Purdue Football head coach Ryan Walters addressed the media this week ahead of the 2024 season finale on Saturday at Indiana.
The Old Oaken Bucket Game will kick off at 7 p.m. on FS1.
Here’s a transcript of what Walters had to say about playing Indiana:
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Q. You mentioned there’s a lot of different ways to get guys in your program now. Has Indiana shown that is a model that’s quickly effective and you can turn a program around basically overnight?
“There’s been a lot of programs that have used that model. You look at Colorado and what Coach Prime (Deion Sanders) has been able to do there,” Walters said. “Shoot, Ohio State took a lot of transfers this past season. You definitely have to get the right guys to fit your needs. It is possible to flip a program pretty rapidly because of the landscape and the rules.”
Q. What is the biggest difference you’ve seen from Indiana to what you’ve seen on film this year?
“Obviously, a completely different roster,” Walters said. “Very experienced team that’s played a lot of football. They’ve got good schemes offensively and defensively and those guys run it, it’s a well-oiled machine. They don’t make a ton of mistakes, they make the plays they’re supposed to make. Those guys force you to try to beat them in all three phases.”
You can tell they’ve played a lot of ball. A lot of those guys have played a lot of ball together. They’re playing extremely confident right now. We’ve had a lot of crossover games. I’ve been able to watch a lot of tape. It’s the same theme throughout the season, they get off to really fast starts on offense and defense. Teams sort of hang around and midway through the third quarter, seems like they tend to pull away and the game ends up looking a lot more lopsided than it was through the meat of the game. Well-coached team and talented team that plays tough and physical. They play smart football.
Q. I think the motivation for a trophy game is built in. The opportunity to play spoilers, is that something you think can add to the motivation for Saturday?
Yeah, the guys are excited and looking forward to the challenge. Anytime you have a trophy game, an in-state rival, playing against one of the top-ranked opponents, it’s easy to get up for those. We had a really good meeting yesterday. Guys have already been through the building to get scouting reports today. Looking forward to tomorrow’s practice.
Q. How do you go about pulling off a big upset? You’re a heavy underdog here. What is your formula to shock the world?
We have to execute for four quarters. We’ve done it in spurts. We got to put two full halves together on offense and defense. Obviously can’t do things to put ourselves behind the eight ball, sort of give them opportunities. When we have opportunities, we got to take advantage of ’em. Momentum is really good for 18- to 22-year-olds. It builds confidence, it re-energizes and gets the sideline excited. We got to come out fast to have a really good start and build off of some momentum and execute at a high level.
