Thanks, Joe

Purdue 62, Indiana 10. It was a great way to finish a career, winning the Old Oaken Bucket for the 10th time in 12 years in front of the Boilermaker faithful on a cold day at Ross-Ade Stadium. This was the last game for Joe Tiller, and despite a pretty awful final season, he can ride off into the sunset with yet another victory over the hated Hoosiers, by the largest margin since 1893.

Purdue fans are obviously disappointed that Purdue had its worst season under Tiller this year, only finishing 4-8 and missing a bowl for only the 2nd time since he took the team over in 1997 and shocked the college football world by leading Purdue to a 8-3 record and its first bowl appearance since 1984. A lot of people felt that he may have given up on the team the past few seasons, that his loyalty to his assistant coaching staff was actually hurting more than helping, and his poor record against ranked teams and the “big boys” (Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Notre Dame) in years when those teams weren’t in the gutter, but there’s no need to discuss this today. We need to remember why we are disappointed that Purdue is not going bowling this time: because Tiller made it a year in year out tradition in West Lafayette. Sure, its not like he took them to the Rose Bowl every year, but he actually made the football team consistently competitive for the first time since the days of Jack Mollenkopf.

Tiller brought the exciting spread offense from Wyoming to the Big Ten, a conference long known for its ground game. The style was openly questioned when he arrived, with many wondering if it would take hold in a cold weather conference against much more talented defenses than what he saw in the WAC. But he had a secret weapon up his sleeve, a young man named Drew Brees. In his early years at the school, backed by a tough Colletto-recruited defense, a passing attack never before seen in the Big Ten was unleashed on the conference, leading to a huge upset victory of #4 Kansas State in the 1998 Alamo Bowl, putting the program, Tiller, and Brees on the college football map. The Brees era culminated in 2000 with Purdue’s first Rose Bowl appearance since 1967 when Brees led the team to 2 clutch victories over both Michigan and Ohio State.

Purdue went through a bit of a rebuilding in both 2001 and 2002 on both sides of the ball, but Tiller still managed to bring them to the Sun Bowl both seasons. He entered 2003 with an experienced Kyle Orton and an incredibly talented defense, in what I felt was his most talented team (but was lacking a natural born leader like Brees to win the conference again). Tiller’s offense again allowed Orton to tear up the Big Ten, and the defense was one of the best in the nation, with 7 of them being drafted to the NFL after the season. Purdue entered 2004 with big expectations, and they delivered early in the season, reaching as high as #5 in the rankings until a heartbreaking loss to Wisconsin and an Orton injury, which derailed their season.

The Curtis Painter years weren’t quite as successful for Joe, marked by Painter’s inconsistent play and a crumbling defense that couldn’t seem to stop anyone (but improved this season, slightly). Tiller still managed to lead the team to 2 bowl games and 3 wins over Indiana, and Painter is still one of the all-time Big Ten leaders in numerous passing categories.

So thanks for the memories and making Purdue relevant again, Joe. Your offensive style has changed the Big Ten forever, and many of your former players that were drafted are having excellent NFL careers. Hopefully your hand-picked replacement can keep the new tradition of winning at Purdue that you started alive and well. You will never be forgotten, especially by the over 50,000 Purdue Alumni that had you as their head coach for their entire time at Purdue, and I’m one of them.