Everything Purdue coach Ryan Walters said after loss to Fresno State

The Purdue Boilermakers entered Saturday’s season opener against Fresno State as slight 3.5 point favorites but inefficiency in key moments on offense and a lackluster effort from the Boilermakers’ defense led to a 39-35 loss in the debut for Ryan Walters as head coach.

In his first year as a FBS head coach, Walters met with the media after the game to address what went wrong for the Boilermakers.

“We got a lot to work on I thought through the entirety of the game we played hard, we played physical,” Walters said. “We just have to clean up technique. We can’t make mistakes in opportune moments when we have momentum swings during a game. We got to play complementary football, and I gotta be better, the staff has to be better in putting them in positions to be successful.”

Hudson Card — who transferred to Purdue from Texas last December — had a decent outing completing 17-of-30 passes for 254 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Walters was asked specifically about Card’s performance, and while he was complimentary, he made a point to note the 3rd down struggles. Purdue converted just 2 of its 12 3rd down attempts.

“I thought he played well, he gave us a chance to win the game,” Walters said. “I wish we would have done a little bit better on third downs, I’lll have to go back and watch the tape, but we were clean with the football, didn’t turn it over, made a couple nice throws there, so we will see after we watch the tape.”

Walters, who was regarded as one of the brightest young defensive minds when he was hired by Purdue from Illinois where he was the defensive coordinator, was asked about the Boilermakers’ struggles to stop Fresno State. The Bulldogs racked up 487 yards of total offense and held the ball for (36:22) minutes, winning time of possession.

“I felt like we played a little too passive at times, and as the game went on, were pressing to make plays. Going 11-of-17 on third downs it is hard to play good defense when you are extending drives. So we gotta come up with a better plan, play with better technique and make better plays.”

He expanded on the defensive breakdowns.

“When we weren’t aggressive and weren’t dialed in and doing our jobs there were breakdowns that led to giving up big plays and points. But that’s usually what happens, a guy was missing something here, or didn’t make the right read there, or just isn’t confident in technique. So we will go back to the drawing board and fix what we need to. Like I said earlier, this is just one game, with a new staff, new faces in the building, new schemes, and it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to but our confidence isn’t shook.”

Ryan Walters shares message to team after loss

“My message to the guys in the locker room was this is obviously disappointing to start out with a loss,” Walters said. “But we have talked about how adversity is guaranteed and it’s about how we react. We didn’t expect adversity to hit us in the mouth in game 1, but we will get better from game 1 to game 2 and as the season goes on. We will also find out what we are really good at and where we really need to improve but we aren’t going to let 1 game define us. My confidence hasn’t been shaken in this group, this staff or this locker room. It’s a long season, and luckily for us we got a game in a week.”

The Purdue head coach was asked about the decision to go for it on 4th down, which the Boilermakers attempted 4 times and converted just 2.

“Those are my calls. We want to be aggressive on offense, defense and special teams. We gotta make those. We have it get a half a yard if we need it,” he said.

He also blamed himself for the offensive lag before halftime that led to Fresno State connecting on a long field goal and grab the momentum heading into the third quarter.

“As a staff, we fumbled that opportunity going into halftime,” the Purdue coach admitted. “When you go into 2-minute mode you either have to move the chains and go score, or milk the clock and not give the opponent another opportunity. And we failed at that. That’s on me as the head coach and it needs to be fixed.”

Finally, Walters was asked about the decisions he had to make as a college head coach and if he was comfortable in his new role.

“I felt comfortable with them. I will go back and evaluate some of the decisions I made and the decisions to go for it on fourth down. So I will self-evaluate as well.”

Sean Labar