Thanks for tuning into the Boiler Express Podcast. Join us each week as we dive into all things Purdue Sports. You'll hear an in-depth analysis of our previous and upcoming games, as well as interviews with players and people involved in the Purdue Sports fandom. Be sure to check us out on Twitter and YouTube for our live stream shows as well. What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Boiler Express Podcast, our first episode back in the full swing of things.
Tonight, we're going to break down Virginia Tech, we're going to break down Fresno State, talk a little bit about football and just shoot the crap. I don't know if we're allowed to say this, we're on here, so shoot the crap. So yeah, we are partners of Big Banner Sports, so big shout out to Big Banner, it's been a great time working with them and everything. And this is also our first podcast to introduce you guys, our sponsor, Sensee Blitz Boards. You can follow them on Twitter at Blitz Boards.
They have a very cool game, which you can take tailgates, you can use it at family parties, you can really take it anywhere. And they do an amazing job. If you look at their Twitter, they have a Facebook page as well. You check them out. I mean, they can make you a Blitz Board with any school on it. Super pristine condition, great logos, they do a fantastic job. I think we might be getting a Boiler Express one, so super excited about that and to see what that looks like and everything.
But yeah, welcome back to the podcast. How's it going everybody? Fantastic. Outstanding. Yeah, Sensee Blitz Boards doesn't just sponsor Frank, it just happens to be on his Square. They called me and they said, we only want to sponsor Frank. And I said, okay, I understand. The person with the biggest brain gets it. Yeah. The biggest brain. Well, thank you. Thank you. That was true up until a second ago. Right. On the subject of the Blitz Boards, they do look great.
Like the Blitz Boards look amazing, like the artwork, the quality is... Dude, I'll be honest, I didn't know what the game was before they explained it to me, but it's a ton of fun. So it's got peg holes going each. Right. Wow. Okay. That came out weird. I thought it would. Anyway, I was waiting for Chris's reaction there. Anyway, and you got your little peg and you roll a dice and how many, you know, dice you whatever. I'm doing a great job explaining this game.
I haven't played it yet, but it's a hell of a fun game. Everybody wants to buy it. They just heard that you're doing great. Oh my God. Oh, so what do you do? Okay. So you throw the, what do you do with the dice? That, so you throw the dice onto the board and the number and the number of the dice is how many spaces you only if it lands in the end zone, like the dice have to land in a certain spot too. And if they go in the hole, they're worth double. And if you like, it's, it's, it's interesting.
It seems like it's like Yahtzee meets like beer pong meets. It's kind of like, uh, what's the game where like, uh, what's the game? Bearing that gaming like, oh yeah. You use up real good. There's this game that I used to play with some of my buddies at Purdue and they would always play on just like a random table or whatever. And they would draw a line in the middle of the table and you would have Dyson. You'd have to throw it up really high.
I can't remember what it's called, but it had to like, you know, TC kids across the street from me and it had to bounce on the table and then roll off to get a point. I can't remember what it was called, but they used to get the crap out of it all the time. Dice eating. Is that the kids call it instead of shooting dice dice eating. Well, I know I will be super excited to play with a sense of bliss board.
Now when we, uh, as a group go to watch the Boilermakers take on the Virginia Tech Hokies in Blacksburg, Virginia. I'm so excited for that. I know we've talked about it a couple of times and I feel like people keep crapping on us because like it's a noon game. Virginia Tech's not good. Who cares? I'm sure I feel like Virginia Tech, they just have a loyal diehard fan base and it's probably going to be sold out anyway, no matter how good or not good they are this year.
And it's going to be a great time. Um, we have stadium. I've never been to, I'm excited. I can off the list. Yeah. And, uh, we're going to meet up with the guys that run the sons of Saturday podcast, uh, sometime this week to do a quick Q and H to find out a little bit more about the Hokies this year, find out about, uh, where the best places are to stay, uh, where the best places are to eat, hang out, kind of that thing. So we're excited to talk to them a little bit.
So the Hokies a bird, right? I think so. It's like a Turkey looking thing. Yeah. That's what I thought. We'll find out. That'll be one of my questions for the, uh, Virginia Tech. Does it have teeth? Are you going to ask them? Oh, that's a good question. Yeah. Cause birds remember don't have teeth. Yes. It's indeed a bird like animal. It looks like, uh, it just looks like a big old chicken. It looks like a Turkey. It's got, it's got jiblets or where this thing's cone. Jiblets. I don't remember.
How does Midwestern as it gets. Yeah. Oh man. I gotta look at it. Oh yeah. It literally, the first one I see is that, uh, the first picture I see is like this Jack like this thing is like flexing. Oh, it's yoked. It's all that's what the kids say nowadays. I think I hope I use that in the eggs. It really is. I think it's a Turkey. Dude, speaking of mascots, frigging Chris and I are the only one repping any Purdue pizza around here. What are we doing? I've got the Boilermaker special. Oh, you do.
You are vintage and you are special. Yep. Wow. Off to a hot start. I've got the train. You do. That's the good train logo too. I don't like the current one. See this one's my favorite right here. Yeah, I do. That was like the early nineties. Was that right? Yeah. They just need to bring back all the nineties logos, at least a lot of them anyway. Yeah, just eat logo. I didn't know there was a Purdue cigar club until Frank told me that today. Is this still an action Frank?
It is not, unfortunately. Once I left, it kind of went downhill. You were carrying the team. I was carrying the team. Yeah. No, it's great. I kind of like great guys. It was a fun group to be around. One thing I think we haven't mentioned about Virginia Tech and probably the thing I'm most excited about is to see the Inner Sandman. That's something that I know that the fans there take a lot of pride in. I love stadiums. I love traditions. I'm really excited to see that.
After last season, seeing jump around in Wisconsin and being completely underwhelmed by it, I'm challenging Virginia Tech fans to make sure that I have a good experience with Inner Sandman. Yeah. All of you Virginia Tech fans that I know are listening, that are going to be at that game, I want you to make sure that Inner Sandman is extra awesome for me and then for us. Jump around. All the fans before the game hyped it up so much. Oh, you're going to feel the stadium shake.
