New Purdue coach Ryan Walters opens up about life in West Lafayette
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Pete ThamelESPN
INDIANAPOLIS — At the NFL combine last week, new Purdue coach Ryan Walters sat down with ESPN to discuss the energy jolt, challenges and changes inherent to taking over a new job. He’s living in Jeff Brohm’s old house — renting it from the school, which bought it — while laying the groundwork to upgrade Purdue.
Walters is adamant the job isn’t a rebuild, considering Purdue won 17 games the past two years and captured the Big Ten West last season. He’s bullish at what the job can become — “Why can’t you win at Purdue?” Walters dove in with ESPN on everything from the realities of NIL to what he learned from Bret Bielema to his high school QB crush on Drew Brees coming full circle and early impressions of quarterback Hudson Card.
ESPN: What’s the adjustment been like to the front-facing part of the job? You were in the spotlight before as a player, assistant and coordinator, but this has to be different.
Ryan Walters: It hasn’t been too much of an adjustment. I’ve always been either the point guard or the quarterback or the captain of the team. So it’s been comfortable for me to stand up and speak in front of people. I’m comfortable in my own skin. I’ve always been quietly confident. And so that part hasn’t been an adjustment. I think the part that’s been the biggest adjustment is just the lack of anonymity, people recognizing you now. Like you know, for me, I’m the same guy I was before I signed a piece of paper.
ESPN: Give me an example of that, please.
RW: Walking into a restaurant and it’s “Hey coach.” I’ve taken a thousand pictures, which is fun and flattering, you have to be very aware of your surroundings, and it’s just a little bit of adjusting. Nobody really talks about that part about being a coach. You get prepared for the fact that your phone is going to blow up. And it’s going to be really hard to say no to people that you highly regard and respect in this profession. But nobody, nobody prepped me for all the pictures being taken.
ESPN: I know your family hasn’t moved yet, but any spots that you’ve found in West Lafayette?
RW: There’s a few spots that I’ve found. The East End Grill is awesome. They’ve got great food there. The Tap is awesome. RedSeven is awesome.
ESPN: Is there a sandwich or burger named after you yet?
RW: Not yet. I gotta win some games first.
ESPN: Let’s go back chronological here. Your dad was a player at Colorado when you were growing up, and those were your formative years. What are some of your earliest memories?
RW: I remember watching my dad at practice and remember running around the locker room and all the guys that were affiliated with that team. I just ran into Vance Joseph in the lobby, and he gave me a big hug. He said, “Hey, me and Eric Bieniemy are having dinner tonight. You should come hang out.” Those guys are all still tight. Alfred Williams, I talk to on a regular basis. Just that camaraderie is kind of what I, what I remember. You go through a career and you are a part of teams that were successful and they had that same type of camaraderie and teams that I’ve been a part of that weren’t successful, they didn’t have that. And so that is definitely an atmosphere and a chemistry that I’m trying to create.
ESPN: I’ve always felt like a million small decisions from a head coach help form the identity of a team. Nearly three months into this job, what are some early and intentional things you’ve done to help shape the new identity of Purdue football?
RW: I got hired at an awkward time. There’s still a staff in place. There’s still a [bowl] game to be played and still practices to be had. And so I’m there, but not really there. I’m at practice, but I’m not involved in practice. So what I really did was, I dove into what was going on off the field. … I dove into the different departments that were touching the kids every day and making sure that their vision was the same as mine. We’ve made changes to the heads of certain departments. We’ve changed some of the way the players’ scholarship money is calculated [cost of attendance, etc.]. I know what we were getting at Illinois, and at Purdue the players were getting far less. And so, we just looked at the why’s and where it ranked within the Big Ten. And we were able to make changes to where guys are getting about $800 more a month.
ESPN: You hired Kiero Small as your director of strength and conditioning. He’s worked under Tank Wright at Illinois, and both are disciples of Michigan’s Ben Herbert, who was under Bret Bielema at Wisconsin and Arkansas. What have you seen so far?
RW: I think those three guys are the best in the business and for us, we thought it was important to give Kiero eight weeks of workouts. If you think about it, when you’re getting ready for a season, you got eight weeks in the summer, and then you hit fall camp. I know there’s different philosophies of why you start spring ball when you do it. But for me personally, in our program, I want to get guys ready to go play football before you start playing football. And so Kiero made great strides with our guys. They’re in shape right now. For Kiero to have eight weeks to work with the guys to get ’em prepared for five weeks of spring ball is going to be huge for us moving forward.
