WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Clad in black T-shirts with a few striped overalls mixed in, the Ross-Ade Brigade filled the southeast side of Purdue’s football stadium on a cloudless Friday evening in October.
More than an hour before kickoff, Purdue’s vocal student section first booed top-ranked Oregon as the Ducks took the field, then lobbed mostly PG-rated taunts. One student’s barb — “Johnson skips leg day” — generated a laugh from Oregon receiver Tez Johnson as the yellow-helmeted Ducks warmed up.
An energetic crowd is nothing new to Purdue athletics, especially at Mackey Arena. The Ross-Ade Brigade becomes the “Paint Crew” student section in the winter and provides one of basketball’s most intimidating environments. On that Friday, Oct. 18, with more than 57,000 seats sold and most of them filled, Purdue’s fans brought the same energy that fueled the men’s basketball program to the NCAA men’s basketball title game in April. But unlike in the winter, when the results matched the passion, the football support belies the product.
Only two seasons into head coach Ryan Walters’ tenure, Purdue has fallen from Big Ten West Division champion to the worst program in power-conference football. The Boilermakers are on pace for only their third winless Big Ten campaign since 1946. In nearly every defensive category Purdue sits last among the league’s 18 schools by a significant margin. It’s not much better on offense, either.
The Boilermakers allow nearly nine points (37.8) and 64 yards (446.4) more per game than any other Big Ten program. They are last in both scoring offense and scoring defense. They rank in the Big Ten’s bottom two in time of possession, third-down offense and defense and turnover margin.
Purdue is behind its Big Ten peers in NIL opportunities, which was acknowledged privately. The men’s basketball team’s success often generates more requests for appearances by its bench players than starters for the football program. In a league and industry dominated by football, it’s beyond difficult to keep up, especially for a struggling program.
Athletic director Mike Bobinski declined to comment for this story. At this point, there’s little he can say. Nothing has gone to plan for the Boilermakers, who were shut out 45-0 at Ohio State on Saturday. After a 4-8 mark in his inaugural campaign, Walters’ second season has plummeted to 1-8 overall with eight consecutive losses. Purdue is the only power-conference team winless against FBS competition. Purdue looks ill-prepared and, after significant transfer portal losses, outmanned. It also employs an unorthodox coaching structure.
Two years ago, Walters was the brilliant architect of the nation’s top scoring defense at Illinois. Now, just six weeks after firing offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, the 38-year-old Walters is calling the offensive plays.
“It’s kind of unusual, that’s for sure,” said CBS college football analyst Gary Danielson, who started 22 games at quarterback for Purdue from 1970-72.
Following a 28-10 loss to Nebraska, Walters dismissed Harrell, a Mike Leach protégé and former USC offensive coordinator. Harrell employed an Air Raid attack which was what Walters wanted. But marrying Air Raid with strong defensive principles lacks a complementary element, and the offense struggled to stay on the field and protect Walters’ defense.
“I believe that we have a better team than we have been showing the last three weeks, and so there’s a lot of football still to be played,” Walters said after dismissing Harrell. “I feel like if I didn’t do anything right now, it would be kind of like waving a white flag on the season. Nobody in that building is ready to do that.”
But no one on his staff has called plays in college. Walters bypassed assistant head coach Cory Patterson, who also coached receivers, to not disrupt positional development. So Walters opted for analyst Jason Simmons, who led multiple Indiana high schools over two decades before joining the Miami (Ohio) staff as running backs coach last year.
After Simmons ran the offense in a 52-6 loss at Wisconsin, Walters took over the play calling before facing Illinois. He made the decision, he told reporters, “Thursday morning, at 2:30 in the morning.” He admitted he wasn’t comfortable enough to do it against Wisconsin “because he couldn’t spit the plays out fast enough” but by late week against Illinois, “I just felt like me calling the game was going to give us the best opportunity to put points on the board.”
It worked in the second half with a 40-point explosion in a 50-49 overtime loss.
To their credit, Purdue’s players remain invested. That was demonstrated in gutty efforts against Illinois and Northwestern.
“If you don’t go out there and fight, then at the end of the day, you have no chance,” running back Reggie Love said. “In this building, we never preach giving up. We always preach there’s an opportunity, let’s go attack it. I think that’s how we attack the rest of the season.”
