A day after they finished a 1-11 season, Purdue has fired Ryan Walters as its head football coach, according to multiple reports.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, among others, Walters was fired after his second season at the helm, with Purdue going 5-19 in his two seasons in West Lafayette.
Walters was hired as Purdue’s head coach prior to the 2023 season after serving as Bret Bielema’s defensive coordinator at Illinois.
Walters had hoped he would oversee a turnaround for the Boilermakers, but that dream quickly turned into a nightmare, as Purdue failed to win a single game against an FBS school this season, getting outscored by nearly four touchdowns a game in Big Ten play.
Capping his tenure was a 66-0 loss to Indiana on Saturday night, with the Hoosiers seeing their fortunes skyrocket while their in-state rival struggled badly on the field throughout the season.
Making things worse was the state of Purdue’s recruiting efforts, as the school’s 2025 class was ranked 97th in America by 24/7 Sports, by far the worst of any Power Four school.
Purdue will now go back to the drawing board two years after they had to hire a new head coach following the resignation of Jeff Brohm, who headed back to Louisville after winning 17 games in his final two seasons with the Boilermakers.
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