<p>Don’t think the right coaching staff makes a difference?</p>
<p>Take a few minutes to survey the latest college football rankings according to Rivals.com. Five-star magnet Alabama leads the way with Texas A&M second, Clemson third and so on with the usual programs falling into place — until No. 17.</p>
<p>There sits Purdue, standing out like a lump of coal in a snow drift.</p>
<p>Boilermakers head coach Jeff Brohm, hired 18 months ago to take a mop and bucket to the mess created by his predecessors, is, in fact, cleaning up.</p>
<p>Brohm has convinced three four-star players from the Class of 2019 to verbally commit to a program that was a dreadful 31-67 in the eight seasons leading up to his arrival in West Lafayette.</p>
<p>Purdue lost home games to perennial juggernauts Northern Illinois (twice), Cincinnati, Bowling Green and Central Michigan during what were some of the bleakest Saturday afternoons in program history.</p>
<p>Take it from someone who grew up 40 miles east of Ross-Ade Stadium and was subject to the program’s various ebbs and flows from the mid-1970s to the Drew Brees era. I never did make it to a Purdue home game during the Darrell Hazell era, which hardly made me a trend-setter.</p>
<p>Thousands of others had the same idea.</p>
<p>Purdue football took a step back after Joe Tiller retired following the 2008 season. Danny Hope tried to maintain the momentum, but failed and was fired. Hazell proceeded to pull a Thelma and Louise by driving the entire operation off a cliff.</p>
<p>Enter Brohm, the intense former Western Kentucky coach who apparently isn’t a fan of five-year plans.</p>
<p>The coach’s reputation for throwing the football combined with proven, tireless assistant coaches and impressive new facilities gives Boilers fans reasons to be excited for the first time in nearly a decade.</p>
<p>Brohm’s first squad, comprised primarily of Hazell recruits, finished 7-6, losing four games by eight points or less. The program won its first bowl game in six years and entered winter workouts with a most essential asset — momentum.</p>
<p>Purdue, which recently climbed as high as 14th in the national recruiting rankings, will sign its best recruiting class in years. Considering the Boilermakers’ last three pre-Brohm classes were 68th, 73rd and 68th nationally, there was only one direction to go.</p>
<p>At Indiana, second-year coach Tom Allen has the Hoosiers’ next recruiting class ranked No. 45, according to Rivals.com. However, this is based on the verbal commitments of only 11 players. Allen’s class, led by Carmel four-star defensive end Beau Robbins, still has time to move up.</p>
<p>This would be a feat for the Hoosiers, which have made impressive recruiting strides of their own in recent years. IU’s incoming classes were rated as high as 38th-best for two years running (2013-14) after bottoming out in 2007 with a No. 97 ranking.</p>
<p>Thanks to Brohm and Allen, Old Oaken Bucket games look to be something pretty special in the years ahead — at least on paper.</p>
