For more than 30 years of coaching, often as a defensive line assistant, Kevin Wolthausen has been in the trenches with his players.
The longtime assistant coach has instructed, encouraged, prodded, celebrated — and sometimes yelled — to help improve the performance of his players. Doing so, he’s built intimate one-on-one relationships with guys, like he did in 2012 when he was at Purdue coaching Kawann Short, Bruce Gaston, Ryan Russell and others.
But now back in West Lafayette for a second stint, Wolthausen is a quality control assistant, a more hands-off coaching role per NCAA requirement. And that film-based analyst role going to be a challenge.
“You’ll want to get in there and pull the trigger sometimes and maybe you’ll have to step back and not do that,” said Wolthausen, who has coached 37 years, including stops at Power 5 college programs, the NFL, the UFL and arena league. “But that’s part of the nature of what I do. Will that be hard? I think I’ll be busy enough doing other stuff, so that I can manage (it).”
And, perhaps most importantly, Wolthausen feels like he’s at the start of a positive rebuild at Purdue, doing so with other coaches he’s familiar with. Among his many stops, Wolthausen coached at Louisville from 2003 to 2006, where he was on staff with Jeff Brohm, Tony Levine and Reggie Johnson, and Brian Brohm was the Cardinals’ quarterback then.
Wolthausen was on UConn staff with Anthony Poindexter the last few seasons, and he’s known Nick Holt for years. He thinks that familiarity will help in his role now.
“This was a great opportunity to get with people I know and have been with and feel good about,” said Wolthausen, who was at UConn the last three seasons, spending 2016 as the special teams coordinator and linebackers coach. “… It’s a chance to come into a place like this at the right time and build some things, so it’s not just a short-term situation but can be a long-term situation."
Wolthausen’s role in quality control isn’t yet fully flushed out, but he’ll focus mainly on special teams analysis and touch on defense, as well, he says. He has experience in both, being a special teams coordinator at UConn and at Florida International (in 2013, the year after Danny Hope and staff were let go at Purdue). He held defensive line, linebackers and was co-coordinator titles from 2003-06 at Louisville, was the D-line coach at USC (1987-92) and the same for the Atlanta Falcons (2007). And he’s spent time on defensive staffs for the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League and the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League (2009-11).
Wolthausen says he’s excited to work with Levine, considered one of the country’s most creative special teams coordinators. In getting settled back at Purdue after his June 1 hire, Wolthausen says he’s reviewed what Levine did last season at Western Kentucky, taking note of his well-schemed returns and forced turnovers, and is excited about the possibilities.
“I was like, ‘Why didn’t I think of that? That’s a great idea. It’s easy. Why didn’t we do that?’” Wolthausen said. “It’s nice to be in a situation with a guy (like Levine) who has the type of experience that he has and then be able to learn from that.
“I’m excited to get a chance to be with special teams again, and help with the defense. I’ll get to do two things I really enjoy doing.”
Purdue’s changed since Wolthausen was last in West Lafayette. In 2012, he was brought in as part of an almost entirely new defensive staff, as Tim Tibesar took over as coordinator and linebackers coach, Greg Burns in the secondary and Wolthausen on the line. Donn Landholm was the lone holdover, coaching the outside linebackers.
That season, Purdue rallied to win three straight games to end the regular season with a 6-6 record, but Hope was fired shortly after, and then the Boilermakers, under interim Patrick Higgins, lost badly to Oklahoma State in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. None of the staff was retained.
Although his stint lasted only that season, not even a full year, he enjoyed his time at Purdue.
“I loved being here, love the university and what it stands for, and a lot of the people who were here are still here,” he said. “And then to get the chance to come back with Coach Brohm and the crew that he’s put together is exciting.”
But his departure and return five years later offer Wolthausen an interesting perspective. In late 2012, Mackey Arena was only into his second season after major renovation; the private building construction across Northwestern Avenue hadn’t yet started; and certainly the football performance complex, opening next month, wasn’t even an idea. Lights are going up at Ross-Ade Stadium, readying for a night-game home-opener.
The athletic facility landscape has changed significantly, he said.
“One of the things that may have been a problem in the past, people look at the facilities or this or that,” Wolthausen said. “When you look at what’s (been) occurring since 2012, how the athletic administration offices are now, the basketball arena and the new facility for football, and that in relation to where the practice fields are and the stadium, where the indoor is, it’s as good a setup. It might not be the biggest or whatever, but it’s state-of-the-art. It’s going to be all very convenient, in terms of the location, recruiting environment, ability to get to different places.
“You’ve got a top university institution that’s world renown. The opportunity and expectation is there, and then you bring in a guy (in Jeff Brohm) who has done some of the things he’s done in coaching, and it’s incredible. I don’t know the administration very well (yet), but I’d imagine that’s what they’re looking at too, saying, ‘We’re able to get a guy at a stage of his career who could be here a long time, so let’s give him the resources and what they need to go do the job they were hired to do. Let them go do it.'”
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