Worst Purdue Football Coach in your lifetime
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he was bad , with the talent on the team, he totally underachieved
Might be recency bias but this one. Winning 4 games with the talent we had last year was quite a cluster too
I only started following Purdue during the Colleto era. Walters is probably the worst of that time span, although I agree that recency bias may be affecting my judgment.
At this point, I'll say Haze.
Statistically, the worst coaches of my time are Jim Colletto, Fred Akers, Ryan Walters, and Haze---probably in that order with Colletto being the best of that bunch and Haze being the worst.
I don't think Bob DeMoss belongs on that list at all. Yeah, he followed Mollenkopf and couldn't keep pace. But, he did go 6-2 in the B1G his las year as Purdue's head coach. None of the other bottom tier of Purdue coaches have come anywhere close to that. I would put DeMoss in the same category as Alex Agase, Leon Burtnett, and Danny Hope as below average but not the bottom.
My take on Purdue coaches since Mollenkopf:
Top tier:
1. Jim Young -- Purdue's best teams since Fat Jack.
2. Joe Tiller -- Consistent success if not great.
3. Jeff Brohm -- Exciting while it lasted.
Average by Purdue standards:
4. Bob DeMoss -- Tough gig to follow Mollenkopf, but a true Purdue man.
5. Danny Hope -- Not a lot of institutional support.
6. Leon Burtnett -- Take out the '84 team, and this looks MUCH worse.
7. Alex Agase -- Competitive but couldn't get Purdue back over the hump.
Bottom Tier:
8. Jim Colletto -- Great running game but no defense and questionable game day decisions.
9. Fred Akers -- No defense, no running game, no real plan
10. Ryan Walters -- It's not looking good.
11. Darrell Hazell -- Three+ years spent in the Haze.
Statistically, the worst coaches of my time are Jim Colletto, Fred Akers, Ryan Walters, and Haze---probably in that order with Colletto being the best of that bunch and Haze being the worst.
I don't think Bob DeMoss belongs on that list at all. Yeah, he followed Mollenkopf and couldn't keep pace. But, he did go 6-2 in the B1G his las year as Purdue's head coach. None of the other bottom tier of Purdue coaches have come anywhere close to that. I would put DeMoss in the same category as Alex Agase, Leon Burtnett, and Danny Hope as below average but not the bottom.
My take on Purdue coaches since Mollenkopf:
Top tier:
1. Jim Young -- Purdue's best teams since Fat Jack.
2. Joe Tiller -- Consistent success if not great.
3. Jeff Brohm -- Exciting while it lasted.
Average by Purdue standards:
4. Bob DeMoss -- Tough gig to follow Mollenkopf, but a true Purdue man.
5. Danny Hope -- Not a lot of institutional support.
6. Leon Burtnett -- Take out the '84 team, and this looks MUCH worse.
7. Alex Agase -- Competitive but couldn't get Purdue back over the hump.
Bottom Tier:
8. Jim Colletto -- Great running game but no defense and questionable game day decisions.
9. Fred Akers -- No defense, no running game, no real plan
10. Ryan Walters -- It's not looking good.
11. Darrell Hazell -- Three+ years spent in the Haze.
I know he won more than the others, but seems that DeMoss inherited a pile of NFL players and underachieved…
True, but wasn't that a consistent problem of Purdue football throughout the 70s and 80s? A lot of "aces and spaces" rosters with some high-level individual talent but rarely enough to make great teams outside of the Jim Young era.
I would defer to others who were around for the Mollenkopf and DeMoss eras, but it seemed that decline began with his tenure.
Been around since Mollenkopf. Boob DeMoose was a decent position coach but a terrible HC. The Young and Brohm eras were to short to give them high props. Hope was Hopeless. Hazzell is still somewhere reviewing film. Walters appears to be out to lunch. I see him on the sidelines and he seems detached with his eyes glazed over like he's been smoking some good stuff. Maybe that's just the look of someone who's on a much higher cerebral level than the rest of us.
All I can say is that back in the day I thought myself pretty darn cerebral when I occasionally indulged.
Based on how bad Purdue gets destroyed in nearly every game, Walter’s is the worst.
Think several Purdue QB's, especially two in the NFL HOF, would argue that as a QB coach, DeMoss was outstanding and way ahead of his time. But as a head coach, not so much....
A decent exercise, but like others have said, recency bias makes it unfair. And respective ages. I was at Purdue during the Coletto years, and I have no problem ranking him 3rd "worst." But is that because even though I was there, it was 30 years ago? It's probably just best to use wins and losses. Even in different eras, wins are still wins.
I like your list. I was in a group of students that hung Agase in effigy outside the Krannert building in '76.
