WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Coming off the bye week, Purdue Football returns to the gridiron for a road Big Ten matchup. The Boilermakers battle Penn State at Beaver Stadium on Halloween. Kickoff is set for 4:15 p.m. ET on BTN.
QUICK HITS
- The Boilermakers are playing on Halloween for the 17th time in program history, hold an 8-7-1 record on the holiday. Purdue has won three of its past four Halloween games, dating back to 1998.
- The Purdue defense has held opposition scoreless on their opening drives of each half for four straight games.
- The Boilermakers are outscoring opponents 50-27 in the third quarter this season.
Purdue is 32-of-34 in the red zone this season (21 touchdowns, 11 field goals), which includes scoring on the last 14 straight trips to the area. The 94.1 scoring percentage ranks 11th in the country. - Quarterback Ryan Browne was added to the Manning Award Watch List during the bye week. Browne ranks third in the Big Ten and 19th nationally in passing yards per game.
- On the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, Asaad Waseem averages 84.0 receiving yards per game to sit sixth in the conference and crack the nation’s Top 25.
- Fame Ijeboi (Doak Walker Award Watch List) leads the Purdue rushing attack, ranking second in the Big Ten and 11th nationally with nine rushing touchdowns.
- Linebacker Jojo Hayden enters Saturday’s matchup with interceptions in back-to-back games, one of five players in the Big Ten and only three linebackers nationwide to pick off passes in consecutive contests.
- Jacobo Echeverria Lozano leads the Big Ten and ranks fourth in the country with 15 made field goals, the second most by a freshman kicker in program history. He is 15-for-16 on the year with a long of 48 yards.
PUTTING UP POINTS
- The Purdue offense has put up points throughout the season, averaging 31.3 points per game, on pace for the team’s highest scoring average since 2007.
- The scoring is even better in conference play, as Purdue averages 32.3 points per game in Big Ten matchups.
- Through seven games, the Boilermakers have already surpassed their entire season points total from the 2024 season, and they are just six points shy from matching their output from last year.
- The Boilermakers scored 38 points against UCLA. In their other four Big Ten games, the Bruins have surrendered a combined 35 points by the opposition.
FORCING TURNOVERS
- Purdue has forced eight turnovers through four Big Ten games this season, including five last time out against Washington.
- The five turnovers (four on defense, one on special teams) by the Huskies were the most forced by the Boilers in a game since Oct. 21, 2015 vs. Nebraska. The Boilermakers had three interceptions for the first time since the 2023 Old Oaken Bucket Game.
- Hudauri Hines, Smiley Bradford and Jojo Hayden picked off the Washington quarterback. It was the first time since Oct. 30, 2021 that three different Boilermakers recorded an interception in a game.
- Hines made his interception on the first play of the game, the first time Purdue intercepted a pass on an opponent's first play since Garrett Hudson had a pick to open the 2017 Old Oaken Bucket Game.
JOJO'S MOJO
- In his first season as a Boilermaker, junior linebacker Jojo Hayden has become one of the leaders of the defense.
- He paces Purdue in tackles (48) and has been the team’s leading tackler in the last three games with 23 in that span.
- With interceptions the last two games, Hayden became the first Boilermaker linebacker with one in consecutive games since Niko Koutouvides in 2003.
- Hayden is just one of three FBS linebackers this season with an interception in back-to-back games, joined by John Curry (Texas Tech) and Oumar Diomande (Colorado State).
B1G TIME PASSER
- Ryan Browne has been one of the best quarterbacks in college football, earning a spot on the Manning Award Watch List during the bye week.
- Browne ranks in the Top 25 in passing yards per game (19th-260.3), completions per game (22nd-20.7) and passing yards (23rd-1,822). He ranks third in the Big Ten in all three categories.
- The Boilermaker quarterback has taken care of the football. He became the first Purdue QB to throw one or fewer INTs through the first six games of a season since at least 1959.
- Surpassing 300 passing yards in each of the first three contests, Browne joined Jim Everett (1985, twice), Drew Brees (1998, 1999), Kyle Orton (2004), Curtis Painter (2007), David Blough (2018) and Aidan O'Connell (2021, 2022) as the only Purdue quarterbacks to throw for 300 yards in three straight games.
- Browne has six 300-yard passing games for his career, tied with Scott Campbell (1980-83) for eighth on the all-time charts.
HE'S YA BOI, IJEBOI
- Fame Ijeboi has made an immediate impact for Purdue after transferring from Minnesota, becoming one of the leaders on the offensive side of the ball.
