Ryan Walters calls Graham Harrell a no-brainer hire

Purdue needed Graham Harrell. Purdue got Graham Harrell. On Thursday, head coach Ryan Walters discussed the decision to hire the former West Virginia offensive coordinator.

“Graham was a no-brainer. He’s been a home run thus far. Obviously, we haven’t played a down of competitive football, but I’ve been really impressed with his approach to teaching and to motivating, and holding everybody accountable on the offensive side,” Walters said at Big Ten Media Days.

Harrell’s Mountaineers’ offense was undoubtedly accountable. In his lone season as the OC, West Virginia averaged 30.6 points per game, fueled by a balanced attack of 227.5 passing yards and 171.5 rushing yards per game.

Before joining the Mountaineers, Harrell spent three seasons at USC. In 2021, Harrell guided the Trojans to 443.9 yards per outing, the 24th-most in the nation. Nonetheless, Harrell’s offensive genius developed far before he held a clipboard.

Harrell was a record-setting quarterback under legendary head coach Mike Leach at Texas Tech from 2005-08. The Texas native finished his career with an NCAA-record 134 touchdown passes and 15,793 career passing yards, good for the second-most in NCAA history.

Of course, Walters can’t help but still talk some trash to Harrell.

“We’ve got a great rapport. I played against him when I was in college. He won’t like to hear this, but I did intercept him twice in one game. Won both of those competitions, by the way,” Walters said.

With Harrell’s offensive mind and Walters’ defensive mastery, the pair could win more games as coaches than they ever won as players. Walters has been impressed by Harrell so far.

“Graham has been awesome. I knew being a defensive coach and having my background the way it is and the history that Purdue has had offensively, I knew it was important for me to hire an offensive coordinator that would be able to attract quarterbacks and offensive skill guys.

“We’re competitive at Purdue. But we’ve developed a great chemistry and rapport. We work out together all the time, every day. And he and [Kevin] Kane have that good back-and-forth going through spring ball,” Walters said.

Competitiveness only gets a team so far. Talent takes them the rest of the way. Purdue had that talent last season, winning its first Big Ten West division title. Only time will tell if the Boilermakers can replicate that success once again.

The Boilermakers will kick off their 2023 campaign on Sept. 2 as the team takes on Fresno State in their season opener.