BOILING OVER: Hoops, football recruiting scuttlebutt and more

Welcome to “BOILING OVER,” GoldandBlack.com’s weekly information clearinghouse, a spot for assorted bits of Purdue news, analysis and so on and so forth, intended for GoldandBlack.com members and GoldandBlack.com members only.

Please welcome new BOILING OVER sponsor T&W Design and Build, an Indianapolis construction management company since 1968 with proud Purdue graduates that specialize in changing the way customers think about construction.

PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING

• Purdue held its one and only team camp on Wednesday with Fort Wayne (Ind.) North Side, Terre Haute (Ind.) North Vigo, North Judson (Ind.), Hazelwood (Mo.) Central and East St. Louis (Ill.) High on hand.

Two Purdue commits were there to take part: North Side OL Jordan King and East St. Louis WR Jesse Watson (see interview below). And several Boilermaker targets were present, including touted East St. Louis DBs Leon’Tre Bradford (2024) and Charles Bass (2025).

Purdue staffers also took great interest in Hazelwood Central’s Tionne Gray, a 2024 DT who is committed to Oregon. Ryan Walters and others chatted him up.

At 6-6, 295, Gray cast an imposing presence. He looks out-of-the-box ready now for major college football, a man among boys. Several Purdue staffers who have worked at Illinois and Missouri have known Gray. Don’t be surprised if Purdue is able to get Gray to take an official visit.

Hazelwood Central DT Tionne Gray with Purdue CB coach Sam Carter.

• During the specialists camp earlier this month, Purdue student Iain Ramage won the award for “best punter.” The sophomore subsequently talked with special teams coach Chris Petrilli and was told he’d either join the program as a punter/kickoff man at the start of school in late August or he could join for the start of camp in August if there are spots open.

“As far as the Purdue specialist camp goes, I just signed up online when I saw Coach Petrilli’s tweet about it, with the hopes of putting on a good enough performance to get coaches’ attention and earn a walk-on spot, which, thankfully, I accomplished,” said Ramage, who played high school ball at Fenwick High in Oak Park, Ill.

• Purdue staffers were out and about in the spring attending many mega camps. Where did they go?

Lindenwood Jed Stugart Football Camps in St. Louis area

Chris Keevers Indy Mega Camp

Eddie George Football Mega Camp at Tennessee State

DFW Showcase at TCU

Wayne State National College Showcase in Michigan

North Central College Football Clinics in Chicago area

Monmouth Football Elite Prospects in New Jersey

• Purdue’s camps are finished, but there is an upcoming event for juniors on June 19: West Lalapalooza. Sort of a fun “hang-out” engagement with players and staffers. There will be things like food trucks, a scavenger hunt and games … that sort of stuff.

• Walk-on RB Elijah Jackson from Lawrence Central High in Indianapolis lacks ideal height (5-9/5-10), but he will bring an element of speed. He was headed to Valparaiso before taking the Purdue walk-on offer a few weeks ago.

• Purdue will have seven official visitors this weekend, included commitments OL Jaden Ball and DB Hudauri Hines. The others visiting are WR Shamar Rigby, OL Demeco Kennedy, DL Caleb Mitchell-Irving, EDGE Elijah King and CB William Nettles. Looking for perhaps the next player to commit? It could be King, an EDGE from Ohio. Just a guess.

PURDUE FOOTBALL

• OT Nalin Fox is no longer on the team. He graduates soon. Fox never was able to become a factor since arriving in the 2020 recruiting class. Purdue essentially replaced Fox with a recent portal commitment from Bakyne Coly of NAIA Lawrence Tech.

• Purdue put WRs Andrew Sowinski and Trey Firestone on scholarship in the spring/summer. Not sure if they will remain so once the fall semester starts.

• This will be Pete Quinn’s 32nd and final season serving as an analyst on Purdue radio broadcasts. He began in 1992, working alongside the late Larry Clisby. Quinn, who will be 66 in January 2024, says it’s just time. The Indianapolis native will get to spend more time with his grandchildren while also frequenting his second home in Naples, Fla. No word on who will replace Quinn.

• Sounds like Marcus Mbow spent a lot of time in the spring at right tackle. He typically has played guard. But Mbow is the most athletic lineman who has the feet and skill-set to play on the edge at tackle, a position that needs more quality. Perhaps the starting tackles this fall will be Mbow and Mahamane Moussa. The interior of the o-line looks to be the strength of the front.

• Former Purdue QB Jim Everett has made a pitch to do some work for BTN. Would be fun to see him involved. We will see if he gets any traction.

• Sounds like there’s a chance OLB Kydran Jenkins could play some inside linebacker this season. The top three at the ILB position are OC Brothers, Clyde Washington and Yanni Karlaftis. Purdue could use some veteran help at the spot, it would seem.

• Yes, there’s no true alpha wideout like Charlie Jones, but this Air Raid-based offense may not require one. A keen observation from Purdue radio analyst Kelly Kitchel:

“In their tempo offense, you have a bunch of RPOs. Not a ton of complicated passing schemes. So, the goal is to just get the ball to the athletes in space and make plays after the catch. So, if you have a bunch of quick, solid receivers, you can survive and keep the defense honest.”

A look at the Purdue d-line. The guy in the bucket hat is Jeffrey M’Ba, a large man.

PURDUE BASKETBALL

A scheduling note: With Arizona coming to Indianapolis this season to play Purdue in the Indy Classic, the Boilermakers will return that game with a trip to Las Vegas to meet the Wildcats the following season.

Nothing is finalized yet, but this could be the beginning of what could turn into a bigger event involving a number of other name-brand teams. (BN)

PURDUE BASKETBALL

Trey Kaufman-Renn expects to play the 4 more this season, which would require him to play next to Zach Edey. He was Edey’s backup at center last season.

Here’s what Kaufman-Renn said about Edey’s return yesterday: “When Coach Painter was recruiting me, it was obviously about having a good college career but also about trying to get to the NBA. I look at it as knowing that in the NBA, I wouldn’t play the 5. … This kind of forces me (to develop elsewhere). If I’d have entered the transfer portal, if I’d have gone to another team, I could have definitely started at a bunch of places at the 5, 100 percent. But I think forced to play the 4 and knowing Zach’s going to get X amount of minutes so I have to fight at the 4 spot, that’s really going to help me, I think.”

Kaufman-Renn admitted that spacing is a huge challenge with him and Edey on the floor together. But as a means to help make it work, he’s worked diligently on his three-point shooting, as well as trimming down and trying to get quick enough to handle the switch-heavy 4 spot defensively. (BN)

PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING

This week’s offer to big man Trent Burns surprisingly added a late log to the 2024 recruiting fire. Purdue has been seeking another big man, but has also seemed willing to kick that can down the road to 2025. With Gicarri Harris as close to being committed without being committed, Matt Painter and his staff would over-sign for Travis Perry or a player to be named later, Burns being an example of a possibility. Whether Purdue can get Burns, we have no clue at the moment. Tuesday was the first we’d heard of the Texan.

It has been a bit surprising that Purdue hasn’t really offered any 2025 bigs lately, since Kai Rogers, at least.

Burying the lead here but Burns is expected to officially visit Purdue next week, GoldandBlack.com has learned. (BN)

The post BOILING OVER: Hoops, football recruiting scuttlebutt and more appeared first on On3.