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We'll start off by saying that a lot of what we've heard about Bobinski runs counter to some of the things written in the Atlanta media this week, much of which seemed inordinately personal, you'd have to admit, and probably in large part the product of what didn't seem on the surface like the best relationship between football coach and A.D.
We've covered enough coaches to know that coaches protect their interests in always wanting more for their program and athletic directors often only have so much to work with. Sometimes there's natural conflict in that - especially when older, gruffer coaches are involved - and every description we've gotten of the inner workings of Georgia Tech suggest money is a real issue there, an issue made even more acute by buyout obligations to Paul Hewitt and monies coming due on the stadium renovation that preceded Bobinski at Tech.
Also, it bears mentioning that a good deal of change took place at Georgia Tech in the past three years and you know how change sometimes goes over with people.
Anyway, from everything we've heard about Bobinski the past few days, there are a couple common denominators.
• Good guy: People genuinely like him. You've kind of seen that with the various comments made by national media since his hiring.
• Support: He'll support coaches as he can and have their backs, so to speak. This mostly comes from the basketball end of things, but it wouldn't stand to reason to think he'd be any different with other sports.
• Pragmatist: He'll do what he thinks makes the most sense in a given situation. And he's known to be very intelligent.
• Hands off: He is not reputed to be a micro-manager and may not be omnipresent necessarily, but his past suggests he'll be accessible to his coaches.
(We might also add that the fact Bobinski did an extended radio "exit interview" with an Atlanta station yesterday seemed like a pretty stand-up thing to do when he could have just bolted town in a cloud of less-than-ideal publicity.)
As for the most urgent matters on Bobinski's plate, we can tell you that if he does face the prospect of a football search - he is not thought to be someone eager to make moves in-season, by the way - it might be relevant to note that Bobinski has extensive Notre Dame connections, which could put some Irish-tied coaches on his radar.
And it does also bear mentioning that the DHR International firm that Bobinski worked with in hiring Josh Pastner as men's basketball coach at Tech is the same firm that helped facilitate his hiring at Purdue.
(There's obviously been a certain underwhelming response to the Pastner hire, but we've also been told there might have been some desire on the university's part to hire a coach with a recognizable name. Pastner has that.)
The way that game is played, we'd think that the firm would again be involved in a coaching search, if one is in the offing any time soon, and that would naturally put DHR's sphere of influence into play.
We are getting way ahead of ourselves on that front, but FYI anyway.
We would expect that Bobinski will be situated in West Lafayette before the end of August and will be on the job totally by the start of the football season. There's expected to be some overlap with outgoing Morgan Burke, but probably not a long one. Burke is expected to remain with the university through the end of his contract, perhaps in a teaching role in Krannert. (staff)
Purdue will get one of those visits, preferably the first one if it gets its wish.
It would appear as of now that may not have an official visitor in until Xavier Tillman visits on the weekend of Aug. 26.
Guard Nate Pierre-Louis said in July he'd visit on the weekend of Aug. 19, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. Not sure Purdue's going to bring in any other guards until Nojel Eastern's situation is clear. We checked on Eastern's visit plans and people around him don't know. Wouldn't expect a lot of good info there.
As for Jaren Jackson, as we first told you last week, his first recruiting act of August was to unofficially visit Purdue. Michigan State just had him on campus, too, per Jeff Borzello at ESPN.
Funny, because at the end of July Jackson said he wouldn't take anymore unofficial visits, then promptly took two. We'll see what he does about officials.
Evan Battey has no visit plans made yet.
Center Chris Sodom has said he'll visit Purdue in September. No word yet on Jacob Epperson's visit plans, if he has any. One cause-and-effect situation from Malik Williams' commitment to Louisville might be that it keeps the Cardinals away from Epperson now. His father, Ken, is from the city and UL has been sniffing around the Aussie center. Now, maybe they back away. (BN)
• The Boilermakers are going to need to play freshmen at wide receiver next season. There's just no way around it, not with all they lose at the position.
