With spring practices now wrapped up around the country, HuskerOnline.com will take a look at where each of Nebraska’s 12 opponents in 2019 currently stands coming out of spring ball and heading into the summer.

Today we look at the Purdue Boilermakers coming out of the spring, as they've gone to a bowl game two straight seasons under Jeff Brohm.

We caught up with GoldandBlack.com's Tom Dienhart, formerly of the Big Ten Network to get his take on Purdue coming out of the spring.

Related: South Alabama | Colorado | Northern Illinois | Illinois | Ohio State | Northwestern | Minnesota | Indiana

The optimism remains very high in West Laffeyete, after qualifying for a bowl game two straight seasons under Brohm.

In 2018 Purdue owned victories over Ohio State, Iowa, Nebraska, Boston College, Illinois, and Indiana, and easily could've been more of an 8 to 9 win type team.

However, when you consider the situation Brohm inhered, nobody could've expected them to go 13-13 and qualifying for two bowl games in his first two seasons.

They will once again play a very difficult schedule, with a road game at Nevada to start, then home games against Vanderbilt, TCU and Minnesota. They did draw favorable crossover games though, as Purdue plays at Penn State and they get Maryland and Indiana at home.

Purdue has one of the smallest senior classes in the Big Ten, as they have about 10 to 12 total on the roster according to Dienhart.

They will return four starters on offense in wide receivers Rondale Moore and Jared Sparks, left tackle Grant Hermanns and right tackle Matt McCann.

Quarterback Elijah Sindelar is back as well, as he saw some action last season before David Blough took over once his knee started to give him problems. Sindelar was awarded a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA, so he could potentially be the starter in both 2019 and 2020. He did tweak his knee again though this spring, so his durability is something to watch. If he gets hurt, redshirt freshman Jack Plummer is their back-up.

Replacing the interior of the offensive line is another big question.

Defensively, they bring back nine starters, including defensive tackles Lorenzo Neal, Anthony Watts and Giovanni Reviere, defensive ends Derrick Barnes and Kai Higgins, linebackers Markus Bailey and Cornel Jones and defensive backs Kenneth Major and Navon Mosley.

Probably the biggest thing Purdue needs to address on defense is finding a better pass rush, as they were one of the worst teams at getting to the quarterback in the Big Ten a year ago. In general, they need to find more playmakers on defense according to Dienhart.

Rondale Moore had one of the best freshman years of any player in the country. Moore had 1,258 yards receiving on 114 catches for 12 touchdowns, to go along with 21 carries on the ground for 213 yards and two touchdowns.

The question now is how can they find ways to get Moore the ball in different ways in 2019?

Look for special teams to be an area where they try to feature Moore in 2019.

There's also a chance Moore's receiving numbers aren't as high in 2019, simply because Purdue added some really good receivers in their recruiting class, including the No. 1 player in Indiana David Bell. The Indianapolis native is a projected Day 1 starter.

Senior tight end Brycen Hopkins (the son of Brad Hopkins) is expected to have a big year too. Many think he's a top three round NFL draft pick at tight end.

This is a big question for Purdue going into 2019, as they have to replace their entire interior. They also only have two seniors on their entire offensive line, with one of them being a converted defensive tackle.

Everything starts up front, and they can't block and protect Sindelar, their offense is going to struggle this year.

Their projected starting center Viktor Beach also missed all of spring ball, so there are some questions about what's going to be able to give as well. If he can't go, Purdue would probably turn to a walk-on center.

You could go with either linebacker Markus Bailey here as well, but defensive tackle Lorenzo Neal may be the best overall player.

He's the son of former San Diego Chargers fullback Lorenzo Neal Sr. On some of the early 2020 NFL draft boards, Neal is listed as a first-round pick.

Neal is coming off a knee injury from Week 13 against Indiana. Both he and Bailey are considered NFL draft picks on the Boilermakers defense in 2019.

True freshman George Karlaftis is also coming in and expected to start Day 1 at defensive end. They think he'll be their next great pass rusher.

The redshirt freshman safety has an impressive 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame. He's a guy the Boilermakers staff is very high on coming out of the spring.

Dienhart: "I think these programs are kind of similar. The offenses are ahead of the defense. By the time they meet, it's going to come down to who's defense is developed at that stage of the season. It's been a fun series as you know. The home team has lost the last two games. I think it's going to come down to a great quarterback battle between (Adrian) Martinez and Sindelar. You've got two good offenses with playmakers at receiver. I think again it will come down to the defense and which defense is developed by that point. That's a game that could really play a big role in deciding the Big Ten West."

Dienhart: "It's a 7-5 team. Big Ten-wise they are 5-4 to 4-5 team. They have a tough non-conference schedule. I think they are the only Big Ten school that plays two Power Five games, along with a road game at Nevada. They have to get two out of those first three. They started 0-3 last year, and that just killed them. That Nevada game to open on a Friday is a tricky one, because they are supposed to win, but if they lose it's a bad loss. Then they have to play TCU and Vanderbilt."