Purdue Football: Big 10 Media Day
· Yahoo Sports
Coach Odom, Ryan Browne, De’Nylon Morrissette, and Charles Corea were in Chicago yesterday for Big 10 Media Day.
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These things are used to get the coaches and media together and give the players a chance to practice their public speaking. Generally speaking, there are no great revelations at these things; the coaches give a prepared speech, the players chat a little, and everyone gets after the catering.
Here’s Coach Odom’s presser; it’s pretty standard coach speak.
I thought this interview segment was the most interesting part of the day. If you’re going to watch one thing, this is what you should watch. Coach Odom gets a little more specific in his answers, and the player segment at the end is fun. I provided a question guide for Coach Odom if you want to skip around, but it’s worth listening to the entire thing if you have the time.
Question Guide
What did you learn from Purdue during year 1 that you can apply moving forward? :40
What are the lessons you want to impart to your team based on the lessons from year 1? 1:40
What has he seen from the guys he brought in to make the passing game more explosive? 2:30
Similarities in building programs throughout his career? 3:06
On leadership from the QB position: 4:13
On new D.C. Kevin Kane: 4:50
On the defensive front 7: 5:21
Where does Ryan Browne need to grow the most: 6:05
Benchmarks for the team on offense, defense, and special teams: 6:40
On taking transfers from power conference schools: 7:50
What’s changed in the way he evaluates incoming players: 8:25
His message to incoming portal players: 9:18
On administrative changes at Purdue: 9:38
On how the new redshirt rule changes the way he uses players: 10:35
On how he will define success this season: 10:57
Ryan Browne, Charles Correa, and De’Nylon Morrissette Q&A: 11:29
My Takeaway?
The most interesting thing about yesterday wasn’t so much what was said, but who was included. Ryan Browne and Charles Correa were the obvious choices, but I was surprised to see De’Nylon Morrissette. The former 4* Georgia recruit hasn’t done much on the field since his transfer in 2024. He had 11 receptions for 106 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2024 and missed last season due to an ankle injury. I hope his inclusion means he’s made a significant jump this summer and is ready to play a larger role in the passing game than I suspected. Morrissette was rated as a 4* receiver coming out of high school because he was electric with the ball in his hands. If he’s physically right, and it sounds like he is, he’s essentially a running back with wide receiver skills. At 6’1”, 200 pounds, he’s tough for defensive backs to get on the ground, and he’s fast enough to take it the distance if he breaks a tackle…in theory.
I’ve seen wide receivers come out of nowhere to have breakout senior seasons before. Cornell Powell had 40 career receptions for Clemson in his first 4 seasons and then led Clemson with 53 receptions in 2020. He went from “whatever happened to Cornell Powell?” to the most productive receiver on a CFP team led by Trevor Lawrence. If Morrissette could pull off something similar and establish himself as Purdue’s go-to wide receiver, the rest of Purdue’s wide receiver group would fall into place. I certainly wouldn’t count on it, but there’s no reason Morrissette can’t be the number one option; he just hasn’t shown any inclination of that so far. I hope his inclusion in Media Day indicates that he’s ready to make good on his potential in his final year of college football.
Outside of Morrissette’s inclusion, I thought the other somewhat revealing question centered around the players naming their potential breakout players. Morrissette immediately jumped in with Brandon Kinsey, as the hype continues to build for the freshman out of Miami. If Morrissette is healthy and Kinsey is ready to play straight out of the box, Purdue will be significantly more athletic at wide receiver than anticipated.
Charles Correa hedged a little, but said Winston Berglund is healthy and should contribute at SAM linebacker, despite Purdue not running a SAM linebacker in their base package. I think I have a better understanding of how they’re going to use Berglund and why he moved from LB to DB on the roster, despite Purdue being thin at linebacker. I think they’re going to use Berglund as the alternative to Smiley Bradford at nickel. When teams want to run against Purdue, Berglund will come in and essentially play as a 3rd linebacker. He should also be good in coverage against teams with dynamic tight ends. If this happens with any frequency, it could allow Purdue to move Smiley to corner on occasion. That would be useful because, for my money, Bradford is Purdue’s best coverage guy until someone else proves otherwise.
Finally, Ryan Browne brought up defensive tackle Curt Neal. I thought it was interesting that Browne went with a defensive tackle and not a wide receiver or tight end, but maybe that’s the smart political move for the quarterback. Neal must have been in Browne’s face a good bit this spring. He’s another 4* guy who has been good, but maybe not as good as his billing coming out of high school. It looked like he was well on his way after he started every game for Wisconsin in 2024 at defensive tackle, but then he fell off in 2025 after transferring to Illinois. If he is ready to flush the 2025 season and get back to building on his 2024 season, Purdue could be better on the interior defensive line than most people think. Coach Odom mentioned using a 5- or possibly 6-man rotation at defensive tackle this season. I’m not sure he had 6 defensive tackles on the roster last season, much less 6 ready to play. If nothing else, if Neal is good, it gives TJ Lindsey a longer runway to work his way back onto the field after losing most of last season to a knee injury.