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Why Purdue fired Ryan Walters (0:51)
Check out some stats from Ryan Walters' two seasons at Purdue after the school fired him on Sunday. (0:51)
Pete Thamel, ESPNDec 1, 2024, 01:30 PM ET
- College Football Senior Writer for ESPN. Insider for College Gameday.
Purdue has fired coach Ryan Walters after two seasons, ending his tenure there at 5-19.
The Boilermakers went 1-11 and finished the season with 11 consecutive losses, including going winless in the Big Ten. Purdue's season ended with a 66-0 loss at Indiana on Saturday.
Walters came to Purdue from his job as the defensive coordinator at Illinois. Prior to that, he'd been the defensive coordinator at Missouri. He went 4-8 in his first season at Purdue, which included wins over Virginia Tech, Illinois and Indiana.
"This was a truly difficult decision, as head coach Ryan Walters continued to lead the Boilermakers with integrity, resilience and poise in the face of considerable challenges," Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski said in a statement.
Walters is owed 75% of his remaining compensation at Purdue, which equates to $9.34 million. The school said it has begun a national search to find Walters' replacement.
The move comes in the wake of Purdue's struggles to retain top players, as it lost its top offensive and defensive players from last year. Wide receiver Deion Burks went to Oklahoma and defensive lineman Nic Scourton went to Texas A&M for significant NIL paychecks.
The attraction of the Purdue job will be that it's on the right side of the realignment river in the Big Ten, as Purdue's investment moving forward when the expected revenue share becomes a reality in 2025 will be a big question that looms over the coaching search.
Purdue has a long history of hiring coaches with offensive flair, from Jeff Brohm to Joe Tiller. And there's an expectation that it will attempt to rekindle that wide-open identity.
Walters fired offensive coordinator Graham Harrell in late September, as the Boilermakers struggled to find their footing on that side of the ball.
Purdue is one of the Big Ten jobs that has become more difficult in the era of superconferences, as it slid down the pecking order of Big Ten jobs by four spots with the addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington.
ESPN's Adam Rittenberg contributed to this report.
