WEST LAFAYETTE °®¶¹app“ Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski tried a somewhat novel approach with his hire of Ryan Walters as the Boilermakers head football coach in 2022.
Veering away from Purdue°®¶¹app™s tradition of bringing in proven head coaches with offensive backgrounds, Bobinski hired a first-time head coach, an apparently rising star who had spent his career coaching defense.
While Bobinski insisted Walters did some important work to build Purdue°®¶¹app™s program infrastructure behind the scenes, he readily admitted Monday the hire had not worked.
With that in mind, it is likely Bobinski will now return to what has been successful for Purdue in the past °®¶¹app“ a sitting head coach and preferably one who can score a lot of points. The athletic director insisted he won°®¶¹app™t be put in a box in his search, but there are plenty of solid potential candidates who fit a Joe Tiller/Jeff Brohm mold and they will likely get the first calls from Bobinski.
Here is a look at some of the candidates that should be on Purdue°®¶¹app™s wish list.
Jon Sumrall, head coach, Tulane
Sumrall, 42, would be the home run hire of the cycle, Purdue°®¶¹app™s answer to Curt Cignetti at Indiana, only 20 years younger. He won back-to-back Sun Belt titles at Troy, then put together another outstanding team this year in his first season with the Green Wave.
The question is whether he would take the job °®¶¹app“ several Southeastern Conference jobs that could open in the next 1-2 years would like to have him, too, as would North Carolina, which is currently open. He also made his mark coaching defense, which would be another departure from Purdue's usual blueprint for success. He is probably out of the Boilers' reach, but is almost certainly near the top of Bobinski's list.
Jamey Chadwell, head coach, Liberty
Chadwell, 47, built a program from nothing at Coastal Carolina, winning 11 games twice, and then went 13-1 at Liberty last season, leading the Flames to the Fiesta Bowl. He would bring his own gun-option offensive system to a Purdue team that needs a reset on offense.
Chadwell, too, however, could get wait for open SEC jobs as he°®¶¹app™s spent his entire life in the south. North Carolina and Central Florida are also options for him in this cycle and would likely be better fits than Purdue.
Jeff Monken, head coach, Army
Service academy coaches have long been undervalued on the job market because they run the outdated triple-option offense. They only do that, however, because it°®¶¹app™s what works best at the academies. Former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, for example, has adopted a pass-heavy offense at San Jose State this year.
Monken, 57, could make a similar transition and he certainly has a record of success, having led Army to three 10-win seasons after the Black Knights won eight total games in the three years prior to his arrival. This year, he has Army at 10-1 and in the American Athletic Conference championship. He has reportedly tried to get other jobs over the years and would likely take Purdue°®¶¹app™s call.
The downside is that, because Army recruits mostly smaller players (because of military requirements) that fit the triple-option system, Monken would be able to bring relatively little of his roster with him via the transfer portal. That could make having even moderate immediate success in 2025 more than difficult than it would be for another coach. Bobinski has said such success is important for the future of the program (though he is still trying to hire a candidate that will bring long-term success to Purdue).
Tim Albin, Ohio; Jason Candle, Toledo; Chuck Martin, Miami (Ohio), head coaches
All three coaches have built excellent programs in the Mid-American Conference. Candle, 45, is easily the youngest of the three and has the most buzz as a result, but he has been more good than great with the Rockets, who have the most resources in the MAC. Toledo is 7-5 this season.
Albin, 59, meanwhile, has a 29-10 record over the last three seasons, surpassing the accomplishments of his celebrated predecessor, Frank Solich. Martin, 56, a former Notre Dame offensive coordinator, would be the ultimate steady hand °®¶¹app“ he°®¶¹app™s won at least six games in six straight non-COVID seasons with the Redhawks and has them on the cusp of a second straight MAC title.
Purdue is likely skittish about hiring a MAC coach because of the debacle that was the Darrell Hazell Era, but all three of these candidates are more proven than Hazell was coming from Kent State. Albin should get the first call of the three.
Rich Rodriguez, Jacksonville State, head coach
Rodriguez, 61, was once the hottest name in coaching, the father of the read-option that was eventually everywhere. He won big at West Virginia, failed at Michigan and (mostly) at Arizona and then reinvented himself and has shepherded the Gamecocks from FCS to FBS, much as Cignetti did at James Madison. His 17-8 record over two seasons at FBS with JSU is impressive for a team transitioning to the higher level.
Still at the forefront of offensive innovation, he is the archetype of a Purdue football coach. Does he want back in to the big time?
Barry Odom, UNLV, head coach
Odom, 48, has experience coaching at the major-conference level after leading Missouri to three .500-or-better seasons in four years.
He got fired at Mizzou, but has built one of the best Group of Five programs in the country in just two seasons with the Rebels, who had made one bowl game in 21 years prior to his arrival. He is likely a win over Boise State in the Mountain West championship from reaching the College Football Playoff. The Oklahoma native is a career defensive coach who has spent his entire playing and coaching in the south and west. If Purdue hires him, he might also bring along ...
