Nebraska, Penn State Shine in Week 4 Big Ten Power Rankings
Saturday Blitz Big Ten Power Rankings Week 4
14. Purdue Boilermakers, 2-2 (0-0), Defeated Southern Illinois Salukis 35-13 Last Saturday
As crazy as it sounds, Darrell Hazell’s Purdue Boilermakers have actually shown significant improvement over the past two weeks. They played Notre Dame close for a half, and last Saturday’s game against Southern Illinois was truly a toss-up when you consider how good of an FCS team the Salukis are and how bad the Boilermakers are.
But Purdue won easily. It would appear to be enough to keep them from being the worst team in the Big Ten, but they haven’t done nearly enough to avoid that title yet. The bad loss to Central Michigan is still fresh in everybody’s mind, and Purdue is going to have to do a lot more to get over that.
This weekend is a great chance for the Boilermakers to prove that they are improving with the Iowa Hawkeyes coming to town. Although Purdue is still not showing much of a defense to speak of, perhaps Hazell’s team has enough to pull off the home upset. If that happens, this team certainly won’t be at the bottom of these power rankings starting next week.