Things are going badly for Purdue’s defense, and Kevin Kane is taking heat for it almost everywhere Purdue fans gather online. The staff was asked a simple question: is Kane the problem, or are the players the bigger issue? The answer, from the roundtable, was mostly that it’s both - but not in equal measure.
Ledman put the blame on a mix of coaching and personnel, but didn’t dance around where he thinks the fix starts. Since Purdue can’t overhaul the roster in the middle of the season, he argued the only move that shows fans the program is serious is to make a change at the top of the defense.
“I really just think it’s some combination of both, but since you can’t just get rid of players and bring in all new ones at midseason the only thing you can do to show your fans that you give a shit about the way things are going is by putting a head on a pike. So, yes, it’s a multipronged problem, but in my opinion you’ve got to get rid of Kevin Kane and the sooner the better.
He’s been an abject failure and there’s no good to come from keeping him around. Bye bye Kevin.”
Jed was even more direct about where the responsibility lies. In his view, this isn’t a normal split between players and coaches because Kane’s track record is already the story.
He pointed to Kane’s second stint as defensive coordinator and said it has gone exactly the way many fans feared. During the last of his two seasons, the defense allowed 39.9 points per game and 200 rushing yards per game.
This season hasn’t been much better so far, with Purdue giving up 36 points per game through three games. Remove the 19 points Indiana State scored, and that number jumps to 45 points per game in the two FBS games.
Jed said he doesn’t blame the players for that repeat pattern, instead putting it “squarely on Odom’s shoulders for making an absolutely ridiculous hire and on Mike Bobinski for not having the ability to tell his football coach no.” He added, “I’m sure Kevin Kane is a great person but it seems as though Purdue is not a place he needs to be coaching at.
That decision should have been made at the Purdue airport Sunday morning.”
Travis saw more shared blame, but he still had plenty of criticism for the defense as a whole. He said the scheme has been a mess, especially in the way Purdue keeps letting opponents convert on third and long or fourth and long.
In his view, if the Boilermakers had stopped even half of those plays, they’d be 3-0. He singled out the 4th and 14 against Wake as especially bad, noting that the throw came well short of the sticks.
Against UCLA, he said he had no confidence Purdue would get a stop on third down no matter the distance, and that kind of failure points to players being out of position. At the same time, Travis also flagged missed tackles, including too many on Wayne Knight, along with penalties, which he said fall on the players.
Still, he found a small measure of encouragement in the fact that Purdue looks better than it did the last two seasons, even at 1-2. The offense has been excellent, and he believes modest defensive improvement could be enough for Purdue to win a Big Ten game.
He summed up the team as “the look of a 4-8 team that has like 5 losses in the 45-35 range.” And he closed by putting the burden back on the staff: “Coaches.
There’s no way this team looked good defensively anywhere in the off season. Cant put that product out there and think you’re consistently competing at a high level.”
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