Purdue Football 2023 Coaching Staff

With the departure of Jeff Brohm to Louisville, it wasn’t much of a question on whether many of his assistants would be sticking around at Purdue. Only one was overly interested in staying and while Ryan Walters appeared to give that individual serious consideration, I doubt he would have for the remainder of Brohm’s staff had they wanted to stay.

Today, I’ll introduce the new staff and grade the hires. I’m also going to pass along some thoughts from our Illini writer thumpasaurus on their coaches coming over.

The Head Coach - Ryan Walters

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Ryan Walters gets his first head coaching opportunity with the Boilermakers. A former QB in high school, Walters transitioned to the defensive side of the ball while at the University of Colorado becoming a starting safety as a sophomore. After graduating, Walters became a graduate assistant in 2009 before getting his first position coach job in 2011 as the DB coach at Arizona. After Arizona he bounced around and coached corners and safeties at North Texas, Memphis, and Missouri.

In 2018, Walters was promoted to the defensive coordinator position at Missouri after head coach Barry Odom had to talk over playing calling duties midseason the previous year. Although the Tigers went 8-5 and then 6-6 in 2018 and 2019, the defense was above average and Walters was retained as defensive coordinator when Odom was replaced by Eliah Drinkwitz. Missouri’s defense took a step back in 2020, but the COVID season was weird all around (after all Indiana finished 2nd in the East division).

When Bret Bielema made his triumphant return to the Big Ten in 2021, he selected Walters as his defensive coordinator after Barry Odom turned down his advances.

For those not keeping track of Illinois football, their defense has been a large part of their rapid turnaround the past two seasons. In the first season under Walters, the Illini defense improved from giving up 34.9 points/game to just 21.9 points/game. They also befuddled the easily confused Scott Frost by utilizing an odd man front in the season opener that year. The 2022 Illini defense made further improvements finishing 2nd nationally in points allowed, 3rd in total defense, 3rd in yards/play, 1st in interceptions, and 1st in overall takeaways. Pretty impressive stats.

Walters will not be calling plays for the Purdue defense this year, but his defensive scheme (which has now been nicknamed the Air Strike) is expected to be copied over from his Illini defenses. We will talk more about the defensive scheme on Thursday but the important bits are this: a 5 man front designed to generate a pass rush and block gaps in the run game coupled with an aggressive secondary.

At the time of his hiring, Walters became the 4th youngest head coach in the FBS ranks. His youth (37) is matched by much of his staff and may help him to better connect with today’s college aged athletes than stubborn emperors like Kirk Ferentz. I’m not someone who follows recruiting too closely, but Walters recruiting ability appears to be more impressive than Brohm’s early on in his tenure. With his youth however, comes inexperience and less coaching connections to lean on with filling out his staff. Although he’s considered a rising talent among the college coaching ranks, there may be a learning curve as Walters steps into the head coaching role for the first time.

Grade: A-

The lack of head coaching experience keeps this from being an A, but Walters has been considered an up and coming coach for the past couple of years.

thumpasaurus: When Bielema first hired Walters, we all saw it as an absolute coup. From day one he had “future head coach” written all over him, getting a P5 DC job (Mizzou) so young and producing some recruiting results to his name. He produced beyond my wildest dreams, and frankly I was concerned he’d leave after year 1. Whether he’ll be a good head coach is anyone’s guess, but on paper he has all the tools to be.

Offensive Coordinator - Graham Harrell

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Being a defensive coach, Walters needed to nail his offensive coordinator hire. By choosing the 38 year old Graham Harrell, he’s at least gotten Purdue fans excited about the offensive potential of the program. Harrell is a former QB who played for Texas Tech from 2004 to 2008. During that time, he set records for passes completed in a season, most games with 400+ passing yards in a season & career, and most seasons gaining 4000+ passing yards. Harrell finished 4th in the 2008 Heisman Trophy running and the Red Raiders finished in a three way tie among the top of the Big 12 South at 11-1 (7-1).

