More Purdue Hate - 2023

Hate day is a day to celebrate all the things about our rivals that we love that may inflict emotional distress on their parts. As an Indiana fan, some of my best memories of Purdue sports are Darrell Hazell, Purdue NCAA tournament mishaps, and oh let’s not forget that Music City bowl.

I really didn’t want to just sit around here and take shots at you all though. That seems cruel, and let’s face it, there are quite a few good shots one could take. I do have some affinity towards Purdue though, as half of my family did attend there. I truly do love my Hoosier state and when Indiana teams are playing, hell I like to watch. So instead of just lobbing hate your way, I thought I would give you guys 3 stats that should give you Boilerbots out there some hope.

1) There is a chance that Ryan Walters leads Purdue to a winning season this year.

Since Jack Mollenkopf took over the Purdue football program in 1956, 1^st year Purdue football coaches are a combined 49-71-3. That’s not quite fantastic, but it’s also not something that should shock anyone. Generally speaking, when a football coach leaves/is fired there’s bound to be a dip in the winning. We all know that. However, there have been exactly 2 coaches to lead the Boilers to a winning season in their first year at the helm: Joe Tiller (9-3) and Jeff Brohm (7-6). Should also be noted that the two coaches that followed Tiller were…suboptimal….so here’s hoping Coach Ryan Walters doesn’t regress Purdue back to a state of less than .500 football.

The point here is Purdue isn’t dammed to new coach losing syndrome. There’s absolutely no pressure on Ryan Walters or Purdue this year at all! That team ISN’T going to win 9 games, but I feel comfortable saying the season is a failure if you don’t win 7. This IS your last year in the Big Ten West, why not give your new guy a good season, eh?

2) Athletic department revenue and NIL isn’t everything!

In 2022, Purdue ranked 37^th nationally for athletic department revenue with $115.1 million total. That’s pretty good! I mean it’s 11^th in the Big Ten, just above Rutgers and Maryland (Northwestern was suspiciously missing from the table I saw), but it’s 37^th nationally! That’s not bad!

Regardless of athletic department revenues, I’m sure that the NIL collective is going well! Purdue recently (2022) announced a partnership with Drew Brees, so that’s cool! What else you got...an NIL store? Neat!

Let’s be honest though, money isn’t everything! Money won’t win you games. Players do that. Just continue to charm those peegs 5 star recruits with that West Lafayette charm. That should keep the pipelines coming!

3) 1 seed teams that lose to 16 seeds in the first round win the NCAA Tournament the following year 100% of the time!

This stat should be the one that gives you the most hope. Every team that’s lost as a 1 seed in the first round of the NCAA tournament has gone on to win the whole thing the following year! That’s something to look forward to!

I mean you guys return the Wooden Award winner Zach Edey. You guys upgraded your guard play this summer by adding...did you guys add any good guards? You…you’re going to bet on those chuckle-heads to win games again…hmmmm…interesting…..well I guess I shouldn’t throw stones and insult the 2024 NCAA Tournament Champion Purdue Boilermakers. Congrats!

See guys? Hate week doesn’t need to be evil. I just gave you 3 good reasons to have hope as a Purdue fan! Don’t say I never did anything for you.