Bob Asmussen | Walters received an offer he couldn't refuse ... but perhaps should have

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CHAMPAIGN — Of course, Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry is rooting for Ryan Walters. Except on Saturday, when Walters brings his Purdue Boilermakers to Memorial Stadium.

“All the time when we’re not playing him,” Henry said of his rooting interest. Henry replaced Walters as defensive coordinator after working with him for two years.

“It’s natural when you’ve got relationships with people, you don’t want to see them struggle,” Henry continued. “This coaching profession, it is insane. You can be in a segment of your life where there’s a lot of success and you’re doing some great things and everything’s going well. And then you can be in another segment in your life where there is struggle.”

Henry and Walters are friends.

“When Walt was here, we used to always speak about if we had a chance to play each other. We’re going to go at each other’s neck and hug each other after the game,” Henry said. “It’s like a brotherhood.”

After the 2022 season, Purdue lost coach Jeff Brohm to his alma mater, Louisville. That was one school the Boilermakers worried could hire away their guy, and they were right.

There were other Brohm rumors over the years, but none of them made much sense except for the Cardinals. That’s home. Where he played. Where his brother played. A no-brainer to go back.

Purdue could have thrown a net over the Group of Five and gone fishing for its next big boss. There were interesting options.

Purdue went a different direction, hiring the hotshot coordinator off the best defensive team in the country: Illinois.

Gotta work, right? Well, not so far.

Walters went 4-8 his first season in 2023, including a blowout win against his former employer. He beat rival Indiana, which helped calm folks at home. And the Boilermakers lost three one-score games. Looked like progress was being made.

Until it wasn’t. The 2024 season opened with an easy victory against FCS program Indiana State. It’s been a disaster ever since. A 59-point loss to Notre Dame was followed by a 17-point loss at Oregon State, then an 18-point loss at home to Nebraska and 46-point loss at Wisconsin.

The average margin of the four losses: 35 points.

Now, Purdue is a 19-point underdog at Illinois. Next week, No. 3 Oregon visits. Then a trip to No. 2 Ohio State and a home game against No. 4 Penn State.

It’s about to go from bad to worse to cataclysmic.

Will Walters survive until 2025? I hope so. But at the moment, he needs signs of life from his dreadful offense.

Walters fired offensive coordinator Graham Harrell after the loss to Nebraska, but it didn’t help against Wisconsin last Saturday.

The problem with having defensive-minded head coaches like Walters is that, if the offense goes south, the fix might require a total change in philosophy. If the head coach knows about offense, the moves are much easier and faster.

Right now, Purdue is stuck with an offense that doesn’t work. The likelihood of a breakthrough against the upcoming teams on Purdue’s schedule: slim and none.

Couldn’t say ‘no’

Walters was the first assistant coach in Illinois history to be paid at least $1 million. In 2022, he was making great money, working with a solid head coach, Bret Bielema, on a team loaded with talent.

Because of the success of the Illinois defense, it was inevitable that someone would want to hire Walters as a head coach. Colorado, his alma mater, seemed like a logical choice, but the school went with Deion Sanders. That appears to have worked out well for the folks in Boulder, where football is again a big deal.

In a perfect world, a Group of Five school in an area loaded with talent would have called Walters and given him a starter job. That might have happened, but Purdue jumped the line.

No way for Walters to turn down Purdue. Sure, his $1.3 million salary in C-U was great. But $4 million in West Lafayette, Ind., is even better.

More important, it is the Big Ten. You take those jobs when they are offered. Always.

Walters has enough confidence in his abilities that he figured he could overwhelm the concerns by working harder than everyone else. If only that was all that matters.

College football’s past is littered with well-intentioned coaches who should have taken a moment before jumping to a new job. The opportunities were coming for Walters. He just had to pick the right one. So far, at least, that is not Purdue.

Still time

Walters is far from done with the Boilermakers. He’s got three-plus years left on his contract.

If 1-4 turns into 1-5 Saturday against the Illini, as I suspect it will, a bowl game for Purdue becomes almost impossible. Two games from postseason elimination, it is hard to imagine that offense winning two of three against the No. 2, 3 and 4 teams in the nation.

A bowl bid this season is not required for Walters. In fact, thanks to his coach-friendly contact, he appears safe until at least 2025.

It would cost Purdue more than $9 million to buy out the remainder of his five-year contact before next season.

Good work by whoever negotiated the deal for Walters. He had an uber-secure job at Illinois he could have kept for a decade. Smart to consider the consequences if it didn’t work at Purdue.

After the 2024 season, Walters will have to find a new offensive coordinator. Fortunately, the schedule for 2025 isn’t quite as nasty.

Sure, there is another game against Notre Dame (in South Bend). And for some reason, Ohio State is back on. But no Oregon or Penn State. But Michigan and Southern Cal are on the docket.

Walters won’t likely last past a losing season in 2025. So the offseason will be critical both with staffing and the transfer portal.

Back in C-U, his friend Henry will be watching and rooting.

Except when Purdue plays Illinois.