I didn't feel the stadium shake. Literally the students were there just for that. Within 10 seconds of it being done, 32 were left in the stands. Geez. I thought you were going to say 32 of them left. You sat there and you're like, one, two, three. But I felt like jump around felt like it was just the students. I feel like Inner Sandman from the videos I've seen is the entire stadium. See, but I feel like it's the opposite for Shout because the older Caucasians love Shout. They're all about it.
They love it. It was the popular song when they were students at Purdue. That's why Russ loves it so much. You know what? If we travel all the way to Blacksburg, Virginia and we lose, we can at least tell them that our tunnel is bigger because it is. We know that that is a factual statement now. It is a very small tunnel. In width, it's a girthier tunnel. We know this because of Isaac's, Isaac Romig's pictures. He put himself out there on the line and broke into Rossi. It was a friend.
It was a friend of his. I make an arrest. Actually, I offered to pay his bail and he was like, he was a friend of mine. Don't worry. I'm like, okay, just want to make sure you weren't locked up for sneaking into Rossi. Nobody goes into Rossi, not even Isaac. So yeah, speaking of people coming into Rossi, the first team to come to Rossi, we have Fresno State. And I. What were the Mountain West champs? Were they last year? Yes. Mountain West. I was tied up.
But I tell you what, I know I can confidently say I know the Purdue fan base fairly well and there's a lot of buzz right now. So I would not want to be Fresno State. Like renovations, the Rossi, unveiling of the tunnel, first game under a new coach. That place is going to be hyped. Absolutely hyped. We did get to. Sorry. Never mind. Go ahead. I was going to say I'm going to follow that up with in terms of what to expect from the team. I have no idea. So that could be a wild game.
It could be a wild game. There are just so many new faces and so many old faces that have left. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. And going from an offensive mind to defensive mind, I think is my biggest thing. Is it going to be low scoring because the offense is still trying to spin its wheels a little bit and the defense is holding everything together?
Or is it going to be a freaking runaway because Graham Harrell is going to throw the ball 162 times and we don't let any yards on the road. We're not throwing the ball. Well, you don't. I'm saying so for a second there, Frank, I wasn't sure if you were talking about us or Fresno State because there's a similarity between ourselves and Fresno State and actually Virginia Tech. So it's fitting that we're talking about the first two opponents.
But all three of the programs that we're kind of talking about tonight have a ton of transfers, have a ton of turnover, have a ton of new faces, have new coaches. Fresno State, Virginia Tech, their coaches are going into their second year. We just happen to be having a first year coach. But Fresno State in particular, they're losing their starting quarterback, their top rusher, their three leading receivers and their leading tight end. So they're a whole new lineup.
And they've even talked about, like I tried to do some research to try to figure out what they did last year. But there's a lot of talk about their coach installing a new offense this year and possibly doing something new on defense. So it's just because there's nobody left on the offense. Yeah. So it's just gonna be kind of a crap shoot. And like I'm with Frank, when you're in a situation like that, where there's new faces on both sides of the ball, there's new looks on offense and defense.
They're trying to put new schemes in. And when you have the home field advantage and the atmosphere and the hype that gives us the edge. So I'm excited for it. Yeah. That's what I was gonna say too, is that Fresno State is kind of in that same boat where they've got so many new faces that yeah, it's gonna that's what Dylan and I said on the Ohio podcast that we were on this past week that which that episode just dropped today.
So if you guys want to go check out the channel, we have a preview preview, Purdue football 2020 and basically in summer we said, I don't know, I don't know what's gonna happen this year, but we're excited. Coach Walters is cool. So yeah, they called us experts on that podcast and I don't think they they didn't know what they signed up for. Did you watch the intro? They said not to be punny, but this does go off the rails. Oh, it absolutely did. Yeah, no doubt about it.
It did for a minute there. So just to provide a little more recap on Fresno State, I expect him to have some more stats. So I was letting him kind of run with it at first, but they did finish 10 and four last year. They were a 10 win team. They went 7 to 1 in the Mountain West, won the Mountain West Championship and then beat Washington State in their bowl game. I think it was the Jimmy Kemmel LA bowl.
The interesting fact that I kind of teased you guys before we came on air, the interesting historical fact, right? So they were the first team in FBS history to start one in four and finish with 10 wins. Wow. Last year they started one on four. They started one in four and one of those four losses was to Yukon y'all. So yes, they were a 10 win team. Yes, they won their conference, but they aren't expected to have any votes for AP Top 25.
Part of that might be all the new faces as well, but it's still a very winnable game. I would say we come out probably five and a half point favorite, something like that. So I wonder if this is kind of like a Mel Tucker situation, like a Michigan State where he brought in all those transfers that first year. They had a pretty good season and then it kind of went off the rails the second year. So I wonder if that's going to be, I know it sounds like he inherited a good team.
It just took him a little bit to figure it out. So I guess, yeah, we'll see. Which is actually kind of the opposite situation. I don't want to jump to Virginia Tech yet in case you guys have more notes, but Virginia Tech was the opposite situation. So they also have a second year coach, but when he came in, the cupboard was pretty bare. And so they only won three games, which was like their worst season since like 92.
So it was kind of opposite situations, but it's still again, three teams that you don't really know what to expect. Yeah, absolutely. So what you're saying is both Purdue and Fresno State are just, you know, you take some of what last year, some of the transfer portal, put them in like a, like a big Yahtzee shaker and just throw everything out. And that's what the teams are. I kind of like that though. That makes me excited for the game.
So I definitely think though, the thing that we're going to be have benefits on is that we brought in a quarterback that has seen big game time play, you know, played against Alabama in a big nationally telegated otherwise game, things like that. A game that they should have won and got screwed on. Yeah. I remember that very well. Yes. But no, like I think that, I think that's going to be big because he can bring a calming and I think the offensive line is going to be surprisingly good.
