Getting To Know New Purdue Offensive Coordinator Graham Harrell

Purdue head coach Ryan Walters has already made a splash hire to his coaching staff. Graham Harrell is set to leave West Virginia to join Walters' staff and become Purdue's new offensive coordinator.

Mike Bobinski secured an up and coming head coach with a defensive expertise in Walters. Now, Purdue has the perfect compliment on the offensive side of the ball in Harrell.

Let's get to know Purdue's new offensive coordinator, Graham Harrell:

Graham Harrell will bring a familiar offensive mindset to West Lafayette next fall. Harrell likes to throw the ball all over the yard and put up points. Sound familiar?

Since he became a full-time offensive coordinator in 2016, Harrell's offenses have scored under 30 points per game just twice. Once came in his first year at North Texas and the other was a lost 2021 season for USC.

From 2017-2020 at North Texas and USC, both schools finished no lower than 37th in the country in points per game with a high being 35.5 during the 2017 season with the Mean Green.

Harrell's coaching and offensive scheme has developed several college football stars and sent many to the NFL following their time with the new Purdue offensive coordinator.

At North Texas, Harrell guided Mean Green quarterback Mason Fine to back-to-back Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year awards. Fine finished his career as the all-time leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns and passer efficiency in school history.

Harrell also helped develop Jeff Wilson and Jalen Guyton into All-Conference USA selections and NFL players. They are both on active NFL rosters currently.

After being hired as offensive coordinator at USC, the Trojans improved at the quarterback position. Harrell helped true freshman Kedon Slovis jump start his career, throwing for 3,502 yards with 30 touchdowns and 9 interceptions in his first season.

Slovis was the Pac-12 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year and was named All-Pac-12 first team as a sophomore in 2020.

The receivers Harrell coached at USC were amongst the nation's best as well. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Michael Pittman Jr and Drake London were all selected in the NFL Draft and have become solid contributors on their respective teams. All three were also named All-Pac-12 first team in their careers with the Trojans.

Harrell will bring a similar offensive scheme to Purdue as the program had during six seasons under Jeff Brohm. There was some concern bringing in Ryan Walters, a defensive-minded head coach, would mean a shift in offensive philosophy at Purdue. The hiring of Graham Harrell emphatically says different. Purdue still plans to air the ball out and put up a lot of points.

In the fall of 2004, Graham Harrell stepped onto the campus at Texas Tech after being recruited by none other than Mike Leach. The late Leach, who just passed away at the age of 61, was a pioneer in the college football world as the most notable air raid offense adopter.

Under Leach's tutelage, Harrell had one of the greatest careers as a quarterback in college football history. Harrell broke all kinds of records in Lubbock through the air raid attack, most notably setting the NCAA record in career passing touchdowns. He was also the first player to record two 5,000 passing yard seasons in NCAA history.

Here is where Harrell currently ranks all-time in several passing categories in college football history:

- Third all-time in single-season passing yards: 5,705 in 2007.

- T-10th in single-season passing touchdowns: 48 in 2007.

- Third all-time in career touchdown passes: 134.

- Fourth all-time in career passing yards: 15,793.

Not only did Harrell put up video game-like statistics in college and secure countless accolades, but his play led to team success as well. In his three years with Harrell starting, Texas Tech had a 28-11 record which was capped off by an 11-2 season in 2008. His game-winning touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree over No. 1 Texas that season is one of the most iconic plays in Texas Tech football history.

It's safe to say, Purdue's new offensive coordinator knows a thing or two about throwing the football at an outstanding rate. After learning from one of the best offensive minds college football has ever seen, the former Texas Tech quarterback adopted the same philosophy and has had great success with it in his coaching career. It's a good start to Walters promise that Purdue will remain the Cradle of Quarterbacks.

At just 37 years old, Harrell has become one of the more respected offensive coordinators in all of college football. Throughout his career, he has been surrounded by fellow offensive gurus from the time he began his playing career at Texas Tech to now joining the home of the "Cradle of Quarterbacks" in West Lafayette.

Following his illustrious career with the Red Raiders, Harrell played one season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL before getting his first taste of coaching.

In 2010, Harrell joined the staff at Oklahoma State as a Quality Control Analyst under coach Mike Gundy for several months. The Cowboys went 11-2 that season and were the third-highest scoring offense in the country, posting 44.2 points per game. Gundy's offense was led by future NFL players Brandon Weeden, Justin Blackmon and Kendall Hunter.

Harrell then jumped back into the professional football ranks, playing three years for the Green Bay Packers. There he was a backup to future Pro Football Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers and was coached by Mike McCarthy. The final season of his playing career came in 2013 when he was a part of the New York Jets, led by Rex Ryan.

Harrell returned to coaching in 2014 and hasn't looked back since. Mike Leach brought Harrell onto his staff at Washington State for two seasons as an offensive analyst and then an outside receivers coach.

North Texas gave the then 31 year old Harrell his first offensive coordinator job in 2016. After a rough start to his tenure with the Mean Green, the North Texas offense reached new heights the following two years.

The Mean Green had the 19th and 28th scoring offense in the country in 2017 and 2018 with Harrell and head coach Seth Littrell leading the team. Harrell helped quarterback Mason Fine become one of the best Group of 5 quarterbacks in the country during his stint in Denton.

Clay Helton was able to poach Harrell to USC prior to the 2019 season, and put the young offensive mastermind on the national stage. When he took over, the Trojans were 92nd in the country in scoring and 77th in total offense.

It took Graham Harrell just one year to turn those fortunes around. During his debut season in Southern California, the Trojans improved to 16th in the country in total offense while averaging 454 yards per game and 27th in scoring nationally at just over 32 points per game.

Harrell joined Neal Brown's staff at West Virginia after Lincoln Riley did not retain him when he arrived to USC in 2021. This season the Mountaineers did not have the team success they would have liked, but the offense looked like a typical Graham Harrell led squad.

West Virginia reached 30 points per game in 2022 under their now former offensive coordinator after not reaching that threshold since 2018, when the Mountaineers scored over 40 points per game with Will Grier at quarterback.

The rising star in the coaching ranks looks to add Purdue to yet another stop where he's had success in what will be a long coaching career. Harrell will attempt to continue the offensive success the Boilermakers had under former head coach Jeff Brohm that led them to the Big Ten Championship Game this season.