Harrell would kick around the NFL and Canadian Football League for a few years before he started his coaching career in 2013 as a quality control assistant under Mike Gundy and Dana Holgorsen at Oklahoma State. In 2014, Harrell reunited with his former head coach, Mike Leach, at Washington State. By the following season, Harrell was coaching WRs for the Cougars. In 2016, he made the jump up to offensive coordinator at North Texas under Seth Littrell and began coaching QBs for the first time. The Mean Green offense improved from bottom 25 in passing, total yards, and points the year before Harrell arrived to top 30 in all three categories during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Following a three year stint at North Texas, Harrell was hired as the offensive coordinator at USC (Spoiled Children, not South Carolina) under Clay Helton. The offenses did fine the first two seasons before falling off a cliff (along with the rest of the program) following the early season firing of Helton in 2021. Harrell ended up spending the 2022 season as the offensive coordinator under Neal Brown at West Virginia. While the offense did improve from the previous season, it was still a somewhat disappointing season in comparison to Harrell’s previous ones as an offensive coordinator. With Brown meddling in the offense and Brown’s tenure in Morgantown potentially nearing its end, Harrell made the move to Purdue where he will have more of a free hand in running his offense.

Harrell runs an Air-Raid style offense. For Purdue fans used to pass heavy offenses that is an encouraging sign. They should be warned though, the last time Harrell appears to have had full control of the offense (North Texas), his play calling was much closer to 50/50 pass/run than typical Air Raid offenses. We will talk more about Harrell’s Air Raid and what to expect from the Purdue offense tomorrow. He will also be handling QB coaching duties.

Grade: B+

There have been times on Harrell’s resume that would make this hire an A+. His tenure at USC however didn’t produce the top 10 offenses that one might expect from the level of talent they had on hand. Of course if they had, Purdue wouldn’t have been in a position to hire him. The ceiling is high. We will see what Harrell can do without working under a head coach heavily influencing the offensive side of the ball.

Defensive Coordinator - Kevin Kane

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The 39 year old - are you noticing a pattern with the coaching staff’s ages? - Kevin Kane was the first hire announced by Ryan Walters and joins him from Illinois after spending last year as their outside linebackers coach and associate head coach. Kane played linebacker at Kansas in the early aughts. He later spent two years as a student assistant with the Jayhawks before three years as a graduate assistant/quality control coach when getting his Masters degree at wisconsin in 2010. I’ll try not to hold his Badger ties against him too much.

Since leaving the Badgers behind and seeing his quality of life skyrocket, Kane has jumped around a bit: four seasons at Northern Illinois, one at Kansas, two more at Northern Illinois, three at SMU, and the last two seasons at Illinois. Kane has mostly coached linebackers but also has some experience as safeties coach, two years coordinating special teams (in addition to LB duties), and served as defensive coordinator during the second stint at Northern Illinois and at SMU.

The defenses Kane ran at Northern Illinois and SMU weren’t the best (those SMU defenses ranked near the bottom of the FBS in points/game) but they did improve over his tenures and get worse after he left so its not all bad news. At Illinois, Kane served as the associate head coach and I would expect that having worked closely under Walters the past two years he takes on several program running duties in addition to his role as defensive coordinator.

Grade: B

Kane’s record as a defensive coordinator leaves something to be desired, but the Illini defense the past two seasons has been excellent and that occurred with Kane and Walters working in together. I’m optimistic they will continue to work well together on that side of the ball.

thumpasaurus: Tbh I don’t know all that much about kane, dineen and O’Brien. Obviously it’s fair to say that every defensive position coach from the illini defense under Bielema did some pretty good work. The hallmark of the defense was the secondary though, and secondary coach Aaron Henry is now the DC at Illinois.

What’s this mean? Hard to say. Those guys have connections to Illinois recruiting because everyone on Bert’s staff has to. That Walters was able to take some of his staff with him suggests that those coaches believe in him enough to take risks. There’s nothing worse than when no important personnel follow your new coach to your new school (see Tim Beckman being abandoned by both his OC and DC)

Special Teams Coordinator - [FILE NOT FOUND]

Special Teams Analyst - Chris Petrilli

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When Walters was staffing his assistant roles this past December and January, the thinking across the NCAA was that they would formally expand football coaching staffs so that any staff member could assist in training/development during practices. This is already the apparent unofficial practice among the majority of college football programs despite technically being against the rules. However, in mid-January the NCAA (in their infinite wisdom) decided to postpone that vote.

While I can’t prove it (and nobody else seems to be mentioning it), Petrilli appears to have been hired under the assumption that coaching staffs would increase in size. They did not and so Petrilli, who was the special teams coordinator at North Texas last season, is officially an analyst this season. That means he isn’t supposed to go on off-campus recruiting trips or directly coach players during practices. How that actually works out is to be determined.

