I've said it before, and I'll say it again- I think I'd really like Joe Tiller if he was my neighbor. He seems like a principled man who believes in some of the same things I do...The judicial system, hard work and trying to stay true to what made you who you are.
That said, I reached a breaking point with him as the head coach of my alma mater a few years back. His teams that were noteworthy because of their never-say-die attitude had become seemingly complacent and looked like they lacked the fire to compete. He had built a program and seemed to be allowing in to crumble around him.
I've watched this with people I care greatly about- As you get older, it's difficult not to simply become wary of the grind...you wear down, you get fed up and your drive diminishes. What made you great as a professional no longer seems as important as it once did. I think that might have happened with the coach that righted ship at Purdue.
Sadly, I lumped Morgan Burke into the complacency equation and began to believe that he was good with good enough simply because he didn't say differently in public. Turns out, I was wrong about Purdue's AD. Mr. Burke, whose father used to live near my parents as I grew up, was kind of a buddy of my Dad. That didn't help my opinion of him as an athletic director. I was wrong about him...This is my apology. Mr. Burke, I'm sorry. I am positive the Purdue family and the the greater Big Ten community is going to judge you very well as a time passes.
If you have any question about Mr. Burke's handling of Tiller as a coach, take a few moments and read this article.
Perhaps a statue of the noble Morgan Burke might one day stand along side The Boilermaker statue outside of Ross-Ade Stadium?