Walters reflects on tenure at Purdue

Brief and disappointing. That’s a good way to describe Ryan Walters‘ two-year stint as Purdue head coach that ended in a 1-11 heap last Saturday with a 66-0 loss at Indiana.

Walters’ was introduced as Purdue’s 37th head coach amid pomp and optimism in the grand lobby of the Kozuch Football Performance Complex on December 13, 2022.

Now, less than two years later, he’s gone, sent packing with a 5-19 record and buyout in excess of $9 million.

It has been a whirlwind 48 hours or so for Walters, who was fired on Sunday. He didn’t watch Mike Bobinski’s press conference on Monday, when the Purdue AD outlined the search for his replacement. When GoldandBlack.com caught up with Walters on Tuesday morning, he was set to board a plane for Walt Disney World with his family.

Q: Why do you think things didn’t work out?

A: There were some things I might have done different on the front end. I would have taken a deeper dive into how depleted the roster was. I was kind of going in to it thinking I was getting Big Ten West champions, right? The reality was a lot of those guys were older. A lot of those guys that played in that game transferred out before I could even have a conversation. So, I basically got half the roster that played against LSU and lost 63-7.

I would have taken a deeper dive into where we were from a collective standpoint. When I got the job, they were right around 400 grand.

I would have taken a deeper dive into the schedule. If I’d have done more of that, I would have realized how much of a rebuild it was going to be.

So, I probably would have made some different decisions walking into it. It was a combination of trying to play catch up in the roster management space, trying to play catch up in the NIL space, coupled with the merging of the conference.

We have nine conference games, and you had another power four-type opponent (Oregon State) and Notre Dame with a young team. And some other factors that were sort of out of my control, coupled with some mistakes that were made. It’s a recipe that’s hard to breed success out of.

I was very confident with the plan moving into Year Three. Obviously, there would have been some changes made. I was very comfortable with those changes, and excited about those changes and the guys that were gonna be a part of the ’25 team. We were excited to come in and go to work.

Q: Was there a plan to bring you back with a changed staff?

A: There were changes that were going to have to be made. It wouldn’t have been wholesale on both sides of the ball, but there’s obviously some changes that were necessary.

Q: Had you vetted offensive coordinators?

A: Yes, I vetted a bunch of them.

Q: What’s the situation with the NIL collective?

A: I don’t know. That’s one of the things I told Mike. I appreciate the heck out of Mike and love him for giving me this opportunity and really being somebody that I could confide in. One of the things I told him while I was walking out is what Purdue needs to be successful. Take the schedule. You ask the donors: “Who do you want us to beat?” You gotta tell them exactly what’s in those opponents’ collectives and say: “If you want us to beat those guys, we’ve got to beat them in every arena.”

I know sometimes Purdue kind of wants to do it the Purdue way, which I completely agree with, which is blue collar, sort of the underdog story. But when you’re talking about professional sports, and this is professional sports, you’re not asking the Oakland A’s to go beat the New York Yankees. And so you gotta at least get close to what other people are playing with.

Q: Were you told to dismiss Graham Harrell?

A: No. I just saw sort of the same things were taking place. I felt like the locker room had sort of lost faith in the direction that we were going on offense. And once that sort of happens, it’s hard to recover from. I just thought making a change at that point, it would hopefully spark and re-energize what we were doing, and not just lose out on the entire season.

Q: Why did you take over play-calling?

A: Getting to learn the vocab and learn sort of how to inject different plays or highlight other areas of the offense, and watching sort of what was going on in the Wisconsin game (52-6 loss) just felt like I gave us the best opportunity and best chance.

And I knew we were about to head into the meat of our schedule. And I didn’t think it was fair to ask those guys to have the blame pointed at them if we didn’t have success against those top-five-type opponents.

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Q: Do you think you built a strong staff?

A: I don’t know if that is fair to say now. It’s easy to sort of point fingers now. We all didn’t do a good enough job. That’s what it boils down to. If we all did a good job, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Q: What’s your next move?

A: I don’t know. Take my time and make sure it’s the right fit, the right time. Obviously, this is a tough one. To have a few moments to breathe and be with my family. Going to Disney World right now. Try to enjoy each other’s time. The tide had sort of shifted, so to speak, so I wasn’t surprised (to be fired).

I felt like after the Michigan State game, things shifted. I can’t blame (superiors). There was a lot of negativity, a lot of noise that sort of influenced decisions. I get it. I wish I had more time to get culture, staffing and get things exactly how we wanted it in two years.

I am appreciative and enjoyed West Lafayette. Got a lot of love for Purdue and forever will be grateful for giving me my first shot to be a head guy. Feel terrible that it didn’t work out. Really saw myself being there for a long time. It wasn’t for lack of effort. I poured a lot into this place. Hate that it didn’t work out. But, like I said, I get it, and I’m not gonna let one season or one opportunity define my career, and I’m looking forward to that chapter.

Q: Are you staying in town?

A: We will see about decisions career-wise. If I don’t take a job the next couple months, kids will probably finish out school. We’ll see where it goes.

Q: What’s your message for fans?

A: I don’t really have a message. Felt like we got a lot of support up until Northwestern. Then it was the same number of audience, but a very different message.

Q: Can someone win at Purdue?

A: I think my set of circumstances was a little bit different, just because of the timing of the departure from the previous staff, because you’re in the portal and the NIL times, the vast roster turnover of mostly guys that played and had experience, coupled with the schedule changing and playing two of the top five schedules back to back years. It was the perfect storm.

Do I think Purdue can be successful? Absolutely, because you have a fan base, because you have revenue share, I think you’ll have a more equal playing field. We’re still gonna have NIL, and schools will still get creative with that. I don’t know what Purdue’s plan is to sort of keep up in that arena. I don’t know what the plan is. If they have one, I haven’t heard it. That will still be a challenge. But, like with anything, if you get the right people in the right situation at the right time, you can have success.

MORE: Day Two of Purdue search | 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 | 2025 Football Schedule