| | By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
The offensive game plan at Purdue this year isn't going to be much of a surprise. It will consist of Drew Brees -- early and often. But that doesn't mean anyone's going to stop it.
Just ask Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez, who watched Brees complete an NCAA
record 55-of-83 against the Badgers in 1998.
"He's in a league by himself," Alvarez said. "As far as I'm concerned, I've never played anyone that can do the things he does."
|  | | Drew Brees finished fourth in the Heisman voting last season. |
Brees, the latest in a long line of great Boilermaker quarterbacks, will
be given every possible chance to chase the Heisman in coach Joe Tiller's
spread-out, one-back offense. In three years at Purdue, Brees has already
thrown for 64 touchdowns and over 8,000 yards, while completing 62-percent of
his passes. He's on pace to leave Purdue with almost every school and Big Ten
passing record.
Yet Tiller thinks there is room for more improvement -- a scary thought for
Big Ten secondaries.
"Last year was my 14th year with that offense and Drew is by far the most
effective guy I've been around," Tiller said. "But we think he can do better.
He needs to improve his game management and throwing the long ball."
Last season, one in which almost all of Brees' 1998 numbers slipped, he
was still the runner-up to Georgia Tech's Joe Hamilton for the Davey O'Brien
Quarterback Award and Wisconsin's Ron Dayne for the Maxwell Award. He also
finished fourth in the voting for the Heisman and was a second-team
All-American. Tiller attributes last year's production dip to an added focus
on eliminating interceptions. Brees went from 20 picks in 1998 to 12 in '99.
"I think it might have handicapped his style of play because he didn't
look for the big play as much as he had in the past," Tiller said. "And he's
a guy you have to give the game to and let him go with it. We want the ball
in Drew's hands with the chips on the line because that's when he's best."
So this year, Tiller and Brees are holding nothing back. They're mixing
the slant and out patterns with a collection of bombs. Brees even spent extra
time in the summer working with his receivers to ensure precision come
September.
"It's something I definitely think about," Brees said of the Heisman.
"It's hard not to, but it isn't the only reason I came back. My goal for
this season is to win the Big Ten."
A league title would be Purdue's first since 1967 and would almost ensure
Brees the award. While many marvel at his competitiveness, composure,
intelligence and accuracy, it's another, often unnoticed intangible, that
grabs Alvarez.
"His escapability and mobility," Alvarez said. "It's hard, even if
somebody comes clean on a blitz, to get your hands on him. Then he's got that
awareness to find the open man once he does scramble.
"There's no better quarterback in the country."
Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com. | |
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