GoldandBlack.com's Purdue player draft: No. 5 overall
This summer, the Boilermakers are being divided.
Reporters Stacy Clardie and Kyle Charters continue Friday in GoldandBlack.com's Purdue player draft, a daily selection in which separate groups of 25 are assembled over the next two months. In late July, we'll decide — based on GoldandBlack.com staff and member feedback — which team would win.
Clardie's back up with the No. 5 overall pick, and she chooses ...
My response to Kyle’s Ja’Whaun Bentley pick at No. 4: “WOW! Really?!”
Bentley is Purdue’s best linebacker. There’s no doubting that. He’s exactly what I’d want in a captain for my team, too, as a guy who has a ridiculous work ethic, does what he says he’s going to do and delivers on the field. Uh, if we were actually picking “captains” on the teams we draft. (Shoot, maybe we can do that after we’re done? And maybe pick a current assistant coach to be our “head” coach, too. )
But here's the reason for my response: I just am not quite sure what to make of Bentley's role in Ross Els’ new defense. Is he going to be the same kind of fiery, aggressive, run-stopping, game-breaking-type player we’ve seen him be in the past? And he's coming off ACL surgery, too.
So the Bentley pick was just fine with me. It also afforded me an opportunity to wait to pick a second O-lineman — which will have to be the next pick once Kyle takes Cameron Cermin — and take the next-best position-of-need: A cornerback.
The Boilermakers used all spring to search for players who could fill the starting CB roles left by Anthony Brown and Frankie Williams. And there’s no hiding the fact that they didn’t find what they were looking for across the board at corner, nickel and dime backs— except for one guy.
That’s Da’Wan Hunte, and he’s my third pick.
Hunte kind of came out of nowhere this spring. His game snaps had been limited in his first two seasons with Brown and Williams ahead of him, but he responded to the challenge Els and cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson gave him (and the rest of the DBs) this spring in resounding fashion.
Hunte was scrappy — an underrated quality in corners, I think — and never backed down from Purdue’s No. 1 receiver, DeAngelo Yancey. Els put those DBs in near-impossible situations all spring on purpose to see what kind of talent he had to work with, for one, but also to see who would respond to tough circumstances — in the sense of being put in press-man coverage with no help over the top and trying to defend deep balls. Hunte wasn’t perfect — he wasn’t going to be, based on his experience, based on the scenario, based on the matchup — but he fought. And he showed up every day with a chip that he wanted to prove he not only was going to earn a starting spot but he deserved it.
And he did. And he deserves top-5 selection status because of it.
Draft Ticker: 1. Kirk Barron | 2. Jake Replogle | 3. Markell Jones | 4. Ja'Whaun Bentley
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