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As we've reported, Purdue has engaged NCAA executive and former West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck as a prospective candidate. Not sure we want to go so far as to use the word "target," but that probably wouldn't be out of bounds.
Is Luck interested? We have no way of knowing, but will point out that if he was ready and willing, there's a good chance that this process would be over by now. We're speculating there.
Here's what we know about Luck: He left West Virginia, his alma mater, for the NCAA after - but not because of - the Mountaineers took the short end of the stick in the conference realignment shuffle post-Big East and had to choose between the Big 12 and American Athletic Conference. Luck pursued the Texas A.D. job - maybe the best A.D. job in college sports - but that went to Steve Patterson.
By reputation, Luck is an extremely ambitious individual who has made moves in the past based largely on upward mobility. When he ran NFL Europe, he was to be groomed as a potential successor to then-NFL commish Paul Tagliabue, but he left that post in part so that his kids would grow up in the U.S. (That worked out OK.)
Whether Luck took the NCAA job hoping to succeed Mark Emmert one day, we don't know, but that job has historically gone to university presidents, so it's conceivable his ceiling in Indianapolis has been met, though you never know, we suppose. But Luck has also been known to have an eye on conference commissioner posts in the past, as well. That might be a potential next move, if there are moves to be made.
If Luck wants to be an athletic director again, Purdue would be an opportunity to do so, with proximity to Andrew being a plus, one would think. Oliver Luck is known to have business interests in his son's career on top of the simple fact that dads like to watch their kids play, even if that kid is richer than Caesar right now.
But if there would be any angle where Purdue would be viewed as a step toward something bigger, we don't know what something bigger would be aside from maybe a Big Ten connection that could conceivably matter should he aspire to try to get in on what will be a free-for-all to succeed Jim Delany one day in one of the biggest jobs in all of sports in the U.S.
We're getting way ahead of ourselves there, but food for thought, at least.
We can't say for certain that Luck has an offer - search committee chair Mike Berghoff said yesterday no offers have been made - but such is always largely semantics with searches like this. Technically, Matt Painter was never officially offered the Missouri job.
Anyway, that's what we know about Luck.
San Francisco 49ers vice president of football affairs Keena Turner is also in the mix.
The former Purdue star does have a résumé that makes some sense. Obviously he's a "football guy," so to speak, with name recognition at Purdue, but also in his role with the Niners, he's been heavily involved in the franchise's alumni relations, outreach and other such things that are part of the job description of any college athletic director.
Turner previously held positions with the franchise that involved him directly in football decisions, as well as public relations and even television work.
The Chicago native is well respected among his contemporaries from Purdue and young enough at 57 where some measure of longevity could be reasonably expected.
Purdue's probably not going to hire another 25-year A.D. this time around, but would undoubtedly like someone who's going to stick around.
As for other possibilities, we've told you about talks with former Texas A&M, South Carolina, TCU and Miami (Ohio) athletic director Eric Hyman.
The well-traveled and highly decorated Hyman is 65 and currently out of the game after stepping down at A&M last year. His track record with football kind of speaks for itself, having hired Gary Patterson, Steve Spurrier and Kevin Sumlin at TCU, USC and A&M, respectively.
But given his age, we don't know if he's candidate or consultant. More likely a candidate, but obviously that would project to be a short-term hire.
Ohio A.D. and Purdue legacy Jim Schaus and Xavier athletic director Greg Christopher obviously have long been relevant names in this process due to their connections and presumed openness toward the job.
We have no good information on either's candidacy - if they are candidates - at this point, but they've almost certainly been spoken to. Berghoff said yesterday that probably two-dozen-plus people have been talked to, at least to some extent, about the job. "Talked to," "interviewed" and "considered" are all different things though.
We do not expect Northern Illinois' Sean Frazier, whose name we've mentioned before because of search-firm dot-connecting, to be a candidate. (staff)
We think that Purdue will have Jack Owens (who last week flew from Atlanta to L.A. then back to Orlando in the span of less than five days) stationed in Vegas the whole period, Greg Gary in Orlando at AAU Nationals and Brandon Brantley in Fort Wayne for the event up there.
Painter will jump between all three.
Painter will get to see 2018 targets Robert Phinisee and Robby Carmody in Las Vegas, but will also have to hit his 2017 bases again in Orlando (Malik Williams, Kyle Young, Chris Sodom, Savion Flagg, Maxwell Evans, etc.) and Fort Wayne (Jaren Jackson, Xavier Tillman), among others. (BN)
Those are decisions head coaches get paid a lot of money to make.
But we'll tell you this: Chris Sodom is going to be a priority, for a few reasons.
1. He's maybe the only true center on Purdue's board right now. All the others are sort of combo 4 men.
2. Purdue doesn't have a shot-blocker long-term and Sodom may be one of the best in the country in his class right now.
Purdue's going to have a chance with the 7-foot-3, 220-pound Nigerian. Its pitch is a compelling one to any big man right now and you're seeing that in how they're responding to it.
TCU and Texas A&M have been in there longer with Sodom, but though he goes to high school in Texas, he has only resided down there since 2015. He was in Atlanta prior, after coming to the U.S. So proximity to any particular state or region may not matter all that much.
Kansas is involved, but we don't know if they've offered or not. Don't be surprised if they, and others, do.
