Hope Confident Bolden Will Return To Form

The Boiling Point: Purdue football coach Danny Hope sees running back Ralph Bolden returning to his 2009 form this fall.

Purdue starting running back Ralph Bolden sat out all spring after recovering from ACL surgery to repair a knee injury suffered during spring drills a year ago. Even still, Purdue coach Danny Hope is confident the Boilers will get the services of Bolden back for this fall and he will be the same player who almost rushed for 1,000 yards two years ago.

"“He was cleared for the spring,” Hope told the Fort Wayne News Sentinel. “We could have tackled him, but if he hurt the knee again, we don’t have him in the fall. We wanted to make sure he was fully recovered. He did individual work and he looked very fast, but we never put him in a situation where bodies could go against that knee.”"

With Hope losing Dan Dierking and Keith Carlos to graduation and Al-Terek McBurse to transfer, the Boilers desperately need Bolden to be back to his original self. Junior college transfer Akeem Shavers is likely his back-up, but will see all the carries if Bolden slows up.