Big salsa baby. Lost off of it. Yes. Because also a bunch of the other transfers that we brought in. And then I think we're going to see a nuclear second year from Machabee, a full spring and summer of first team reps. He's gotten bigger, gotten stronger. I'm very, I'm very much looking forward to seeing the weigh in numbers for this year's fall roster and seeing how much weight he's put on.
And well, I remember a certain running backs coach from last season, who may have been employed at Purdue, who may no longer be employed at Purdue saying that they didn't want him to get that much bigger. That they sort of liked his elusiveness and what he brought to the table. I wonder if current coaching regime agrees with that or not. But here's- It may be just a body composition change, maybe trimming down and adding muscle. Here's a question I want to ask.
With the loss of Kobe Lewis and the loss of King Doru, are we, do we find ourselves in a situation that we've seen in recent years where we kind of only have one running back? Where the drop off from running back one to running back two is pretty substantial. I wouldn't say that. Tracy, I think he's going to do a good job in the backfield. And he was originally a running back slot wide receiver at Warren Central, wasn't he? And then when he went to Iowa, he kind of played more of a slot role.
So I think it's not going to be anything unusual for him. But isn't there, I thought we had another running back back there. We have Downing coming back too. Yes, Downing. Who showed flashes of what he's underrated. I think he is too. He's that big cruiser Xander Horovod style to me. Do you guys think that with Hudson Card being able to be a little bit more elusive, run the ball and throw it, do you think we're going to see a little bit of options thrown into the mix this year? Very likely.
Yeah, very likely. I think it's all dependent on how the offensive line plays in pass protection. If he's back there getting his head ripped off every passing play, you don't want to add more hits that just keep adding up. So to that point, we talked about what Fresno State lost on offense last year. So on defense, they only had 30 sacks the whole year and they're losing a guy by the name of David Purcellus. I don't know if I'm saying the name right, but he had 11 and a half of those 30 sacks.
So they're not returning a whole lot of pass rush. So that first game might be just what the doctor ordered to get Hudson Card comfortable in the backfield to get Mock be a decent start to get that O line figuring out their rotation and their protection and their calls. And it just might be a really good recipe for us to kind of get our feet under us to start the year. Yeah. And you know, I big banner if you're watching, if you're listening, I love you guys.
But while I saw that offensive lineman list come out, I felt like Gus, Gus Hartwig and Marcus Imbo were a little little snubbed on that list. They didn't make it. I don't know if they have honorable mentions that they just didn't put on there or what, but let's not forget Gus Hartwig played last year and played well with two broken hands. So almost the whole season. Yeah. That's like peak toughness. I couldn't play with a broken finger, let alone two broken hands.
I don't want to play hearing he broke with broken. It hurts my hands to hear broken hands. Nonetheless, hands are very you need those when you play a line. I mean, those are very important. I would put that up there, honestly, with was it send a lot of play with the torn ACL? Yeah. Yeah. Last year, a year who Rob Marv did to Rob Marv did to you. Yeah. And so that's yeah, that's really Rob Marv. Wow. Throwing it back.
I remember being so excited when he transferred to Purdue, Miami transfer, blah, blah, blah. And I feel bad. But the only thing I really remember from Rob Marv was that when we were playing Iowa at Purdue, I think it was Iowa and he went to like, uh, dive for the end zone and he lost control of the ball as he was like hitting the pylon and they called it a touchback. I hate that rule. Oh yeah. I hate that rule too. I feel I feel like if it hits the pylon, the dive to be the last day was.
Yeah. I'll never forget the Ohio State dive and then the run across the field after he pulled that off. The thing that I remember from the Ohio State game is him running like 70 yards on a frigging torn ACL to tackle like an interception or a fumble or something that was. I saw a TikTok of this kid in high school, um, which blows my mind, but he totally tore like his hamstring or something or his quad.
And he like made an artificial one with that, like Kinesio or whatever, basically like put it on like the backside of his leg till I give him a fake, uh, quad muscle there and then finish the rest of the game and helped them win. Yeah. I'm such a wimp. Like I am a, I'd be better in for three weeks. Like you give me a cold and I'm down for a week, let alone tearing muscle. So all these got me down. Yeah. Let me tell you. Yeah. The, uh, last few days I've been fighting this fever.
I've definitely had the main cold. My wife's been like, you know, my wife was a ICU nurse for like three years. So unless I'm bleeding and have like a severed limb, she's like, you're fine. Everything's fine. You know, Chris and Damon are up here having their Jordan flu game today. Still coming on the podcast, even though they feel like hell. Good for you boys. I don't know if you can, you can see how shiny my forehead is from all the sweat. At least you have hair. All right, listen.
I'm listening. I'm also balding. That wasn't just to dig on you. That was me too. I'm not going to share what flu like symptoms I have. Why do you think I have never been on a podcast without a hat on before? There's a reason for that. Cool. Um, so we've covered Fresno State a little bit. Do we want to move on to Virginia Tech? Sorry. I forgot what. Yeah. Yeah. Where we're going. Russ, you're driving the whole way, right? You're not going to make it drive. I got you. I got you. All right.
Thank God. If it storms, just don't mind me. I'm going to be having a panic attack in the back seat. So I'm going to be drunk. I can't wait to do that. We're going to get so, so much. We should do a podcast from inside the car. That sounds like a stupid idea. That's going to get everyone but the driver is going to be drunk and playing his, uh, since he blitz board as well. Yeah. Chris and I are going to the back seat, just tossing dice.
So don't get a pump Christian to research the open container laws from Indiana all the way to Virginia. Just only if we get pulled over. You're our chief law officer. It's also why you push it. I can't wait until big banter puts out their website and all of our ridiculous titles are on there. Yeah. Why don't you guys explain to anybody listening, what are the new titles? I mean, mine is just hosts. So that's cool. Hi, I'm Dylan Kuhn. I'm the director of morale here at boiler express podcast.
