2004 Purdue Boilermakers football team The 2004 Purdue Boilermakers football team represented Purdue University during the 2004 NCAA Division I - A football season . The team was coached by Joe Tiller and played its home games at Ross - Ade Stadium . Purdue played twelve games in the 2004 season , finishing with a 7 – 5 record and a loss in the Sun Bowl to Arizona State . The season was Kyle Orton ' s senior year at Purdue . Game notes . Syracuse . Optimism abounded toward the Purdue football program coached by Joe Tiller after a terrific ' 03 season . Although the Boilermakers had 8 defensive starters to replace in 2004 ( 6 of whom were NFL draft picks ) , they returned most of their productive offense - including solid Seniors in QB Kyle Orton and catch - machine WR Taylor Stubblefield . In the first - ever Sunday game at Ross Ade Stadium , Purdue played host to the perennially bowl - bound Syracuse Orange from the Big East . However , on a brutally hot day , the Boilermaker offense and defense was on fire , handing the Orange an unexpectedly decisive defeat , 51 – 0 . Orton and the Purdue offense shook off a slow start ( and a missed Ben Jones FG ) to compile 571 yards of turnover - free offense , highlighted by 4 long Orton TD passes in a 16 – 30 ; 287 yard performance . Even reserve QB Brandon Kirsch - playing for the first time since 2002 - got in on the rout by engineering 2 4th quarter TD drives including a 47 yard TD pass to freshman TE Dustin Keller . On the flipside , the new - look Purdue defense was terrific in holding first - time starting QB Joe Fields and the Syracuse offense to 197 total yards , 3 turnovers , and most impressively - 0 points . Fields also got no help from his running game , as acclaimed RBs Walter Reyes and Damien Rhodes combined for only 36 yards on 17 carries . Ball State . Purdue continued its outstanding start to 2004 , improving to 2 – 0 by blasting the MAC ' s Ball State Cardinals 59 – 7 . The Boilermakers did the majority of the damage in an incredible first half that sent them to the locker room with a 45 – 0 advantage . Kyle Orton performed phenomenally – 23 - 26 ; 329 yards and 5 TDs – in guiding the Purdue offense to 599 yards , 34 first downs and no turnovers . WR Taylor Stublefield had 3 TD catches . And the Purdue defense had another superb game , holding the Cardinals ' offense to 197 total yards and nearly pitching another shutout until Ball State got on the board midway through the 4th quarter . Illinois . The Boilermakers began Big Ten play by improving to 3 – 0 with a hard - earned road win over the Fighting Illini , 38 – 30 . Purdue took a lead it wouldn ' t relinquish early in the 2nd quarter on a short TD run by Orton , 17 – 10 . Late in the first half with the score 17 – 13 , Orton noticed an oncoming 3rd down Illini blitz and audibled to flip a soft pass over the charging defense to RB Brandon Jones , who had snuck past the blitz . Jones then ran untouched for a 49 yard TD and an 11 - point advantage . Illinois would get no closer than 4 points down the rest of the game , as the Illini defense couldn ' t give their offense a chance to tie until less than a minute remained in the game . On the second play of Illinois ' last - chance drive , DE Anthony Spencer forced a fumble on a sack of Illini QB Jon Beutjer that Purdue recovered to essentially end the game . The Purdue offense – especially QB Kyle Orton – continued to excel by rolling up 515 total yards without committing a turnover . Orton threw for 366 yards and 4 TDs ( plus the rushing TD ) . Two of his TD passes came on 3rd down audibles – one of them to his top receiving target WR Taylor Stubblefield , who caught 11 passes for 115 yards and 3 TDs which increased his early season total to 8 TD catches . While Purdue played near - perfect on offense , the young defense encountered its first struggles of the season with an Illinois offense that was able to effectively move via the run and pass for 390 yards . In defeat , Illini RBs E . B . Halsey , Pierre Thomas and Jason Davis combined for 208 yards rushing . It was at this point that Orton began to be mentioned as a top Heisman Trophy candidate . Notre Dame . With another outstanding performance from QB Kyle Orton , the Boilermakers improved to 4 – 0 with a surprisingly decisive 41 – 16 victory over 3 – 1 Notre Dame . This was the program ' s first win in South Bend since 1974 ( in 13 tries ) . After both teams ' first drives ended in field goals , the game began to turn when Purdue kick returner Jerome Brooks returned an Irish kickoff 100 yards for a TD and a 10 – 3 lead . Later in the 2nd quarter with Purdue holding a 13 – 3 lead and the Irish threatening to score , Purdue took control when DE Anthony