Coaching Carousel Roundup & Rumblings: Thoughts on Ryan Walters at Purdue, what to make of Navy's opening & Hugh Freeze fills out his staff at Auburn

So much for using history as a recent guide. Purdue bucked all belief that it would target an offensive-first head coach to replace Jeff Brohm, hiring impressive Illinois defensive coordinator Ryan Walters on Tuesday. 

The former Colorado team captain, and someone who was a candidate for his alma mater before the Buffs landed Deion Sanders, spearheaded one of the best defenses in the nation in 2022. 

Under Walters, the Fighting Illini became a totally different team defensively. The unit ranked No. 108 nationally the year before he arrived in Champaign, and two seasons later, Illinois led the country in scoring defense (12.3 points per game), was No. 2 nationally in yards per play (4.26) and yards per game (263.8) and No. 6 in third down conversions allowed. He fielded one of the most aggressive, ball-hawking units in the country, as Illinois forced 29 turnovers — tops among all Power 5 teams. 

After spending six seasons on staff at Missouri and the last two years at Illinois working for Bret Bielema, Walters, 36, becomes the fourth-youngest head coach in the country and takes over a Purdue program hoping to maintain its near-unprecedented success the last two seasons. 

Brohm delivered back-to-back winning years for the first time in 25 seasons and the Boilermakers are coming off their program’s first Big Ten West title. 

Purdue’s decision to break from tradition — not only not hire an offensive coach but typically a sitting head coach — speaks volumes about Walters’ overall vision for the program. 

He’s been considered a rising star in the industry for several years and now he just landed a Big Ten job. We’ll see which direction Walters goes for his OC choice — likely an assistant with a strong background in a pass-first, QB-friendly scheme — but if he can pair his defenses with a typical Purdue offense then the Boilermakers just might keep that train rolling down the tracks. 

Meanwhile, North Texas named Washington State OC Eric Morris as its new head coach. After firing Seth Littrell after seven seasons, the Mean Green dipped back into the Mike Leach tree.

Morris, who played receiver for Mike Leach at Texas Tech, was the OC at WSU for just one season after spending four seasons as the head coach at InCarnate Word, building the Long Star program from a FCS bottom-feeder into a budding power. 

He went 10-3 in his final season and the Cardinals were 11-2 in 2022. 

Morris has extensive roots in Texas, playing and coaching at TTU, Houston and Incarnate Word. He was Kliff Kingsbury’s OC at Tech from 2014-17.

He’s charged with transitioning the program out of the C-USA into the AAC in 2023, which will be challenging for the Mean Green initially.

Elsewhere, Kent State is reportedly set to hire Minnesota running backs coach and assistant head coach Kenni Burns, per various outlets. 

Burns has coached a couple All-Big Ten tailbacks with the Gophers, including star Mohamed Ibrahim in 2022.  He’s a Midwest native who played at Indiana and has a season of MAC experience serving on PJ Fleck’s staff at Western Michigan before going to Minnesota. 

Kent State is perhaps the toughest job in the MAC, which speaks to why Sean Lewis, who was considered successful at 24-31 in five seasons, left a head coaching job to become Deion Sanders’ OC at Colorado. 

So with Purdue, North Texas and Kent State filled, that leaves just a single head coach opening in the 2022 cycle: Navy.

Speaking of…

NAVY FIRES NIUMATALOLO

On Sunday, Navy fired Ken Niumatalolo after 15 seasons as the head coach of the Midshipmen. 

Navy is in the market for a head coach for just the second time this century. 

Niumatalolo was on staff in Annapolis since 2002, working as the OL coach and assistant head coach for Paul Johnson before taking over the program in 2008 when his mentor left for Georgia Tech. 

He was 109-83, including a 10-5 record against Army, 7-7 versus Air Force with six Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy victories. At a storied institution, he’s the winningest coach in program history. 

From 2008 to 2019, Niumatalolo won at least eight games nine times in 12 seasons. 

But the Midshipmen have hit some rough waters of late, going just 11-23 the last three years. They’ve made just a single bowl game since 2017. They’re also just 2-5 against both Army and Air Force in the last seven matchups, respectively. 

Niumatalolo was facing the heat just a year ago when he was forced into firing his longtime OC Ivin Jasper only to win a PR battle with AD Chet Gladchuk that allowed Jasper, a guy some in the industry believed would be his successor with the Midshipmen, to stay on staff. 

