Purdue turned Homecoming into an outright embarrassment. A humiliating 34-29 loss to a Maryland team that hadn’t won a Big Ten game all season was the final straw. Less than 24 hours later, the Boilermakers fired defensive coordinator Kevin Kane, just nine games into his second stint.
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With Purdue sitting at 3-6 and its bowl hopes collapsing, Barry Odom’s second season is looking like a repeat of his disastrous first, thanks to a defense that surrendered 27 second-half points, including three touchdowns of at least 40 yards.
Odom made the call, and the school announced it on Sunday, effective immediately. According to Chris Vannini on X, Purdue ranks 123rd in total defense and 124th in scoring defense, allowing 32.3 points and 415.4 yards a game. Purdue’s opponents converted 47.5% of third downs, the worst rate in the Big Ten, and no team in the league has given up more plays of 20-plus yards.
Matt Fortuna’s post on X tracked Big Ten coordinator departures this year, listing six names, and Kane is one of the recent names to be added: Illinois DC Bobby Hauck, Maryland DC Ted Monachino, Oregon OC Drew Mehringer, Nebraska OC Dana Holgorsen, Kane, and Michigan OC Jason Beck. Holgorsen went Saturday, and Beck went the same Sunday as Kane. That’s six in one league, and it’s only November.
Saturday was a game Purdue should have controlled. The Boilermakers led 12-7 at the half, then watched Maryland score 27 after the break, including a 75-yard run and an 87-yard catch-and-run. The win snapped a 13-game Big Ten losing streak for the Terrapins. For Purdue, it’s three straight losses to Washington, Penn State, and Maryland, and the defense gave up 31 or more in every one of them.
Purdue went 2-10 last year and lost every Big Ten game for the second straight season. This year, it opened with a win over Indiana State, then lost to Wake Forest in overtime, UCLA, and Notre Dame, 49-10.
In October, the Boilermakers beat Illinois to end a 19-game conference losing streak, then took down Minnesota on October 10. Both opponents were held under 20 points. Now, they have to win out against Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana just to reach six wins.
Kane ran Purdue’s defense under Ryan Walters in 2023 and 2024. In his final season, the Boilermakers surrendered 39.9 points per game, ranking 131st out of 134 FBS teams. That staff was cleared out after a 1-11 season that included 66-7 and 66-0 losses to Notre Dame and Indiana.
Kane spent 2025 at Minnesota coaching nickels and outside linebackers. Odom brought him back in December after Mike Scherer left for UNLV. Fans pushed back right away, and then-athletic director Mike Bobinski said, “The proof will ultimately be in the results.”
“You can’t play as good as we did early on defense, and then all of a sudden you give up four explosive plays, really for touchdowns,” Odom said. “You’ll never win games doing that.”
Odom hasn’t named a replacement, though he has called defenses at past stops, and analyst Dave Steckel has coordinator experience. Kane is owed $141,667 for the rest of 2026 and $1 million for 2027, with no offset if he lands another job. Purdue is also headed for its third defensive coordinator in three years under Odom.
For Purdue, firing Kane stops the bleeding on the sideline, but it doesn’t fix a defense Odom helped build.
Odom is next to answer
Odom wasn’t made available Sunday, and he’s set to speak at his weekly press conference Monday. After the Maryland loss, he sounded more frustrated than usual and wouldn’t discuss staff moves. The message then was that the blame went all the way up.
“I’ve never been one to comment a lot on that publicly,” Odom said, according to Michael Marot of the Associated Press. “Whatever we have done, it hasn’t resulted in as quick a result as we have all wanted. How do we fix that? I do think we have good coaches. I think we’ve got guys that are working really hard. But, right now, when we play the way we did, not near consistent enough to play winning ball, I expect more. I know everybody else does, too.”
Purdue plays at Iowa on November 14 in a primetime game, then closes against Wisconsin and Indiana. Whoever calls the defense has a week to get ready. Whether Odom gets a third year may depend on how those three games go.