Football notebook: Illinois flavored Purdue staff meets familiar foe
When Ryan Walters left Illinois to take the Purdue job, he brought more than his family to West Lafayette. He also imported six Fighting Illini staffers to Purdue’s red brick campus:
• DC Kevin Kane
• Safeties coach Grant O’Brien
• OLB coach Joe Dineen
• WR coach Cory Patterson
• Defensive analyst Preston Gordon
• Director of Operations Pete Roley
Facing former boss Bret Bielema will bring added juice to this Saturday’s visit from Illinois (2-2 overall; 0-1 Big Ten), which kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Peacock.
“Oh, yeah,” said Kane. “There’s obviously a little history between us there. So, I think it’ll be fun to get out there and see those guys. We’ll go out there and do our thing. And there’s a lot of similarities between what we do on the defensive side of the ball, for instance. We learned a lot while we were there with Coach Walters, and then with Coach Bielema, too. So, it’ll be good to get out there just to go out and play again. That’s the big thing.”
Purdue needs a win … badly. The Boilermakers have dropped their last two games, sporting a 1-3 mark (0-1 Big Ten). Purdue is 0-3 in Ross-Ade Stadium. The most challenging part of the schedule looms, so it would behoove Purdue to get a victory to build some mojo before heading to Iowa next week to kick off a challenging October.
“There are some outside and added storylines because of the nature, history between myself and Illinois, but at the end of the day we need to win a game and we need to win a game at Ross-Ade,” said Walters. “Need to win a Big Ten game to right the ship and to start turning the tide in our favor.”
When the Purdue attack hits the field Saturday, it will see a familiar defense, one that was installed by Walters during his two-year run as coordinator in Champaign.
“We’ve seen it over and over and over,” said Boilermaker offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. “We’ve got a lot of reps playing against a very similar defense. And, you know, I’m sure they’ll have a couple of different things I would imagine just to kind of give us a different look or create a negative play. But, like I said, as far as just an overall scheme goes, we’ve seen something very similar to what we’ll see on Saturday, ever since we’ve been here.”
Kane is looking forward to seeing his old school. But he’s more focused on what Purdue can do.
“We got to worry about us and we’re not worried about them,” he said. “We got to go out there and whatever calls are made, we got to execute the call, we got to get our guys lined up in the right positions. So, obviously with what we know, we’re given all that information and knowledge of our guys. But at the end of the day, it’s about us right now. And we got to go out there and execute.”
• The Tiller Tunnel will be dedicated in a private ceremony on Saturday morning. Over 50 members of the Tiller family will be on hand, including wife Arnette, daughters Julie and Renee and son Mike. Former players also will be on hand, too.
• Dillon Thieneman ranks No. 3 in the nation in solo tackles (72).
• Purdue has made an interception in nine consecutive games, the longest current streak in the nation.
• CB Marquis Wilson leads the Big Ten PBUs with six, which ranks eighth in the country.
• Purdue paces the Cannon series with Illinois, 39-30-2. The Boilermakers have won the last three encounters, six of the last seven and 14 of the last 18 dating to 2003.
• OLB Kydran Jenkins leads the Big Ten in TFLs (5.0) and sacks (3.0).
• Illinois WR Isaiah Williams leads the Big Ten in receptions (24) and ranks second in receiving yards (333).
• Bret Bielema is 5-2 vs. Purdue, going 5-0 as Wisconsin coach and 0-2 as Illinois coach.
• Illinois’ last win in West Lafayette was in a down-pour, when it took a 24-6 win in 2019.
• Both Illinois (Hugh Robertson) and Purdue (Jack Ansell) have Australian punters.
• Illinois co-defensive coordinator/DL coach Terrance Jamison was the DL coach at Purdue in 2020.
• Illinois Director of Athletics Josh Whitman, 45, is a native of West Lafayette who attended Harrison High School before playing tight end for the Illini from 1997-2000 under Ron Turner. Whitman played four games in the NFL.
MORE: First look: Illinois | First and 10: Illinois | Three Thoughts From The Weekend: Purdue-Illinois, Zach Edey and more | Purdue’s Ryan Walters seeks first Ross-Ade, Big Ten win vs. familiar foe: Illinois | The 3-2-1: What is Purdue’s offensive identity? | In the huddle: S Sanoussi Kane | acrepro.com Buy/Sell: Purdue football Week 5 | Number Crunching: Week Four | Illinois official website | Opponent View: Illinois | Sense of urgency settles over Purdue amid 1-3 start | Matchup Preview: Purdue-Illinois
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