WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue Football head coach Ryan Walters took his first game week press conference of the year on Monday as his team prepares to take on Indiana State in their season opener on Saturday, August 31. Game one of year two with Walters at the helm will kick off from Ross-Ade Stadium at 12:00 p.m. ET on BTN.
Below is a transcript of the press conference:
Q.Kind of tell us how this year's different from last year, how you've grown as a coach, and also how the team is different from last year this time?
RYAN WALTERS: I think it's entirely different. One, we've got a new locker room. Even the guys that have been here that are returning, they're older, they're more mature, their bodies are different. Their understanding of what we're doing from a program picture and a schematic picture is higher.
As a staff, we've grown. It's no secret. Last year, that was my first rodeo, you know what I mean? So you find ways to improve the program. You take the things that worked and enhance them, and the things that you need to get stronger in, you dive into them and embrace that feeling of being uncomfortable.
I think for me personally, just understanding how best to use my time in order to help the program from a football standpoint. I think a year ago there was a lot of things that we were tweaking and changing. Just the stuff on the periphery, the ins and outs of the program that had nothing to do with the playing field.
So now that everybody has been here for a year, they understand how we want to operate. There's no need to micromanage, and now you can dive into football a little more.
I just think we're in a much better place. I look back to this time a year ago, knowing what I know now, and seeing what we're seeing in front of us now, and it's like, yeah, it's not close.
Q.Corey is listed -- Corey Stewart is listed as a starter at left tackle. There's some other guys you said before weren't going to be able to play, and they're not listed here. I'm just clarifying, does that mean he's definitely able to play on the 2nd?
RYAN WALTERS: No, I would say he's questionable right now. We'll see how this week goes. Not out of the question, but still a possibility.
Q.Did you get to the end of camp with an idea of who your five best offensive linemen are, or is that still a fluid situation because Corey hasn't been able to practice?
RYAN WALTERS: Corey is in the top five, there's no question about that. Past that, there are a few guys that missed a little bit of time in camp that we still want to see a little more from.
Obviously the guys that have been there, we know what we're getting from that standpoint, and we're happy with the depth that we've created at that position.
Q.Where does FCS opponents fit into your scheduling philosophy going forward as a head coach?
RYAN WALTERS: You play nine conference games, so if you could have three of them, that would be great. I think it's a good opportunity for the FCS opponents to play in a Power Four, Big Ten type atmosphere and against those type of opponents.
I know as a coach, you like to go up against the best of the best and kind of see where you stack. For us, like it's a good chance to really dive into the process and fully respect the preparation and your opponent and go compete and get somebody's best shot, you know what I mean?
I think any time you can do that, especially early in the year, is good for both programs.
Q.You talked about your preparation and how you're doing things differently this year. As a whole, a lot of these guys have been through this with you now, a lot of them haven't. How has the team come together as a whole and realized it's real now, we're rolling out the ball, and they're keeping score?
RYAN WALTERS: I would say this is probably the closest team I've been around, and that's not only as a head coach, but as an assistant as well. I think we did a lot of things in the winter, in the spring, in the summer to provide opportunities for organic relationships to form.
I think the guys have done a really good job of reaching out to guys in the locker room that they wouldn't normally hang out with just to get to know each other. I think that showed up in the way we practice. There wasn't a whole lot of fights out there. There was guys that were competing at a high level but also taking care of each other.
Like I said, we did a lot of things where you had an opportunity to be vulnerable and talk about things that weren't football related, just to get to dive deeper into the individual. Everybody's going through different things and different walks of life, and everybody's got their own problems. So you kind of get to know why people act the way they do, why guys might communicate a certain way.
I think any time you have that background and that understanding just allows for more efficient communication.
Q.You said, or Coach Petrilli said, or probably both, you want the best guys with the ball returning kicks. And as I look down, obviously you've got running backs, but Elijah Jackson, somebody you have on the kick return, listed as No. 1. What do you like about him when he's got the ball in his hands?
RYAN WALTERS: He's really, really fast. He was in track out in high school, and that definitely translates to the gridiron. He's put on a lot of muscular weight since last year. He's shorter in stature, so it's hard to see him once he gets behind some blockers, and when he gets in the open field, it's pretty electric.
Q.Can you expound on team building things you did. For a lot of teams, it's like bowling in the summer. Did you go deeper than that?
RYAN WALTERS: Yeah, we did. We went a lot deeper than that. One of the first things we did, we created teams of six, seven, eight guys, and we're strategic about who was on those teams. It was a guy returning, a guy that was incoming in January, different position groups, different backgrounds.
We took them to escape rooms in town. So that kind of forced people to communicate with each other and got to see who was able to get out of there the fastest. So you got to see leadership, you got to see problem solving, and you got to just see them interact.
I thought that was a cool experience. We brought them back to the indoor one night and again broke them up into different teams strategically, had a dodgeball tournament. You got to see guys compete. That was the most competitive dodgeball I've ever seen. But got to see guys compete and have fun, again, nothing to do with football.
We rented out The Tap for one of the playoff games and made guys sit with people they didn't know. So you got to, you know, just break bread, have fellowship, watch some ball, kind of an icebreaker there.
Then in fall camp, we had 40 minutes, 45 minutes at the end of every day before our final walk-through, before they headed home to get some rest, we had breakout sessions where, again, it's four or five guys per group with a coach as a moderator. Again, every day was a different -- you had a different team. You're never with the same guy twice.
Just asked them life questions. We had -- first off was who are you, where are you from, what was your family dynamic growing up? Then I'd present a question or two for the group to ask just to generate some thought and dialogue, and I felt like that really helped us get to know each other and find out what people's motivations are, what people are afraid of, and what people are hopeful for.
So I thought that was a great way to get to know each other and develop some real chemistry.
Q.Just sort of in the big picture what you're trying to do here at Purdue, how do you define success this year? Do you put a win total on it? Do you base it on the underlying trends, the interest in the program, whatever it might be?
RYAN WALTERS: I think I would be better suited to answer that question at the end of the season. Right now the success for us is scoring more points than Indiana State on Saturday. So, yeah, that's my answer to that question.
Q.Did you have any mentors that you leaned on in the off-season and kind of learned from?
RYAN WALTERS: There's a bunch of guys that I've worked with, that I talk to frequently. I would say my biggest mentor is my dad, and that's probably who I talk to the most. He has a pretty level head and kind of sees things for what they are, face value, and he's not afraid to shoot me straight. So I do a lot of leaning on him.
Q.Just how complex are you looking to get for Saturday? Are you guys going to kind of hold back some things, or are you trying to dive into it?
RYAN WALTERS: I would just dive into it. I've been a part of programs where you try to not to show things. Ultimately you're trying to win a ballgame, and we all know how difficult it is to win.
Also, I think the more you show, especially early in the season, the more your opponent has to work on. So we'll show what we need to show and try to be strategic in that aspect.
