Before each Ohio State game, Eleven Warriors catches up with a media member who covers the opposing team to get his or her perspective on the Buckeyes' upcoming opponent.
Purdue
Boilermakers
This week, we welcome former Ohio State beat writer for Cleveland.com and current Purdue beat writer Nathan Baird, who writes for the Indianapolis Star.
Among other topics, we discussed the differences in covering Purdue and Ohio State, the job security or lack thereof of Ryan Walters, the futility of the Boilermakers this season and more.
An early welcome back to Columbus for you, Nathan. To get this started off the bat, what’s it been like in terms of how you approach the beat going from covering a team with national championship expectations to one that may only win one game the entire year?
Nathan Baird: Hey Garrick. Well, interview sessions are a lot less crowded. No more marathon Ryan Day press conferences where 25 people get two questions apiece. At the same time, fans generally want the same information: Who’s going to play, what are the strengths and weaknesses, how is recruiting going, etc. The biggest change for me is also covering basketball, and the football team’s performance sort of dictating when I begin to shift my priorities.
What was your favorite memory while covering Ohio State?
Baird: I have really fond memories of that 2019 Fiesta Bowl trip from my first season on the beat. (More fond than fans’ memories of the game, I know.) There are a lot of people following the Buckeyes. They come from different coverage perspectives and platforms. But they also all come together as colleagues when sequestered for those bowl trips. I'm gonna miss that.
So, uh, how’s…Purdue’s basketball team going to be this year? (Half serious question!)
Baird: Pretty good, actually. Obviously, they’ll shift identities without Zach Edey under the basket. But they return three other starters from the national championship runner-up and four incoming freshmen have impressed in the preseason. Would not surprise me at all if they are in the mix for a third straight Big Ten championship.
In terms of your new beat, Ryan Walters has seen his team regress in his second year. It’s arguably one of the hardest jobs, if not the hardest job, in the conference. Still, is there a possibility the Boilermakers cut bait after just two years? And could the overnight success of Indiana maybe give the athletic department incentive to try and make a change?
Baird: Purdue will say they aren’t paying attention to Curt Cignetti’s success at IU, but come on. The contrasts are stark. For several weeks this has been spiraling towards a choice between two unappealing options. Ryan Walters has not lost the locker room or the support of the administration, but if he stays, the rest of the staff probably undergoes a significant makeover. Plus, you know people are already in the ears of some of these players trying to coax them into the portal. Last year, Purdue could not make winning counter-offers when star players Nic Scourton and Deion Burks were lured away by Texas A&M and Oklahoma, respectively. If that has not changed, what coach will succeed here?
Both Purdue’s offensive and defensive statistics are near the bottom of the country in many metrics, so I’ll ask, do the Boilermakers do anything well?
Baird: Punter Keelan Crimmins can boot it. Purdue has run the ball well at times, has schemed up a few explosive plays, and has even played stout defense for a half in some games. It does nothing consistently well, and the players expected to lead the team do not play consistently well, either. And as exemplified against Northwestern, the coaching decisions can sometimes be … erratic.
If you were going to try and be the voice of reason and give a dour Purdue fan any reason to hope for the future, what’s the best thing the program has going for it at the moment?
Baird: The true freshman class ranked in the top 30 nationally. It included two players who started on opening day — receiver Shamar Rigby and cornerback Tarrion Grant — and several other true freshmen are sprinkled around the depth chart. As I said before, though, will Purdue find enough momentum and money to keep them here — especially if a coaching change also happens?
Finally, Ohio State is around a 38-point favorite and is expected to win comfortably. How do you envision this game going and do you have a score prediction?
Baird: That sounds about right. I’m assuming something like 52-10. The thing Purdue needs most is to come out and smack someone in the mouth and take an early lead. It hasn’t been able to do that in any of the last seven games, and this sure doesn’t look like the streak-breaker to me.