Spencer forced a fumble from freshman RB Darius Walker that Purdue recovered . Orton then led the Purdue offense 97 yards on a drive that culminated in a short TD toss to DE - turned - TE Rob Ninkovich , for a 20 – 3 halftime lead . Early in the 3rd quarter , after a Notre Dame punt pinned Purdue at their 3 yard line , WR Taylor Stubblefield beat tight man coverage to catch a 97 - yard TD pass for a backbreaking score and 27 – 3 lead . The teams exchanged touchdowns for the rest of the 3rd quarter before a scoreless 4th quarter . If not points , the Irish certainly rolled up yards ( 536 ) on the Purdue defense , as Quinn threw for a then - career - high 432 yards . But some timely stops ( including 7 sacks ) by the Purdue defense , the untimely Walker fumble , and the defense ' s inability to stop Orton and the Purdue offense proved too much to overcome . Meanwhile , Orton completed 21 of 31 passes for 385 yards and 4 touchdowns ; two of his TD throws were to Stubblefield in a 7 catch , 181 yard performance . It was at this point in the season that Kyle Orton was considered a Heisman Trophy front - runner , as he had 17 TD passes and no interceptions . In fact , the Purdue offense still had yet to commit their first turnover of the season ! Penn State . Purdue improved to 5 – 0 for the first time since 1945 by overcoming a fired - up Penn State team in a 20 – 13 win , their first ever in Happy Valley . Purdue gained an early 10 – 0 advantage with a 50 yard FG by Ben Jones followed by a short Brandon Jones TD run . The key play of the TD drive was a 55 yard completion to TE Charles Davis . But Senior QB Zack Mills , who had a fine day , led PSU back to tie the game at the half . First , they answered Purdue ' s TD drive with a TD of their own – a 37 yard TD pass to a diving WR Terrell Golden . Then , the Nittany Lions capped their next drive with a FG by K Robbie Gould . Purdue took a 17 – 10 lead on their first drive of the 2nd half with a 40 - yard TD pass from Kyle Orton to Taylor Stubblefield . The Nittany Lions later drove deep into Purdue territory but had to settle for a short FG and still trailed 17 – 13 after 3 quarters . On the first play of the 4th quarter , Orton ( and Purdue ) committed their first turnover of the season with a Calvin Lowry interception . But PSU came up empty when Zack Mills was tackled short of the first down on a fake FG attempt . After a second Orton interception resulted in a missed PSU field goal , Purdue embarked on a gritty , time - consuming drive that ended with a long Ben Jones FG to regain a 7 - point lead with less than 3 minutes left . The drive was kept alive with a terrific individual effort by freshman WR Dorien Bryant on a 3rd and long play . Rodney Kinlaw gave the Lions a great opportunity to tie on the ensuing kickoff with a 64 yard return , but Mills and the PSU offense came up empty with 4 incomplete passes . Finally , on the last play , QB Anthony Morrelli ' s desperation pass also fell incomplete . In what became the prevailing 2004 theme for PSU , their defense did a commendable job vs . the high - powered Purdue offense by limiting it to 348 yards and sacking Orton 3 times . The young Purdue defense held up well against the run by limiting PSU to 18 yards on 17 carries , and put a good pass - rush on Mills by sacking him 3 times . In addition to catching his 11th TD pass of the season , Taylor Stubblefield set the Big Ten record for catches , surpassing former teammate John Standeford . Wisconsin . In a wild game between two ranked opponents in West Lafayette , the Badgers handed # 5 Purdue its first loss of the season . In the 4th Quarter Boilermaker QB Kyle Orton fumbled the ball and Badger DB Scott Starks returned the fumble for the go - ahead score . With the crushing loss , Purdue fell to 5 – 1 on the season . Michigan . The 2 point loss to Michigan at home was the 2nd in a row for the Boilermakers . Northwestern . Purdue fell to 5 – 3 on the season with a 3rd consecutive loss . Iowa . With the loss , their fourth in a row , the Boilermakers fell to 5 – 4 on the season . Ohio State . Purdue snapped their losing streak to the Buckeyes and their overall 4 game losing streak with a 24 – 17 win in West Lafayette , improving to 6 – 4 on the year . The Purdue win made it impossible for the Buckeyes to finish with a winning conference record in 2004 . Indiana . With the win ( in the highest scoring game in series history ) , the Boilermakers finished 4 – 4 in Big Ten conference play . Purdue extended their home winning streak over the Hoosiers to 4 games ( their last loss to the Hoosiers in Ross – Ade Stadium coming in the 1996 season ) . Joe Tiller and the Boilermakers finished the regular season with a 7 – 4 record .