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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 10 "Coach Tiller sat on my couch at home and told me and my mother not to worry, that he would have a scholarship for me," said Ayodele, who like so many of his Boilermaker football brothers was slowly losing the battle to keep his emotions under wraps. "After J.C., I could have gone a lot of places as schools like Miami wanted me, but I never thought about going someplace else. "It was the best move I ever made." When Chukky Okobi approached the altar, the decibel level increased commensurate with the former offensive lineman's strong personality. A four-year starter during Tiller's first four seasons at Purdue, Okobi needed a con- fidence boost. It was Tiller's understated belief in him that Okobi credits for making him the confident in-your-face man he is today. And that boost manifested itself with a simple sentence from Tiller to Okobi that made the life- time connection. "After I had played well in a game my freshman year, he said something that changed me," Okobi recalled. "He said, 'If you keep playing like that you are going to go some- where some day.' "When I heard that from him I couldn't even breathe. I had considered how hard I had fought to be there and the fact that I was walking on eggshells to maintain my status on the team. But those simple words validated that despite everything that I had been through since I was 7 years old, I just might live my dream of playing in the NFL." Okobi lived his dream, playing in the Super Bowl for his hometown team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. "To this day, it was the most important thing that has ever been said to me," Oko- bi said. While most of the players talked about the strong and steady relationships they had with Tiller, it was different for Tim Stratton. The former All-Big Ten tight end readily admitted how up and down his re- lationship had been with his coach during his days at Purdue from 1997-2001. Stratton was talented, winning the Mackey Award for being the nation's top tight end in 2000, but he also was a classic screw-off. So much so, that Tiller and staff tried to run him and Vinny Sutherland off the team after numerous team rules viola- tions. Stratton's Purdue experience was littered with run- ins with the coach, whether it be the public and infamous lost helmet incident during the celebration following the Michigan win in 2000, or other more private mess-ups. Stratton's comments contained equal amounts of apolo- gy and gratitude. Yet, they were some of the most impactful of the night and most emotional. I didn't expect to shed any tears on my trip to Buffalo. I justified that feeling to myself thinking we were honoring a man that by all accounts and measures had lived a good life on his terms. But Stratton's comments pierced me. "I lost my dad unexpectedly and any time I had a chance to talk to Coach, I appreciated it," Stratton said. "I lost him at (age) 22, right when I had a lot of life questions, which I ended up talking with Coach about when we would sit down. "Right before he passed, I emailed Mrs. Tiller, asking Home of Boilermaker Hospitality