Tomorrow night the 2018 Purdue football season begins with more momentum than we have had in a decade. On paper, the 2017 season was pretty modest. Purdue went 7-6, won a mid-tier bowl game, lost some close games, won some close games, beat some bad teams, beat a few good teams, and was generally mediocre in terms of record.
Of course, this is all without context. Under Darrell Hazell the Boilers often would have needed improvement just to be called moribund. With Jeff Brohm we had cautious optimism. We expected to be blown out in the opener because Louisville had the reigning Heisman winner.