WEST LAFAYETTE - Purdue Football (7-4, 5-3 B1G) returns home for Senior Day at Ross-Ade Stadium, hosting in-state foe Indiana (2-9, 0-8 B1G) on Saturday, Nov. 27, for the annual Old Oaken Bucket Game. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
A total of 16 Boilermakers will be recognized on Senior Day on Saturday in a pregame ceremony. Head coach Jeff Brohm allows Purdue student-athletes to have the option of participating in Senior Day ahead of any decision-making process related to eligibility that may occur following the completion of the season.
Saturday's Purdue-Indiana game is sold out, the second official sellout at Ross-Ade Stadium this season alongside the Wisconsin game (Oct. 23).
With the Indiana game (Nov. 27) sellout, Purdue will finish the 2021 season with an average home attendance of 56,333, which is the most at Ross-Ade Stadium since the 2008 season.
ABOUT THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET
• While Saturday's game will be the 123rd meeting between the Boilermakers and Hoosiers, this year's matchup will be just the 96th edition of the Old Oaken Bucket Game.
• Since 1925, Purdue and Indiana have played annually for the Old Oaken Bucket. The Boilermakers lead the Bucket portion of the all-time series 60-32-3, including 15 wins in the last 23 showdowns.
• Purdue has won two of the three matchups under head coach Jeff Brohm. This year's game returns following the cancellation of the 2020 game due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Chicago alumni groups of both schools came up with the idea for a traveling trophy, and Russell Gray of Purdue and Clarence Jones of Indiana were given the task of finding an appropriate object. They recommended that "an old oaken bucket would be a most typical trophy from this state and should be taken from a well somewhere in Indiana." Purdue's Fritz Ernst and Whiley J. Huddle of Indiana found the fabled bucket, in a bad state of repair, covered with moss and mold, on the Bruner farm between Kent and Hanover in southern Indiana.
• The Bruner farm was settled in the 1840s, and family lore suggests the bucket might have been used by Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his soldiers during their incursion into Indiana in 1863 during the Civil War.
• George Ade, distinguished humorist from Purdue, and Harry Kurrie, president of the Monon Railroad, representing Indiana, formally introduced the Old Oaken Bucket in 1925. The Boilermakers and Hoosiers subsequently battled to a 0-0 tie Nov. 21 at Ross-Ade Stadium, resulting in an "I-P" link being attached to the bucket.
• Throughout its history, the bucket has been kidnapped by partisans from both schools – a couple of times missing so long that it was given up as lost, only to turn up mysteriously just before or after the annual game.
ON THE LINE
• The Boilermakers have the opportunity against Indiana to win their eighth game of the regular season, an accomplishment that has not occurred for the Old Gold & Black since 2006.
• In 2006, former head coach Joe Tiller's Purdue squad went 8-5 during its regular season schedule before dropping its final game to Maryland in the Sun Bowl (Dec. 29, 2006).
• Dating back to 2000, Purdue has won eight games in an overall season four times, all during the Tiller era (2000, 2003, 2006, 2007).
• Purdue is also seeking a sixth victory in Big Ten play, which would be the most since Joe Tiller's 2003 Boilermakers went 6-2 to tie for second in the conference standings.
WINNING NOTES
• Head coach Jeff Brohm's Boilermakers claimed their fifth league victory with the 32-14 win against Northwestern (Nov. 20), getting to the five-win mark in Big Ten action for the first time since 2018 and just the fifth time since the 2000 season.
• The Boilermakers won their fourth away game of the season with the win at Northwestern, a home game for the Wildcats at Wrigley Field. To find a Purdue squad with more road wins, one must search back to 1943, when Elmer Burnham's band of Boilermakers went 9-0 on the season with a 5-0 away record.
BELL TABBED BILETNIKOFF AWARD FINALIST
• Junior WR David Bell was named a finalist for the prestigious Biletnikoff Award on Tuesday, Nov. 23, an honor annually "received" by college football's outstanding FBS receiver.
