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Just how bad would ILL State beat PU in football?

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BoilerBonz

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Sep 5, 2002
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If we had an AD worth his salt, Spack would be our HC and we'd be going to a decent bowl game now -- but no, MB yielded to the idiots, most of whom gave up their season tickets after 2013, or before, and left the loyal fan with this $hit pot in a dumpster fire. It's absolutely sickening.

This post was edited on 12/22 9:44 PM by BoilerBonz
 
I know you're frustrated, Bonz, but that argument strikes me as a real stretch. Nobody really knows how Brock Spack would have done as head coach at Purdue. He had no head coaching experience in 2008. Prior to this season his record at FCS Illinois State was 33-24 - remarkably similar to the 35-22 that Danny Hope put up at FCS Eastern Kentucky.

Maybe his run to the FCS national championship game through a very difficult conference should earn him a second look. But we should also be mindful that Purdue hired Darrell Hazell on the strength of one great season.

I'm thrilled for Coach Spack, and I wish him continued success.
 
I agree that we don't know for sure how Spack would have done here, at Purdue, but given the solid job he's done at ILL State, it's not far fetched to think that he would have been at least modestly successful. And it would have happened if MB had not yielded to the real knuckleheads. Spack was Tiller's choice as a successor and the logical heir apparent until he has a couple weak defensive units. You know, Tiller has to sitting out there in Wyoming, now, thinking that MB deserves every bit of the mess he's made out of PU football.
 
Bonz is right. Spack was highly regarded until the end of the Tiller years when Tiller was not in good spirits and was not as helpful with recruiting. As a result, the recruiting was not as strong and Brock's defensive units were not as strong.

But relatively speaking, we would likely be in a lot better shape with Brock. He is a capable guy, and he is very competitive. He sure as heck would have been a lot stronger than Hope.
 
Spack would have had some 6-6 and 7-5 year seasons

When we struggled early in the Hope era, I think Brock would have pulled out a few .500 seasons. I think we could have had an 8-4. People would have complained because Purdue was not "elite." Now we know what could be and would gladly, gladly take a 7-5 season.

It was an ego thing between Morgan and Brock Spack. Brock would not have toed the company line and I think deep down did not respect MB.
 
Re: Spack would have had some 6-6 and 7-5 year seasons


Would Spack come back if they fired Burk? I think yes just to prove a point,my opinion.
 
Originally posted by BoilerBonz:
I agree that we don't know for sure how Spack would have done here, at Purdue, but given the solid job he's done at ILL State, it's not far fetched to think that he would have been at least modestly successful.
Click to expand...
1) I had hoped Spack would have been given a shot when the original change was made. That said. . . .

Bonz, I can't agree with your conclusion on this. As others have posted, Hope had similar success at EKU, and Hazell had a great run in 2 short years at Kent State (ok, 1 great year) and neither case has shown to be an accurate predictor of success at Purdue.

I still have hope for Hazell, but I think whenever Purdue hires it's next coach an emphasis should be made for a prolonged experience H.C. in which we can assess the type of coach they are.

Again - I hope our next hire comes after Hazell retires after 20 years of top 10 football (hey, we all get a Christmas wish).
 
Originally posted by Fan4Life:

Originally posted by BoilerBonz:
I agree that we don't know for sure how Spack would have done here, at Purdue, but given the solid job he's done at ILL State, it's not far fetched to think that he would have been at least modestly successful.
Click to expand...
1) I had hoped Spack would have been given a shot when the original change was made. That said. . . .

Bonz, I can't agree with your conclusion on this. As others have posted, Hope had similar success at EKU, and Hazell had a great run in 2 short years at Kent State (ok, 1 great year) and neither case has shown to be an accurate predictor of success at Purdue.

I still have hope for Hazell, but I think whenever Purdue hires it's next coach an emphasis should be made for a prolonged experience H.C. in which we can assess the type of coach they are.

Again - I hope our next hire comes after Hazell retires after 20 years of top 10 football (hey, we all get a Christmas wish).
Click to expand...
Fair enough Fan4life. I too still have hope for Hazell. It is what it is, and I accept that, but I also hope Purdue learns from its mistakes. And running off Spack was a huge mistake!
 
Different level of competition indeed. No way a team like lets say, Appalachian State could ever beat, lets say Michigan.
 
Why was would you say spack didn't respect Burke? Just wondering everyone implies the differences are personal but I've yet to get s good understanding of the situation after having been removed from the scene at that time.

I think the ship has sailed on hazell, unfortunately things are so bad he can point to a 5 win season next year and claim progress.
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Probably because he realized that Burke was in the process of killing the golden goose with his investments in the new state of the art jai alai and curling complexes.
 
Combes,

You're right. It is a whole different level of competition, with a whole different level of financial commitment, with a much, much larger financial commitment on the part of Purdue.

With that said, it's still football and blocking and tackling. I think Purdue would probably beat ISU this year. With the mess we were at the end of the season, I don't think you could definitely say we could have beaten anyone. The team that got drilled by Northwestern and beaten by a terrible IU team with it's (I think) 4th-string, freshman quarterback? Do you really think that that team would be clearly better than ISU? The Purdue team at the end of this year would have been beaten by (bowl-bound) Illinois by two touchdowns.

Let me say this though. I strongly believe that this year's Illinois State team would easily beat last year's Purdue team, a team that needed a late interception to beat Indiana State, a 1 and 10 Indiana State team, a team that Illinois State beat by 41 pts. Regardless of financial input from the either university.

That is how far we have fallen.
 
There's a lot more that goes into things.

For example, Danny Hope took over after a longstanding coach at Eastern Kentucky. Their coach prior to Hope went 315-123 at Eastern Kentucky, but had gone downhill a bit leading up to his retirement. So Danny Hope took over for a program that had a fairly decent tradition of success at that level.

We know the story on Hazell - he took over a program that the coach had gotten picked off due to his success. He was a HC for 1 season and had a good year, although didn't really build a program or sustain as it was such a brief period he was head coach (I don't fault him for this - but given how quickly Kent State fell off the map, not sure his "stock" as a head coach would have stayed high).

Brock Spack is kinda the same thing, although he's shown a bit more sustainability. However, Eastern Illinois was not a bad football team when he started. They had played in their conference championship 3 of the 5 seasons prior to his arrival. So it's not that he really built up anything. And prior to this year when they went 10-1, they were 6-5 last year. So one standout season doesn't really equal amazing coaching candidate.

I think one of the biggest problems with the Hazell hire was that Purdue needs a program builder. That's probably one of Hazell's weaker "resume" items. He has other positive aspects to his resume, but program builder is clearly not one and it's not surprising given he was only a head coach for 1 season.

I also do not fault Hazell as I don't think Purdue's done a good job of steering him towards building a program as a lot of that has to do with marketing, strategy, etc. that is not necessarily just a coach's thing.
 
B.Spack is the coach at Illinois State. I don`t think he ever was the head coach at Eastern Ill. He has had a winning season every year that he has ben the head coach at ISU.
 
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