We have legitimately our titles that we've submitted. Oh yeah. Oh Jesus. You didn't know that. That's not your title, Chris. That's how we were mess around. I was half, I was half awake when you guys were sending all that. Uh, Frank is the president of statistical operations. Uh, Russ is our old guy. Uh, Chris, what was yours? Chief security officer or chief law officer and onsite director of onsite correspondence. There it is. There it is. And then, uh, Damon's our host.
David just wants the boss man chief logistics. Host is the most important job, but it sounds like the least cool out of all. Right. Yeah, it really does. No one tried to do it and it wasn't good. I went into it thinking like, how hard can it be? You know, you just say the word and then I was like, hi guys, welcome to the boiler show. Hi, today we're going to be talking about the boilermakers. Very excited. The club is real good. You got a Spanish accent too. Oh, hello. That's like Pinocchio.
I don't know about Spanish. See what I thought I sounded like. So I had when I was in college, I had this professor for cultural anthropology and she was Greek and that's exactly what she sounded like. It was very much like this. And I couldn't take that class. Well, dude, the class sucked because the whole class was worth a hundred points. So there was, um, 10 quizzes throughout the year. They're all worth 10 points. That's the only, that's it.
Like that's so if you miss one, you're already down to a 99 in the class. You miss, you bomb a test. You're already down to a 90 or 80 or whatever. I took a music elective at Purdue and the class total. No, it was a music theory class and the class total had like 3,800 points. I got a C minus on my final and it dropped me like 0.5%. It was, it was wild. Each homework assignment was like 160 points. Music class had to be kind of kind of cool. But it was, except it was pain in the ass.
What's that? You just talked about Mozart. I also took music theory at Purdue. It's not a, there was like 12 people in the class. Wasn't it? There was a lot of people in the class. The part that sucked was that this guy came from actually might've been Virginia Tech, but he, where he was at. So for a final, it's two hour finals at Purdue, right? And where he came from, it was three hour finals. So he gave us a three hour final in two hours. What? The last like 10 minutes, I'm just like fucking.
Mozart, Beethoven, maybe. So that's a thing at Purdue that you have, there's like a time expectancy for a final. Well there's a, there's a time allotment. So like each final that's scheduled is a two hour block. Gotcha. Yeah. Well speaking of music in middle school, I was in band and I played the triangle. So I wasn't banned. Did you really play the triangle? And high school. What'd you play? Tuba and marching tuba. You're such a tuba guy. I could see it. Tell me you're shocked.
I was down over here just ting. The teacher hated me. Like I know that's the lame excuse, but she really did. She still does. I say hi to her. I live in a small town. She'd look, how are you Mr. Kuhn? Still calls me that pisses me off. Anyway, we're doing a competition at Wright State. She's probably listening right now. And she, yeah. Hi Mrs. B. I think she got married. I think it's something else. Anyway, she, she was like, you're on triangle. And I'm like, I'm not going, like count me out.
And so I would be half a beat off just to piss her off. So she'd be up there with their little wand and I'd be like, oh shit, ding. Good times. Good times. Nope. Yeah. And that's why I took it. And I thought it was going to be an easy class. It was actually very hard. I think the tuba's hard though. It's not, it's just marching with it's a lot harder than concert. So yeah, there's a lot of weight. I marched with it with a dislocated shoulder one time. Didn't have that problem with the triangle.
I'll tell you that. Yeah. I was marching man was a bitch. I feel like the conditioning for marching band has got to be insane. Is it, is it? A lot of heat. There's a video, somebody on YouTube of the Purdue band during the Ohio state game in 18 and it's incredible. It's very well shot. Like they show the lead up to the halftime performance and man, those dudes and ladies, they work their asses off. It's incredible. Especially the high stepping by the drum major.
Oh, speaking of that, do you think now, so you know how, sorry, you know how now, like it's always been the band comes in from where the inflatable was the inflatable train. They would come in from that way and they do their little while they're walking up to their area. I wonder if now they're going to come in through the tunnel and go. Will the bass drum fit in the tunnel? It better. Yeah, it's got to better because you can drive a truck through that thing.
You can fit where's the band going to sit. It didn't fit in Notre Dame in front of the it's in front of the student section on South ends. Oh, I like that. That's yeah. Because then it points it towards the bowl instead of the open end. Yeah. So kind of like where they sat back in the day on the opposite end. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So the students will be in that honestly, that is one thing I hated.
It's one thing I hated about the previous configuration is that like if you sat on the East side, you really couldn't hear the band like at all. Yeah. My wife's first time we sat on the East side and I was like, man, like I was like, I was doing the chants and everything. And she's like, what are you doing? I'm like, they're actually playing music like you can't. It's weird at the big. You hear it, but it is happening.
Yeah. So that'll be nice because it'll kind of broadcast it to to the whole stadium. But I did like it better when they were on the ground in the North ends. So when I sat behind them was like up and behind Lucas oil at the big 10 championship, you can barely hear them if you're behind them. Yeah. Very wild how that works. It's weird how like concave things pushing a sound this way. You can't hear it from behind you. Dylan, where were you sitting in the music city bowl against Tennessee?
Behind Peru's bench at like the 20 yard line, I think. Okay. So I was opposite side behind Tennessee's bench. Liverpool too. So that didn't help. But I couldn't hear our band because anytime our band played all the Tennessee fans just booed around us. So I literally couldn't hear anything. Listen, rocky top was kind of cool. I'll give him that. Yeah, it was kind of cool. Yeah, but they all look like it looked like they left their shift at water. burger to come watch the game.
It was like walking into that stadium and just it felt like I've never been to an SEC game and holy crap, dude. I was like overwhelmed as like, oh my God, I'm going to get mugged. what's going to happen. And then after the game, a guy comes up to me and he's like, buddy, I'd hate to win that way. And I was like, buddy, I'd hate to lose that game. It's a freaking road. He flipped me off and I was like, all right, pal.
