Tougher situation: Purdue Today or Iowa in 1978?
- Thread starter JRHawk2003
- Start date
Iowa in 78. More scholarships back then, allowing teams like Michigan and OSU to stockpile more. Also seems like kids today have weaker geographical ties, and more of them want to go where there is immediate playing time.
Iowa in 78. Purdue hasn't suffered through 19 straight non-winning seasons. The Iowa football culture was nearly extinct insofar as the players go. The winning attitude was noexistence and it took a bright light like only Hayden could bring to reignite a moribund program and fanbase.
Pretty much agree. Iowa football was at rock bottom at that period of time. There was no TV other than when Iowa would play a ND, Ohio State, or Michigan and get totally blown out. Iowa was the laughing stock of the Big 10 especially when they went 0-11 under Lauterbur and then hired a high school coach in Bob Commings to replace him.
Pick your poison there. Purdue's facilities are the worst right now. They don't even have lights at their stadium. I question their ability to get a quality head coach or to recruit decently until they seriously upgrade facilities and maybe even build a new stadium. Don't think they have the money for it and don't think their alumni are willing to shell out the sheckles for what needs to be done.
Interesting question, I go with Iowa in 78. Unmentioned factors are B1G money available now and proximity to population: add that to scholarship limits and more recent success it overcomes loyal fan base which is pretty much all Iowa had going (cue great story of Brashier's comment to Hayden when watching tape to evaluate job offer, just imagine the fans if they could get a first down).
1978 was Bob Cummings last year as the Iowa HC. Bump Elliot, (Iowa AD at that time), made the correct decision to hire a coach with not only head coaching experience but a track record of rebuilding broken down programs. His choice was Hayden Fry and the rest as they say is history. The point is if Purdue can find a guy like Fry, (or Joe Tiller), starting winning more games and let the excitement build, it gets easier to raise the money for more facility upgrades.
Yes, but back then time moved at a more reasonable, human-like pace. This is the Internet age: If a team hasn't been to a January bowl game in the last two years that's equivalent to two, possibly three decades of 1970s time. In other words, people used to have attention spans.
I think Purdue, but it's close. Draw a 250 mile circle around W. Lafayette, and you will find Indiana, ND, Illinois, NW, Mich, Mich St,. OSU, KY and a bunch of pretty good MAC teams. I'm sure I'm missing some good D1 teams. Point being recruiting at Purdue might actually be tougher than Iowa.
Add to that poor fan support, and likely poor financial support, and you have a tough situation.
Add to that poor fan support, and likely poor financial support, and you have a tough situation.
Definitely Purdue. In 1978, Iowa was a sleeping...well, not a sleeping giant exactly, but at least a sleeping Gheorghe Muresan. Meanwhile, even with BTN money, Purdue is still light years behind in facilities, fan support, tradition, and university commitment to fielding a winning program.
I feel sorry for them. That was a very tough game under Joe Tiller--now they're just awful and the program seems dead.
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