Old Oaken Bucket of Crap

Alright, honestly, I feel a bit icky (yes, I said icky) for all of the positivity on this site. Granted, I'm part of the problem...I honestly think honoring Coach Tiller this week was the right thing to do. That said, please make no bones about it, his time at Purdue has been far from perfect...We all appreciate how he brought the program back to respectability, but we're all in accord that it's absolutely time for a change.

One thing Joe has done very well is prepare his guys for games versus Purdue's second-biggest rival, IU (sidebar- it seems the IU game is bigger for Purdue fans over 35...UND for the younger set). He's gone 9-2 versus the Hoosiers and beaten three different coaches...Saturday, he'll look to make it four as the Hoosiers come in to a nearly-packed Ross Ade Stadium on a blustery Saturday...Here are our predictions of what will go down.

boilerdowd says:
During the ebbs and larger ebbs of this season, I've been steadfast in my belief that IU is not good and Purdue would beat them. After seeing that Painter has remembered how to play the game, I'm even more sure Purdue will win. I look for a listless crowd of 50 and 60-somethings to keep it quiet as Purdue's student section does its job by seeing off Tiller the right way, with a final "W".

All of IU's quarterbacks are healthy, but sadly for them, Hardy won't be available as he's busy in Buffalo...and Lynch will still be the guy calling the plays. Purdue might allow a big running play from both Thigpen and Lewis, but I look for big days from Baker, Magee and Heygood as they keep IU's offense stunted. This might be one of those rare games under Tiller in the last four seasons when the offense, defense, and heck, even the special teams put in solid efforts.

Painter unleashes a season of frustration on the lowly Hoosier DBs...and Sheets kicks them in the ribs when they're down...Yeh! We suck less and are 4-8!

Purdue 45
IU 24


Tim says:
I think they're going to party like it's 1995. It's going to be sloppy. It's going to be messy. IU's defense is going to play like a bunch of pansies.

Purdue is going to send Tiller out as a winner.

Purdue 38
Indiana 20

J says:

When college football season ends, it's usually kind of a sad time for us.... we all look forward to it during the summer and then, so very quickly, it's over. Sometimes it's over long before the twelve weeks are up, too. Such as this season for Purdue. And so while it's a little sad that another season is in the books, I think we can all say this wasn't fun to watch and we're all looking forward to basketball and next year's Danny Hope-coached football squad.

However, we still have one game left to look at, and it's the pillow fight of a rivalry game with IU. Now, granted, things could actually be worse -- we could be alums of Washington or Wazzu, who have to watch their teams club each other over the head for the Apple Cup. Ugh.

No, in West Lafayette, it's apparently going to be a nice sendoff for Coach Tiller, with rumors of special guests. I sincerely hope that the Boilermakers bear down and send the Coach out with a nice win. Losing this game would be awful, plain and simple. IU is horrible, and while we've had a down year, they've gotten absolutely crushed multiple times and lost to MAC schools twice. In truth, IU has played one really good half against Purdue in the 11 previous meetings with Tiller at the helm. The 13-7 loss wasn't exactly good football by either side and then last year, IU played solid, focused ball for the first half before almost surrendering the bucket it what would have been a brutal (for them) fashion.

I like to think you'll see some of the Joe Tiller of old. Maybe some sneaky plays, maybe some straight-out trick plays... wouldn't it be fun to put both Siller and Painter in the backfield? Things like that... could be a lot of fun. Regardless, I always think a team like this year's Boilers has at least one dig-down-deep kind of performance in them. And I have to believe the players want to send Tiller and the seniors out well. It's Joe's last game, Painter's last game, it's the bucket game and it's essentially our bowl game (damn, I hate saying that because it's so sad)...and it's at home. I cannot imagine us losing this game and it's probably the most sure of any game I've been this year other than Northern Colorado.

Purdue 42

IU 14