Now that Mike Bobinski has tackled the most-pressing issue looming over his reign as Purdue’s new athletic director by hiring Jeff Brohm to rebuild the football program, he’s happy to take a breath.

He’ll enjoy a short break over the holidays before returning to campus and moving on to other important matters within the athletic department, namely working to establish a culture.

Bobinski, who replaced retired Morgan Burke on Sept. 1, has been able to assess staff over his first three months on the job to an extent — he’s been present, obviously, and engaged — but the coaching search required considerable focus. Now, Bobinski’s message of no status quo likely will reverberate inside the athletic department offices more than ever.

“We’re not in a place in a drastic need of revision or change or dramatic shifts in approach, but I think as time goes by — and part of it will be mirroring what we hope to accomplish in football and what I think we will accomplish — (it's about) just sort of raising the entire level of expectation,” Bobinski said last week during an interview for Gold and Black Illustrated’s January/February issue. “I think that’s something we would like to do across the board here within not only our sport programs but in our administrative support areas. There’s always an opportunity to be better. Nobody can ever say, ‘I am doing everything I can possibly do at the highest possible level, period, don’t ask me any more questions.’ It’s just not so. Nobody can ever say that. But getting people to recognize that and to actually live that out every day, there’s a way we can do something a little bit better here today. I say that, and I’m going to continue to say that because I think that’s really important. Having people who aren’t just coming in every day and just sort of checking a box, ‘That was Monday, there’s Tuesday, can’t wait for the end of the week.’ That’s not how we’re going to get this organization where it needs to go. We need to have that mindset that we’re here to accomplish something.

“We’re here to take Purdue athletics to the best place it can be in the years ahead. It’s in a good place today, but let’s see how far we can take it. Let’s see where we can push it to. That’s the mindset that I would like to have sort of adopted throughout.”

It’s one that was instilled in Bobinski by his parents.

He even has a story to best illustrate it.

On the way home after a particularly impressive performance on the baseball field — in which Bobinski tossed a two-hitter and went 2-for-3 at the plate — the only thing dad wanted to know was what happened on the pop out?

The message was clear at any early age: Never settle. Never accept less than what you’re capable of.

And that’ll be stressed throughout Bobinski’s department, from his administration down to the coaches and the players.

He realizes that kind of approach isn’t how everyone attacks life. But he also believes it is imperative at Purdue in continuing to strive for excellence.

“You want people to come to that in their own way where they understand that just makes your day and what you’re doing that much more rewarding, when you’re totally invested and when you enjoy the process and you enjoy the outcome of improvement,” Bobinski said. “And you feel that sense of gratification of accomplishment. That’s why I love cutting the grass. Because you can see you’re doing something. You can actually see something is getting done there. Just a sense of getting things accomplished is a great thing. Having people understand that, that’s something that makes the quality of your life better, makes what you do more meaningful, makes getting up in the morning worth it.

“Getting people to understand that is a challenge. Not everybody finds that easily. Some people are not interested. They’re like, ‘I hear you, but I’m content just coming in and doing what I do and doing it the way it’s been done and there you go.’ In some rare cases, that might be OK. But, in most cases, that’s not going to work really well for me. Or for our organization because I don’t think that’s how we get better if you approach it that way. But I don’t ever try to do it in an ‘or else’ (way). That’s not my style. I’ve been in that environment in my working life, and I didn’t think it was productive at all. I didn’t think people responded to it well. I thought it was sort of management by fear or intimidation. That’s a thing of the way past and probably not ever a good thing.”

That emphasis on a higher level of expectation is something that drew Bobinski to Brohm.

It’s the same kind of culture that needs to be established within the football program, instilling a belief that good things can happen and will, which is something interim coach Gerad Parker laid the groundwork for the final six weeks of the season and something Bobinski appreciated about the 35-year-old assistant.

Brohm will have those standards for his team, too.

“I think we, for some period of time for whatever reason — and I’m not blaming anybody or anything — but we didn’t demand enough. We didn’t expect enough. We didn’t hold people accountable enough. For complete commitment, complete effort, complete buy-in to what’s going on,” Bobinski said as it relates to football. “That will change. That’s not a threat. That’s not a bad thing. It will ultimately be a good thing because when people are fully committed to something and they enjoy the process, again, that’s when performance and investment goes way up and the results typically follow that. I think all of that is going to take care of itself.”

• Bobinski has seen the national media and the general rave reviews from Brohm’s hire, and he’s happy about it. It’s certainly better than the opposite response, but he also says it doesn’t earn Purdue a first down or win a game. Brohm has to work to do rebuild the program, starting with an emphasis on recruiting and then finding a capable staff and then installing his potentially explosive offense. But, if anything, the public response has validated Bobinski’s choice because what people have been saying is exactly what he saw and thought.

