WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue Football head coach Ryan Walters address the media Monday afternoon at the start of a short week before the Boilermakers' Friday night game against No. 2 Oregon. Kickoff from Ross-Ade Stadium is set for 8 p.m. ET live on Fox.
Q. If Hudson Card is healthy and able to play, and so how are you going to handle the quarterback situation this week? Going to use both? Do you know who's going to start? Can you give us a heads up of what to expect there?
RYAN WALTERS: The answer to the first question, I'm not sure if Hudson will be available or not. Ryan Browne will start the game on Friday. I think just the way he played, it would be unfair not to.
We'll see about Hudson's availability moving forward.
Q. At what point last week did you decide you were going to call the offensive plays? Why did you ultimately make that decision?
RYAN WALTERS: I think it was like Thursday morning, at 2:30 in the morning. The week of the Wisconsin game I spent learning the vocab, learning the rules within the offense. I didn't feel comfortable calling it that game because I wouldn't be able to spit out plays fast enough.
I got to mid-week last week and felt like I had the vocab down enough to know what plays I want to get to. I just felt like me calling the game was going to give us the best opportunity to put points on the board. So, that's why I made the decision that I made.
Q. Are you going to continue to call the offense?
RYAN WALTERS: Yes.
Q. Can you talk about Jason Simmons' role now?
RYAN WALTERS: He's organizing and he's been awesome for me. The whole offensive staff has done a great job of being creative and bouncing ideas off each other. He'll put the script together for practice. Upstairs he gave me a lot of good insight on game day. That's kind of how we're operating right now.
Q. Could you have envisioned Ryan Browne playing like he did, especially in the second half?
RYAN WALTERS: He had a great week of practice. Really, the last two weeks he's practiced well. You always appreciate his energy and enthusiasm as a competitor.
He spent a lot of time in preparation this past week. So, the things we saw during the game is what we were seeing during practice. Obviously, you don't know what it's going to look like until you get in live situations.
Really, the first half I thought he played well as well. We just weren't making plays or our drives weren't getting extended. We had a holding call on an explosive run that would've got us in the red area. We had a dropped ball on a fade that I thought was thrown beautifully.
So, you take those two plays and maybe you get points on those two drives, and now you look at his game and he had a fantastic game.
I'm proud of the way he played, and it's because of the way he prepared. I'm looking forward to watching his growth and maturation this week.
Q. How would you compare calling offense to defense? Is it a different rhythm?
RYAN WALTERS: It's way different. Way, way different. It was fun. I enjoy feeling like you have an impact on the game. It was good to see the guys have fun with some of the new wrinkles that we threw in. Obviously, they're in the thick of it right, down to the wire to have the ball in your hands. That's what you want in a tight ballgame against a good opponent.
Obviously, disappointed that we lost. We would've loved to win that game for our guys. But, yeah, it was definitely a different experience.
Q. Regarding calling the offense compared to defense, are you saying intellectually it's different from a football standpoint?
RYAN WALTERS: Well, yeah. On defense you're sort of reacting and anticipating. On offense you know what the play is before the defense does. There is sort of a chess game. You try to present pictures and run plays that set up other plays. So, it is a different chess match there.
Q. When Jason Simmons was in here, he said there are plans for maybe playing Hudson Card and Ryan Browne together at some point. How distinct is a plan for each of them right now? Can they execute one game plan? Do you have to have different wrinkles for them?
RYAN WALTERS: I told both of them that this is the way we're going to play moving forward. So, they've both got to be able to execute that style of play. I think they both can and are athletic enough to do so. So, yeah, I'm excited about what that will look like.
Q. What would it mean for this defense to play with a lead, especially early in a game right now?
RYAN WALTERS: What would it mean, I don't know. We try to preach not looking at the scoreboard, not letting momentum swings sort of affect the way you play.
So, I would hope it wouldn't mean anything, right? If we can only play with a lead, that would not be good, so, we've just got to try to hold people to as less points as possible and try to score more than our opponent on offense.
Q. How badly does this team need to see some success in the first half so it can play with a lead?
RYAN WALTERS: Collectively as a team, it would do well just in terms of our morale if we were leading in the game. I would say that.
Q. Did you have any communication with the Big Ten about the fumble that Luke Altmyer did or didn't have in the last drive for them?
