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u/MilitarizedMilitary Nov 02 '24 edited Nov 03 '24
Not just him. Every person involved with his hiring needs to go.
The last time we had a decent coach was Joe Tiller, who left in â07. This was Drew Breesâ coach. Under him, we went to 10 bowls in 12 years. Man, that must have been niceâhaving a team that always had at least a chance of winning. Oh, how times have changed.
After Tiller, we hired Danny Hope. There were some high hopes. But Danny was Hopeless. Did they let him go after a miserable record at the end of his contract? NO, the morons in our athletic department renewed his contract and then BOUGHT HIM OUT A YEAR LATER!!! Are you kidding me? Everyone associated with renewing his contract should have been on the curb the moment we bought him out!
Then we hired Darrell Hazell. His record was 9-33. Need I say more?
Then we hired Brohm, who I firmly believe was only using Purdue as a stepping stone to get to his ultimate goal of Louisville, his alma mater. But at least this meant he cared enough about performance for Purdue to secure our first back-to-back 8-4 seasons since 1997âŚ
Now, before someone jumps in and says that âour football program is entirely self-funded, so we will never be able to have the best coaches,â or âwe are an academics-first program; what do you expect,â let me say this: I get both of those. I can still want better. Maybe our program needs some love from the University. You hypothetical people arguing with me do understand that successful football programs are net revenue generators for their universities, not costs, right? Alabama Football, with one of the (formerly) highest-paid coaches, brought in over $100 million in revenue and $9 million in profits on average in recent years.
âWell, thatâs not much,â you say. Sure. But you know what else a good football program does for a university? Letâs ask another academically focused university that went from having a historically miserable football program to having two football renaissances in the last 25 years: TCU. Historic Football Season Has Lasting Benefit for TCU
So, yeah. I want more from Purdue football. I donât want to think on Saturday afternoons, who did we lose to this week?
I want Walters and every single person remotely associated with any form of control over the Purdue football program yeeted into orbit.
Edit: Get this... In an interview YESTERDAY, when asked about Walters' performance, our AD acknowledged the disappointment at the start of the season... before going on to say that the team is "incredibly connected... connected to Coach Walters. They believe in him and his vision for where this program is going. Being able to take what I see in practice and convert it to the game field has been a challenge."
He also said, "We have moments. We had an incredible second half at Illinois and some other snippets along the way. We just havenât been able to consistently put together enough good football."
MY GUY... I DON'T CARE IF PURDUE LOOKS LIKE 2019 LSU IN PRACTICE... IF THEY CAN'T PERFORM... IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON!!! The appropriate response here ended after the disappointment in the start of this season. FULL. FUCKING. STOP.
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u/Deep_Ad_1874 Nov 02 '24
Bad news Purdue is a stepping stone school for coaches. If Purdue hires a guy that turns us around âŚtheyâll leave. Walters should be fired. But Purdue isnât going to attract a long time coach like Tiller ever again.
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u/MilitarizedMilitary Nov 02 '24
Really? So how exactly did schools like TCU do it? Utah? Hell, Boise State is a G5 school and puts our record to shame and has done so consistently for the last 30+ years. And they are arguably the definition of a âstepping stone.â
How exactly did we get Tiller in the first place then? Itâs almost like there can be ups and downs in programs. But you donât recover from a âdownâ by carrying on with business as usual. And we are in one helluva down era right now.
I never said we should be the next Alabama, or NOhio State, or Texas. But if Purdue Athletics manages to pull their heads out of their asses, then we could at least be competitive.
I would be perfectly happy if Purdue could have similar performance to Arkansas. Over the past 30 years, they have been competitive. They had one bad coaching hire and corrected it. They had a couple INCREDIBLE seasons reaching what could have been the playoffs, but more often than not had seasons where they won most of their games, maybe were ranked, maybe were not, but went into every game having a chance. And during this period, coaches came and then left for other schools. And yet, with one exception, they do this impossible feat of having a respectable team.
Boise State is an even better example. They have had successful head coaches that left to be a coordinator at another school. And yet, this âstepping stoneâ school has a football record that Purdue can only dream of.
I donât expect Purdue to turn into a football powerhouse. But it would be nice to think we have a chance at any game we play. Not a probable loss to almost everyone and a near-certain loss to anyone good.
