The debut game of the Ryan Walters era has come and gone. Like many before him, he began with a defeat. Of all the coaches to make their debut as Purdue had coach in the last 40 years only two won their first game. Let’s go all the way back to Leon Burtnett to see how each new coach did in his debut compared to Walters.
Leon Burtnett (1982-86)
Burtnett took over for Jim Young in 1982, and he was taking over a Purdue team that had one of the most impressive runs in school history. Although Jim Young had a 5-6 team in 1981, His 1978-80 run is arguably the best three-season stretch in the history of the program. Purdue went 28-7-1 and won three bowl games in that span.
Burnett’s debut came at Ross-Ade Stadium on September 11, 1982 against Stanford. The Cardinal also had a young promising quarterback by the name of John Elway, who went on to have a professional career of some note. The Cardinal won going away 35-14, and that started an 0-5 stretch to begin the year. Two of those losses were to ranked teams in Notre Dame and Illinois, but game 2 was an ugly 36-10 loss to a Minnesota team at home that went 3-8 and 1-8 in the Big Ten.
Purdue finished that first season 3-8, and Burtnett would go 21-34-1 in five seasons. He took Purdue to the Peach Bowl in 1984 and beat #8 Notre Dame and #2 Ohio State that season, but that was his lone winning season.
Fred Akers (1987-90)
Akers came to Purdue with the option in tow and a relatively successful tenure at Texas. He had a pair of one-loss seasons at Texas and it was a big time hire when he came to Purdue. His Texas team had gone 11-1 in 1983 and would have won the national championship if not for a 10-9 loss to Georgia in the Cotton Bowl.
His first game at Purdue came on the road at Washington, and the No. 12 Huskies handled Purdue 28-10 in Seattle. Akers’ first home game happened to be the first ever Purdue game I attended, and it ended in a 22-22 tie with Louisville.
His first team went on to finished 3-7-1, beating only Illinois, Wisconsin, and Northwestern. They did come close to beating a ranked Ohio State team in West Lafayette, losing 20-17. Ultimately, Akers went a dismal 12-31-1 and topped out in year two at 4-7. He more well known for driving Jeff George away from Purdue because of the different offensive style.
Jim Colletto (1991-96)
Much of the Colletto era was forgettable, but the opener was great. Purdue rolled Eastern Michigan 49-3 with ease. The era of good feelings didn’t last a week, as Purdue traveled to Cal and lost 42-18. A year later Purdue would upset a top 20 Cal team 41-14 in the season opener, but turned around and lost to Toledo the following week.
All told, Colletto would “officially” go 21-42-3. He technically had a winning season at 5-4-2 in 1994, but one of those wins was really a 42-30 loss to Michigan State that was later ruled a forfeit win. Even more frustrating, Purdue started that 1994 season 4-1 behind Mike Alstott. He did have one last hurrah with a shocking 9-3 upset win over No. 9 Michigan in his final season.
Joe Tiller (1997-2008)
Tiller was so successful in West Lafayette that a part of the stadium now bears his name. His first game, however, was not great. Purdue traveled to Toledo and the Rockets beat Purdue 36-22. That was a solid Toledo team that went 9-3 and started the season 8-0. After a run of three mediocre-to-bad coaches Tiller’s debut didn't leave much to hope for.
It only took a week for those feelings to be turned around, as Purdue upset Notre Dame for the first time in 12 years in the home opener. That started a six-game win streak and Purdue would finish 9-3 with a win in its first bowl game in 12 years.
Tiller finished as Purdue’s all-time leader in wins at 87-62 and is pretty much universally beloved in West Lafayette. His teams played in 10 bowl games in 12 years and the peak was winning the Big Ten in 2000 and playing in the Rose Bowl. Tiller is the only coach in the last half century to retire as Purdue coach, and he took Purdue to its highest level since Jack Mollenkopf in the 1960s.
Danny Hope (2009-12)
Hope’s first season was a wild one. He rode a career day from running back Ralph Bolden to a 52-31 win over Toledo in his first game, and for a week it looked like he was going to have plenty of success as Tiller’s hand-picked successor.
Purdue then lost the next five games, four of them by a single possession. Much of it was self-inflicted as Purdue gave up two defensive touchdowns in a 38-36 loss at Oregon, had an ill-advised late timeout in a 24-21 loss to Notre Dame, and gave up six turnovers in a 27-21 loss to Northwestern.