- With 568 rushing yards and nine touchdowns on the year, he ranks second in the Big Ten and ranks 11th nationally in rushing touchdowns.
- He is one rushing TD away from becoming the 22nd Boilermaker to record double-digit rushing touchdowns in a season and the first since Markell Jones in 2015. Ijeboi has a pair of three-touchdown games this season, the first Boilermaker to accomplish the feat since Kory Sheets in 2008.
- With a receiving touchdown to his credit, Ijeboi's 10 total touchdowns this season are the most by a Boilermaker through the first seven games of a season since Sheets in 2008.
- Ijeboi had the best game of his career against his former team, running for 195 yards and three scores to lead Purdue to a 28-point win over Minnesota. It was the 15th-best rushing game in terms of yardage in program history as well as the most by a Boilermaker since 2017. He became the second Boilermaker this century to total at least 195 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in a single game.
- Against Wake Forest, Ijeboi finished with 114 rushing yards on 27 carries and three touchdowns. Ijeboi also added six receptions for 42 yards. Finding the end zone three times, he became the first Boilermaker with three rushing touchdowns in a game since D.J. Knox helped Purdue knock off No. 2 Ohio State in the famous Tyler Trent Game (Oct. 20, 2018).
- In his first game as a Boilermaker, Ijeboi racked up 87 yards and a touchdown while averaging a staggering 7.9 yards per carry to help Purdue roll past Indiana State.
CORREA IN CONVERAGE
- While he’s one of Purdue’s leading tacklers, linebacker Charles Correa has also shown his ability to defend the opponent’s passing game.
- Correa ranks 26th in the country with six pass breakups on the season, the most by a linebacker nationwide.
- Against No. 3 Notre Dame, Correa hauled in his first career interception by picking off CJ Carr. The INT snapped Carr’s streak of passes without a pick at 133 attempts.
DYNAMIC DUO
- Transfers Asaad Waseem and Xavier Townsend lead the Purdue receivers with 38 and 32 catches, respectively.
- The duo has combined for 958 yards. Waseem paces the team with 588 yards, while Townsend is right behind his teammate with 370 yards.
- In the Big Ten opener at UCLA, Waseem and Townsend both had big nights. Townsend caught six passes for a career-high 162 yards and two scores. Waseem hauled in eight passes for a career-best 149 yards on the night. It marked the first time since Purdue played Northwestern at Wrigley Field in 2021 that the Boilermakers had two players with 100 yards receiving.
- Townsend became the first Boilermaker with multiple receiving scores since Deion Burks in 2023 against Fresno State. His 162 yards receiving were the most by a Boilermaker since Charlie Jones posted the same tally against Michigan in the 2022 Big Ten Championship Game.
SPREADING THE BALL AROUND
- With one of the best completion percentages in the country, quarterback Ryan Browne has been effective in getting the ball to a variety of Boilermakers.
- Through the first seven games of the season, 17 Boilermakers have caught a pass (9 wide receivers, 4 running backs, 4 tight ends).
- Against Wake Forest, four different Boilermakers recorded five or more receptions (Xavier Townsend, Chauncey Magwood, Asaad Waseem, Fame Ijeboi), marking the first time since Sept. 17, 2022 at Syracuse that four different players recorded five or more receptions in a game.
THE KID CAN KICK
- True freshman Jacobo Echeverria Lozano has been a reliable weapon this season, going 15-of-16 on field goal opportunities, including three makes in three separate games.
- He ranks fourth nationally and first in the Big Ten in made field goals. He is one of six kickers with multiple field goals in five or more games.
- He already ranks second for most made kicks by a freshman in Purdue history, one shy of Travis Dorsch's record of 16.
- His lone miss was a 49-yard attempt against Wake Forest.
- Echeverria Lozano has made three field goals in three games this season, the second most by a Boilermaker kicker in the last 25 seasons. He is one behind Mitchell Fineran from the 2021 campaign for the most.
- He was named Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week after converting a trio of kicks in the win over Illinois.
- He connected twice from 48 yards this season against Notre Dame and Washington for the longest field goals by a true freshman since Carson Wiggs hit a then-school-record 53-yarder at Ohio State on Oct. 11, 2008.
- Against Wake Forest, the rookie connected on a trio of field goals, including the game-tying effort as the fourth quarter expired to force overtime.
- He wasted little time putting his highly ranked right leg to use in week one against Indiana State, splitting the uprights a trio of times from 39, 27 and 25 yards for the most kicks in a game by a freshman at Purdue going back to 1995.