Navy then opened the 2022 season with a loss to FCS Delaware. Despite actually playing better down the stretch than its record indicated — close losses to Cincy and Notre Dame and an upset over No. 20 UCF — a 20-17 overtime defeat to Army in the season-finale seemed to seal Niumatalolo’s fate. 

Navy’s decline has happened at the same time Jeff Monken has turned Army into the top football service academy. Still, Paul Johnson and Niumatalolo proved it’s possible to win at Navy, but some more modern tweaks likely need to occur to make that happen moving forward. 

Navy plays in the AAC, but it can’t even really recruit at a normal G5 level due to its academic and military service requirements. It will always run a form of the triple-option because of the school’s height-weight requirements for all students and athletes, but with college football recent rule changes (a much greater emphasis on getting rid of cut blocks), it would behoove the Midshipmen to lean into some of the more spread-option elements (see: Tulane, Coastal Carolina) if they wants to compete at the FBS level. 

But it at least knows where its bread is buttered. Navy won’t make the same mistake Georgia Southern years ago when it abandoned its option roots to disastrous results by hiring Brian Vangorder. 

“The triple-option is really the fiber of who we are, the competitive edge of who we are,” Gladchuk said.

Unlike every other opening in 2022 coaching cycle, Navy is job where a new head coach can’t engineer a rapid rebuild using NIL or the transfer portal. 

Service academies cannot take transfers and students at Navy, Army and Air Force can’t receive NIL deals or contracts due to being considered government employees. 

That make it really tough turn around a sinking ship. Still, there’s a couple candidates out there who look like strong fits for Navy. 

Kennesaw State head coach Brian Bohannon is the most popular name around Navy’s search since Niumatalolo was fired, as he worked with Niumatalolo on Johnson’s staff with the Midshipman from 2002-07 before following him to Tech. He has a triple-option background and started the Kennesaw State program from scratch, going 68-24 the last eight seasons. 

Another possible candidate it Army OC Brent Davis. A Georgia Bulldogs native, Davis has been with the Black Knights the last seven seasons, serving as Monken’s right-hand-man in the program’s turnaround.

Navy DC Brian Newberry is the current interim head coach, and if school opts to promote internally he would have a case after improving the Midshipman’s defense the last few season’s despite the program’s overall struggles. Newberry arrived at Navy in 2019 from Bohannon’s staff at Kennesaw State, and took a defense that was ranked 120th nationally in yards per play allowed to 36th nationally in his first season. The Midshipman have mostly continued to play solid defense since, too, including big performances against Air Force, Notre Dame, Cincy, UCF and Army — despite just a single win in those five games.

FREEZE FILLS OUT HIS STAFF

After teasing major staff additions in his opening press conference, Hugh Freeze had mostly filled out his inaugural Auburn staff with former Ole Miss and Liberty assistants, but the Tigers’ new coach did make a pair of notable coordinator hires this week, locking down former Baylor DC Ron Roberts and tabbing former veteran head coach Phillip Montgomery as his OC. 

The Tigers out-clawed Arkansas and Georgia Tech for Roberts’ services, who left Waco this offseason after a down year with the Bears but produced a top flight-defense for Baylor in 2021. I’m a bit skeptical he’ll deliver similar results — especially without Dave Aranda around — at Auburn, but the Tigers’ roster is currently constructed with more talent defensively so he has some pieces to work with. 

Freeze’s OC pick is strong, though. 

Montgomery over-stayed his welcome as Tulsa’s head coach, but paired with Freeze, he gives AU two of the top offensive minds in the entire sport. 

The Tigers need to figure out who they want at quarterback (see: rumors of Grayson McCall visiting AU), OL and receiver, but the two-headed braintrust of Freeze and Montgomery should spark the offense to greater heights in 2023. It might take more than a single season, but Auburn’s offense will should start to resemble what Tennessee (and Arkansas to a lesser extent) is doing under Josh Heupel.

MORE COACHING CAROSUEL ROUNDUP & RUMBLINGS 

Shane Beamer found his next OC, as South Carolina hired Arkansas tight ends coach Dowell Loggains as its new play-caller. It’s a curious decision by Beamer, as Loggains hasn’t been a play-caller for several seasons and notably struggled badly in that role at multiple NFL stops. … . Georgia Tech plucked Buster Faulker away from in-state rival Georgia to be Brent Key’s new OC.  Faulker, a former Southern Miss OC, is a Peach State native who played quarterback at Parkview High and then at Valdosta State. He spent the last three seasons working under Todd Monken as an analyst for the Bulldogs.