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Sources: Illinois assistant Kevin Kane to be hired as Purdue defensive coordinator

On3 imageby: Tom Dienhart12/17/22TomDienhart1
On3 image
(Getty Images)

Ryan Walters’ first Purdue staff is set to add a big piece with the hiring of Kevin Kane as defensive coordinator, according to sources.

On Thursday, news broke that Walters was hiring West Virginia’s Graham Harrell as offensive coordinator.

Kane has worked the last two seasons with Walters at Illinois as assistant head coach/outside linebackers coach. Kane helped Walters forge one of the top defenses in the nation in 2022, as the Illini are No. 2 in the nation in total defense (263.9 ypg), No. 1 in scoring defense (12.3 ppg), No. 8 in rushing defense (98.4 ypg) and No. 6 in passing defense (165.4 ypg). The Illini’s 29 takeaways are second most in the nation.

Kane is a naive of Kansas City, Mo., who played linebacker at Kansas from 2002-05 under Mark Mangino. The 38-year-old began his coaching career as a student assistant at Kansas from 2006-07 under Mangino.

Kane was a GA at Wisconsin for Bret Bielema from 2008-09 and quality control coach in Madison in 2010. Kanes’ first full-time role was under Dave Doeren and Rod Carey at Northern Illinois (2011-14). He worked at Kansas for David Beaty in 2015 before matriculating back to NIU in 2016-17, next working for Sonny Dykes at SMU 2018-20 before landing at Illinois in 2021.

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