France Cordova's time as President is nearly over...and I'm kinda "meh" about her time in power (at best). Her predecessor, Jische, only held the post for 8+ years, but raised an immense amount of money for Purdue and spearheaded some large building projects. I believe the campus changed more in those 8 years than it had in the previous 25. And the guy who was there for 13 of those 25, the president when I was on campus, Beering seemed to be more of an administrator than fundraiser and politician-type. In fact, Beering reminded me a bit of a principal of a large high school- everyone knew who he was, not many knew him or saw him around campus, and not many liked him either.
Definitely not going to be a VP candidate
Now, the current Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels is set to follow Cordova after nearly six years at the post. Daniels is a guy that most people in Indiana either love or hate...but I think he'll be a pretty good fit for one of the most conservative educational institutions in the Midwest.
Political views aside, Daniels record is pretty conservative*...and personally, he's been known to call himself "cheap". Plus, I think it'll be easier to believe he's actually interested in basketball or football games than Cordova. That might have been the biggest rub to me about Purdue's current Pres- it always looked forced to me when she was at a game...but at least she tried; not all University presidents do that.
No one will ever question Cordova's intelligence...in fact, she's an academian's academian who spent most of her career on or around a college campus. Daniels though, is a politician...and most of his career has been either in office, or working for someone who was elected.
The big question is: How does this affect Boiled Sports? Probably not at all. Just like the previous presidents, unless you're looking for something to complain about, it won't matter much to you. BUT, Cordova and the Board of Trustees have taken a higher percentage of the BTN TV contract money than any other institution in the conference. That, at least to me, is garbage...and as the arms race for bigger and better facilities in the B1G allows even IU and Northwestern to build sizable, high-end football offices and training rooms, Purdue's athletics can't afford to take such a hit...in the long term.
But, the decision of how the funds are taken and allocated is probably going to be out of Daniels' hands. But one thing is sure- the next president will probably help decide who the next AD is since Burke probably won't keep that office for the next decade...so this decision will have an effect on the athletic department, and most-importantly, Boiled Sports.
We're pretty critical when Purdue screws things up...so it's only fair to throw down some praise when the university does something right- My opinion is that Purdue got this one right. The guy knows how to lead, has a tremendous resume and has a recognizable name that much of the state knows and respects. Well played, trustees...now put some more money back into the hands of the athletic department.
*conservative meaning he doesn't spend a ton of money
If you listen to the Handsome Hour or read the site regularly, you knew we had questions coming into this season:
-Who would step up at WR?
-How would TerBush be under/behind center?
-Did Purdue have a DE in the stable that could lessen the blow of losing Kerrigan?
After the first two games a couple more questions have emerged?
-Why haven't we seen or heard more from Purdue's defensive backs?
-Why hasn't Hope used Wiggs more?
-Why are the linebackers covering wide receivers so regularly?
-Why has the play calling been so vanilla?
All of these are just gut feeling questions...but here are some stats and numbers to go along with the questions.
Yeah, they're that good!
MTSU looked pretty tough versus Purdue in the first game, and their QB looked like a guy who could be the best in the SunBelt, if not more. We all talked about how they were a bowl team...so what did they do to follow up their near-win in West LaLa?
They got crushed by Georgia Tech. They were down 42-7 at the end of the third quarter and lost 49-21. Their QB, Kilgore, who passed for 330 yards and 7.3yds/attempt v. Purdue, finished with 114 yards and 4.1yds/attempt and was yanked v. the Yellow Jackets.
(Note to the reader: This post is longer than normal...but read it in chunks if you don't have time to read it in its entirety...Then, let us know your thoughts...I think we're witnessing a critical period of time for Danny Hope's coaching staff)
In 2009, Purdue fans were in an optimistic mood. Almost everybody, including Joe Tiller, was ready for a change following the '08 season. We all knew Hope was an emotional guy...a high-energy guy. We all liked that too. After years of watching a stoic coach hold a stop watch, crunch on ice chips, hold his nose at the refs and complain about the disparity between Purdue and the cream of the conference, it was good to see something fresh.
And we saw something new last season. We saw a team that was a seemingly-manic as its coach. Coach Tiller was never too high, never too low. Coach Hope is a red ass when angry and happy like a little kid after a big victory. Football should be an emotional game...I like that emotion. I still think that personality type was what the program needed, especially after the last few seasons of JT's time in West Lafayette.
That said, I have to be fair and look critically at what we've been witnessing the last two seasons...and it's worse than not good. Possibly more disparaging, Things are going backwards...and it has little to do with injuries, in my opinion. The optimism for this coaching staff among the fan base seems to be waning.
