- Barry Odom said tight end Kylan Fox and freshman defensive back Raderrion Daniels are expected to miss the season.
- Fox’s absence leaves the tight end room to George Burhenn, who missed Purdue’s final eight games last season.
- Daniels is a true freshman, so his loss costs Purdue special-teams and rotation depth rather than a starter.
- Purdue is +30000 to win the Big Ten, tied with four teams for the longest price on the board.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue tight end Kylan Fox and freshman defensive back Raderrion Daniels are both expected to miss the 2026 season after knee injuries in fall camp, coach Barry Odom said Monday. the news comes less than four weeks before the Boilermakers open against Indiana State.
Odom Stopped Short Of Calling It Season-Ending
“We’ve had two knee injuries, and guys will miss significant time,” Odom said after Monday’s practice, the fourth of Purdue’s fall camp. He named Fox and Daniels, then said that unless something changes, “they will both miss the season.”
That qualifier matters. Odom did not formally rule out either player, and Purdue has issued no injury release. What the coach said is that both are gone for the year unless something changes, and that is where the roster math starts.
Camp opened Thursday, Aug. 6, so Purdue lost two players inside its first four practices.
A Tight End Room Down To One Proven Target
Fox arrived from UCF as a junior and was expected to work alongside Burhenn. He is not a lost No. 1 target. Fox caught 19 passes for 159 yards and a touchdown across two seasons with the Knights, 16 of them last year for 137 yards and his first career score. That is a rotational line, and it should read as one.
The problem is what sits behind him. Burhenn, a junior, played four games in 2025 and caught nine passes for 94 yards before an injury ended his season. The tight end Purdue is now counting on has played more than four games in a season once, as a freshman in 2023.
Behind Burhenn are five freshmen and sophomores: Ar’Mari Towns, Jon Grimmett, Jackson Berryman, Luca Puccinelli and Cooper McCutchan. Fox has two years of eligibility left, so this is a delay rather than an ending for him. The 2026 depth chart absorbs it now, and it lands on Burhenn’s snap count before it lands anywhere in college football player props.
A True Freshman Out Of A Deep Secondary
Daniels lands differently. He is a 6-foot-1, 185-pound three-star signee from Memphis, Tenn., who recorded 106 tackles, 11 interceptions and 34 pass breakups in high school and has not taken a college snap. He keeps four years of eligibility.
Purdue carries more than 20 defensive backs, and the veterans in front of Daniels are largely intact, including senior Jaden Mangham, who started five of 13 games at Michigan last season.
A true freshman going down costs a staff coverage snaps on special teams and a body in the third and fourth wave, not a starter. On a team that went 2-10 overall and 0-9 in the Big Ten last season and gave up 56 points twice, the fourth wave plays.
What The Big Ten Board Says
Purdue sits at the floor of a Big Ten futures board where Ohio State is favored to win its first Big Ten title in five years. At +30000, the Boilermakers are tied with Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern and Rutgers for the longest price in the conference. That number pays 300-to-1 and implies roughly a third of a percentage point, which is another way of saying the market had Purdue priced for a hard year before camp opened.
Neither injury is the kind of loss that moves a season-long number, and neither should be. A rotational tight end and a true freshman are snap-count losses, and snap counts show up first in weekly college football props, not on a conference futures line.
What Happens Next
Purdue opens Sept. 4 against Indiana State, hosts Wake Forest on Sept. 12 and plays at UCLA on Sept. 19.