So here's an updated picture of the South End Zone that I want to share that's actually really cool. It's going to cover the screen, so bear with me. And also Purdue just tweeted that Purdue football single game tickets just went on sale for the general public. So buy those. We don't get that. So the cool thing, do you see these down here, these little bars? Yeah. We need the Geller John Madden marker. Yeah, right. Those are for students to lean against since they're standing. Oh, yeah.
They have those at soccer games. So like, I go to Columbus Crew games and they got cup holders and the whole nine yards. I thought that was actually pretty cool. That is a good idea. I just can't help but look at the field. It looks so much better in real life than it did. The grass. Yeah. And then where the gold is down here is where I believe the band will be. Also, go ahead and check out that beautiful basketball arena in the background there. Where the hell is the rowdy statue?
In the garbage. You said there better be a rowdy statue. So are those rails for students to lean on or to take them if they fall? No, to lean on. The idea is that they'll lean against them to when they're passed out drunk. They can sit down and. Yeah, for us, they used to walk to school both ways in the 10 feet of snow. For whatever reason, thinking of Breakfast Club and whatever may happen there and students standing, there should be something in front of them. Yeah, that's why I like it.
Like a rail. Yeah, I like that idea. They'll just tumble onto each other. Oh, the tunnel looks pretty. It all looks better than the renderings made it look. Like when you start seeing it come together, it all looks so much better than how the renderings had it look. No offense to whoever made the renderings. You did a great job. So you can see that the tunnel's starting to take shape and looking pretty good. The tunnel.
Now, so the special is going to sit like right, not on the very top, but on the next, on the concourse level, right? I believe so. So Dylan and I were talking about this. I asked him, I think I said, do you think the people that are going to sit in those expensive seats every game, they're going to be the people that are in and out going to get food, show up to the game 45 minutes late. I feel like those are the people they're going to be sitting in those seats.
They're going to have the red wine pinkies up. Yeah. No offense, Frank. I know you're a wine connoisseur and a world traveler. Anthony Bourdain over there. All right, Virginia Tech. Oh, yeah. Back on track, boys. Yeah. Virginia Tech went. We're going to play them this year. I said earlier, they went three and eight last year. One and six in conference. I don't know why they played 11 games and seven conference games. I don't, doesn't make sense to me.
It was their fewest win since 1992, where they only won two games. But again, their coach is going into their second year. He's got a ton of transfers coming in. And so we don't really know what to expect. They've got a, I believe, like a journeyman quarterback that started a few games that could be the starter. But it seems like they're leaning towards the transfer from Baylor. His name is Kyron Drones. He's a dual threat guy, which has given pretty good problems in the past.
But we're going to see a whole new defense this year that doesn't even have a name, as Coach Walter said. So we'll see there. I didn't get much about their passing or the passing weapons, receiving weapons. But their leading rusher that's returning had 146 yards last year. So they also are not returning anything as far as the run game goes. So who knows? What have they, what kind of transfers that they brought in, do you know? Just basically everything.
Like I think they've obviously they've brought in a transfer quarterback. There's like three receivers they brought in. A ton of guys in the trenches, kind of like what we have. But the guy from Baylor, I think, was the most notable just because they're expecting him to possibly be the starting quarterback. So all three of these teams could have a transfer quarterback starting for them. So I was looking into what's a Hokie. And there's a article on the Hokiesports.com web page.
And it says, the answer leads all the way back to 1896 when Virginia Tech Agriculture Mechanical College changed its name to Virginia Tech Polytechnic Institute. With the change came the necessity for writing a new cheer and a contest for such a purpose was held by the student body. Senior OM Stull, OM Stull, that was his name. OK. OM Stull won the first prize for his Hokie yell, the old Hokie cheer blow, which is still used today.
Later, when asked if Hokie had any special meaning, Stull just said it was solely the product of his imagination and was only used as an attention getter for his yell. As soon as he became the nickname for all tech teams and for those people loyal to tech athletics. And we all were correct. The Hokie Bird, which is evolved from a turkey, Virginia Tech teams were once called the Gobblers. So that's a funny nickname. Gobblers is cooler than Hokie. I'd rather be a guy. You'd rather be.
What date did you say that was? What year? 1896 is when they. Oh, Russ. That's right. I was waiting for it. I was waiting for it. Russ's graduation year, a great year. Yeah. But OK. I was just going to say earlier, but I wanted to wait till we actually got to talk about Virginia Tech. Someone mentioned about it being a noon game and it might not be a rocking atmosphere. And it might not be as good as a night game.
But to me, and I might be wrong, we can ask the guys when we do the podcast with them. But Virginia Tech strikes me as a little bit like the Nebraska of the ACC, where they've got a huge fan base. They've maybe underperformed, but every year they have some hype. They've got different reasons to get excited. And I think it will still be a pretty decent atmosphere. No, I agree. I feel like it's always rowdy, even in a noon game. I think people are even I think like the inner Sandman thing.
Obviously, I don't know because I've never been to a Virginia Tech game or know much about their culture. But I feel like that's probably a huge reason why people go to the games. They just love to be a part of that. Yeah. So I don't know if the game's clear out right after that or what kind of like the jump or whatever. Jump around at Wisconsin. So. Well, I like that comparison to Nebraska because Nebraska has a rich history, five championships. They've had a down.
They've been down ever since they joined the Big Ten, honestly. But that doesn't stop their attendance, doesn't stop the hype, doesn't stop the fans from showing up. And I think Virginia Tech haven't quite haven't had as long of a stretch of being down. I mean, they had an offseason that's typically an exception for them and not the rule. So I think that anytime ACC Big Ten, it's going to bring a rowdy crowd, in my opinion. I would be very surprised if it wasn't a pretty lights out atmosphere.
I know that like roles reverse. Like if Virginia Tech was coming to Purdue, it would be it was a new game. We'd show up. Oh, yeah. I was at the last Virginia Tech Purdue game at Purdue. That was tough. Yeah, the sons of Saturday posted that. They were like, we can't wait to host the Boilermakers. This was the last time we played them. And I was like, ah. Everything was different then. That was two coaches ago. Man. Yeah, and that was just 2015.
