Kevin Kane didn’t try to fix Purdue’s run defense by replaying its low points over and over after the UCLA loss. He took the ugliness from Sept. 19 - a 52-38 defeat in which the Boilermakers gave up 369 yards - and used the good snaps as the teaching tape.
That approach mattered. Against a UCLA team that leads the Big Ten by a wide margin with 253.2 rushing yards per game, Purdue got buried for 7.7 yards per carry and spent the night at Rose Bowl Stadium trying to keep up with an offense that was piling up nearly 500 total yards on the Boilermakers.
Kane’s message was simple: show the players what they did right, then make that the standard.
"We had showed the clips of that game when we did things we need to do, when you're playing with the intensity we need to be at, this is what we do," Kane said Monday. "They've done it against obviously a very good UCLA football team.
If you can do that against these guys, why can't you do this all the time? Showing them what they can do and how they can do it."
The next week against Notre Dame, Purdue was still overmatched talent-wise, but the numbers were less alarming. The Irish averaged 5.5 yards per carry and finished with 177 rushing yards. After that game, Kane and head coach Barry Odom both pointed to the progress that was easy to miss once the final score was in the books.
Illinois and Minnesota gave Purdue a chance to prove that improvement was real.
Over the last two games, both Purdue wins, the Boilermakers held the Illini and Gophers to 147 rushing yards on 40 carries combined. That works out to 3.7 yards per rush.
There were some caveats against Illinois, where starting running back Ca'lil Valentine went out early. Still, Illinois nearly matched its rushing output the following week against Michigan State without Valentine.
Minnesota’s trip to Ross-Ade Stadium turned into something else entirely. The Gophers were chasing the game from start to finish and managed only 27 rushing yards, by far their worst ground performance of the season. Statistically, it was Purdue’s best night against the run in 22 years, since the Boilermakers held Penn State to 18 rushing yards in 2004.
The schedule gives Purdue a chance to stack another one up Friday against Washington. The Huskies sit last in the Big Ten in rushing and are the league’s only team averaging fewer than 100 yards per game at 90.3, which is 14.5 yards per game worse than Minnesota, the conference’s next-lowest team.
The overall numbers still don’t look great, but Purdue has moved in the right direction. Over the last two weeks, the Boilermakers climbed from 18th to 16th in the Big Ten in rushing defense, now sitting at 157.5 yards per game.
The bigger shift shows up on the scoreboard. Coming out of the Notre Dame loss, Purdue was giving up 46.3 points per game to Power 4 opponents. During its two-game winning streak, Illinois and Minnesota have combined for 30 points.
"For (coaches), (it was) how can we make this thing as simple as possible for our guys to go play fast," Kane said. "We eliminate some things to allow them to think less and play fast.
Each week, you’ve seen progress. Every week we’ve got to continue to get better, and that’s what we’ve been doing.
Knock on wood, we keep trending that way."
In Other News...
Purdue Faces A Washington QB Decision That Could Change Everything
Purdue heads into Fridays matchup with Washington in relatively good shape health-wise, a welcome development at this stage of the season. The Boilermakers still have several players sidelined, but their injury list is far shorter than Washingtons, where multiple key contributors are dealing with questionable or out designations as the teams prepare to meet.
The biggest storyline sits under center for the Huskies, where Demond Williams Jr. is working back from a rib injury and remains uncertain for the game. Washingtons quarterback situation could shape the entire night, especially with backup Elijah Brown having already been pressed into action after Williams went down in the previous game, giving this one an added layer of intrigue for Purdue as it tries to take advantage of any disruption. [Read more 🡒]
Matt Painter's Trey Kaufman-Renn Stance Says A Lot About Purdue
Trey Kaufman-Renns bid for a sixth year of college basketball has already turned into one of the more unusual off-court storylines of Purdues offseason. After filing a lawsuit against the NCAA and landing a temporary restraining order and injunction that would allow him to keep playing, the former Boilermaker suddenly had a path back into the sport, even if that path did not automatically lead back to West Lafayette.
Matt Painters response said plenty about where Purdue stands as it tries to balance loyalty, continuity and roster management. Rather than carving out a spot for Kaufman-Renn, Painter stuck with the commitments he had already made to the players in the program, a reminder that even in a fluid college basketball era, the Boilermakers are still drawing lines around opportunity. Kaufman-Renn has not yet picked a landing spot for the 2026-27 season, and until he does, this remains one more reminder of how complicated an extra year can make things for everyone involved. [Read more 🡒]
Derrick Barnes Is Giving Purdue Fans Something To Watch Every Sunday
Derrick Barnes has become one of the more reliable Sunday watchpoints for Purdue fans as the NFL season settles in, with the former Boilermaker carving out steady production early in the year. The weekly roundup of ex-Purdue players across Weeks 2 through 5 shows Barnes not just hanging around, but making real plays at linebacker, the kind that keep his name in the conversation when fans are checking scores well after college football Saturdays are gone.
Elsewhere, the Purdue pipeline has had a mixed feel, with some alumni seeing heavier snaps, others working from practice squads, and a few contributing in smaller but still noticeable ways on special teams or in the passing game. Aidan O'Connells situation has also been part of that broader picture, and his absence in one of those early weeks added another layer to a season that has been as much about opportunity and timing as it has been about box-score numbers. [Read more 🡒]