Podcast Ep. 70: Former Quarterback Kyle Orton on Coach Tiller, His NFL Experience and Earning His Purdue Degree After Retirement

Kyle Orton:

This is Kyle Orton and you’re listening to This Is Purdue.

Kate Young:

Hi, I’m Kate Young and you are listening to This Is Purdue, the official podcast for Purdue University. As a Purdue alum and Indiana native, I know firsthand about the family of students and professors who are in it together, persistently pursuing and relentlessly rethinking. Who are the next game changers, difference makers, ceiling breakers, innovators? Who are these Boilermakers? Join me, as we feature students, faculty and alumni, taking small steps toward their giant leaps and inspiring others to do the same.

Kyle Orton:

There’s always stuff that hurts your confidence, and guys and girls that can have the short memory and respond to adversity in the right way and use it to fuel their workouts and to give them a goal, those are the people that eventually make to the top.

Commentator 1:

Boilermakers are trying to put the hammer down right now and put this game away. They’ve got the ball on the 15 yard line. Kyle Orton on this drive is 5/5 for 36 yards passing. He came in in relief for Brandon Pierce for the fourth quarter. A fourth quarter that has seen Ohio State come back to tie the game at 17 a piece. And Joe Tiller right now just waiting and hoping his team can close this game out. Second down in 13. Void in the backfield, Davidson motion. Orton to pass. Wide open. Touchdown Purdue.

Kate Young:

In this episode of This Is Purdue, we’re talking to former Purdue University and NFL quarterback Kyle Orton. Kyle is part of Purdue’s legendary cradle of quarterbacks and was recently inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame. Kyle sat down with our podcast team at the gorgeous Coyote Crossing Golf Club in West Lafayette in early September. It was a beautiful morning for the interview and for the Tyler Trent golf outing that followed, which raised money for the Purdue Center for Cancer Research. In this interview, you’ll hear Kyle discuss how former coach Joe Tiller and quarterback Drew Brees inspired him to choose Purdue. You’ll also hear about the anticipation and doubt he felt during the 2005 NFL draft and how Purdue prepared him for life after football. Oh, and he also shares what or really who inspired him to earn his degree at Purdue after his retirement from the NFL.

Kyle, thank you so much for joining us on This Is Purdue. How does it feel to be back in Indiana, back in West Lafayette? Is there some nostalgia you’re feeling?

Kyle Orton:

Yeah, definitely. Just good to see old friends. Tom Schott, had breakfast with him this morning and definitely brings back good memories and seeing people that were so supportive of me and helped me along the way to get where I got. It’s always good to see those people.

Kate Young:

Kyle is from Iowa, so he grew up in the Midwest, but what attracted him to Purdue? Well, you’ll likely recognize these two iconic Boilermakers who made an impact on Kyle.

Kyle Orton:

I went to a small high school in Iowa, so was definitely looking to stay in the Midwest to go to college. When I was in high school, we were a ground and pound team, and only probably threw the ball maybe 13 or 14 times a game. So probably started really looking at schools my sophomore junior year in high school and saw Purdue and Drew Brees and Coach Tiller and the type of offense that they ran and early on really thought to myself that that would be a good opportunity for me to just make myself a better quarterback.

Kate Young:

And you mentioned Drew Brees. What was it like playing after him and kind of following in his footsteps?

Kyle Orton:

It was good and it was tough. Really a good experience for me because obviously an unbelievable player and it’s tough to always follow those expectations, especially, when he’s coming off of a great senior season and I’m coming in as a true freshman, an 18 year old kid. And you’d think you’d play pretty good and then you’d go back and compare your game to him and you’d say, “Oh boy, you got a long ways to go.” So it is fun. He was a big reason why I came to Purdue. He would reach out to me when I was in high school and I remember that, I was very cool to get a big name college guy calling you up and saying, “Hey, come to this school.”

Kate Young:

Was he like your mentor along the way?

Kyle Orton:

No, he was busy with his stuff. Obviously, we never overlapped outside of, he was a coach for one of the football camps that I got invited to coming out of high school, so that was probably the most time that I spent one-on-one with him. He would show me around on recruiting visits and all that stuff when I was in high school still, but he had early success right away in the NFL and obviously doing his thing and I had early success in college and doing my thing and it was definitely fun to meet up later and play some good games against him.

Kate Young:

Coach Tiller has quite a reputation. I know you were really close with him. What was it like playing under Coach Tiller?

Kyle Orton:

It was great. He put us in an opportunity to play in huge games, play in a top-notch program, but he never really put the pressure on the kids. He always wanted you to have fun, always wanted you to go to the Bowl game and enjoy your success and was just a great coach. When I think back at Purdue, pretty much think about Coach.