• Any player, regardless of position (WR, TE, SB and RB) who catches a pass is eligible for the award. With the season that Bell is having (87 receptions, 1,207 yards, five touchdowns), he is certainly eligible.
• Bell joins former Purdue standout WR Taylor Stubblefield (2004) as the only Boilermakers to be a tabbed a finalist for the award.
• Among the fellow Biletnikoff finalists, Bell leads the group in receiving yards vs. Top 25 competitions at 624 yards.
• Bell currently leads the Big Ten in both receiving yards and receptions (120.7 yards and 8.7 catches per game).
• Bell ranks fourth nationally in receiving yards per game and third in receptions per game.
NUMBERS TO KNOW DOWN THE STRETCH
• The Boilermakers have made their presence known all across the college football landscape this season.
• The following numbers are the most important to remember:
1: QB Aidan O'Connell is No. 1 in Big Ten in comp. pct. at 72.7.
2: Purdue has two Top-5 wins for the first time since 1960.
3: Bowl-eligible for third time under head coach Jeff Brohm.
3: Three, again, #3 WR David Bell is a Biletnikoff semifinalist.
5: DE George Karlaftis, #5, is a Bednarik semifinalist.
6: O'Connell with 74.0+ pct. comp. in six-straight games.
10: S Cam Allen, #10, tied for third in Big Ten for INTs (4).
13: Past 6 games: 13 takeaways. Two total in first 5 games.
40: Bell has 40 catches against Top-25 teams this season.
624: Bell has 624 receiving yards in those games, as well.
1,207: Bell has 1,207 rec. yards in 2021, 5th in Purdue history.
BEST RIVALRY PERFORMANCES
• When a rivalry game has been played 122 times since 1891, there is bound to be some big games by Purdue as a team and by individual Boilermakers. Here are some of the top Purdue performances throughout the history of the rivalry with Indiana.
• Most Points (68 - 1892): In just the second meeting between the programs, Purdue rolled to a 68-0 victory which still stands as the largest margin of victory in the rivalry.
• Most Rushing Yards (272 - Otis Armstrong): Seven Boilermakers have rushed for more than 200 yards against the Hoosiers, and Otis Armstrong leads the way. The Purdue running back chalked up 272 yards on the ground in 1972, leading the team to a 42-7 victory.
• Most Passing Yards (522 - Kyle Orton): Heisman Trophy candidate Kyle Orton made his final game at Ross-Ade Stadium a memorable one, throwing for 522 yards and six touchdowns in a 63-24 victory over the Hoosiers in 2004. He tallied 401 yards and five touchdowns in the first half alone, leading the Boilermakers to an easy win.
• Most Receiving Yards (209 - Kyle Ingraham): One of Orton's favorite targets in the 2004 version of the Old Oaken Bucket Game was Kyle Ingraham, who hauled in 11 catches for 209 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Not to be forgotten that day was Taylor Stubblefield's record-setting performance. His 14 catches for 138 yards gave him 309 career receptions, an NCAA record at the time.
SINGLE-SEASON RECORD WATCH
• The Boilermakers have completed 354 passes on the season, just 23 shy of the school record (377) set in 1998.
• Purdue is 403 yards away from the school record of passing yards in a single season (4,208-1998)
• Fifth-year senior QB Aidan O'Connell is currently on pace to destroy the school record for completion percentage by a Purdue quarterback; the fifth-year senior has completed 72.7 percent of his passes (263-362), well above David Blough's record of 66.0 percent (305-462) in 2018.
• Junior WR David Bell (1,207) needs 101 yards to set a new Purdue record for receving yards in a single season; John Standeford's 2002 season (1,307) remains the top mark for now.
BOWL BOUND
• With its sixth win of the season against Michigan State (Nov. 6), Purdue became bowl eligible for first time since 2018.
• The Boilermakers will be bowl bound for the third time in five seasons under Jeff Brohm.
AIR IT OUT, AIDAN
• The most accurate passer, currently, in the Big Ten Conference is Purdue signal caller Aidan O'Connell. The fifth-year senior QB is completing 72.7 percent of his throws (263-362), while averaging 26.3 completions per game. Both marks rank fifth nationally.
