Purdue AD Mike Bobinski expects new football coach in week to 10 days

Here we are again. Mike Bobinski is answering questions about another Purdue football coaching search.

It was less than two years ago when the Purdue AD was up on the same dais in the basement of Mackey Arena doing this very same thing.

“Obviously not a day that we would have preferred to have happen,” he said to open the press conference. “But we are where we are. Just start by saying that at this point for all of us here at Purdue athletics, our goal is moving forward in the most effective, efficient and expeditious way possible to restore Purdue football today to the level of success that we all expect, aspire to, and know that we’re capable of.”

Ryan Walters was unable to do the job after being hired Dec. 13, 2022. Bobinski summoned Walters to his office on Sunday to deliver the news that his services were no longer needed.

“His reaction was professional, disappointed, honestly apologetic for not having been able to do a better job and to deliver on what we all expected to have happen,” said Bobinski. “But he handled himself very, very well, as did the rest of the entire staff later on.”

So, now what?

Purdue is looking to dig out of a two-year pit that saw the program go 5-19 overall and 3-15 in the Big Ten. Bobinski hopes to have a hire soon. Early signing day starts Wednesday, and the transfer portal opens a week from today on Dec. 9. Purdue players are already hopping in the portal.

“You can’t rush to it,” said Bobinski. “You want to make sure that we’re deliberate, that we identify and focus on the very best candidate going forward. My guess is that would take a week, 10 days, something like that … But, again, that just all depends on circumstances.”

Bobinski knew he had to make a change long before Indiana delivered a 66-0 evisceration on Saturday night to cap a 1-11 season that saw the Boilermakers drop their last 11 games. If Bobinski knew that, why didn’t he make a change earlier?

“There would have been no advantage gained by making any active decision earlier,” he said. “First of all, you can’t go hire a coach in the middle year. No coach is going to leave their program in the middle of the year and come. And if you don’t have a clear better option in the building, you just have to ride it out. And that wasn’t fun. Wasn’t fun for anybody. We all acknowledge that. In our judgment, it was the most rational and reasonable cause of action in the best interest of the young guys in our locker room, which again, gets lost in a lot of this these days.”

At what point did Bobinski began assembling a list of candidates?

“I don’t know if I have a day I can tell you, but it got to the point where I just no longer had the confidence that we could turn this thing around,” said Bobinski. “The sort of tidal wave of negative events and poor performances became overwhelming to the point where I’m not sure it’s fair to the program, it’s fair to Purdue, it’s fair to the young men in that locker room or even the coaching staff to try to fight through the circumstances as they evolve. I don’t know that I have a day, but it was within the last several weeks that it just became clear that this is just not going to be turnable under current conditions.”

Bobinski could not pinpoint exactly why Walters–who came to Purdue after being DC for two years at Illinois–was unable to have success in West Lafayette. But Bobinski is confident he will find the right man for the job even though he swung and missed on Walters.

“If you do this long enough, and I’ve done it for 40-plus years, every once in a while you take an ‘L’ and things just don’t work out the way you felt you’d like to think they were going to,” said Bobinski.

“So, I get it. I understand that’s what fans do, and I appreciate that, and I don’t begrudge them that. But I can tell you that we will be very effective and efficient, and lots of research has already been done to that, and very confident in where we will land.”

What background is Bobinski looking for? Does the next Purdue coach have be from an offensive background just because Walters had a defensive background? Does the next coach have to be a proven head coach?

“The best answer that I can give you is, at the end of the day, we’re going to look for the very best fit for our circumstances today, the person that we believe can most quickly and directly bring Purdue football back to a winning situation, that understands the current landscape, which is going to be different,” said Bobinski.

The evolving NIL landscape is a big part of that future, with revenue sharing beginning next year, too. The new coach has to embrace the new world order of college football.

“We are going to pay what we need to pay in order to get the very best head coach and the very best staff,” said Bobinski.

The clock is ticking on the future of Purdue football.

MORE: Day One of Purdue search | GoldandBlack.com Analysis: The end for Ryan Walters at Purdue and what may lie ahead | It’s over: Purdue pulls plug on Ryan Walters era | Hot board 1.0 | Transfer portal tracker | Bobinski press conference transcript