Five players coming to Purdue this fall played on the south team: Ryan Baker, Desmond Tardy, Jimmy Ladd, Curtis Painter, and Jordan Grimes. I did not see Jordan Grimes during the game because I was not aware of his number until after the game hard to tell who is who out of the offensive lineman. I was able to see a lot of the other 4 players, here are my thoughts on each of them.Ryan Baker: Huge kid, he looks physically ready to play as a freshman at Purdue. He played a lot of DT and DE and played some TE in the goal line package. Baker was consistently double and triple teamed by the North team so he was unable to get to the QB much of the time. He did tip a pass in the 4th quarter which was initially ruled a fumble, but after a long arguement with the North coaches the refs decided to change it. Never seen that happen before. Baker was in on several tackles as well. He did not have any passes thrown to him on offense.
Desmond Tardy: He played a 2-3 series at quarterback and was in at WR on every other series. He did not do much while at qb, had one nice run of 7 yards, but other then that didn't do much. He caught 5 passes on offense and made some good moves to get some YAC when he had the chance. He dropped a few balls that were on target or catchable. He is a very raw talent at the WR position, but if he gets the ball he can make some moves as he showed on his 38 yard kick return to setup the South's only TD of the first half.
Curtis Painter: Painter played about half the game at qb splitting time with Tardy and another qb on the south squad. He threw to Tardy several times in the first half, even though Tardy dropped the first couple and had one hit off his hands for an INT. Painter showed he has the arm when he threw the ball across the field for a td to his TE. He also showed he has the ability to run when he picked up 7 yards for a first down as he scrambled up the middle of the field. He was brought in on 4th down to throw a long pass to Tardy who was able to seperate himself 3-4 feet from the defender, but Painter waited a second too long and the pass was short and intercepted by the defender to end the South's hopes of a comeback.
Jimmy Ladd: He played probably 75-80% of the game on defense at OLB or MLB (if Chris Graham was out). He did have a few plays at fullback including one carry for a first down on 4th and 1. He made several tackles and was all over the field, he was also on the kickoff team. He looked pretty big, but I am sure he could put on some weight and will be redshirting in the fall.
Of the 5 players, Baker is the only one I could see playing this year, but most likely all 5 of these players will redshirt and bulk up for 2005.
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