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With the addition of the west coast teams, how does that shake up Purdue’s 2024 schedule difficulty?
The 2024 football season will be the first with new opponents from the former Pac 12 with Purdue hosting the #3 Oregon Ducks and heading to Oregon State, although that will be a non-conference game. Purdue’s schedule is one of the hardest in the country this season that will feature four of the top eight teams in the preseason with Ohio State, Penn State, and Notre Dame also on the schedule for the Boilers. Three of those games do come at home but having to play four legitimate playoff contenders in Ryan Walters’ second season does him no favors in the quest to return back to bowl eligibility.
Let’s jump into the schedule to rank them from easiest to hardest!
#12: Indiana State Sycamores (Easiest)
This is the only layup on the schedule with the Sycamores visiting West Lafayette for the second time in two seasons. Indiana State lost that 2022 game 56-0 but very nearly pulled the upset against the Boilers in 2013, 20-14. This is a game where Purdue should be favored by 30 points and win 49-14.
Result: Win
#11: @ Indiana Hoosiers
This will be the first Bucket Game for Kurt Cignetti and given the guy screamed ‘Purdue Sucks’ at his introductory speech at Assembly Hall, Purdue will have a bunch of bulletin board material to use. Indiana has one of the easiest schedules in the country and may already be bowl eligible while Purdue may be playing for bowl eligibility in this game.
Result: Win
#10: Northwestern
Northwestern surprised a lot of people last season given the tumultuous start they had firing former Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald. David Braun will be in year two and there are a lot of unknowns around his team still. What will he want his program to look like now that he has had a full off season to mold them into his own image? Questions abound but this may be the only B1G game Purdue has a chance to win at home.
Result: Win
#9: @ Michigan State Spartans
Although Jonathan Smith left Oregon State, the Boilers will still have to face one of the hottest young coaches in the country following his successful run as the Beavers Head Coach. This will be his first season in East Lansing and although he seems to be an upgrade over Mel Tucker, lots of question marks still remain around that program. It is telling that a trip to East Lansing last at number nine to show how difficult this schedule for Purdue is.
Result: Loss
#8: @ Oregon State Beavers
The Beavers not only lost their conference to the B1G, they also lost their head coach to the B1G. A trip to the west coast is never easy, no matter who you play due to time changes and travel. This will be a sort of pre-test for future games against UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and USC but this is still a hard one to get a handle on. The Beavers were really good under Jonathan Smith last year and this is the return from a game in which Purdue really dominated from a few years ago.
Result: Loss
#7: @ Illinois Fighting Illini
Walters gets his return trip to Champaign against his former boss after beating the Fighting Illini 44-19 at Purdue last season. The Illini have continued to recruit well but seem to be some what stuck in neutral under Brett Bielema. Can Walters go 2-0 against his former boss? This might be a game where former Illini RB Reggie Love has some extra incentive to play well.
Result: Win
#6: Nebraska Cornhuskers
Just like Purdue, Nebraska is in year two of their new head coach and have really improved their recruiting over the last calendar year. I may not be as high on Matt Rhule as many others, Nebraska is still a big time football program that is pulling in some big time transfers and players.
Result: Loss
#5: #5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
The Irish are headed back to Purdue for what was traditionally an early season non-conference game. This needs to become the standard once again as the two instate programs should be playing every single year. Head Coach Marcus Freeman looks to have another big time team this year who is leveraged for another CFP run. Purdue always seems to give the Irish fits and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Boilers do just that early on in the season.
Result: Loss
#4: #8 Penn State Nittany Lions
Penn State has seemingly been the best program in the B1G not named Michigan or Ohio State over the last 15 years or so. They just can’t string the victories together enough to get into the B1G Championship game and then leverage that into a CFP appearance. Will this season be different? Likely so with Drew Allar, Nic Singleton, and Julian Fleming leading one of the best offenses in the country.
Result: Loss
#3: #3 Oregon Ducks
Again, the fact that this game is listed at #3 shows how stacked this schedule is, even if #1 is a bit tongue-in-cheek. There may not be a more talented set of QB’s in the country to share a room with Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore both in Oregon along with a bevy of other skilled positions for Head Coach Dan Lanning to work with. If this game is within 24 points, Purdue may be better than we all think (even with this game being at home).
Result: Loss
#2: @ #2 Ohio State Buckeyes
The standard bearer for the B1G over the last twenty years, the Buckeyes will welcome the Boilers to Columbus after beating them 59-31 in the last trip there in 2022. Ohio State will have more talent at every position with the exception of safety and their #2 ranking makes the a favorite to get to the CFP.
Result: Loss
#1: @ Wisconsin Badgers
Until proven otherwise, the Badgers will continue to be the hardest game on the Boilers schedule. It is getting rather ridiculous that in the same time frame since Purdue last beat the Badgers (2003), Purdue has beaten Ohio State four times in just twelve games. Purdue is 0-17 against the Badgers since that 2003 victory and it doesn’t seem things will get any easier with Luke Fickell in charge in Madison.
Result: Loss
Overall Record: 4-8
The second year for Head Coach Ryan Walters does he and his staff no favors. The concept of wanting to schedule as hard as possible sounds great until you can’t get to six wins to get bowl eligible. When you are building a program, those extra practices and ability to say you were bowl eligible helps in recruiting and Purdue is stacking the deck against it’s young head coach. They corrected that a bit by scheduling Southern Illinois (FBS) and Ball State but have a return game to South Bend to face Notre Dame.
Walters is going to get a third year given how difficult this schedule is going to be but if there is going to be some reassurances for that fourth year heading into 2025, some major steps need to be made in year two. Purdue can get to 4-8, which might honestly be a major accomplishment in 2024, but bowl eligible at 6-6 isn’t too much of an ask. That being said, this team could very well end up 1-11 and some serious changes may need to happen if that is the case.
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