ESPN: We’ve seen Hudson Card in snapshots at Texas. You’ve probably only seen him in workouts. What are your first impressions?
RW: What I’ve seen so far is what you would hope to see from a high caliber quarterback. He has put his head down and gone to work. He’s way more athletic than you think. And people in the program give him credit for being very cerebral and just picking up the playbook. He’s got a calm, confident, poise to him, and that’s what you want in a quarterback. So it’ll be interesting to see this spring, him battle it out with the rest of the quarterbacks on the roster. From what I’ve seen, he’s as advertised, if not more. And I’m excited about his future at Purdue.
ESPN: Can’t do a Q&A with the new Purdue coach without a Drew Brees question. I know you both appeared on ESPN’s “College GameDay” before the bowl game. Had you interacted with him much before getting the job?
RW: I played quarterback in high school. And so I’m a sophomore in high school and I’m starting varsity quarterback at Grandview High School [in Colorado]. And my family is all from Los Angeles originally. And so we would go home to L.A. every break we had. Christmas vacation, we’re in Los Angeles, we go to Disneyland and Drew is there for the Rose Bowl parade. And I’m looking at him, I’m like, that’s Drew. Like that is exactly who I want to be. That’s what I want to do. And then you fast-forward, and then after my press conference when I get hired, I get a phone call and it’s Drew Brees! I’m like … this is Drew Brees calling me! You know? So it definitely came full circle. But he’s been awesome. He’s definitely very proud of the brotherhood that is Boilermaker nation and is an advocate for Purdue. He has been awesome just as an ambassador and very available.
ESPN: There’s been roughly 100 days, not quite, since you were hired. What’s that time been like?
RW: It hasn’t been as hectic or chaotic as I think people might think. And I think it’s just because of the fact that I’ve been prepared, and I’ve been mentored and tutored by some people that have had success. You know, I give a lot of credit to Bret Bielema and what he was able to pour into me and how he allowed me to grow at Illinois. He knew what kind of goals and aspirations I had, and he took time out of his day to [mentor me]. And so, you know, that is, that is something I will forever be appreciative of. Things like roster decisions, staff decisions you know, personnel and department heads. He would bring me in and say, “You know, these are the issues I’m having. This is how you have to think about this.” And a lot of times he would, he would draw back to his days with Barry Alvarez. When I first met Barry Alvarez at the Big Ten coaches meetings, I felt like I knew him because I’d heard so much about him.
ESPN: You’ve been bullish here about what Purdue can become. Is this a place you believe you can build into a national title contender down the road?
RW: I do. I think it’s going to be hard work and it’s going to be a lot of commitment from the various individuals that are associated with the program. I think it’s got a chance to be a really special place.
I’m not going to sit here and be shy about the fact that NIL is real. And we got some catching up to do in that aspect. But if you look at the academic resources you have, you look at the conference that you’re in, the facilities, you look at the location … you’ve got high level talent that is near this place. Why can’t you win at Purdue? Like, why not? I think with the administrative support and campus support for the program and a commitment and a fan base that is, is going to back you a hundred percent. I think if you get the right people in place with the right resources, why not? I think in the state of Indiana, high school football is underrated. And this 2024 class is really, really special in the state. And we’ve got a chance to get a number of those guys on campus. If they stay home, watch out.
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Greg Wyshynski
Boston Bruins forward Morgan Geekie can finish a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute.
“I mean, right now I’d be pretty rusty,” he said. “I’m not insane, like those kids that you see on TV, but I’m pretty good at them.”
When Geekie was around 10 years old, a cousin taught him how to speed solve the puzzle. While some have never found a way to line up that mosaic of colors despite years of trying, Geekie said it’s doable once one cracks the code. One summer at their lake cottage, his cousin wrote down its patterns. Geekie spent two weeks memorizing them and working out solutions while fiddling with the cube.
“It’s basically just all algorithms. You just do the same moves all the time once you get the pieces in the right spot. Once you do that, I mean, it’s pretty cut and dry. Everything goes in order,” he said. “I haven’t really forgot. It’s just one of those things that once you know it, you know it.”
Perhaps Geekie just knows how to score goals now, too.
