Purdue head coach Barry Odom spoke on Wednesday afternoon at Big Ten Media Days.
Opening statement:
“Good afternoon to everyone. I'm so excited to join you here today in Chicago. In my opinion, it's one of the greatest cities in the world. Chicago is the home to around 65,000 Purdue alum. For us, it feels like a home game. It's always a privilege to represent Purdue University, our football program, and the incredible people that make our university so special.
We've got over 58,000 students at Purdue currently and 6,000 living alumni, and that makes it important for me to represent Purdue the right way, to bring our program back to a level of success and winning consistently, and we're able to do that in a number of ways, starting with our administration.
Our current president, Mitch Daniels, has stepped in and will do a terrific job.
I want to thank our athletics director Mike Babinski, who just announced his retirement. He's poured in over 40 years to college athletes, and I'm so thankful for him providing the opportunity for us to work together at Purdue for a year.
Our friendship goes deep. We've got a number of things in working order that are going to make Purdue football back to winning and being successful because of his leadership. I'm thankful for that.
Tiffany Grimes is our sport administrator and deputy athletic director. She's in every staff meeting with us and does a tremendous job in helping us navigate through the day-to-day activities of our program.
I want to thank Commissioner Tony Petitti and his staff and leadership group on how important he is, his guiding force, his leadership, his communication, and the entire opportunity that the Big Ten puts on not only for staff, our program, our student-athletes. It's elite in every single way.
A.J. Edds works in daily and weekly communication with our football staff around the conference and does such a great job assisting the coaches, and I'm so appreciative of that.
I look at Purdue and how it's unique in so many ways. It starts and ends with the people that make Purdue so special. I've been on the job now for about a year and a half, and it proves to be true every single day, the connective piece that is going to send Purdue into the future with success on the football field is still based around people.
We are in a very persistent pursuit of creating consistent winning football, and how we've done that is with people. When you think about Purdue, you think about innovation; you think about blue collar; you think about doing things the Purdue way. Then you talk about a university that develops leaders; it prepares young people for the success that they're going to have.
You look back at last year, and nobody is excited or happy about how we ended up in the win-loss record. We have made so many gains in the last eight months. We're a completely different team, a different program. We're excited and forward looking and thinking about 2026, and as we enter the season, there's renewed energy throughout our building and throughout our organization.
It starts with our players, the things that they've done, the retention that we had on the roster from last year, the great added pieces that we had through high school recruiting, and then the tremendous additions we had through the transfer portal. They've invested in the team.
The one portal window was very beneficial for us that we had in January. We knew exactly who our team was from January until today, with only six additions this summer. That will provide great benefit for our team.
The countless hours that they put in in our four phases of the program, winter conditioning, our winning edge program, spring ball, and now our summer ball session, have all been very successful. In 30-some-odd short days, we get the chance to kick off the 2026 season.
I'm so excited about the way that our players have embraced the accountability. They've embraced competition. More importantly, they've embraced each other. They are a true team that they care about each other. They're selfless, and they've made tremendous gains in their habits and the consistency on what it takes to play winning football in the Big Ten conference.
They have poured into the process of what it looks like, and they're hungry to play winning football and bring that back to Ross-Ade Stadium. I'm really proud of the progress the team has made, and because of our players, they've committed themselves to the standards of being and acting and living the Purdue way.
I do believe every great team I've had a chance to be a part of is coach driven and player led, and you look at our locker room right now through the direct approach that they've had in team bonding, from when we started in January to today, as close and it's as galvanized as a team that I've had a chance to be a part of.
The players that we brought with today I'm excited for you to spend some time with, our junior quarterback Ryan Browne, junior wide receiver De'Nylon Morrissette and junior linebacker Charles Correa all have a sense of purpose. They're on a mission to play their best ball. They're tremendous leaders in our locker room, and they are the connective piece along with a core group of players that will continue to drive our program forward.
I'm certainly proud and excited about our staff, our organization, and when you look at that, of the number of people involved in a football program, the people that pour into your players, from the weight room to nutrition to sports science, to sports medicine, to the operations team, recruiting, personnel, the general manager and his office, as a front office, as we build this team together, and as they get on campus and all those folks academically pour into our team, you're going to be a team and see a team in 2026 that Purdue Nation is excited to support.
We've got players who care about their teammates. We've got players that care about doing the right thing, and they care about winning for the people of Purdue. They also understand that representing the former players and the university, how important that is, the number of thousands of people that wore a Purdue uniform before we got there, the responsibility we have to get back to winning ways.
Our staff has done a tremendous job. Our offensive coordinator is Josh Henson, returning for his second year with the program. Our defensive coordinator is Kevin Kane, who will coach the linebackers as well, and then our special teams coordinator is James Shibest. They've got a great idea on how to play complementary football, play passionate together, and find ways to win the one-possession games which are so important in the best league in college football.
We're excited about what's coming up. I'm honored to be the head coach at Purdue University, and sure look forward to spending the rest of the day with you. Thank you for telling the story of our great student-athletes and each of our programs.”
On if there is pressure to win after seeing what Indiana did the last two seasons:
“Yeah, number one, Coach Cignetti and his entire department did such a tremendous job on taking that over and elevating it to where they are today. I think that gives -- if you look at it in the landscape of college football, it should give every player, every coach, every fan base hope, vision and belief that it can happen.
It's sped things up for everyone, but you also look at how they pieced it together. It worked for them. It's not the same for every team and program. We certainly feel strongly about how we've built this roster going into the year, and also understand if we get the opportunity to playing meaningful games in the month of November and you get a chance to play with extended time, anything can happen.”
On quarterback Ryan Browne:
“I think Ryan started with us last year in the month of June, so him learning the playbook, jumping in and becoming the starter and then playing throughout the course of the year that he did, I think you would describe a little bit -- there were some really good ups for him and some low lows.
The quarterback gets way too much praise and too much criticism. There's a number of things that went down as an interception; maybe it wasn't the quarterback's fault, but it goes down in the records as that's what it was. He understands he's judged on wins just like we all are. I'm judged on it. It's not an effort-based business; it's results driven.
Ryan is a fierce competitor. He's got an elite skill set, and the things that he's done since the season has been over until today, nobody has poured more into not only his development but being a leader for our team, and he's excited to step into with a great supporting cast on what we feel like can be an explosive offense.”
On if Purdue’s basketball success motivates Purdue football:
“I think, number one, you look at how important it is, our relationship with Coach Painter and what he's done for Purdue basketball for decades now and how he's done it his way, and it works for him.
All those things, winning as you mentioned a little, is contagious. We get a chance, and I'm embracing this with a chip on our shoulder, we're the first out of the gate this year. We get a chance to go prove it for Purdue athletics. Let's go support the football team because of the way they're playing. They're playing smart; they're playing hard; they're playing tough; they're playing together. They're doing it the Purdue way. When you capture those things, the momentum that bleeds not only in your locker room but through your athletic department and then through your university and then all the people that care about Purdue, that's what we're chasing, and we're doing it every day with the habits that will give us the opportunity to capture that and play with it early and often.”
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