Barry Odom and Ryan Walters will always be connected in the annals of Purdue football.

Odom would not have gotten the head coaching job with the Boilermakers had his predecessor Walters not flopped so severely in 2024, going 1-11 overall and winless in the Big Ten. Had the former coach muddled through enough to earn a third season in West Lafayette, Odom, a hot name in the 2024 coaching carousel, likely would have landed elsewhere.

But the fortunes of Odom and Walters have been interconnected for far longer than that, going back more than a decade at multiple stops. On Saturday, Purdue's past and its future will meet on the field at Husky Stadium in Seattle when the Boilermakers (2-8, 0-7 Big Ten) play Washington (6-3, 3-3), whose defense Walters now coordinates.

On Tuesday, as he prepa

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