Purdue Football Officially Announces Graham Harrell, Kevin Kane as Coordinators
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue football and new head coach Ryan Walters announced their first hires for next year's coaching staff on Tuesday. Graham Harrell has been named the team's offensive coordinator and Kevin Kane will serve as the defensive coordinator.
Harrell spent the last seven seasons as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, including last year with West Virginia. He is a former Heisman Trophy finalist as the starting quarterback at Texas Tech and spent five years as a professional in the Canadian Football League and the National Football League.
"I played against Graham and always respected his knowledge and the way he approaches the game of football," Walters said in a release. "When I got into this profession, I really kept an eye on his career. He is very innovative in the passing game and gets creative with the run game. We are looking forward to him leading our offense here at Purdue."
Last season, the Mountaineers scored 30.6 points per game while averaging 227.5 yards passing and 171.5 yards rushing per contest. In Harrell's three years at USC, the Trojans elevated their passing offense to be among the nation's best. When he took over playcalling in 2019, they set program records for total passing yards (4,365), completion percentage (71.0%), completions (365) and attempts (514).
Before joining the Boilermakers, Harrell's offense was No. 17 in the country with an average of 298.3 yards passing per game while ranking No. 24 in total offense, amassing 443.9 yards.
Prior to his three-year stint at USC, Harrell helped the North Texas offense rank in the top 25 nationally in back-to-back seasons.
Harrell played at Texas Tech from 2004 to 2008 before going undrafted. He had a short stay with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL before spending time with the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets in the NFL.
As for Kane, he played for Kansas from 2002 to 2005 before joining the Jayhawks as a student assistant. For the last 12 years, he's been on the sidelines as either a position coach or defensive coordinator.
Kane was the assistant head coach and outside linebackers coach for the last two years at Illinois, working closely with Walters while he was the defensive coordinator for the Fighting Illini.
"I was very excited about the ability to attract Coach Kane to Purdue University," Walters said. "I got to see, first-hand, his football IQ and ability to connect and develop young men. His position group steadily improved throughout the two years we were together at Illinois. He has been a coordinator at two previous stops, and he is ready to lead an entire unit in the Big Ten."
Before his two seasons with Illinois, Kane was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at SMU for three years. He joined the staff in 2018 and helped the Mustangs lead the country with 3.92 sacks while also recording 8.5 tackles per game.
Ahead of his move to SMU, Kane was in his second stint with Northern Illinois between 2016 and 2017, serving as the team's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. From 2011 to 2014, he spent time coaching tight ends, fullbacks, linebackers and special teams.
In 2017, they ranked 26th in the nation in total defense and led the nation with 8.8 tackles for loss and were second with 3.31 sacks. Northern Illinois ranked seventh nationally in yards per play allowed at just 4.52, trailing only Alabama, Clemson, Wisconsin, Washington, Ohio State and Michigan.
Kane spend one season with his alma mater as the linebackers coach, which came between his stints with the Huskies. Following his year as a student assistant with the Jayhawks, he also worked as a graduate assistant and defensive quality control coach at Wisconsin.
With both his offensive and defensive coordinators on board at Purdue, Walters will continue to appoint assistant coaches to his staff ahead of the 2023 college football season.
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.