Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/766803
GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 3 33 fair for me to ask you to have one half of your attention on our situation when you're trying to coach a team to a championship.' I think people appreciated that at the end of the day. We landed where we wanted to so it all worked out. It caused a little of anxiety because I would have liked to have been able to just (proceed) full steam ahead, close our deal and be done with it but that wasn't the right approach to take." Gold and Black: What was the Sunday like? Bobinski: "It was a very interesting day. I spent Sat- urday night at President (Mitch) Daniels' house if that gives you some indication how good it was. I stayed at his home in Indianapolis because we were on it pret- ty heavy Saturday and Sunday. He had a holiday event at his home on Saturday afternoon where I did my best to be social with all the guests, but my mind was else- where. I wasn't exactly probably the best holiday reveler that afternoon (laughs). I had other things on my mind. But Sunday was very interesting. We clearly had an ob- jective in mind on Sunday, but it wasn't a certainty. So you had to have contingencies, so we had sort of multi- ple things happening at the same time. I'm working on sort of parallel tracks to make sure we landed in a good place. We knew where we wanted to land and we did, thank goodness, we landed exactly where we wanted to going into that day. But it was not a certainty. It made for a very exciting in some ways but anxious in other ways day. Period. It just did." Gold and Black: What was Daniels' role in this process at the 11th hour? Bobinski: "One of the things I said to Mitch when it was all done, sometime during the next week was 'I re- ally can't believe how tolerant you were of this world.' Because he was. He was very thoughtful. He never got anxious about it at all. I don't usually show it very much but inside, I can honestly tell you, there were a few knots in the stomach. But Mitch was just very composed, as was Mike Berghoff. Mike was with us also. Mike was like, 'Hey, this is the way I understand these things go. We've just got to play through it here.' But Mitch was very solid, very strong, very good in his thinking. "When we had the final sort of interaction that ulti- mately resulted in, several hours later, a favorable out- come, Mitch is the one who led it off and closed it, and I think really did a great job of expressing, from the pres- ident's chair, his vision of what he wants to see happen and how committed he is and Purdue is to restoring our football program to success. I think that had a lot to do with convincing Jeff that this is not just an athletic thing, this is a Purdue thing. That was really important and it was powerful to Jeff." Gold and Black: Then you hang up the phone and what? Handshakes around the table? Bobinski: "We got off the phone and said, 'Well, we think that went pretty well.' But there was (from Brohm), 'Can I have a couple hours to talk …' There was that. We had a little bit more of a waiting game. Wait was not what all of us did. Some of us were off to contingencies. While I felt like it went well, you just don't know (how it will ul- timately turn out). Until it's, 'Yes, I'm in,' you're not in. So we had to keep working. So we did. President Daniels stayed in Indianapolis, but the rest of us were in another unnamed locale when we ultimately got things finalized and accomplished." Gold and Black: Nationally, it seemed like a cel- ebrated hire, and Brohm's players rave about him. Everything seems positive at this point. It seems too good to be true. Bobinski: (laughs) "All of that good stuff is great. We'll take every bit of it we can get. It doesn't win us a game. It doesn't get us a point. We don't get a first down for any of it. So you still have to back it up with execution. But if people are going to say things, I'd rather they say nice things. Honestly, what people are saying is what we saw and what we thought. There's a reason we picked Jeff. It wasn't by default. He was the guy that we wanted for all the reasons that people are saying. He is a brilliant offen- sive mind. He's a successful coach. He's a smart guy. He's a coach that's trajectory is going this way (moves hand up). He's not a guy that's topped out and leveled out and sort of just hoping for the next thing. He's a guy that's on a clear upswing and I like that. "I've hired people like that at other places and I've al- ways enjoyed working with people who are in that pro- cess of really building their legacy and their portfolio as a coach. I see this as a natural progression for Jeff. I think we've got a guy who's going to continue to grow but bring a tremendous set of accomplishments already with him to our place." Gold and Black: A couple important things that