This is a tougLike Mike Bobinski and Ryan Walters, I’ve been doing some self-reflection regarding this football team. I fully admit that I did not see this coming. I don’t have any special insight into this team, or football in general. I know enough to get me in trouble, but if I could predict the outcome of a football season, I would be making a good bit more money than I am right now. Still, this season has me shook. I legitimately feel bad. I’ve spent the last two offseasons hyping this team and coaching staff, and I was dead wrong.

I thought, at worst, this would be an exciting team, prone to mistakes because of an inexperienced roster. Instead, I’m looking at one of the worst teams in major college football by pretty much every metric. I’m accustomed to being wrong, but not this wrong. I don’t understand how a program that looked to be building momentum in the second half of last season turned into what we saw last Saturday. There’s bad, and then there’s whatever Ryan Walters put on the field last Saturday. I’m personally embarrassed that I ever vouched for this team.

I’m sorry, y’all—I was wrong. Now all I can do is try to figure out why.

The knee-jerk reaction is to blame the scheme. If only the coaches called the right plays or had the right plays available to call, things would be better. You saw Coach Walters put that theory to the test against Wisconsin, and I think it’s pretty clear this team is more than a different play-caller away from being respectable. Instead, there is something fundamentally broken, and that ultimately falls on the head coach.

I have a few theories about what’s going on with Purdue this season. Keep in mind, these are just my ideas, and I thought this squad had a chance to make a bowl game, so take them for what they’re worth.

Roster Turnover and Practice Reps

There are multiple issues I want to discuss, but I think this strikes at the heart of the matter. Ryan Walters, for reasons both in and out of his control, came into Purdue dealing with a decimated roster. This isn’t hindsight—I wrote about Brohm’s roster struggles, especially in regard to recruiting and building depth at the end of his tenure.

I know it’s fun to say, “Ryan Walters inherited a team that played for a Big 10 Championship,” but in reality, there wasn’t much left of that roster when he hit town. Any recruiting bump Purdue would have received from playing for a Big 10 Championship was blunted when Brohm returned to his family nest in Louisville.

Scholarship Players Remaining from 2022 Roster

Purdue

Offense

QB – None

RB – 1 – Devin Mockobee (wasn’t on scholarship in 2022)

WR – None

TE – 2 – Max Klare and Drew Biber

OL – 3 – Gus Hartwig, Marcus Mbow, Mahamane Moussa

Defense

DE – 3 – Joe Strickland, Kydran Jenkins, Joe Anderson

DT – 3 – Damarjhe Lewis, Cole Brevard, Mo Omonode

LB – 1 – Yanni Karlaftis

CB – 0

S – 2 – Joseph Jefferson II, Antonio Stevens

Special Teams

K – 0

P – 0

Clemson

Offense

QB – 1

RB – 2

WR – 4

TE – 2

OL – 7

Defense

DE – 2

DT – 4

LB – 3

CB – 3

S – 4

Special Teams

K – 1

P – 1

Kansas State

Offense

QB – 0

RB – 2

WR – 3

TE – 3

OL – 10

Defense

DE – 3

DT – 2

LB – 6

CB – 5

S – 2

Special Teams

K – 1

P – 0

Players Remaining from 2022 Roster

Purdue – 15

Clemson – 34

Kansas State – 37

As you can see, Purdue has less than half the remaining players compared to two successful, stable programs.

Obviously, this isn’t a 1 to 1 comparison, but I wanted to set a baseline. Plus, I have Kansas State and Clemson’s roster memorized.

Freshmen / RS-Freshmen or 1st Year Transfer Starters

Purdue

Offense

QB: 0

RB: 0

WR: 3

TE: 0

OL: 2

Defense

DE: 1

NG: 0

Rush: 1

LB – 1

CB – 1

S – 0

Clemson

QB: 0

RB: 0

WR: 1

TE: 0

OL: 0

DE: 0

DT: 0

LB: 0

CB: 0

S: 0

Kansas State

Offense

QB: 0

RB: 0

WR: 0

TE: 0

OL: 1

Defense

DE: 0

NG: 0

LB: 0

CB: 0

S: 1

Purdue: 7

Clemson: 1

Kansas State: 2

So What?

This article isn’t an exercise in excuses.

