Boom!
Joe Schopper looks high into the bright West Lafayette sky to admire the football that just left his right foot and is sailing through the air.
Boom!
Schopper does it again. And again. It's all about getting better, chasing that perfect punt.
"It's fun," Schopper says. "Punting is a challenge."
Schopper already is pretty good. In fact, the senior from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis is one of the top punters in the Big Ten Conference. He is a deft combination of power and touch. Last season, he had 73 punts for 2,953 yards, averaging 40.5 yards per boot and downing 30 punts inside the 20-yard line. The pharmacy major also had 16 punts of 50-plus yards and 41 that were fair caught.
"Joe takes pride in what he's doing," first-year special teams coach Mark Tommerdahl says. "He works hard."
The arrival of Jeff Brohm has made Schopper's job exciting, too. He has become an integral part of the staff's affinity for trick plays. In the preseason, Brohm was asked how many gimmick plays he thought he would run in 2018. The answer: 50.
"I hope he's wrong," Schopper says. "I hope there are more. If a couple of those trick plays are on special teams, I'll be excited about that. I am ready for anything – onside kick, fake field goal, fake punt."
Last year, the 6-foot, 205-pound Schopper became a bit of a household name because of his ability to execute fakes that drew headlines – and provided some key moments in what was a breakout 7-6 season for a Purdue program that hadn't had a winning season or won a bowl game since 2011.
Schopper completed two 22-yard passes last season, one going to holder Ben Makowski at Northwestern and the other to cornerback Mike Little against Indiana. Want more? Schopper also ran 13 yards for a first down at Rutgers. And he drew a pass interference penalty for a first down on a fake punt against Nebraska. Is there a more athletic punter in the conference? Probably not.
"I can't really say how many trick plays we will run now," Schopper says. "That is more of a week-to-week thing. It depends on what the coaches see on the film. You always have to be ready."
When he wasn't punting or pulling off fakes, Schopper was the holder on field goals and extra points.
"It has to be on point each day for each kick," Schopper says. "If I am holding for a field goal, and the spot is just off or the tilt is wrong, it may cause a missed kick. My role is to take blame for a missed kick if I know it could have been better.
"The drop on my punt also has to be perfect or the ball won't go where it should be going. I also have to make sure I can hit the ball in all types of weather – wind, rain, cold. We work a wet-ball drill with balls that have been soaked. You never know when that will come up."
Schopper arrived on campus with a fat scrapbook. He had options to walk on at several places coming out of high school – Minnesota and Texas among others. But Purdue seemed like the right place. Plus, it offered a scholarship.
"And it was close to home," Schopper says. "Easy for my parents to get here."
Schopper impacted immediately. As a freshman, he punted 58 times and averaged 40.2 yards per boot. And 12 of his punts went for over 50 yards, while 20 landed inside the 20. As a sophomore, he punted 56 times for an average of 40.7 yards, dropping 24 of his 56 boots inside the 20-yard line with eight punts of 50-plus yards.
"Typically, I only do two to three types of punts," Schopper says. "The traditional spiral for distance and hang time. And you have an end-over-end kick that goes backward as it rolls to drop close to the goal line. And there are a couple of punts I am holding back for now. I can't tell you about those. They are a secret."
But above all else, it's consistency that Schopper pursues.
"It has been a long process," he says. "I have tried to get better at one aspect of my game each year. The main thing I need to get better at is consistency. There was a huge improvement from my freshman to my sophomore year. Another improvement the next year to my junior season. I can be the guy they rely on to get my job done on fourth down."
As well as the guy who can help pull off a trick play.
"Sure," Schopper says. "I can't wait."