Barry Odom turning over stones as he builds 2026 Purdue football recruiting class

A parade of Big Ten coaches is strolling through a small Illinois village for a four-star recruit just outside the top 100, and first-year Purdue football coach Barry Odom was the latest to visit Tuesday night.

And, as Boilermakers legend Drew Brees was touting how Odom will build the program back up, Odom was making inroads with Mack Sutter by watching him play basketball for Dunlap High School. Sutter has attracted quite the cast of coaches to Dunlap, Illinois, a village with a population of 1,448 per Census Reporter. Odom was the fourth Big Ten coach in the last two weeks to watch Sutter play, including tight end titans in Penn State’s James Franklin and Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, and in-state coach Bret Bielema of Illinois.

Brees believes: Purdue football coach Barry Odom’s ‘gonna set a standard’ of accountability

“I was at a basketball game last night that I watched a young man play, because I know what I’ve seen, this kid will not only be a player in college, he’ll play in the NFL,” Bielema said of Sutter without mentioning him.

Those lofty projections aren’t cast lightly. Sutter’s father, Ed, played football at Northwestern before a five-year NFL career in which he played 79 games from 1993-97 with 38 tackles and a fumble recovery.

Yet Mack projects as a tight end, according to recruiting services, and is rated No. 106 nationally by 247Sports Composite. Although athlete may be more proper as he’s lined up at quarterback, tight end, wide receiver and as an edge rusher defensively, a versatile mismatch at 6 foot 6, 225 pounds. He caught 35 passes for 505 yards and seven touchdowns last seasons and had 29 tackles, six sacks, four forced fumbles and a pick-6 last season.

Dunlap quarterback Mack Sutter (7) tries to escape Morton’s Trae Erickson in the second half of their Week 8 football game Friday, Oct. 13, 2023 at Dunlap…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/barry-odom-turning-over-stones-224527420.html

Author : IndyStar | The Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2025-01-29 22:45:00

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