Indiana will attempt to do the unimaginable Friday as it returns to action and goes for a perfect 12-0 regular season.
The No. 2 Hoosiers (11-0, 8-0) will face Purdue (2-9, 0-8) Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. ET inside Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind. (NBC).
The Boilermakers have lost 17 straight Big Ten games, with their last win coming in 2023 when Tom Allen coached his final game at IU.
Indiana trails the all-time series against Purdue 77-43-6, but the Hoosiers are in possession of the Old Oaken Bucket after trouncing the Boilers 66-0 a year ago.
Despite no conference wins and no wins against Power 4 opponents, Purdue has played in some close games. Of note, they lost at Michigan 21-16, to Rutgers 27-24, and at Minnesota 27-20. ESPN’s FPI says Purdue has played the sixth-most difficult schedule in the nation.
Purdue made a coaching change during the offseason. Head coach Barry Odom is in his first season running the program after taking over for Ryan Walters.
The Boilermakers have struggled on the offensive side of the ball. They haven’t scored more than 24 points in any of their last six games, and they haven’t exceeded 30 against any Power 4 opponent.
It isn’t clear who will start at quarterback for Purdue on Friday evening. Sophomore Ryan Browne has played the majority of the snaps but has been largely ineffective, completing 59.8% of his throws for nine touchdowns and nine interceptions. Sophomore Malachi Singleton replaced Browne at Washington a week ago. He has completed 59.4% of his throws with five touchdowns and two interceptions for the season. They’re both mobile, as each has over 200 yards on the ground. But they’ve been sacked a combined 19 times.
The Boilers are No. 118 (out of 136) in scoring offense at just 20.2 points per contest. They are No. 103 on defense, giving up 29.6 per game.
PFF grades Purdue as having the No. 110 offense and No. 131 defense in the country.
So what’s the outlook for Friday night in West Lafayette? Stop us if this sounds like a broken record, but everything is pointing to the Hoosiers by a wide margin.
As of Monday morning, the gambling forecast is calling Indiana a roughly 28.5-point favorite vs. Purdue.
ESPN’s FPI model gives IU an 97% chance to win. The Hoosiers are No. 2 in FPI while Purdue is No. 81. ESPN’s SP+ model projects a 43-9 IU win, and gives the Hoosiers a 98% probability to pull it out.
The biggest storyline at the moment might be the weather. The early forecast for Friday is calling for a daytime high of just 32 degrees, and an evening low of 24. The wind should be light, and there is a chance of snow late in the evening. Obviously you’ll want to check back on that later in the week.
We will of course have much more on this game in the days to come.
TICKETS AND PARKING
As of Monday morning, tickets were still available on the Purdue website.
If you are looking for specific seats or parking, consider using our StubHub affiliate links at no additional cost to you:
Purdue has not yet as of Monday morning published their gameday details with information on when the parking lots and stadium gates open. We’ll update this section when Purdue provides the particulars.
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