Purdue announces parting of ways with offensive coordinator Graham Harrell

Purdue has decided to make a change to their staff just four games into the season.

The Boilermakers announced on Sunday that they have parted ways with their offensive coordinator in Graham Harrell.

“Decisions like this are never easy,” Ryan Walters said in a statement regarding the choice. “After evaluating our start to the season, I felt that it was best for our team to make a change now. We are appreciative of Graham’s contributions to our program and wish him the best going forward.”

Harrell was a third of the way through his second season on staff in West Lafayette. He was on a three-year deal with the program as their highest-paid assistant.

In his coaching career, he also worked on staff at West Virginia, USC, North Texas, and Washington State during the last decade.

Harrell was also a successful collegiate player at Texas Tech. He’s the all-time leader in yards and touchdowns with what he did from 2005 to 2008 for the Red Raiders. He was also one of the nation’s leaders in passing statistics over his four years in Lubbock. That included being a finalist for The Heisman Trophy in his senior season.

Harrell then got a shot at the next level for a season with the Green Bay Packers back in 2012.

However, Harrell’s work at Purdue was not going well, especially to start this season. In 2023, the Boilermakers were 87th in the nation at 23.9 ppg. while posting 380 yards of offense a game. Through four games in 2024, they’ve now posted just 21.8 ppg., which is 108th in the country, with 322 yards on offense. That’s despite a 49-point outing in the opener as they’ve put up just 38 points since in three losses, including 7 against Notre Dame, 21 against Oregon State, and 10 against Nebraska this past weekend.

Purdue will have to make new plans for who will call plays for them moving forward. They now have less than a week to do so on a short week with them playing at Wisconsin on Friday.