Purdue Football Preview 2025: Barry Odom's Total Boilermaker Rebuild Begins Now

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Purdue Offense Breakdown
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Making Purdue decent at football again isn’t anything compared to what Barry Odom did in Las Vegas

In the first 45 seasons of UNLV football at the D-I/FBS level, it enjoyed just three seasons with more than seven wins, and there was just one double-digit win campaign in 1984. Before Odom took over in 2023, the program suffered through eight straight losing seasons.

Odom won nine games in his first year, and the Rebels won 11 in 2024, for the greatest two-season run in the school’s history.

If you can win at UNLV, you can win in West Lafayette.

Crazy college football fun fact: Purdue has played in more Big Ten Championship games over the last three seasons than Ohio State has.

Instantly forgotten was that Purdue lost to Michigan for the 2022 Big Ten title, head coach Jeff Brohm left for Louisville, and things crashed from there.

Starting with that 43-22 loss to the Wolverines, and followed up by a 63-7 loss to LSU in the Citrus Bowl that wasn’t even as close as the final score, Purdue has gone 4-20 against FBS teams.

Odom knows how to crank up a defense, he hooked up with USC’s Josh Henson as the offensive coordinator, and in the mix are over 40 transfers to bring more talent and new energy.

The goal in the rebuild is to be the midrange team no one wants to play. No one’s thinking this will be a Curt Cignetti-to-Indiana thing like last year - the schedule is too tough - but that doesn’t mean the Boilermakers can’t and won’t be a nasty out every week.

But after averaging 7.8 points per game over the last six, it all has to start with a far more dynamic … 

Purdue Offense Breakdown
Purdue Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season