Purdue's Next Coaching Move Should Be Interesting
October 19, 2016 at 3:54 p.m.
By Mark [email protected]
Firing head coach Darrell Hazell had to happen; it’d been a matter of time for more than a year. By all accounts, Hazell was a good man.
“College athletics can't have a better man than Darrell Hazell, and I would like to see more individuals with his virtues in Division I athletics," Purdue president Mitch Daniels said. "But while character is mandatory every day at Purdue, positive performance also must be there.”
A record of 9-33 isn’t positive performance anywhere.
So, next up is finding the next head football coach. There’s a lot of clamoring for Bobinski and his search committee to hire former LSU coach Les Miles. Others wonder if the remainder of Hazell’s contract, and the estimated $5 million left to pay on it, will prohibit that hire.
Still others argue Purdue can’t afford to not make a splash with its next hire.
The thing is, hiring any coach is a crapshoot. Purdue can hire Miles, but West Lafayette isn’t the same as Baton Rouge. The tradition, and the expectations that come with it, simply aren’t there. Frankly, Baton Rouge compares more favorably to South Bend in terms of expectations, and everybody around here knows it.
One other thing Boiler fans need to remember is things can, in fact, get worse. Take it from me and the school I pull for, the Kansas Jayhawks. Charlie Weis left the cupboard so bare, in the roster and financially, that KU had to schedule Rhode Island, arguably the worst team in the FCS, to win a game this year. And after a winless 2015, it wasn’t exactly a stellar performance by the Jayhawks.
But no one in their right mind will hire Weis for a big-time college head coaching position. It’s a good thing he doesn’t need the money.
Anyway, the rumor mill was cranked up long before the ax fell in West Lafayette. Other names discussed are Western Michigan’s P.J. Fleck; he’s reputed to be an excellent recruiter of high-level Mid-American Conference talent. But can that dogged determination translate to recruiting at a “Power Five” conference?
And will Purdue reach back into the MAC after Hazell?
The search committee will likely develop a profile of what they’re looking for in a coach, and hire the candidate that best fits that criteria. The trick is to separate wants from needs, and be realistic about the expectations of the program.
Is the realistic expectation to get in a position to compete for a national championship annually? Contend for the Big Ten crown? Play in a late-in-the-season bowl game every year?
People around these parts (and every other part outside of Kansas) have probably forgotten that the Jayhawks were in the national title hunt in late November as recently as a decade ago, and won the Orange Bowl. It only happened once, but man, what a run!
A season and a half later, the wheels fell off the Mark Mangino-coached machine and KU hasn’t been bowl eligible since.
It’s my belief that Purdue wants what fans of 90 percent of FBS schools want; to have a highly-competitive team that can’t be counted out on any given Saturday, plays in a good bowl game more often than not, and every once in a while rises up in the national picture. The other 10 percent or so expect to compete for the national title every year.
If the program continued to rise to perennial national-title contender, that’s the icing on the cake. But certainly that’s a long-term goal after a certain level of respectability is achieved.
In the short term, Bobinski and his committee need to get that next hire right. Otherwise, this conversation starts over in about three years.
Firing head coach Darrell Hazell had to happen; it’d been a matter of time for more than a year. By all accounts, Hazell was a good man.
“College athletics can't have a better man than Darrell Hazell, and I would like to see more individuals with his virtues in Division I athletics," Purdue president Mitch Daniels said. "But while character is mandatory every day at Purdue, positive performance also must be there.”
A record of 9-33 isn’t positive performance anywhere.
So, next up is finding the next head football coach. There’s a lot of clamoring for Bobinski and his search committee to hire former LSU coach Les Miles. Others wonder if the remainder of Hazell’s contract, and the estimated $5 million left to pay on it, will prohibit that hire.
Still others argue Purdue can’t afford to not make a splash with its next hire.
The thing is, hiring any coach is a crapshoot. Purdue can hire Miles, but West Lafayette isn’t the same as Baton Rouge. The tradition, and the expectations that come with it, simply aren’t there. Frankly, Baton Rouge compares more favorably to South Bend in terms of expectations, and everybody around here knows it.
One other thing Boiler fans need to remember is things can, in fact, get worse. Take it from me and the school I pull for, the Kansas Jayhawks. Charlie Weis left the cupboard so bare, in the roster and financially, that KU had to schedule Rhode Island, arguably the worst team in the FCS, to win a game this year. And after a winless 2015, it wasn’t exactly a stellar performance by the Jayhawks.
But no one in their right mind will hire Weis for a big-time college head coaching position. It’s a good thing he doesn’t need the money.
Anyway, the rumor mill was cranked up long before the ax fell in West Lafayette. Other names discussed are Western Michigan’s P.J. Fleck; he’s reputed to be an excellent recruiter of high-level Mid-American Conference talent. But can that dogged determination translate to recruiting at a “Power Five” conference?
And will Purdue reach back into the MAC after Hazell?
The search committee will likely develop a profile of what they’re looking for in a coach, and hire the candidate that best fits that criteria. The trick is to separate wants from needs, and be realistic about the expectations of the program.
Is the realistic expectation to get in a position to compete for a national championship annually? Contend for the Big Ten crown? Play in a late-in-the-season bowl game every year?
People around these parts (and every other part outside of Kansas) have probably forgotten that the Jayhawks were in the national title hunt in late November as recently as a decade ago, and won the Orange Bowl. It only happened once, but man, what a run!
A season and a half later, the wheels fell off the Mark Mangino-coached machine and KU hasn’t been bowl eligible since.
It’s my belief that Purdue wants what fans of 90 percent of FBS schools want; to have a highly-competitive team that can’t be counted out on any given Saturday, plays in a good bowl game more often than not, and every once in a while rises up in the national picture. The other 10 percent or so expect to compete for the national title every year.
If the program continued to rise to perennial national-title contender, that’s the icing on the cake. But certainly that’s a long-term goal after a certain level of respectability is achieved.
In the short term, Bobinski and his committee need to get that next hire right. Otherwise, this conversation starts over in about three years.
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