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Friday, December 13, 2002
Boilermakers ready for season to begin
By Tim Stratton
Special to BCSfootball.com
My name is Tim Stratton, tight end for the Purdue Boilermakers, and I will be doing a weekly diary for ABC Sports Online. I'm a red-shirted junior, which means this is my fourth year at the school. My recruiting class, which was Joe Tiller's first at Purdue, included players such as Drew Brees, Vinny Sutherland, Jason Loerzel and Akin Ayodele just to mention a few.
|  | | Tim Stratton and the Boilermakers open the season on Sept. 2 against Central Michigan. |
This year, we are looking forward to big things. Just like every team in the Big Ten, we dream of going to the Rose Bowl every year. This year is no different and we believe we have the chance to do it. With Drew's decision last fall to stay for his senior year, expectations both on campus and around the country grew. He's a great quarterback and friend, and he seems poised to do great things this year.
With four of the five starters back on the offensive line, this looks to be the strength of our offensive unit. Our receiving corps lost two great ones in Chris Daniels, now with the Tampa Bay, and Randall Lane, now with Arizona. But we do return some players with great potential like Sutherland, Donald Winston and A.T. Simpson.
At tight end, we have three guys capable of starting, all with two or three years of experience. At running back, we have four guys with different running styles that can get the job done. So from the offensive side of the ball, we look pretty solid and with the addition of some newcomers, we should lead the Big Ten in offense.
On the other side of the ball, we lost some starters but return quality players such as Matt Mitrione, Akin Ayodele, Jason Loerzel and Brent Botts. Speed has definitely improved on defense, which is evident in practice. They are playing better than ever.
We do not have a game this weekend, so the practices have been a little more physical so that we can be ready for our opener against a tough Central Michigan team on Sept. 2. We played this team last year and they return some players that are going to make it a tough game. We haven't gotten into our game week preparations yet, but they will start on Sunday.
Be back then.
Stratton's Purdue Statistics
| Year |
Rec. |
Yards |
Average |
TD |
Long |
| 1998 |
38 |
381 |
10.0 |
7 |
29 |
| 1999 |
49 |
593 |
12.1 |
4 |
34 |
| Total |
87 |
974 |
11.2 |
11 |
34 |
Click here to go to Purdue's official web site.
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Drew Brees finds Tim Stratton in the end zone.