Brohm to Louisville
- Thread starter Go Catz
- Start date
Not a shock, glad that he gets to the chance to coach at his alma mater.
I'm curious, where do folks think Purdue ranks as a coaching job? It's obviously well below OSU, Michigan, Penn State and I still think they are a basketball school. But they can talk to recruits about going to the BIG Championship game, Rondale Moore and Drew Brees. I think it's a notch below Wisconsin and MSU, and MAYBE Nebraska but above everyone else (including us). All things being equal is a coach taking the Purdue job over Iowa/Illinois/Minnesota?
I'm curious, where do folks think Purdue ranks as a coaching job? It's obviously well below OSU, Michigan, Penn State and I still think they are a basketball school. But they can talk to recruits about going to the BIG Championship game, Rondale Moore and Drew Brees. I think it's a notch below Wisconsin and MSU, and MAYBE Nebraska but above everyone else (including us). All things being equal is a coach taking the Purdue job over Iowa/Illinois/Minnesota?
This is a big loss for Purdue and to the Big Ten coaching landscape. I think Purdue has been as relatively successful as it's been because Brohm is an excellent gameday coach. I really don't see West Lafayette as being an attractive destination for any particular reason, and I'd bet they either land a MAC head coach or a first-time HC again into that position.
Honestly, if I were him I'd hold out for something better. I don't see a run at Purdue going any better for him than it did for Darrell Hazell.
That would be a great opportunity for Leonhard (assuming he’s not going to be our DC for any amount of money 😉). A program on the rise coming off a division title, as opposed to one of the many jobs that are open because coaches were fired for doing poorly.
I was going to disagree based on the Danny Hope and Darrel Hazell experiences (that sent Purdue back to the dark ages), but I think Chris Creighton from E. Michigan could be an attractive candidate and successful person at Purdue.
If Purdue can keep continuity with the offensive system, I think that gives it the best chance at not sliding back too far.
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Let's be clear about something...maybe he's great...but it's equally possible despite the media hype that maybe he's terrible or doomed in a bad HC job in a desolate place like West Lafayette.
Why do you suppose Wisconsin didn't opt to hire him? Did they not know him? Like him? Was Wisconsin in THAT bad a shape that he couldn't have performed better?
Yeah.... I can't help but focus on the fact that it was such a big deal when Leonhard was appointed interim head coach. There was a lot of press and celebration coming out of Madison. But just a couple months later, Wisconsin was willing to let him walk. Now, I realize Luke Fickell is a great coach and a bigger name, but something must have made the Wisconsin leaders check to see if Fickell was interested. At some point, they must have decided that Leonhard was not a clear home run and they wanted to try and do better.
I'd put Purdue clearly below Iowa as well. Nebraska/Wisconsin/Iowa/Michigan State have much stronger fan support (and that translates financially) compared to the rest below the top tier.
Purdue is on par with Illinois/Minnesota. Better than Indiana or Rutgers.
Brohm was a good fit there, but the Louisville pull was way too strong. He was always destined for that job.
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ACC is arguably the third best league in the country. Easier path to the playoff than the B1G.
He already did that once. Second time he was approached by Louisville was too good to pass up.
Plus. With usc and ucla coming to the big ten it will be nearly impossible to “win” regardless of whether divisions are scrapped.
At the beginning of the football season, who would have thought Wisconsin would have fired Paul Chryst or that a chain reaction from a Wisconsin coaching change would result in Purdue losing Coach Brohm?
Look at his backstory.
Brohm to Louisville might be the most "hometown return" of a coach ever.
His dad played there, he and his 3 brothers played there. He coached one of his brothers there. Tons of family there.
The family ties to Louisville for Brohm are probably a record of some sort.
As far as quality of job, I can see the argument for Purdue (way more resources down the road especially when the new TV deal kicks in) as compared to the ACC (which may lose schools in the 2030s and become a distant also-ran league).
Competitively, Louisville doesn't have to go through the same gauntlet to reach the top as Michigan/Ohio State/Penn State and add USC to that mix.
In the ACC, at most you have to deal with Clemson and Florida State given that Miami and Va Tech are way down.
And the ACC doesn't have a ton of high resource programs in the middle class like Nebraska/Wisconsin/Iowa/Michigan State all of which have way more football resources than pretty much all of the ACC outside of Clemson/Florida State. A lot easier to get to the top half of the ACC than the Big Ten.
I agree with everything you wrote except for your statement that the ACC doesn't have "high resource teams in the middle class." I would argue that North Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia, Pitt (and maybe even Duke) are definitely comparable from a resource standpoint to the middle tier of the BIG. To me, the leagues are actually very comparable. The ACC has 3 National Championships in the last 10 years (Clemson, Florida State) the BIG has one (Ohio State)
It's more like financial resources and willingness to spend them on football.
UNC/UVa have budgets that aren't that much smaller for example than Wisconsin/Nebraska/Iowa/Michigan State (though the differences will grow in the new Big Ten TV deal), but the latter spend a lot more on football (while the ACC schools spend more on basketball).
Helps that the Big Ten schools at issue have much bigger football fanbases (and the ticket sales from that) which directs to some extent where the money is going. They're also likely to have more NIL money as a result of having much bigger football fanbases.
UNC/UVA/Pitt/Syracuse/Duke are a lot more like Northwestern/Minnesota/Purdue/Maryland/Illinois. All solidly middle class Power 5 football programs in terms of overall resources (obviously we lack the fanbase size but have several dozen extremely active donors that make up the gap and then some).
HC and assistant salaries bear out those differences as does spending on recruiting (though the Big Ten schools have to spend more given distance from talent).
Wisconsin can grab a coach like Fickell. I doubt any of UNC/UVa/Pitt/Syracuse/Duke etc. could have gotten a coach like that. The difference is ceiling on the programs and football/financial resources.
I also think the differences will grow substantially in the next Big Ten TV deal. By 2028-2030, Big Ten schools will be getting $30-50 million more in conference distributions, and much of that will be going to football.
As far as National Championships go, that's entirely up to the top echelon of the conference. The Big Ten has sort of been missing Michigan/Penn State as competitive factors on that front, though perhaps Michigan has finally reached the level necessary to win that. Florida State/Clemson have the location/recruiting advantage over those 2, though Ohio State's national recruiting footprint enables it to field teams as talented as say Alabama and Georgia.
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Personally I think they should hire Jeff Brohm's son instead, he's just so great.
If we had a wide receiver coach in place, we should be going after TJ McWilliams who verballed to Purdue but visited NU and has a sister currently on the NU basketball team. I'm sure there are other Purdue commits worth trying to flip as well especially given Purdue's proximity to NU and somewhat similar academic profile. Hopefully Fitz can get his new hires in place to stop the bleeding and start filling the holes we are experiencing from the portal and decommits.
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We basically do have a WR Coach in place. His name is Brian Gasser and he is already out there recruiting other WRs for NU. My guess is that Gasser gets formally announced when the other open coaching jobs are filled.
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