Purdue Fires Former West Virginia OC Graham Harrell

A former WVU coach is back on the open market. Purdue has fired offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, as first reported by Brett McMurphy of the Action Network on Sunday.

Purdue head coach Ryan Walters released a statement about the decision to move on from Harrell.

“Decisions like this are never easy. After evaluating our start to the season, I felt that it was best for our team to make a change now. We are appreciative of Graham’s contributions to our program and wish him the best going forward,” he said.

This move comes as Purdue has lost three straight and sits at 1-4 on the season. The Purdue offense has generated more than 10 points only twice in games this season, but one of those times was against an FCS program.

Harrell, who joined the Boilmakers after a tough lone season at WVU in 2022, was in the second year of a three-year contract. Purdue will still owe him the rest of his $950,000 salary for this season and $1,000,000 for his next year to finish the contract.

Prior to coming to Morgantown, Harrell spent three seasons as offensive coordinator at USC. Harrell has also served as OC at North Texas, which caused speculation he could take over as head coach of the Mean Green, outside wide receivers coach at Washington State and an offensive quality control assistant with Oklahoma State.

Before his coaching career, he played quarterback at Texas Tech under the late Mike Leach and then carried his “Air Raid” offensive style with him as a coach, although Harrell has argued he runs more of a balanced attack.