IOWA CITY, IOWA — With each week, realization is setting in.
Only now is Purdue football head coach Barry Odom able to absorb a situation he refused to let himself believe was possible.
After No. 15 Iowa’s 28-7 victory over the Boilermakers at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 14, it’s more probable than not that Purdue ends the season with six consecutive losses. It’s a stunning decline after consecutive wins over Illinois and Minnesota, in a blowout no less, had Purdue sitting at 3-3 at the midway point.
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Now, the Boilermakers are staring at its final two games of the 2026 season.
“I know that we’ve got a coaching staff that is determined to work and pour everything that we’ve got into it,” Odom said. “I know that I’ve got a locker room full of 80 guys that traveled. I don’t doubt their fight at all.
“So, the generalities of fix it, that is pretty wide ranging. If we’re just going on wins and losses is what ‘fix it’ is, I don’t know what that reality looks like. But the reality of pouring every single thing into it to continue to move the program forward, we absolutely will do.”
Travel issues and defensive changes
Nationwide flight delays and cancellations caused a strategic swerve in Purdue’s preparation for Saturday night.
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It’s not an excuse. Purdue didn’t make it one, either. It just was the circumstance the Boilermakers were dealt, boarding four buses for a six-hour route from West Lafayette to Iowa City, arriving late Friday night and having to alter the Saturday schedule leading into arriving at Kinnick Stadium.
This comes five days after Purdue made some tweaks to its defense.
Kevin Kane was fired last Sunday nine games into his second stint as Purdue’s defensive coordinator. Dave Steckel, who has coached college football for 37 years, was elevated from senior defensive analyst to Purdue’s defensive play caller at Iowa, though Barry Odom said he also did some of the play calling.
More: Purdue football’s Tra’Mar Harris turns tragedy into breakout success story
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Until this season, Steckel been out of it since 2019, the last of his five seasons as Missouri State head coach. Steckel was 13-42 as a head coach. He made a brief return to coaching in 2023 to coach linebackers for the XFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks.
“The defense did change a little bit,” defensive end Keyshawn Burgos said. “I think everybody really poured into it.”
Odom claimed there was defensive progress following Saturday’s setback. There were also a few reminders that maybe this whole defensively-flawed team wasn’t solely Kane’s fault.
Two specific plays, a 44-yard screen play touchdown where Braeden Jackson caught it on the right sideline, reversed field and scored a touchdown just before halftime, looked eerily similar to Maryland’s Chris Durr Jr.’s 87-yard score just seven days earlier against Purdue. Xavier Williams’ 48-yard touchdown run early in the second half resembled DeJuan Williams’ 75-yard score for Maryland a week earlier.
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Those plays by Maryland, and an accumulation of many more before them, cost Kane his job.
Now Purdue just has to sit in this one, seeing the same issues arise.
Not just defensively, but offensively, too.
Nov 14, 2026; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Purdue Boilermakers quarterback Ryan Browne (15) rolls out against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the first quarter at Kinnick Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
An offensive strategy backfires
In the first quarter, Evans Chuba relieved Ryan Browne at quarterback.
Why?
Well, that was the plan all along, of course.
Purdue had plotted that Chuba, a backup quarterback whose only snaps have come late in blowouts, would be utilized in some short yardage situations. On a third-and-2 late in the first quarter from Purdue’s 18, Chuba gained just one yard.
The clock ticked as Odom and offensive coordinator Josh Henson pondered seeing if Chuba could gain at least one more yard on fourth down that would extend the drive. It was all part of a plan Purdue had to try to shorten the game against a heavy favorite.
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Instead, Purdue elected to punt rather than risk turning the ball over on downs in an almost no-win situation for the Boilermaker defense.
More: Report card grades say Purdue football is a massive failure at Iowa
Instead, it was Iowa who was able to establish a ground game and chew clock, shortening a game that suddenly hurt Purdue.
The Boilermakers rushed for just 99 yards on 28 carries and possessed the ball for less than 25 minutes.
“All I can say is we’ve got to lock into the small details for this next game,” Purdue QB Ryan Browne said. “And it’s all things that we know we can do and it’s things that we do, but we have to do it more consistently.”
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How does Purdue correct its current downward trend?
Odom is a determined coach who pours most everything he has into his football program.
He’s a firm believer that by outworking the opposition, you’re getting a leg up.
The strides made over nearly two full seasons isn’t proving Odom’s theory.
Purdue has five wins in 22 games under Odom. Only Wisconsin and Indiana remain on the schedule.
Odom will continue to work tirelessly. It’s who he is and the only way he knows how to operate.
Now, the stomach punch is that it might not matter in the wins column. Odom doesn’t strictly gauge success on wins and losses, but, since we’re dealing in reality postgame in Iowa City, that’s what the rest of the world uses as a barometer.
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Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Barry Odom faces harsh reality as Purdue football’s losing streak continues
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