Kate Young:

Do you have a favorite story or memory?

Kyle Orton:

Oh, just lots. Probably just one-on-one time with him. I think he took a special liking to me. I don’t know why. Glad that he did. Actually, when he left Purdue, went back to Wyoming and I was playing in Denver. Once, twice, maybe three times a year, he’d go to a game and Larry and me and then come in on Sunday, him and our net would come in for the game, and come in and stay with me and my wife and really got to spend time with him in a relationship outside of player and coach and that was really special.

Kate Young:

As Kyle mentioned, he grew up in Iowa, so why didn’t he just attend that Big Ten University and become a Hawkeye?

Why didn’t you go to Iowa? Did you ever have your sight set on that?

Kyle Orton:

Coach Tiller. They didn’t have Coach Tiller. So he was the reasonable… Him and his whole staff, Coach Tiller, Jim Chaning, Greg Olson. Like I said, guys that they made me a lot better football player, but I think they made me a lot better person and they let me have fun. It was a special, special staff.

Kate Young:

Kyle is so humble, but you can tell Coach Tiller and the rest of the Purdue football staff really meant a lot to him. As for his favorite memories from being a student at Purdue, Kyle says a lot of his best memories are tied to the relationships he formed over the years.

Do you have a favorite memory from your time as a student? Like any spots on campus that you loved or anything that sparks your memory?

Kyle Orton:

My whole time at Purdue, pretty much good memories. A lot of great friends. My good friend, David Owen, from the football team. He’s my daughter’s godfather now. I’m his daughter’s godfather. Just all those great relationships, and great relationships with the equipment guys, the unknown guys on a football team. I mean, they were my best friends. You spend so much time at the facility and guys like Eric Lilly and Kyle Gergely and Michael Shandrick and all these guys that they really put so much time into making your experience easy and you become great friends with them.

Kate Young:

As a freshman, Kyle made his career start at our in-state rival down south. So not only was it an away game against one of our biggest competitors, it was also pouring rain. He reflects on this tough game.

The first game that you started in as a freshman, apparently it was pouring rain. Tell us about that game.

Kyle Orton:

Yeah, in Bloomington, playing against probably one of the best college players ever, Antwaan Randle El. I think, in that game he was a punt returner, the quarterback, running back, he punted. Just an unbelievable all around college player. We had tough time. He was running all over the place and the field was so wet you would hydroplane, you would really slide and slide for 10, 12 feet after the play. We had guys sliding all over the place trying to tackle him, starting the game. I thought, “Boy, we’re going to run the ball every time.” It’s pouring down rain, nobody can even grab the football. We start the game and we had such a hard time taking a snap from underneath the center that we ditched the game plan and I think we ended up throwing it 65 times that game. My first game, really, getting a lot of playing time and I thought, “Man, that’s why I came to Purdue. That’s what I wanted to do was throw the ball a lot.”

Kate Young:

Another big win for Kyle and the 2004 Boilermakers football team.

Commentator 2:

Big smile from Kyle Orton and his coach Joe Tiller. They’ve become very close, as we said. A lot of discussions about everything. Football, just a small portion of their relationship now and he finally gets that big win on the road. Purdue breaks the losing string in Notre Dame stadium with a decisive victory today over the Irish, snapping Notre Dames’ three game winning streak and pushing the Boilermakers to 4-0 on the season, as they head up to Penn State. The embrace from Coach Willingham as the final score is Purdue 41, Notre Dame 16, Kyle Orton enhancing his Heisman Trophy credentials today with a sparkling four touchdown pass performance against the Irish.

Kate Young:

That’s right. As you just heard, Kyle led Purdue to victory at another in-state rival, Notre Dame. It was the first time Purdue football had won in South Bend since 1974 and it hasn’t happened since.

In 2004, Purdue beat Notre Dame in South Bend. What was the excitement like?

Kyle Orton:

And I think we hit the prior time at South Bend, I think we had a really good chance at beating them and had a couple bad breaks and a couple fumbles or close game that we ended up losing. So we thought we had a chance the time before and we knew we had a good team going into that game. And I remember Taylor Stubblefield running stop free from 98 yard touchdown or something like that on an audible that we called. And just the excitement with… I got a picture in my office of me and coach coming off the sidelines. We were pumped up and the bus ride home was great. So that was a special game to win up there for sure.

