Purdue gets a quick chance to show where it stands in Year 1 under a new-week spotlight, and the matchup with Wake Forest comes with a clean early-season read: both teams are 1-0, both flashed offense in Week 1, and both arrive with a little momentum after putting away FCS and Group of 5 opponents.
The Boilermakers opened with a 44-19 win over Indiana State, pulling away with a 21-0 third quarter before the Sycamores added 13 garbage-time points. Wake Forest handled Akron 38-16 at home on Saturday, and that game also saw the opponent score 13 late points to make the final margin look a bit tighter.
Now the two Power Four programs meet at Ross Ade Stadium, with Purdue trying to step out from the shadow of recent seasons and Wake Forest aiming to take another step under second-year coach Jake Dickert. For Wake Forest, this is the kind of game it wants to be expected to win if it’s really moving forward. For Purdue, it’s a useful test of how far it has come.
FanDuel lists Purdue as a 4.5-point underdog. The Demon Deacons are -194 to win outright and -106 to cover, while Purdue is +160 to win straight up and -114 to cover the spread. The over/under is 49.5 points.
The quarterback matchup jumps off the page. Purdue’s Ryan Browne was sharp in Week 1, completing 23 passes for 317 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Wake Forest’s Gio Lopez matched that kind of production, going 21-for-? with 350 passing yards, three touchdown passes and no interceptions.
Both quarterbacks also crossed paths with North Carolina last season, though in different ways. Browne transferred to UNC in December of 2024 before entering the transfer portal again on April 16, 2025.
Lopez announced his commitment to UNC from South Alabama one day later, then became the starting quarterback for the Tar Heels in a rough season.
Purdue also got production on the ground from Fame Ijeboi, who had 11 carries for 87 yards and a touchdown while adding two catches for 30 yards. Wake Forest’s top rusher was Ty Clark III, who needed only seven carries to pile up 105 yards.
At receiver, Purdue leaned on Asaad Waseem, who turned eight targets into six catches, 107 yards and a touchdown. Wake Forest’s Carlos Hernandez was even more explosive, finishing with nine targets, five receptions, 165 yards and a touchdown.
Both defenses made plays, too. Purdue logged three sacks and forced one turnover, with its takeaway coming on an interception return for a touchdown.
Wake Forest had two sacks and also produced one takeaway, a forced fumble and recovery. Neither team gave the ball away.
Wake Forest comes in as the favorite, but Purdue’s home crowd and the way it has looked through one week make this a live non-conference game rather than a simple pick.
In Other News...
Purdue Gets Pulled Into A Big Ten Officiating Debate Fans Hate
A messy finish in the Big Ten has spilled into the broader conference conversation, and Purdue found itself in the middle of it through Barry Odom's reaction. After officials reviewed the final sequence in Western Michigan's game with Michigan and put one second back on the clock, the Wolverines got a chance to win it with a touchdown, a ruling the league later stood behind as part of its standard process.
Odom said he was caught off guard by the idea that the conference operates with an official clock beyond what fans see in the stadium. Even so, the Purdue coach stopped short of turning it into a larger complaint, expressing confidence in the Big Ten's leadership and in the officiating process, even as the episode fed the kind of frustration that always seems to trail close calls in this league. [Read more 🡒]
Barry Odom Sees One Early Sign Purdue Fans Will Care About
Barry Odom walked into his Week 2 press conference with Purdue sitting at 1-0 and a bigger test ahead against Wake Forest, but his attention still leaned back to what the Boilermakers showed in the opener. He talked through the slow start from the previous game, the kind of early stretch that can shape how a teams next week feels, and pointed to leadership emerging from within the locker room as part of why the response mattered as much as the result.
Hudauri Hines was part of that conversation, along with Fame Ijeobis work at running back, and Odom also weighed in on the controversial finish to another Big Ten game while looking ahead to clearer defensive growth this week. For Purdue, the encouraging sign is not just that the coach believes the team can tighten things up, but that some of the correction seems to be happening from the inside, where players are already taking ownership of what the next step needs to look like. [Read more 🡒]
Purdues Goal Line Approach Already Gives Fans Something To Debate
Purdues season opener offered plenty to like in a 44-19 win over Indiana State, especially once the offense got near the stripe. The Boilermakers were efficient in scoring territory, turning every red-zone trip into points and showing the kind of sharp finishing that usually travels well as the schedule toughens.
Even with the production, the conversation already has a familiar fall theme to it: how much creativity is too much when the ball is sitting close to the goal line. Some of the play-calling choices near the end zone raised eyebrows, and there is a growing sense that getting Ijeboi more involved inside the 20-yard line could make Purdue even harder to defend when the field gets compressed. [Read more 🡒]