Year Three of the Jeff Brohm era is about to dawn. What should we expect?
By the time a coach hits his third season on campus, his program is established—and much of the roster has been turned over. That is the case for Brohm.
He has compiled a 13-13 overall record and a 9-9 Big Ten mark with two bowls and one postseason triumph. Most Boilermaker fans would tell you Brohm has exceeded expectations. Hard to argue against that.
Now what?
Brohm’s third season in West Lafayette is being met with varying prognostications by pundits. Purdue is expected to go to a bowl for a third year in a row. But will Brohm win more than six or seven games like he did in 2017 (7-6) and 2018 (6-7)? And will he end 2019 not just with a bowl bid ... but with a bowl victory?
“We set our expectations high,” said Brohm. “So, for us, it’s about improving upon last year which means getting to a bowl game, and then trying to have a better record.”
The third year has been a mixed bag for the last 10 Purdue head coaches, going back to Jack Mollenkopf. The iconic Boilermaker coach enjoyed a good third season in West Lafayette. Others weren't so fortunate. This much is certain: Just because you excel in your third season, it doesn't mean your Purdue career will end successfully. Just ask Leon Burtnett or Danny Hope.
Here is how the program’s previous 10 head coaches fared in their third seasons.
Darrell Hazell, 2-10 overall, 1-7 Big Ten (2015): By Hazell’s third season, it was painfully obvious: This wasn’t working. The season was a pratfall from the start, as the first pass of the campaign resulted in a pick-six in a loss at Marshall. It was all downhill from there. Hazell lost at home to a MAC team (Bowling Green) and Indiana scored 54 points in front of 30,000 mostly disinterested fans at Ross-Ade Stadium. Honestly, Hazell should have been sent packing after the 2015 season, but he returned in 2016 ... and was pink-slipped by new A.D. Mike Bobinski before the season was finished.
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Danny Hope, 7-6, 4-4, Little Caesar’s Bowl (2011): Of all of the former Joe Tiller assistants he could pick to follow the legendary Boilermaker boss, then A.D. Morgan Burke selected … Danny Hope? Tiller's offensive line coach spent a year as a head-coach-in-waiting (Remember when that was a thing?). The apprenticeship didn’t help Hope after he arrived from coaching Eastern Kentucky. Hope had one winning season in four—and this was it. The 2011 highlight was a 26-23 OT win at home vs. Ohio State. The season was capped by a Little Caesars Pizza Bowl victory. A five-game midseason losing streak in 2012 torpedoed Hope, who was canned after beating IU at home.
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Joe Tiller, 7-5, 4-4, Outback Bowl (1999): The Big Ten didn’t know what had hit it when Tiller arrived from the Wyoming plains with his “basketball on grass” in 1997. The league never was the same. Tiller was still rolling in Year Three, taking the Boilers to a New Year’s Day bowl vs. Georgia behind a quarterback named Drew Brees. It was Purdue's third bowl in three seasons under Tiller. The next season, 2000, Tiller and Brees would take the program to the Rose Bowl. It was a good time to be in West Lafayette, as Tiller would go on to become Purdue's all-time winningest coach.
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Jim Colletto, 1-10, 0-8 (1993): When it came to blowing his stack, few Purdue coaches were better than the fiery Colletto. And he often looked dejected and defeated on the sideline while ranting and raving with a cherry-red face. You would, too, if you won one game in a season. That was Colletto's win total in his third year! And the Boilermakers went winless in the conference, too, in one of the most miserable seasons in school annals. It marked the first time since 1946 that Purdue failed to win a Big Ten game. The nadir: Colletto fired defensive coordinator Moe Ankney on the way home from an infamous 59-56 loss at Minnesota. It took Purdue three more years to fire Colletto, who never had a winning mark in six seasons.
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Fred Akers, 3-8, 2-6 (1989): Hiring Akers from Texas was a disastrous idea by then A.D. George King. It may have sounded good at the time, given Akers' success coaching the Longhorns. But coaching a blue-blood program and coaching Purdue are two totally different things. Akers had no interest in rolling up his sleeves and working. The 1989 season was one of the most vapid in school history. (Who can forget the black helmets?) The bright spot: Quarterback Eric Hunter was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Akers installed the run-and-shoot in 1990. It was an epic fail. He was back on his Texas ranch soon thereafter with a fatter bank account. Purdue? It was left with buyer's remorse.
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Leon Burtnett, 7-5, 6-3, Peach Bowl (1984): When Jim Young stepped down after the 1981 season, Purdue promoted defensive coordinator Burtnett, the architect of the famed "Junk Defense." It didn’t work. Burtnett gave fans hope with an exciting 1984 season that saw Purdue for the only time in school history beat Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan in the same season en route to the Peach Bowl. His third team is famous for the passing of Jim Everett and the skill of Rod Woodson. But it was a tease. (Interestingly, the OC in 1984 was Jim Colletto and the DC was Joe Tiller.) Too often, Burtnett’s defenses were a sieve in a mostly dreary five-year tenure. Burtnett could recruit, but his game-day acumen was dubious. He was gone after the 1986 season.
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Jim Young, 10-2, 7-1, Astro-Bluebonnet (1979): The tough-as-nails Young arrived after a successful four-year run at Arizona and made the Boilermakers matter. Following 5-6 (1977) and 9-2-1 (1978, Peach Bowl) seasons, Young delivered the first-and-only 10-win season in school annals. No coach has had a better third season. Young did it behind the passing of Mark Herrmann and the famous “Junk Defense” paced by linebacker Keena Turner, as the Boilermakers just missed winning the Big Ten. Young went 9-3 in 1980 (Liberty Bowl) and slipped to 5-6 in 1981, when he stepped down. He went on to a successful run as coach of Army, going 51-39-1 from 1983-1990.
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Alex Agase, 4-7, 4-4 (1975): Not sure what the Purdue brass saw in Agase, who went 32-58-1 in nine seasons at Northwestern before he was hired in West Lafayette in 1973. Anyway … this oh-so-forgettable 1975 season was a nice summation of the Agase era, which featured zero winning seasons in four years. Despite having first-round NFL talent in running back Mike Pruitt and defensive tackle Ken Novak, Purdue opened 1975 with an 0-5 mark. The offense was horrendous, scoring 20 or fewer points in nine of 11 games. Mercifully, the plug was pulled on the Agase era after the 1976 season.
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Bob DeMoss, 6-5, 6-2 (1972): This may have been the biggest underachieving team in school annals. And that's saying a lot. The 1972 Purdue squad had three first-round NFL draft picks: DT Dave Butz, RB Otis Armstrong and WR Darryl Stingley. Gary Danielson was the signal-caller. Despite all of this talent recruited off the fruits of the Jack Mollenkopf era, the Boilers opened 0-3. Purdue rallied to go 6-2 in the final eight games. Still, this team had better talent than the 6-5 record it produced. “DeMo” resigned after the season, just his third after being promoted from quarterbacks coach under Jack Mollenkopf. It was one of the shortest tenures in Purdue history.
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Jack Mollenkopf, 6-1-2, 3-1-2 (1958): The iconic Mollenkopf got off to a slow start, going a combined 8-8-2 his first two years. But he led the Boilermakers to a 6-1-2 mark in 1958, finishing No. 11 in the coaches poll behind quarterback Bob Spoo, end Tom Franckhauser and tackle Gene Selawski. Jack The Ripper was just getting started in what would be an iconic Purdue tenure. The best was yet to come with a Rose Bowl trip in the 1966 season.
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