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Purdue’s Jeff Brohm not revealing much in weekly presser with Old Oaken Bucket on the line

Mark Schipper

By Mark Schipper

Published:

Apparently someone forced Purdue football head coach Jeff Brohm to hold a press conference Monday morning, but it was clear he didn’t want to be there or have much to say . . . . . about anything.

The Boilermakers and Indiana Hoosiers were given the opportunity to make up their historic rivalry game—cancelled due to Covid-19—during the Big Ten Champions Week cross-over slate. Its cancellation had meant the game would not be played for the first time in one-hundred consecutive autumns. But with the league’s decision to get it in, the Old Oaken Bucket now is scheduled for 7:30 pm ET Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. 

Both programs mutually agreed to cancel the game last week when virus numbers kept creeping up. They each paused team activities and awaited news on their final game. Now that they have it, Brohm doesn’t seem thrilled on a Monday morning. 

The coach wouldn’t even confirm or deny that the team was still on pause, though he did say the squad would be on the practiced field today in masks. The most enthusiastic comment Brohm made all morning sounded like he was picking up a glass bowl—or bucket—that had shattered into a thousand pieces. The exact words were, “We are preparing to play. We Will piece things together and try to play.”

Well, okay then. Maybe Purdue will be in Bloomington Saturday, and maybe they won’t. Don’t ask coach Brohm. The rest of his terse comments can be browsed through below. 

 

Mark Schipper

Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.