You didn’t list the most compelling paragraph in that article which proves there is a direct link between Fitzgerald considering another job and this facility being built. The one which describes how Ryan and Osborne scrambled back to Chicago in January 2011 to discuss what it would take to prevent Fitzgerald from meeting with Michigan. The seeds for this new facility were planted at that meeting. If that does not prove a definitive link, I don’t know what does.
Hunter Johnson to transfer
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You didn’t list the most compelling paragraph in that article which proves there is a direct link between Fitzgerald considering another job and this facility being built. The one which describes how Ryan and Osborne scrambled back to Chicago in January 2011 to discuss what it would take to prevent Fitzgerald from meeting with Michigan. The seeds for this new facility were planted at that meeting. If that does not prove a definitive link, I don’t know what does.
And whose to say Purdue wouldn't match LSU and keep Brohm around. Brohm can win at Purdue. Especially once he gets his players in. Last year he won 7, could have easily been more, with a group that won 9 the 4 years previously. Purdue is a very good football job to have at the moment. And it's only going to get better. That's why I struggle to see him leave. Plus he wants to remain close to Louisville.
If you think Purdue really has the resources to match a $4.5-$5MM offer to go with the prestige and allure of coaching either in the SEC or at his hometown/alma mater, then by all means he might stick around.
I also recognize that you're a fan, but struggle to see how Purdue is going to win all that many games this season after losing essentially your entire front on defense along with both starting corners. Brohm can put up a ton of points, but you have to keep the other guys from scoring as well.
What in your mind makes Purdue a great job for a coach with no passionate ties to the school? How is it a better job than Louisville or Auburn or LSU or West Virginia or South Carolina or Florida State or Oregon or Texas A&M? I'm not sure I'd call it even an equivalent job to Arizona or North Carolina.
For most of those schools, I'd argue substantially better history/tradition (both recent and long-term), better financial resources, better fan support, and better traditional recruiting bases. IMHO, the best argument for staying at Purdue is inertia, but I've not seen much to indicate that the Brohms are "bodies at rest".
As I said above, Purdue is shelling out the cash to be able to win. They are paying brohm 3.8 million right now. His contract would have him making 4.5 million at the end. He has brand new football only training facilities that are super nice. The stadium is slowly being upgraded with the big renovation coming. As for money and fan support, Purdue will have the fan support once we start winning. We had it when tiller was here and it's coming back quick. They are hoping to sell 30k season tickets plus students into a stadium that hold 47k I think. So if they hit their target numbers, they will have a pretty full stadium most games. I'd agree our defense is a concern this next year, but I don't think it will be awful. We will just have a lack of depth. Offense should be really good though. As for recruiting, we are doing pretty well right now. It looks like we could end up with 4 or 5 4 star recruits. And for history, Purdue is known for producing some great quarterbacks and some great defensive ends. We still have some really good players in the NFL. Purdue football has a lot of momentum right now. Brohm took a pay raise to stay at Purdue over go to Tennessee. A job that was perceived to be the best possible job to Louisville. So that's what gives us hope. In a couple years, if he's still at Purdue and recruiting keeps trending in the direction it is, Purdue will be very good.
Maybe overall college athletics but no way IU is perceived better as a football program or job than Purdue. I wouldn’t think Brohm or Hunter Johnson would give a rats about perception of the other athletic programs.
I'm not sure that Brohm was ever all that realistic as a candidate at Tennessee, but he sure did leverage that to his advantage in West Lafayette. From a Purdue site:
"As it turns out, he was completely and utterly full of shit. There was a major dump of documents this morning regarding the Tennessee coaching search, and Brohm’s name is nowhere to be found:"
https://www.hammerandrails.com/2018/3/23/17156386/tennessee-coaching-jeff-brohm-never-happened
But, why do you think those things make Purdue a better job than the schools I listed? Your list is really weak:
1) His salary makes him the 8th highest paid coach...in the B1G. Most of the schools I listed already pay their coach more than that and the number goes up when they go looking for their new coach and most of those have the deep pockets to keep going higher to get their guy.
2) Do you think those facilities are nicer than the facilities at those other schools? In what way? Everybody is investing in facilities. That doesn't make Purdue special.
3) A bad stadium is "slowly being upgraded". Wow, that's exciting. Check out the stadium and fan experience at those other schools. And "maybe" you will have a "pretty full" 47,000 seats if the team is really good?
4) Your "history" is some quarterbacks and defensive ends? The schools I mentioned have national titles, Heisman Trophy winners, New Year's Day bowls, and national relevance in the lifetime of the kids you are recruiting.
