The drought is over! Purdue football wins first Big Ten game since 2023, seriously!

Purdue football took a giant step away from futility as coach Barry Odom and his Boilermakers netted their first Big Ten win.

The 24-17 win over Illinois on Saturday snapped a pair of losing streaks across two coaching tenures:

• 19 games in Big Ten play: last win was 35-31 over Indiana on Nov. 25, 2023.
• 23 games against Power Four opponents (and Notre Dame): last win was 35-31 over Indiana on Nov. 25, 2023.

That was 1,043 days ago.

Rewind: How Purdue beat Illinois for needed Big Ten victory

The last year of the Ryan Walters era was 2024, when the Boilers went 1-11, and Kevin Kane was the defensive coordinator then, too. Their lone victory was 49-0 over Indiana State. Odom's first year saw a slight improvement, beating an FBS opponent in Ball State, 31-0, and a 34-17 win over Southern Illinois.

This win though, against an Illinois program that regularly makes bowl games under Bret Bielema, is significant. Now the Boilermakers have proof of talent and concept. The offense has been there, so never mind that Illinois had fired its defensive coordinator leading up to the game.

Could it be a launching point for the 2026 Boilers? Next up is 4-1 Minnesota, then Walters returns to West Lafayette as Washington's DC, then a Halloween trip to Penn State before hosting Maryland. The final three games seem more difficult against Wisconsin, at Iowa and Indiana.

Nathan Baird and Sam King have the best Purdue sports coverage, and sign up for IndyStar's Boilermakers newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: The drought is over! Purdue football wins first Big Ten game since 2023, seriously!