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Podcast: Locked On Boilermakers - Daily Podcast on Purdue Boilermakers Football & Basketball Episode: UPGRADED: Purdue's Linebacker Corps Will SHINE in 2026—Charles Correa And Anthony Speca Set To TRANSFORM Boilers Transcript: It's the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Your daily college sports fix just got a lot smoother with the EveryDayer Club. The energy of the college season is relentless and we know your passion does not stop on Saturdays. The EveryDayer Club is designed to keep you locked into the conversation with a completely ad-free listening experience. Whether it's the road to the playoffs, the chaos of the transfer portal, or a deep dive into the latest recruiting class, you get the insights without the interruptions. You also get a seat in our private Discord to talk sports with us in real time. Make your daily routine even better. Join the club by tapping the EveryDayer Club link in the show notes. I've said that I believe the linebacker core is going to be Purdue's best position group in year two of the Barry Odom era. But with a new defensive coordinator, what exactly is that group going to look like? You are a Lockdown Boilermakers, your daily podcast on the Purdue Boilermakers, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome in to another episode of Lockdown Boilermakers here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network where it's your team every day. As always, I'm your host. I am Nick Garvin. I'm talking Boilermakers every day here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, the only daily produced show out there. And we have a fun episode headed your way today because we're breaking down Purdue's linebacker group. I've already said I believe the linebacker group is going to be the best position group in year two of Barry Odom. I'm excited for what they're going to bring, and we're going to break down exactly what that could be here to start out today's episode. Then we're going to get into Purdue baseball. Two wins in a row in the Big Ten tournament. Does that affect their postseason outlook at all? We'll be recapping yesterday's game against Iowa and setting the stage for our third and final segment for today's episode, which is getting into the UCLA-Purdue win or go home, Purdue going up against the number one team in the country today for a chance to try and get into their first regional since 2018. It's going to be a huge game, a ton to talk about there, and it's going to be a fun episode of Lockdown Boilermakers. So thank you guys once again for joining me here today. And I want to get right into the action with today's episode talking about this linebacker group, which I'm really inspired by after seeing kind of the retention that's been done, kind of seeing what's been done within the transfer portal to bring other guys in, and especially with Kevin Kane coming back to Purdue. Now, obviously, Kevin Kane comes back. He is now the defensive coordinator once again, and there are some concerns from Purdue fans along with me, just kind of if it didn't work the first time, why would it work this time? Because obviously, he was not here for last year of Barry Odom, but we saw last year the defense wasn't much better. So maybe going back to Kevin Kane with a new-look defense or in a new system under Barry Odom could actually prove to work better than how it worked the last time. Yes, I know if it doesn't work the first time, it's hard to say that it will work the second time, but I have a little bit more faith now seeing the talent and kind of the scheme that Kevin Kane is going to want to run at Purdue, and that scheme is going to be a 3-4 defense. So three defensive linemen, four linebackers, and then sometimes one of those linebackers can kind of play as a hybrid DB. So sometimes those linebackers are going to go into pass coverage. A lot of different looks that you could run, but primarily, Kevin Kane's defense is focused around his linebackers. He wants them to be attack first. He wants them to be relentless, force turnovers, and a turnover margin isn't something that we saw a whole lot of times last year. That's going to be something that's absolutely huge this year for Purdue, because on the offensive side, you're going to be more of a run-heavy, burn-the-clock, churn-those-legs type of offense. So if your defense is able to generate those turnovers, and specifically those linebackers, you're going to have a better opportunity on the other side of the ball to succeed and keep the ball out of the other offense's hand. I'm not saying I think this defense is going to be perfect. I'm not even saying I think it's going to be a top-half defense in the Big Ten, but I do think that it will be improved from last year, and the reason why I think that is because of these linebackers. So that's what we're going to get into. We're going to break down kind of what these linebackers look like, and I feel like when you talk about this linebacker core, you have to start with the guy that's really going to be the focus of this group and be the most talented player, be kind of the highlight player within this linebacker core in 2026. It's Charles Carrera, who last year I thought had a phenomenal year, and out of the guys that Barry Odom was able to bring over from UNLV, I thought that Charles Carrera was one of, if not the most impressive out of those guys, because he comes over from UNLV, and he builds upon a big freshman year in his sophomore campaign. 