Agase had to be the worst ever! Akers was close. You people complaining now have nothing on the bad coaches us old people suffered through.
Why do I rate Agase so low? He came to Purdue with such high hopes. He had a winning record at Northwestern in the 70’s before transfers and the portals and everything. And in the 79’s, Northwestern was everybody’s doormat.
Agase also had a lot of talent to work with. He was not given a cupboard that was bare. He had players that went to the NFL. He also had players who were good before he arrived and were good after he left.
And it’s not like he was some assistant coach without any experience
Fred Akers was almost as bad. People thought he was going to install a wishbone offense when he arrived. But the facts were he had stopped running the wishbone at Texas before he left. People also thought he was a big name and could use that name to be a big name recruiter. But he was never able to recruit the same caliber of player at Purdue that he was able to recruit at Texas. He would have been better off if he he went to Texas tech or smu or another school in the Texas area.
Why do I rate Agase so low? He came to Purdue with such high hopes. He had a winning record at Northwestern in the 70’s before transfers and the portals and everything. And in the 79’s, Northwestern was everybody’s doormat.
Agase also had a lot of talent to work with. He was not given a cupboard that was bare. He had players that went to the NFL. He also had players who were good before he arrived and were good after he left.
And it’s not like he was some assistant coach without any experience
Fred Akers was almost as bad. People thought he was going to install a wishbone offense when he arrived. But the facts were he had stopped running the wishbone at Texas before he left. People also thought he was a big name and could use that name to be a big name recruiter. But he was never able to recruit the same caliber of player at Purdue that he was able to recruit at Texas. He would have been better off if he he went to Texas tech or smu or another school in the Texas area.
Def walters.
If this was year 1, I'd say we need more tape. This is year 2 and obviously a huge regression. We have been blown out more than we have been competitive. Our only win is Indiana State. Honestly thought the isu win was walters separating himself from hazell but I guess that was just fool's gold.
There has been 0 improvement and only regression.
For reference I only have tiller to present, so it's hazell vs walters.
If this was year 1, I'd say we need more tape. This is year 2 and obviously a huge regression. We have been blown out more than we have been competitive. Our only win is Indiana State. Honestly thought the isu win was walters separating himself from hazell but I guess that was just fool's gold.
There has been 0 improvement and only regression.
For reference I only have tiller to present, so it's hazell vs walters.
He did bring in some highly rated recruits like Eric Hunter and Frank Kemet. There were more, but those come to mind without looking them up.
You would be referring to the 1972 team, which was coached by DeMoss.
He was. He was handed a team of future NFLers and screwed the pooch. He might be the worst because of all the talent he had. Think OSU level talent.
He had an OSU-type roster handed to him. No holes. Just off the top of my 71 year old brain Dave Butz, Steve Baumgartner, Gary Nrivnak, Gary Danielson, Daryl Stingley, Otis Armstrong, and Gregg Bingham. Coached those NFLers to a 3 - 7 record!
You're right. My apologies. At my age, I've lost too many brain cells. As a Boilermaker fan since the 60's, I can safely state that we have had more poor coaches than good coaches. If we get a good one, they move on or retire.
This seems fair, I'd probably have Walters and Haze tied at the bottom. Colletto recruited a lot of the guys that Tiller used to go to bowl games his first couple of years. He just wasn't a good fit.
During my years as a student Purdue went alarmingly fast from the penthouse (that exciting, talented, ultimately unlucky 1980 team under Jim Young) to maddeningly mediocre under Burtnett…
How Leon trapped lightning in a bottle with the 1984 team is beyond my ability to grasp - I HATED the guy as a student!
IMO, Young and Tiller are tied for the best, and CRW is coming hard and fast to claim the worst from ol’ foldy-cap….
How Leon trapped lightning in a bottle with the 1984 team is beyond my ability to grasp - I HATED the guy as a student!
IMO, Young and Tiller are tied for the best, and CRW is coming hard and fast to claim the worst from ol’ foldy-cap….
I’ll always give Akers credit for being one of the first major college coaches, and certainly the first in the B1G, to try to go with a run&shoot offense. He also recruited back-to-back Freshman of the Year winners and probably got the ball rolling on Corey Rogers, who won it the years after he left…
DeMoss WASTED numerous NFL talent that had long and noteworthy careers in the NFL by switching to the Wishbone!
Aside from ISU, we were competitive in only two games this year, with both being losses. The rest have been flat out ugly.
We are ranked 223rd in total yards. Defensive stats are even worse at 291st in points against. (Our HC was supposed to be a defensive guru)
Walters wins this contest.
We are ranked 223rd in total yards. Defensive stats are even worse at 291st in points against. (Our HC was supposed to be a defensive guru)
Walters wins this contest.
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