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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 4 13 J eff Brohm hasn't so much as called his first game- day play for Purdue yet, but the guess here is that the magnitude of this job he's taken on has already revealed itself to him. It most likely happened in December, when the new Boilermaker coach had a few weeks to basically go it alone in recruiting before a staff of any sub- stance could be assembled. Brohm did pretty much all of Purdue's recruiting in that window of time, including visits to prominent high schools in Indianapolis and phone calls made to many of the best players in Indiana, most of them commit- ted elsewhere. He needed to introduce himself to peo- ple, remind them Purdue exists after several coachless months, and see which players might still have an open mind about things. This was his introduction to recruiting at Purdue. It was, most likely, an eye-opener, the kind of eye-opener that makes you want to close 'em again real fast. Look, Purdue is where it is right now for a reason. Well, for a lot of reasons. But maybe the most important one is this: It just doesn't have enough Big Ten football players on its ros- ter, let alone winning Big Ten football players. Years of misguided and just-plain-bad recruiting have brought Purdue to these depths, with a roster loaded with low-hanging fruit, to this level where fans seem excited about their new head coach's track record and offensive expertise, but also his sheer courage. No one will accuse Brohm of ducking a challenge. So Brohm went into those schools, made those calls. I'm sure everyone was plenty polite, but the message was probably clear: Purdue is an afterthought. It just is, has been for some time now. Danny Hope wanted Purdue to be South Florida's northernmost county, a strategy that didn't work all that well. Darrell Hazell came in to the job saying all the right things, then did the opposite. What a remarkable recruiting failure that whole en- deavor was. I'm not sure if Purdue was overthinking re- cruiting or not thinking at all, and I'm not sure which is worse, but the reality it's left Purdue with is a bot- tomed-out recruiting brand where it matters most and a string of bad teams. It's Brohm's job to clean up the mess others made. To his credit, he seems to see things for what they are and act accordingly. He comes off as a pragmatist and Purdue hasn't had one of those in this job in some time. Recognizing problems can be the first step toward rectifying them. He will need a level head in trying to turn things around, and it will start in Indiana and the Midwest. Figuratively speaking, Purdue's backyard is overgrown and neglected and needs some landscaping. Make no mistake: Purdue's issues in Indiana are not the problem, but they are the face of that problem. Pur- due is adrift in recruiting now, an afterthought where it should be getting players and not relevant or identifiable enough on a larger scale to overcome it in a meaningful way elsewhere. It's not just about getting the best kids from near-by, but just the good-enough ones. At Purdue, no matter the sport, you have to get the recruits you have to get, if that makes sense. Purdue just needs players. Brohm and his staff will work at it, for certain. Effort doesn't seem like it'll be an issue with this staff, not the way it was before, a tone set by a disengaged head coach and whatever support-staff types were actually steering the ship into the rocks. But the best catalyst in recruiting is winning. That's the rub here. It's difficult to win without play- ers. It's difficult to get players without winning. But for Purdue and its new coaching staff, that might be the deal: The egg might just have to come before the chicken. Or is it the other way around? j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com Big Job Ahead In Recruiting From Editor Brian Neubert