That’s the simplest rationalization for the 27-year-old’s unexpected transformation into one of the NHL’s premier goal scorers. Through 34 games, Geekie is second in the NHL with 24 goals, trailing only the dominant Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche (28). Going back to the start of last season, Geekie is tied for 11th in goals scored (57).
Geekie scored 33 goals in 2024-25, which is 16 more than his previous career high set two years ago with the Bruins. He shot 22%, which obliterated his previous career best of 13.1% set in 2023-24.
There’s always an offensive player whose unexpected scoring surge in one season makes him the consensus choice for regression the following season. Entering this season, that player was Geekie.
He was the first player listed on ESPN’s rundown of regression candidates, with the expectation that he would top out at 26 goals. Sports Illustrated did the same thing, writing that his “offensive numbers are set to dip next season.” Daily Faceoff wrote that Geekie’s shooting percentage was “a strong indication that his performance isn’t sustainable, at least at this level” for the Bruins.
Geekie gets it. He called the predictions “a fair statement” given that he was scoring less than 10 goals in a season with the Seattle Kraken just a few seasons ago.
“I see it all. It’s an easy cherry to pick to be like, ‘Obviously he’s shooting 22%, it’s going to go down.’ It didn’t bother me at all,” Geekie said.
Rather than regress, Geekie has progressed this season. Through 34 games, he is shooting 28.2%.
“I mean, it’s got to go down at some point,” he said, with a laugh. “Like I said, I don’t really pay attention to that and I’m not somebody that has 10 shots a game, so I just try to make the most of my opportunities when I get the puck.”
GEEKIE IS AMUSED by the focus on his shooting percentage, because he feels there are easy explanations for it. The first is that he doesn’t believe he shoots the puck all that much. Over the past two seasons, David Pastrnak averaged 3.79 shots per game in 110 games. Geekie averaged 2.11 in that same span. Only Sidney Crosby (2.45 shots per game) has a lower average than Geekie (2.48) among the top 10 goal-scorers this season.
“I feel like I’m a big quality over quantity person,” he said.
His first season in Boston, coach Jim Montgomery stressed the need for Geekie to get chances from deep inside the attacking zone.
“I think a high-danger chance is better than just shooting it from the wall. That’s kind of the mentality that I’ve had always. I’m not trying to waste shots that aren’t good for anybody,” Geekie said. “Unless I’m trying to create something off it, I’m honestly not trying to put it on net. Maybe that’s why I end up where I end up.”
Pastrnak recently said the Bruins were reminding Geekie to shoot the puck more often. In fairness, Geekie is shooting more this season. Pastrnak said Geekie is “definitely trying to be a little more selfish to take them” when he fights into high-danger areas of the ice. But Geekie acknowledged there are sometimes philosophical differences between his striving for quality over his team’s desire for quantity.
“I think it’s a push and pull,” he said. “It’s like, I don’t think I need to be shooting this, but other people think that it still gives us an opportunity to create a chance. So I just try to keep that in mind when I have the puck”
This is Geekie’s seventh season in the NHL. He was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes with the 67th pick in the 2017 draft as a goal-scoring forward with the WHL Tri-City Americans. His first two seasons as a pro were mostly spent in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers, before playing 36 games with the Hurricanes in 2020-21.
That summer, the Seattle Kraken held their expansion draft as the NHL’s newest team. Geekie was left off Carolina’s protected list. At the time, it wasn’t expected that former Hurricanes GM Ron Francis would select him for the Kraken, with options like defenseman Jake Bean and forward Nino Niederreiter available from Carolina. But Geekie was the choice, a player whom Francis had drafted while with the Canes.
Geekie had 22 points in 73 games in his first season in Seattle, skating 12:36 per game with just seven goals. His second campaign saw him jump to 28 points in 69 games, but with even less ice time (10:27).
He was a restricted free agent after the 2022-23 season. Francis attempted to re-sign him before the deadline for submitting qualifying offers, but Geekie and his representatives declined it. The two sides couldn’t find common ground. Rather than go to arbitration, where the Kraken weren’t keen on Geekie potentially setting the terms of his next deal, they chose not to qualify him, making him an unrestricted free agent.
“With Morgan, we did make what I felt was a pretty fair offer,” Francis said at the time, via Sound of Hockey. “It didn’t work out, and he has the right once we don’t qualify him to go elsewhere.”
And so he went to Boston, signing a two-year deal worth $4 million in total.