Coach Walters knew what he was walking into at Purdue. The main difference I see between Purdue and the other teams I watch on Saturday isn’t talent. Individually, Purdue has multiple players capable of playing for either team.

The difference is execution.

When you’re turning over the roster like Purdue, essentially installing the offense and defense from the ground up two seasons in a row, you’ve got to simplify everything. In my humble opinion, what you’re witnessing at Purdue this season is lack of patience from the coaching staff.

Coach Walters and Harrell tried to build on last season with a bunch of guys who weren’t here last season to learn the basics. When I watch the film, Purdue doesn’t have a single area of concern. Instead, they seemingly have a different issue on every play. The staff is trying to fix stuff, but can’t, because what they need to do is go back to last spring and start over again and time machines aren’t a thing.

This team needed a high rep, low “install” offseason. Instead, they got low reps, high install. The offensive and defensive playbook needed to be stripped down to the studs with a focus on executing the basic plays because of the roster turnover. Going back to Clemson for a moment, last season was frustrating. Garrett Riley was supposed to come in and fix the Clemson offense, but we mostly saw the same package of plays over-and-over. Then Dabo would take the podium at the presser and say (paraphrasing), “if we can’t run the basics correctly, what makes you think we can run the hard stuff.” This season (outside of the Georgia game) the offense looks like the offense I thought Clemson was getting last season now that Riley has more of the playbook installed. Even Clemson, with a roster full of 4 and 5* talent needed to rep the basics of the offense.

Dabo was experienced enough to know that. Coach Walters and Harrell thought they could skip a step in the process. They needed to treat this season like a repeat of year 1, instead of year 2. It’s boring, but it’s part of the process. When you try and skip necessary steps, you end up with what you’ve seen on the field.

That’s why the change at offensive coordinator didn’t fix anything. You can install every play in your playbook, but if you can execute an inside zone run or a quick slant, you’re stuck. If your house has a cracked foundation, putting a new coat of paint on it won’t fix the problem. I’m not sure what Graham Harrell was trying to accomplish on offense because the players weren’t executing well enough to see the plan. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the best Purdue looked on offense was against Oregon State when they went back to the outside zone-based offense they used at the end of last season. It’s the only time the offense looked like they were confident in what they were doing from an execution standpoint. Problem is, Nebraska saw the same film I did and sat on the one play Purdue can run. Then Wisconsin did the same thing.

The defense has the exact same problem.

Coach Walters mentioned something to the effect of “they were asking guys to do stuff they weren’t capable of doing on defense.” He wasn’t talking about physical capabilities; he was talking about guys not being comfortable mentally. Much like the offense, it doesn’t matter how exotic your defense is if your ends lose contain on every play. You can have the perfect defense called, but if one guy blows an assignment, it looks like you’re totally incompetent.

That’s what I see on film.

It’s not one issue on the defense, but multiple issues and those issues don’t necessarily come from the same place. You might be able to fix a single issue, but dealing with multiple issues at the same time is impossible. As soon you’ve got one area shored up, another area springs a leak. It’s hard to play fast and confident when you’re not exactly sure where you’re supposed to be on the field. If you’re thinking on the football field, you’re losing.

You know how Matt Painter doesn’t play zone defense because he wants to perfect his man-to-man defense? That’s the perfect example of what Ryan Walters needed to do with this team. In basketball terms, I see a Purdue football team that’s trying to run man, zone, a full court and half court press, a box in one, a triangle in two, and a matchup zone and they’re not good at any of them consistently. It’s not fun, it’s not fresh, but repping the same thing over and over until it’s perfected before moving on to something else has been a winning strategy from the birth of organized sports.

I’ve got several other ideas that I want to touch on regarding this team, but I think this is the fundamental issue, and unfortunately, it’s not something you can fix in-season. This is the point where teams should be expanding their playbooks. Purdue desperately needs to contract theirs until they find something that works. You’re not going to find much success doing that 5 games into the season.

Ryan Walters is a young, ambitious coach who believes in his “system”. It looks like he got so wrapped up in his “system” that he forgot about the players in the system, and that mistake will most likely cost him his job. If he gets another shot at a head coaching gig, or if he manages to hold onto the Purdue gig for another season, I think he’ll make some fundamental changes to how he installs his system.

That said, he gets paid millions of dollars to not make the mistake he made this season. Big 10 football is not the right place to learn what you can’t do as a coach.