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Q&A WITH OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JIM CHANEY ANOTHER SPECTACULAR JOB Boilers’ Offensive Onslaught Blows Out Notre Dame In South Bend BY DOUG GRIFFITHS DGriffiths@GoldandBlack.com SOUTH BEND, Ind. — It’s hard not to sound like a broken record these days when describing Purdue’s offensive output. But here goes. In the Boilermakers’ 25-point win Oct. 2 at Notre Dame, Purdue racked up more than 500 yards of total offense for the fourth straight game this season. Quarterback Kyle Orton threw four touchdown passes. He’s had at least four TD tosses in every game this season. In addition, Orton didn’t throw an interception. He hasn’t been picked off in 137 pass attempts this season. And finally for the fourth game in a row, Purdue scored at least 38 points (something no Purdue team has done in 117 years of football) and didn’t commit a turnover. “I can’t find a lot to be critical of at this moment and I’m really not looking for it,” offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said. “I’m just thrilled to death.” Gold & Black Illustrated talked with Chaney after the Boilermakers’ thrilling win. Below is what he had to say. GBI: It doesn’t get much bigger than this win does it? Chaney: “No. We’ve been here eight years and there are a lot of things we have and haven’t done. One thing we have not been able to accomplish is to come up here and beat Notre Dame. To do it is refreshing and comforting. “Joe (Tiller), Brock (Spack) and Gary (Emanuel) have been here a long time, we’re competitive people and we know down deep that that’s the one thing we hadn’t gotten done and we did today. “The players played their butts off.” GBI: In a lot of ways to a lot of people it’s more than just one win, right? Chaney: “It might be for a lot of people and for the guy I work for (Tiller), Spack and Gary who have lived through a few up here you’re right … it probably is a little more than that. “It’s winning in an environment that you respect and that’s an incredible accomplishment for our football team.” GBI: In the game’s opening series, you made a statement by getting a number of players involved. Chaney: “Oh yeah. That’s what we were trying to do. We were trying to decoy them, do our little game and go up and down the field and then we got the chance to make some big plays. “It was like we smelled blood 360 BROWN ST. — LEVEE PLAZA WEST LAFAYETTE 743-1188 Stop by and visit our casual restaurant and sports bar featuring burgers, sandwiches, salads, appetizers and our legendary Buffalo chicken wings spun in one of our 12 signature sauces. Featuring: 9 Big Screens + 36 TV’s and 8 Satellites Award-Winning Wings • 12 Signature Sauces Hot Sports Action • Full Menu 30 cent Wings on Tuesdays • 50 cent Legs on Wednesdays Free NTN Trivia • Dine In or Takeout! WINGS. BEER. SPORTS. All the Essentials Tom Campbell Junior receiver Ray Williams was one of several Boilermakers to step up big against Notre Dame nearly tripling his production in the previous three games with five catches for 59 yards. when they started playing a lot of press man on us. We weren’t sure whether or not we could get off (the line of scrimmage). When we did, it all kind of avalanched and our kids had a lot of confidence. They were wanting to throw the ball down the field all the time and I was having Kyle throw the ball down the field quite a bit.” GBI: Big games are decided by big plays and Jerome Brooks’ 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was huge. Chaney: “I would say that was big, but I would say the biggest play of this game was the fumble (by Notre Dame) on the (Purdue) 2. And us going 97 yards on that drive really turned the momentum on them and really gave us something to hang our hats on at halftime.” GBI: Take us through the 97yard touchdown pass from Orton to Taylor Stubblefield. Chaney: “That was a hell of a play. I did not expect them to play man-to-man coverage. We told Kyle as soon as they got back to man, Let’s keep throwing it to Taylor.’ “I called the play, they were playing straight up man, Kyle audibled and threw a touchdown. “He changes about 20 percent of the plays. That’s what a good quarterback does. He changed things up on that play and made a good play.” GBI: Another good play call was on first-and-goal from the Notre Dame 2. You had Orton bootleg and he hit a wide-open Rob Ninkovich for a touchdown in the second quarter. Chaney: “It worked. It’s always good when they work.” GBI: In the last couple of years you’ve taken some heat for your playcalling … Chaney: “Yeah, that’s life in the big city. Kyle Orton is a hell of a player. If he’s saying he wants something, I’m calling it. I may not be the smartest man in the world, but when I’ve got a quarterback playing as hot as Kyle is right now and he requests something, he’s getting it. I’m going to feed that monster until it dies.” GBI: Is anyone hotter than Orton right now? Chaney: “I don’t see everyone else, but the one we’ve got is playing real well.” GBI: You don’t like to talk about the Heisman Trophy, but he certainly made a statement today with his performance. Chaney: “I’ll just let his play speak for itself.” GBI: Some thought Notre Dame would try to take Stubblefield out of your arsenal by double-covering him (bracketing him). Chaney: “Going into the ball game, we never thought that. Notre Dame has not been playing a lot of press coverage and they’ve been playing very good defense so we weren’t anticipating them coming in and bracketing and doing a bunch of crazy stuff to take away Taylor.” GBI: Did they defend you differently than Illinois? Chaney: “Yes. They were on us more and did less zone pressure than Illinois did. They played man-to-man a whole lot more. You can generate a lot more big plays when you’re facing man-to-man coverage.” GBI: Talk about the performance put in by the offensive line today. Chaney: “I said earlier if there is an MVP of this game, it’s the offensive line. Coming in, we thought the strength of their team was their defensive front and that we had to negate them. Our kids did a wonderful job without having to throw a lot of quick game. We did a lot of fivestep drops. We held up marvelously well. “I couldn’t be more pleased with them and I told every one of them that. They played really well.” GBI: Do you realize just how big of a win this is to Purdue fans? Chaney: “I’m a Purdue fan and it’s very big to me. It’s big any time you beat a team like Notre Dame. As a coaching staff, we respect them so much. They do such a wonderful job recruiting and coaching that any time you beat a team that you put on a pedestal … that’s pretty good.” j You can get Chaney’s thoughts after each game all season long on GoldandBlack.com. GOLD & BLACK ILLUSTRATED • VOLUME 15, ISSUE 5 • 12 GoldandBlack.com
Q&A WITH DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BROCK SPACK BEND BUT DON’T BREAK MENTALITY Boilers Accomplish No. 1 Goal … Stop Irish Ground Attack BY DOUG GRIFFITHS DGriffiths@GoldandBlack.com SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Purdue’s No. 1 defensive goal entering its game Oct. 2 at Notre Dame was to make the Irish onedimensional. The Boilermakers did just that. Defensive coordinator Brock Spack’s unit limited the Irish to 76 yards rushing (2.1 yards per rush). Entering the game, Notre Dame was averaging 116.2 yards rushing per game. “They’ve had a lot of success at running the football,” Spack said. “They ran the ball really well on Michigan (40 carries for 135 yards and two touchdowns), which concerned us a great deal. We wanted to make them one-dimensional today and try to keep the ball in front of us. We had to do that and did.” But the Boilermakers were torched through the air by Notre Dame sophomore quarterback Brady Quinn for a Purdue opponent record 432 yards and gave up more than 500 yards for just the second time in Spack’s eight years as defensive coordinator.. However, the Boilermaker D had a bend but don’t break mentality. Notre Dame was in Purdue territory on 10 of 11 possessions in the game, but scored just two touchdowns and settled for one field goal. The Irish also had a 44yard field goal partially blocked. On one of Notre Dame’s deepest drives, it was kept off the scoreboard thanks to a great play by defensive tackle Anthony Spencer. On second-and-goal from the Purdue 2, Irish running back Darius Walker ran left and had the ball ripped out of his arms by Spencer. Defensive tackle Brent Grover recovered it at the 3. The Boilermakers proceeded on a 97yard drive to make it 20-3 and never looked back. Spack said Spencer’s play couldn’t have come at a better time. “That was a huge strip,” said Spack, who shaved off his mustache as he promised the team he would if it beat the Irish. “It’s just great to see a kid execute what you try to teach. “Spencer got hurt (sprained his ankle late in the second quarter). He was having the game of his life. I can’t count the plays in the first half that he made.” Following are Spack’s thoughts on Purdue’s fourth win of the season. GBI: How big is