And we're not going to say that coach's name either. It's just two coaches ago. Yeah, it was just two coaches ago. We're not even going to talk about one coach ago. I'll just be happy when the movement between those two schools where our previous coaches now just stops when that just is no longer a thing. I just want to see this team get on the field at this point. I think that's kind of a common feeling amongst the whole fan base is like we've been hyped up since what December, early January.
And now it's just like ready to go, ready to go. So is that a big salsa guy, the new O-line from Colorado? Is he eligible for this year or does he have to sit out a year? I think he has to sit out a year. OK. Also, since we were talking about Nebraska, I looked up what Scott Frost doing nowadays. Apparently, Frost has been coaching high school football and actively searching for new coaching opportunities. So there it is. Shout out, Coach Frost. Hiding from Mark L. Jones.
That's one of my favorite moments. Winnable game. Winnable game. Scott Frost was a guy who played at Nebraska and did really well there as a player. And then he went back to coach at his alma mater and didn't work out for him. It just goes to show that going to coach at your alma mater maybe always is always a good thing. This is another guy in the Big Ten that's a former player to his alma mater and has kind of struggled recently and might be out of a job. Oh, yeah, he struggled mightily.
Yeah. OK. Yeah, no, real bad. And I'll say this, that I did see an interesting tidbit of information about Frost where the team, when he got to UCF, like it was like they hadn't won a game, then they turned around and went like 11 and 3 or something and then 12 and 0 and beat Auburn or whatever and won like the AAC or whatever. And like that makes me start to wonder, though, that is there a culture issue in Nebraska athletics that's causing you?
Because it seems like since Bo Pelini got fired, which was a garbage firing anyway, they've just not been able to figure it out. And it doesn't seem like it's anything that is directly coach related. It almost seems institutional. Yeah, because they think they're the Patriots. Yeah. Well, I've always correlated the, I'll use the word down. The IU basketball of. Well, I was going to say I've always like timed up the, I'm going to say the word downfall.
It's not the right word, but the dip in Nebraska's performance with them coming over to the Big Ten. I think part of it is like when Nebraska was in the Big 12, they had some insane rivalry games, like games that everyone watched. Like think about Oklahoma, Nebraska, like Nebraska, Texas, like how fun those games were. I remember in Domec and Sue just like chasing down Colt McCoy for an entire game. Like, bro, he was running for his life. They almost beat Texas that game too.
Yeah. But I think it was a couple years after they joined the Big Ten because they went to the net. They made a couple, like two out of the first three years. Back in the legends and leaders. Yeah. Yeah. But I just mean from a recruitment standpoint, from a player standpoint, those are the games that you waited all year for. Like to play Oklahoma, to play Texas, I mean those were just some fun rivalry games. And you take that away, I mean that's a major blow to your recruitment.
But they're getting players still. I mean they're getting players. And you look at guys who have left Nebraska and gone to do better things. Wando Robinson, for example. That's a really interesting question, Chris. Is there something going on culturally higher up that's causing this? But I think not last season, the season before, they were three and nine but outscored their opponents when you summed all their points.
Again, so they scored more points than their opponents in the aggregate in the entire season and still had a three and nine season. So they were just on the cusp of having a good season. But they just can't seem to get through the wall. So since we're only at 40 minutes and we're kind of going down different avenues and segues here, what do you think about USC and UCLA then?
You're talking about Nebraska having trouble maybe struggling recruiting because now they aren't selling the Texas game, the Oklahoma game. Well now USC and UCLA are not playing locally anymore. They're not playing the Stanfords, they're not playing the Washington State. Now they're trying to sell to people, hey, let's go play in Nebraska, let's go play in Indiana, let's go play in Ohio. So does that hurt them? No, because it's no different than going to Eugene, Oregon. That's true.
It's the same distance from USC to Eugene as it is from USC to Ohio State or something. Uh-oh, I'm fact checking that. Where it's something close, it's something like Midwest, it's very like comparable. Really? It might not be exactly even. If it's not down to the exact mile, okay, listen. Maybe Nebraska and that's like a stretch. For USC though, they've got history for their recruiting. They could play in the freaking Mac and still recruit. Right, yeah. USC and Miami.
Yeah. You know what I love about USC too? They have very simple uniforms. I know I'm gonna sound like an old man here, but I'm not on this train of like, you gotta have super fancy uniforms to get recruits. Like USC has very plain uniforms, they get really good recruits. Notre Dame, really plain uniforms. Penn State, Penn State has probably the most boring uniforms in college football. But you've just listed three programs that have an incredible amount of history.
But then you look at the uniform. Which is my point, winning gets recruits. Uniforms now are going away from the flashy, Oregon's or whatever's, and they're starting to go to more traditional looks. I think Mississippi State just released theirs today. And they're pretty much like, if I remember what they look like correctly, Penn State uniforms, but maroon. And so I think they have a shoulder strike. So you're seeing a lot of schools now go back to the old school way of things.
And like you see recruits at Purdue, you rarely now see them wearing the current uniforms, you see them wearing the Rose Bowl layer uniforms. Or the throwbacks. Those are my favorite uniforms too. Such a good uniform. And I think it's cool, like simple is sometimes better. And then so far, a lot of schools, like I said, are going away from the flashy, crazy Oregon style uniforms to these classic, USC, UCLA, Penn State, Michigan.
And you look at most of big 10 teams and their uniforms are very, very simple. Purdue, I think this is the uniform set we have now is the craziest Purdue's ever gotten with a uniform, I think. But it's not like overwhelming. You got the cow catcher on front, which is perfect. And then you got the big numbers, which is good for Russ because he can see it from on his TV. But yeah, you see a lot of schools going back to that classic look.
So it's a little bit of a, it's not exactly, but it is after Nebraska is the same instances. I was- That is wild though. I wouldn't expect that. So you go Washington State to USC. Oh, you said Oregon. You said Oregon. I was gonna crush you on that one. Cause it's 859 miles from University of Southern California. 862, but yeah. Oh, you two are in different locations. But University of Southern California to Nebraska is 1502. So that's about 600 more miles to Nebraska.
