Purdue head football coach Danny Hope had a pretty exciting year in his first season at the helm in 2009. Sure, the team only finished 5-7, with a 4-4 record in Big Ten play, but the team concluded the season by winning four of its last six, with two of those wins coming against Michigan and, sadly, Ohio State. The victory over the Buckeyes was clearly the highlight of the season, and brought with it expectations for good things to come as Hope continues leading the Boilermakers forward.
In most of the cases we hear about, a head coach is selected for their position after the preceeding coach has concluded his tenure, even if there is a fairly obvious choice for the next in line. In contrast, Purdue chose to go with a clear succession plan approach, naming Hope to replace long-time Boilermaker coach Joe Tiller prior to Tiller’s last year. This was purposefully done to achieve the smoothest transition possible from one coach to the next. In fact, at various points throughout the 2008 season Hope would “play Tiller,” pretending to be the true head coach to see if anybody would notice the difference. Nobody did.
Actually Hope was on the staff at Purdue during Tiller’s last year, returning to serve under Tiller at Purdue as coach of the offensive line after a number of years away from the program. Hope originally joined the Purdue staff as an assistant in 1997, having followed Tiller from the University of Wyoming to the Big Ten. Hope stayed at Purdue until 2001, took as assistant job at Louisville for a year, and then landed a head coaching position at Eastern Kentucky, taking the Colonels to an 8-0 conference record in his last year there and earning several Coach of the Year honors. A native of Florida, Hope got his coaching start in 1981 as an assistant at Manatee High School in Bradenton. Inexplicably, the Manatee High School mascot is not The Fighting Manatees. Rather, the school’s mascot is The Hurricanes, which explains the school’s odd webpage banner: Tradition…Hurricanes…Excellence. Well, it sort of explains it. Why is “Hurricanes” in the middle? And is it referencing the mascot, or is it just saying that hurricanes are as prevalent there as tradition and excellence? Also, is the high school exhibiting some kind of Ohio State envy in choosing to label itself as THE Manatee High School? Danny Hope could probably answer these questions.
Yes, speaking of Danny Hope, he’s the head coach at Purdue now. And he’s got a MUSTACHE!
Hope apparently stays in touch with his Florida roots, recruiting heavily in the state to build his Boilermaker program. In fact, according to the school’s own coaching profile, Hope has an “extensive network” of contacts in both Florida and the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas (Indiana is relegated to a bit of an afterthought, understandably). In leading the program, Hope seems to have adopted a wise approach, focusing on bringing in talent and recognizing progress rather than being overly focused on statistics and a quick path to success. Of the various coaches featured thus far in this series, it would probably be difficult to find one who has created less angst among the fan base than Hope. His straightforward, no-nonsense approach seems to have endeared him to the faithful. What more could you ask for in a head football coach than the perspective of “more football is always more fun?”
When the Boilermakers face Michigan on November 13th this year, no doubt much will be made of last season’s post-game “greeting” between Hope and Rich Rodriguez, where Hope brought along player Zach Reckman to essentially make the point to Rodriguez that petty press-conference comments could end up having an unneeded impact on the seasons of some athletes. Arguments could be made for or against the wisdom of this demonstration, although the argument seems to be in Hope’s favor for the post-exchange flurry, as he chose to keep the content of the conversation private. RichRod, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate to make his feelings known. One could say that Hope’s actions were petty in their own right, but it could also be said that he was sticking up for his players and making a point on something he felt strongly about. Was Hope setting a good example for his players in this situation? Perhaps. Perhaps not. All that can really be said decisively in the end is the following: If it irked RichRod, it can’t be all that bad.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
