2016 Purdue Football Coaching Search Candidates: Troy Calhoun
Candidate Tier #2
Category: Constantly rumored to be interest in the job
Who Is He?
Troy Calhoun is one of the only two coaches Air Force has had in the last 30+ years. He was also a QB at Air Force; as a freshman, he was a member of Fisher DeBerry’s WAC champions (yes, Air Force used to be in the WAC, oh you kids) in 1985, DeBerry’s second year as head coach in Colorado Springs. He spent two years as a graduate assistant under DeBerry, two more as a full-time assistant, and then was an assistant at Ohio U and Wake Forest, as well as with Denver and Houston in the NFL, before succeeding DeBerry in 2007. He is currently 73-53 at Air Force, including 3-5 in bowl games, and has guided the Falcons to the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy in four of the last seven seasons, counting 2016 (AFA has already beaten Army and Navy this season) ... and for good measure, he gave P.J. Fleck the only bowl loss of his short coaching career, beating the Broncos 38-24 in the 2014 Humanitarian Bowl*.
*Keep your commercials to yourself, potato people. Also, read the last paragraph in the Sponsors section and tell me again why that bowl needs any other name.
Why would he be successful at Purdue?
So you know that we believe being different is a requirement to succeed at Purdue, and we’ve noted a couple of candidates who run triple-option/flexbone offenses. You also know that the one coach to achieve consistent success at Purdue in the modern era ran a spread offense. What would you say about a coach who runs both? Offensive coordinator Mike Thiessen** – like Calhoun, also in his 10th season at Air Force – does focus on the triple option, but the Falcons will do just about anything on offense. Check out this quote from Bob Davie: “You have to spend a majority of your week preparing for triple option and they may not run any triple option against you. They'll be in the I-(formation). They'll run spread, no-huddle, up-tempo.” And that’s with limited practice time, both in-season (15 hours per week) and offseason (apparently you can’t come back to the States from active duty for voluntary workouts). Imagine what he could do with, say, Markell Jones, Brian Lankford-Johnson and Richie Worship behind David Blough …
**Yes, Wikipedia says it’s Clay Hendrix, but the official Air Force site says Thiessen. Do you want to argue with the Air Force? Sir, no sir!
Why could he flop at Purdue?
Well, some part of that Air Force advantage is the altitude. West Lafayette isn’t going to provide that for him. Yes, he’d have a lot more practice time available, but he’d also be dealing with non-military students, and as we’ve seen so many times, keeping 100+ kids on the right track is no small task.
Installing a number of offenses is going to take some time, and it also becomes a question of time and sequence: do you install your favorite offense first, even though it’s the biggest change, or do you start with what the players already know and slowly build in other wrinkles, even though that’s your least likely path to success? Oh, and if you choose poorly, you won’t get enough time to get the entire package in place.
Finally, another quarterback from Calhoun’s era who returned to his alma mater to coach already has the multiple-offense thing down, and it takes more than one hand to count the number of conference coaches who have some aspects of the spread already working for them. Could Calhoun install the complete package and also make it work against coaches who’ve already seen the non-option aspects of it?
Would he come to Purdue?
No.
Oh, fine. I’ll explain. He’s the first Air Force graduate to coach there. He’s in his 10th season and still winning. Air Force won its division last season. In addition to the traditional matchups with Army and Navy, Air Force gets to travel to Hawaii once every six years or so for a conference game. Is that enough, or should I keep going?
Someone who’d been hired from outside might be more likely to look for a power-conference job, and if the Falcons do stumble at some point, a lower-tier team in a power conference might be a worthwhile destination. But Calhoun was not hired from outside. He’s said he’s not interested in the job, and that’s good enough for me.
