Purdue Football: Building a Relevant Team

Oct. 11, 2012 - PRLog -- First, I do not want to be the “pile-on” guy, but sometimes you have to be critical of what you love to really get the most out of it and I LOVE the Boilermakers and hate the path we are traveling.  So what can we do to return to the glory of a season like 2000 with the Big 10 Championship or more Tiller type days with big wins, bowl appearances and full seats at Ross-Ade?

I think it is a 3 pronged approach that needs to be done in this order because one will gain from the other.

SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY

First, we need a relevant coach and staff and that comes from paying for your expectations.  We currently are paying Hope, $950,000 a year.  Add in his staff and it tallies it up to an appalling $2.535 for the whole shooting match.  That means Coach Meyer over in Ohio could almost pay our staff for 2 years.  LET ME REPEAT THAT, 2 YEARS!!!  Now you say, “Wait a minute, why would we put more money out for a coach, whats the rip, what do we get back”.  Its easy and some on our Facebook page have already brought this to light.  REVENUES!  The reason OSU is paying Meyer $4.4M, Michigan is paying Hoke $3.254M and Penn State is paying O’Brien $2.3M... They are putting asses in seats, fans at the concession stands and people out in the community on Friday nights, Saturday game days and Sunday after the winning celebration.  So the revenues increase with a winning team, the community “buy-in” for the team increases and general morale of the team grows.  Yes, we need money allocated for this, but a simple business analysis and an income projection will show that if we have a repeat 8-4 or 9-3 team, it does generate enough for the school, state and community to warrant the additional salary.  Yes, up until year 3 or 4 its going to be a loss, but the gains start to show when the average guy who did not want to spend $100 to go to the the game changes his mind because, “Yeah, we are winning and I want to see this years B1G Champs play”.  Making the Boilermakers relevant in Big 10 football and in the BCS starts with a well paid coaching staff, but we know the players are where the work is done.

IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME

This is an easy one that builds on having your Coach that builds a team.  If you are a high school football player looking for a good program, you do not want to consider a 6-6 team, you want a winning program.  For the 2013 season we have committed ZERO ESPN 150 and 2 of the ESPN 300.  Comparatively, the 2 “banned” teams, OSU and Penn State, have 6/11 and  2/3 respectively.  What?  More people want to go to schools that are banned from post season play and may have lingering issues than to a great school with excellent academics, amazing tradition and some of the finest rivalries in the Country?  YES, because they are winning teams with strong coaching and every athlete wants to do one thing, WIN.  If you bring in the coaching, it can assist your current student athletes play better and those student athletes tell their former playing buddies about how great it is at Purdue, how good it feels to hear the crowd at Ross-Ade, the Boiler Up chant, Block P...Hell, I want to strap on some pads and hit someone right now...What we have done is built the foundation of Coaching, erected our structure of a team that continues to grow with the addition of each player and recruit to the team, now it is time to start filling in the structure.

SOMETIMES IT IS GOOD TO LOOK AT THE PAST

We have looked at adding NEW things to the team when often we just need to look back to find our assistance.  Did you know the last Boilermaker of serious collegiate acclaim is Drew Brees?  Seriously, we have 18-20 active players in the NFL right now and Drew Brees in 2000 was the last one of major mention.  Before that it was a jump to 1985 with Jim Everett.  12-15 years before there is a recognized athlete is ridiculous, but thats our own fault.  We need to show our players and recruits that not only did we have Brees and Everett, but we have 18-20 active NFL players, +/-10 in some other form of professional football and a litany list of retired players and coaches from the NFL.  What does all this talk about old/former players and the NFL mean to building a relevant B1G or BCS team. We are now filling in the middle.  New players and new coaches are looking for buy in from from the alumni athletes.  They want to know that there are successful players leaving the team as well as sources and resources that they can pull from when looking for athletes.  Almost every kid that leaves high school to play college ball wants to be on a NFL field for just one snap and seeing that there is a tradition of building this type of player will help to fill in our team with history, attachment and reverence.  You hear us Coach Tiller, Jim Everett, Drew Brees, Kyle Orton, Bob Griese, Mike Alstott...WE need your help too.  It is the community that our athletes are around that will let them know they can thrive and achieve greatness just like the others that have done so before them.

It is not hard, but we have a long way to go and just like building a structure, it takes money, time and buy-in from everyone to stay the course and get it done.  In the end though, you can look back and say this is what I built, where I came from and where my pride is founded.

BOILER UP!!!