• Over his last six games, O'Connell is completing more than 75.0 percent of his pass attempts (.752, 197-262). Since the 2000 season, O'Connell is the only Purdue quarterback to string together three consecutive games above the 74.0-percent mark, let alone the current six-game span.
• In games against Top 5 competition (at No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Michigan State, and at No. 4 Ohio State), O'Connell has thrown for 1,301 passing yards (433.7 avg.) and completed 110-of-146 pass attempts (.753). For those three games, O'Connell has a 9-0 TD-INT ratio.
• O'Connell passed for 423 yards in the win over Northwestern, Nov. 20, becoming just sixth Purdue quarterback to have multiple 400-yard games in a single season. He joined Drew Brees, who accomplished the feat three times in his historic career (1998-2000), as well as Boilermaker quarterbacks Jim Everett (1985), Curtis Painter (2006), David Blough (2016) and Elijah Sindelar (2019). O'Connell became the seventh quarterback in Purdue history to produce at least five 300-yard games in a season and the first since David Blough (2016). It was the eighth 300-yard passing game for O'Connell in his Purdue career, moving into a tie with Mark Herrmann for fifth on the all-time list.
• The effort by O'Connell at Northwestern (Nov. 20) was the 24th 300-yard passing performance during head coach Jeff Brohm's tenure with the Boilermakers.
THE PRICE IS WRIGHT
• Junior wide receiver Milton Wright had a career day against Northwestern at Wrigley Field (Nov. 20), hauling in eight receptions for 213 yards and three touchdowns to earn career highs in all three categories.
• The performance was Wright's first multi-touchdown game of his career, and he joined David Bell as Boilermaker wide receivers recording a trio of receiving touchdowns in a game this season. In fact, only four other Big Ten receivers have scored at least three touchdowns in a game during the 2021 campaign.
• Wright's performance also marked the sixth time a Big Ten receiver put together a 200-yard game this season. Three of those were by Boilermakers (Bell-2, Wright-1), the first time in school history that Purdue had three 200-yard games from receivers in a single season.
• Wright eclipsed the 100-yard plateau in the first half (five catches, 101 yards), securing his second 100-yard game as a Boilermaker.
A total of 16 Boilermakers will be recognized on Senior Day on Saturday in a pregame ceremony. Head coach Jeff Brohm allows Purdue student-athletes to have the option of participating in Senior Day ahead of any decision-making process related to eligibility that may occur following the completion of the season.
Saturday's Purdue-Indiana game is sold out, the second official sellout at Ross-Ade Stadium this season alongside the Wisconsin game (Oct. 23).
With the Indiana game (Nov. 27) sellout, Purdue will finish the 2021 season with an average home attendance of 56,333, which is the most at Ross-Ade Stadium since the 2008 season.
ABOUT THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET
• While Saturday's game will be the 123rd meeting between the Boilermakers and Hoosiers, this year's matchup will be just the 96th edition of the Old Oaken Bucket Game.
• Since 1925, Purdue and Indiana have played annually for the Old Oaken Bucket. The Boilermakers lead the Bucket portion of the all-time series 60-32-3, including 15 wins in the last 23 showdowns.
• Purdue has won two of the three matchups under head coach Jeff Brohm. This year's game returns following the cancellation of the 2020 game due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Chicago alumni groups of both schools came up with the idea for a traveling trophy, and Russell Gray of Purdue and Clarence Jones of Indiana were given the task of finding an appropriate object. They recommended that "an old oaken bucket would be a most typical trophy from this state and should be taken from a well somewhere in Indiana." Purdue's Fritz Ernst and Whiley J. Huddle of Indiana found the fabled bucket, in a bad state of repair, covered with moss and mold, on the Bruner farm between Kent and Hanover in southern Indiana.
• The Bruner farm was settled in the 1840s, and family lore suggests the bucket might have been used by Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his soldiers during their incursion into Indiana in 1863 during the Civil War.
