WEST LAFAYETTE — For the first time in his head coaching career, Purdue football's Ryan Walters faced a not uncommon paradox.

Walters said he loved offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. Believes he is a good football coach. But the Boilermakers' results over their first 16 games — especially the past three — forced his hand to make a change.

Walters fired Harrell on Sunday afternoon. He promoted offensive analyst Jason Simmons, a state championship-winning head coach at Ben Davis in only his second season at the college level, to interim offensive coordinator. He will call the plays Saturday at Wisconsin.

"I believe that we have a better team than we have been showing the last three weeks," Walters said. "There's a lot of football still to be played. We've played a quarter of the games. I feel like if I didn't do anything right now, it would be kind of like waving a white flag on the on the season — and nobody in that building is ready to do that.

"If a change was going to be made in December, it just didn't feel like it would be fair to draw that out for everyone involved. So after careful consideration and a lot of thought process and a lot of evaluation, I felt like it was best for the program, best for our team, to give us a chance to go be who I believe we have the potential to be, was to make the very tough decision right now."

Based on games agianst FBS opponents, Purdue ranks at or near the bottom of all Power 4 programs in numerous crucial offensive measurements, including points per game, first downs, yards per play and red zone frequency and success.

Similarly, numerous factors triggered Walters' mid-season action.

"Obviously you want to be able to sustain drives and put points on the board," Walters said. "I think Hudson Card is a talented quarterback, and he hasn't looked like himself. We're not as explosive as I think we can be. I think we're doing a good job running the football, but it's been hard to find easy throws and getting people in advantageous situations depending on coverage and the shell defensively that's being presented.

"And we haven't played complementary football."

That last factor showed up clearly over the past two games, losses to Oregon State and Nebraska. On Saturday, Purdue's defense shut Nebraska out until late in the third quarter, but the best the offense could do was take a brief 3-0 lead.

Walters said some "big name, big resume" people who currently are not on coaching staffs have reached out about possibly joining the staff in some capacity. He said he "vetted a couple of people" and did not rule out making additions.

However, he also said he wasn't sure about bringing someone in mid-season who does not know the roster and system.

Decisions about a permanent offensive coordinator will me made after the season.

"I'll get there when we get there," Walters said. "Right now, we're focused on trying to put the best plan — offense, defense, special teams — together to go win a ball game against a team that this program hasn't beaten in a long time."

Follow IndyStar Purdue Insider Nathan Baird on X at @nwbaird.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Purdue football coach Ryan Walters fired offensive coordinator now