PURDUE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 14, 2024

Ryan Walters

Press Conference

Q. ...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. You know, 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. Take us back. At what point last week did you decide, hey, I'm going to call this offense? Why did you make that decision ultimately?

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, 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.

Got to mid-week last week and felt like I had the vocab down enough to know what play I want to get to, so I just felt like me calling the game was going to give us the best opportunity to put points on the board.

That's why I made the decision I made.

Q. You're going to continue to call the offense?

RYAN WALTERS: Yes.

Q. Just talk about Jason Simmons' role now.

RYAN WALTERS: He's been organizing. The whole offensive staff has done a great job of being creative and bounces ideas off each other, and then 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 know, you always appreciate like 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. Just we weren't making plays or drives weren't getting extended. We had a holding call on an explosive run that would've got us in the red area. Had a drop ball on the 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 this game and you had a fantastic game.

So proud of the way he played. It's because of the way he prepared, and 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? Different...

RYAN WALTERS: It's way different. Way, way different. It was fun. I enjoy feeling like you have an impact on the game. You know, 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 you have the ball in your hands. That's what you want in a tight ballgame against a good opponent.

So obviously disappointed that we lost. Would've loved to win that game for our guys. But, yeah, it was definitely a different experience.

Q. Intellectually it's different from a football standpoint?

RYAN WALTERS: Well, yeah. Like 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 was in here he said there is plans for maybe playing Hudson and Ryan together at some point, you will have plans for both of them to play. 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 them this is the way we're going to play moving forward. They 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: You know, 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, you know, we just got to try to hold people to as less points as possible and try to score more than our opponent on offense.

Q. I guess the other way to ask that is for the most part you have played from behind for not just this season, but going back to last season. How bad does this team I guess need to see some of the success you're having in the first half reach fruition instead of having some stumble along the way?

RYAN WALTERS: Yeah, 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 Big10 about the fumble that 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 leading up to Saturday?

RYAN WALTERS: You know, obviously like 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, he exudes confidence and is vocal and a tough kid. He likes to go play. I do think that guys fed off that, especially there that mid-to-late third quarter, fourth quarter. It was fun to watch.

So 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.

Just offensively they did a good job, especially in the second half.

Q. How much has he 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 the bonehead mistakes he made in the Northwestern game. Also I 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 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: You know, we had talked all week about like no matter what happens, you got to go out there and fight for four quarters. You know, I'm watching ESPN on, what was that, Friday before we played at dinner.

You know, the commentator was going through the games of the week and got to our game and said, you know, this will be an easy win for Illinois because Purdue has quit on the season.

So like that bothered me real bad. Not that we got picked to lose the game, but just that the perception is we've quit on the season.

Had a discussion with our team in our team meeting that night. Had a different sort of speech/meeting prepared. Talked to them, I don't care what you're doing in life, where you're at, what your occupation is. Like as a man, like 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, you know what I mean? So that was also the message at halftime. You know, because here in the 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 pretty formidable opponent in Oregon?

RYAN WALTERS: Yeah, means a lot of time not spent in the bedroom. You know, you just got to prepare a little bit faster. We'll practice tonight and Tuesday night and Wednesday night and Thursday night, which is actually a good thing because we play Friday night.

Haven't been under the lights yet, so 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: They are talented. Very, very talented. Big, physical, fast. At every position they 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. Dan Lanning is a great coach and does things the right way. His guys are always competitive and tough and physical. Be a great match.

Q. Coach, what qualities do Ryan and Hudson possess that make them essential leaders?

RYAN WALTERS: What quality? You know, 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, right?

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 chance to call the offense? When was the last time you really got to assert your own voice into an offense?

RYAN WALTERS: Yeah, I mean, obviously that was my first time, right? I've never coached an offensive position. Never spent any time on that side of the ball as a coach.

And so definitely different experience. You know, but 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, like that is -- 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: Yeah, 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, so we'll have to be strategic offensively about wanting to play with pace but also understanding that possessing the football is at premium.

You know, then on defense, we got to be able to get off the field and take advantage of the opportunities on third down to do so.