Coach Joe Tiller watches the field on Sunday. The Boilermakers play Ball State at noon on Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium.
By John Kraft Assistant Sports Editor
Coach Joe Tiller thinks the Mid-American Conference is gaining ground on the major conferences because of the way they recruit.
When Purdue plays Ball State at noon on Saturday in Ross-Ade Stadium, it’ll face a representative from a conference that’s also given Purdue troubles in recent years.
Last season, the Boilers began their season with a loss to Bowling Green. Before that, in 2002, Purdue had trouble beating Western Michigan. And in 1997, the Boilers lost their opening game to Toledo.
Tiller attributes part of the MAC’s surge to the 85-scholarships rule.
"That spreads the talent," he said. "The other thing that I think has really helped the MAC conference schools is the fact that they’ve got a lot of guys on their rosters that could play for a lot of Big Ten teams, including this Big Ten team."
MAC teams end up recruiting more players after their senior years than do teams from power conferences like the Big Ten. Purdue relies heavily on tape from junior seasons for many of the highly-touted recruits.
This leads to fewer missed attempts on scholarships offers for teams like Ball State. Tiller said he doesn’t like offering scholarships so early, but he has little choice in some situations.
"I’m not comfortable with this early offer stuff," Tiller said. "But the reality of life is ‘When in Rome…’ and we’re in Rome when it comes to recruiting. So we’re out here making all these early offers and we’re offering guys off their junior tape. Sometimes, we only get 10, 12 plays and we’re supposed to make a call on a guy."
Teams from the MAC, however, rarely bother with the better players — at least not the ones the recruiting media outlets say are better. Instead, they wait to find players who had good senior seasons and were overlooked by traditional top 25 teams.
If it were up to Tiller, Purdue would do something similar more often.
"They let these kids play their senior year and a kid blossoms and develops and turns in to be a heck of football player," Tiller said. "And the rest of us who are out there working that junior class and looking so far ahead, we miss on a guy like that. We’re all caught up in all that other stuff."
Tiller also said there’s players on the Ball State roster he should’ve recruited. Specifically, he likes middle linebacker Donta Smith, an East Chicago, Ind., native.
After having him in for summer camps, Purdue passed on Smith because of his height; he’s 6-foot tall. But Tiller said he probably offered freshman linebacker Dan Bick, at 6-foot-1, because of what happened with Smith.
"(Smith’s) a good football player," Tiller said. "We should’ve offered him."
With players like Smith, the Ball State defense is hard-hitting and fast, senior quarterback Kyle Orton said.
"They played well against Boston College and held them to 19 points," Orton said. "It’s a safe, smart defense that likes to keep everything right in front of them. We need to execute some of our downfield plays, and they’re not going to come easy to us."