To Ohio State, it's 2,251 miles. So- It was something like that. Calm down. Yeah. Well, you know what? USC is gonna have to travel and they can afford nice planes and the whole nine yards. But back to Chris's question, I do think it will hurt them a little bit cause you think like, you know, not playing at Stanford, right? They're sure they're drawing a crowd there. I mean, how many USC fans are gonna go to Rutgers? You know, like that. I wouldn't even go to Rutgers. More reasonably close.
No, I don't think it's that. I mean, those types of teams travel well when you've got the history of the program. So I don't think, I mean, look at Nebraska, they travel well and haven't had a winning season since the Carter administration. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I think it's just, it's all dependent on the history of the program. Now will Purdue travel well out to USC or UCLA? I don't know. We'll see. I think they will.
I feel like there's a good amount of alumni out there to live out there. Yeah, a lot of engineers out there that- Yeah. Yeah. In that Silicon Valley and stuff like that. Yeah, totally. Rich ones, you know. So are you guys ready? Give me a number on the distance between University of Southern California and Rutgers University. 2,303 miles. 2,870 miles. Frank, you're saying over 3,000. So if it's prices right rules, then Damon wins by default, because it's 2,773. Oh, I should have said one mile.
It was over. Dang, and I've even Googled that before. I was so sure it's 2,303. He was sure he said one mile. One mile, Bob. Dylan, you still would have lost because Damon was within 400. So- Oh, well, you know, I'm not the numbers guy. So I'm not worried about it. Lord knows that. Hey, wow. Okay. No need from the peanut gallery. All right, listen. But I think that I like the expansion because it's going to help TV markets. I mean, that's awesome. We're going to have Bronnie James.
Yeah, that'll be weird. That'll be cool. Or wait, is he coming? Is he going to USC this year? He's going to USC this year, so he- That'll be cool. Oh, he probably won't, could be. Yeah, probably will. I don't think he's going to do very well in college. Oh, hot day. I mean, he's already projected first round pick. I feel like once you get that, it's just, it's like still- As a four star? Isn't he a four star athlete coming out of high school? Maybe. Oh. I mean, buddy has to go by Bronnie.
That's rough. I mean, just call him Bron. You can't be 45 and be like, hey, Bronnie. I wonder if Ohio State was surprised at all that they didn't land Bronnie James. Ohio, like my Ohio State friends were like, for certain that he was coming to Columbus. I think if LeBron was in Cleveland, he would have went to Ohio State. Yeah. But because he's in LA, which who knows he might be in fricking Denver or where the latest place he's taken is overrated. Wow. Preach. I don't like Bron James.
LeBron, LeBron. So one more note that I found out about the- How do you pick in for dropkick LeBron, let alone- The atmosphere at the Virginia Tech game. So they have three home games that they have what's called color effects. So there's a white out effect. I know, right? Sounds borderline. Yeah, sounds borderline. But there's a maroon effect, a white effect and a orange effect. So the Purdue game is an orange effect. So maybe don't wear gold Purdue stuff because we might blend in with them.
Like we got- Would this podcast be a white effect? Yeah. So yeah, man. It's fine. So Russ, what is that? It's not right. It is. Like what it- Does that just mean it's gonna be like an orange out? I guess, yeah. I don't know why it says effect. That's really weird. But it's probably gonna be kind of toasty. It's the second game of the year and we're all gonna wear black and die. Like- Do you remember the Indiana State game last year? I don't look good in white.
I remember the Michigan game in 2017. Michigan? Michigan. That was brutal. That was brutal. That's a white effect. I went to Purdue, Cincinnati in like- Oh, that game was miserable. 2011. Where those rap bastards wore white just so we had to wear black. I wore a black t-shirt and you- Yeah, you're dumb. And I- Yeah. And I almost didn't make it to halftime. Like I was miserable. I went to Purdue, Cincinnati to play on the field. And people out here want a black football field.
I saw that on Twitter. A black turf football field. Think it's awesome. I was at the Purdue Cincinnati game in the Yum Center. And the tournament- I can't believe there's an arena called the KFC Yum Center. That still makes me laugh. You guys and your KFC over there. I mean, that's the stadium where my heart was broken. Where Virginia beat Purdue. I don't wanna talk about it. I had it three times.
I had my heart broken three times because I had the Cincinnati game where we booed a seven point lead with like 40 seconds left. Eight points. Eight points. And then- Yeah, big brain. I guess it wasn't really a heartbroken game, but that Louisville game before we came back to Mackie, but we played them in the ACC Big Ten Challenge. And it was like the slugfest, right? The halftime score was like 22 to 13 or something. You remember that game?
No, I remember the one where Louisville came to Purdue. And we had that amazing- Both games were like that. Both Louisville and Purdue games were like this. I just remember that's the game I remember- The game at Mackie was the World High scoring. Coach Pander doing that fist pump. The game at Mackie, I responded to him for a shoot. You mean Louisville? Yeah, the Louisville game was also awesome because that was, I believe that was Braum's first year in the football program.
And we had just won the bucket game. And so they brought the bucket to the Louisville game. And so the whole crowd is chanting, I, you sucks, I, you sucks. And I brought two people to the game. One Louisville fan, one Kentucky fan. I don't know what's going on down there. You all okay? We talked on the Ohio podcast about pronouncing Louisville. And I told him how mad you get when I say Louisville. Oh, you gotta say it like you got molasses spilling out of your mouth.
You gotta say it like you're choking on molasses. Full, full, full. You got a softball stuck in your throat. Gotta say it like a cardinal with teeth, like a bird with teeth. That's a good point. You gotta say it like- I would know teeth, like Russ. There's a speech he needed for a glass of sudan. Now let's turn you into a Louisville fan. A ref would be. that's our nickname. Maybe that's what we call our live game day segments when we go to games. Like, spoilers, Rats Crew, going off the rails.
