BOILING OVER: Purdue football staff intel, Boilermaker basketball recruiting and more
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This season has been rough for Purdue, obviously, and with that will inevitably came off-season changes. Whether that involves Ryan Walters remains to be seen, but it is evident Purdue does not want to make a change, not that anyone ever does. If Walters remains, there will be staff changes, likely plural.
One is already certain. Purdue needs an offensive coordinator after firing Graham Harrell a few weeks back. Since then, offensive analyst Jason Simmons has been elevated to an interim coordinator-ish role but since Illinois, Walters has been calling the players.
Purdue has to keep on going on with things so the process of looking for that next OC has begun. Two names we'd expect Walters and Co. to look at/pursue are East Tennessee State head coach Tre Lamb and former Penn State OC Mike Yurcich . We've mentioned Akron head coach Joe Moorhead before, but only because of Purdue's administration's familiarity with him. We don't have reason to believe that's a possibility.
Purdue would presumably have a million-plus salary slot to pay somebody, as Harrell made around a million here, but keep in mind, there was a buy-out involved there as there might be for any other coaches removed. And any new hires will require multi-year deals.
Again, there's much to be sorted out here still from the top down, but as things stand right now, these are processes Purdue and Walters have to be ready to deal with after the Indiana game in the event there are no changes at the top. (staff)
• Purdue received a commitment on Monday from 2025 Fort Wayne (Wayne High) ILB Kimar Nelson , who is the that has suffered four de-commitments during the season: DT Drayden Pavey , WR Lebron Hill , OL Takhyian Whitset and CB Dawayne Galloway . Pavey has since committed to Wisconsin, while Whitset has pledged to N.C. State.
The staff had been on the 6-2, 220-pound Nelson, monitoring and studying him for awhile. He came onto the radar the first bye week when Boilermaker DC Kevin Kane went and watched 2025 ILB commit Sam Steward and Fort Wayne Homestead play against Wayne. Kimar caught Kane's eye.
Purdue watched his tape, liked him, talked to his coach who raved about Nelson and said he's the best defensive player to come out of Fort Wayne since Jaylon Smith who played at Notre Dame and was drafted by the Cowboys.
Nelson visited West Lafayette for the Notre Dame game in September. Purdue has been following his season. Nelson has gotten better and better. He returned to campus for the Northwestern game to spend more time around the program. The staff felt comfortable with Nelson and pulled the trigger with an offer, figuring he would commit. Nelson, who didn't have any other offers, did on Monday.
Not real sure how Nelson had gone so under the radar other than he hadn't gotten out and gone to any camps to get exposure, and Wayne High isn't highly recruited or known for producing talent.
• Purdue may be close to landing a pledge from 2025 Michigan OT Danilo Guberinich , who visited for the NU game. Maybe we'll hear something in the next week. But know this: Guberinich recently netted a Vanderbilt offer, so Purdue has its work cut out for it.
• The staff thought it had a shot with 2025 Illinois EDGE Jake Stanish , who was just here for the NU game. But recently committed to Vanderbilt.
• 2025 Ohio ILB commit Grant Beerman took an official visit to Illinois last week. The OV to Champaign supposedly is just a precaution in case he needs a backup plan.
• Purdue is still working on 2025 Illinois OL Kaveon Lee . He's supposed to go on OVs–Kansas State next weekend, Minnesota the following weekend. At one time, Lee was committed to Northern Illinois.
Big visitors for Purdue this weekend, as St. Louis' Sheek Pearson , a 2026 forward, visits unofficially, along with Junior County , who'll begin his official visit Friday.
County, another Utah native, is one of Purdue's offered guard targets, and visits on the heels of an official from grassroots teammate Jamyn Sondrup , who had a great trip, we think, but it's very early.
Pearson already has offers from Illinois, Iowa and Iowa State and more.
Next week, Purdue gets an unofficial visit from 2026 shooter Jacob Webber of Kearney, Neb.
Pearson and Webber would both seem like offer candidates. (BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL• Just re-upping this here, but here is Raleigh Burgess discussing his decision to not redshirt.
• Brian Waddell did not practice again today after he suffered a break in his hand. It seems like kind of an unknown how long he will be out, but these mild fractures like this are often about rest and pain tolerance rather than surgery, so we'll see.
