Purdue To Hire Kevin Kane As Defensive Coordinator

Ryan Walters' staff at Purdue is beginning to take shape. A day after Graham Harrell was brought in as offensive coordinator, Walters is set to hire Kevin Kane as Purdue's defensive coordinator. Jeremy Werner was the first to break the news.

Kane will leave Illinois to follow Walters to West Lafayette after being the Illini"s associate head coach and outside linebackers coach for the last two seasons.

Illinois had outside linebackers Seth Coleman and freshman Gabe Jacas step up in the 2022 season under Kane. Coleman was All-Big Ten honorable mention, while Jacas was named a Freshman All-American by several publications.

This will be Kane's third different stop as a defensive coordinator during his college coaching career. Before joining Illinois in 2021, Kane was the defensive coordinator for three seasons under Sonny Dykes at SMU.

Kane also had two different stints with Northern Illinois, from 2011-2014 and then again from 2016-2017. The year gap was when Kane was the linebackers coach for his alma mater at Kansas.

The Huskies had great success when Kane was in DeKalb. Northern Illinois was 49-22 during both tenures with Kane. The defense was 33rd in points allowed during his final season with the team, allowing 22.0 points per game during the 2017 season.

Kane also worked under Bret Bielema at Wisconsin from 2008-2010 as a graduate assistant and then a quality control coach.

Ryan Walters has led a youth movement in West Lafayette since being named as the program's leader earlier this week. Purdue's head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator are all 38 years old or younger.

The next step for Walters will be filling out the position coaches in the next few weeks. As Kane leaves Illinois, that could be a sign of things to come with other Illini coaches joining Walters as well.