C'mon, man. That's a terrible pitch. That's essentially, "We're maybe middle of the road in several ways and have had a few good things happen over the years." Thank goodness they don't let you in the room when it comes time for the pitch to keep Brohm around. There are lots of programs that can offer A LOT more than Purdue. If he wins big, they'll come calling for him and you'd better have better than that. If he doesn't, it's all moot anyway.
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My point was that from 2011 until approximately 2016 or so some of the shine wore off on Fitz. He was able to leverage his popularity. Do you think PSU or USC or Michigan would trade there current coaches for Fitz? Like I said, Fitz is gaining positive momentum the last 2 years. But more losses to ISU-Cal and NIU will not help. Is he responsible for the new WR arena? Maybe partly, who knows. I judt think with Phillips and Ryan smd Morty that this was going to happen regardless. Anyway, I just want the OL to show up from game 1 for a change.
What? Do you not believe what’s written in the article? The article states the facility is directly attributable to FItz. To answer your other question, yes, I think FItz is just as in demand now as he was then. I can’t think of a coach who would have done better at NU than FItz has since 2011.
Fitz is technically from the South suburbs, not the Southside. Huge difference. Damn Yahoos.
Going from the toilet bowl to the middle of the road is progress for these guys.
I don't really get the confidence of the Boilers. I mean, sure they got 7 wins last year and made it to a bowl for the first time in a decade or so. But, if you go to their board, they are talking about winning the West and becoming the powerhouse program in our division. WTF?
There's really nothing I see that gives Purdue an advantage over NU (which is probably why we almost never lose recruits to them) - the only thing I come close to being envious of at Purdue is their big assed drum. We need one too. Only bigger. And Purple.
This reminds me of the chatter around Tom Herman at University of Houston a couple of years ago. He was successful, got a big raise, said all the right things, and then bailed as soon as UT came calling. UH fans were convinced he'd stay, but he was gone after two seasons.
It is amazing. Granted they actually looked like an average team last year but there is a long way to go. Still NU handled them easily last year and was pretty much better in all phases of the game. Some of them are all puffy chested and are predicting they blow right past us. They are blasting our stadium which I expect from all B1G teams EXCEPT Purdue. Reminds me of the Fighting Lovie’s pinning all there hope on the HC and star rankings and ignoring wins/loses. Thought the PU fans were a little more realistic on how long it takes to turn around a train wreck.
My opinions FWIW:
1) Brohm is probably a good coach. I think he’ll be good at Purdue.
2) until he proves otherwise, I have to assume he sees Purdue as a stepping stone and not as a destination.
3) the arrow may be pointing up in West Lafayette, but there is nothing particularly noteworthy about their situation that would cause them to win a huge recruit (doesn’t mean they won’t of course).
4) you’re alright Boiler. I can see you love your team. I hope you come back in August when it’s time to talk about our big Thursday night battle. Only 14 more weeks!
1) Brohm is probably a good coach. I think he’ll be good at Purdue.
2) until he proves otherwise, I have to assume he sees Purdue as a stepping stone and not as a destination.
3) the arrow may be pointing up in West Lafayette, but there is nothing particularly noteworthy about their situation that would cause them to win a huge recruit (doesn’t mean they won’t of course).
4) you’re alright Boiler. I can see you love your team. I hope you come back in August when it’s time to talk about our big Thursday night battle. Only 14 more weeks!
I just like to have a good football conversation really. A lot of people don't realize how much Purdue does have going for them at the moment. And outside of taking four years off of competitive football, we have always been a .500 team at worst. And that was with a stadium and training facilities stuck in the late 90's. Everything is very refreshing for us right now. And recruiting is going really well. Our best commit is a borderline 5 star that could have gone anywhere. So we know the future is looking bright as well.
I'm excited for our opening game. I know it will be unpopular around here, but I'm taking the Boilers. To many questions around NU for me. Whose RB? Is thorsen going to play? Plus you have the whole NU always seems to struggle the first week or two. I guess you could ask who's playing defense for Purdue, which is fair, but I'm thinking we will have another bowl game by hanging on and then 2019 is where you see imporvement.
I'm excited for our opening game. I know it will be unpopular around here, but I'm taking the Boilers. To many questions around NU for me. Whose RB? Is thorsen going to play? Plus you have the whole NU always seems to struggle the first week or two. I guess you could ask who's playing defense for Purdue, which is fair, but I'm thinking we will have another bowl game by hanging on and then 2019 is where you see imporvement.
We won’t miss a step at RB. Larkin has already shown what he can do, plus we will have a healthy Moten and I’m hearing good things about Bowser. QB is the big question, but I still think an experienced OL and deep RB corps will move the ball enough against an inexperienced Purdue front. If Thorson can play, all the better. Our defense should be quite stingy.