Kate Young:

So we’ve already mentioned now two accomplishments for Kyle during his college career. Two big wins. But that certainly isn’t all Kyle Orton is known for. Kyle is the only Purdue quarterback to start four consecutive Bowl games. In 2001, 2002 and 2004, he started in the Sun Bowl and in 2003, he started in the Capital One Bowl. And in 2004, he was a Heisman Trophy Hopeful early in the season, but when I asked Kyle what he was most proud of during his incredible Purdue career, he said this.

Kyle Orton:

Really, with my whole career, I just wanted to be a good teammate. I wanted to try to work as hard as I can and maximize my potential and I feel like I did that. So, all of it is good.

Kate Young:

Again, could Kyle be any more humble? But for him, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows throughout his storied college football career. See, during his 2004 season, there was so much promise and hope, but there ended up being some disappointments and injuries along the way too. He started 5-0 that year. The team was ranked fifth in the nation and Kyle was the early favorite for the Heisman. But after a heartbreaking loss to Wisconsin at home, that season quickly took a turn. Still, Kyle knew he wanted to go on to play professionally, but the whole NFL draft thing didn’t quite go as planned. Kind of like that 2004 season, he discusses the anticipation and doubt he felt during that 2005 draft.

Kyle Orton:

The draft was, to be honest with you, a really low part of my football career, to be honest with you. I thought I had a good college career and thought I was lined up to be a pretty high draft pick and just for whatever reason and kind of started sliding. And that first day of the draft back then you had two days of the draft and had all my friends over for the first day and the agent told you, “Oh, at the very worst, you’re going to go third round.” Kind of thought I might go late first round, definitely thought kind of second round. And boy that second round goes by and no quarterbacks were called. It was a strange draft. Aaron Rogers went really late and everybody started to slide and gets in the third round and I’m thinking, “Boy, this might not happen today.”

And the friends start leaving and next thing, it’s just you and the family and you’re not drafted and got it called the next day by the Bears and fourth round draft pick and you’re thinking, “Boy, tough start to the career.” And just funny how sports works because I think, two months later I was a starting quarterback and we won 13 games that year and won the division. And you would’ve never thought, with the way the draft happened, I would’ve thought that it was going to take me four years to get back on the field.

Kate Young:

Did that hurt your confidence at the time?

Kyle Orton:

Yeah, there’s always stuff that hurts your confidence and always adversity in sports and that’s really as you move higher and higher into your career and more competitive sports, really, I feel like a lot of people kind of have the same ability, but the guys and girls that can have the short memory and respond to adversity in the right way and use it to fuel their workouts and to get them a goal, those are the people that eventually make to the top.

Kate Young:

Kyle’s persistence and grit when it came to facing challenges has paid off throughout his life. And I loved his advice right there on overcoming adversity. He went on to have a successful NFL career, most notably with the Chicago Bears.

And looking back on your NFL career, how would you describe it?

Kyle Orton:

Crazy. Yeah, crazy. Played four years for the Bears and loved it and had a lot of early success. Got on the field right away. Thought, “Boy, this is going to be just like college. I’m going to just walk in and I’m going to be the guy.” Going from a really high high of my first year to boom, I’m number three on the depth chart, my second year and bummed out. Third year, don’t play. And then finally get my opportunity again my fourth year. And I kind of knew it was like now or never if you wanted to be a starter. You had to play well and played well enough and kind of went on the deal to where I think my daughter was, she was five and she had lived in six different cities, kind of looked at her and said, “I think that’s enough.”

Kate Young:

See after the 2014 NFL season, Kyle knew it was time to hang up the cleats and for him it was definitely a family choice.

How did you feel when you retired? Were there mixed emotions there?

Kyle Orton:

No. Nope, not really at all. I really wanted to be a committed dad like I had and just played for 10 years, four years in college and blessed to play a game for a job my whole life. And I was pretty healthy and like I said, really wanted to be that active dad and I think I had probably chances to play for another three or four years and I kind of knew. Some guys don’t know, I definitely knew.

Kate Young:

Okay.

Kyle Orton:

Yep.

Kate Young:

That’s great.

But there was one more thing this devoted husband and father was determined to do after his retirement and it isn’t so much of a what that influenced him to make this decision, but a who.

I know that you went back to school to Purdue to earn your degree. What kind of spurred you to do that?

Kyle Orton:

My mother. 100%, my mom, I think I had 12 hours when I left school, maybe 9 hours when I left school. And I believe that somehow, hours got added so I ended up with 15 hours. So I had maybe 15 or 18 hours I had to complete when I was done. And my mom, “It’s the first year, Kyle. You’re going to do it.” Didn’t do it the first year, I said, “Give me one year off mom.” Second year, she came back, said, “You’re going to do it.” And I said, “Okay.” So got it done. I’m really glad that I did and glad that I got it done from the school.