• George Ade, distinguished humorist from Purdue, and Harry Kurrie, president of the Monon Railroad, representing Indiana, formally introduced the Old Oaken Bucket in 1925. The Boilermakers and Hoosiers subsequently battled to a 0-0 tie Nov. 21 at Ross-Ade Stadium, resulting in an "I-P" link being attached to the bucket.
• Throughout its history, the bucket has been kidnapped by partisans from both schools – a couple of times missing so long that it was given up as lost, only to turn up mysteriously just before or after the annual game.
ON THE LINE
• The Boilermakers have the opportunity against Indiana to win their eighth game of the regular season, an accomplishment that has not occurred for the Old Gold & Black since 2006.
• In 2006, former head coach Joe Tiller's Purdue squad went 8-5 during its regular season schedule before dropping its final game to Maryland in the Sun Bowl (Dec. 29, 2006).
• Dating back to 2000, Purdue has won eight games in an overall season four times, all during the Tiller era (2000, 2003, 2006, 2007).
• Purdue is also seeking a sixth victory in Big Ten play, which would be the most since Joe Tiller's 2003 Boilermakers went 6-2 to tie for second in the conference standings.
WINNING NOTES
• Head coach Jeff Brohm's Boilermakers claimed their fifth league victory with the 32-14 win against Northwestern (Nov. 20), getting to the five-win mark in Big Ten action for the first time since 2018 and just the fifth time since the 2000 season.
• The Boilermakers won their fourth away game of the season with the win at Northwestern, a home game for the Wildcats at Wrigley Field. To find a Purdue squad with more road wins, one must search back to 1943, when Elmer Burnham's band of Boilermakers went 9-0 on the season with a 5-0 away record.
BELL TABBED BILETNIKOFF AWARD FINALIST
• Junior WR David Bell was named a finalist for the prestigious Biletnikoff Award on Tuesday, Nov. 23, an honor annually "received" by college football's outstanding FBS receiver.
• Any player, regardless of position (WR, TE, SB and RB) who catches a pass is eligible for the award. With the season that Bell is having (87 receptions, 1,207 yards, five touchdowns), he is certainly eligible.
• Bell joins former Purdue standout WR Taylor Stubblefield (2004) as the only Boilermakers to be a tabbed a finalist for the award.
• Among the fellow Biletnikoff finalists, Bell leads the group in receiving yards vs. Top 25 competitions at 624 yards.
• Bell currently leads the Big Ten in both receiving yards and receptions (120.7 yards and 8.7 catches per game).
• Bell ranks fourth nationally in receiving yards per game and third in receptions per game.
NUMBERS TO KNOW DOWN THE STRETCH
• The Boilermakers have made their presence known all across the college football landscape this season.
• The following numbers are the most important to remember:
1: QB Aidan O'Connell is No. 1 in Big Ten in comp. pct. at 72.7.
2: Purdue has two Top-5 wins for the first time since 1960.
3: Bowl-eligible for third time under head coach Jeff Brohm.
3: Three, again, #3 WR David Bell is a Biletnikoff semifinalist.
5: DE George Karlaftis, #5, is a Bednarik semifinalist.
6: O'Connell with 74.0+ pct. comp. in six-straight games.
10: S Cam Allen, #10, tied for third in Big Ten for INTs (4).
13: Past 6 games: 13 takeaways. Two total in first 5 games.
40: Bell has 40 catches against Top-25 teams this season.
624: Bell has 624 receiving yards in those games, as well.
1,207: Bell has 1,207 rec. yards in 2021, 5th in Purdue history.
BEST RIVALRY PERFORMANCES
• When a rivalry game has been played 122 times since 1891, there is bound to be some big games by Purdue as a team and by individual Boilermakers. Here are some of the top Purdue performances throughout the history of the rivalry with Indiana.
• Most Points (68 - 1892): In just the second meeting between the programs, Purdue rolled to a 68-0 victory which still stands as the largest margin of victory in the rivalry.
• Most Rushing Yards (272 - Otis Armstrong): Seven Boilermakers have rushed for more than 200 yards against the Hoosiers, and Otis Armstrong leads the way. The Purdue running back chalked up 272 yards on the ground in 1972, leading the team to a 42-7 victory.
