Purdue’s Week 6 date with Minnesota now has a spotlight attached to it.
The Boilermakers and Golden Gophers will kick off at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 10 at Ross-Ade Stadium, with the game set for Big Ten Network. It will be Purdue’s third night game of the season and its second at home.
The Boilermakers have already done this routine twice. They opened the year with a Friday night game against Indiana State on Sept. 4, then went west for an 11 p.m.
ET kickoff against UCLA on Sept. 19.
And the late starts are not done yet. Barry Odom’s team will also host Washington on Friday, Oct. 16 in another 8 p.m.
ET matchup, giving Purdue back-to-back night games.
Before Minnesota comes to West Lafayette, Purdue has work to do in conference play. The Boilermakers are 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the Big Ten, and they head to Illinois this week for a rivalry game in Champaign. Minnesota enters at 3-1 and 1-0 after a road win over Washington, and the Gophers host Michigan this weekend.
This matchup has been tight for a while. Purdue and Minnesota have met 80 times, with the Gophers holding a 42-35-3 edge. The last six meetings have been competitive, and four of them were decided by a touchdown or less.
That includes last season’s meeting in Minneapolis, when Purdue came out firing and built a 10-0 lead. The Boilermakers were still in front 20-13 in the fourth quarter before PJ Fleck’s team ripped off two touchdowns in seven seconds to grab a 27-20 lead with less than eight minutes left. Minnesota held on from there, earning its first win over Purdue since the 2021 season.
The Boilermakers did get the better of the Gophers in 2022 with a 20-10 win, and again in 2023 with a 49-30 victory. Since Fleck arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota is 5-3 against Purdue.
Minnesota’s last win at Ross-Ade Stadium came in 2021, when the Gophers beat the Boilers 20-13. That season, Purdue won nine games and came up just short of the Big Ten Championship Game.
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From Purdues side, the concern is simple enough: the Boilermakers are trying to keep pace in a game where the betting market does not see them as the better team. FanDuel lists Purdue as a 9.5-point underdog, and while Illinois has its own defensive issues, it has at least been more resistant than Purdue in terms of points allowed per game. For a Boilermaker team looking for a reset, this is the kind of road test that can either steady things or make the early-season picture look even harsher. [Read more 🡒]