Drew gives some thoughts on what he would look for in a head coach.
I want to start off this article by reminding everyone that I have no idea what is happening with the coaching search. I have no inside information, I don’t know anyone with inside information, and I don’t trust anyone that says they have inside information. This is simply a thought exercise and is for entertainment purposes only.
There’s not a definitive end to this article. I’m going to try and keep these at around 1,000 words and then start where I left off in the next one. I assume Purdue will hire a coach before I run out of things to say because these are the things my brain likes to ponder at 3 in the morning even when Purdue isn’t looking for a head coach.
Feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section. Again, I want to repeat, these are simply my personal thoughts and it’s possible, if not probable, that your thoughts are better than mine on this subject. We’re all playing amateur athletic director at the end of the day.
Anyways, with no further delay….
If I were tasked with hiring Purdue’s next coach, here are some key factors I would consider.
A Running List
Talent Identification
First and foremost, I want my head coach to be in charge of putting together the roster. I’m thinking of him more as a general manager who calls timeouts and has input into the gameplan. I don’t particularly care what type of “scheme” someone is bringing to Purdue; my head coach isn’t calling any plays. I’m fine bringing in someone whose “system” might not work at Purdue, as long as they’re willing to ditch the system (more on that later). I’m hiring a talent evaluator and decision maker, not a system.
The ability to identify talent is what separates the top and bottom of Purdue’s tier in college football. Oddly enough, it’s something the “elite” schools don’t have to do as much. When it comes to the transfer portal, Purdue is mostly shopping in the section of guys that want to move up from G5 (or FCS) or move down from one of the football factory schools in search of playing time. Then you have to consider high school recruiting and junior college recruiting because you’re still need to bring in a combination of at least 15 juco and high school kids (not even sure how the new roster limits effect this number, there are too many moving parts to keep track of at the moment). For my money, putting together a college roster is more daunting than putting together an NFL roster, and that’s where I want my coach to excel.
That doesn’t necessarily mean I want a guy that’s going to bring in the most talented guys available. I want a coach that can identify talent that best fits his program. Purdue is never going to consistently pull in elite talent. They need a coach that can identify players with a couple translatable “elite” traits and then deploy them accordingly. If Purdue needs a possession receiver, I want a coach that will go out and specifically target the exact type of possession receiver that fits with his quarterback in his offense. The “elite” schools have the luxury of bringing in a bunch of generalists that can play everywhere. We’re looking to bring in guys that can immediately fill a role and then expand out from there. I don’t want a coach taking a guy and then trying to figure it out once he gets on campus because he’s a 4* recruit or was productive at a position we don’t need filled.
Portal and Recruit Friendly System
I want my new coach to run a portal friendly scheme on both sides of the ball. For the most part that means succeeding with stripped out playbook. Roster turnover is inevitable, but I want to spend as little time as possible installing plays, and as much time as possible perfecting those plays. I to be able to target a player in the portal, bring him in for spring practice, and have him up and running by fall camp.
On offense that means running some sort of generic spread. Personally, I like a quarterback run component to an offense and would lean towards a system that incorporated q.b. runs, but I could be convinced otherwise. I’m looking for a system that can accommodate the widest variety of skill sets and one that is flexible enough to transform with the roster. I want enough flexibility in my offense to cater to the talent instead of having the talent cater to the system. Matt Painter does a good job of that the basketball side of things, and I think it’s something Purdue needs to look at on the football field as well.
On defense, that’s shifted from a base 4-3-4 or a 4-2-5 to a base 3-3-5 or 3-2-6 in recent years and I want to follow that trend. I don’t want to have to teach guys a new system from the ground up. If I’m pulling from the portal, I’m looking for teams that run something similar. It’s not a limiting factor, but if two guys are close, I’m taking the guy that comes in with prior knowledge of my system. The less my coach has to teach the plays, the more time he can spend on playing clean football.
I’m going to work with the head coach to hire the offense and defensive coordinator and then those coordinators are responsible for the offense and defense respectively. I want to the coach to have input into the overall gameplan in terms of themes (run heavy vs pass heavy – blitz heavy vs conservative) but under no circumstances do I want a play sheet in my coaches’ hands. There is too much going on in the game to split his attention between play calling and coaching. I’m not looking for a football genius as a head coach, I’d much rather have one as a coordinator. What I want in a head coach is a top-level manager, communicator, motivator and delegator. Obviously, they need to know something about football, but I think the days of the head coach / coordinator will soon be relegated to the dust bin of college football history.