Purdue isn't done recruiting receivers by any means - Darrell Hazell has said they may recruit as many as four - but in C.J. Hayes and Brevin Harris, it got a pair of guys who at the very least should be physically equipped.
Hayes is physically mature and a legitimate 6-foot-2, reminiscent physically of DeAngelo Yancey when he first showed up. Brevin Harris is 6-5, which obviously can't be taught.
It would seem like a good start, relatively speaking.
Once those two guys were in place, Purdue needed some speed to counterbalance things and that's where LaPerion Perry came in.
Again, Purdue gets wiped out at wide receiver, with starters Yancey, Domonique Young and Cameron Posey and reserve Bilal Marshall departing.
It would like four at the position, from what we've heard.
It continues to recruit high school receivers but it would not be surprising to see it round out the group with a junior college player to add some experience and physical maturity to the mix and stagger the group eligibility-wise, though Purdue's probably not looking too far down the road on such things.
• Purdue's obviously going to have some challenges in recruiting this year, with there being the prevalent hot-seat questions, on top of the fact that this is a largely new staff being asked to hit the ground running in an urgent situation.
But the early results have been fairly positive, relative to past classes. This will be the most commitments Purdue has taken into September in some time, if ever, and at this time a year ago, multiple commitments had already come and gone. Not so, this year, for whatever that's worth. That being said, it is a marathon and not a sprint; the name of the game is finishing with the best players, not filling up fastest.
Purdue's taken some guys one would think a Big Ten school could get whenever, but it's also landed a good number of its A-list guys who had some other options.
That being said, no one knows the challenges of retaining commitments more than Purdue, which has lost 15 of them over the past three classes. That's the nature of the game nowadays, but a game that's been inordinately unkind to Purdue.
• Purdue obviously hasn't been averse to trading size for speed at cornerback, a position where it needs its next generation to emerge now, then complement it with some fresh blood in coming classes, especially if they are going to run a more nickel- and dime-heavy defense philosophically.
Purdue has now taken commitments from two small corners in Mitch West, who's listed at 5-10 but probably closer to 5-9, and now the 5-7 Marcus Jones this past weekend.
It must really like both players, because there were 5-11/6-foot-type corners in Davionn Johnson and Darrick Forrest at the program's elite camp in June who stood out on that day but were never offered. Both could end up in the Big Ten someplace if we had to guess, provided everything beyond physical ability is in order for both players.
Anyway, Purdue obviously needs to become more physical and improve its tackling on defense long-term and bigger corners are coveted more than ever nowadays for a reason. Purdue has gone the other way with its first two corner commitments.
• Purdue needs a tight end. It didn't sign one last year, so it has to this year one would think. That being said, it does have at least two very promising young ones in the program currently in Cole Herdman and Brycen Hopkins, a sophomore and redshirt freshman, respectively, so the situation is far from a desperate one.
• Purdue has two physically well-developed offensive linemen committed with 300-pounders Jylton Tusha and Rob Hudson but at that position "big" and "ready" are two entirely different things. Purdue loses its best two offensive linemen next season and a third valuable senior and needs young guys or newcomers to step right in next season.
Translation: Purdue will be recruiting junior college offensive tackles this winter for the third year in a row.
Well, Purdue doesn't have a safety yet and Virginia's Elijah Conner says he's officially visiting for the Eastern Kentucky weekend in a few weeks. This staff doesn't do many in-season official visits, so the fact they're bringing him in early suggests they want to get him wrapped up. They should, you'd think. Conner's next-best offer is Kent State. He does have a written scholarship offer from Purdue so we know that one is a legitimate target.
Also, Purdue is No. 1 for Georgia's Drew Tejchman, another safety. He visited in June, but hasn't committed yet. Another case where Purdue is his best offer and he has said he wants to commit early.
Purdue also started recruiting the junior college ranked earlier this year and you never know when that might yield an earlier commitment. JUCO recruiting normally doesn't hit its peak until winter when people start scrambling after their needs come to light. But Purdue's gotten out in front of it this year, it seems like. (BN)
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