At the rate this season is going, Purdue Boilermakers head coach Ryan Walters could soon be in line to get the best gig possible. There is no sweeter job, on this entire Earth, then fired coach with a lucrative buyout. You can easily pay me tens of millions of dollars to go away and not work. I’ll accept that arrangement 11 times out of 10.
Now comes a trip to Champaign, so the storylines naturally just write themselves. After serving as defensive coordinator in 2021-22 under Bret Bielema at Illinois, Walters left to take the open Purdue job.
#23 Illinois Fighting Illini vs Purdue Boilermakers
TV: Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024 | 2:30 pm CT (2:42 CT kick) FS1 Eric Collins and Spencer Tillman
Radio: Brian Barnhart (play-by-play), Kevin Mitchell (analyst), and Michael Martin (sideline) on the call.
Living Illini Head Coaches Where Are They Now: Lovie, Zook, Turner White, Mackovic, Tepper Beckman, Cubit
Betting Lines: Illini football -18.5 or -1200 The over/under is 49.5 points. Purdue is +740 (bet $100 to win $740) to win outright.
What’s at stake: The cannon of course! Beyond the trophy, the Illini are playing for bowl game positioning while Walters is focused on trying to cool his seat.
Purdue Boilermakers Dominating the Recent Series
Illinois leads the all-time series 48-45-6 over the Purdue Boilermakers, but the visitors enter this week having won 15 of the last 19, eight of the last nine and four in a row. Purdue has actually won six in a row in Champaign (a span that even includes the Darrell Hazell era), having not suffered defeat at Memorial Stadium since 2010.
This despite the fact that the Boilers haven’t actually been much better, or even really totally better, than Illinois over that span. This domination is just inexplicable, plain and simple.
Purdue Boilermakers (1-4, 0-2) Preview
As we said at the time, Walters just wasn’t ready for this kind of gig yet. However, if someone hands you the bag, what are you going to do? In fact, you should do it, because you just never know if that opportunity is going to come around again. Was he ready to be offered the bag in 2022?
Probably not, but hey, the past is the past. Walters still has a bright future somewhere, sometime, down the line. He’s not Darrell Hazell.
But for now he’s already sacked offensive coordinator Graham Harrell (himself who was once the next big thing in the coaching community) in order to help try and save his job.
It’s also highly unlikely that defensive coordinator Kevin Kane (another former Illini staff member) sticks around until the end of the season.
This program is the laughingstock of the P4 right now.
Illinois Fighting Illini (4-1, 1-1) Preview
That said, if Illinois lose to the laughingstock of power conference college football…well, then yikes, and I mean YIKES! Just remember what happened last year, and what a total disaster it was for Illinois. This despite the fact that Illinois had all the motivation in the world, given what happened the previous season, when the Boilermakers came in to their house and beat them in the de facto Big Ten West championship game.
Let’s pour out some liquor for the BTW; we’ll think it anywhere and everywhere a football game ends with a final score of 10-7.
Focusing on this game, Illinois doesn’t have to worry too much about Hudson Card, a QB they once coveted; supposedly. I don’t know why he has been so bad, but he is. Card versus Xavier Scott (“X gonna take it from ya) and Miles Scott is a matchup that definitely favors the Illini.
And Illinois is doing just fine with Luke Altmyer, who has thrown 11 touchdown passes against only one interception this season. The Mississippi native (and transfer) versus this train wreck of a defense is another favorable matchup for the Illini.
Expect him to go off here; ditto for Kaden Feagin and Zakhari Franklin.
Prediction: Illinois Fighting Illini 27, Purdue Boilermakers 10
Illinois will finally take care of business here, once and for all.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.