Quick Wrap
This was the most likely of outcomes given what has transpired through the first three weeks of the season. Notre Dame is the much more talented team and it is painfully obvious they are a better coached team from top to bottom. The Boilers had flashed an improved offense through the first several weeks but there appears to be a big difference between Notre Dame and the previous three opponents Purdue has faced. That is obvious with a number of Irish players that will have jobs on Sundays and Mondays
in the near future.
Purdue started the game off well but it was painfully obvious the offense was going to struggle against one of the best defenses in the country. For a team that needs to be carried by that side of the ball, the outcome of getting blown out was one that could be seen like a train crashing into a bus stalled out on the railroad tracks.
Offensively, Browne seemed to struggle with the speed needed to make reads in the passing game as he was just 17-28 for 111 yards while Purdue’s QB’s took six sacks. For an offense that had shown some ability to make big plays, they had only one passing plays of 20+ yards and one rush of 10+ yards. That’s not going to do it against a top flight opponent.
Defensively, well that went exactly how most Purdue fans thought it was going to go since January of this year when Kevin Kane was announced as the new defensive coordinator. More on that below because, quite frankly, the defense is an absolute embarrassment. Notre Dame was able to garner seven passing plays of 20+ yards and four rushing plays of 10+ yards. Notre Dam actually had not had any rushes for 20+ yards coming into this game and they had two against the Boilers.
The lone bright spots today were true freshman kicker Jacobo Echeverria-Lozano who set a career long with a 47 yard field goal in the third quarter and Jesse Watson catching a 4th quarter touchdown with 6 second left in the game. Echeverria-Lozano has shown to be a very good player following the exit of Spencer Porath to Notre Dame in what can be explained only as a very odd situation.
Purdue will now head on the road to Illinois in the Cannon Trophy game in which it is incredibly important for Purdue to get a win if it wants any hope of having a marginally successful season. A loss to the Illini may mean Purdue’s only true shot at a second win this season would come against Maryland on November 7th (Maryland got beat by UCLA 54-3).
Kevin Kane Needs To Go…NOW.
Following a disappointing first season under Barry Odom where Purdue finished just 2-10 but showed some bright spots throughout the season, defensive coordinator Mike Scherer felt it was best for himself to voluntarily leave the program to pursue other coaching opportunities. Many fans felt relieved that Barry Odom would have the opportunity to improve the defensive side of the ball with a new defensive coordinator to pair with offensive coordinator Josh Henson who showed some promise last season.
In a decision that nearly every Purdue fan spurned the moment they heard, Barry Odom and AD Mike Bobinski announced they had rehired former Purdue defensive coordinator Kevin Kane. Yes, that Kevin Kane that had led the worst Purdue defense in program history under former head coach Ryan Walters.
It wasn’t a popular hire then and Bobinski felt so strongly about it that he spoke with Gold and Black Illustrated’s Tom Dienhart about the Kevin Kane hire. During that interview, Bobinski said the following:
“We’re not idiots. We certainly realize that. That was not lost on anybody.”
But that is exactly what Bobinski and Odom look like right now following a total meltdown against Wake Forest and then following that up with likely the worst overall defensive performance in program history against UCLA. It isn’t that it is bad, because it is. It is historically bad…again.
During Kane’s first stop in West Lafayette, the Purdue defense was historically bad as they gave up 30.42ppg in 2023 and 39.92ppg in 2024. Through four games, where Purdue is just 1-3, the Purdue defense is allowing 39.5. Without a season low of 19 against Indiana State, the Boilers are a giving up 46.3 points per game. That would place Purdue 137th in the entire county. Allow me to remind you there are only 138 teams in the FBS and that is head of only Western Kentucky.
More than that, it is the carry over from his previous tenure where players are constantly out of position and it appeared as though opposing offensive coordinators always had the answers to what Purdue was doing. Against Notre Dame, it was much of the same that Purdue fans saw through the first three games. Receivers were open downfield while Notre Dame QB CJ Carr was able to operate with a clean pocket as he wasn’t sacked or provided an hurries. That likely spells the reason he was able to throw for 237 yards on just 14 completions for nearly a 17 yards per completion average (to compare, Browne had 18 completions for 111 yards for an average of just 6.1).
Purdue tried to make Notre Dame feel uncomfortable by taking the opening kickoff with the hopes of scoring, but the Boilers went 3 and out. Surprisingly, the Boilers were able to get their first defensive stop on their first possession of a game against an FBS opponent this season.
The job of leaders is to give those who are working underneath you everything they feel they need to be successful. In that regard, we already know Bobinski failed Odom in that regard because he stated as such following the season that Odom may not have gotten what he needed in year one. However, sometimes the job of a good AD is to protect them from dumb decisions that will harm the entire program. That is what Bobinski should have done.
Now, it is on new AD Tommy McClelland to step up and make his first bold decision. He needs to tell Barry Odom that Kevin Kane’s second tenure is over and the sooner that happens, the better for the program and better for the fans. If you already know that is going to happen after the season, you might as well make the move now and shuffle defensive coaches around to see who steps up and can be retained. If they can’t, then there is nobody on that side of the ball that should be back for 2027.
Barry has got to admin the mistake sooner rather than later or he risks even more fan apathy. The look of a stadium that can’t sell itself out against a top ranked Notre Dame should be eye opening for each and every member of the athletic department and for a coaching staff that has preached the importance of the fans to their success.
By all accounts from everyone you talk to, Kevin Kane is a good man who is friendly to everyone he meets. Kevin Kane, however, doesn’t need to be employed as the defensive coordinator for Purdue on Monday morning.
