By John Nestor

Purdue is at 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten but in a position to reach some critical goals before the season ends as far as junior defensive tackle Kawann Short is concerned.

Short has been among the kings of the Purdue defensive line with 22 solo tackles and 18 unassisted for 40 total after Purdue's first eight games. In Saturday's 36-14 loss at Michigan, he was credited with three solos and two assists.

Short a 6-foot-1, 310-pound tackle from East Chicago, Ind., remains hopeful the team will wind up in postseason play.

"We just have to get better," he said. "We still have four games left for the regular season. Obviously, we need to get bowl eligible. That's what we're trying to do this year."

Named co-captain by his teammates following spring ball, Short is coming off a season in which he was second team all-Big Ten and was fourth in the league in both sacks with six and tackles for loss with 12.5. He also led his team with eight passes broken up and wound up with 41 total tackles including 30 solo.

Against Michigan, Short gave himself a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 for his performance.

"A lot of stuff I left on the field which I could have brought back," he said. " They had a lot of cutbacks which made it a lot easier for them. Our game plan was to stop Denard. If he didn't step up, somebody else did which made it hard for us to adjust."

Earlier in the season, he blocked his third career kick against Middle Tennessee and had a career-high 11 tackles and forced fumble and had a fumble recovery at Rice.

Short and the Boilermakers were challenged by Michigan's defense and quarterback Denard Robinson, which totaled 535 yards on offense Saturday.

"As a defense we're supposed to stop them," Short said. "We should have gotten the stop instead of them keep driving and driving. They had cutbacks. That's where they got a lot of their yards. The defense needs to swarm better to the ball.

"They have some big athletic linemen who are quick and use their hands pretty good," Short said. " We didn't get enough pushbacks."

Purdue coach Danny Hope agreed with Short.

"We came in defensively with the idea that we had to stop number 16 (Robinson) from a run-game standpoint," Hope said. "That had been predominately had been their MO, from an offensive plan throughout the course of the season. A lot of people had been geared up to try to stop him and we were too."

"I thought they did a good job of taking the game out of his hand, out of Denard's hands and spread the ball around a little bit. That spreads us a little bit thin, we had the box loaded up trying to stop number 16 and they got the ball out on the perimeter.

"That was tough for us in some ways defensively. Michigan hit a couple of really big plays on us. Some play-action pass, some faking in the backfield with us loaded up in the box and they threw the ball down the field a couple of times and turned the length of the field over on some big passes. I thought that really impacted the game."

After not playing in his freshman year, Short earned his team's newcomer award, defense for spring practice in 2009 and was named to the league's all-freshman team by the Sporting News.

In high school, Short totaled 85 tackles as a senior and 80 as a junior.

In Purdue's final four games of the regular season, Short is hoping the Boilermakers can learn from the loss to Michigan and tackle its upcoming challenges.

"It can make us or break us, but we just have to be ready for next week," he said.

 

 

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