Kate Young:

What was your major?

Kyle Orton:

History. Started off in political science and then switched to history. My dad went to law school and was a state employee for Iowa for 30 years and didn’t know if I wanted to maybe go to law school, teach or do something in politics, but definitely history major.

Kate Young:

How did Purdue tee up Kyle for success after professional football?

Kyle Orton:

Living all over the place, one thing you’ll find is there’s Purdue alumni everywhere and always in the business community. So I’ve made good relationships through that and really just college life taught me whether it was academics or football, just you got to work hard and you have to stay committed and you have to have goals and I think if you can do that, you’ll be successful.

Kate Young:

I ask Kyle what role Purdue has played in his life.

Kyle Orton:

Boy, colleges just have such a formulative role in your whole life. I mean, you always just wish you could go back to be 17, 18, 19 years, meeting all your friends. I’ve got such long term friends from college and just people that have helped form who I am. It’s just great memories.

Kate Young:

And speaking of great long lasting friends and relationships.

Did you ever run into any Boilermakers in the NFL community or play with them, against them?

Kyle Orton:

Oh yeah, for sure. Probably, one of the most underrated things about Purdue was how many guys that we put into the NFL and guys that had great careers. I mean, wow, great crews. Drew, obviously, but man, Matt Light starting left tackle, pro Bowler, just a great player. List is too long to name all the guys, but you couldn’t go many Sundays without playing against the Boilermaker. And always one of my favorites would be going to Kansas City and Len Dawson would always come down after the game and find me in the locker room, “Hey, Boilermaker, how are you doing?” And saw that he passed and that was very sad. He was a great guy and a great Boilermaker.

Kate Young:

Len Dawson was, like Kyle, a Purdue and NFL quarterback. He played for the Boilermakers in the 1950s and also, like Kyle, won a huge upset against Notre Dame. So what does this Boilermaker community of not only quarterbacks like Len, but the hundreds of thousands of other Purdue graduates mean to Kyle?

Kyle Orton:

It’s a small community and that’s, like I said, when I was in high school, that’s what I was looking for. Now that I’ve been through my career, I’m back in a small community in Iowa, that’s kind of the person that I am. I love being in the Midwest and it really feels a lot like home, 400 miles from Iowa or whatever. But driving through the farm towns and stuff, it’s pretty similar.

Kate Young:

When you think about the fans and the Purdue spirit, the band, all the great things that make Purdue Purdue, what does that mean to you?

Kyle Orton:

That’s great. It’s tradition. It’s college football, it’s college sports and college athletics is all about tradition. It’s all about playing for something and playing for each other. That’s really the great part of the game.

Kate Young:

And does Kyle still keep up with the Boilermaker football team under Coach Jeff Brohm?

Do you still follow the Purdue program closely?

Kyle Orton:

I do. I follow him as obviously as close as I follow any college, I’m going to be honest. I hope there’s some changes to college football. I think the amount of money that’s gotten into the game over the last 10 or 15 years, it’s staggering. And it’s not the kids’ money, it’s the adults that are in the game that make all the money. So I really hope that, because I love amateur athletics and I love college football. I really do. And I love the tradition of the game. I love the Indiana-Purdue game. I love the Indiana-Notre Dame game. I love the Nebraska-Oklahoma game. Something’s got to change for it to happen. So I don’t think it’s going in the right direction right now.

Kate Young:

Yeah. How would you compare when you were playing to today?

Kyle Orton:

Pressure. Pressure for kids. Pressure obviously for the coaches because they make so much money that it’s a right now deal. The problem is that people look up to the college, so my son looks up to the NCAA and high schools do and it seeps down. So much pressure now in youth sports and it seeps into high school. So I hope the leaders in the NCAA realize that it’s an amateur game. Academics are important and that come Sunday if you want to get paid and make the big money, that’s play in the NFL. When you play college athletics, the time requirements for that sport are such that you cannot have a second job. So I want those kids to be able to make money, no doubt about it.

Kate Young:

To wrap it up, I ask Kyle what he was most proud of during his professional NFL career and he answered like the wonderful, humble teammate, husband and dad he is.

Kyle Orton:

Yeah, I guess I’m proud that I think outside of the one stop in Kansas City, I think I was the captain on every team that I’ve played for. So I think I always had the respect of my teammates and any job that you’re really in, you’re searching for the respect of your peers and I think I had that. Had a nice career and like I said, it was a crazy life. It’s a great job for a 25 year old without kids and all that stuff and did it while I could do it and got out while I could.

Kate Young:

Are your kids entering the age where they would be interested in college? