The possibility of a Sunday announcement seems to have passed.
Today was a whole bunch of nothing on the coaching search front. All along Purdue has stated that they wanted to announce the new head coach as close to the end of the season as possible. For some, that meant last week before the Bucket game. For others, that meant today as a likely day where we would know something. It even seemed as if something was going to happen thanks to a deleted Tweet from freshman receiver Terrance Landers:
The Tweet was deleted, but several people got screenshots before it was gone. Nothing happened, however. GBI reported that Mike Bobinski met with the team as part of standard operating procedure, but nothing appeared to have come from that meeting.
So what we know is really nothing. We’ve had some names such as Brock Spack, Troy Calhoun, and Greg Olson as guys who have at least been interviewed. There have been denials from the PJ Fleck camp that he has even spoken with Purdue, and I can understand why. Fleck does still have a game this week with Western Michigan playing for an undefeated season, a major bowl, and a conference title on Friday against Ohio.
I tend to think we will not hear anything regarding Fleck, if he is the guy, until after Friday. I believe he is loyal to his players at Western Michigan and he owes it to them to focus on this week in what is one of the biggest games in school history. He has long said he will not speak on the subject until after the season, and right now his season goes through Friday.
As for Miles, your guess is as good as mine. Things have been even quiet on that front, but he does not have the limitations of waiting until after this coming week’s championship games. Speaking of said games, here is this week’s schedule, with a mention if there is a potential candidate involved in them:
Friday:
MAC Championship: Western Michigan vs. Ohio (Fleck)
Pac-12 Championship: Colorado vs. Washington
Saturday:
Kansas State at TCU
Troy at Georgia Southern
American Athletic Championship: Navy vs. Temple (Ken Niumatalolo with Navy)
Conference USA Championship: Louisiana Tech vs. Western Kentucky (Skip Holtz with La Tech and Jeff Brohm with WKU)
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma
New Mexico State at South Alabama
Louisiana-Lafayette at Louisiana-Monroe
Baylor at West Virginia
SEC Championship: Alabama vs. Florida
Georgia State at Idaho
Arkansas State at Texas State
Mountain West Championship: San Diego State vs. Wyoming (Craig Bohl at Wyoming)
ACC Championship: Clemson vs. Virginia Tech
Big Ten Championship: Wisconsin vs. Penn State
Also, as a special outlier you have North Dakota State hosting San Diego in the round of 16 of the FCS playoffs. Chris Klieman deserves some consideration after having won two national titles at NDSU. He took over for Bohl, who won the first three of their current five in a row. Brock Spack and Illinois State were eliminated this past week.
Right now, we just don’t know, and it would not surprise me if this thing went on an additional week. It seems like if there is an announcement some time this week it will be someone like Miles, Calhoun, or Olson since they are not involved in any more games. Others, like Fleck, Brohm, and Bohl will probably be another week since they are currently involved in conference title games. Klieman is probably a longshot already, as jumping from the FCS to the Big Ten would be a big step, but as long as NDSU is in the FCS playoffs he is probably out.
Don’t worry though. If we hear ANYTHING concrete we will let you know. As always, we trust GBI as our primary source. There are also a few other places to watch that might affect Purdue:
Notre Dame - If Brian Kelly is fired would they go after Fleck or Miles?
Oregon - There seemed to be some scuttlebutt today that they would be interested in Fleck if Mark Helfrich is fired, but he is still there for now.