RYAN WALTERS: No, I'm still waiting on some feedback.
Q. Did you get a sense of the guys rallying around Ryan Browne leading up to Saturday?
RYAN WALTERS: Obviously, (if) your quarterback gets hurt and your backup is thrust into the starting role, the team is going to get behind whoever that individual is.
I do think Ryan exudes confidence and is vocal and a tough kid. He likes to go play. I do think that guys fed off of that energy a little bit, especially there in that mid-to-late third quarter, fourth quarter. It was fun to watch.
I think they were excited about the way he played, and ultimately if he played well, that means guys around him played well as well. Offensively they did a good job, especially in the second half.
Q. How much has Ryan Browne grown in terms of understanding the position from last year when he played against Northwestern to Saturday?
RYAN WALTERS: Well, Saturday he didn't make some of the boneheaded mistakes he made in the Northwestern game.
But I also wasn't his position coach a year ago and I didn't sit in the QB room and go through meetings. So, this is my first glimpse of what he is as a quarterback in terms of studying and preparing. Like I said, the last two weeks I've been impressed with both he and Hudson (Card) in the amount of time, detail that they spend in meetings and translating that to practice.
Q. What did you learn in terms of your team's ability and willingness to fight on Saturday?
RYAN WALTERS: We had talked all week about no matter what happens, you've got to go out there and fight for four quarters.
I'm watching ESPN on Friday before we played at dinner, and the commentator was going through the games of the week and he got to our game and said, you know, this will be an easy win for Illinois because Purdue has quit on the season.
So, that bothered me real bad. Not that we got picked to lose the game, but just that the perception out there is we've quit on the season.
I had a discussion with our team in our team meeting room that night. I had a different sort of speech/meeting prepared. I just talked to them about, I don't care what you're doing in life, where you're at, what your occupation is. As a man, don't ever let the perception be that you quit when things got tough or that you quit when adversity hits.
In life, as in football, adversity is guaranteed. At the bare minimum it should be that you fight. That was also the message at halftime because here in recent history, when we've been down like that at the half, it has snowballed. So, at halftime I'm like
"Hey, we talked about this last night. At the bare minimum, you need to go out there and fight."
They did, and my belief is that the team's willingness or ability to fight when things aren't going their way won't be in question. If it is, then I'm going to have a real problem.
Q. How does a short week work now, especially coming off a pretty emotional game and preparing for a formidable opponent in Oregon?
RYAN WALTERS: It means a lot of time not spent in the bedroom. You've just got to prepare a little bit faster. We'll practice tonight, Tuesday night, Wednesday night and Thursday night, which is actually a good thing because we play Friday night. We haven't been under the lights yet.
It just speeds up your process, and a little bit more hours on the front end of the week studying and game planning.
Q. What jumps off tape at you about Oregon?
RYAN WALTERS: Man, they are talented. Very, very talented. Big, physical, fast. At every position, they've got playmakers. Shoot, they're the No. 2 team in the country right now for a reason, right?
They just beat Ohio State at home in a close, competitive ballgame. I know Dan Lanning, he is a great coach and does things the right way. His guys are always competitive and tough and physical. It'll be a great match.
Q. What qualities do Ryan Browne and Hudson Card possess that make them essential leaders?
RYAN WALTERS: First and foremost they have belief in themselves. I think as a leader, if you don't believe in yourself it's hard to get people to follow.
They're also very intelligent individuals and have a plan and know how to get guys to execute that plan. They're also easy to talk to and just by their nature, people gravitate to them.
I think that's some of the main things that they have in common that make them good leaders.
Q. Are you having fun right now getting the chance to call the offense? When was the last time you really got to assert your own voice into an offense?
RYAN WALTERS: Obviously, that was my first time. I've never coached an offensive position, never spent any time on that side of the ball as a coach. So, definitely a different experience.
It was fun because the kids made it fun. Obviously, when they are having success and you sort of see some of the things that you thought would work, it's enjoyable because the guys are having fun.
Q. Oregon plays about as fast as you can play on both sides of the ball. What do you do to try to slow them down? Is it trying to control the clock as much as possible, in a perfect world?
RYAN WALTERS: There hasn't been anybody yet to figure that out, right? Obviously, the more possessions they have, the more opportunities they have to put points on the board. We'll have to be strategic offensively about wanting to play with pace, but also understanding that possessing the football is at a premium.