This is why Frank's the big brain. And then we got the wireless mics. I think Damon already ordered the wireless mics. Oh, did he? Yeah, we're going to interview drunk college kids. Whilst drunk? I don't drink, but I may get drunk for that, I'll tell you. You don't drink. We're going to interview some college kids and be like, what are you thinking about, Virginia? They're like, man, I'm just trying to get a degree here. Like, my friends invited me.
I've never even been to a football game before. Is this the soccer game? I'm going to talk to somebody getting their PhD. Speaking of off the rails, and since we're just putting random stuff out there that tend to make people turn the podcast off anyways, and they're just going to shake their heads. What are you trying to say? Considering the line of humor that you enjoy, Dylan and Chris, have you all ever put any thought into what Purdue Pete is short for? What Pete is short for? Peter. Peter.
There you go. Peter. No. You know what Rowdy would be great to be reincarnated as? He would be great is like, you know those car salesmen, those dealerships where they have the wacky arm inflatable, inflatable two men? You need to just open up a dealership in West Lafayette and make a makeshift Rowdy. Yeah. See, apparently somebody tweeted me that I can't open a dealership. Use car dealerships are not allowed in West Lafayette. Really? Or city ordinance. Same for trailer parks.
That's why he's the director of law. I think we got a law director over here. My goodness. That's pretty well. I never knew that. And not no trailer parks either. No trailer parks. I mean, I got a cross. I'm down yonder. You'll get a double wide pull down yonder. Did you do? I was going to paint my trailer gold and black. Call it the boiler mobile. It's parking my driveway. Same different. Is that why you fans don't travel too well to Purdue game? Oh, that's a good one.
I'll never forget the first time I met Chris, because at this time we were just, you know, Twitter acquaintances. And so I had GPS to his house. I pull up and he's out in front because it was like around Christmas time. I'm like 20 foot inflatable nutcracker. And I was walking to your house with a case of beer and you just look at me, you go, can I help you? David, let's go. Shit. My name is David. Oh, when I first met Chris, he yelled my name. The concourse and scared the shit out of me.
Who the hell? Oh, my God. Yeah, I'm not out at all. No, no. That's why the loud ones are at the bottom of the screen. Yeah. The two guys with Peters on their hats. You know, that's a good point. It's not it's not it's not true. Chris, Chris, Dylan, we can see your Peters. Chris has got to wait in the whole episode to drop the whole. Oh, hey, now. All right. There goes the meter in it. We've lost you. This is the hardest. We're going to be on YouTube. Mark Zuckerberg is like shutting her down.
Peter, we all love him. Where did pretty he was a drawing. Where was he? The library, right? Probably wrong. I don't know. Ask Russ. He was there. Russ actually drew it. He drew it. And this was the. It was actually done by a guy who worked at the bookstore. See, I was close library. I don't go to either. So he'll Billy Hill. Billy was a closest. I don't go to libraries. I don't go to bookstores. You know, what's the mainly because you can't read. You can't read. You can't read. What's that say?
The boiler. Yeah. Express. We really should probably call this all the off. Yeah, we're teetering on the line of getting canceled before we get done. I'm going to actually, before we end this year, I'm going to pull up our, well, I wouldn't be able to see any old chats. Would I? From. I had a buddy that said he was going to tune in tonight, but he was going to be on the show. So I was like, Oh, I have to, I have to convey this. So they, so it was actually designed. It was actually designed.
It was based on a real person. The guy's name was Carl Verplank. He was the model. He weighed 210 pounds and ran the a hundred yard dash under 10 seconds. I don't know why that's that. That's included. That's a pretty cool name is Carl. Yes. Yes. Purdue Carl. The ringer. You all seen that movie, the ringer. So he's either guy from that movie that won the marathon. Is it? Oh, there you go. Purdue car. 210 pounds, a hundred. I mean this. That's just a bit of information to add.
Like why we're talking about often brought up that Zach Edie runs a sub six minute mile. So pretty impressive. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure if you're going to run a mile right now. That's crazy. I mean, well, his strides, my God, he goes half a mile. You have to run a mile for your living. What was your last mile run? Time. My last one. Like eight minutes. What do you have to get it under? I have to get a mile and a half and 1628. I don't know. I couldn't do that.
So I'm not a. Well, speaking of 1628 for a mile and a half. I think I'm going to have to run a mile for a mile and a half. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You know, I'm just walking though. So yeah, but it was, it was pretty painful because I pulled a hamstring on the 300 meter just before that. Oh, that's the fall on a hammy. Oh dude. Hold it right off. But somebody tweeted me that rowdy, the rowdy suit is on Slater Hill during tailgating.
And then they made fun of me and said, I need to get out more. I am. I'm not going to let you do that. I'm not going to let you get out more. I'm not going to let you get out more. You're not going to get out. You're not going to get out more. All right. That's one of the things that I like to do. But so we need to, that's our first stop at the Fresno state game is finding rowdy. And if he's stolen, I know who to look for. Damon. Yeah. It was Damon the whole time. Man, I'm like not here.
I'm going to hold. Cold meds are kicking out. Yeah. We're gonna have to end this before Damon goes into. State. Too late. you guys for tuning into the off rails podcast. But yeah, we're excited for football. We are now back on a weekly basis. So next week, we'll be breaking down our next two opponents and we'll go from there. So thank you guys for all tuning in. If you stay in the end to watch use hashtag Russ is old. If you do that, Oh, a dog. I'm old. I saw a dog and
I got excited. But if you made it to the end of the podcast, use the hashtag Russ is old and I will Venmo you $5 from the boiler express. I wonder if the Ohio podcast is going to strike again, which is like negative 10. So right and DM Blitz boards y'all DM Blitz boards. Yeah, order your Blitz board. Yeah, that's right. Hashtag get big shout out to our partnership at big manager. And then our sponsors, Blitz boards at Blitz boards on Twitter. They're
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