this win? Spack: “In the last eight years, we’ve been up here three times and it was really frustrating. We had come very close and hadn’t been able to pull it off. “Today was really unbelievable.” GBI: When you were walking off the field were you kind of pinching yourself looking at that scoreboard? Tom Campbell Defensive coordinator Brock Spack reacts after the Boilermakers force a three-and-out in the second quarter. Unfortunately, the Boilers were whistled for offsides on the Irish punt on the next play which kept the drive alive. The Irish were stopped later when Darius Walker fumbled near the goal line. Spack: “Yeah. In the last five or six minutes of the game, you knew it was over and it was quite a feeling.” GBI: Can you put into words what this win means to Purdue fans? Spack: “No. You get tired of getting it (losing to Notre Dame in South Bend) shoved in your face all the time. I heard so many times, ‘You can’t win up there.’” GBI: Doesn’t a win like this put the 2004 team in a special place in Boilermaker lore? Spack: “Our theme was that it was just another game. I told our players during the week, ‘If you win this game here, it is what legends are made of.’ You then become a very special group because obviously it doesn’t happen very often at Purdue.” GBI: A lot of critics took the approach that they would believe it once they saw it in terms of Purdue winning at Notre Dame. Spack: “This is the fourth time we’ve been here in the last eight years. All four times we thought we could win and this time we finally did it. These kids did a great job. What more can you ask for?” GBI: The tackling effort was much better against the Irish than at Illinois, which you thought would be the case. Spack: “I thought we would play hard here. We always seem to do that. They learned from last week that you can’t take anything for granted in the game of football. It can make you look like a fool or like today it can make you look like a hero.” “I had a slight smile on my face as I left Illinois’ stadium last week because I thought that was good for us. We won, but we went through some adversity. It was a great teaching tool for us.” GBI: How did the tackling improve that much in just a week? Spack: “It’s a mental issue. Always remember this in football … ties go to the offense. If you go in there and tie up a blocker or lean on a ball carrier, that goes to the offense because you have to whip the blocker, accelerate to the ball and terminate the ball-carrier. “We didn’t do that on every play last Saturday. And when you play against good teams like Notre Dame that can run the football, you cannot allow them to run the ball because they would have you on your heels.” GBI: What do you think of the offense? Spack: “It’s unbelievable. At all the alumni functions I did in the spring and summer I said that I thought No. 18 (Kyle Orton) was one of the best I’ve ever been around and I’ve been around some great ones. “He is a great player and he has proven it. He has something that is hard to coach and that is he’s mentally tough and physically tough and has great arm strength. He has turned into a great player. “I have not seen one like him.” GBI: Is there a player anywhere in the country right now hotter than Orton? Spack: “I don’t think so. I could see this coming in the spring.” GBI: After Spencer caused the fumble, the offense went on a 97-yard touchdown drive. How big was that? Spack: “It was huge. When you turn it over and a team comes back and scores off that turnover, it’s just heartbreaking and really hurts your confidence.” GBI: Just out of curiosity, does your defense stop Orton and Co.? Spack: “I wouldn’t say we stop them. Once in a while we might slow them down a little bit, but he’s awfully good.” j You can get Spack’s thoughts after each game weekly on GoldandBlack.com. GOLD & BLACK ILLUSTRATED • VOLUME 15, ISSUE 5 • 13 GoldandBlack.com
Page 1 and 2: The Authority On Purdue Athletics w
Page 3 and 4: Volume 15, Issue 5 Oct. 8, 2004 A P
Page 5 and 6: FROM PUBLISHER ALAN KARPICK NOW THI
Page 7: Kyle Ingraham (nine yards), and wit
Page 10 and 11: effort against the Irish compared t
Page 14 and 15: O DOUBT Photos by Tom Campbell HE D
Page 16 and 17: Each week the Maniacs are asked to
Page 18 and 19: NO. 15 PURDUE 41, NOTRE DAME 16 Wha
Page 20 and 21: BY DOUG GRIFFITHS DGriffiths@Goldan
Page 22 and 23: BY DOUG GRIFFITHS DGriffiths@Goldan
Page 24 and 25: BY ALAN KARPICK AKarpick@GoldandBla
Page 26 and 27: Purdue Freshman Parrissa Eyorokon l

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