thus far.
“I’m encouraged. I’m seeing some really good things. Obviously, in four practices, it’s not consistent enough, but we’re seeing progression. We’re seeing good things happen,” Henson said.
The key to the offense remains a question, however, as the Boilermakers are still sorting out the quarterback spot. Dating back to Henson’s first press conference as Purdue’s offensive coordinator in February, he spoke about molding the offense around the players they have. The time is coming for that to come to fruition, as the opener sits less than four weeks away.
Odom spoke about the importance of naming a starter sooner than later during Big Ten Media Days in an effort to solidify exactly what Purdue’s offense will look like at the end of August.
“The sooner that we can identify who’s going to be our starter, probably the better for our team,” said Odom in Las Vegas.
Yet, Purdue is still working four signal-callers in with the first-team at this point, with Ryan Browne, Malachi Singleton, Bennett Meredith and Evans Chuba all taking snaps at some point with the “ones.” Henson acknowledged that separation is starting to show, but refrained from diving into who is making strides toward that coveted QB1 slot.
“I’m not going to comment on that, but all three, all four or five guys that are in that room are getting better. There is separation happening. I’m not going to comment who, what, when, where, but, you know, every day out here, and that’s every position on offense, there’s separation happening. It’s all about coming out and doing your job on a consistent basis every day,” Henson said.
The offense will have slight differences depending on who wins the starting job coming out of camp. While the scheme will largely remain the same, catering to what the signal-caller does best will be key in putting the starter in the best possible position for success this fall, according to Henson.
“There’s always an adjustment to the quarterback, right? You always tailor your offense to what his strengths are, what his best skill-sets are, what he does best. So, you know, it’ll change, but I think anytime you have a base offense that change is probably in the 15- to 20-percentile range, if all the quarterbacks are similar, you know, I mean, if one quarterback is drastically different than another, you’ll see drastic changes,” Henson said.
That works in Purdue’s favor in its quest for deciding on a quarterback, with the skill-sets of each being similar, as the Boilermakers have opted to target dual-threat signal-callers in the transfer portal and on the high school recruiting front.
Two front-runners for the job, Browne and Singleton, posses the ability to get out of the pocket and create explosive plays with their legs. While Meredith may not be as quick on his feet as that redshirt sophomore tandem, he has shown the ability to move around in the pocket and extend plays with his feet.
The ground game figures to be a large part of Purdue’s plans offensively, but not at the expense of taking shots downfield to create explosive plays… and what it hopes are a lot of points. The specific tweaks to Purdue’s offensive approach won’t come to light until a starter is named, presumably sometime this month. Once that happens, however, Henson, quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw and the Boilermakers can begin to shape and mold the scheme to their liking with their No. 1 guy under center.
All four of the competitors for the job have shown flashes during fall camp, but none enough to take a firm grasp on the starting gig. The clock continues to tick on the pending decision, which is the most pressing storyline in camp moving forward.
Category: General Sports
