Jeff Brohm's 'win now' mode crosses Lovie Smith's Illini long-term plan
This weekend in Champaign, two distinctly different program-building philosophies will cross paths.
Purdue coach Jeff Brohm’s 'win now' mode runs directly in contrast to Lovie Smith's long-view rebuild when the two teams meet for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff on FS1.
The decision Brohm and his staff made prior to their first season with the Boilermakers was what he called this week "a win-now" mentality of developing its current roster and adding 12 transfers (six graduate transfers and six junior college players) to boost the talent base, in part to immediately gain the trust of a Purdue fanbase that had seen just nine wins over a four-year stretch. Brohm was able to ride the momentum of a competitive loss against Louisville and two dominant wins against Ohio and Missouri in his first three games to gain instant credibility.
"Everyone is different. For me, I want to win now. That's just my philosophy and ours," Brohm said. "We want to win now. Doesn't mean we don't play young guys but it's important you try to win the next football game and you try to win this season."
By achieving a 7-6 record a bowl win in his first season, Brohm has seen the Purdue program achieve monumental success on the recruiting trail, including the signing of four-star receiver Rondale Moore last year and commitments from a group now ranked 27th nationally by Rivals.com in its fluid team rankings.
As Purdue (2-3, 1-1 in Big Ten) developed its roster throughout Brohm’s first season and through spring practice, the Boilermakers only brought in one graduate transfer starter (guard Dennis Edwards) and decided to rely on youthful defensive players in 2018.
"For us, at the end of the year, we'll look at our roster and see where we need help, and see if we can go get it; and if we can go get it, then we are going to bring it in," Brohm said. "If we can't, then we are going to continue to develop the guys we have and get them better and use those (young) guys."
Brohm's instant success created a perception that newfound momentum needed to be built upon in 2018 and an 0-3 start was considered a letdown but the Boilermakers have rallied with wins over Boston College and Nebraska.
"Expectations are good. You have got to make sure you handle it in the right way, and that means, yeah, we want to win. It's important that we try to win. It's important that if we don't, we are upset about it, we're angry about it and we figure out a way to fix it," Brohm said in August. "I guess the best thing we did last year is took the field with some confidence but if we didn't win, we found a way to fix it. And that's going to happen this year. Everybody thinks they can win every game. It's not going to happen."
The Illinois journey by Smith's staff has been in stark contrast to what is going on at Purdue. When West Lafayette native Josh Whitman hired Smith in March 2016, everything included in his contract with the school screamed that it would be a slow rebuild. Of his six-year contract, Smith's salary in his first two years was $2 million annually but in 2018 that number changed to $5 million and it will increase by $1 million each of the final three years of the deal.
By starting 15 true freshman starters in 2017, Illinois played the most rookies of any Football Bowl Subdivision team in the nation and set a program record. The previous high for freshman starters on an Illinois team was nine in 1980. Smith was adamant that decision to play 22 true freshmen and start 15 first-year players was strategic. The 10 true freshman starters at USF in Week 3 were the most in a single game in program history.
In his Big Ten teleconference Tuesday, Smith says playing all those freshmen simply "happened that way" because, he said, those first-year players were the best options.
"I guess it would be a better story if we went into that season and decided we're going to play all these freshmen and young players over the older guys," Smith said Tuesday. "It just worked out that way. We understand what the record ended up being but those guys have had a chance to get better, bigger and stronger afterwards."
Now that Smith is in Year 3 with the Illini, it is expected that experience of playing so many young players last season will translate to more wins in the 2018 season. However, Illinois currently has 80 underclassmen (40 sophomores and 40 freshmen) out of 104 players, and the Illini roster has the highest percentage of underclassmen in the nation.
"I know that seems to contradict when you say (win now with freshmen) and we know the statistics say when you play freshmen but that seems like a distant memory to us now," Smith said. "Those guys (who started and played last season) are getting better each and every week for us now."
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