While he wasn’t seeing much time with the Kraken, Geekie felt he was improving as a player. He said a “integral part” of that development was thanks to Jonathan Sigalet, a skills coach who improved all facets of his game.
“When I first started working with him, he was adamant that he wasn’t going to try and make me play like I’m on the first line,” Geekie recalled. “He said, ‘We both know that trying to do things that you do on the first line on the fourth line is going to get you in the press box.'”
He said working with Siglet slowed the game down for him. He started to see the game differently. He began to see “little tendencies” that all of the NHL’s good players share. Geekie also appreciated having a “third party” assessment for his play, apart from that of his coaches and his own.
Geekie was immediately given an opportunity to thrive in Boston in 2023-24, playing 15:21 in his first game with the Bruins. He ended up averaging 15:25 per game, with 17 goals and 22 assists in 76 games. He earned time with Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha on the Bruins’ top line.
His follow-up season didn’t start well. Geekie scored one goal in his first 17 games and was a healthy scratch early in the season. Some trade whispers started about him as a pending restricted free agent. He had eight goals by the end of the 2024 calendar year.
How did he end up with 33 of them? With one of the greatest goal-scoring heaters this side of Alex Ovechkin: Geekie scored 14 goals in his last 20 games of the season. His chemistry with Pastrnak was undeniable — the Bruins scoring ace assisted on 21 of Geekie’s 33 goals last season.
Geekie expressed a desire to stay with the Bruins. The feeling was mutual, as GM Don Sweeney in June handed him a six-year, $33 million contract for a team-friendly $5.5 million annual cap hit.
WHEN GEEKIE SIGNED his new contract, he decided he wanted to join in the tradition of NHL players celebrating a windfall with their teammates. It’s usually a dinner or something of that nature.
But Geekie wanted to do something different.
“Everybody’s eating at the same restaurants in every city. And I’m sure they’d remember it for a little while, but I think it would be just one of those things like, ‘Hey, thanks for dinner.’ So I wanted to do something a little more nostalgic,” he said.
Geekie is a huge baseball fan who played competitively until his late teens. He was in the process of designing a personalized baseball glove for himself through a company called 44 Pro Custom Gloves when his wife, Emma, suggested that he design ones for all of his teammates as a gift.
Geekie started the process in July, sketching out what he wanted on the gloves for 30 teammates — including players that were on the bubble for the Bruins’ roster this season. He had the biographical information for them, from their birth cities and countries to their schools to where they played junior hockey.
“Honestly, for probably three weeks, I just sat in front of my TV watching baseball and I would just draft gloves up. I thought it was so fun,” Geekie said. “My wife got sick of me for a little while.”
He would FaceTime his brother Noah, a coach at Okotoks Dawgs Academy in Alberta, to bounce the designs off him and get input. He was cognizant of having the designs as unique as possible, despite some of the school colors being similar for his teammates.
Before a practice in October, Geekie delivered the gloves to the locker room stalls of his teammates. It went over well.
“Baseball is not that big in Sweden, but it’s obviously cool to have,” center Elias Lindholm told the Bruins website, having received a glove with a Swedish flag on it. “Hopefully, when my kids get a little bit older, we can play a little game or something. For now, it is just going to be at home, resting.”
0:17
Morgan Geekie nets goal for Bruins
Morgan Geekie nets goal for Bruins
While the gloves were a chance to celebrate with his teammates, there weren’t many celebrations anticipated for Boston this season. The Bruins were trading players away at last season’s trade deadline, sending mainstays like captain Brad Marchand (Florida), center Charlie Coyle (Colorado) and defenseman Brandon Carlo (Toronto) elsewhere. They had an incoming first-year coach in Marco Sturm. At best, it was supposed to be a transition year for the Bruins.
But through 34 games, Boston is second in the Atlantic Division with a 20-14-0 record, within a point of division-leading Detroit in the crowded Eastern Conference.
Many around the NHL were surprised. Geekie wasn’t.
“We underperformed. Last season was like the perfect storm of bad events with our kind of discombobulated training camp and then having a coaching change and just kind of everything that could have went wrong went wrong,” Geekie said. “The core group we have is just too good to be written off. But I understand why people had doubts about us.”
But defying doubts is what Morgan Geekie’s all about, whether it’s his team’s predicted finish in the standings or his own predicted regression as a scorer.
“He has everything to score 50 in this league,” Pastrnak said. “He has a heck of a shot. He has the goal-scoring instincts. He is going to get it one day.”
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