Purdue Targets Kane at DC

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Weird situation. He worked under Walters at Illinois on the defensive staff, followed Walters to Purdue, was presumably fired with rest of staff when Odom was hired and is now potentially being brought back by Odom for year 2.

Doesn't even show up on the coaches list on our roster page. Was he just hired a few weeks ago when the DL coach was fired?
 

MNVCGUY said:
Weird situation. He worked under Walters at Illinois on the defensive staff, followed Walters to Purdue, was presumably fired with rest of staff when Odom was hired and is now potentially being brought back by Odom for year 2.

Doesn't even show up on the coaches list on our roster page. Was he just hired a few weeks ago when the DL coach was fired?
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No, he was here the whole season on defensive staff.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
No, he was here the whole season on defensive staff.
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Makes sense, they have just pulled his bio off the site already but was hired last January.

Odd choice.....bringing back the coach who oversaw the worst defense in the conference in both 2023 and 2024 in terms of points allowed. In 2024 they gave up nearly 40 points a game under Kane.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Makes sense, they have just pulled his bio off the site already but was hired last January.

Odd choice.....bringing back the coach who oversaw the worst defense in the conference in both 2023 and 2024 in terms of points allowed. In 2024 they gave up nearly 40 points a game under Kane.
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Yeah, I bet Purdue fans aren’t happy. I’m totally fine with him leaving, his resume is not great.
 

Robb Smith might actually be an upgrade over this guy which is hard to believe.
 




matt said:
Yeah, I bet Purdue fans aren’t happy. I’m totally fine with him leaving, his resume is not great.
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No clue how you would spin this as a good move to your fanbase.....

Hey fans.....remember the guy who led our defense during our 0-9 conference season where we gave up nearly 42 points a game (conf games)......we know you missed him last year.....so we are bringing him back.
 



Never heard of em but every time time there is an opening in the country they come for Flecks staff
 






Holy Man said:
I’ll take their hoops, though.
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It used to be Indiana but with the way things are right now Purdue has become the Big Ten version of Kentucky where football is a way to kill some time until basketball season starts.
 



MNVCGUY said:
It used to be Indiana but with the way things are right now Purdue has become the Big Ten version of Kentucky where football is a way to kill some time until basketball season starts.
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That’s like going to a steakhouse for the tofu salad.
 



GophersWin! said:
ANYONE notice they didnt target our DC ? Anyone know why ? I do... HE SUCKS
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The defense was pretty average overall, which is a disappointment because we have become used to really good defense. Hopefully it improves.

Meanwhile the offense was bad and has been dragging the team down for years. I think that's much more deserving of criticism.
 


Cmich Gopher said:
The defense was pretty average overall, which is a disappointment because we have become used to really good defense. Hopefully it improves.

Meanwhile the offense was bad and has been dragging the team down for years. I think that's much more deserving of criticism.
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Our defense was slightly above average, except in big games, when it was shockingly ineffective.
Our offense had some nice plays, but statistically was one of the very worst in the B1G. Explosive play drought (relative to other good B1G teams) continues.
Yet PJ turned this performance into 7-5 season so far. He has, through the force of his personality (I believe), made this a very resilient team that plays to, and is in it to, the end. A less emotionally resilient version of this team could have been 4-8 very easily. And, if our FG kicker could hit from 40+ yards, this would have been a 8-4 team--which, given the stats, is f'ing amazing.
 
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Gophergrandpa said:
Our defense was slightly above average, except in big games, when it was shockingly ineffective.
Our offense had some nice plays, but statistically was one of the very worst in the B1G. Big play drought (relative to other good B1G teams) continues.
Yet PJ turned this performance into 7-5 season so far. He has, through then force of his personality (I believe), made this a very resilient team that plays to, and is in it to, the end. A less emotionally resilient version of this team could have been a 4-8 team very easily. And, if our FG kicker could hit from 40+ yards, this might have been a 8-4 team--which, given the stats, is f'ing amazing.
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The amount of games over Fleck's tenure where we'd hold on instead of traditionally fold and lose has been substantial. There's a serious underestimation of how impactful the "culture" dynamic of this program is because you can't quantify it. Same for the resilience being instilled into the players. I think the big take for me is that this program has had some awful coaching over the decades, because Fleck isn't special from an Xs and Os standpoint but his ability to develop and maintain buy-in is huge.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Our defense was slightly above average, except in big games, when it was shockingly ineffective.
Our offense had some nice plays, but statistically was one of the very worst in the B1G. Big play drought (relative to other good B1G teams) continues.
Yet PJ turned this performance into 7-5 season so far. He has, through then force of his personality (I believe), made this a very resilient team that plays to, and is in it to, the end. A less emotionally resilient version of this team could have been a 4-8 team very easily. And, if our FG kicker could hit from 40+ yards, this might have been a 8-4 team--which, given the stats, is f'ing amazing.
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I agree 100%. I guess I still have some hope that with another year of seasoning the D coordinator may be able to field a better unit (although I wish they had hired someone more proven originally). It seems to me there has been an outsized reaction to the defensive play this year because we are used to much better defense.

Offense is more of the slow boiled frog analogy. We have been bad on offense for years and are just kind of accepting it at this point. I hope they are finally able to put everything together next season and produce an above average conference offense, but that hope isn't very evidence based.

Resilient team + above average offense + above average defense = possibly special year.

We are missing some parts of that equation.
 

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