Scott Downing insists his former Wyoming and Purdue boss Joe Tiller is doing Northern Colorado a favor by scheduling the Bears for Saturday’s season opener.
Check back on who did whom the favor after the scoreboard closes down. Downing looks at this opener, as well as next year’s at Kansas, the same way he viewed last season’s debut at Hawaii.
“It’s certainly a bigger payday and that helps the whole program,” Downing said. “It gives our guys a chance to measure themselves against a really strong opponent, play at a bigger venue in front of a big crowd.”
The bottom line is getting ready for UNC’s third Big Sky campaign.
Meanwhile, the Bears are Act I on Tiller’s Farewell Tour in his 12th season at Purdue.
Only Joe Paterno has more wins among active Big Ten coaches. Tiller plans to take up full-time residence a year from now in the vacation home he started building in Buffalo, Wyo., when he coached the Cowboys (1991-96).
Tiller, who went 39-30-1 at Wyoming including 10-2 in 1996, dragged Purdue up from the Big Ten’s lower regions, introduced a wide-open passing attack to the ground-driven conference, went to 10 bowls and placed two starting quarterbacks in the NFL. A third, fifth-year senior Casey Painter, might soon join Drew Brees and Kyle Orton.
Purdue helped establish the model for an orderly coaching transition from basketball coaches Gene Keady to Matt Painter.
When Tiller announced his impending retirement this past winter, Danny Hope came back from Eastern Kentucky to spend a year at Tiller’s side before taking over next season. Hope was on Tiller’s 1996 staff in Laramie and moved with him to Purdue.
Tiller was close to fired Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick long before their Border War rivalry, and they are closer now.
“It’s unfortunate what happened in Fort Collins,” Tiller said. “We’re fortunate here because I knew in advance when I would stop coaching. I discussed it with the athletic director, and there’s been a long line of communication.”
Tiller is the rare coach who isn’t concerned about political correctness. The NCAA has promoted new labels of Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision. Tiller said he thought the new name was subterranean bowl division and still calls it I-AA. He checks on coach- speak, polling the media, “Is fluidity a word?”
He’s all football now.
“This is my 44th year in coaching, and that’s quite a chunk out of one’s lifetime,” Tiller said. “I’m thinking football, I’m not thinking about the end of coaching. Maybe toward the end of the season I’ll be a little more emotional running out there.”
