In just six years Joe Tiller has established himself as one of Purdue’s greatest football coaches ever.

When Tiller arrived in West Lafayette for the 1997 season, he inherited a program that had not had a winning season since 1984 and had won just 22 Big Ten games in 10 years.

In six seasons, Tiller has engineered six consecutive bowl berths and five winning seasons, including a Big Ten championship in 2000 (the school’s first since 1966). Purdue and Michigan are the only two Big Ten schools to have gone to six straight bowl games since 1996.

Tiller’s Boilermakers have qualified for six of the 11 bowl games in school history: 1997 Alamo, 1998 Alamo, 2000 Outback, 2001 Rose, 2001 Sun and 2002 Sun.

The 2001 Rose Bowl appearance was Purdue’s first in more than 30 years.

As for Tiller, who was assistant head coach at Purdue from 1983 to 1986, his six-year record with the Boilermakers stands at 46-28 (a .622 winning percentage). His 12-year head coaching record is 85-58-1, (.594). In Big Ten games, he is 30-18 (.625).

During the 2002 season, Tiller became the second-winningest coach in school history, both for all games and Big Ten games. He trails only Jack Mollenkopf, who had 84 wins and 57 Big Ten wins from 1956 to 1969.

Tiller presently is under contract that assures his presence on the Purdue sidelines at least through the 2007 campaign. Since signing a five-year contract to become the Boilermakers’ head coach, he has been awarded three separate two-year extensions (the first in January of 1998, the second in December of 1998 and the third in December of 1999).

Tiller’s 1998 two-year contract extension included a base salary of $160,000 per year plus a total university compensation package which will range from the 75th percentile up to among the top of all major NCAA Division I-A football programs, depending on performance.

Tiller’s original five-year contract paid him a base salary of $129,999 annually.

The 2002 season was a frustrating one, as the Boilermakers went 7-6 overall, 4-4 in the Big Ten (tied for fifth place), losing their six games by a combined 26 points (4.3 per game).

Purdue, which became just the 13th school in Big Ten history to lead the conference in total offense and total defense (317.2), capped the season with a 34-24 Sun Bowl victory over Washington.

"Of all the teams we’ve been around, the 2002 team may have been as good as any we’ve had, if not better than any we’ve ever had, in terms of consistent play and effort," Tiller admitted.

"We played our way into a bowl game instead of limping, tripping and stumbling into one. We were playing our best football at the end of the year."

As good as the 2002 team was, 2001 might have been Tiller’s greatest in terms of coaching.

Despite losing five offensive starters to the NFL, the Boilermakers relied on defense and special teams to post a 6-6 overall record (4-4 in the Big Ten, tied for fourth place) and earned a trip to the Sun Bowl, where they lost to No. 13 Washington State 33-27.

In Tiller’s inaugural season as the Boilermakers’ boss, Tiller engineered a 9-3 season (6-2 in the Big Ten, a second-place tie), including a 33-20 victory over Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl.

Purdue’s ’97 performance was the nation’s second-best turnaround. It was also the second-greatest turnaround in Boilermaker history. Coach Elmer Burnham took a Purdue squad which finished 1-8 in 1942 and made it 9-0 in 1943.

The job Tiller, who became the program’s fourth coach in 15 years, and his coaching staff did was not unnoticed.

Tiller received several honors including Football News National Coach-of-the-Year, Kickoff National Coach-of-the-Year, Big Ten Dave McClain Coach-of-the-Year, one of six finalists for the Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach-of-the-Year Award and was a finalist for the nation’s top coach by The Sporting News.

Naturally, following a season like that, Boilermaker fans wanted an encore from Tiller and Co.

On cue, Tiller and his staff delivered. They led the Old Gold and Black, who had 17 players make their first collegiate start in 1998, to a 9-4 season, including 6-2 in the conference (fourth place) and successfully defended their Alamo Bowl title with a 37-34 come-from-behind victory over No. 4 Kansas State. Just a few weeks earlier, the Wildcats were in the National Championship hunt. Tiller’s squad finished the 1999 season ranked 23rd in the coaches poll and 24th by The Associated Press.

For the second straight season, Purdue broke the school record for points (444) while also establishing standards for first downs (315), passing yards (4,208), total yards (5,719) and touchdowns (57).

Tiller posted more wins in his first two seasons (18) than any coach in school history, surpassing Kizer (15). In fact, Tiller went down in the record books as the Big Ten’s winningest second-year coach ever, passing Michigan’s Lloyd Carr, who was 17-8 from 1995-96.

In 1999, the Boilermakers started 4-0, climbing to No. 10 in the ESPN/USA Today poll, and finished 7-5, 4-4 (tied for sixth), after a 28-25 overtime loss to Georgia in the Outback Bowl.

In 2000, Purdue went 8-4, 6-2. It climbed to ninth in the polls after going 4-0 in October. In addition, the Boilermakers lost two games by a total of four points. Conversely, they won three games by a combined 11 points. Purdue ended its season with a 34-24 loss to No. 4 Washington in "The Granddaddy of Them All."

Tiller, The Sporting News 1998 Big Ten Coach-of-the-Year, has had potent offenses at Purdue in five of his six years. It finished seventh, 16th, eighth and fourth in total offense in the nation from 1997 to 2000, 105th in 2001 and seventh a year ago.

Tiller’s Boilermakers enter the 2003 season having won 78.3 percent of their games in Ross-Ade Stadium (29-8 overall, 18-6 in the Big Ten). In nonconference tilts, Purdue is 13-7 and 3-3 in bowl games under Tiller’s guidance.

As successful as the Boilermakers have been on the gridiron, they’ve had many triumphs in the classroom.

In June of this year the team was recognized by the American Football Coaches Association for academic achievement. The Boilermakers are one of 32 schools to graduate 70 percent or more of their players based on a study of the freshman class from the academic year of 1997-98. Of the 32 schools, just 18, including Purdue, played in a bowl game last season. Purdue was one of five Big Ten schools honored, along with Illinois, Michigan, Northwestern and Penn State.

In addition, of the 30 seniors in 2001 and 2002, 27 have earned their degrees.

Before coming to Purdue, Tiller guided Wyoming to a 39-30-1 record in six seasons.

In 1996, Tiller, a ’96 National Coach-of-the-Year finalist, led Wyoming to the Western Athletic Conference title game, a 10-2 record and a No. 22 final national ranking by The Associated Press. The Cowboys’ 10-2 mark was one of the seven best records in school history. Tiller is the first coach to lead the Cowboys to a Top 25 national finish since 1988.

When Tiller was an assistant at Purdue he coached the last Purdue consensus All-American on defense, Rod Woodson, who went on to be an All-Pro cornerback with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In his previous stay in Boilermaker country, the Old Gold and Black posted its most recent winning season (prior to 1997), going 7-5 in 1984, which was good for a second-place Big Ten tie with Illinois and a Peach Bowl appearance.

Tiller, a Toledo, Ohio, native, earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Montana State in 1965. He was an honorable mention All-American offensive tackle and team captain, then was drafted by the Boston Patriots of the American Football League. He chose to sign with Calgary of the Canadian Football League where he played one season.

After coaching stints at Montana State and Washington State, he joined the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL, where he spent nine seasons (1974-82), five as director of player personnel and one as interim head coach.

The 60-year-old Tiller and his wife, Arnette, have three children: Renee, Julie and Mike.