But it’s not going to get easier. The program faces No. 6 Penn State, Michigan State and No. 8 Indiana in its final three games, and Purdue has been outscored 146-7 in three games against top-10 teams so far. How the Boilermakers perform could determine whether Bobinski wants to double down on Walters — or consider a coaching change. According to Walters’ contract, which was obtained by The Athletic, a buyout would cost about $9.34 million.
Boilermakers head coach Ryan Walters (right) and his team were shut out by top-ranked Oregon, but fans stayed until the very end. (Photo: Marc Lebryk / Imagn Images)
The current uncertainty parallels Purdue’s position midway through the 2016 season. Halfway through year four, Darrell Hazell had yet to win more than three games in a season. At the 50th anniversary celebration of the Boilers’ 1966 Rose Bowl championship team, they trailed Iowa 35-7 at halftime. The stadium largely emptied before the school could recognize players like 1966 Heisman Trophy runner-up Bob Griese and 1967 Big Ten Silver Football winner Leroy Keyes.
Then only six months into the AD job, Bobinski fired Hazell the next day. Keeping the Boilermakers’ heritage as the “The Cradle of Quarterbacks” in mind, Bobinski hired offensive guru Jeff Brohm from Western Kentucky. Immediately Brohm installed an aggressive, pass-first offense in a division known for line-of-scrimmage play. It worked instantly. From 2017-22, the Boilers were second among Big Ten teams in passing yards (21,364) and passing touchdowns (160).
Purdue scored a prime-time 49-20 upset of No. 2 Ohio State in 2018 and pulled off a pair of top-five wins against Iowa and Michigan State in 2021. The next year, Purdue claimed its first West Division title. In six seasons, Brohm guided Purdue to a 36-34 overall record and 26-25 in Big Ten play. Then, five days after a Big Ten championship loss to Michigan, Brohm bolted Purdue to lead alma mater Louisville.
In 2022, which was Walters’ second year as Illinois’ defensive coordinator, the Illini allowed just 12.8 points per game. During an interview, Walters dazzled Bobinski with a focused, organized and articulate vision for Purdue. Five days after Brohm’s exit, Bobinski hired Walters.
“Purdue has been successful when we have been distinctive, when we have been innovative,” Bobinski said during his introduction of Walters. “Well, this coach’s defense — and I know that’s a word that makes people nervous here for God’s sakes — like we don’t want to play defense. But it is unique. It is disruptive. It’s his defense. Just as Coach Brohm brought his offense to us, which caused people lots of problems over the last six years, Coach Walters is going to bring his defense. Not somebody else’s.”
But in two seasons, nary a shadow of Brohm’s former Purdue offense nor Walters’ Illinois defense resides at Ross-Ade Stadium. Two weeks after a 49-0 season-opening win against Indiana State, Purdue hosted once-annual rival Notre Dame. CBS aired the mid-afternoon game with Danielson sitting alongside Brad Nessler for the call.
“They were confident going into that game, I can tell you that,” Danielson said. “But … it was just a mismatch right from the beginning.”
Notre Dame’s 66-7 victory was the worst loss in Purdue football history.
“I mean, even their best players were not able to take the right angles to make tackles,” Danielson said. “It was a tough one to watch.”
The Boilers’ collapse coincides with the rise of their instate rival, Indiana. The teams play annually in the season finale for the Old Oaken Bucket, which the Boilermakers have won in five of the last six meetings. But with first-year Indiana coach Curt Cignetti fueling the Big Ten’s worst historic program to unprecedented heights, whispers grow loud about the failings of Purdue’s current staff.
Nearly every conversation related to Purdue football’s woes shifts to how Cignetti has invigorated Indiana. A few years ago, the Boilermakers had that effect with one of the Big Ten’s most exciting offenses. Now, the paradigm between the rivals is unequal, unparalleled and uncomfortable for Purdue supporters. The Hoosiers are the Big Ten’s losingest program with one solo title in 1945 and a shared championship in 1967.
“Do you think IU will make the playoffs?” asked longtime Purdue fan Michael Hogg, who attended the Oregon game until the end. “Remember when they put bags over their heads?”