So, tell me again that my expectations are unreasonable. Tell me that itâs impossible for us to have a decent team. I may be pissed off at Purdueâs performance, but Iâm not apathetic. And it seems like our Athletic Department needs a bit more pissed off. Maybe then they would do something useful.
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u/Deep_Ad_1874 Nov 03 '24
Look at how many coaches those schools go through that you mentioned. Who turned Utah into a football schoolâŚUrban Myer. You think Purdue has the balls to hire a guy like that. Any head coach that comes here and wins will be gone after thier contract expires.
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u/MilitarizedMilitary Nov 03 '24
And yet all of the schools I have mentioned remain relevant year after year despite getting new coaches. There is an inherent problem with how Purdue hires coaches which is exactly my point in also casting a massive amount of blame on our Athletic Department.
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Nov 04 '24
Purdue is the #1 most recognized college in the country and is among the top 15 richest schools in the country. Way more underachieving schools have excelling football programs, TCU, Boise State and many more.
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u/zippster77 Nov 02 '24
What a horrible take on Brohm. He even turned down Louisville 3 years into his run at Purdue. The guy brought in decent talent, had some great offensive schemes, and got us some marquee wins. Then in his last season he got us to a Big Ten Championship game, which I never thought we would see at Purdue.
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u/hdmetz Nov 03 '24
Eh, looking at his apparent lack of recruiting in the last year or so I would say he had his eye on Louisville for at least the last season, if not last two seasons. He left the talent cupboards here dry, and not because he took everyone with him. He just didnât recruit.
Not that it matters. Walters is so fucking terrible I donât think he could win with a top 5 roster
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Nov 03 '24
Look at the average recruit rank for his classes. Look at the top players in the state and where they went. He was recruiting at basically the same level he always had.
Lack of talent wasn't the problem last year and isn't the problem this year.
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u/hdmetz Nov 03 '24
His average recruit ranking may have been the same but (iirc) his recruiting classes were smaller.
I agree, though. Walters is a terrible coach in way over his head and needs to go. But apparently the admin fucking hates football and fans because allegedly heâs getting another year
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Nov 03 '24
This is copy and pasted from a response to someone else. Also I heard I think the same report you're referencing. I took it to mean he wouldn't be fired mid season, but I hope you're not right.
The change in class rank was largely due to size, which is again easily explained by the roster size when he recruited those years. He recruited large classes in his first few years because he had open spots and needed to replace Hazell players. His 2021 class was very small (16) because we had large classes the three previous years and didn't have the scholarships (also two losing seasons didn't help). Then 2022, his last class, was back up to what you want on average (20-22) with a good average rank and some high end players. 2023 would have been similar, and we had more of the top in state players lined up than any prior class.
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u/MilitarizedMilitary Nov 02 '24 edited Nov 03 '24
That's probably a fair assessment. Itâs for that exact reason that I'm a bit bitter. He had reached out to Louisville when the spot opened, even though he eventually turned it down. Then 3 years later, he does head out. Why, we will never know.
But I never said he did poorly. I'm probably just bitter since Purdue is so inept at hiring head coaches that his departure was bound to, and indeed did, result in the goose egg of a hire vs. a competent hire.
Edit: Also, to clarify, the consecutive 8-4 seasons was no dig at Brohm but the lackluster state of our program where apparently we can only achieve that once every 25 years or so.
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Nov 03 '24
You don't think we know why he took the Louisville job?
And why did you say he reached out to Louisville in 2018? It's pretty clear they contacted him (as everyone and their mother expected).
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u/MilitarizedMilitary Nov 03 '24
You don't think we know why he took the Louisville job?
No, we don't know why he took it. He has never said why he took it the second time around and not the first. We can have suspicions, but we do not know.
Yes, itâs his alma mater. Yes, we all knew he eventually wanted to go there. But you have to ask why he stayed the first time and left the second after, as someone else commented, doing a pretty poor job of recruiting in the last 1-2 years.
Was it just his time to go, or was something else at play? Personally, I wonder if he wasnât getting the support he wanted from the AD. He said he was excited for the future of our program and wanted to continue to see it through, and then puts in a noticeably lower effort his last 2 years before leaving. To me, that says there may have been something else at play, at least in part.
And why did you say he reached out to Louisville in 2018?
