WEST LAFAYETTE — Barry Odom found Purdue football‘s new offensive coordinator within the Big Ten.
Josh Henson spent the past three seasons at USC, where he was the offensive coordinator and helped coach a team that produced Heisman Trophy winner and NFL No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams.
Now Henson assumes a new challenge with the Boilermakers, who failed to reach double digits in scoring five times in 12 games last season and got shut out three times.
The former Oklahoma State offensive lineman, whose last college game was against Purdue in the 1997 Alamo Bowl, has experience working alongside Odom before.
In 2015, Henson was Missouri’s offensive coordinator while Odom called the Tigers’ defense.
More: What will Purdue football’s defensive scheme be? 3 questions with DC Mike Scherer
Three questions with Purdue football’s defensive coordinator
Q: What can we expect from your offense?
A: We’ve got to be disciplined in protecting the football. I know that sounds cliché. Everyone says that, but it’s the truth. But we’ve also got to be aggressive in creating opportunities for us to have game-breaking plays down the field and score points. In that same vein, on the flip side of that you have to be methodical at times running the football. If you look at the stats in this league about running the football over a certain amount of yards and winning, they’re pretty eye opening.
Q: What was the draw to Purdue, a program that the last couple of years has struggled, especially offensively at times?
A: No. 1, it was coach Odom and who he is as a person and knowing the program he’s going to bring to Purdue. That program has so much more to do than just offense. It’s about becoming a better person. It’s about the way coach Odom says it, it’s smart, hard and tough. And it’s about being disciplined and doing things right on a daily basis. … What that does is that empowers your really good players and really good kids to lead the team and buy into it and to be part of something that they’re going to look back on for the rest of their lives and be proud that they were part of it.
Q: You added Giordani Vaccaro on the offensive line. He was the best collegiate lineman in Canada at the University of Manitoba. How does that translate to Purdue?
A: He’s a very high effort player from his film and time in Canada. Gio is going to bring a physical nature presence about him. The competition he was playing against in Canada versus the United States and Big Ten, I would guess, is going to be a level up, so he’s going to have to learn to be even more technically consistent and sound than he was.
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: 3 questions with Purdue football offensive coordinator Josh Henson