Purdue’s fortunes have declined in 2024 just as in-state rival Indiana’s have skyrocketed. Part of that is due to the transfer portal, with stars like Deion Burks (right) having transferred out. (Photo: Alex Martin / Journal and Courier / USA Today)
The transfer portal helped escalate Purdue’s recent demise. NFL prospects like defensive end Nic Scourton (Texas A&M) and wide receiver Deion Burks (Oklahoma) were among at least 32 players to leave, third-most among Big Ten schools. Those two went to programs with significant NIL opportunities. Although the numbers are blurry, Purdue’s football funding is among the Big Ten’s lowest, which makes it difficult to attract quality portal candidates.
Few of the incoming transfers, of which at least 14 were from power-conference schools, have made an impact. Only one of the five new defensive linemen is listed on the current depth chart and just four transfers are starters, counting the punter.
Purdue’s immediate future looks grim. Since Harrell’s dismissal, four players have decommitted from Purdue’s 2025 class, leaving only nine verbal pledges for the nation’s No. 85-ranked class, according to the 247Sports Composite. A 2026 quarterback also dropped Purdue after the loss to Wisconsin.
There are potential financial implications. According to its 2023 NCAA financial statement, which was obtained by The Athletic through an open-records request, Purdue ranks 14th among the Big Ten’s 16 public universities in athletic department revenue ($124.3 million) and 16th in expenses ($119.8 million).
The primary with its Big Ten competition split lies with ticket sales. During the 2023 fiscal year, Purdue generated $10.22 million in football ticket sales, ranking 15th of the league’s 16 public schools. That’s way down from peer institutions like Washington, Wisconsin and Iowa, all of which made between $23-24 million. But in men’s basketball, the Boilers sat fourth ($7.2 million), just a shade off from No. 3 UCLA ($7.39 million).
“Purdue has always wanted to do things the right way, and I back that. Our alumni club backs that, too,” said Jake McCord, a former Paint Crew treasurer when he attended Purdue and now leads the Purdue Alumni Club of Cass County. “With the changing landscape in NIL, we want to give. We want to support. In general, the alumni are supportive, and they’ll do whatever needs to happen to be able to keep competitive with the other teams with NIL.”
When asked if he had everything to succeed at Purdue, Walters answered with one word, emphatically: “Yes.”
The preliminary House settlement creates both challenges and openings for Purdue beginning next year. Its low-income position within the Big Ten will incur more burdens on the athletics department to increase revenue. However, the opportunity to spend up to $22 million internally will lessen the pressure to generate outside resources.
Still, the Boilermakers sold out their game with Notre Dame in one day. Purdue added more than 5,000 new season-ticket holders, and the total number exceeded 42,000. Students sold out their allotment in five hours, shattering all department records. That passion won’t evaporate overnight.
Despite a transportation fiasco 15 miles south of Lafayette that strangled two-lane Highway 231 to one lane and forced delays lasting for up to 30 minutes, more than 57,000 fans filled 100-year-old Ross-Ade Stadium for Oregon. Fans were boisterous and engaged, booing only when the Boilermakers attempted a field goal down 21-0 in the second quarter. They stayed until the fourth quarter when the Ducks extended their lead to the eventual 35-0 outcome.
“You’re kind of seeing with these football games that no matter what our record, our fans are still turning up,” McCord said. “That kind of speaks volumes to the fans that we want to see success and just support the team no matter what.”
That Purdue’s schedule consisted of five of the top-10 teams in the College Football Playoff rankings, including four of the top eight in the Big Ten, is its own tough luck.
But in a super-sized Big Ten, the potential to finish winless is dubious. When the Boilermakers last did that in Hazell’s first season in 2013, the Big Ten consisted of 12 universities. Now, it’s up to 18. Some may view an 0-9 season in the Big Ten worse than others in the recent decade, like during Rutgers’ 21-game conference losing streak from 2017-19, simply because there are so many teams now.
“It’s hard because you always want to give the benefit of the doubt to guys being injured,” McCord said. “We had a senior quarterback this year that we’re looking forward to, so there was positivity heading into the season.
“You want to support Walters and what he’s trying to build, but it’s hard when you start losing recruits. You hope that he can pull something together. But obviously the wins haven’t been there. And honestly just the overall performance has been somewhat lacking. It’s not like we are losing by a score. I mean, it looks like they don’t belong.”
(Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty)