• Most Passing Yards (522 - Kyle Orton): Heisman Trophy candidate Kyle Orton made his final game at Ross-Ade Stadium a memorable one, throwing for 522 yards and six touchdowns in a 63-24 victory over the Hoosiers in 2004. He tallied 401 yards and five touchdowns in the first half alone, leading the Boilermakers to an easy win.
• Most Receiving Yards (209 - Kyle Ingraham): One of Orton's favorite targets in the 2004 version of the Old Oaken Bucket Game was Kyle Ingraham, who hauled in 11 catches for 209 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Not to be forgotten that day was Taylor Stubblefield's record-setting performance. His 14 catches for 138 yards gave him 309 career receptions, an NCAA record at the time.
SINGLE-SEASON RECORD WATCH
• The Boilermakers have completed 354 passes on the season, just 23 shy of the school record (377) set in 1998.
• Purdue is 403 yards away from the school record of passing yards in a single season (4,208-1998)
• Fifth-year senior QB Aidan O'Connell is currently on pace to destroy the school record for completion percentage by a Purdue quarterback; the fifth-year senior has completed 72.7 percent of his passes (263-362), well above David Blough's record of 66.0 percent (305-462) in 2018.
• Junior WR David Bell (1,207) needs 101 yards to set a new Purdue record for receving yards in a single season; John Standeford's 2002 season (1,307) remains the top mark for now.
BOWL BOUND
• With its sixth win of the season against Michigan State (Nov. 6), Purdue became bowl eligible for first time since 2018.
• The Boilermakers will be bowl bound for the third time in five seasons under Jeff Brohm.
AIR IT OUT, AIDAN
• The most accurate passer, currently, in the Big Ten Conference is Purdue signal caller Aidan O'Connell. The fifth-year senior QB is completing 72.7 percent of his throws (263-362), while averaging 26.3 completions per game. Both marks rank fifth nationally.
• Over his last six games, O'Connell is completing more than 75.0 percent of his pass attempts (.752, 197-262). Since the 2000 season, O'Connell is the only Purdue quarterback to string together three consecutive games above the 74.0-percent mark, let alone the current six-game span.
• In games against Top 5 competition (at No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Michigan State, and at No. 4 Ohio State), O'Connell has thrown for 1,301 passing yards (433.7 avg.) and completed 110-of-146 pass attempts (.753). For those three games, O'Connell has a 9-0 TD-INT ratio.
• O'Connell passed for 423 yards in the win over Northwestern, Nov. 20, becoming just sixth Purdue quarterback to have multiple 400-yard games in a single season. He joined Drew Brees, who accomplished the feat three times in his historic career (1998-2000), as well as Boilermaker quarterbacks Jim Everett (1985), Curtis Painter (2006), David Blough (2016) and Elijah Sindelar (2019). O'Connell became the seventh quarterback in Purdue history to produce at least five 300-yard games in a season and the first since David Blough (2016). It was the eighth 300-yard passing game for O'Connell in his Purdue career, moving into a tie with Mark Herrmann for fifth on the all-time list.
• The effort by O'Connell at Northwestern (Nov. 20) was the 24th 300-yard passing performance during head coach Jeff Brohm's tenure with the Boilermakers.
THE PRICE IS WRIGHT
• Junior wide receiver Milton Wright had a career day against Northwestern at Wrigley Field (Nov. 20), hauling in eight receptions for 213 yards and three touchdowns to earn career highs in all three categories.
• The performance was Wright's first multi-touchdown game of his career, and he joined David Bell as Boilermaker wide receivers recording a trio of receiving touchdowns in a game this season. In fact, only four other Big Ten receivers have scored at least three touchdowns in a game during the 2021 campaign.
• Wright's performance also marked the sixth time a Big Ten receiver put together a 200-yard game this season. Three of those were by Boilermakers (Bell-2, Wright-1), the first time in school history that Purdue had three 200-yard games from receivers in a single season.
• Wright eclipsed the 100-yard plateau in the first half (five catches, 101 yards), securing his second 100-yard game as a Boilermaker.