Purdue getting ready to name Tiller's successor?

INDIANAPOLIS -- Purdue might announce the successor to football coach Joe Tiller as soon as today, a person familiar with the coaching search said.

The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because negotiations are ongoing, said Thursday that the 65-year-old Tiller will coach the Boilermakers in 2008, and the successor would take over after that.

The date and time of the announcement are uncertain, the person said, because the details still are being worked out.

Several media outlets have reported Eastern Kentucky coach Danny Hope will be hired as assistant head coach, then become head coach in 2009. The person familiar with the search declined to comment on the reports.

The 49-year-old Hope was an offensive line coach on Tiller's staffs at Wyoming, then Purdue, before leaving the Boilermakers after the 2001 season.

After one season as assistant head coach at Louisville, Hope is 35-22 in five winning seasons at Eastern Kentucky.

In 2007, he led the Colonels to a 9-3 record and the Ohio Valley Conference title and was a Football Championship Subdivision Regional Coach of the Year.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Hope by telephone were unsuccessful, and e-mails to his Eastern Kentucky account are being routed to an office associate.

"Any information about the coaching position at Purdue needs to come from Purdue," said Eastern Kentucky athletic director Mark Sandy.

Tiller came to Purdue from Wyoming in 1997 and brought a spread passing attack that helped revive a program that had gone through three coaches and just two winning seasons in the previous 16 years.

"We've changed the culture surrounding the football program," Tiller said before the 2007 season. "I think that we certainly have changed the expectation level, and I don't know if that's good or bad."

It was both.

Tiller's teams went 83-54 from 1997 through 2007, 1 win short of the record 84 won by Jack Mollenkopf in 1956-69.