Fitz has also actually been quite good in openers. The Cal loss in 2014 and WMU in 2016 are his only career opening week losses and that includes wins over Stanford, Vanderbilt, Syracuse (twice), BC, and Cal along with some lesser opponents (Northeastern, Towson, etc.). Our bigger problem seems to be laying a clunker in what’s supposed to be our “easier” non-conference game (Illinois State, Army, etc.).
Our secondary shouldn't be to terribly bad. Idk if both will start, but our redshirt freshman corners had really good springs. Our LB's should be ok. We have a 1st team all big ten caliber MLB and then will likely have a sophmore or two. The freshman corners and sophmore LB'ers are physically ready to play. They look the part. It's just learning to play in Holt's scheme. The dline returns arguably our best DT. Everything is on the dline is an unknown. Our rush end will probably be an upperclassman that was hurt last year, but not much depth. 1st team D should be good. But there will be a drop off to the 2nd team.
Offense will be good. We lost a couple receivers that didn't do much until the final couple of games and a grad transfer RT. We did pick up a grad transfer OG though. And we will get all our RB's back. I think we were on 4th string when we played you guys last year. I expect us this year to hang 30 and pray we can hold the other team to 29. The defense needs a couple more years of building depth.
Offense will be good. We lost a couple receivers that didn't do much until the final couple of games and a grad transfer RT. We did pick up a grad transfer OG though. And we will get all our RB's back. I think we were on 4th string when we played you guys last year. I expect us this year to hang 30 and pray we can hold the other team to 29. The defense needs a couple more years of building depth.
Yes, the OL will be experienced. The question is whether they will be good. Hopefully we won't see another experiment of moving guys out of position only to see them fail miserably a la 2017. Play the four returning starters in the same position they ended 2017 and let's see how the new Center can do.
Line play gradually improved over the course of last year and continued trending upward in the second half (a good sign). Their improved play was probably the biggest factor in running off eight wins to close the season, including physically pushing around a Kentucky team whose personnel is roughly in line with what we should see against Purdue even after we were forced to be one-dimensional following Thorson’s injury.
Plus there have been no rumors of the "line shifting" we saw last spring/fall.
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What NUMB really needs is more people. Lots more. I doubt that they have 150 bodies and seem to remember that it was around 200 for the Rose Bowl.
I think you should be excited. Brohm did a nice job last year and you caught a few teams napping. The PU fans are loyal good fans, I just don’t get why some think you will be winning the West in the next few years? Did Whisky, NU, Iowa and Nebby stop fielding teams? Seems somewhat premature to me, but I respect the passion.
We beat Iowa last year. Should have beat nebraska. They are about to get better though. Should have beat Wisconsin last year as well. And I didn't watch the NU game due to my wedding. So I can't comment on what happened or how we looked even. With a good coach and good incoming talent, I don't think it's a far cry to think we can be competing in the west. It's not like we are a historically bad program that's trying to come out of no where. We've been to 11 bowls since 2000. So really, we are a good program that's taken a few years off. Northwestern has been to 11 bowl games since 2000 as well. Just for reference.
Could be wrong, but I don't think there are separate standings for "should have" wins.
No there isn't. But it showed how good of a coaching staff we have. Just wait until he gets actual talent at Purdue. That's the point I'm making. It's not like he took a talented team and won with it. He took a team full of players that had Purdue as their only p5 offer and won with it. Now he's replacing those guys with higher rated recruits.
Question that it is a good FB job. Brohm may be in the process of making it one for himself but it is not there yet
Irrespective of who will win is which team is having more success with current recruiting. If the Purdue poster is correct and they have several four stars currently committed and we have none it does imply that they are getting more momentum in recruiting than we are.
Would something have happened? Maybe 10 years in the future and by then probably pretty watered down. The fact is that they were suddenly able to get about $450 million $270 mill in FB facility, $150 mill in BB facility upgrade, money put into Baseball facility and other) , put into the athletic department over a period of about 4 years after doing about $25-30 million put in during the previous 60 years or more
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The big question is how they will start the year. Last year there was an unexpected significant drop from the end of the year before . By the end of the year they had come along fairly well. But at the beginning, ugh. Hopefully this year they can pick up from where they ended the year.
Last year we had 1 four star wr we flipped from Texas in rondale Moore. The rest were 3's. This year we have George karlaftis which is looking like he will be a top 100 player maybe even 5 stars by the end. Both were army All Americans. We have a 4 star wide receiver, a 3 star RB that ran for 2500 yards as a junior, and a 2 star LB/DE. We will probably end up with 3 or 4 4 star guys by the way it's looking. Recruiting is taking a huge jump!
We have 10 good football players committed, star ratings be damned.
