Old Oaken Bucket of Crap

Alright, honestly, I feel a bit icky (yes, I said icky) for all of the positivity on this site. Granted, I'm part of the problem...I honestly think honoring Coach Tiller this week was the right thing to do. That said, please make no bones about it, his time at Purdue has been far from perfect...We all appreciate how he brought the program back to respectability, but we're all in accord that it's absolutely time for a change.

One thing Joe has done very well is prepare his guys for games versus Purdue's second-biggest rival, IU (sidebar- it seems the IU game is bigger for Purdue fans over 35...UND for the younger set). He's gone 9-2 versus the Hoosiers and beaten three different coaches...Saturday, he'll look to make it four as the Hoosiers come in to a nearly-packed Ross Ade Stadium on a blustery Saturday...Here are our predictions of what will go down.

boilerdowd says:
During the ebbs and larger ebbs of this season, I've been steadfast in my belief that IU is not good and Purdue would beat them. After seeing that Painter has remembered how to play the game, I'm even more sure Purdue will win. I look for a listless crowd of 50 and 60-somethings to keep it quiet as Purdue's student section does its job by seeing off Tiller the right way, with a final "W".

All of IU's quarterbacks are healthy, but sadly for them, Hardy won't be available as he's busy in Buffalo...and Lynch will still be the guy calling the plays. Purdue might allow a big running play from both Thigpen and Lewis, but I look for big days from Baker, Magee and Heygood as they keep IU's offense stunted. This might be one of those rare games under Tiller in the last four seasons when the offense, defense, and heck, even the special teams put in solid efforts.

Painter unleashes a season of frustration on the lowly Hoosier DBs...and Sheets kicks them in the ribs when they're down...Yeh! We suck less and are 4-8!

Purdue 45
IU 24


Tim says:
I think they're going to party like it's 1995. It's going to be sloppy. It's going to be messy. IU's defense is going to play like a bunch of pansies.

Purdue is going to send Tiller out as a winner.

Purdue 38
Indiana 20

J says:

When college football season ends, it's usually kind of a sad time for us.... we all look forward to it during the summer and then, so very quickly, it's over. Sometimes it's over long before the twelve weeks are up, too. Such as this season for Purdue. And so while it's a little sad that another season is in the books, I think we can all say this wasn't fun to watch and we're all looking forward to basketball and next year's Danny Hope-coached football squad.

However, we still have one game left to look at, and it's the pillow fight of a rivalry game with IU. Now, granted, things could actually be worse -- we could be alums of Washington or Wazzu, who have to watch their teams club each other over the head for the Apple Cup. Ugh.

No, in West Lafayette, it's apparently going to be a nice sendoff for Coach Tiller, with rumors of special guests. I sincerely hope that the Boilermakers bear down and send the Coach out with a nice win. Losing this game would be awful, plain and simple. IU is horrible, and while we've had a down year, they've gotten absolutely crushed multiple times and lost to MAC schools twice. In truth, IU has played one really good half against Purdue in the 11 previous meetings with Tiller at the helm. The 13-7 loss wasn't exactly good football by either side and then last year, IU played solid, focused ball for the first half before almost surrendering the bucket it what would have been a brutal (for them) fashion.

I like to think you'll see some of the Joe Tiller of old. Maybe some sneaky plays, maybe some straight-out trick plays... wouldn't it be fun to put both Siller and Painter in the backfield? Things like that... could be a lot of fun. Regardless, I always think a team like this year's Boilers has at least one dig-down-deep kind of performance in them. And I have to believe the players want to send Tiller and the seniors out well. It's Joe's last game, Painter's last game, it's the bucket game and it's essentially our bowl game (damn, I hate saying that because it's so sad)...and it's at home. I cannot imagine us losing this game and it's probably the most sure of any game I've been this year other than Northern Colorado.

Purdue 42

IU 14

Coach Tiller Love Fest, Pt. 1 (Boilerdowd's Perspective)

The basement of my house pays homage to Purdue sports...We've got photos from tailgates, a gold towel given to the students back in 1996, other pieces of memorabilia, six different Purdue football helmets (from different periods)...all sorts of stuff. A couple of the pieces in my collection that I really appreciate have Joe Tiller's signature on them. One of them can't be purchased, and that's why I like it so much.

Back in 1997 following Purdue's victory over UND, I wrote the new football coach a note. In the note I wrote of how I liked meeting him months earlier when I was a counselor at Tark (as he made some P.R. rounds throughout campus), it also talked about how excited I was for what was ahead with Coach Tiller as the program's new leader. He responded, in less than seven days, with a hand-written quick note on a Purdue Football note card-

"9/19/97
Thanks for all of your congratulatory comments...we all appreciate your thoughtfulness. Keep the faith!

Joe Tiller"

Not a big deal, but it meant a lot to me. I've talked to the man on the phone on his weekly call-in show a few times, and shook his hand around campus...and he's always been pleasant and I've always liked the guy. But, none of these stories would have been as noteworthy had Joe Tiller not had success as Purdue's head football coach. As he once said he was hired "...to win a championship..." He did just that in his fourth season as Purdue's head coach...That might be the problem.

