Barada: Some fans are never satisfied

Paul W. Barada

I am absolutely amazed at the pressure that’s been put on Purdue head football coach, Joe Tiller, to resign. I was absolutely amazed a few years ago at the pressure that was put on Indiana head football coach, Bill Mallory, to resign.

Tiller has taken Purdue to post-season bowl games something like 10 out of the last 11 seasons. Before that, Mallory took IU to post-season bowl games something like seven out of eight seasons. But those unprecedented records of accomplishment for both men weren’t enough for the died-in-the-wool football fans of either school. They wanted more. They wanted bigger, more prestigious bowls. Going to a bowl game at all was no longer enough for them. Being invited to a second-tier bowl became a blasé achievement. The fanatics at both schools wanted higher profile bowls than either school was able to achieve.

What people seem to have forgotten is that neither school has a long history of going to post-season bowl games at all! Indiana’s been to the Rose Bowl once during the entire history of the school. Purdue has been to the Rose Bowl a time or two, but that’s it! Michigan and Ohio State go all the time and that’s what the IU and Purdue fanatics want. Well, unless history does an about-face, that’s probably not going to happen in the foreseeable future.

What’s so amazing, though, is that with the lackluster records of both schools in post-season bowl selections, one would think going to any bowl would be better than not going at all. If it’s the Insight Bowl or the Motor City Bowl, being asked to participate in any bowl game at all is more than people in either school’s fan base really have a right to expect.

Look at the schools around both IU and Purdue that are also competing for blue-chip high school players: Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois, Notre Dame, and Kentucky. None of those schools is more than a 3-hour drive from Indianapolis. With the limited number of truly talented football players coming out of this state, how can either IU or Purdue expect to attract all the best players to programs that don’t have the reputations of competing for a national championship? Why would a really great high school football player from Indiana being courted by schools like Ohio State and LSU ever choose IU or Purdue? And the point is, most don’t. They pick schools like Michigan or Florida State or Penn State especially if they think they’ve got a shot at playing professionally. Are you going to pick the Hoosiers or the Boilermakers, if the Buckeyes or the Nittany Lions come calling?

Coaches like Joe Tiller and Bill Mallory turned out bowl caliber teams during their tenures in West Lafayette and Bloomington due to the strengths of their character, determination and the solid institutions they represented. Maybe they weren’t BCS caliber teams, but they were teams that were good enough to make it to the Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. And yet, fans weren’t satisfied with those accomplishments. They wanted more. It has now cost both coaches their jobs.

What will happen next season for both schools? Indiana will be led by an admittedly nice and loyal coach, but hardly a Terry Heoppner, and Purdue will be starting all over again in 2009 with a brand new coach who’s going to want his own stamp on the Boilermakers. In both cases we can expect losing seasons for the next few years. That approach obviously isn’t going to fill seats at Memorial Stadium or Ross-Ade Stadium. IU was on the right track with Terry Heoppner, but his untimely passing will change all that. Under other circumstances, Bill Lynch wouldn’t have been on the long list of potential head coaches at IU. It could be the Mike Davis story all over again. Both Davis and Lynch really won with players their predecessors recruited.

Who knows what the situation will be at Purdue, but one can be sure of one thing, a new coaching staff and a new philosophy about the game will mean some down years for the Old Gold and Black — and that’s not what either the school or the alumni wants. They want more wins, not less. They want more prestigious bowls games, not less. They want contenders for the Big Ten championship not cellar-dwellers.

Guess what? It’s not going to happen until both schools realize that without a football reputation on a par with Ohio State or Michigan, they need to hire big name coaches who can recruit with the best of them. The talent pool isn’t all that deep and to think that two by relative unknown coaches can attract the best talent is, well, naïve.

What should have happened at both schools? Bill Mallory should have been kept on the job at IU and Joe Tiller should have been kept at Purdue. Both had created winning programs for their respective schools. Both could recruit exceptional talent. Both had taken mediocre programs, especially Mallory at Indiana, and made them into post-season Bowl teams. But that wasn’t good enough for the die-hard fans. In another season both coaches will be gone. If IU’s post-Mallory success is any indicator of what both schools can expect, especially Purdue, going to the Motor City Bowl will look pretty appealing in a few years — for both schools. The proof is looking at how long Joe Patterno has stayed at Penn State and how long Woody Hayes coached the Buckeyes, and what both accomplished.

That’s —30— for this week.



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