93 total tackles, 39 of those were solos, and then three sacks to go along with that. Two pass deflections, so you can see that he can kind of go into pass coverage a little bit as well. But I think that Charles Carrera, in my personal opinion, could be one of the best linebackers within the Big Ten as he gets into his junior year. And it speaks so much to this year and why it's a little bit different as opposed to last season, because yes, you still build a lot of your team through the transfer portal, and we'll talk about that here in just a second. But what's different is you retain some of the best guys you had last year. Guys like a Charles Carrera, guys like a Joey Tonota on the offensive line, Antonio Harris at running back. There are some key pieces that Purdue was able to bring back, and it makes me kind of excited to see how this team goes next year, especially when you have guys like Charles Carrera that I truly do expect to be one of the best in the Big Ten. So Charles Carrera is absolutely going to be a starter and will absolutely be a solid piece of this linebacker core as we get into next year. But someone else that is returning to Purdue I wanted to talk about is Winston Berglund, who from Carmel, Indiana, initially put himself in the transfer portal, but said that he was going to come back to Purdue. I don't necessarily know how much of an impact Winston Berglund will have this upcoming year. Only six total tackles, three solos last year in four games played. We'll see how all that shakes out, but I think it's good to have Winston Berglund back. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The more linebackers you have, the better, because who knows what Kevin Kane's going to do. He might want to rotate some of these guys in and out, and it could be nice to have a Winston Berglund coming off the bench if, for example, it's a Charles Carrera that's starting. You never really know how these cores are going to shake out as of right now, but it's still great to have a guy like Winston Berglund, whether he's a part of those four starting linebackers or not. But at least Purdue has options this year, and I think Winston Berglund coming back to Purdue does give the playmakers that. But let's get into some of these guys that Purdue was able to pull out of the transfer portal. And the first of which comes from, well, both of these guys actually come from Big Ten opponents. But the first one we're going to talk about is just from over the border in Champaign, Illinois. JoJo Hayden comes over to be a Purdue Boilermaker. And he had a decent year last year. Wasn't the focal point of Illinois defense. 26 total tackles, 13 solo tackles. I think that he could be a great player at Purdue, though. I do expect JoJo Hayden to be one of those starters. He brings you real size. He brings you athleticism, explosiveness. He can get off quick on the line if that's what you want him to do. I think that he could potentially go into pass coverage as well. And that's really what we're seeing with all of these linebackers this year, is that they're going to be guys that can get to the quarterback, guys that can do their job, but also they're kind of hybrid and mobile where they can also fall into pass coverage. So very versatile is kind of the trend I'm noticing here with Kevin Kane's linebackers. But I expect JoJo Hayden to be much of the same. He's very talented. Once again, not a huge sample size. We didn't get a huge sample size from him at Illinois, but I still think that he could be a great player at Purdue with an open spot. So moving on to another guy Purdue was able to pull out of the transfer portal, and this guy is from Penn State, Anthony Specca. I think Anthony Specca will be good. And the best part about Anthony Specca is he was just a freshman last year. He was a redshirt freshman. So Anthony Specca still has three years of eligibility. And any time you can get a Penn State linebacker, you have to be happy about that. Had six total tackles, two solo, four assists, so nothing crazy last year. Didn't play a whole lot, but I think Anthony Specca, much like a JoJo Hayden, is going to have a much And I think that that's going to be very positive for Purdue, the fact that you're actually able to pull in talent like linebackers from an Illinois or linebackers from Penn State. The last guy I want to talk about and the last player that Purdue was able to bring in was a linebacker from Toledo, from Indianapolis, Indiana originally, but last year or the year before, rather, in 2024, he had 42 total tackles, 28 and a half a sack. So he was great his junior year and then his senior year kind of fell off a little bit, only 10 total tackles and five games played. He's going to be an upcoming senior, redshirt senior, so only one year of eligibility for Hudson Miller, but who knows what he could play. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I'd probably see this playing out like JoJo Hayden, Charles Carrera, Winston Berglund, Anthony Specka. And then and then Hudson Miller comes off the bench and you have some versatility with different guys at that linebacker core. But overall, I truly do believe that behind Kevin Kane, this linebacking core is going to find a lot of success. I think that they're going to be a good unit. I think could be one of the better in the Big Ten. That's how I feel about it. I think that this is by far going to be Purdue's best position group unit and I can't wait to see what this defense looks like next year. And I'm hoping it's an improvement from last year because we know that it's necessary for Purdue to get things back on the tracks. But coming up here next, we're going to take a shift to a different sport. We're going to shift over to Purdue baseball right now in the Big Ten tournament and a lot on the line for pertaining to are they going to continue making a run in the postseason past the Big Ten tournament? I'm going to answer that for you guys coming up here next on Locked On Boilermakers. Do you have workplace chaos? Deadline stacking up, the inbox overflowing and the one position you have to fill still sitting open while when the pressure's on and you need the right hire? This is the job for sponsored jobs. 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Win or go home two days in a row now in the Big Ten tournament and they're still going into today's action. We're going to get into that. What Purdue is going to need to do to get in to the field of 64 and what happened yesterday with a win over Iowa. First, I want to tell you guys about the everydayer club. If you guys are new here, don't know what the everydayer club is, or if you've been here, if you are an everydayer, the everydayer club is perfect for you everydayers out there because you're going to get Locked On Boilermakers content you love, but it's going to be ad free. On top of that, you're going to get access to the everydayer club Discord chat where you can talk to me, talk to all the everydayers out there. It's so much fun and you're not going to want to miss it because for right now, it's just $5 a month. Hit that link down below in the description to get into the everydayer club. Purdue baseball has been a lot of fun to watch throughout the course of the season, but if you haven't been updated on kind of the situation for where Purdue baseball has been, after their sweep against Indiana, the second to last weekend on the regular season, Purdue was slotted in pretty comfortably on the bubble, but they were slotted in as one of those teams that were the last four in. So after sweeping Indiana, Purdue was projected to be within the field of 64. Purdue has made it three times in school history. The last time they've made it is 2018. It would be the first time under current head coach Greg Goff. So that's where we stood. We felt pretty confident, but it was going to matter, or it was going to be important that Purdue took care of business against Iowa the final weekend of the year. If they took care of business against Iowa, they would likely secure a top four seed within the bracket, and then they would also likely be in the field of 64 outside of any crazy upset within the Big Ten tournament. Here is the bracket to give you guys a little bit of an understanding of what it means to have that top four seed because a top four seed gets a break from having to play through the first double elimination rounds, which as you guys can see with the dates, the first games were on May 19th, May 20th, and then today is going to be the 22nd where the rest of those games are being played. Purdue desperately wanted to, and they had a great opportunity to make it out of there, but unfortunately, Purdue loses. They get swept by Iowa, and here's how the bracket stands as of right now. Purdue loses to Michigan State, so they lost four games in a row after getting swept by Iowa and then losing to Michigan State. They fell down to the loser's bracket where they beat Illinois, but then they had to play Iowa yesterday. That's where we stood with a win or go home matchup for the Purdue Boilermakers. If the Purdue Boilermakers lost to Iowa, it would be, I mean, their season would be over. They would not be in. They got beat by Iowa four times in a row to end out the year, and keep in mind, Iowa is not necessarily the best team in the nation. They're really kind of middle of the road within the Big Ten. I would say Purdue has had a much better season than them for a good portion of the year. That's why it was such an intriguing matchup yesterday when these two teams faced off. Colvin Aeson had the first game against Michigan State. Not a great performance, although he did pitch seven innings in that one. Shoot, I'll have to look at who had yesterday's game. He's on the tip of my tongue. But today we have one of my, or yesterday, rather against Iowa, we have one of my favorite pitchers out there. It's Austin Clug. In my opinion, he's by far been one of Purdue's more consistent guys out there on the mound. But Austin Clug, he was pretty solid yesterday. I got to say, only 4.2 innings pitched. So for some reason, Clug doesn't go a ton of time. I don't know if it's just some of the efficiency stuff or really what the deal is, but you'll never really see Austin Clug going seven innings the way Van Aeson did in Friday, oh my gosh, my days are so mixed up. Wednesday's, I believe it was Wednesday's game. Tuesday or Wednesday's game, Colvin Aeson went for seven innings but gave up like six runs. But