Back in April, Purdue had a special visitor to the offices: former special teams coach Tony Levine. It was good to catch-up with Jeff Brohm, but this was a business call. Brohm summoned Levine to pick his brain on special teams.

“We brought him back to kind of sit down with us for three days and go over in detail everything we did and everything that worked and everything that didn’t work, figure out ways to get better and bounce ideas off of him,” said Brohm. “Anytime you can educate yourself better and figure out ways to utilize your resources and contacts to get better, that’s what we wanted to do. And I think his familiarity with myself, our team and what we were trying to get accomplished really helped us kind of see things in more detail to help us get better.”

Levine came with Brohm from Western Kentucky to Purdue in 2017. And Levine did a good job with the Boilermaker special teams that season, tightening coverages and spicing things up with trick plays. Who can forget the four successful fake punts that season?

But Levine left football after the 2017 season to spend more time with his wife and four children. They settled in Houston, a city he fell in love with when he followed former Purdue linebacker Kevin Sumlin as head coach of the Cougars from 2011-14. Levine’s new job: owning and running a Chick-fil-A. But football still burns in the belly of the former Minnesota Golden Gopher receiver.

“The thing with Coach Levine, I had been with him for a long time as an assistant and a head coach,” said Brohm. “He has tremendous experience coaching special teams at the college and NFL level. At Western Kentucky, we were ranked extremely high in special teams. We did some dynamic, interesting things on special teams at Purdue that helped us. I really felt he kind of knew what I liked and what we were all about and what things I was trying to get done. And he knows our players.”

While all areas of special teams were broken down during Levine’s three-day visit in April, perhaps the area with the most potential is the return game. How can Purdue better utilize electric Rondale Moore?

“We do want to get better in the return game,” said Brohm. “When you have a dynamic player at that position, you can find ways to get him space and in the open areas and let him do what he can. It’s not always on him. We can design things better and we have to utilize our personnel better and create those opportunities.

“So, yes, (the return game) was a big part of it, but really it was all special teams, even extra points, field-goal block, kickoff cover. All things. It was an extensive three-day study. Going back and watching old video and comparing, seeing what we can do to get better.”

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The timing for a Levine visit was good, when you consider Purdue’s special teams coaching duties are in transition. Mark Tommerdahl coached tight ends and coordinated special teams in 2018, but he left for a job at Texas Tech this winter. Brohm stayed in house to replace him, tabbing Kevin Wolthausen—who helped with special teams before—as special teams coordinator. He will be assisted by new tight ends coach Ryan Wallace, who was promoted from a quality control position.

“There were people who wanted a shot at the position,” said Brohm. “Whether it was special teams or tight ends, there were people who wanted a shot. Coach Wolthausen had been with me for a long time, and done special teams quite a bit. He kind of knows things we like do to here and how to do it. He has a tremendous amount of experience.

“Coach Wallace gives us some youth an energy and expertise at the tight end position. The fact they know our personnel and who we are and what we are about, who are players are and which ones are coming in — as opposed to bringing in someone new who has to learn what guys can and can’t do—especially on special teams ... that was important.”

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