2016 Purdue Football Coaching Search: Philip Montgomery

Candidate Tier #4

Category: Intriguing Possibilities

Who Is He?

Philip Montgomery is the 44 year old head coach of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, who spent seven years as Offensive Coordinator for Art Briles at Baylor. He’s known for, well, coaching Art Briles football: a blistering pace, quick decisions, plenty of options, and the highest-of-high octane. Montgomery is clearly on the path to be a high major head coach...would Purdue be a good step?

Why would he be successful at Purdue?

Did we mention the 581 yards per game and nearly 50 points per game for 2014’s Baylor team? How about the 500 yards per game and 36 points per game at Tulsa, which went 2-10 the year before arrived?

Montgomery has been a tremendous hire for Tulsa, going 6-7 in his first year, pushing Virginia Tech in a narrow 52-55 loss in the Independence Bowl. Tulsa was close to defeating Houston this past weekend, and is looking to be in fantastic shape going forward.

Why could he flop at Purdue?

There are tons of fans who, rightfully, feel queasy hiring one of Art Briles’ key assistants. Briles was fired in the midst of several disgusting allegations, and I wouldn’t blame Bobinski if he wants to get as far away from that tree as possible.

Concerning actual football stuff, Montgomery has been in the general vicinity of Texas for his entire career, so recruiting in the Midwest would be completely new for him.

Would he come to Purdue?

Maybe, but there’s a great argument to be made that he’s waiting for a higher-level job to open up in the south as he irons out the kinks of his head coaching style. Moving to an area of the country he’s never coached, to take a lower Power 5 job.