Upon his arrival to West Lafayette, Purdue defensive backs coach Charles Clark was tasked with overhauling the secondary of the Boilermakers, one that played a significant role in being one of the worst passing defenses in the country last season. To add insult to injury, the Boilermakers saw their All-American safety split for Oregon, four other starters hit the portal and leave just 249 combined snaps of experience in the depleted secondary coming into 2025.
After having no prior connection to Barry Odom, Clark packed his bags and moved from Memphis to Purdue for the opportunity to run his own room in the Big Ten, and hit the recruiting trail as hard as any Purdue assistant during the winter portal window. That push featured netting commitments from six transfer defensive backs, all of which could have significant roles with the Boilermakers in 2025.
Defensive coordinator Mike Scherer was impressed by Clark's efforts recruiting the portal, shining light on the additions to the group back in February.
"I think Coach Clark did an incredible job of recruiting those guys and finding the right ones for us and and then getting them here, I think, talent wise, and the turnaround of what we need and what we've got. I think you look at that defensive back position from either safety or corner, they did a heck of a job in the portal, and I think we got some really good players and guys that are gonna be able to step in and help us right away," Scherer said.
The Purdue secondary has come together in West Lafayette from very different walks of life and unorthodox paths on the gridiron to get to this point.
Take senior safety Crew Wakley, for example. The BYU import quit football over two years ago to become a solar panel salesman and is a 25-year-old senior that has been married for five years already. Tony Grimes was a five-star talent in the class of 2020 and is now on his fourth school in college after following Barry Odom and staff from UNLV to West Lafayette. Stu Smith began his career at Holy Cross before transferring to Purdue as a walk-on prior to last season and has become one of the biggest surprises of the spring.
The examples are endless.
Despite the differing paths to this point, however, the Purdue secondary is coming together this spring as it looks to become one of the most improved units on the roster.
"A big part of being in the secondary is getting to know each other and communication's the biggest thing. So getting closer to each other, just on the field and off the field, has helped us a lot. It's kind of cool, because there's so many of us that are coming from different backgrounds and different schools and whatnot, kind of, a melting pot, in a way. It's been good as like, you see, the closer we get off the field, the better our communication is on the field," Wakley said.
While they all have different paths to Purdue, the thing all of the ...
