Nutshell

[Heiner]

My first game was watching Otis Armstrong when I was 10 or so. I even think we got beat by Bowling Green that day as we sat in the old Knot Hole end zone seats. So like most of us I've been around.
My question is this: Who do some of you think we are? We are not, and never have been, a great destination for quality coaches. Take a look back at our history of coaches. We've tried the resurrection method, the coordinator method and the hot young "flavor of the month" method.
We hang our hat on Joe Tiller and rightfully so. He and Brees were the best things that have happened to our program but they were lightning in a bottle. One time the stars aligned and the football Gods smiled on us. Old Joe was magic with his basketball on grass and for a few years we were successful.
It hasen't been that long ago that we were very comparable to say MSU. East Lansing doesn't have anything on W Lala but for some reason they happen to have Izzo and Dantonio.
We're at a real crossroads with football. I don't know who our next coach needs to be but he has to be a great recruiter and motivator. I think we are where IU was prior to bringing Wilson on board. We need a home run hire and give him all the time he needs.

 

[BoilerBulldog]

We are a program that's hired a good FB coach only about 1/3 of the time. So maybe we are due.

 

[Heiner]

I hope you're right Bulldog because this one has to be right.

 

[BoilerBonz]

My first game was watching Otis Armstrong when I was 10 or so. I even think we got beat by Bowling Green that day as we sat in the old Knot Hole end zone seats. So like most of us I've been around.
My question is this: Who do some of you think we are? We are not, and never have been, a great destination for quality coaches. Take a look back at our history of coaches. We've tried the resurrection method, the coordinator method and the hot young "flavor of the month" method.
We hang our hat on Joe Tiller and rightfully so. He and Brees were the best things that have happened to our program but they were lightning in a bottle. One time the stars aligned and the football Gods smiled on us. Old Joe was magic with his basketball on grass and for a few years we were successful.
It hasen't been that long ago that we were very comparable to say MSU. East Lansing doesn't have anything on W Lala but for some reason they happen to have Izzo and Dantonio.
We're at a real crossroads with football. I don't know who our next coach needs to be but he has to be a great recruiter and motivator. I think we are where IU was prior to bringing Wilson on board. We need a home run hire and give him all the time he needs.

MSU has Dantonio because they loosened the purse strings and invested in football! When Dantonio's contract was announced, MB1's response was that PU could not spend that sort of big money on a football coach. Why? Because MB1 used an ass-backwards budgeting method that made football live off whatever was left after the non-revenues received "adequate" support, with the latter driven by a mandate from our BOT that success at non-revenue sports receive equal emphasis to success at revenue sports. On numerous occasions MB1 whined publicly that he could not compete with Wisconsin and MSU for football coaches based on salary because they had larger stadiums and more ticket revenue. But MB1 and our BOT never considered that this was because MSU and Wisconsin treated football as an investment, in terms of coaches salaries and facilities, whereas MB1 treated PU football as a cost center where expenditures were limited to whatever was left over. This is why Tiller got frustrated and grew to despise MB1. The same thing was going on in basketball until it came to head when Painter almost left for Mizzo, and it took an emergency meeting of our BOT to approve increasing his salary to the upper-half of the B1G.

And if you're old enough to have attended the BGSU game in '72, then you should know that the PU football HC job was once considered a highly desirable gig. Bob DeMoss was considered one of the elite coordinators in the country when he replaced Mollenkoph. Hiring Alex Agase away from Northwestern in '73 was considered a huge statement by PU about its commitment to a nationally prominent football program. Jim Young was probably the hottest prospect in the country when we hired him away from Arizona in '77. Likewise, Fred Schaus was the LA Laker's GM when we hired him in '73 and had been hugely successful before at WVa, as had George King, before PU hired him in '66. And Lee Rose was hands down the hottest coach on the market in '78 when we hired him from UNCC.

Somewhere in the 80s, George King lost his way and started under-investing in everything, including coaches. But it wasn't always that way at Purdue.

 

[indianphil]

Under King the BOT put the clamps on money! Dont blame George! BOT...they dont give a rip!

 

[BoilerBonz]

Under King the BOT put the clamps on money! Dont blame George! BOT...they dont give a rip!

Ok, good info. Do you know why the BOT changed its tune at some point in the 70s/80s? Was Hansen or Beering behind it? I know Mollenkoph said the success he enjoyed would never have been possible without the support of Mackey and Hovde, although at the time, most PU fans didn't feel Mollenkoph was so great because he "couldn't win the big one." Sound familiar?