In reality, Burke swung and nearly missed on his one good hire in Joe Tiller. Burke reportedly wanted to hire Mason and Bob Davie....both did horribly at their stops respectively. Burke lucked in to his hire of Tiller. The one hire Burke made that was good in athletics was Caroline Peck who immediately took the Lady Boilers to the national title....he then Burked that and refused to give her and her staff pay increases and she walked to the WNBA. Purdue should have multiple conference titles and Final Fours since 2000...instead the program has been mired in some what mediocrity since.
I see that the quotes about are screwed up a little bit, but with some patience, we should be able to figure them out. The first on above is mine and was not carried over properly with the reply from JDB. His post is the one that follows and brings my comments below.
I believe your correct the MB wanted other coaches before Tiller. But, he had put Keady on the selection group that was in favor of Tiller. GK was initially in football and played a little in the NFL. So he knew football and convinced MB that Tiller was the better selection, especially when he was bringing his staff as well. I also think that selection group helped MB with the contracts for the staff that required them to stay 3 years, I believe, before they looked elsewhere for a job. I remember being in the reception room at the Alamo Bowl where I learned that one or two of the assistants were already complaining and wanted to leave following the game. Locations like Oklahoma and Nebraska came up. From that, I always felt the downfall of the last Tiller years was from the turnover in staff and that the AD was most responsible for that.
Regarding Caroline Peck, she was brought in by Coach Fortner and not MB. CP was smart enough to stay on and take over the team, but the dream of the WNBA was too much. Does anybody think MB handled the Lin Dunn stuff properly? I think that one got taken over by the school administration to keep the fallout as quiet as possible. MB = way over his head for handling people.[/QUOTE]
MB was way way way in over his head as AD. Ok guy, but looked at this through a tiny lens. Failing to pickup on obvious upgrades to football facilities in particular in a timely way to maintain momentum. I wouldn't call his efforts there entirely bad though. Purdue did rebuild what was at one point the worst stadium standing in the big10, probably all of major conference college fb. This rebuild development must continue onward into the future to keep up with conference rivals. Obvious deficiencies in offseason transition year over year with coaches, salaries, weight conditioning programs, and recruiting assistance programs. Took far too much of a risk on DH. With the program completely on the rocks 4 years ago it was imperative that he spent the time to ensure an effective hire. Someone like JB would have been exactly what was needed then. Some of the first things to look for in a coach are personality, proven track record, and style of play for the program. DH did't come average in any of those categories. He went hat in hand and ended up failing to get the coach from Cinci, who would have been a moderate hire. He failed to hire several very now successful hires at other programs. I never got the feeling he had a good relationship with Tiller overall and had the impression that he treated the football program as a lessor importance program that was drifting along with no direction under his leadership.
