BO: Purdue football happens, Boilermaker recruiting and more

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PURDUE FOOTBALL

Ryan Walters hit the road recruiting soon after his introductory press conference on Wednesday. The new Boilermaker boss has a lot of balls in the air. Yes, a quiet recruiting period begins on Monday, so Walters has to get off the road. Still, he has a lot on his plate.

Chief among his tasks: Building a staff. News broke Thursday night of the pending hiring of Graham Harrell as OC. He was at West Virginia last year as OC and ran USC’s offense the three years before that for Clay Helton, the older brother of a presumed coaching target in this search, Western Kentucky’s Tyson Helton.

The hiring of Harrell should please fans, as he learned at the feet of the late Mike Leach. Harrell was a record-setting QB for Leach at Texas Tech and coached for him at Washington State. Harrell operated an Air Raid-style attack that is quarterback-centric.

It’s thought Walters wants to tab a DC next. It would seem he’d want that person to be very familiar with his scheme, as the hire could end up calling the D on game days. (Walters has left open the possibility of calling the defense himself.) Knowing that, it would make sense for Walters to perhaps hire someone off the Illinois staff he just left as DC. Two names to watch: Assistant head coach/OLB Kevin Kane and LB coach Andy Buh. It’s believed Walters doesn’t want to raid the staff of his former boss, Bret Bielema. Still Bielema has to be realistic to the notion that he may lose a staffer.

A few other names that could come into play around Purdue based on what industry sources have told us: Eastern Michigan running backs coach Sam Sewell, a former teammate (we think they crossed over, at least) of Walters at Grandview High School in Aurora back in the early 2000s.

Former Colorado star Jashon Sykes is currently Nevada’s senior associate A.D. for football operations and could be pursued for that same sort of position at Purdue. (TD

PURDUE FOOTBALL

Walters has to keep the current roster stitched together. So far, so good. The portal opened on Dec. 5. The only key loss has been offensive guard Spencer Holstege, who may have some nice options. It seems the roster has prudently waited to see who the next head coach would be. Walters seemed to have made a good first impression when he met the team on Tuesday. So, maybe there won’t be the large fallout some had been forecasting. But, you never know. The portal will be open for 45 days, closing on Jan. 18. It’s open again May 1-15.

Walters also has do some shopping of his own in the portal, which is huge. This roster has some glaring needs: receiver, a quarterback, tight end, linebacker, secondary, maybe a kicker. Bottom line: There’s probably not a position, outside of the defensive line, that could use some fortification. (TD)

PURDUE FOOTBALL

Mike Bobinski said in the Wednesday press conference that he “vetted more than a dozen people, either exploring interest or, in fact, talking specifically to” for the job. Who exactly did he chat up? 

Feel good saying Bobinski had some level of dialogue with Georgia OC Todd Monken, Kansas State coach Chris Klieman, Western Kentucky’s Tyson Helton, Duke’s Mike Elko, Alabama’s Bill O’Brien, Washington assistant coach JaMarcus Shephard, former Purdue player and multi-school head coach Kevin Sumlin and Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson. This was a tight search that involved a small, committed group of people. Info was difficult to decipher. We had Ryan Walters name mentioned to me by a sitting FBS coach as a “guy Purdue was interested in” earlier this week. Sounds like Bobinski fell in love.

Bret Bielema told us this: “I think he went into that (Purdue) search as an underdog. And they just kept interviewing him and making him earn in and he just kept moving and moving and eventually became the No. 1 guy.”

A couple of things to make note of.

Purdue did meet with Tyson Helton in-person, but he was not offered the job. Purdue did engage with O’Brien but never face to face. O’Brien is known to have some family considerations to tend to at this time and a strong distaste for the current lay of the land in college football recruiting, meaning his next move is more likely to be to the NFL. Talks with Mike Elko didn’t get far, as his buyout was robust. Monken did not want to leave Georgia before the CFP and that was obviously a deal-breaker for Purdue.

Best we can tell, Walters was the only coach offered the job. (TD/staff)

PURDUE BASKETBALL

Expect Mason Gillis to return to the court Saturday against Davidson, if that wasn’t evident already. They’ve taken kind of a we’ll-see-how-he-feels kind of tack with it, but he should be OK. Whether he’d move right back into the starting five or not, that’s not typically how Painter does things. Purdue should be back at full strength again in Indy. (BN)

PURDUE BASKETBALL

This Indy Classic event essentially replaces the Crossroads Classic,

“A lot of times when you go play a neutral, it’s a true neutral-site event maybe halfway between the two teams, on in a city somewhere on a coast or some location that’s not necessarily near one of the campuses,” said Elliot Bloom, who handles Purdue’s scheduling. “In this case, we’re playing an hour south of campus, so it can be a challenge to attract a team to come do that knowing we’re going to have a lot of alums in our backyard.

“The trick for us then is if we want to get a big name, then they want you to come play in their backyard and right we don’t really have the capability (with scheduling obligations) to do all that, which makes us attracting a big-name opponent to this year in and year out difficult.”

The Indiana Sports Corp. put this event together with Purdue-Davidson as the main event and Ball State-Illinois State as the undercard.

“Hopefully this is the start of something they can continue to grow year after year,” Bloom said.

Purdue would like this weekend to remain about Indianapolis, as it’s nice to not have to travel after finals week and it would prefer to not have to disrupt those fans who’ve valued being downtown on these weekend.

But Bloom said “all scenarios are on the table as we look at the future of this.” (BN)

PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING

The portal is the most important thing right now, but Purdue will build on the group of high school commitments retained, as well. Purdue is still going to have to work on Kendrick Gilbert, but his buddies from Cathedral being part of the program helped there in the first place, and that won’t change. Additionally, his father does work in the Lafayette area and there’s some alignment there too.

That one, though, may drag out into February.

We do think that for at least this year, the date that will matter for Purdue will be February, not December. We assume Purdue will sign all its commits who want to sign early, but we don’t know whether that’ll be its singularly recognized signing date as Dec. 21 has been for the Boilermaker program the past few years.

Walters will be looking for players throughout the rest of this month and into January, with there being no visits this weekend that we’re aware of.

We can tell you that Purdue make an all-out late push for blue-chip Illinois cornerback Jyaire Hill, but it’s awfully late in the game and perilously close to, uh, Wednesday. Walters recruited him at Illinois, so there is some foundation there, but Michigan seems to be the likely destination there. Of course, nowadays, coaches are smart to recruit guys on the front end with the back end also in mind. The transfer portal.

Lexington, Ky., defensive lineman Jamarrion Harkless will be a priority as well and a need now that Purdue’s lost two of its D-line commits. Harkless was a prior Illinois commitment.

PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING

Matt Painter has made two trips already this season to see Kentucky point guard Travis Perry and one to see Gicarri Harris. A snowstorm just kept him from seeing big man target JT Rock, but he has also seen Cincinnati’s Raleigh Burgess, as well, who will be visiting Purdue for the Michigan State game later this season.

Those two guys along with Flory Bidunga are Purdue’s established post targets to this point. While Purdue might prefer a 7-footer like Rock considering the model that’s working right now, Burgess remains an absolute target as well and one that shouldn’t be overlooked here. There’s a lot of Caleb Furst in him in his skill set and his effort and Purdue loves Caleb Furst.

• Kanon Catchings‘ numbers through six games: 20 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. And he’s shooting 43 percent from three and 87 percent at the line.

• Sorry, don’t have anything compiled on Jack Benter right now. I thought they were posting their stats. I’ll reach out to them next week.