Sunday, January 6, 2008

Purdue pursuing Chryst

The Lafayette Journal & Courier is reporting that Purdue is pursuing Paul Chryst to be its next coach, in a scenario like the one where Matt Painter came on board and assisted Gene Keady for a year before taking over. Interesting. For the various reasons Potrykus spells out in his story, I don't think will happen. Chryst seems like a Madison guy who is made for being a coordinator, and he knows it, but as Tom Mulhern points out in the State Journal , he did recently interview for the Washington State job.

While losing him would not be catastrophic, in my opinion, it would sting. Chryst has added a level of diversity and consistency to the Badger offense that wasn't there under Brian White and Brad Childress. Who knows, maybe it was Alvarez's influence on the scheme, and only late in his career did he embrace the importance of a competent passing game.

Chryst has done some wonderful things with the offense, most notably in 2006 when he lost all his skill players and three offensive linemen from the powerhouse 2005 unit. His role developing John Stocco and Tyler Donovan can not be understated, and he will be key to getting Allan Evridge up to speed for 2008, and hopefully Curt Phillips for the four years following.

Hopefully whatever happens, it happens quickly. We've got about a month left in the recruiting race and losing a successful offensive coordinator could really hurt.

1 comment:

Mr.Man said...

I don't know about it stinging in recruiting. Though I may be reading too much into various Rivals.com reports, it seems as if Chryst isn't responsible for much recruiting, and he doesn't really seem to be a guy who draws in a lot of players, like Doeren or Henry Mason.

Honestly, that's why I think he might not make a great D-I head coach, because he's not known as a really good recruiter, unlike some recent new hires, notably Bieliema and Zook. I think an NFL offensive coordinator position would probably be his dream job.

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