Optimism. That word is synonymous with being a Purdue of any length of time. Optimism is a badge that Purdue fans wear with honor, none so much as when the the Boilers take to Ross Ade Stadium every fall. Other sports have had their times in the limelight with the men’s basketball program making a Final Four just two seasons ago and seemingly being the preseason #1 heading into 2025-2026 while the women’s team remains the last B1G team to win a national title (although that program needs to see some
better days moving forward).
As lifelong Purdue fans, many of us have struggled through some of the most lean years in college football history. I know most Purdue fans who remember the Fred Akers, Jim Colletto, Darrell Hazel, and Ryan Walters eras would much rather toss those memories into the Wabash River. The inept coaching wouldn’t detract the Boilermaker faithful from entering the first week of the season with hopes of a bowl game and controlling the Old Oaken Bucket and the Purdue Cannon.
Purdue fans have come to understand what success looks like in West Lafayette. It isn’t the flash of a hire from Texas like Akers. Nor was it the flash from Toledo in Hazel. It certainly wasn’t the bravado and seemingly the toast of defensive college football from Champaign in Walters. What has success looked like? Blue-collared coaches who knew what the hard and long work looked like to build a successful program.
Purdue is never going to be the glamour the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Texas Longhorns, places where Fred Akers and Jim Colletto came from. They certainly aren’t the flash in the pan, hot commodity like Hazel and Walters. Purdue just isn’t an athletic department built on big swings and high risk chances. You can look at the success of the men’s basketball program as a blueprint for what the entire AD should be doing for every sport. What Purdue needs is another Joe Tiller or Jeff Brohm. What Purdue needed is exactly who Barry Odom is.
Odom worked his way up to the echelon of college football, leading the Missouri Tigers in the SEC. He was solid in what is largely considered the best conference in college football, going 25-25 over four seasons before being fired and heading to UNLV four seasons later. In that time, Odom waited and observed the trends in college football. He put the work in to figure out where his decisions went wrong and how he can better build and lead a program the next time he got an opportunity. That came at UNLV and in two seasons he turned one of the most maligned programs in college football history into a 20-8 program and being discussed as a legitimate threat to enter the College Football Playoff the first several weeks of the season.
Barry Odom is the definition of what has made Purdue successful, outside of the supposed brilliant offensive mind like Tiller, Brohm, and even Jim Young. Odom just fits what Purdue is as an institution and what fans desperately want from their head coach. A man who can step behind the mic and give honest answers to the media about what went wrong and how he is going to attack it to fix it. That much was evident early on when Odom was very clear on what needed to improve for Purdue to be successful. He has also been much more open to fans and speaking very openly about how much he was impressed with Purdue’s fans when he visited several years ago.
Listen, Purdue doesn’t need a 10 win team in a once-in-a-lifetime season to pack Ross Ade Stadium. Fans just need a team and coaching staff that puts their players in the best positions to be successful, doesn’t get embarrassed, generates some upsets, and makes a bowl game. More than those, however, they just want a hardworking, blue-collar team to get behind. That may sound weird if you have ever visited West Lafayette which is more Westfield and Carmel than it is a blue-collar type town, but that blue-collar mentality permeates through the school that is known to be as academically rigorous as any other university in the country.
Fans are obviously hesitant because of the way the last two seasons went and the climate that college sports are in right now. The thing is, Odom has shown he has the skill and talent to be a good coach at the high level and Purdue simply may have gotten a guy that fits exactly what they need at the right time of his career. Odom isn’t going to bolt for his hometown college as he already had that at Missouri. This is his opportunity to build a legacy elsewhere and Purdue could very well be the benefactor.
So, be optimistic for this season. Purdue will likely begin 2-0 and the crazy theories about a 10 win season being on the horizon will flow faster than the Baltimore Zoos at Harry’s on those first two Saturday nights. Reality will likely set in quickly but don’t let that sap the optimism that should be surrounding this program under the right man for the job.
