Yes, yes, Joe, we know -- ten bowls in twelve seasons.It's hard to believe it, but suddenly it's here -- we're careening quickly towards the end of the Joe Tiller Era at Purdue and in just five days, Joe T will coach his last game as head coach of the Boilermakers.
What do we do to mark such a truly mixed emotion event? Clearly, we have to say something... or a few things, as we'll try to do during the week. But we really are at a strange place right now. This is one of those anticlimatic times where you kind of feel like you want to give him a proper sendoff, but after the debacle the season -- and, some say, the program -- has become, many simply want him to be sent off. Period.
So what has Joe Tiller meant to you? I'm genuinely curious. I know there are Tiller defenders who, by and large, are loyal to the man to a fault. They will say nothing bad about him because of the darkness he brought the program out from. However, it's also hard to ignore the complete full-circle nature of Tiller's tenure at Purdue.
The 1996 season, just before Joe's arrival, saw the Boilermakers go 3-8 and finish up losing the bucket to a truly terrible Indiana squad. And here we are, just twelve short years later... and the Boilers are 3-8 and facing a truly terrible Indiana squad again this weekend.
You can certainly point out all the success Joe has brought to us, and yes, he can hang his hat on any number of things, including being the winningest football coach in Purdue history (though with a program history like ours, isn't that kind of like being the prettiest girl in Wisconsin?), having taken the Boilers to a BCS bowl game (2001 Rose Bowl), nine wins three times, eight wins another three times, and just generally making Purdue football relevant for a fairly decent period of time.
However, Joe's also had only one season when he lost fewer than four games -- and that was his 9-3 first season at Purdue. The last two seasons prior to this one were inexcusable whiffs on opportunities for ten-win seasons (something that has completely eluded Tiller), with 5 and 6 losses, with more cupcakes than a Boilerdowd birthday party.
Yes, we've been "spoiled," one could say, by having a quality product on the football field for the better part of a dozen years. But just because things got better doesn't mean we're not entitled to expect more success. Improving, by its very definition, means you continue to get better, and the Purdue football program, quite frankly, has not gotten better since about 2004. We've more than once mentioned that we firmly believe the 2004 Wisconsin game effectively ended the upward swing of the program under Tiller. Whether you agree or not, and no matter who you blame, it's a hard fact to deny. The program has never been the same, and those of us at BS tend to think that game irreversibly broke Tiller's spirit.
As Boilerdowd has said before, we think we'd love to have Joe Tiller as our neighbor. He seems like a nice man. And he definitely made the Purdue football program something to be proud of again, after years of true embarrassment. And for that, I know we all thank him.
As I asked though, what is YOUR take on ole' Cowboy Joe?
What do we do to mark such a truly mixed emotion event? Clearly, we have to say something... or a few things, as we'll try to do during the week. But we really are at a strange place right now. This is one of those anticlimatic times where you kind of feel like you want to give him a proper sendoff, but after the debacle the season -- and, some say, the program -- has become, many simply want him to be sent off. Period.
So what has Joe Tiller meant to you? I'm genuinely curious. I know there are Tiller defenders who, by and large, are loyal to the man to a fault. They will say nothing bad about him because of the darkness he brought the program out from. However, it's also hard to ignore the complete full-circle nature of Tiller's tenure at Purdue.
The 1996 season, just before Joe's arrival, saw the Boilermakers go 3-8 and finish up losing the bucket to a truly terrible Indiana squad. And here we are, just twelve short years later... and the Boilers are 3-8 and facing a truly terrible Indiana squad again this weekend.
You can certainly point out all the success Joe has brought to us, and yes, he can hang his hat on any number of things, including being the winningest football coach in Purdue history (though with a program history like ours, isn't that kind of like being the prettiest girl in Wisconsin?), having taken the Boilers to a BCS bowl game (2001 Rose Bowl), nine wins three times, eight wins another three times, and just generally making Purdue football relevant for a fairly decent period of time.
