Feature image from Canes Warning

Who is he?

Josh Gattis is a long-time wide receivers coach who’s steadily moved up the ladder: WRs at Western Michigan, WRs and recruiting coordinator at Vanderbilt, that plus passing game responsibilities at Penn State, WRs and co-OC at Alabama, WRs and OC at Michigan, and now WRs and OC at Miami (no, not the one going to a bowl; the other one).

After getting the Penn State passing attack into action after the penalties from That Thing expired (from 85th in SP+ in his first year to 25th in 2016), he was hired at Alabama to keep the Tide passing attack rolling. While they dropped from 3rd to 13th, that was still enough to get them to the championship game, but not enough for Alabama to repeat. He was promptly picked up by Michigan to dig the Wolverines out of a hole, relatively speaking; unfortunately 2019 was also the year that Bill Connelly went from Football Outsiders to Bristol and traded in nice, neat, detailed tables for a paywall and maybe half the info that was publicly available beforehand.

The Michigan offense was pretty good when he got there; setting aside 2020 for many reasons, it’s probably enough just to note that in 2021 things went a lot better, well enough that Gattis got the Broyles Award for being the top assistant in I-A football. Ordinarily, that plus Michigan’s first-ever playoff appearance would have been a launching pad.

Instead, Jim Harbaugh’s flirtation with the NFL - to the point where he nearly signed a deal with the Vikings - plus the way that Michigan was reportedly going to handle his succession led Gattis to flee for warmer pastures.

You may have noticed that Miami’s offense this year was bad, and that in fact Miami’s performance overall this year was bad. Having four head coaches in eight seasons can contribute to that. It’s difficult to say at this point how much Gattis is helping or hurting; another year or two under Mario Cristobal might tell a different story.

Why would he be successful at Purdue?

If he is able to install the kind of offense at Purdue that he had at Penn State, Alabama, and Michigan, it could easily cover defensive shortcomings, should they be around for his first year or two. He’s coached and recruited at schools in the Midwest(ish) and at Big Tenteen schools, both elite and non-elite schools, so while he may not be familiar with Purdue’s exact situation (trust me, Vanderbilt is much worse off), he won’t be coming to it cold. Uh, other than from moving that far north.

Why could he flop at Purdue?

Weeeelllll … what do Penn State, Alabama and Michigan have that Purdue does not, besides the letter A? Yeah. As we’ve seen at Purdue under Tiller and Brohm, dynamic offenses need talent that is comparable to their opposition, or they need schemes that can make up the difference. Gattis has (mostly) shown that he can take solid recruits and make a solid offense out of them; he hasn’t shown that he can do that with the type of player he’d most likely have in West Lafayette.

It’s entirely possible that Miami is the template for his Purdue tenure: recruiting classes mean a bit less in the portal era than they did before, but Miami’s class was ranked 31st last year by Rivals, three spots ahead of a certain Old Gold and Black school. The folks who stayed from the previous classes are likely better as a group than the folks he’ll have at Purdue. If he couldn’t put together a tolerable offense in a state that is teeming with offensive talent, how could he manage up here?

Also, even if he does get the offense down, there’s a very long list of coordinators who became head coaches and only really managed to get one side of the ball right. Does he have a DC in mind who could work with the talent that’s here? If the scheme is different, can the DC get the scheme in place quickly enough to get results? Would Gattis’ first year or two produce enough offense to make up for that transition?

Would he come to Purdue?

Highly unlikely. The time for Purdue to get a guy like this was either before or during his Penn State days; a guy with Alabama and Michigan on his resume is either headed up farther than Bobinski’s budget can reach or headed down where Purdue would be better served not to ask. And even if he were inclined to take a power-conference HC job, this one might be a career-killer for him if it goes poorly - a good stint in West Lafayette could erase his one-year struggle in Miami and get people to think mostly about his stops beforehand, but a struggle at Purdue could make people question exactly how involved he was in Michigan’s offense - again, you may have noticed it’s working just fine this year without Gattis - and point out that he had a single year at Alabama, so what has he really done anyway?

I think Gattis is much more likely to either look for a better OC opening or stick it out at Miami and try to fix things there. If nothing else, struggling in Miami is a lot warmer, and if the ‘Canes ever make it back to a bowl, odds are good it’ll be in home territory, if not on home turf.