Stop the Train, I'd Like to Get Off: Joe Tiller Closes Out His Coaching Career

With a 62-10 embarrassment of the hapless Indiana Hoosiers at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana today, the Purdue Boilermakers (4-8, 2-6) sent departing head coach Joe Tiller out in the best of styles.  In a game that could easily be described as hilarious, and not just satisfying, even for a Boilermaker fan base used to taking delight in the ineptitude of the Hoosiers, and that saw Indiana (3-9, 1-7) at one point failing to field a kickoff in the first half (the unintentional onside kick is a rare treat), Tiller's team looked briefly like the "basketball on grass" Boilers that Tiller brought to life at Purdue upon his arrival in 1997. Your author has written critically of Tiller's lack of close-game prowess and at times ultra-conservative style, a sad and disappointing change from the gutsy style of his early tenure, but it cannot be understated what Tiller has meant to the Boilermaker program. Tiller took a team that had been the very definition of a perennial ... (link)