Charlie Jones said his decision to transfer from Iowa to Purdue was easy.

The sixth-year senior wide receiver left the Hawkeyes in May and joined the Boilermakers to play out his final year of eligibility in West Lafayette, Indiana.

“It’s pretty simple, I came here for the offense,” Jones said in an August media availability at Purdue. “In the past couple years, they’ve shown that being a receiver in this kind of offense meant more opportunities.”

Jones, who hails from Deerfield, Illinois, had no Power Five offers out of high school. He started his college career at University at Buffalo in New York, playing two years with the Bulls. Then, he moved to Iowa City and walked on with the Hawkeyes.

The 6-foot wide receiver flourished at Iowa, becoming a two-time first-team All-Big Ten return specialist and the 2021 Rodgers-Dwight Big Ten Return Specialist of the Year.

But Jones wanted to be known as more than just a return specialist. So, he returned to Iowa after last season to get more reps as a wide receiver.

After spring camp, however, Jones realized Iowa wasn’t the best place to get NFL tape. He was listed as a second-team wide receiver behind senior Nico Ragaini and sophomore Keagan Johnson on the Hawkeyes’ 2022 spring depth chart.

“I went back, did spring out at Iowa, and I felt like the best thing for me was making a switch,” Jones said. “Just putting myself in an offense that’s going to showcase my abilities as a receiver, continue to establish myself as a returner, but really trying to make this year about proving what I can do in the receiver spot.”

Jones quickly rose to the No. 1 wide receiver spot on the Boilermakers’ depth chart. He has amassed 840 yards and nine touchdowns so far this season. The totals are good for sixth and fourth in the nation, respectively.

And Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras isn’t surprised by Jones’ success at Purdue.

“He’s a really good player,” Petras said this week while previewing the Hawkeyes’ game against Purdue on Saturday. “… I talk to him if not every week, every other week, so we keep up pretty well.”

In contrast, Jones had 323 yards and three touchdowns with Iowa in 2021. But Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz thinks Jones’ sudden uptick in performance is linked to his strides in spring practice with the Hawkeyes, not an offensive scheme change.

“I thought he was a much better at the end of spring practice as a receiver,” Ferentz said on Tuesday. “Upper echelon return guy. He’s been really good. Obviously, that was very evident going back to early 2020. But he’s really progressed as a receiver. Not saying he was a bad receiver then, but he’s a much better one, much better in April.

“We’ll never know what would have happened if he was here. We saw him make great improvement, I thought, this spring. We were really excited about that. Then he’s not here. There’s not much you can say about that.”

Purdue, however, has 357 pass attempts this season compared to Iowa’s 215. Quarterback Aidan O’Connell has thrown more than 40 passes in seven of the eight games he’s played in this year.

“They throw the ball a lot, like 50 times a game,” Iowa cornerback Riley Moss said of Jones and Purdue’s offense. “He’s a fast kid, and he can take you vertical pretty fast, so that’s a way that he fits in pretty well.”

Either way, Jones doesn’t regret his decision to move and follow Tyrone Tracy, another former Iowa wide receiver, to Purdue.

“It was awesome coming here and following Tyrone,” Jones said. “Back at Iowa, we were really good friends, and I was upset to see him go, but I was excited when he made that decision. When I ultimately made that decision, we were both excited that we’d be able to play with each other one more time.”

Tracy has 24 receptions for 188 receiving yards in 2022, as well as six rushing attempts for 47 yards.

While the departure of Jones and Tracy did thin Iowa’s wide receiving corps, strong safety Kaevon Merriweather said there’s no animosity between the Hawkeyes and their former teammates.

“I think if somebody’s not happy and they feel like they need to be somewhere else, I can respect that decision,” Merriweather said. “As a friend, as a brother, as a teammate, I wouldn’t want anybody to be where they don’t want to be, because that just brings their mood down, and they’re not going to be giving their all at all … if they’re happy where they’re at, I’m happy for them, and they’re having a lot of success over there.”

The Hawkeyes have had trouble with dynamic receivers from Purdue before. Former Boilermaker wide receiver David Bell terrorized the Hawkeye defense for three years, recording 37 catches for 558 yards and five touchdowns in three games. Bell’s efforts have helped the Boilermakers win four of their last five meetings against the Hawkeyes, including last season’s 24-7 win over then-No. 2 Iowa.

Bell now plays for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, and Jones has taken his place as the Boilermakers’ No. 1 receiver.

“[Jones is] playing well,” Ferentz said. “He’s playing in this system where they throw the ball a lot. They had a really good guy that graduated, got drafted. He has kind of filled that void, I guess. I don’t coach there, I don’t want to say he’s that guy. Seems to be the most prominent receiver right now.”

Iowa struggled to find depth in its wide receiver room in the first half of this season. Johnson, Ragaini, sophomore Diante Vines, and redshirt freshman Brody Brecht all suffered injuries in fall camp, leaving sophomore Arland Bruce as the Hawkeyes’ sole scholarship wide receiver. Walk-ons Alec Wick and Jack Johnson got ample time in at wideout during the Hawkeyes’ first two games of the year as Ragaini and company nursed their injuries.

Iowa struggled to pass the ball successfully early this season because of the ailments to the receivers. The Hawkeyes didn’t notch a receiving touchdown until the third game of the year. Iowa’s wideouts have slowly come back from injury — Ragaini and Brecht returned in Week 3 and Vines came back during Week 7.

Now, with the Hawkeye almost at full strength at receiver, Jones and Tracy will face their former team at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette on Saturday. Tracy left Iowa last December..

“I think it’s probably less of a big deal than you think,” Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm said of Jones and Tracy facing their former teammates. “… You want guys that want to be somewhere and want to make a difference, want an opportunity to showcase their skills. So, we will try to do that the best we can of course. I think both young men really represent themselves well. They’re high character young men that want to make a difference, and I think they’ll play extremely hard this game.”

Jones and Tracy frequently went up against the Hawkeye defense throughout practice. Jones and Moss, specifically, took multiple reps together in spring practice. Jones trained with the Hawkeyes for the last time on April 23 — the date of Iowa’s open spring practice.

While Jones and Tracy may have a good grasp of Iowa’s defensive scheme because of their time in the program, the Hawkeyes aren’t worried.

“He made me a lot better corner, and I think I made him a lot better receiver,” Moss said. “So, you know, I’m excited to see that type of growth that I’ve had and that he’s had over the season come together this weekend.”