8/30/2022 football Edit

Penn State vs Purdue: Players to watch in Thursday's season opener

Dylan Callaghan-Croley • Happy Valley Insider

Editor

Don’t look now but Penn State’s season opener is just two days away. The Nittany Lions are set to begin their season on Thursday night against an intriguing Purdue team. The Boilermakers are coming off a 9-4 season but lost quite a bit of talent over the offseason including wide receivers David Bell and Milton Wright as well as defensive end George Karlaftis.

That being said, there’s still plenty of names to know on the 2022 version of the Boilermakers. Below, we go over three Boilermakers and three Nittany Lions who could ultimately decide Thursday night’s matchup.

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Purdue players to watch:

Considered one of the better signal callers in the Big Ten, Aiden O'Connell is the cog that makes the Purdue offense work. The strong-armed, 6-foot-3, 200-pound quarterback is coming off a 3,712-yard, 28 touchdown season in 2021 that saw him complete 71.6% of his passes, an impressively efficient season.

Over the offseason, O'Connell did lose several of his contributors from a season ago including wide receiver David Bell to the NFL and wide receiver Milton Wright who is now academically ineligible. It will be intriguing to see how the sixth-year quarterback adapts to the targets around him in 2022 but as long as he's healthy, the Boilermakers' offense is dangerous especially with his deadly accuracy.

The senior tight end is coming off a career year in 2021 in which he recorded 45 receptions for 467 yards and six touchdowns. Last season in the Boilermakers' season opener against Oregon State, Durham recorded seven receptions for 120 yards and two touchdowns. He also recorded nine receptions for 112 yards and a touchdown against Wisconsin in late October before finishing the season off strong with five receptions for 85 yards and two touchdowns against Tennessee in the Music City Bowl.

Outside those three games, however, Durham's performances were pedestrian, with just 24 receptions for 150 yards and one touchdown in his seven other games. With that, it's a bit of a question what Purdue will get out of Durham on Thursday night. He's shown the ability to be a game-changing receiving tight end but has yet to show the consistency to do it week after week. A matchup with a weaker Penn State tight end room could be a favorable advantage.

The senior safety/linebacker can do a little bit of everything for the Boilermakers. Expect to hear his name called early and often on Thursday evening. Last season, Graham played in all 13 games for Purdue, recording 64 tackles including four for a loss and one sack. He also had two interceptions and seven pass deflections on the season. An extremely athletic defender, Graham will be able to line up all over the field for Purdue on Thursday as the Boilermakers look for the best matchups.

Penn State players to watch:

Penn State’s offense will go as far as Sean Clifford can take them. Prior to an injury against Iowa last season, Clifford was off to a strong start and even garnered some Heisman discussion. Following his injury against the Hawkeyes, Clifford and the Nittany Lions offense never found consistency and struggled over the back half of the season.

If Penn State can get the Sean Clifford from the first five games last season, their ceiling for this season grows by quite a bit. Notably, it’s also the first time as a starting quarterback that Clifford has the same offensive coordinator, something that both Clifford and the Nittany Lions coaching staff believes will pay off in big ways for the Cincinnati native. Fully healthy and with a better understanding of the offense, Clifford could be in for a big final season as the signal caller of the Nittany Lions.

We could’ve gone with wide receiver Parker Washington, RB Nick Singleton, or any handful of other players here but we decided to go with Western Kentucky transfer Mitchell Tinsley.

Tinsley is coming of a 1,400 yard and 14 touchdown season with the Hilltoppers a season ago. The Nittany Lions are hoping that he can pick up where he left with Western Kentucky. He enters the season as the Nittany Lions’ No.2 wide receiver behind Parker Washington but don’t be surprised if he posts similar numbers to Washington this season. Tinsley can take the top off any opposing defense and has strong hands, if the ball is thrown in his direction there’s a good chance he’s coming down with it.

One of the nation’s top safeties, Brown’s six interceptions last season led the country and in 2022 he returns as a leader of the Nittany Lions’ defense. Brown is looking to become a more complete safety this season, especially against the run, so don’t be surprised if you rarely see him off the field. While Penn State enters the season on paper with one of the country’s best secondaries, Brown provides the secondary with a terrific safety blanket. The former Lackawanna standout is constantly around the ball and is a threat to pick the ball off anytime it’s in his vicinity. If the Penn State defense is going to slow down Purdue’s vertical passing game, Brown will be a big reason for that.