in this one, Austin Clug gives up no runs, zero earned runs for Austin Clug in 4.2 innings pitched, only three hits of baseball. That's how you play this Iowa Hawkeyes team. Iowa doesn't have the firepower you do, so it was up to this pitching staff and a rotation, in my opinion, that has been considerably more consistent for Purdue to really show up in a big way. And I feel like the fact that Austin Clug did that gives me some confidence going forward. But going into UCLA, you don't have Austin Clug, so it's going to be up for some other guys to step up in this one. We'll certainly talk about those matchups here in a sec. But start it out. Iowa actually got on the board first. It was unearned, but they did get on the board first in the fourth inning. It was 1-0, but Purdue, they bounced right back as we get into the fourth. And honestly, from there, Purdue, it was kind of all Purdue. Dylan Drake got it done early, tripling for two RBIs. Then it was Boyle, sack fly, who scored a run. Weston Boyle, the shortstop, scored a run. He then reached on a fielder's choice, which scored another run later in the sixth inning. Aaron Manias singled to left field for two RBIs in the sixth. And then Jackson Bessette doubled, followed by an Avery Moore sack fly within the eighth. Purdue wins 8-1 in a dominant display in Omaha, keeping Purdue's season alive against the Iowa Hawkeyes. A team, once again, that Purdue has already lost to three times this year. It was a little bit sketchy, but the Boilermakers got it done. And this is so important because, according to D1 Baseball, their bracketology right now has Purdue, after all that's gone down, after they lost to Michigan State, and I believe this is before Purdue won against Iowa. I think that this is right after Purdue's win against Illinois, which set up a matchup against Iowa. But Purdue right now is on the bubble. As of right now, D1 Baseball has Purdue at number 72, being one of the four to watch, but outside Purdue is going to need to pull the upset of all upsets if they want to keep their season alive past this afternoon when they face off against the number one ranked Bruins because UCLA has not done a whole lot wrong this year. So far on the year, UCLA is having a great season, pretty flawless at that 48-6 on the year, 28-2 in the conference. They've run through about every ranked team that they could possibly play. Beat Mississippi State, number four. Beat 23, Texas A&M. Beat number 20, Tennessee. Beat number seven, TCU. Anyone that you throw in front of UCLA, they have beat. On top of that, running through the Big Ten, they swept USC, which was ranked number 12. Once again, a USC team that swept Purdue a little bit later in the season. They have beaten about everybody that they could possibly beat. The only positive, the only silver lining for Purdue that I can find going into this game is the fact that for this one, UCLA is 3-2 in their last five. Their two conference losses only come within the last week or two when you talk about kind of where they're at in terms of their record. So is that something that you can use or is that just something that you say, well, UCLA, they already had the one seed locked up. They were kind of just phoning it in. I don't really know the answer to that question, but even only winning three out of their last five, this UCLA team is still not a team to mess with because they don't do a whole lot of things bad. Roman Martin is their number one guy by far, in my opinion. He's hitting .340 on the year, almost a 1,000 OPS, 72 hits on the season, seven home runs. In terms of average, he's going to be their number one guy. But they have home run hitters all throughout the lineup outside of Roman Martin. Milavi Louisville has 16 home runs on the year, 74 hits. He's pretty dang good. 57 RBIs to go with that. Ross Schloskey has 21 home runs, 59 RBIs. He's batting .330. Will Gasperio is batting .305, 19 home runs, 61 RBIs. These dudes absolutely hit the ball lights out. They've got one, two, three, four, five guys hitting .300, but they're much more of a power team than what you're going to see from a squad like Purdue. Still with that, this is not a UCLA team that you can really throw it down the middle and have a whole lot of success. This guy, I think it'll be Cole Van Aesen. That would make sense to me because he's the latest one that pitched, was Cole Van Aesen. So Cole Van Aesen, you didn't have a great start at all against Michigan State. He's not going to be able to put it down the middle of the play. He's going to have to paint some corners if Purdue wants to come out with the victory in this one against UCLA. But to make things even worse, UCLA has some great starters on the bump. And they're going to have their pick because they haven't played since that Washington series. So they're going to have their pick of the field in terms of who they want to start. And I think that most likely, we're going to see Logan Redman, who has started 10 games this year with a 2.87 ERA on the season. He's pretty good. 8-0 on the year. So the Bruins have not lost when Logan Redman is on the bump. He will likely be starting for UCLA. And this game, it's not one that I want to see. So that's kind of what the outlook is going to look like for UCLA. They absolutely hit a ton of home runs. The rotation is very good. Haven't