However, Joe's also had only one season when he lost fewer than four games -- and that was his 9-3 first season at Purdue. The last two seasons prior to this one were inexcusable whiffs on opportunities for ten-win seasons (something that has completely eluded Tiller), with 5 and 6 losses, with more cupcakes than a Boilerdowd birthday party.
Yes, we've been "spoiled," one could say, by having a quality product on the football field for the better part of a dozen years. But just because things got better doesn't mean we're not entitled to expect more success. Improving, by its very definition, means you continue to get better, and the Purdue football program, quite frankly, has not gotten better since about 2004. We've more than once mentioned that we firmly believe the 2004 Wisconsin game effectively ended the upward swing of the program under Tiller. Whether you agree or not, and no matter who you blame, it's a hard fact to deny. The program has never been the same, and those of us at BS tend to think that game irreversibly broke Tiller's spirit.
As Boilerdowd has said before, we think we'd love to have Joe Tiller as our neighbor. He seems like a nice man. And he definitely made the Purdue football program something to be proud of again, after years of true embarrassment. And for that, I know we all thank him.
As I asked though, what is YOUR take on ole' Cowboy Joe?
13 comments:
As a Buckeye alum that went to OSU during the first four years of Tressel's tenure with the Buckeyes, I'll remember Joe as a man that fielded a team that always worried me. Sure, Michigan, PSU, Wisconsin, and Iowa at times fielded good times during those times, but there was something about Tiller that always made me nervous when we'd face the Boilermakers. In spite of all the close finishes of the 2002 OSU season, including the overtimes, I still think the Purdue game was the toughest and most improbable victory of that national title run, Miami included. Maybe I'm biased--Tiller hails from my hometown--but I always respected the guy. Even as recent as last season, his team scared me when we'd match up. And I nearly pooped myself in the 'Shoe waiting for that last field goal to beat the Boilers in 2003. I think Purdue fans should be eager to move on, but I'd wager that you'll miss him more than you think in the coming seasons; see: University of Michigan and Lloyd Carr.
Good luck against the Hoosiers.
The good memories will outweigh the bad. The first part of the 2004 season was something that few schools get to experience (College Gameday, Cold Pizza, #5 ranking, beating ranked teams, etc.). Then, in typical E! True Hollywood Story fashion, it all came crashing down.
3 Excuses on Joe's behalf
-Players leaving the program (Lymon, Ingraham, Edwards, Pollard)
-Our offense turned from asset to liabiity
-Cyclical nature of big ten ( Even Mich and Ohio St. have down years)
10 out of 12 ain't so bad after all
Yeah, but the difference is that UM and OSU have down years. Pretty much everybody else has down decades. So it was nice to have a decade where instead of "I hope we aren't embarrassed on national TV this year" and "Please please please keep the Bucket" it was "Texas again? I liked Florida better, but anything's better than Detroit" and "I guess they can have it once every ten years."
Plus this season was obviously a down year for a lot of teams. A decent Purdue team would have gone 6-6 and made a bowl, at least. As much as I appreciate what Tiller did prior to this season, I can't help but wonder what if Hope were in charge now.
I agree with Matthew. For coaches like this, the roughest part is the end. As time fades, we'll forget some of how it ended, but remember Drew Brees, roses, and bowl games. And the Bucket.
While I totally agree with you about the effect "The Fumble" in 2004 has had on the program, I have always thought that, without Brees, the slippery slope really began at half-time of the Outback bowl. In those 15 minutes the Attack Attack Attack focus of the team turned into the play-not-to-lose mentality which has haunted us since. Maybe it wasn't all Cheney's fault.
I would have to agree with J that expecting more is fair. Look at tOSU before Tressel. Cooper wasn't a bad coach. They won a crap load of games. He simply couldn't beat Carr and UM and the fans wanted more than 8 and 9 win seasons. They wanted national spotlight and W's over UM. Fire Cooper, bring in Tressel and poof, the rest is history. We can all make fun of tOSU about back to back losses of National Title Games, but we would proud if our Boilers were to be in the that situation. I would love to think that Coach Hope could do the same, but he simply is not inherting that good of a team or that kind of potential.