Offensive Woes Everyone reading understands the painful reality the Purdue football team's attrition has probably brought to the coaching staff. But, injuries to skilled players have no effect on the offensive line. This offensive line, at times, has looked as bad as any I've seen since Akers was coaching at Purdue. Colletto's lines were generally powerful...but slow. Tiller's lines (even the least talent-laden) were generally lean, but very skilled at protecting for the spread system. But Coach Hope's second offensive line seems to be months away from being ready. On paper, they're formidable- tall, long arms, great strength and weight. But, in person, versus less-than stellar competition, this unit seems to be manhandled regularly. The problem starts there...the OLine is Hope's baby...and his baby is kinda ugly right now.
Make no mistake, I'm not blaming Robert Marve's current injury on that line. But he was hit a ton the first few games. Granted, some of that was because he refused to get rid of the ball...but some was because he was simply running for his life as soon as the ball was moved. Today in the second half, they seemed to wear down Toledo and blew open some substantial holes...but this wasn't aOSU or Wisconsin they were facing. In the BT, it wearing a team down as the game goes on will become less and less likely. I have friends that say Bolden and Smith's losses are a difference of two or three games. They might be right, might be wrong. But, experts say that games are won in the trenches...in that case you can see why Purdue's offense is struggling to find an identity and has not yet found a rhythm.
Atop that, the play-calling has been horrible. The draw has been the mainstay this season from Coach Nord, next, a ton of reverses to the short side of the field...and for the life of me, I can't understand why the coaching staff keeps going to these dry wells. These plays have yielded very-limited success...and more-notably, have helped Purdue become one of the less-potent offenses in the nation. The 1-2-3-4 First Down Chant might need to be shelved for a while, in my opinion. The whole point of that was to demonstrate the frustrating nature of the way Purdue's offenses would rack up yards and first downs a they'd march down the field. This simply doesn't happen with regularity this season. Purdue has had more three and outs than their competition this season. Let that sink in- that's versus UND (who can't seem to stop anybody but Purdue), a 1-AA opponent and two MAC teams. That's flat-out awful. Do you think things will get better as the BT season commences?
Defensive Concerns Defensively, Purdue is struggling mightily to stop third down conversions. Some other Achilles heels seem to be the dreaded tight end dumps over the middle, delay draws and running backs who simply bounce their runs outside. These problems are officially a theme...and by the way, those plays don't take a genius like the Manatee to draw up or even a wise offensive sage to spot. This was a struggle last season too. People tried to blame it on a young/unhealthy LB corps then...now, according to Hope and others, this is supposed to be one of the best units on the team...it simply doesn't look that way though.
When Purdue has needed stops most this season, they simply haven't come. When a tackle has to be made, it almost never is as opposing running backs and quarterbacks seem to have Teflon-coated jerseys on when they're needed to be brought down. These same problems have seeped into the kickoff coverage units...Mercifully, Purdue doesn't have to kickoff all that often (read above for an answer why).
Recurring Special Teams Problems Speaking of special teams, here's what we've seen- no consistency from the punters, a pre-season all BT kicker miss routine field goals and a kickoff coverage unit that seems to wilt when needed most. Versus UND, Ball State and most recently, Toledo. This kickoff team (that's filled with starters) exhibits poor spacing and worse tackling more often than not. This gives an already beleaguered defense a short field to defend, time and time again. Keep in mind, Purdue hasn't been playing teams with deadly kick returners or Beamer-coached ST units...they've faced a mediocre UND team, a D1-AA team and two MAC teams (yes, I'm repeating for effect).
There's an old football adage that I've found to be true- bad teams always seem young. They're always awaiting the arrival of a RS player or recruit to complete the team. Good teams seem to have underclassmen who are frustratingly good and seem to start for 5 or 6 seasons. Purdue isn't the latter right now...nor were they in '09.
There's Always Something In much of the last season, I can remember thinking, "if only the defense could stop the run..." "if only the DBs could stop the pass..." "if only the quarterback could make a few deep throws and be more-consistent..." "if only the punt and kickoff units could keep their spacing and cover more-consistently..."
"If only this team could put together a complete game."
Ahhh, wouldn't it be great? And they did a few times last season toward the end...it seemed some of the lessons learned might carry into 2010. But, we seem to be experiencing Groundhog Day all over again. Versus Notre Dame, the defense held UND relatively in check (23 points)...but the offense was a no show (12). Today versus Toledo, Purdue's offense put it together in the second half (20 points in that half alone), but the defense allowed the statistical-worst offense in the nation to make plays when as it needed to assure victory. In the middle two games both the offenses and defenses struggled at times...particularly, allowing nearly 300 yards passing against W. Ill, then going scoreless for two-straight quarters against BSU.