Brennan Marion, offensive coordinator, UNLV
If Purdue can't get Odom, maybe his up-and-coming offensive coordinator would be interested in the job. Marion, 37, has been one of the clearest rising stars among assistant coaches in recent years and this year is coordinating an offense that ranks No. 7 nationally in points per game at 38.4 despite the Rebels losing their starting quarterback to the transfer portal in the middle of the season.
Marion runs an offensive system of his own design, which he calls the "Go-Go Offense." It is a run-based scheme that utilizes two backs on most plays. The only drawback here is that Marion's resume looks pretty similar to Walters' when he took the job in 2022, only on the offensive side of the ball. Marion has only been a head coach at the high school level.
JaMarcus Shephard, co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach, Alabama
Shephard, 41, is a Fort Wayne native who built one of the best receiver rooms in the country at Purdue °®¶¹app“ he was instrumental in recruiting Rondale Moore, David Bell and Milton Wright °®¶¹app“ and then did the same at Washington under coach Kalen DeBoer. He made the College Football Playoff last season, then followed DeBoer to Alabama, where he is coaching a position group that includes freshman superstar Ryan Williams.Â
Shephard is a rising star, an ace recruiter and has worked under some of the best coaches in the country. The former Northrop standout will very likely be a head coach at some point in the near future, but he has yet to even call plays on offense and there other coaches with significantly more experience. On the other hand, Syracuse has had instant success this season after hiring elite recruiter Fran Brown, previously a defensive backs coach at Georgia. Could a similar blueprint work in West Lafayette?
Kane Wommack, defensive coordinator, Alabama
Wommack, 37, is coordinating a defense that ranks 11th nationally in scoring, but more importantly he has head coaching experience and ties to Indiana. The Missouri native spent three seasons leading South Alabama, facing Cignetti and JMU in the Sun Belt Conference in 2022 and 2023 and leading the Jaguars to the first two above-.500 seasons at the FBS level in program history. That includes a breakthrough 10-3 campaign in '22 that saw South Alabama lose a spectacular defensive battle to Sumrall and Troy, 10-6.Â
Prior to his work at South Alabama, Wommack was defensive coordinator at Indiana under Tom Allen. He departed the Jaguars at the end of last season to reprise that role for DeBoer. He is not known as a high-level recruiter, but he has power-conference coordinator experience and Group of Five head coach experience and success at both. A 22-16 record as a head coach might be too underwhelming to sell, however, despite the moribund nature of the Jaguars before he took over.
Bob Chesney, James Madison, head coach
Chesney, 47, made his name as the head coach at FCS Holy Cross, which he led for six seasons and built into a consistent FCS playoff team. The Crusaders had reached the playoffs only twice in their history prior to Chesney's arrival, but he led them there four consecutive years, including a 12-1 finish in 2022. At earlier stops, he also led Division II Assumption and Division III Salve Regina to previously unseen heights.
After Cignetti left JMU for Indiana, the Dukes hired Chesney from Holy Cross to replace him. He is 8-4 this season, including a 70-50 win over North Carolina early in the season. Would it be too on the nose for Purdue to hire a coach from JMU a year after IU did so? Chesney has a similar "won everywhere he's been" quality.
Tyson Helton, head coach, Western Kentucky
Purdue certainly had success the last time it hired a coach from Western Kentucky and Helton, 47, the runs same type of pass-happy offense after serving as Brohm's offensive coordinator in 2014 and 2015. The Hilltoppers went 12-2 and notched the only top 25 finish in program history in the latter season.
As a head coach, Helton has kept WKU's offense humming and has won 8-9 games a year, but he has not reached the same heights as Brohm. He is also coaching in the Conference USA championship game this weekend, so Purdue would have to wait until early next week for him to officially take the job. Those few days could be precious for transfer portal recruiting.
Jeff Traylor, head coach, Texas-San Antonio
Traylor, 56, has been a popular Group of Five candidate to move up to the power-conference level in recent years after creating an FBS program essentially from nothing at UTSA. The Roadrunners joined FBS in 2012, never won more than eight games for eight years, then hired Traylor and went 12-2 and 11-3 in his second and third years on the job in 2021 and 2022.
Traylor has deep Texas roots °®¶¹app“ he is a legendary high school coach in the state °®¶¹app“ and always seemed likely to jump to place like TCU or Baylor, but has not been able to land those jobs when they've opened and was not particularly high on the list for Texas A&M last season. If he wants to make a move to a higher level, he might have to look beyond the Lone Star State, especially after the Roadrunners have taken a relative step back in recent seasons, to 9-4 in 2023 and 6-6 this year. He remains one of the more proven program-builders on the market.
