No. 12 Wisconsin will look to claim its third victory in a row on Saturday afternoon when it hosts 4-6 Purdue at Camp Randall.
This season has been a struggle for the Boilermakers, who were expected to take another step forward this year after making a surprise run to a bowl game in 2018. Unfortunately, Purdue has been held back from achieving its goals as the result of a series of devastating injuries to star players. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find any team in college football that has been bitten by the injury bug more than the Boilermakers.
Purdue gave Wisconsin one hell of a scare in last season’s triple-overtime thriller in West Lafayette, but the Badgers have won a whopping 13 games in a row against Purdue and is a heavy 25.5-point favorite to make it 14 this weekend. However, head coach Jeff Brohm still has some talented players at his disposal on both sides of the ball, and we have seen the Badgers struggle at home against far worse teams than this.
Here are five players on the opposing sideline who Badger fans should keep a close eye on throughout the game.
Aidan O’Connell – Quarterback
2019 stats: 67.6% passing, 402 yds, 3 TD, 2 INT
O’Connell is the third quarterback to step in as the starter for the Boilermakers this season following injuries to the original No. 1 signal-caller, Elijah Sindelar, and his replacement, freshman Jack Plummer, and will probably be forced to stay in that role the rest of the year.
A redshirt sophomore walk-on, O’Connell is seeing the first action of his college career, and for the most part, he’s performed valiantly. He led Purdue’s game-winning touchdown drive after replacing the injured Plummer against Nebraska on Nov. 2 and did the same in his first career start against Northwestern the following week.
Brohm was heavily reliant on O’Connell to move the Boilermakers down the field against the Cornhuskers; he went 34-50 for 271 yards and a couple of interceptions in the win. After struggling against Nebraska last week, this Wisconsin secondary will be tested early and often on Saturday.
David Bell – Wide Receiver
2019 stats: 65 rec, 791 yds (12.2 avg), 5 TD
Bell was one of the top additions to Brohm’s impressive 2019 recruiting class as a consensus 4-star prospect and the Gatorade Player of the Year in Indiana, and he has been an instant impact addition for the Boilermakers as a true freshman this season.
He was always going to be heavily involved in the offense this season, but Bell has taken on a larger than expected role with superstar wide receiver Rondale Moore out with an injured hamstring suffered in Purdue’s fourth game of the season. The Indianapolis native currently leads the Big Ten in receptions and ranks No. 4 and No. 5 in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, respectively.
Bell is coming off of an impressive performance against Northwestern in which he caught 14 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.
NEXT: Brycen Hopkins/George Karlaftis/Ben Holt