Sodom is expected to officially visit Purdue the weekend of Sept. 16.
One potential concern for Purdue in compiling this frontcourt class might be in that it should be careful to add offensive skill to that mix. Sodom is thought to be extremely raw offensively. Theo John is a limited offensive player, and Xavier Tillman is a productive offensive player but not a particularly skilled one from shooting, dribbling and passing perspectives.
If Jaren Jackson or Malik Williams come, then those are game-changing offensive talents, but this is also where Evan Battey is really interesting.
He's big and physical enough to play center or as a "jumbo" power forward, but mobile enough to hang on D and drive against smaller forwards. He's a very good three-point shooter for his size and as good a passer and ball-handler as any big man Purdue is recruiting right now.
Because of that balance, he's a player Purdue can take in conjunction with virtually any other player it's recruiting, he and Sodom almost being the two one-of-a-kinds on the Boilermakers' recruiting board, in our assessment.
More: Chris Sodom update (BN)
Well, here's a look.
• Nojel Eastern: Purdue looks to be in rock-solid shape here, maybe the leader. He's communicated no plans for visits or no set timeframe for a decision - and nothing, really - but Purdue is in a nice position with the Chicago combo guard. We don't know if Michigan State's still going to be there in the end for him, and while Ohio State and Xavier and maybe Illinois have also been after him, we don't know what would move him off Purdue at this point. But things can change quickly on any of these guys.
This is a position where Purdue may only take one, so if Purdue is really bringing in Nate Pierre Louis the weekend of Aug. 19 right after returning from Spain, then things might get sticky there if that goes well and Eastern hasn't visited yet.
Because of the Spain trip, Purdue will only have three potential official visit weekends in August: 5-7, 19-21 and 26-28. That's assuming they wouldn't bring recruits who haven't started school yet in for mid-week visits. Not sure it would come to that this early, but there wouldn't be a whole lot of downside to it either. August on a college campus is still August no matter whether it's a weekend or weekday.
• Kyle Young: He's the guy in this class most likely to dive right into recruiting because he seems to want it all over with. Purdue would love to get him in ASAP, but he might have some personal obligations on the weekend of Aug. 5 that might prevent him from taking any visits that weekend.
We think that if he can say no to Ohio State - and we have no sense of a tremendously strong pull there - then Purdue is in very good shape with him pre-visits. Again, pre-visits. That's important.
Here's some new scraps of video on Young.
• Xavier Tillman: We expect Tillman to make an official visit on the weekend of Aug. 26 and possibly an unofficial visit earlier than that. Unless Michigan State decides it's going to push hard for Tillman, we'd expect this to come down to Purdue and Marquette.
• Theo John: The Minnesota forward already officially visited in June and could presumably commit somewhere at any time. He cut his list to six, and he's probably just being polite to Minnesota by listing them. He's said he may want to take another visit or two, but doesn't seem certain he will. He's visited Purdue and Oklahoma. Cal and Illinois (if they're not full) would likely be considerations for visits, too, but John enjoyed his visit to Purdue and seems convinced Purdue will get him the ball and make him a better offensive player.
We'd expect Jaren Jackson and Malik Williams to be long, hard roads timeline-wise.
Don't be surprised if Jackson goes into the spring, though this summer hasn't been the circus around him we figured it might be. There's no indication of the Kentuckys and Carolinas and Dukes sniffing around. Figured they might. The kid's now a five-star prospect (FWIW) in a class he's a year younger than.
Malik Williams has obviously been talked off his long-held plan to commit on his late-August birthday. He says he'll now announce a list that day, then take visits. Purdue will make that final list, but then probably have to weather the visit process with him. Louisville has pushed hard and Michigan State probably will too, but Purdue does have a lot of its side there, too. (BN)
FYI. (BN)
We're told that something could happen before next June, which does indicate that the whole process may not be played out, which is a positive for Purdue, which could not possibly be in a better early position with Carmody, short of him being committed.
Something to make note of with Carmody: He has enjoyed recruiting, not in the sense that he's been an attention-hound about, but in terms of being honored and whatnot by it. Not sure how to best put that, but the point is he does seem like he'd like to soak it in some more, not in a narcissistic kind of way.
But again, Purdue is in tremendous shape here and it would take an awful lot, it appears, to move it out. (BN)
That's big for him, obviously.
We'll ask Darrell Hazell about it at Big Ten media day in Chicago next week, but obviously this serves as a pretty strong indicator the late addition to Purdue's recruiting class won't be with the Boilermakers in 2016.
We'll also add that Purdue probably knew this was a risk situation when it took Ferguson's commitment.
Prior, he'd been committed to Oregon State, but was dropped. So much so that when its coaches made their rounds in Florida in December, they didn't visit him.
That could have been a personnel decision over an academic concern but it was a red flag.
Last winter, Purdue maxed out its scholarship space and may have taken some fliers on some players they knew might have a hurdle or two to overcome.
Ferguson's presumed loss shouldn't impact the 2016 product, because Purdue is deep at wide receiver, though the Boilermaker coaching staff did probably hold some hope his speed could be of use. That speed could conceivably gotten him a look on kick returns, too.
Running back Brian Lankford-Johnson and junior college defensive end Rob Simmons are both listed on Purdue's roster after their summer enrollments were delayed, presumably by academic matters. (staff)
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