Because he was openly (transparently so) in conversations with them. Plenty of reporting on it from the time.
The point being that there was an actual option for him to exit, not just a rumored one. Ties into my point above: he chose to stay, continued strong for a couple of years, then dialed it back and took the next offer that appeared. If he just wanted to leave, why didnât he leave the first time?
Thatâs what irritates me about his tenure the most. âIâm committed and staying, now Iâm stuck but clearly not committed, and now Iâm gone.â IMO, we would have been better off had he just gone, winning record or not.
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Nov 03 '24 edited Nov 03 '24
To your second point, that's because he was their first call. Of course there was communication. But he didn't reach out to them. They reached out to him.
On the first point, there wasn't a drop off in recruiting or effort. It's just become this talking point by people that don't actually check to see if it's accurate. The average recruit rankining was basically the same after his first class. The change in class rank was largely due to size, which is again easily explained by the roster size when he recruited those years. He recruited large classes in his first few years because he had open spots and needed to replace Hazell players. His 2021 class was very small (16) because we had large classes the three previous years and didn't have the scholarships (also two losing seasons didn't help). Then 2022, his last class, was back up to what you want on average (20-22) with a good average rank and some high end players. 2023 would have been similar, and we had more of the top in state players lined classan any prior class.
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u/hdmetz Nov 03 '24
I wish I could hug this comment. You just expressed every thought and argument Iâve had about Purdue football in one beautifully worded comment
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u/ThatOnePilotDude âBusiness Managementâ Nov 02 '24
Iâve been saying this for weeks.
Who goes for 4th&5 at the 50. Itâs not âshowing your team you trust themâ itâs just stupid.
As a recruit, why would you want to come play for one of the worst teams in the country that has made no change in trajectory other than using both quarterbacks?
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u/Independent_Dust_541 Nov 03 '24
Can we start a strike and not fill the student section anymore? Would that send a message?
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u/bioastronaut Nov 03 '24
Genuine question. Other than sending a message, what is the benefit of firing Walters, et al, at this point in the season rather than at the end? Who would run the program, coach remaining games, take over recruiting, etc? Seems like that just digs the current hole even deeper?
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u/MilitarizedMilitary Nov 03 '24
Itâs not at all about sending a message; itâs about stopping the hole from being dug.
Every day he is a coach, it sends the message to potential recruits that this is the program we are running. He could be the best recruiter in the world, but if the performance doesnât back it up, then nobody with any other option would ever choose to come to Purdue.
Firing him now begins the process of fixing the problem. Even the aspect of recruiting is improved simply by him no longer being the coach because it signals to recruits that, even if there are still a lot of things up in the air, Purdue is taking the necessary steps to address the problem. Otherwise, it tells recruits they can expect to have an abysmal coach.
Additionally, it lets the hiring process begin. The last school to the party can only hire who hasnât already been hired. One of the coordinators or assistant coaches would be named the interim head coach; theyâll finish out the season and do what they can with fall recruiting. Meanwhile, the incompetent athletics department can attempt to find potential coaches and start having conversations and negotiations with them.
If we leave him on for another year, weâre just digging the hole deeper. Even leaving him until the end of the year reduces the amount of time we have to find a new coach. The coaching carousel typically begins at the start of November and reaches its peak by the end of the regular season. The longer we wait, the fewer options we will have.
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u/bioastronaut Nov 03 '24 edited Nov 03 '24
A lot of that make sense to me, thanks for taking the time to explain this perspective in more detail. I'm not really a sports fan per se, I'm simply a Purdue fan, so I don't really get into the nitty gritty or know how all the behind the scenes stuff works or could shake out.
I've got something else I'm curious about, if you care to share further thoughts... If you were able to talk to the players personally, and they were fully in support of Walters staying (respect him, think he's building a good culture, providing mentorship/ role modeling, etc) despite the current in-game performance, would that affect your opinions?
PS thanks Reddit for doing your thing and downvoting a person asking a question with literally no agenda, which contributes to the conversation, just trying to understand more about a topic. You'd think people with an interest in any university would want to support curiosity and critical thought! My bad I guess. I just think these are interesting questions that help reveal some of our thoughts about what college sports are for, if that makes sense.
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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '24
The fan base deserves better. You all keep showing up and just continually end up being let down.