QB Robert Marve Chooses Purdue for Some Reason

Okay, so Danny Hope isn't the only hope in West Lafayette, Ind., this spring. Former Miami Hurricanes quarterback Robert Marve (pictured at right) ended the speculation about his next address Thursday, confirming that he will transfer to Purdue for his final two seasons of eligibility. Marve will have to sit out this coming season but will be eligible in 2010 and 2011.

Marve was Florida's Mr. Football in 2006 but missed all of his freshman season due to a car accident. His numbers from 2008 were not stunning, and when Jacory Harris was named the starter, Marve decided he wanted out.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course. Football players play football, and if Marve didn't want to stand around holding a clipboard, it's his right to walk away. Your head knows this and agrees with it. Your heart, however, is saying something like "Yeah, but ... Purdue?" O ye of little knowledge.

First of all, the history of Purdue quarterbacks goes back a lot farther than Kyle Orton and Drew Brees. The rest of the team hasn't always been world-beaters, but Purdue almost always has one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten. Len Dawson and Bob Griese went from Purdue to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and if they ever establish a Pro Football Hall of the Pretty Good, you'll find Jim Everett and Gary Danielson in it. Purdue is historically a pretty good place to be a quarterback.

More than that, however, is what Purdue offered Marve: opportunity. The Boilermakers are coming off a 4-8 season and have a brand new coach. Danny Hope has already proved he'll run the program his own way. How else to explain that his first recruiting class included 13 kids from Florida and exactly none from Indiana?

For Marve, who considered lots of options, Purdue gave him the best chance to be The Man when his one-year mandatory ineligibility ends. Walking on at Tennessee might seem like a better chance to most football fans, but Marve is at a point in his career where conventional wisdom no longer holds. Will he pan out? Nobody knows for sure. But at this moment, Robert Marve is probably no worse than the fourth-best quarterback in the Big Ten.