lost when Logan Redman is on the mound. It's going to be an uphill battle for Purdue. But, and here's the biggest but, Purdue is kind of used to this. They are used to playing big teams. They are used to winning games like this. This has been one of the best lineups Purdue baseball has ever had in West Lafayette. So that's why, although I'm not very confident, this Purdue baseball team still has the players to get something like this done. You have Avery Moore, who's batting .350 on the year, over a 1.015 OPS. Six home runs, 33 RBIs. Aaron Minaias is hitting .341. Nine home runs, 33. Sam Flores, who is by far Purdue's best power bat, led the Big Ten in RBIs for a good portion of the season. .321 on the year, 11 home runs, 53 RBIs. He leads the Purdue Boilermakers in home runs. Eli Anderson batting .313. So Purdue has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight guys batting over .300. Not all of those guys are usually in the lineup, aren't consistently in the lineup. So take that with a grain of salt. But as of right now, Purdue has eight guys on the lineup that are on the roster, rather, that are hitting over .300. You can start to see how these matchups are a little bit different. Purdue wants to play more small ball. They're going to be more of a team that bats for average, that focuses on their defense and their fundamentals. That has been the key for Purdue all season long under Greg Goff. UCLA, the formula is completely different. They've got guys on the mound that are going to pitch lights out. They've got bats that can hit the ball 400 feet, just bomb balls out of stadiums. UCLA is a power team. Purdue is a fundamental small ball team. How does that matchup today when the Bruins face off against the Purdue Boilermakers? Well, I don't think very good for Purdue. I'm going to be honest. This UCLA team has not gotten beat by a ton of teams this year. Only two within the conference. And like I said, those two games happened within the last week or so. So with one hand, you could say, well, maybe UCLA, they're struggling a little bit as of late. But I say those are two good teams in Washington and Oregon. And I think that UCLA may have been phoning it in a little bit as they've already secured the one seat in the Big Ten tournament. They're already going to be the number one seed no matter what happens within the NCAA tournament. This UCLA team is one of the best college baseball teams we've seen in years. So if Purdue is going to beat them, it's going to take a great pitching performance from Cole Van Aesen. He's going to have to be nails. This team's going to have to score runs early and focus on the pitching, focus on the defense, pitch to contact, and hopefully that contact isn't over the wall. That's the key for Purdue. But at the end of the day, I don't think Purdue is going to be able to beat a team of this caliber. I think that UCLA ends up winning by the score of, call it, 8-4 or something like that. But they're going to put up a ton of runs. I don't know if Purdue can necessarily match that. We'll see what happens if Purdue beats UCLA. I think there has to be a conversation about the Boilermakers being in the tournament. It's a long shot. Who knows what happens, but that's all we got for you guys on today's episode. I think this linebacker core is going to be one of the best we've seen in West Lafayette in quite a while. Led by Charles Carrera, but highlighted with some other Big Ten guys from Penn State, from Illinois, even a guy from Toledo. I think this linebacker core is going to be pretty dang good. Purdue kept their season alive yesterday against Iowa with a big win that avenged that series sweep earlier just about a week ago against the Hawkeyes. But there's still business to be done today against UCLA. It's going to be one of the biggest games we've seen in quite a while pertaining to Purdue baseball. Could determine the fate of this baseball team as we get into the future, and certainly their fate for the rest of this season. It's going to be a fun one. Once again, that's all I got for you guys today. So make sure you guys like, subscribe, and comment. It really helps me keep the channel growing. We really appreciate it as we want to continue to bring you guys daily Boilermakers content. If you're an everydayer, hit in that everydayer club. It's so much fun. I want to see you guys there. But once again, that's all we got. So as always, boiler up. Hammer down. Show notes: Purdue Boilermakers linebackers headline 2024’s resurgence as Charles Correa leads a revamped defense under returning coordinator Kevin Kane. Can additions like JoJo Hayden (Illinois), Anthony Speca (Penn State), and Hudson Miller (Toledo) push Purdue’s linebacker corps to become the Big Ten’s best? Host Nick Arvin examines the aggressive 3-4 scheme, retention of key playmakers, and the heightened expectations surrounding the Boilermakers’ defense. Shifting to the diamond, Purdue baseball fights for NCAA Tournament survival after a crucial win over Iowa. With stars like Avery Moore and Sam Flores powering the offense, the Boilermakers now face No. 1 UCLA in a high-stakes, win-or-go-home Big Ten Tournament showdown. Can Purdue’s small-ball lineup and ace performances topple a national powerhouse and rewrite their postseason fate? 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