Chad Q. Brown talks Purdue personality assessment and more

Chad Q Brown, a former Purdue football player and now the founder of Profile Behavior, discussed his journey from coaching to corporate technology and assessments. Profile Behavior, which has been around for 11 years, provides personality and behavioral assessments for various sports, including football and basketball.

Brown highlighted the success of Purdue’s basketball team, attributing it, at least in part, to their data-driven approach and team cohesion. He also emphasized the importance of fit in recruiting, noting that Purdue’s strategic approach balances talent with personality compatibility.

The former walk-on and assistant under coach Joe Tiller, also touched on the impact of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) on recruiting decisions and the challenges of the transfer portal.

Here are some excerpts of the interview that first appeared on Gold and Black LIVE in Week 1 of the Boilermakers’ football season.

GoldandBlack.com: How did Profile evolve?

Chad Q. Brown: I was a bad football player back in the day, slow wide receiver from Lebanon, Indiana and at the end of the Jim Colletto Era (1996), and became a student coach my senior year. I coached college football for 10 years and was a young whipping boy for Coach (Joe) Tiller just after Drew Brees and mostly during the Kyle Orton Era (2001-04). I knew all those guys have stayed close to the Purdue family since. But the college football career taught me a lot, and then I had an opportunity in corporate technology and learned about assessments. We do the personality and behavioral assessments, a lot of team building stuff too.

We use those tools, not only for current teams, but for, also in recruiting and the transfer portal and just helping coaches understand kids to communicate with them and have a better understanding of relationships. All the things that assessments have done in the corporate world for 75 years, the college athletic world has not. We have worked with the NFL Combine. a long time the Dallas Cowboys and have had some cool clients (including Purdue men’s basketball for 11 years).

I still live here, right outside West Lafayette. And, you know, bleed the Gold and Black. Now we work with every sport at Purdue thanks to (athletic director) Mike Bobinski and all those coaches. We love contributing to try and help them get better as well.

GoldandBlack.com: Men’s basketball helped you get started, and how did your assessments help?

Brown: I always call Purdue basketball a lab for us. And I give Matt Painter credit, 11 years ago, ywe were starting up. It was not his best years record-wise and he was looking for new ways to improve.

“We have five assessments. We use a few of them in recruiting. And it’s been powerful because we’ve been able to test, learn, and see different things through the years. And it has allowed us to branch out. I am meeting with LSU and Oklahoma this week, but don’t hold that against me.

GoldandBlack.com: The Forge campaign put on by the John Purdue Club has given you access to all Purdue sports teams. How has that gone?

Brown: Football has been awesome this year as has softball and baseball. A lot of teams are diving into it now.

“We are not (necessarily) about helping someone win a national title (per se), but are we about growth in inches and trying to get an advantage? Yeah, I do believe we are.

GoldandBlack.com: How has football been to work with–it is a lot different working with 100 guys instead of a dozen or so?

Brown: No, and that’s always a challenge for coaches in football because there are so many guys. (Coach) Ryan’s (Walters) has been awesome. He’s very open. There are a lot of strong and fun personalities there. We started off doing some things with the quarterbacks, doing things (for example) on how we help Hudson Card be a better leader.

They are driven (as a staff), and it shows on how well they have done in the Portal.

GoldandBlack.com: The turnaround time for Portal recruiting is short. What are some of the things your assessments can help with?

Brown: You’re looking at the stuff that’s under the hood a with a person, whether it be an employee or an athlete. Do they care about loyalty? Are they big on helpfulness? Are they very extroverted and fun? Do they need to be communicated in a softer tone, with more details or more directness?

So many times the assumption is the best player should be the leader But what if the kid really doesn’t want to do that? What if they’re more focused on being, you know, loving the sport, but being a role player. I’ve seen elite, great, great talent, talented athletes not necessarily want or need to be front and center. And so when you can show people that and talk to the athlete about that and help the coaches see those kind of things (it really helps).

If loyalty is a big value for an individual, but you want to be the old school coach and threaten them with the bench, how does that work? I mean, you’re hitting the wrong button, and that’s where it’s like, well, what if you go with a different approach? What if it’s more about talking specifically about where they stand, where their role is, and ensuring they understand this is a long-term game? It’s this art that the coaches have to make their own, but they’re not guessing, so you’re eliminating guesswork. And that’s, that’s kind of how this stuff works.

GoldandBlack.com: Drilled down, what is your job for coaches?

Brown: My job is to make it easy for them to use our data. Coaches don’t have time to review a bunch of spreadsheets but the software we use helps coaches figure out what they want to migrate to (using our data).

GoldandBlack.com What have you observed in Purdue’s approach with NIL?

Brown: I think Purdue took a business approach to it at first and watched it unfold. Matt Painter (and others) made it their way. I think we dealing with athletes, they are kind of like, if you don’t like the way we do it, they’re good. They will move on. Purdue coaches are trying to be more strategic (not just careful) in their decision-making. That is what we are doing now with many more coaches; I have had a lot of fun doing that with them.

The full interview with Chad Q. Brown

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