Purdue Football Coaching Search: Troy Calhoun’s Case

There are all these big names that as Boiler fans we want. Les Miles, PJ Fleck, Greg Schiano, we can go on and on. The Legend and I have been talking, and we really like this Troy Calhoun guy from Air Force. He brings something different, and we need something different in West Lafayette.

Here is his resume:

1989: Air Force GA

1993-1994: Air Force JV OC

1995-2000: Ohio QB & OC

2001: Wake Forest OC

2003-2005: Denver Broncos Assistant Coach

2006: Houston Texans OC

2007 to Present: Air Force Academy HC

Quite the resume there. He has not always ran the wing T, with his stints in the NFL, he obviously ran some type of pro style offense. But, personally I like the wing T when it is ran to perfection and the academies plus GT run it perfectly.

With Bobo knowing the wing T can work, as it did when he was at GT, does this make Calhoun more appealing? Possibly, but there are obviously many other factors that could play into Calhoun being the next Head Coach in West Lafayette. Can he coach up a defense so we don’t allow 350 yards per game on the ground? Maybe. But here is what is the most appealing with Calhoun... our offensive personnel that we already have rostered.

So who does it work with?

Well offensively, the line does not need to be as big or as dominating, as a wing T type of offense can help hide offensive line woes, quick, smaller lineman are ideal.

As you know, we have a plethora of talented backs when healthy.

Wings: Markell Jones, Brian Lankford-Johnson, Jack Wegher, DJ Knox, Tario Fuller.. That is a nice mixture of size and speed. Running sweeps and Isos with those guys would be great. Lankford-Johnson, in my opinion would be fantastic in a wing T, as he would be able to get edge and break off big plays.

“Fullback”/Big Back: Richie Worship, Keyante Green, David Yancey... All three could be successful in the big back role. Dust off the webs Green, your the backup to Worship, who runs like a traditional fullback. It could just work out..

Quarterback: Here is where it gets interesting. A traditional QB just does not do it in this offense. Luckily, we have Jared Sparks on the roster already and Griffing Alstott coming in. We would be young, but very athletic. We would also see 2 more quarterbacks transfer to the SEC and probably start.

Wide Receiver: Easy, we need big Wide outs. We have one with Landers, Jr. We also have C.J. Hayes coming in, who is a big bodied guy and if our Frenchman, Mahoungou can figure it out, we are okay out there too, need blocking and some athletes to go up and get the ball.

Ya, this offense isn’t going to score 40 a game. But the one big thing it would do, is keep our putrid defense off the field. Having an efficient long sustaining drives are the best defense, unless your defense is Alabama. I believe that this could work, while out of the box and I won’t get many good responses on this, just think about it a bit. He has been reported to have shown interest in our job already, which believe it or not, we are not a very appealing place to coach currently.

I honestly am pretty mixed on who to hire. But I do agree with one thing, a traditional hire probably doesn’t do it here. We need something out of the box, similar to when we hired Joe Tiller. Hiring Calhoun would be the end of the Cradle of Quarterbacks, but would be the start to the wing T era in West Lafayette.