Whether or not you believe Tiller belongs in the conversation with Nobel Kizer and "Fat" Jack Mollenkopf as the greatest football coach that Purdue has had can be debated, but he's definitely in the top-three...and his importance to the program and the greater athletic department is immense. After all, he knocked the cobwebs loose from a fanbase and a machine that greatly needed a reminder that it could once again be successful.

I've heard proponents of the coach say that he was a victim of his own success...There's truth in that- he rose the bar from the murky depths of the conference cellar to the upper third of the conference in no-time flat...doing so with players that no one thought he could win with. So many thought there would be another level of success as recruiting began to reflect the upward trend on the field. Sadly, the illusive and mytical "next level" never came. But the level his teams reached during his apex in West Lafayette were very respectable.

Purdue garnered national attention in the pre-season publications, and more-importantly by being invited to major bowls at the season's end. While keeping the streak of bowl games alive became more important than winning championships, his teams went from the top third of the conference, to the middle, to where we are now.

Coach Tiller has changed...and no one's blaming him for the change. I know a ton of 60 year old men who simply don't want to work as hard as they did in their 30s, 40s or 50s...I think I'll probably be that way. But, college football demands the type of time, passion and attention to detail that a younger Joe Tiller had. I appreciate what he gave to my alma mater, but it wasn't charity work, he was paid well to deal with the highs and the lows. And, until a few seasons ago, I felt he more than earned his seven-figure salary.

But coaching is still a hired position, in turn, he's not a king...and in my opinion, he didn't earn the right to do the job at anything less than 100%. He set his goals high and the fans, alums and students all followed with raised expectations; Perhaps he's set the groundwork that he set will lead to more championships...Only time will tell.

Regardless of what Danny Hope accomplishes in his tenure as Purdue football's next head coach, history will judge his predecessor well...his years at Purdue will be viewed as overwhelmingly successful. And as time passes, the Purdue family will look back more fondly on the Joe Tiller Era.

Joe Tiller Train Crashing To A Halt This Weekend

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?

Bowl Hopes Finally Sacked

Let's be honest...not many of us thought Purdue had a chance of going to a bowl. But any chance was crushed today in East Lansing by the Spartans. Purdue's offense followed a 500-plus yard, 48-point game with a 191 yard, 7-point game. Justin Siller didn't look human, he looked bad. Am I angry at the kid? No, not really. Do I think he should start the rest of the season? Yes.

My thesis the entire season has been, "It's the coaching, stupid." (to steal a political phrase and mix it up a bit). This offense looked crappy with Painter, Elliott and now Siller under, or a few yards behind center. Tiller blamed the offensive line today, which definitely deserves some of the blame...as does Siller. But, this offense is simply not prepared game-in, game-out. And when they face moderate-to-good defenses, they look bad...and have all season. The play-calling is lousy, the execution is too (by the way, that comes back to coaching, once again). No matter, the season is coming to a close...and Tiller's time as Purdue's coach will end with a whimper in the month of November.

There are guys who deserve better on this team. Greg Orton, who had two yards receiving is a good receiver and is getting very few opportunities to showcase his skeelz. Desmond Tardy who spent three years behind Mr. Softee now simply doesn't get a ton of chances to touch the ball. Kory Sheets had nearly 100 yards again today, but you don't get to run the ball much when you're perpetually down by 14 or more points. Anthony Heygood had 14 tackles and looked like he killed an MSU player on a particular hard hit in the first half. Magee, Baker and Neal have all played well as the season has progressed...and along with Williams and Heygood, these Seniors have held some good offenses to not many points. It's sad to see guys who literally bleed for a program have their careers end without much recognition...but it happens a lot in college football. Hopefully a few of them make some money playing football...more importantly, I hope they're all prepared for life after college.

Regardless of the effort given by the players, we're getting what we've paid for. Years of playing just-well-enough-to-get-by has caught up with a coach who refused to rebuild a program that has been deteriorating for a while now...and passion-less coaching has led to lackluster preparation and unimaginative gameplans. While the season is not quite over, it's time to look to the future.

Other Notes
-Minnesota and NU fans- I told you long ago your teams were pretenders...You refused to listen. The proof is in front of you.

-Nice job Illini! You've helped IU and UM players feel not-so-bad about their losses to MAC schools this season.

-Texas Tech is really fun to watch. The remind me of what it was like to have an offense.

-Notre Dame is getting beaten right now by an OK BC team...and while the game is a 17-point deficit, it's really not that close. Another intersting note about the game, this will be UND's sixth-straight win agains the VooDoo Catholics. UND is not good...nor is Clausen. 5 losses, with this type of schedule is eerily-similar to a Joe Tiller-coached team in the mid '00s.

This is how lousy Notre Dame's football program is- they're going to lose at least 5 this season and their fanbase is going to be completely fine with Weis returning next season. Great job Irish fans and administration! Keep up the mediocrity!

-Lastly, and surely least, great job, PSU! You've helped yourselves avoid assured embarassment in the first month of next year at the BCS Championship. Perhaps your fans shouldn't have been bitching last week about the polls.