Purdue bolstered its 2019 recruiting class with the addition of three-star running back King Doerue on Wednesday night. The big-bodied back surprised many with his commitment, spurning the in-state schools to made a pledge to the Boilermakers despite not officially visiting campus as of yet. Nevertheless, Purdue has been relentless in its pursuit of Doerue, going from outside his Top 10 earlier this year to landing his commitment. The Boilermakers edged out Baylor, Texas Tech and several others and Jeff Brohm and his staff continue to flex their recruiting muscle with out of state prospects.

The Boilermakers have been looking for a second running back in the class to pair with three-star Da'Joun Hewitt and have focused on Doerue to fill that role for quite a while. After he scrapped an official visit to West Lafayette late last month, it looked like the Boilermakers might come up empty-handed. But he's now rescheduled that trip for Oct. 20 and clearly wants to be already in the fold by the time he sets foot on campus. Doerue is known for his power, but he also flashes nice speed on film and has shown the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and make plays.

From an off-field perspective, landing Doerue despite his lack of a visit and pulling him out of Texas when he was wanted by other in-state Big-12 teams shows how good the Purdue staff has been at building relationships with recruits.

This one probably hurts Texas Tech the most as Doerue lives right down the road from Lubbock and was even on campus to check out a game earlier this fall. For some reason the relationship between the two sides never really clicked and his decision wasn't exactly a shocker to Red Raiders fans. Baylor also really liked its chances with Doerue, especially after he canceled the trip to Purdue, but the Bears also got spurned for the Boilermakers. The good news for the Texas schools is that it's unlikely they see Doerun on the field at the next level. The same can't be said for Minnesota, which was recruiting Doerue hard and even hosted him for an official visit back in June. Now the Gophers will have to worry about stopping him on a yearly basis when the two teams face off in conference play.