It's common on a crisp afternoon in early fall for the gusts blowing across Ross-Ade Stadium to travel as fast as 30 mph.
But it had been a foul wind blowing against the Purdue football team in the weeks leading up to its breezy homecoming game against the Maryland Terrapins Saturday.
The Purdue team that took the field -- still with many freshmen seeing significant minutes -- looked more experienced than the group that was overmatched in last week's loss to Penn State. When the final horn blew on this day, Purdue emerged victorious 40-14.
The Boilermaker offense clicked in a way it hadn't before while missing starting quarterback Elijah Sindelar and star receiver Rondale Moore. Multiple players set new career highs Saturday, including redshirt freshman quarterback Jack Plummer -- who threw for 420 yards -- and tight end Brycen Hopkins, who shrugged off a first half of the season where he'd been underused, to catch ten balls for 140 yards.
Plummer tossed three touchdowns and completed passes to seven different recievers. His passing yardage was the most by a freshman quarterback for Purdue since David Blough threw for 340 yards in 2015.
Freshman wideout David Bell caught nine balls of his own for 138 yards and two touchdowns. In fact, all of Purdue's touchdowns on the day were scored by freshmen.
On the defensive side of the football, Purdue continued to grow. Though they allowed more than 400 yards of total offense, they shut out the Terps in the second half and freshman cornerback Cory Trice intercepted two passes, returning one for a touchdown. The last player to have two interceptions in the same game for Purdue was linebacker Markus Bailey (lost for the majority of this season with an injury) against Indiana in 2016.
After the game, Coach Jeff Brohm praised his team's resilience, which it'll need if it hopes for a come-from-behind bowl qualification.
With the win, the Boilermakers improve to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten. But the team must now travel to Iowa to play the 17th-ranked Hawkeyes next weekend.
