That’s O’Connell’s number but it’s part of the helmet decal honoring former Purdue quarterback Len Dawson, who died earlier this month. Dawson, who led the Kansas City Chiefs to its first Super Bowl and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, also wore No. 16.
He set out to prove a walk-on could win the starting job at the “Cradle of Quarterbacks” and lead the Boilermakers to postseason success. O’Connell routinely stayed after practice for extra snaps, gladly fine-tuned his skills with the scout team and even opted to stay when other schools presented more promising possibilities.
Who’s going to ask former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer about his last trip to Ross-Ade Stadium during Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff show, which starts at 7 p.m? Meyer and the Buckeyes were routed by the Boilermakers 49-20 during a Blackout atmosphere in 2018. Meyer returns to the pregame show after a brief stint as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Rob Stone, Brady Quinn, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart are on the clock.
The reward comes Thursday night when O’Connell celebrates his 24th birthday in front of a sold out Ross-Ade Stadium and a national television audience for Purdue’s season opener against Penn State.
And he’s here, on center stage, for one reason — he never stopped dreaming.
“He came in knowing he had to start from the bottom and prove to everybody beyond a reasonable doubt he could be the guy,” Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said. “As coaches we gave him those opportunities and sometimes we gave it to someone else, but he stayed with the same work ethic, the same mentality.
O’Connell bided his time for two years behind future NFL player David Blough and strong-armed Elijah Sindelar. Then O’Connell watched Nick Sipe and Jack Plummer move ahead of him on the depth chart. When they transferred out, Brohm brought in Austin Burton from UCLA.
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