Gold and Black Radio: Purdue spring football's final week
In our April 7, 2026 edition of Gold and Black Radio, GoldandBlack.com’s football experts Tom Dienhart and Dub Jellison update the progress of Purdue’s spring practice leading into the final week of practice, leading into Saturday’s (April 11, noon) Spring Showcase in Ross-Ade Stadium.
Purdue football coach Barry Odom’s opening statement from Tuesday’s practice
Odom’s opening statement:
“I like what this team has done for 12 practices where we started in January, to where we are today. They’ve made dramatic improvements in all areas. And really all three phases. We look at the personal development of each individual, I think they all would say where we are today to where we were, made a big time jump, which is exciting to see. They understand what it’s going to take to play winning football, complimentary football. We got a lot of work ahead of us yet and we understand that too, but also they’ve been a fun group to coach because every day the competitive battles that they have shown they’ve kind of risen to the occasion every single time that we put it out there. And we’ve got enough skill set that’s going to be a lot of fun between now and what we can do when we get back started with fall camp on what the team will look like continue to move them forward in all areas.
It’s been a fun spring for 12 practices. Thursday, we’ll do an in-season Thursday practice for us, what that looks like, just so our guys get a feel for what that looks like. Friday, we’ll do the same thing, in-season Friday practice, and then Saturday, will be a combination of some practice, some individual drills, some things both sides unit-wise, and then there will be some scrimmage situations. We look forward to seeing how our guys do in that. Again, we had a really good scrimmage on Saturday. Had about 160 plays and I thought our playmakers stood up and made plays at times, which was fun to see on both sides of the ball. I think our line of scrimmage play has gotten significantly better and when you can do that on both sides of the ball that makes everybody’s job a little bit easier, the quarterback and the pass defense and some of those things. So, made a lot of progress and we are excited about what this team’s going to be in the fall.”
