Fun Facts: Iowa-Purdue, the Mike Pence edition

It’s black-and-gold against black-and-gold, but one school’s gold isn’t the other’s. And vice versa.

Nov. 3, 2022 9:52 am, Updated: Nov. 3, 2022 11:14 am

Vice President Mike Pence presides over a Jan. 6, 2021 joint session of Congress as it convenes to count the Electoral College votes cast in the 2020 presidential election. (Saul Loeb/Pool via Associated Press)

1. The visiting team in the Iowa-Purdue series has covered the point spread in 11 of the last 12 meetings.

2. Purdue hasn’t been held under 20 points in its last seven games against Iowa.

3. Iowa has rushed for 748 yards and allowed 748 rushing yards.

4. Purdue is coming off a bye week. Jeff Brohm-coached teams are 10-5 coming off bye weeks.

5. Only James Madison has allowed fewer yards per rush than Iowa’s 2.6.

6. Iowa’s single-season record for pass receptions is 82, shared by Kevin Kasper and Marvin McNutt. Purdue’s Charlie Jones has 72 with four games remaining.

8. Purdue is the last team to beat Tennessee, in last year’s Music City Bowl. It was 48-45 in overtime. Boilermaker quarterback Aidan O’Connell passed for 534 yards and five touchdowns.

9. O’Connell has passed for 657 yards and five touchdowns in two games against Iowa.

10. Redshirt freshman Devin Mockobee leads Purdue in rushing with 561 yards. He is from Boonville, Ind., which is named for either Ratliff Boon or his father, Jesse.

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11. Mockobee is a walk-on. O’Connell is a former walk-on. So is Jones.

12. Purdue freshman wide receiver Curtis Deville played at Iowa High School in Iowa, La.

13. Only Massachusetts (one) has fewer touchdown passes than Iowa’s three.

14. This year, Iowa’s Keegan Murray and Purdue’s Jaden Ivey were top-five NBA draft picks. No one from the Big Ten had been drafted as early since 2018.

15. Besides Jones and Tyrone Tracy from Iowa, Purdue has 23 other transfers from four-year schools.

16. The only missed field goal in the 13 attempts by opponents in Iowa’s games was a 57-yarder by Nevada.

17. Purdue’s School of Nuclear Engineering is home to Indiana's first and only nuclear reactor.

18. There is a West Lafayette, Ohio. It was once known as the Enamel Center of the World.

19. Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue, is a former Indiana governor. So are Mike Pence and Ratliff Boon. It’s unknown if any wild-eyed mob ever chanted “Hang Ratliff Boon!”

20. Iowa and Purdue both have black-and-gold for school colors. But their golds aren’t the same. Iowa’s is PMS 116 C. Purdue’s is PMS 7502 C.