My thoughts are: Joe Tiller did ONE big thing while here, and coasted off the rest. He got Drew to come here. Drew begot Kyle. THe reason guys like Bernie and Edwards left early WAS Joe's fault. He lost that team. He was clearly not a good coach as you continually see Purdue lose the same exact games. What he was good at was player development until roughly 2004, when it all came tumbling down. I believe I was there. No not the Wisconsin game, the Northwestern game. I believe this changed Purdue football for the following 4 years. Those who see him as a legend need to look at a calender and see it's not 2000. Think about it this way, only Northwestern, Minnesota, IU, and Michigan State HAVEN'T been to a BCS game in Tiller's tenure and Illinois' even embarassed themselves twice. An average to below average coach at a program where many fans accept mediocrity. Not me sorry.
I would agree with this post. I appreciate the work that Tiller did but I want more. I think it's fantastic that the Boiler's went to 10 bowl games and that's a great accomplishment after living through the Burnett, Collete, and Akers teams. But too many of the bowls were Sun bowls. Most of the elite programs have there Sun bowl games followed up the next year by an Outback bowl and a Rose Bowl the next year. Purdue's followed up Sun bowl with another Sun bowl.
That all said, I'm really happy that Tiller came to Purdue. Instead of another lackluster coach that can't win, we now have a relevant program.
I witnessed the last Colletto year and the first 4 Tiller years, culminating with a December graduation and a trip to Pasadena.
I agree that it is a bittersweet ending. This weekend I will travel over 700 miles to be in Ross Ade for the conclusion. And I bet that while I'm sitting in the stands, utterly annoyed at just about every aspect of the program, I'll remember being in President Beering's box in 1997 as Purdue knocked off Notre Dame in a "Holy shit, what just happened!" moment. After that Saturday, I don't think Beering ever had extra tickets to hand out when Notre Dame came to town.
I don't know when the program truly turned the corner for the worse, but I will tend to side with the 2005 Wisconsin game.
I don't buy the number of bowl games as a measure of success. Tiller's arrival corresponded to the time when the number of bowl games just exploded. Needing a 6-6 or 6-5 record, all a team needed to do was schedule a couple of directional schools and finish around .500 in a conference. Considering we are guaranteed to play Northwestern & IU every year, Tiller really just needed to win 2 out of the remaining 7 games.
But as Joe Tiller leaves us for his often-cited Wyoming ranch, what I'll remember most is, Purdue lost alot of games it should have won, and rarely won games we should have lost.
Chris, it's sad that your thesis is what it is, but it's understandable as the last few seasons have been pretty lousy and extremely predictable. But, the in the first 3-4, games like the UND game you watched from the good seats, MSU in '99 and others were Tiller's calling card and what made his old nickname accurate.
Its a great accomplishment to win like Joe has at a school with the resources, fanbase, economic reality, and geographic reality of Purdue.
-Big Ten championship
-Rose Bowl appearance
-New Years Day Bowls
-Stadium renovations
-Putting players in the NFL
-Revolutionizing the way offense is thought of in the Big Ten
-Beating the Big Boys
-Making the ND rivalry competitive again
-Getting the program to a point where 8 wins is disappointing
He is a good man and a good coach and he will be missed. He did a lot for our great university. Don't let one bad season spoil that perception.
Matt, I think you'll see in our retrospectives that we're actually on the same page with you....
I will always remember Coach Tiller as a man who brought respectability to Purdue football. I lived through six miserable seasons as a student from 1987 to 1992. I did not even follow Purdue football as an alumni when I lived in South Carolina and New York during the 1993-1996 years.
So, you can imagine how grateful I am that Purdue even GOT to go to some bowls in recent years. I am very appreciative to Joe and his staff.
Agree, just because the Tiller years were better than the Akers and Colletto years, does not mean we should be satisfied with where we are, and certainly to where we have recently fallen!
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