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It is coaching change season and there has been at least one change that Purdue needs to make. Kevin Sherman was recently lost to Pittsburgh, because apparently Pittsburgh wants receivers that can't gain separation from defensive backs and enjoy dropping passes. That leaves an opening for Purdue to fill. So who should they go after?
Taylor Stubblefield - Yes, it is time to bring Taylor home. He didn't have much of a pro career aside from a few practice squads and a year in Canada, but he holds almost every significant Purdue receiving record and when he left he was the most prolific receiver in NCAA history. He has since served as a WR coach at Central Washington, Eastern Michigan, Illinois State, Central Michigan, New Mexico, Wake Forest, and most recently, Utah.
This past season Utah had a very diverse group of receivers. Their stats list four different players with four touchdowns and five with at least 300 yards receivers. That means they had five receivers with better stats than all Purdue receivers except Danny Anthrop. This past season Stubblefield made $190,000 as the 472nd highest paid assistant in college football. Purdue was paying Sherman $220,000, so if we brought in Stubblefield at the same rate he would have a $30,000 raise.
Keith Gaither - Gaither has been at Ball State the last few seasons and in 2013 was a finalist for Wide Receiver Coach of the Year according to Football Scoop. This past season he had two receivers with over 700 yards in KeVonn Mabon and Jordan Williams. Ball State was also only paying him a paltry $91,500. He has been a solid assistant at Ball State since 2011 and has done a good job developing some pretty solid players.
Donnie Kirkpatrick - Kirkpatrick has helped develop Justin Hardy, who had 387 catches for 4,541 yards and 35 TDs in the last four years at East Carolina. That is the new NCAA career record for receptions (once held by Stubblefield) and he is expected to be a high pick in the NFL draft despite being only 6' and 188 pounds. This tells me Kirkpatrick knows how to coach up undersized receivers. Kirkpatrick made only $116,780 this year, so Purdue can definitely give him a raise.
Greg Lewis - Pittsburgh stole our WR coach, so why don't we get theirs? Lewis is a six year NFL veteran who was the WR coach at Pittsburgh for the past year and is in limbo after Paul Chryst left for Wisconsin. He knows the Big Ten after playing four seasons at Illinois and he has contacts all over after coaching at San Diego and San Jose State. That gives him some experience on the west coast, which is always good for recruiting.