Today we highlight a young quarterback who has seen the field for the Boilermakers.
Redshirt sophomore Bennett Meredith transferred to Purdue by way of Arizona State, where he did not see any playing time, but the young gun saw one start for the Boilermakers last year in the absence of a temporarily injured Hudson Card. He wasn’t asked to throw much and split time with Ryan Browne, but 5/7 is pretty good when being thrusted into the spotlight.
The former three-star prospect out of Alabama powerhouse Hoover High School is your prototypical pocket passer who doesn’t offer the same mobility as QB1 Card, but certainly serves as a solid option should Hudson Card have to miss a game again.
At Hoover HS, featured in several documentaries as one of the business-like high school teams in the country, Meredith started only 20 games across two seasons and still threw for north of 5,300 yards with 47 touchdowns. That’s not easy.
Given his current body of collegiate work, it’s fair to call him more of a game manager than a “GRIP IT AND RIP IT” cannon-armed quarterback, but I’d argue that’s probably what you want more in a backup should things go awry with QB1.
Seeing what he has been able to do in his high school tape, that doesn’t mean he can’t build up to the collegiate-level confidence required to the aforementioned gripping and ripping.
Of course Meredith will be competing for the second spot with Browne. I still believe that, in the scenario requiring a second quarterback, Purdue will experiment with both players. That said, this quarterback named Meredith (unrelated to Dandy Don) has the poise to avoid making game-changing mistakes should he be placed into the limelight like that one time against Northwestern.