WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue football’s Jack McCallister, a native of Seattle, grew up steeped in the rivalry between his hometown Washington Huskies and Washington State.
Then he lived that rivalry for four years with the Huskies. When he transferred to Nebraska last winter, he had to catch up to speed on Black Friday against Iowa and other traditions. When he jumped back in the portal after the Cornhuskers switched special teams strategies, he hit the rivalry restart again.
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“I do understand how rivalries go,” said McCallister, who joined Purdue after the spring. “As far as games I don’t have a connection to, I just want to make sure I’m being a good teammate and just doing my job.”
No. 22 Illinois comes to Ross-Ade Stadium with the Purdue Canon on the line. The teams have played for it (almost) annually since 1943. Lately, the Boilers have controlled the series. They had won four straight and 15 of 19 prior to the Illini’s overtime victory last season.
A roster with 82 new players, though, has little to no connection to that history. Same goes for the Shillelagh being on the line for Purdue’s last game at Notre Dame on Sept. 20. The newcomers have a couple of months in which to build up some steam for the regular season-ending Old Oaken Bucket game against Indiana.
Purdue coach Barry Odom had only begun familiarizing himself with the Shillelagh early in the week of that trip to South Bend. He’s a newcomer to these rivalries too, after all. Yet he said he does emphasize the importance of those games, even if they’re not as naturally personal to most of the players on his remade roster.
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“There’s a deemed responsibility that I have as the leader of this team to represent people that were here long before I was — long before this team,” Odom said prior to the Notre Dame trip. “No matter if you’ve got four months with us or five years, it’s about Purdue, and we’ve got to uphold the standard of what that needs to look like.
“I’ve got to continue to teach that, no matter if we’ve got 82 new guys or 20. Every single year, there’s things that go with wearing that uniform, and this is one of them.”
It’s probably a stretch to say Purdue could have changed its season with a win at Illinois a year ago. Ryan Browne made a spot start in place of Hudson Card and rallied the Boilers from a 27-3 deficit early in the third quarter to take the lead in the fourth. The decision to go for a 2-point conversion in overtime after matching the Illini’s touchdown — and not getting it — resulted in a 50-49 loss.
Browne is the established starter now, and it’s not a stretch at all to say a win Saturday would be big for him, Odom and the program. The Canon game is the first of four in a potentially pivotal October. Purdue then travels to Minnesota and Northwestern before its homecoming against Rutgers.
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This team has not yet looked like one on the doorstep of knocking off nationally ranked teams. Yet for whatever reason, this rivalry has sometimes defied the reality of the rest of a Boilermaker season.
Something about Illinois has brought out best in Purdue football
In full context, Purdue’s ownership of this series over the past 20 meetings coincided with the Illini — and/or the Boilermakers — being among the worst power conference programs.
Of the 15 victories in that stretch, nine came against Illinois teams which won three or fewer games. All five Illini wins came against Purdue teams which finished 4-8 or worse.
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However, across four coaching staffs, something about this rivalry tended to bring out the best in the Boilermakers. For some reason, that was especially true for coaches who otherwise struggled to beat anyone.
Darrell Hazell won only three games against power conference opponents in four years. Two of them came in Champaign. In 2014, Purdue ran for 349 yards in a 38-27 victory. Two years later, JD Dellinger’s 28-yard field goal in overtime gave Hazell his final victory as coach.
Additionally, his 2013 team won only one game. However, its 20-16 loss to Illinois was not decided until late in the fourth quarter.
Former Illini defensive coordinator Ryan Walters won his first Canon game in a blowout, 44-19. That Illinois team finished 5-7 — one win shy of bowl eligibility. Then Walters almost pulled off a true shocker in Champaign last season.
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A win this week would qualify as another spoiler.
Illinois is favored by around 10 points, depending on your sportsbook of choice. It opened the season as a College football Playoff darling — the odds-on favorite to be the next Big Ten team to make its first playoff appearance. Then it went to Bloomington and got pasted by IU, 63-10.
The Illini needed a last-second field goal to beat USC 34-32 on Saturday. In reality, the game should not have been that close. Two lost fumbles on the goal line prevented Illinois from opening the game up early.
Purdue Canon Game vs. Illinois kicks off crucial stretch
Yet a win would do more than end Purdue’s 10-game Big Ten losing streak. It would springboard the team into a stretch of winnable games — October’s soft underbelly of the season before a harsh November schedule.
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On a yards-per-play basis, Northwestern has been the Big Ten’s worst offense so far against FBS opponents. Rutgers has been the worst defense. Minnesota rallied from a 14-0 deficit to sneak past the Scarlet Knights 31-28 at home Saturday.
No automatic victories in that bunch, of course. After five weeks, though, it’s fair to characterize all of those opponents as being in the Boilermakers’ weight class.
Illinois may not be — even with star defensive back Xavier Scott out due to injury. Luke Altmyer, with 11 touchdown passes against no interceptions thus far, belongs on the short list of the conference’s best quarterbacks. Hank Beatty is a special teams game-breaker in addition to being a solid receiver.
A little extra incentive to win the Canon can’t hurt — even if most of the Boilermakers only learned about it very recently.
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“That’s something we’ve built into the foundation of the program is the importance of these games,” left tackle Joey Tanona said prior to the Notre Dame game. “It’s a trophy game.”
It may also be a pivotal one in deciding how Purdue’s season turns out.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue football rivalry game vs Illinois could alter season, Canon trophy
