Option 1: Keep Walters
As much as this may not be the better of the 2 options, I personally don’t think 2 years is enough time to give a coach a fair deal. He signed a 5 year contract. Now, with that being said, I do think that as year 3 progresses, you see definite improvement. IMHO, this improvement would have to include 3 or 4 wins, and being competitive at least in the first half against the OSU’s, PSU’s, Meat Chickens and Oregon’s. However, he has to hire both an OC and a DC and Purdue has to pony-up the cash for this. He should not call plays or defenses. He’s the manager. He’s a player’s coach and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as he demands accountability like Tiller did. If Joe didn’t like what you did, your ass got wood splinters. This entire coaching staff needs to create a system, an identity and a culture. None of which is currently present. At the present time, this is a poorly coached Indiana Class 2 football team. The Purdue BOD also has to look at the NIL and get with the times. You get what you pay for. This is 2025 and not 1925.
Option 2: New HC
What the AD Needs to understand is that you never let a new HC cut his teeth on your program. Let him cut his teeth elsewhere. Also, the AD needs to fully understand that Purdue is not a final coaching destination. It never was, nor will it ever be. You need to search for the up-and-comer who wants to settle at Texas, Miami, Clemson, Georgia or even ND. JB was the perfect example, not that Louisville is an ass-kicker. The other thing that has to happen is whomever that coach is, he’s got to bring the majority of his current staff with him. Joe Tiller was perfectly content at Wyoming. He was a fly fisherman who fished the rivers of Wyoming and loved it there. But when he took the job at Purdue, he brought the majority of the gunslingers with him.
However, with all this being said, ticket and donation revenue will dictate the future. Purdue has been here before. The last year of the Colletto and Hazell regimes were just as bad. But this feels worse because it’s happening now. The BIG is a lot tougher now. 6 wins and bowl eligibility is now a monumental task for Purdue and other similar programs. The AD also needs to look at the non-conference scheduling. If you want to play an ND, UNC, TCU, Vandy, etc. That’s fine. But you don’t have to do it every year. At this point in time, the MAC, WAC, C-USA, Mountain West and others provide plenty of competition. Break the contracts with the Power-5 teams if you have to. You can afford it.