Then on defense, we've got to be able to get off the field and take advantage of opportunities on third down to do so.
Q. If Hudson Card is healthy and able to play, and so how are you going to handle the quarterback situation this week? Going to use both? Do you know who's going to start? Can you give us a heads up of what to expect there?
RYAN WALTERS: The answer to the first question, I'm not sure if Hudson will be available or not. Ryan Browne will start the game on Friday. I think just the way he played, it would be unfair not to.
We'll see about Hudson's availability moving forward.
Q. At what point last week did you decide you were going to call the offensive plays? Why did you ultimately make that decision?
RYAN WALTERS: I think it was like Thursday morning, at 2:30 in the morning. The week of the Wisconsin game I spent learning the vocab, learning the rules within the offense. I didn't feel comfortable calling it that game because I wouldn't be able to spit out plays fast enough.
I got to mid-week last week and felt like I had the vocab down enough to know what plays I want to get to. I just felt like me calling the game was going to give us the best opportunity to put points on the board. So, that's why I made the decision that I made.
Q. Are you going to continue to call the offense?
RYAN WALTERS: Yes.
Q. Can you talk about Jason Simmons' role now?
RYAN WALTERS: He's organizing and he's been awesome for me. The whole offensive staff has done a great job of being creative and bouncing ideas off each other. He'll put the script together for practice. Upstairs he gave me a lot of good insight on game day. That's kind of how we're operating right now.
Q. Could you have envisioned Ryan Browne playing like he did, especially in the second half?
RYAN WALTERS: He had a great week of practice. Really, the last two weeks he's practiced well. You always appreciate his energy and enthusiasm as a competitor.
He spent a lot of time in preparation this past week. So, the things we saw during the game is what we were seeing during practice. Obviously, you don't know what it's going to look like until you get in live situations.
Really, the first half I thought he played well as well. We just weren't making plays or our drives weren't getting extended. We had a holding call on an explosive run that would've got us in the red area. We had a dropped ball on a fade that I thought was thrown beautifully.
So, you take those two plays and maybe you get points on those two drives, and now you look at his game and he had a fantastic game.
I'm proud of the way he played, and it's because of the way he prepared. I'm looking forward to watching his growth and maturation this week.
Q. How would you compare calling offense to defense? Is it a different rhythm?
RYAN WALTERS: It's way different. Way, way different. It was fun. I enjoy feeling like you have an impact on the game. It was good to see the guys have fun with some of the new wrinkles that we threw in. Obviously, they're in the thick of it right, down to the wire to have the ball in your hands. That's what you want in a tight ballgame against a good opponent.
Obviously, disappointed that we lost. We would've loved to win that game for our guys. But, yeah, it was definitely a different experience.
Q. Regarding calling the offense compared to defense, are you saying intellectually it's different from a football standpoint?
RYAN WALTERS: Well, yeah. On defense you're sort of reacting and anticipating. On offense you know what the play is before the defense does. There is sort of a chess game. You try to present pictures and run plays that set up other plays. So, it is a different chess match there.
Q. When Jason Simmons was in here, he said there are plans for maybe playing Hudson Card and Ryan Browne together at some point. How distinct is a plan for each of them right now? Can they execute one game plan? Do you have to have different wrinkles for them?
RYAN WALTERS: I told both of them that this is the way we're going to play moving forward. So, they've both got to be able to execute that style of play. I think they both can and are athletic enough to do so. So, yeah, I'm excited about what that will look like.
Q. What would it mean for this defense to play with a lead, especially early in a game right now?
RYAN WALTERS: What would it mean, I don't know. We try to preach not looking at the scoreboard, not letting momentum swings sort of affect the way you play.
So, I would hope it wouldn't mean anything, right? If we can only play with a lead, that would not be good, so, we've just got to try to hold people to as less points as possible and try to score more than our opponent on offense.
Q. How badly does this team need to see some success in the first half so it can play with a lead?
RYAN WALTERS: Collectively as a team, it would do well just in terms of our morale if we were leading in the game. I would say that.
Q. Did you have any communication with the Big Ten about the fumble that Luke Altmyer did or didn't have in the last drive for them?
RYAN WALTERS: No, I'm still waiting on some feedback.