Perhaps though, Walters doesn’t see the need for a special teams coordinator that recruits off-campus (seeing as you aren’t even recruiting a special teams exclusive scholarship player every year - and Purdue has gotten a kicker commitment via primarily on-campus recruiting) and thinks they can make due on the practice field and during games with Petrilli setting up the organizational frame work and the on field coaches implementing it. Or with Petrilli bending the NCAA rules. Feel free to speculate wildly in the comments and call for Ohio State and Michigan to be banned from postseason play for their audacious behavior.

Nevertheless, Petrilli is in charge of managing the overall organization of the special teams units. Petrilli has spent the past 11 seasons coaching or analyzing special teams in the college ranks at Charleston Southern, College of Idaho, Boise State, Drake, and North Texas. Game day and practice coaching responsibilities haven’t been announced but the smart money would be on Kevin Kane and Seth Doege having some involvement due to their past history as special teams coordinators.

Grade: C+

If Petrilli was the special teams coordinator, I’d give this grade a B. Since he isn’t and I’m not sure how the game day duties will be fulfilled, I drop this hire down a letter grade. While we’ve seen teams succeed without a special teams coordinator before, we all tend to remember things like Scott Frost not having a special teams coordinator and Nebraska’s special teams fiascos under him a lot more. There is some risk here.

Position Coaches

I’m going to keep the positional assistants section a little briefer as I’m already over 1500 words and most of you guys are skipping straight to the comments section anyway to engage in arguments about whether Walters was any good at Illinois.

Wide receivers/associate head coach - Cory Patterson

Patterson comes from Illinois where he spent the last five seasons (Patterson was the lone holdover onto Bielema’s new staff in 2021). Patterson has spent the past two seasons as the running backs coach helping develop Chase Brown and previous three seasons as the Illini tight ends coach. Prior to his time at Illinois, Patterson was a successful high school head coach in St. Louis. At 42 years old, Patterson has been considered a top recruiter, but we will have to see how his receiver coaching goes. The good news is that two other coaches on the staff have experience coaching WRs.

Grade: B

thumpasaurus: Patterson was one of the few great hires Lovie Smith made, a Head coach of a perennial state champion catholic school in St. Louis. He brought some recruiting firepower to Champaign, namely Shammond Cooper and Isaiah Williams, but in a strange twist of fate his high school (Trinity Catholic) shut down two years after he left and he’s really lost the recruiting juice in STL. Still, I was happy Bielema retained him

Running backs - Lamar Conard

Conard played at Purdue as a DB under Joe Tiller in the late 90s. He is the oldest member of the offensive staff at 46 years old. He has spent the last five seasons as the RB coach for Miami Ohio and the previous nine seasons at Illinois State where he coached running backs for seven seasons under his former defensive coordinator Brock Spack.

While you don’t think of Miami Ohio as a football powerhouse these days, their running backs have been above average under Conard. In their game against the Northwestern Wildcats last season, the Redhawks RBs were able to run for 211 yards on 32 carries despite a woefully inept QB and Northwestern being able to stack the box. Conard is the lone Boilermaker alumni on the staff and is a competent RB coach, something Purdue has lacked for a long time. Note that by hiring Conard, Cory Patterson was pushed to the WR assistant position.

Grade: A-

Tight Ends - Seth Doege

Doege spent last year as an analyst at Ole Miss, but worked under Graham Harrell at USC from 2019-2021. He was a quality control assistant the first two seasons and the TE coach in 2021. Doege was also a successor to Graham Harrell at Texas Tech, taking control of the starting QB position in 2011. A young coach on a young staff, the 34 year old Doege has also spent three years at Bowling Green: 1 year as a graduate assistant, 1 year coaching WRs, and the final year coaching WRs and special teams.

Grade: B+

Offensive line - Matt Mattox Marcus Johnson

Matt Mattox was hired in January from UTSA to be the offensive line coach but before we even hit the end of March, it was announced that he would be leaving for personal reasons. No idea what those personal reasons were. Mattox was the one coach I couldn’t quite figure out how Walters or Harrell connected with him, but I no longer have to solve that puzzle since he’s out.

In steps Marcus Johnson, who was lured away from Missouri. This past season, the Tigers O-line play was poor but previous seasons have seen Johnson much lauded by football people for his coaching ability. Johnson crossed paths with Walters while they were both at Missouri in 2020. He has seven years of experience as an offensive line coach (three at Missouri, two at Mississippi State, and two at Duke). Johnson is a former All-SEC offensive lineman and was drafted by the Vikings in the 2nd round of the 2005 NFL draft.

