Today’s Argument: Yesterday didn’t change anything. A miracle win at Ohio State might have delayed what another blow-out loss will only amplify; there’s going to be calls for the head of Purdue head football coach Ryan Walters. That will be true today, it will be true tomorrow, and it will remain that way until this team starts winning.

I’m here to say that’s a bad idea. Here’s my case.

Purdue knew Walters had no head coaching experience when they hired him. In fact, that goes a long way toward why they hired him. Both the Boilers and their down-state rival in Bloomington recently held coaching searches, and both schools used different approaches. Indiana paid a guy who built a winning track record on his journey up to the “big leagues” as a head coach. Purdue went “budget.”

There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s reasons why I don’t understand it. For starters, setting aside the current state of the on-field product, Purdue is a program in a “big-time” league. The Boiler athletic department has tons of realized resources and even more potential ones; things some other athletic directors would kill to have. On top of that, Purdue had a tidy buy-out check in hand for the services of Jeff Brohm.

The Boilers hit the same success with Brohm that Indiana is now enjoying with Curt Cignetti. The fact they chose another approach after Brohm isn’t the mystery to me. As a gambler, I’m all too familiar with falling in love with a long-shot, and just like love, we never know what will make us take the fall.

In other words, I get why they hired Ryan Walters. What I can’t figure out is why didn’t they pay to keep the perceived boost in status the program gained with the Jeff Brohm hire?

Let’s be honest, there’s a hierarchy in college football. We all know there’s big schools, middlin’ schools and small schools. One thing critically impacted by that stratification is the ability to hire a head coach; specifically in both the quality and quantity of attainable candidates. In this case, their are three strata:

1. Jobs only for the “new” guy or the “fallen angel” – The only people who will answer your phone calls are the guys desperate to get their first head coaching job or the guy on the rebound from some sort of “shenanigans.”
2. The “Stepping Stone” Job – What Purdue was to Jeff Brohm; the job he used to get the job he wanted. To be a suitable “stepping stone,” your program has to show it has at least some of the needed components to build a winner.
3. The “Destination” Job – The job everybody wants. In Brohm’s case, some guys really want to coach at their alma mater. However, this is usually reserved for the biggest of the big, but there are exceptions.

After the Joe Tiller era, Purdue sunk to the bottom of the B1G Ten thanks to awful hires like Danny Hope and Darrel Hazell. That forced Purdue into category #1; a place with limited options. But Jeff Brohm took Boiler football to category #2; instead of firing a bad hire, they got paid for the services of a good one. That meant the option was on the table to do the same; the program now had the status and the resources to get the next “stepping stone.” Besides, if a program produces enough “stepping stone” guys, it eventually becomes a “destination” job.

Indiana has their first “stepping stone” guy in quite a while. When will Purdue have their next? Who knows…except for one thing. It will be a long time coming if Purdue fires Ryan Walters now.

Once the “budget” option was chosen and Ryan Walters was hired, the die was cast. By taking a chance on a guy who had never been a head coach, Purdue backed itself into another corner. They had to know there was some bad football coming; that’s inherent when hiring a neophyte. Firing Walters now or at the end of Year Two will only look bad for Purdue; it will send the program to category #1.

The reason is simple. Firing Walters now tells any other “new” head coach Purdue is a program willing to give the “new” guy a shot, but doesn’t have the organizational patience to let such a hire grow into the job. That means there aren’t going to be anymore Jeff Brohms answering your calls because they already know you don’t know how to commit to building a winning program. Firing Ryan Walters now means a future full of Darrel Hazells.

It comes down to this. If Purdue wants to stay in a spot where they can still hire the “stepping stone” guy, they have no choice but to ride out the Walters decision…no matter where it goes. They have no choice but to see what Walters can doing installing his vision and getting his players. That last part matters because last time I checked, I didn’t see Purdue being very active in the transfer portal or slinging NIL money. Not to mention, nobody talks about the amazing amount of “not much” Brohm left on the shelf for the guy following him at Purdue. All tolled, that means bracing for at least Year Three and probably Year Four of the Walters administration in West Lafayette, then biting the bullet and not going “budget” again.

Change my mind.

---

You can see more of my not-so-popular opinions here.

Got a question, comment, or just want to yell at us? Hit us up at  dubsism@yahoo.com, @Dubsism on Twitter, or on our Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, or Facebook pages, and be sure to bookmark Dubsism.com so you don’t miss anything from the most interesting independent sports blog on the web.