Q. Did you get a sense of the guys rallying around Ryan Browne leading up to Saturday?
RYAN WALTERS: Obviously, (if) your quarterback gets hurt and your backup is thrust into the starting role, the team is going to get behind whoever that individual is.
I do think Ryan exudes confidence and is vocal and a tough kid. He likes to go play. I do think that guys fed off of that energy a little bit, especially there in that mid-to-late third quarter, fourth quarter. It was fun to watch.
I think they were excited about the way he played, and ultimately if he played well, that means guys around him played well as well. Offensively they did a good job, especially in the second half.
Q. How much has Ryan Browne grown in terms of understanding the position from last year when he played against Northwestern to Saturday?
RYAN WALTERS: Well, Saturday he didn't make some of the boneheaded mistakes he made in the Northwestern game.
But I also wasn't his position coach a year ago and I didn't sit in the QB room and go through meetings. So, this is my first glimpse of what he is as a quarterback in terms of studying and preparing. Like I said, the last two weeks I've been impressed with both he and Hudson (Card) in the amount of time, detail that they spend in meetings and translating that to practice.
Q. What did you learn in terms of your team's ability and willingness to fight on Saturday?
RYAN WALTERS: We had talked all week about no matter what happens, you've got to go out there and fight for four quarters.
I'm watching ESPN on Friday before we played at dinner, and the commentator was going through the games of the week and he got to our game and said, you know, this will be an easy win for Illinois because Purdue has quit on the season.
So, that bothered me real bad. Not that we got picked to lose the game, but just that the perception out there is we've quit on the season.
I had a discussion with our team in our team meeting room that night. I had a different sort of speech/meeting prepared. I just talked to them about, I don't care what you're doing in life, where you're at, what your occupation is. As a man, don't ever let the perception be that you quit when things got tough or that you quit when adversity hits.
In life, as in football, adversity is guaranteed. At the bare minimum it should be that you fight. That was also the message at halftime because here in recent history, when we've been down like that at the half, it has snowballed. So, at halftime I'm like
"Hey, we talked about this last night. At the bare minimum, you need to go out there and fight."
They did, and my belief is that the team's willingness or ability to fight when things aren't going their way won't be in question. If it is, then I'm going to have a real problem.
Q. How does a short week work now, especially coming off a pretty emotional game and preparing for a formidable opponent in Oregon?
RYAN WALTERS: It means a lot of time not spent in the bedroom. You've just got to prepare a little bit faster. We'll practice tonight, Tuesday night, Wednesday night and Thursday night, which is actually a good thing because we play Friday night. We haven't been under the lights yet.
It just speeds up your process, and a little bit more hours on the front end of the week studying and game planning.
Q. What jumps off tape at you about Oregon?
RYAN WALTERS: Man, they are talented. Very, very talented. Big, physical, fast. At every position, they've got playmakers. Shoot, they're the No. 2 team in the country right now for a reason, right?
They just beat Ohio State at home in a close, competitive ballgame. I know Dan Lanning, he is a great coach and does things the right way. His guys are always competitive and tough and physical. It'll be a great match.
Q. What qualities do Ryan Browne and Hudson Card possess that make them essential leaders?
RYAN WALTERS: First and foremost they have belief in themselves. I think as a leader, if you don't believe in yourself it's hard to get people to follow.
They're also very intelligent individuals and have a plan and know how to get guys to execute that plan. They're also easy to talk to and just by their nature, people gravitate to them.
I think that's some of the main things that they have in common that make them good leaders.
Q. Are you having fun right now getting the chance to call the offense? When was the last time you really got to assert your own voice into an offense?
RYAN WALTERS: Obviously, that was my first time. I've never coached an offensive position, never spent any time on that side of the ball as a coach. So, definitely a different experience.
It was fun because the kids made it fun. Obviously, when they are having success and you sort of see some of the things that you thought would work, it's enjoyable because the guys are having fun.
Q. Oregon plays about as fast as you can play on both sides of the ball. What do you do to try to slow them down? Is it trying to control the clock as much as possible, in a perfect world?
RYAN WALTERS: There hasn't been anybody yet to figure that out, right? Obviously, the more possessions they have, the more opportunities they have to put points on the board. We'll have to be strategic offensively about wanting to play with pace, but also understanding that possessing the football is at a premium.
Then on defense, we've got to be able to get off the field and take advantage of opportunities on third down to do so.