Just when it looked like the season was going nowhere Purdue shocked No. 7 Ohio State in West Lafayette 26-18, breaking a 16 game Big Ten road win streak for the Buckeyes. Purdue would also collect its only win in Ann Arbor in the last half century 38-36 later in the season.
Much of Hope’s tenure was very similar. He would pull off some shocking wins and have some questionable losses. He finished 22-27 with a bowl win and even won his last three games in his final season, but he was 10-11 in games decided by one possession. That was the mark of his teams. They were not terrible and they could spring an upset of someone, but they struggled with consistency.
Darrell Hazell (2013-2016)
The Darrell Hazell era began with great fanfare. There was a huge sendoff on Monument Circle in Indianapolis as the team traveled to Cincinnati for the season opener. The first half even wasn’t that bad, as it was a 7-7 game before the Bearcats scored 17 seconds before halftime.
Everything from there was downhill. Purdue lost that game 42-7 and it had one of the worst offensive seasons in school history. It was so bad Purdue once went three consecutive games without running a single offensive play in the red zone. The 2013 team went down as arguably the worst in school history, going 1-11. The lone win saw Purdue get a late interception to seal a 20-14 win over an FCS Indiana State teamt hat also went 1-11.
Hazell would be fired after just three and a half years with a record of 9-33. He had only five wins against FBS level competition and just a single Big Ten win at home. It was so bad that he won more games in his final season at Kent State than he did in his entire Purdue tenure.
Jeff Brohm (2017-22)
There was pretty much nowhere to go but up when Jeff Brohm arrived, and in game one he showed things would be different. Purdue was a big underdog as it faced Louisville (Brohm’s alma mater) in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium. Even more, the Cardinals had the reigning Heisman winner in Lamar Jackson. The Boilers held their own and even led in the fourth quarter before falling 35-28.
Brohm immediately turned things around, going 7-6 with a bowl win in year one. He was the first coach since Joe Tiller (and only second ever) to take Purdue to a bowl game in his first season, and it was even more surprising since Purdue had been so bad under Hazell. The 31-24 win over Indiana in the season finale got Purdue back into a bowl and ended a four year exile for the Old Oaken Bucket in Bloomington, the longest stretch in the history of the trophy.
Brohm would eventually be the first coach to leave Purdue for another job since Jim Young. He wasn’t quite Tiller, but he took Purdue to four bowl games and won the only divisional title in school history. The overall mark of 36-34 is a tad skewed because of an injury-riddled 4-8 season in 2019 and the bizarre 2-4 COVID year, but he headed off to Louisville while leaving the program in a significantly better place than he found it. Purdue’s 17 wins in his final two seasons was its best run since Purdue won 18 game sin 1997-98.
He also made Purdue the “Spoilermakers” again, as Purdue had top 5 upsets of Ohio State, Iowa, and Michigan State as part of those 17 wins in his final two seasons.
Ryan Walters (2023-?)
It is still very early, but Walters already had a better debut than Hazell, Tiller, Akers, and Burtnett. Fresno State is a solid program that has had consecutive 10-win seasons and four 10-win seasons in the last six years. That’s the mark of a solid program regardless of level. Purdue was in position to earn the win today, but couldn’t make any of a handful of plays to get the win.
There is a lot to clean up, but this is a mostly new team in several areas. Purdue was able to make some big plays, but struggled to get defensive stops and the defense wilted in the second half on a hot day.
It is difficult to judge Walters after just one game, especially when it was not only his first game as Purdue’s head coach, but his first game ever as a head coach. There is still reason to be cautiously optimistic. The offense had some big plays and had two solid drives after falling behind. His debut was much closer’s to Brohm’s debut than Hazell’s.
So can Purdue make a bowl game in year one? It is certainly possible. There are two near certain losses on the schedule with Michigan and Ohio State, but next week at Virginia Tech is a winnable game that cane pretty much erase today's loss. Syracuse is tough, but not overwhelming. If Purdue gets out of the non-conference at 2-1 that is on par with what many expected, and so far the Big Ten West has not looked great. Win the next two, get three divisional games, and beat Indiana, and Purdue is in a bowl game.
That would qualify as a success in a year where Purdue has had so much turnover all over the field.
