2025 Purdue Football Post-Mortem: Thank God It’s Over

Just three years ago Purdue football went to Bloomington and defeated Indiana 30-16 to clinch the Big Ten West and earn an appearance in the Big Ten Championship game. That capped a two year stretch where the Boilermakers were 17-8 in the previous 25 games. A pair of those losses in 2022 to Penn State and Syracuse came in the final minute. It is very likely that had Purdue held on in those games, it would have played in the 2023 Rose Bowl in Penn State’s stead regardless of what happened against Michigan.

Since that game Purdue has gone 7-29. It lost the Big Ten Championship game with a respectable showing, then was absolutely destroyed in the Citrus Bowl thanks to the departure of Jeff Brohm. For a moment, it looked like Ryan Walters might be okay. His first team had a rough 4-8 year, but it was competitive in games and it still won the Bucket over Indiana.

It’s now been over two years since that win over Indiana, and the programs couldn’t be farther apart. The Hoosiers, who finished 3-9 that season, have gone an astonishing 23-2 since then and they are making their own trip to Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game. Purdue is 3-21 in that span, and it has not won a Big Ten game since.

One needs only look at the career of Devin Mockobee to see the downfall. Mockobee is lone major contributor that was here for all of that, and he won more games as a freshman in 2022 than he did in the final thre yeears of his career combined.

I don’t even think that is the worst part in all of this. It’s no secret that this is one of the worst stretches in the history of Purdue football. It has now been almost two decades since Joe Tiller had Purdue as at least a consistent bowl team if not more. The Boilermakers have spent just one week in the top 25 of the AP Poll since Tiller retired. We thought the 2013 1-11 season was rock bottom, but the last two years have shown that Purdue can still sink even lower.

Purdue only has three wins the past two years because of scheduling. Two were over FCS opponents that, even in our current state, we have no business losing to. The third was over a Ball State team that is probably worse than at least a dozen FCS teams.

That has led to the worst part: apathy. It’s not that we’re on a school-record 18-game losing streak. It’s not that our biggest rival is suddenly, inexplicably a national title contender after being the laughingstock of college football for hte better part of a century. It’s that with this 2-10 season, the same record that Purdue likely has if it had held on to Ryan Walters, was probably dramatic improvement from last year and the best we could hope for.

I have been a season ticket holder every year (except 1994) since 1987, either with my parents, as a student, or as a grown adult. I grew up going to Ross-Ade Stadium on fall Saturdays. My dad took me and I have taken my son his entire life. I have renewed tickets multiple times now after single win seasons.

I am honestly not sure I will renew next year.

I mean… what is there to look forward to?

• The defensive line struggled to generate any pass rush

• The secondary was bad, most as a result of that

• The defense couldn’t force turnovers

• The offensive line was terrible

• Ryan Browne couldn’t avoid bad turnovers

• His receivers struggled with drops all season long

• Our top offensive weapon in Mockobee is gone.

I mean,w hat did work this year? I guess it was Spencer Porath, who was a solid 15 of 17 on field goals all year. That’s great, as long as Purdue’s offense can get him close and not turn the ball over it can generate three points. Even through all this, Purdue was somehow better than last year. It gave up seven fewer points per game and scored three more points per game than 2024. That’s just enough to go from “absolutely putrid” to “still really bad.

Purdue has now lost to Indiana in consecutive seasons by a combined score of 122-3. Even with a complete staff turnover it is only marginally closer, mostly because the 2024 Bucket game was an all-time blowout and it would be hard to top without actively trying to do worse. There is really no beacon of hope on the horizon, either.

It is safe to say that Purdue botched the beginning of the NIL and Transfer Portal era. Combine that with two coaching changes in three years and you can see why the program fell off so quickly. There is no giant NIL fund or wealthy megadonor out there coming to save the program. By virtue of our school President starting the Big Ten over 130 years ago we get those nice checks, but that can only go so far. Even with revenue sharing from the conference the athletic department has a very long way to go in order to save football.

Over the next weeks and months we will see more transfers, more staff turnover, and more chaos. Across the street Matt Painter is defying gravity by building rosters that stay together and grow into something great. Football will once again venture intot he chaos of the portal and hope that some combination of incoming transfers, player development, and the nearly forgotten aspect of high school recruiting can turn things around.

Purdue will enter the 2026 season about as low as it ever has, and the immediate future looks really, really bleak. The reality of being in an 18 team superleague where the other members appear to have lapped us has never been more stark. The other 17 teams have all won at least two conference games since Purdue last won even one.

I don’t see an easy way out of this.