Go green! Go white!

I think if I had heard the blasted Michigan State chant one more time Saturday, I would've hurled myself out of the south end zone of Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium and onto the SuperPretzel cart.

Sparty's 40-37 comeback victory added to the list of frustrating losses for Purdue and extinguished the Boilermakers' faint bowl aspirations in the process.

It's been that kind of a debut season for coach Danny Hope in West Lafayette, where the old gold and black has lost four games in which it led in the fourth quarter. Five of its seven defeats have come by a touchdown or less. Competitive week in and week out, save for a couple clunkers, Purdue's reached the point where it's in a position to win most games, but like any program in any sport trying to establish (or re-establish) a winning attitude, it's got to figure out how to get it done in the last 15 minutes.

It's the old catch 22. You can't win until you learn how to win, but you don't learn how to win until you win. The Boilers continue to do too many little things wrong to overcome teams like Michigan State, which rallied from a 34-23 fourth-quarter deficit to send me home disappointed again.

While it's going to be yet another December without a football game, there is reason for hope (no pun intended). Purdue knocked off Rose Bowl-bound Ohio State and won at Michigan for the first time since I was 3 (1966). Hope has breathed some life back into the team, and although it's not headed for Pasadena any time soon, the season will end next week in Bloomington with some cause for optimism.

Tabbed in many circles for a last-place finish in the Big Ten, the Boilermakers can finish .500 (4-4) with a win over the Hoosiers. A fifth victory would also exceed preseason prognostications.

On a bigger scale, the energy that was waning in the final Joe Tiller years has returned and Hope is already pulling in some quality recruits. He has taken his pursuits to the state of Florida with the mind-set that a lot of the Sunshine State's Nos. 2 and 3 recruits, not going to Florida, Florida State or Miami, are just as good or better than what he is going to find in the state of Indiana. It's a matter of convincing them to leave balmy F-L-A for the chance to play right away in a major conference.

Slowly but surely, the newcomers are working their way onto the field and Miami transfer Robert Marve is expected to take over at quarterback next season. Joey Elliott did some good things in his one year, but Marve will bring some athleticism to the position that has been lacking in recent memory. That and an increase in speed at the other skill spots should make a difference.

Another month or so of practices would've been nice, but other than that, you just look for the opportunity go into the offseason on a high note. That'll be easier said than done against IU, which despite a 1-6 conference record, has hung in there with the top four teams -- Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State and Wisconsin. Despite the same 4-7 mark as Purdue, coach Bill Lynch has likely done enough to extend his stay in Bloomington. (I'll resist taking the obvious cheap shot on that one.)

The Hoosiers certainly won't be lacking for motivation. If last season's 62-10 pummelling at Purdue can't get them up for the Old Oaken Bucket game, then nothing can. It should be a good one, and for one of the two teams, a 5-7 finish. That doesn't seem like much, but for a couple of schools hungry for any kind of success, it's a place to start.

This column solely represents the writer's opinion. Reach him at jim.peters@nwi.com.