Barry Odom was not wrong to point to Indiana.
At Big Ten Media Days, Purdue’s coach said the Hoosiers’ 16-0 run and first national title by a first-time champion in nearly three decades should give “every player, coach and every fan base hope, vision and belief that it can happen.” That part holds up. Indiana’s turnaround under Curt Cignetti is proof that a program can be flipped fast when the pieces line up.
But that doesn’t mean Purdue can simply borrow the blueprint and expect the same result.
Odom’s comment landed in the middle of a larger wave of praise for Indiana in Chicago. Minnesota coach PJ Fleck compared Cignetti’s viral Big Ten shot to Babe Ruth, while Illinois coach Bret Bielema called Indiana’s rise “single-handedly the most impressive story that I’ve witnessed in my college career,” adding, “I know what they did to us, right?
The problem for Purdue is that the Hoosiers’ success did not arrive in a vacuum. It was built on a Year 1 staff that got the evaluation part right. That’s the part people love to skip over when they talk about a miracle turnaround.
Purdue’s own first year under Odom offered a much rougher case study. The Boilermakers got steamrolled by Indiana, 56-3, in West Lafayette, and the game was effectively over before the eventual national champs finished the short trip from Bloomington. Purdue did not just lose that day; it was run off the field.
And unlike the “proof of concept” Indiana showed under Cignetti, Purdue’s opening season under Odom did not provide much to hang onto. The roster had to be gutted after the Ryan Walters mess, and 54 transfers came in with battles open all over the depth chart. Even with eight players following Odom from UNLV, the Boilermakers still went winless in the Big Ten.
Odom’s résumé also invites questions. He arrived from UNLV, where he went 19-8 over two seasons, and he was handed a 6-year, $39 million contract with an additional $3 million poach fee to UNLV.
But before Purdue, his Power Conference head-coaching record sat at 13-19 in conference play, and his mark against AP Top 25 teams was 1-9. Those numbers now sit at 13-28 and 1-14.
Year 1 at Purdue also produced just one all-conference player: third-team All-Big Ten linebacker Mani Powell, who had already played in Odom’s defense at both UNLV and Arkansas. Jack McCallister also earned second-team All-Big Ten honors as a punter, which at least gave Purdue something to point to on special teams.
Indiana’s Year 1 under Cignetti looked much different. The Hoosiers had six All-Big Ten selections, including four James Madison transfers, retained captain Mike Katic and quarterback Kurtis Rourke, the veteran Ohio transfer who finished ninth in the 2024 Heisman Trophy voting.
That gap matters. One staff came in and immediately nailed the personnel side. The other is still looking for its first NFL Draft pick and first Power Conference win under the current coaching staff.
The contrast between the programs is stark now, especially considering that Purdue beat Indiana in the final game before the Cignetti era began on Nov. 25, 2023. Not long ago, the rivalry was about two teams trying to outrun the bottom of the Big Ten and get to basketball season.
Now Indiana is the defending champion, backed by a bigger NIL budget that got a boost from people like Mark Cuban seeing the Year 1 result. Purdue, meanwhile, is searching for any sign that things are moving in the right direction.
The preseason polls do not offer much comfort. Purdue was picked to finish last in the Big Ten again, and its only mention on Athlon’s preseason All-Big Ten team was fourth-team selection Charles Correa.
Yes, Indiana had little preseason buzz before Cignetti arrived. But that was also his first year at a Power Conference school, and the “I win. Google me,” line was only part of the story because of how audacious it sounded from that stage.
If Odom was going to follow the same arc, there needed to be more evidence in Year 1 than a 2-10 season and a team that finished in the bottom 20 in FBS on both sides of the ball. Indiana’s rise was real, but it was special for a reason. Not everybody can pull that off.
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