“There’s a reason we picked Jeff. It wasn’t by default,” Bobinski said. “He is a brilliant offensive mind. He’s a successful coach. He’s a smart guy. He’s a coach that’s trajectory is going this way (moves hand up). He’s not a guy that’s topped out and leveled out and sort of just hoping for the next thing. He’s on a guy that’s on a clear upswing and I like that. I’ve hired people like that at other places and I’ve always enjoyed working with people who are in that process of really building their legacy and their portfolio as a coach. I see this as a natural progression for Jeff. I think we’ve got a guy who’s going to continue to grow but bring a tremendous set of accomplishments already with him to our place.”

For more from the search, including details on that final stressful Sunday, check out the magazine.

• As of last week Bobinski had yet to speak with Brohm about his preference for a playing surface at Ross-Ade Stadium. It’s currently Bermuda grass. Purdue’s outdoor practice facility has two fields, one grass, one FieldTurf. Its indoor FieldTurf practice field in Mollenkopf is scheduled to be replaced this summer because it’s eight years old and the warranty has expired. Some coaches prefer an artificial surface for the consistent look year-round. Western Kentucky’s stadium had FieldTurf.

“I would say this: I thought, to give Al Capitos and his crew, our field was spectacular,” Bobinski said. “From playability, it’s still the best option, if it works, and it sure as hell worked this fall. I know there have been other years where it’s tougher. But, boy, when it happens like it did this year, why would you have anything other than that? Because it was beautiful.”

• With Purdue opening its home schedule in 2017 under the lights against Ohio on a Friday — installation on those lights should begin in June or July, Bobinski said — it could open up Ross-Ade Stadium to other possibilities for Saturday, Bobinski said. It also could mean change for local high schools, possibly moving their games to a Thursday night or switching game times on Friday. To discuss potential issues, Bobinski met with local high school athletic directors recently and said they’ll have another conversation after the holidays to revisit options.

“I just think the dialogue was great,” Bobinski said. “We want to work it out in a way that works for everybody.

“Like us, I don’t think anybody is wildly enthusiastic about this. Maybe we hoped that our world wouldn’t have moved in this direction, but it has. These are the cards we have and we have to play them. … At the end of the day, it was a healthy conversation. Everybody was looking to be cooperative. I appreciated them coming with that spirit. That was a good thing.”

• Bobinski is intent on building a better game-day experience and, to that end, he had a company that evaluates exactly that attend the home finale in football and will attend a basketball game at some point as well to assess the current setups.

“They provide you with an extensive report and evaluation with your game day, things that were working, things that are gaps where you might be missing it, so you can attack that and improve what you’re doing. We need to always be aware of that,” Bobinski said. “We need to make sure we’re providing people with an experience that feels good from the time they first encounter us. It’s like, ‘This has been a good day.’ It’s not, ‘It was great except … the concessions stunk, there weren’t enough restrooms or the parking attendant was rude to me.’ Whatever it was. You want to eliminate those things. You want to eliminate as many objections as you can because you can’t always rely on the game to carry the day.”

Bobinski realizes winning will be a critical piece in reviving the crowds at Ross-Ade Stadium, but he’s hoping there will be strides made in that area even before those results come, which he says he’s confident will happen under Brohm’s watch. How will they improve? By being able to sell, finally, an identity.

That was something Bobinski and Brohm spoke about extensively during the interview process — because Bobinski thinks it has been severely lacking and that Brohm’s offensive brand can provide it.

“If you ask people earlier this year, ‘How would you describe Purdue football?’ I think you’d get a relatively blank stare,” Bobinski said. “Well, I think you’re going to know what we’re about here pretty quickly once he takes hold. I talked about it and Jeff expressed how important it is for guys, from a recruiter perspective, to connect to something. We’re going to play aggressively on both sides of the ball. We’re going to put pressure on on the defensive side and offensively we’re going to play to win. We’re not going to be conservative. We’re going to push the envelope and be as creative, innovative and as leading-edge as we possibly can be. That’s one of the things I like about him. …

“If people have an expectation that it’s going to be an entertaining deal where they’re going to play a style where the team is going to compete, they’re going to play hard, they’re going to be aggressive, they’re going to do fun things on the field, plays are going to be run that are like, ‘Did you see that?’ TV is great. I love watching stuff on television, but there’s still nothing like being there. There’s a specialness about being there and seeing things in person you want to make sure what we’re doing and how we’re doing it captures that.”

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