Report: Purdue TE Coach Ryan Wallace Following Jeff Brohm to Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A sixth member of Jeff Brohm’s former assistant coaching staff at Purdue has chosen to follow him to his new head coaching job in Louisville.

Tight ends coach Ryan Wallace has left the Boilermakers to join the Cardinals in the same role. according to On3’s Tom Dienhart.

Wallace joins co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Ron English, wide receivers coach Garrick McGee and running backs coach Chris Barclay, all three of whom have already moved to Louisville from Purdue.

Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm is staying with the Boilermakers during the upcoming Citrus Bowl vs. LSU, according to his older brother Jeff. Co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Mark Hagen is doing the same, Dienhart reported earlier this week.

Wallace has been with Brohm for each of his six years as a head coach at Purdue. He spent his first two years as an offensive/specialty team quality control coach, then was an offensive/specialty team assistant in 2021 before being promoted to tight ends coach last offseason.

During Wallace’s only season in that role at Purdue, tight end Payne Durham put together the best season of his career. The redshirt senior caught 56 passes for 560 yards and eight touchdowns, all of which were second on the team, behind only second-team All-American wide receiver Charlie Jones.

Before joining Brohm’s staff at Purdue, Wallace spent the 2016 season as tight ends coach at Austin Peay. Despite ending the year 0-11, the Governors broke the school game record for total offense on several occasions.

Wallace’s coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Western Kentucky, where he worked on the offensive line in 2013 and on the tight ends in 2014-15 while Jeff Brohm was their head coach. Tyler Higbee was drafted a first-team All-Conference USA tight end under Wallace’s leadership in 2015 and was later selected by the St. Louis Rams in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft.

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Since Scott Satterfield opted to leave Louisville for the head coaching position at Cincinnati last week, seven of his 10 assistant coaches have left the Cardinals. Defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, quarterbacks coach Pete Thomas, offensive line coach Nic Cardwell, inside linebackers coach Derek Nicholson, and running backs coach De’Rail Sims all decided to follow Satterfield up I-71 and join the Bearcats.

Co-defensive coordinator/secondary coach Wesley McGriff moved to Auburn, and offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach becomes head coach in Western Michigan.

The only positional assistants left for Louisville for the upcoming bowl are tight ends coach Josh Stepp, defensive line coach Mark Ivey and outside linebackers coach Greg Gasparato. Director of Player Personnel Deion Branch acts as interim head coach.