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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 3 16 Western Kentucky, the place he'd won 30 games, achieved bowl eli- gibility for three years and earned two conference championships. But winning there had gotten almost routine. It wasn't easy — winning never is — but Brohm could always conceive challenges there, real or otherwise. He stayed current on innovative offenses, on preparing new tweaks for defenses to figure out. But the end result was almost a known: He'd established the per- sonnel and the system that was go- ing to score in bunches. Each week, WKU would have a quarterback pile up ridiculous numbers, have a receiver — usually two — break away for big plays and have a run- ning back churn out yards behind a steady, consistent offensive line. He'd established a defense that was going to be aggressive, fly around and force turnovers. At Purdue, Jeff Brohm has no such security. He clearly is walking into a rebuilding job. He clear- ly needs to re-establish a culture of belief, of work, of buy-in. He clearly needs to reload the talent base — nine starters from 2016 were well-established, produc- tive seniors — and upgrade the depth on the roster. And, clearly, he is relishing it as the challenge it is. "If you look at the situation, unfortunately, the pro- gram hasn't won as many games recently as every- one would like. I get it," he said. "They're in a tough conference. Big Ten football is a great league with a lot of outstanding coaches who have been there and done that. It's time to try to get the program back on track. Me coming in, I understood that. But I think just looking at the situation and looking at the adminis- tration's new commitment to trying to do their part to help the program and to help it get to where we want it to get and the challenge of doing my part as well is something I'm looking forward to. "I think you've got to find a way to do it the right way, start from ground zero. You really can't skip any steps. It may not be extremely fun right off the bat, but you have to fight through it and understand there's a plan and process to it and you've just got to stick to your guns and do the very best job you can in order to get wins." How will Brohm attack the significant road ahead of him? The way he always has: With a relentless work eth- ic, working to gain an edge over opponents with an inventive offense and by using a coaching style that inspires players to excellence. ULTIMATELY PREPARED Jeff Brohm doesn't brag, those closest to him say. Shawn Freibert, who's known Brohm since middle school, said success, whether at the high school, college or coaching level, "never" went to Brohm's head. Freibert said he has never met a more humble person. Former WKU quarterback Brandon Doughty said the same, raving about how Brohm never changed when moving from quarterbacks coach to head coach, even as the wins racked up. Oscar Brohm confirmed all of that, and said, simply, "Jeff's a normal guy." But during Brohm's introductory press conference at Purdue on Dec. 5, one of the most forceful state- Western Kentucky Athletics Brohm is a passionate competitor and has used that energy to fire up his players.