As a rule it seems, Danny Hope's teams have struggled mightily to make "big" plays when their backs are against the wall in the first halves of each season he's been at Purdue.
Why? Perhaps Hope's camps haven't been as effective as they've needed to be. Perhaps the coaching staff simply doesn't game plan aggressively early on as they don't have confidence in the individual units at the beginning of the season. But whatever the case is, something needs to be done. If the offense can't score a ton of points and force opposing teams into a high-paced game that leads to mistakes...or the defense can't consistently come up with turnovers and stops as needed...or the Special Teams units cannot make tackles or produce enough points, something's gotta give. It's a team game, and since none of the individual parts seem to be dominant, the collective unit must compliment the sum...it hasn't happened yet.
What can be done? As J said in his post-game wrap-up, we're not proponents for people calling for the firing of Hope at this point as the season should be judged in its entirety, in our opinion. But, there might be some things that can be done to send a message to everyone on staff that there will be accountability and he simply expects more from his staff. Plus, I've never been a fan of people who just talk about problems and never have any proposed solutions...sure, my solutions aren't flawless, but in my opinion, something needs to be done.
Last season, Hope spoke of the importance of the Special Teams units as he named J.B. Gibboney as the ST Coordinator. The kick coverage was bad last year...but Hope blamed that on the fact that they couldn't put the guys on the field they needed/wanted to. This season, the kick coverage is still lousy...and starters are out there playing on those units. I'm not a fan of a mid-season firing...but think Gibboney needs to be relieved of his duties and shifted within the staff...perhaps to a position's coaching role.
The next potential change would be removing the "Co" from in front of Gary Emanuel's title and make him DC...then moving Landholm into the LB coaching role. Hagen would then become ST coordinator and would also coach the DLine.
Above, you can see how critical we are of the play-calling by Nord- it's been as vanilla and uninventive as I can remember. That said, I think his hands are tied more than any other coach's due to the losses of key players.
Granted, the chance of these changes, or changes like these, happening is extremely-slim as Hope seems to be staunchly-loyal. But, the margin for error of how to attain a winning record or respectable bowl has just gotten slimmer and slimmer...and with it, the leniency among alums, the general fanbase, and ticket holders/buyers might be disappearing.
Just as the Toledo loss back in 1997 became a defining moment and rallying cry for the Tiller's team and coaching staff, we could be witnessing a similar period of time right now, if some positives can be gleaned from it. If Hope's program is to take a collective step forward it will be because of the hard lessons learned thus far, and the difficult, if not aggressive decisions made during the upcoming bye week.
A Bleak Outlook Purdue is currently last in scoring offense, second-to-last in passing, last in kickoff returns, and tied in seventh for scoring defense all while playing the 8 most-difficult schedule thus far.
This week alone, Wisconsin scored 70 points, aOSU scored 73, UM scored 65 & MSU scored 45. Without major changes, could Purdue see one of the most lop-sided losses in recent memory in BT play? Or worse yet, could the Boilers end up in the cellar of the conference?
Games that looked like gimmes don't look like it anymore as Illinois is playing respectably and IU is flat-out playing well...Finding (at least) 4 wins in the remaining schedule, at least at this point, seems to be a bit of a pipe dream
The odds of having a winning season, or even going to a bowl game decreased drastically today following the loss to Toledo. Hope and co. simply can't wait until the end of the season to make a move...The time is now.
The forgone expansion of the NCAA tournament from 65 to 96 teams is only the tip of the iceberg, folks. It's definitely maddening for college hoops fans, but it also serves to mask several other changes to NCAA athletics that I think you should be aware of. They are as follows:
Women's basketball will be eliminated in the interest of equality. There will simply be "college basketball" going forward and any universities whose women's teams are better than their men's will put women on the floor. Clearly, Jim Calhoun is out of a job. Also, another lesser-known rule is that any male coach smaller than Maya Moore will no longer be eligible to coach at the college level. So long, Tom Crean.
College diving will have the water depth in diving pools lowered to 3 feet. The diving platform will also be raised 50 feet. Said a representative from the NCAA public affairs office:
"We feel that having so much water in the pool truly decreases the relevancy of good diving. Any ol' fool can dive into the pool and do well. Or survive, anyway. Changing the depth to three feet means you'd better be sure you know what you're doing and will place a premium on the regular season. Anyone who doesn't stay focused will wind up dead or paralyzed. In this way, much like college football, there will be a playoff atmosphere every weekend."