Grade: B

Defensive line - Brick Haley

Haley is the old man on the staff at 57 years old making him over a decade older than the next oldest coach. Haley played for Alabama A&M in the 80s and has been a defensive line coach, linebacker coach, or defensive coordinator for the past 22 seasons with the vast majority of those coming along the D-line. Haley has stops at Clemson, Baylor, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, da Bears, LSU, Texas, Missouri (where he overlapped with Walters), and most recently Minnesota. Haley worked well under Walters at Missouri, was solid at Minnesota last season, and has a long history of experience.

Grade: A

Outside Linebackers - Joe Dineen

Dineen was an outside linebackers analyst last season for the Illini. This marks his first on-field coaching position. He was a 2018 All-American linebacker at Kansas but went undrafted in the 2019 draft and had a very brief NFL stint with the Broncos and Jaguars. Dineen is still inexperienced when it comes to coaching, but will have defensive coordinator (and former outside linebackers coach) Kevin Kane to lean on if needed after working closely with Kane last year. Dineen is a considered a potential up and coming assistant in coaching circles by people more qualified than me to comment on such things. If you are wondering why Dineen is listed as the outside linebackers coach and who is coaching the inside linebackers, the Purdue staff has divided the linebackers group under two coaches (therefore eliminating the spot for a special teams coordinator). Inside linebackers will be coached by defensive coordinator Kevin Kane.

Grade: C

Cornerbacks - Sam Carter

Carter is a big time recruiter. A former All-Big 12 safety at TCU, Carter spent the past season at Ole Miss (on the same staff as Seth Doege) and the two seasons before that at Arkansas. Prior to his two seasons at Arkansas, Carter worked as a defensive quality control analyst at Missouri under defensive coordinator Ryan Walters. The 2019 Missouri defense (coached by DC Ryan Walters, DL coach Brick Haley, and with Carter and the soon to be discussed O’Brien as analysts) allowed just 19.4 points per game and only 179.3 yards/game thru the air. Getting the gang back together seems real promising.

Grade: A

Safeties - Grant O’Brien

Like Dineen, O’Brien was a defensive analyst at Illinois last season. O’Brien played for Northern Arizona and graduated in 2013. Prior to spending the past two seasons as an analyst at Illinois, O’Brien spent three years as an analyst at Missouri under DC Ryan Walters. He has also been a D-line position coach at FIU (2017), a defensive coordinator at Arizona Christian (2015-16), and a graduate assistant at Northern Arizona (2013-14). This isn’t O’Brien’s first position coaching gig, but it has been a few seasons and this is a big step up from his last one. O’Brien has been a tremendous recruiter early on his tenure at Purdue.

Grade: C+

Strength and Conditioning Director - Kiero Small

Small comes from Michigan where he was an assistant S&C coach. While with the Wolverines, Small was regarded as an up and coming strength coach by none other than Jim Harbaugh and expected to land the main position somewhere in short order which he now has. A blocking fullback at Arkansas, Small stuck around NFL practice squads for a couple of seasons before moving into the coaching ranks. He was likely recommended to Walters by his former coach at Arkansas: Bielema.

Grade: B

Overall Views

Overall, I’m pleased with the staff Walters has pieced together. As a young coach, his coaching network isn’t as developed as some of his more experienced colleagues but he’s done a good job identifying energetic coaches that have done well at previous stops and ones that he knows he will be comfortable working with. There seems to be a good mix of coaching ability and recruiting ability.

It’s not all rainbows and unicorns though. The lack of a dedicated special teams coordinator has me wondering a bit and this is a very young staff. Inexperience may raise its ugly head as these guys grow into their new roles.

In comparison to Jeff Brohm’s coaching staff latest coaching staff at Purdue though, there isn’t anyone that has me openly questioning the head coaches decision making. Although I haven’t mentioned it above because it isn’t an actual assistant role, Walters has an actual director of operations in charge of the administrative stuff. Walters also hasn’t hired a family member to serve as a coordinator.

Last years staff saw Purdue hire David Elson, Garrick McGee, and Ashton Youboty as assistants with more questions than answers. Chris Barclay and Dale Williams remained on the staff for the entirety of Brohm’s tenure without developing players as well as would be expected at the Big Ten level. The new staff is young, but they have had some success in their limited careers and a lot of the pieces have worked successfully together.

Overall Grade: B+