Report: Purdue TE Coach Ryan Wallace Following Jeff Brohm to Louisville
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A sixth member of Jeff Brohm's former assistant coaching staff at Purdue is opting to follow him to his new head coaching job at Louisville.
Tight ends coach Ryan Wallace has left the Boilermakers to join the Cardinals in the same role, according to On3's Tom Dienhart.
Wallace joins co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Ron English, wide receivers coach Garrick McGee, running backs coach Chris Barclay, all three of whom have already made the transition from Purdue to Louisville.
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm is remaining with the Boilermakers through their upcoming Citrus Bowl vs. LSU, according to his older brother, Jeff. Co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Mark Hagen is doing the same, Dienhart reported earlier this week.
Wallace was with Brohm through every one of his six years as the head coach at Purdue. He spent his first two years as an offensive/special teams quality control coach, then was an offensive and special team assistant in 2021 before being promoted to tight ends coach this past offseason.
During Wallace's lone season in this role at Purdue, tight end Payne Durham put together this best season of his career. The redshirt senior caught 56 passes for 560 yards and eight touchdowns, all of which were second on the team only to Second-Team All-American wide receiver Charlie Jones.
Before joining Brohm's staff at Purdue, Wallace spent the 2016 season as the tight ends coach at Austin Peay. Despite finishing the year at 0-11, the Governors broke the school game record for total offense multiple times.
Wallace's coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Western Kentucky, working with the offensive line in 2013 and the tight ends from 2014 to 2015 while Jeff Brohm was their head coach. Tyler Higbee was tabbed as a First-Team All-Conference-USA tight end in 2015 under Wallace's guidance, and was later picked by the St. Louis Rams in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Since Scott Satterfield opted to leave Louisville for the head coaching position at Cincinnati last week, seven of his 10 assistant position coaches have departed the Cardinals. Defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, quarterbacks coach Pete Thomas, offensive line coach Nic Cardwell, inside linebackers coach Derek Nicholson and running backs coach De'Rail Sims all decided to follow Satterfield up I-71 and join the Bearcats.
Co-defensive coordinator/secondary coach Wesley McGriff left for Auburn and offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach is left to become the head coach at Western Michigan.
The only position assistants left for Louisville for their upcoming bowl are tight ends coach Josh Stepp, defensive line coach Mark Ivey and outside linebackers coach Greg Gasparato. Director of Player Personnel Deion Branch is serving as their interim head coach.
The Cardinals finished the regular season at 7-5, and 4-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Louisville, ironically, will face Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 11:00 a.m. EST.
(Photo of Ryan Wallace: Nikos Frazier / Journal & Courier via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
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