In baseball news, the regular season and College World Series will be eliminated and instead Rice and LSU will play an eleven-game series every year to determine the champion. All other schools will have their baseball teams reduced to "club" status and will play games on intramural fields and must allow anyone under the age of 60 to play if they want. Pitches will also be thrown underhand. Said the NCAA:
"We feel this is a more reasonable solution. Thinking about all the NCAA basketball teams that don't get into the tournament made us sad. Those kids DESERVE to have a chance to play. The same goes for out-of-shape 51-year-olds whose only other recourse is beer league softball, but who really always wanted to be college athletes. These guys DESERVE the chance to do that. Thus, this rule was born out of fairness."
Men's and women's crew will be changed somewhat as well, in that instead of oars, the rowers will have swords and will fight other crew teams to the death. Last team with a living team member wins. (In related news, Crew is expected to be phased out of NCAA athletics by 2012.)
Women's gymnastics: Women under 100 lbs will be asked to curl into the fetal position and will then be duct-taped into that position, loaded into a cannon, and fired at a brick wall. Points deducted if your gymnast accidentally is fired through a window, unless that window is Jim Delany's.
Track and Field will see a number of nuances added to the sport. For one thing, starter's pistols will be replaced with Glock 23s. At the start of each race, the runner in a randomly drawn lane will have this gun fired at the thigh of the starter's choosing.
For long jumpers, the NCAA will be adding an alligator pit and quicksand for all distances under Bob Beamon's 1968 gold-medal winning jump of 29 feet, 2 1/2 inches. From the NCAA:
"While Mr. Beamon's 29-plus-feet was the record for 23 years, that was a long time ago, and we feel today's athletes should be able to achieve this with no problem. If you're afraid of gators, perhaps you don't belong in this sport. Or the SEC. Sorry, that was a little college sports humor there."
College fencing will be changed to actual fencing, like in The Karate Kid. Those interested in fencing will go to a troubled neighborhood and put up fencing as a public service. This is because the NCAA has decided it's not nice to stab people. Fencing outfits will be donated to local beekeepers.
Seriously, these all make as much sense as anything else the NCAA does.
We couldn't find a good picture of Coach Tiller, so we used this...yes, Tiller looks a whole bunch like Wilford Brimley (it's really not clever)
Letter to Coach Tiller
Purdue's offense looks broken...no doubt about it. In their last two games, 21 of their 28 points have come during the last 3 minutes of the contests...During both contests, Purdue had LESS THAN 125 yards of TOTAL OFFENSE mid way through the third quarter. Painter's TD to INT ration has taken a pretty big hit, not to mention the fact that he can't seem to make any throws when under pressure. Dorien Bryant has dropped more dimes than Jonathon "Bud" Mackey...and the offensive line looks simply terrified. So what to do?
First thing Coach, get UM & OSU off of the schedule. OK, that's finished. Next, bench Selwyn Lymon (while you're at it, take away his #1 and give him either #99 or #0...it's a joke that he got it in the first place) and give the starting nod to former walk-on Jake Standeford. This will help a few things- First, Jake completes his routes, second, Jake catches passes that hit him in the hands, third Jake blocks, fourth (according to you, coach), Jake reads defenses better than any other wideout on Purdue's team.
After making that personnel change, tell Curtis that he's not benched...but he has a half to get the offense kick-started. If we see another first half like the last two weeks, Elliot or Panfil, or Tardy will run the offense...it honestly couldn't get a whole lot more anemic. I like Painter, and I don't think he's the problem, but the entire unit needs a shot in the arm...and God knows this Purdue team wasn't built around the idea of the defense winning games for it.
Next, I'd implement more two-tight end sets...use Adams as a more typical tight end and free Keller up, move him around. Let him run flat routes, seam routes, posts, fly routes, heck, put him at flanker and let him run slants. I'm pretty sure no DB can take away a route from him. I'd even like to see Keller lined up at full or half back from time-to-time. He's that much of a weapon and has earned it, in my opinion.
Then, I think I'd make the two-back rotation Halliburton & Taylor. This will help a few things out. First, while Sheets is a weapon, he's also a liability. I think he's lost 5 fumbles this season...plus (and you can confirm this, coach), rumor has it that he's been arriving late to practice- not a good thing for the team. Halliburton should help create more time for Painter by simply being another blocker. Also, he runs vertically...if he's a threat to get the ball, it will cause more attention to be directed to the center of the field. Lastly, Taylor should be pretty close to 100% in the next few weeks. If he starts getting carries this week he'll get back to being the all-positive yardage guy we've come to know and love.
Lastly, I think Coach Legg needs to hand the play-calling over to Coach Z. Legg's playcalling is extremely predictable...I think this would help a lot.
