The Boilers have hired a new WR coach to replace the departed Coach Rock. Patrick Higgins comes to the Boilermakers from BYU, where he had coached since 2005.

Higgins will be the new WR coach and will also "work alongside Boilers special-teams coordinator J.B. Gibboney" as well as help with the kicking game, as per ESPN. Higgins was a special teams coordinator (as well as receivers coach) at BYU so perhaps this is a strategic hire to ensure that if and when Gibboney's time is done at Purdue, they have someone set to step in to replace him.

Or perhaps it's partly meant to light a fire under Gibboney so that he feels the urgency and coaches for his job. Or perhaps I'm just making things up.

It's hard to say yet what kind of hire this is, but the good thing is that Higgins has over two decades of coaching experience. However, he's also another old friend of Danny Hope's. We've lamented a few times how overly loyal Coach Hope seems to be to his coaches, arguably to a fault. This could simply be more of the same. Of course, if Keith Smith comes back completely healthy, this could look genius.

Just over seven months to kickoff.