Purdue Faces Coaching Crossroads

Coming into the 1997 season at Purdue, expectations and hopes were at an all time low. The Boilermakers had finished over .500 only once since 1984. The six year reign of Jim Colletto had just ended with a winning percentage of .333 and the program needing a spark. That spark was Joe Tiller. His innovative schemes of "basketball on grass" caught the Midwest by surprise, and it reignited a dormant program. The Boilermakers finished 9-3 in Tiller's first year.

In Joe Tiller's tenure at Purdue he's only had one season with a sub .500 record and has lead the Boilermakers to 9 bowl games in 10 seasons. Compare that to the 12 seasons before him, and it's clear to see he has brought Purdue to great new levels of success. So why is there grumblings with the Boilermaker faithful for a new head coach? Expectations have changed.

Many feel that Joe Tiller may have lost the fire and innovativeness that he brought to the Big Ten. Others are no longer satisfied with just making a bowl game. Many Purdue fans want to take the program to the next level, and they feel Joe Tiller is not capable of taking that step. Whether or not Tiller can take Purdue to that level, one thing is for certain, the next coach hired after Tiller is going be a critical decision.

The most important hire a university can make is the first coach hired after the coach who has taken the program to the next level. Tiller has taken Purdue to that next level, and now it's time to take the next step while the program is still highly regarded and bring in a good new coach.

The most recent examples of this have been at Wisconsin and Boise St. When Dan Hawkins jumped ship and left for Colorado many thought the program would collapse. Few knew that the next coach to take over would be such a gem. Chris Peterson in his first year at Boise State led the Broncos to an undefeated season including a BCS victory over perennial powerhouse Oklahoma. In Wisconsin, Barry Alvarez woke up a dead team and turned them into a force in the Big Ten. The next coach to take over for Wisconsin was Bret Bielema, who led the team to its highest single season win total as a rookie coach.

There are various other examples of this second coach phenomenon at schools such as Iowa, LSU, Louisville, and Nebraska to name a few. Building off the success of a coach who has taken the program to new levels is critical in maintaining the accomplishments the first coach achieved, and to set the bar higher for future coaches. The situation Purdue faces now is when will that time come. Do they give the boot to the coach who has done wonders for the program over the last 10 years, or do they let him ride out his career because of his successes. That decision is rapidly approaching in West Lafayette, especially if the team doesn't produce this season.