WKU’s Jeff Brohm hired to bring creative attack to Purdue as new head coach

Purdue has its next head coach. The Boilermakers introduced Western Kentucky head coach Jeff Brohm on Monday, and he’ll take the same job in West Lafayette.

Brohm is 30-10 since taking over for mentor Bobby Petrino, including two straight Conference USA championships. A former Louisville, NFL, and XFL quarterback, he runs one of the country’s most innovative and devastating offensive systems and is regularly hailed a future coaching star. Baylor and Cincinnati were also interested in him.

WKU’s spread offense has ranked in the national top 10 in yards per game and top five in yards per play for three straight years, with a perhaps surprising amount of balance between run and pass. In 2015, Brandon Doughty finished No. 2 nationally in passer rating, and this year, Mike White finished No. 3.

That’s mostly against lesser competition than what Purdue faces, but the Hilltoppers managed 30 points against Vanderbilt and 10 against Alabama this year, 35 against Indiana and 20 against LSU last year, and 34 against Illinois in 2014, all with mid-major talent.

Brohm fits the bill of exactly what Purdue should’ve been looking for in this hire, rather than trying to chase a prototypical Big Ten coach like Les Miles. Bill Connelly explained a couple months ago, after Purdue fired former Ohio State assistant Darrell Hazell:

You can’t play it safe at Purdue. You have to take a risk.

Since Jack Mollenkopf, Purdue has made two good hires in nine tries. Even acknowledging how much of a crapshoot hiring a head coach is, that’s a dreadful success rate.

It is perhaps telling that the two good hires had the fewest ties to either Purdue or the Big Ten.

Young served as Bo Schembechler’s first Michigan defensive coordinator for four years, so he was pretty B1G, but his four years at Arizona, then a mid-major, had included dramatic offense. His 1975 squad ranked ninth in the nation in scoring and featured one of the country’s best passing games.

Joe Tiller, by far the school’s best hire in 50 years, came from Wyoming. Tiller had Purdue ties — four years as Burtnett’s defensive coordinator — but had flipped to offense following his move out west. He spent time as offensive coordinator at both Wyoming and Washington State and crafted a devastating, early version of the spread offense. His Cowboys scared the hell out of eventual national champion Nebraska in mid-1994, then went 10-2 in 1996.

Under the outsider Tiller, the Boilermakers finished ranked five times in seven years and reached the Rose Bowl in 2000. Purdue has bowled just 13 times in 35 years — 10 times in 12 years under Tiller and three in 23 under anyone else.

If you want to read this piece as a long explanation for why hiring Les Miles would be a bad idea, feel free.

From the moment Hazell was fired, the internet began to rumble about this connection.

In theory, it could make sense. The recently fired LSU coach would bring plenty of experience, and as a former Schembechler lineman and line coach, he has Big Ten ties.

Miles would probably mean a high floor. He would improve recruiting, albeit to probably only a top-35 level (most schools have clear ceilings from a recruiting perspective), and he would install his vision of sound football. He would pull off some crazy finishes and fun upsets. Handing him the reins to a job with lower expectations could give us high odds of fun Miles moments.

With Miles, Purdue could probably pull off some seven- or eight-win seasons. He might raise the Boilermakers’ profile and help the school get its act together to make a better hire down the road.

Then again, he could also end up like Akers. Lord knows there are plenty of similarities between Akers in 1986 and Miles in 2016.

Of course, “he might fail” probably applies to just about anybody, especially at 2-for-9 Purdue.

If the 62-year-old Miles feels the itch to keep coaching instead of fulfilling his destiny as a television personality, he might find opportunities better than Purdue. But he also might not. He is 62, and he did only win 12 of his final 20 games at LSU despite recruiting at a level he would be hard-pressed to replicate anywhere else.

Still, it would be a pretty safe hire, and because of Purdue’s iffy recruiting potential, it probably wouldn’t be a hire with significant upside.

It would be like most Purdue hires, in other words.

But if the Boilermakers wanted to tune more closely into the style of hire that has actually worked for them, they should look at someone who brings a lot more offensive creativity (and more than two years of FBS head coaching experience) to the table.

In that story, Connelly named Brohm first on his list of ideal candidates for Purdue.

Here’s Chris Brown of Smart Football fame, who knows both offensive schemes and Purdue particularly well:

As for WKU, a former Houston head coach is already on staff, but a former Arkansas and Washington assistant is in charge for now.