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12/30/07-Football
St. Mary's grid tandem hopes to connect at Purdue
By Marty Budner of The West Bloomfield Eccentric
Orchard Lake St. Mary's graduates Justin Siller and Patrick Carroll were red-shirt freshmen on the Purdue University football team this season.
Siller was a highly-touted recruit whom the Boilermakers potentially consider a future quarterback. Carroll made coach Joe Tiller's squad as a walk-on receiver.
Could they develop into a productive quarterback-receiver tandem for a pass-happy Purdue program that has produced some outstanding signal-callers such as Bob Griese, Drew Brees and Gary Danielson, not to mention current standout Curtis Painter?
Siller certainly considers it a possibility.
"I think Purdue is one of the greatest quarterback schools in the nation," said Carroll moments after Purdue's exciting 51-48 victory over Central Michigan University in Wednesday's 11th annual Motor City Bowl at Ford Field.
"Hopefully Justin will be one of those great quarterbacks when he starts playing and he'll be throwing the ball to me a little bit," he said. "We'd have a little St. Mary's connection there."
Siller and Carroll both learned plenty this season as the Boilermakers featured one of the nation's most productive offenses (32nd nationally and second in the Big Ten behind Michigan State) with a 32.9 points-per-game average.
Siller was ranked No. 14 nationally by Rivals.com as a dual-threat quarterback coming out of the vaunted St. Mary's program. The 6-foot-4, 211-pound talent is eagerly looking forward to progressing up the Purdue quarterback chart and playing in Tiller's explosive spread offense which included 587 total yards in the Motor City Bowl as Painter threw for a school-record 546 yards and three touchdowns.
"It was a combination of things that brought me here," said Siller, "It was the system, the coaches and the experience I would gain from watching someone like Curtis Painter.
"Curtis is a great quarterback and I've learned a lot from him. I've been getting 'reps' and learning how to control a game like he does," he said. "And the coaches here really know what they are doing. They know how to coach well and I felt they were the best coaches for me as far as my college experience was concerned."
Siller did not know he was going to be red-shirted coming into the season. But, the Detroit resident believes sitting out his first year will be beneficial in the long run.
"It was really a matter of timing. There really wasn't enough time for me to grasp the offense as well as I needed to over the summer in order to play," he said. "I think red-shirting for me was definitely the better idea, as opposed to me going through the season and possibly not being able to play and not knowing everything I needed to know to succeed.
"I'm looking forward to this off-season and to see how well I've progressed," he said.
Carroll, a Bloomfield Hills native who plans to major in business and engineering, is also seeking a permanent roster spot. He spent this fall playing for the scout team, occasionally suiting up for some home games.
"I first applied to this school and it was the first school that I got into," said Carroll. "Academics was the first thing I was looking out for and (Purdue is) really good in business and engineering.
"And I knew Justin (Siller) was going here," he said. "I really worked out over the summer and decided to come out for the team. I hoped for the best and it worked out well."
Tiller has a history of rewarding walk-ons with scholarships, and Carroll wouldn't mind that scenario.
"I plan to continue playing as long as I can, and hopefully I'll be playing in some games," he said. "I'd be interested in a scholarship if I could get it. I'm just going to continue to work hard, do my best and hopefully it will pay off."
And, maybe it will pay off with Siller as the starting quarterback.
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