the team could have easily gone 6-6 with wins in two of three games against Fresno St, Syracuse or northwestern. Fumbles killed us in the first two losses. Inability to score killed us against Northwestern.
most fans liked Walters' original recruiting class as it happened. That class brought in some talented players. But now the fans all use the same old excuse he didn't have enough time to build a class. I doubt if he had 3 more months to recruit that his first class would have changed. most coaches , when hired, bring with them the players they were recruiting at their former school. Brohm brought at least 10+ players from WKU or players he was recruiting when he came to Purdue. hazell brought 0 players he was recruiting . No matter what your former college was, surely you were recruiting players before you got the Purdue job. For me it's hard to believe Walters didn't bring more Illinois recruits with him. he did bring a few. when I look at the overall size of the last recruiting class, and the transfers, I have to say Walters had enough time to build a solid class. His biggest problem with his first class and this year's class was that many of the better recruits shied away and took a wait and see approach before committing to Purdue. Walters could have had 5 months with his first class, and he would have received the same results.
so now Walters is recruiting his second class. he's had an entire year . You cannot say he didn't have enough time to build a class. Once again, recruits have sort of taken a wait and see approach. His job now is to evaluate the talent he has, keep the good players, replace the bad ones, and recruit some talented players. he has to be able to recruit both high school and the portal athletes. I'm unsure if what we are seeing is a mass exodus or this is what the new college football is like with double digit amounts of players entering the portal and decommitting. Prime time is experiencing the same issues at Colorado. his novelty is wearing thin. . So it's not a walters issue. However, as a coach, he has to be able to recruit both markets.
a lot of fans like to rate a coach by their w/l performance on the field. To me, a season is won in the off season via recruiting and strength and conditioning and practice. . now we have entered the recruiting portion of the year. the Spring provides practice. the Summer is putting it all together.
with the portal, the evaluation period for a coach has shortened from 4-5 years to 2-3 years. you can now plug those holes with experienced players. you no longer have to red shirt and develop players. the player either has it or he doesn't - especially the grad transfers. Looking at Shaffield and Rice, they are not going to develop any more than what they currently are. it's the same with the players Purdue will be recruiting.
Looking forward, what should we as fans expect from Walters? I don't see Purdue ever being better than the 4 new teams joining the conference. they were not added to the conference to provide the existing BIG 10 teams somebody to beat. and if/when the BIG 10 adds 2 more teams, they will not be pushovers. as I look to the future I don't see much success in Purdue's future regardless of who the coach is. winning 6 games could be thought of as an awesome season.
I don't want to fire Walters after one bad year. Looking forward, I don't see next year being any better. I do believe next year will be an indicator of what to expect in the future. if Purdue only wins 4 games next year, then that is what i expect to see for the next decade. Replacing the coach is not going to change that.
winning ball games is important, but you also have to win the off the court battles
