Purdue QB Caleb TerBush needs to step up against Marshall
By CLIFF BRUNT
ISL Editor
It’s time for Caleb TerBush to bring it.
Purdue’s quarterback has been the subject of intense scrutiny and more and more, it appears that coach Danny Hope’s cart is being tied to the TerBush horse. There are people who doubt that Hope can win this year, even with the perfect setup. TerBush is one of the main reasons for the concerns.
It doesn’t help TerBush that, when he was suspended for the opener, Robert Marve, the man most Boilermakers fans believe should be starting, threw for 295 yards and three touchdowns in a 48-6 win over Eastern Kentucky. Nor does it help that Marve, not TerBush, was in the Notre Dame game on the key fourth-quarter drive that tied the score, and that the only reason TerBush was in to throw the game-tying touchdown to Antavian Edison on that drive was that Marve was injured earlier in the possession.
Nor does it help TerBush that he threw a pick-six against Eastern Michigan, and that his biggest advocate, Hope, had a slightly different tone after the game after being immovably supportive before.
Saturday’s game against Marshall gives TerBush a chance to show he’s ready to take a team a step further.
Purdue proved it could run against Eastern Michigan, to the tune of 392 yards on the ground. The Boilermakers successfully got the ball to their playmakers on the perimeter and rolled past a team that gave Michigan State trouble the next week.
Running the ball against Marshall won’t be a problem. The Thundering Herd gives up 243.8 yards rushing per game and should offer little resistance. So that’s not the battle that needs to be won this week.
The Boilermakers have yet to prove that TerBush can go down the field more than occasionally, and the offensive line has failed to prove it can protect the quarterback for any significant length of time. With this being the final tune up before the Big Ten season, a season which is billed as one the Boilermakers could do big things in, it’s time to see what TerBush can do.
Let him loose. Put the game on his shoulders. Marshall’s pass defense is as bad as its run defense: The Thundering Herd surrenders 265.2 yards per game in the air. A strong game from TerBush could infuse some needed confidence into the passing game and affect how teams defend the Boilermakers in the early part of the conference schedule.
TerBush also needs to win over the fans. Despite Purdue’s 2-1 start, the close call against Notre Dame and the growing notion that Purdue is the most likely team to represent the Leaders Division in the Big Ten title game, Boilermakers fans just don’t buy into TerBush.
As a result, they don’t buy into Hope. And as a result, if they don’t see something from TerBush on Saturday, there will be empty seats for the home opener against Michigan on Oct. 6.
See, at the Cradle of Quarterbacks, there is an expectation that the guy under center (or in the shotgun) can win games with his arm. People who have watched legends don’t want to see a game manager. The belief is that Hope has been around long enough to have brought in someone you can put a game on at quarterback.
Throwing for a zillion yards against Marshall would help. It wouldn’t set the world on fire, but at least there might be some confidence that the Boilermakers have a player at that spot, and that the team is building something. And it might just fill some of those empty seats at Ross-Ade.
