Spring Football: A Look At Quarterbacks

The Boiling Point: Similarly to last spring, Purdue has a lot of questions at the quarterback position thanks to Robert Marve’s ACL injury in the fall. 

Last season wasn’t a typical season for signal callers at Purdue, the Cradle of Quarterbacks. Three guys started games and at one point a walk-on had moved up the depth chart to No. 2 because of injuries and eligibility issues. Months later and the Boilers have a clearer picture at the position, but with Miami transfer Robert Marve still battling another ACL tear, questions still remain.

What we know: For the second straight spring, Robert Marve won’t participate in spring practice because of an ACL injury. A year ago, Marve was recovering from his injury suffered the summer before. Now, Marve is dealing with the injury he sustained during the fall, which puts him a ways from being healthy. What that means is that arguably the most important position on the team will be undecided until the fall rolls around for the second straight season leaving a lot of questions for the Boilers. With Marve sidelined, his future under center with Purdue completely unknown, Rob Henry gets another great opportunity to take control of the position. Henry has fully recovered from a severe hand injury and will be getting all of the first-team reps this spring to continue his progression in his young career. Also, Caleb TerBush is back eligible after grade issues and young Sean Robinson is around, too.

What we don’t know: How serious is Danny Hope and Purdue’s coaching staff at building Purdue’s offense around Marve? If they are serious, the spring could be somewhat of a waste as Marve won’t be taking any snaps and Henry will be the focus under center. Henry has to improve his down-field passing, but the bulk of the offense will be tailored on his ability to run. If it’s Marve, it will be more a drop-back passing game on offense, which means the entire game plan would change.

Moving forward: Unfortunately for the Boilers, quarterback is just another position with more questions than answers because of Marve’s health. In a perfect scenario, Henry has a great spring and does enough work that the coaching staff decides to move on from Marve for the sake of continuity for the offense from March to August. Then perhaps the staff uses Marve in some other capacity. Regardless of who is under center come fall, it’s evident the Boilers will have to get more from the position than it did last year when three different guys started games.

Other spring football position previews
Wide receivers
Linebackers
Running backs
Defensive linemen