WEST LAFAYETTE − Purdue football, home of the Cradle of Quarterbacks.
The Boilermakers program had an identity.
Or at least a nice little marketable moniker and evidence to support it.
Purdue’s greatest teams were highlighted by offensive innovation, including ones by the coach Ryan Walters succeeded.
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When Jeff Brohm left for Louisville, a move that was inevitable even though Purdue was able to delay that transition before the timing just became too perfect, Mike Bobinski and Purdue’s athletic department went away from what it is.
Or more accurately, what it was.
With Walters’ hire, Purdue strayed away from its identity, choosing an up-and-comer who made his name as a defensive coordinator, making Walters Purdue’s first football head coaching hire with no previous head coaching experience since Leon Burtnett was promoted from the Boilermakers defensive coordinator to head coach following the 1981 season.
Burtnett had one good season. Even won a Big Ten Coach of the Year. But it was an otherwise unsuccessful run before he resigned in 1986.
Certain things just fit.
Wisconsin and running the football. Ohio State and marquee receivers. Iowa and elite special teams. Michigan and defense.
Purdue and passing.
When Walters added Graham Harrell as the offensive coordinator and fans were promised an air raid offense, it seemed like even with a head coach who brought a defensive background that things wouldn’t stray from Boilermakers football as we know it.
Sixteen games later, Harrell was fired.
And now, so is the head coach, just two seasons in to a five-year contract.
The decision to hire Walters failed so bad that Purdue paid him more than $9 million not to coach its football team.
And now the Boilermakers are in the same boat as they were in December 2022.
Purdue can’t afford to be wrong for the second time in two years.
The wrong hire sets Purdue’s program back even more. The right hire, though, can spring the program forward. See Indiana (as much as that pains Boilermaker fans).
The right hire, for Purdue, will always be a coach with a history of offensive success.
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.
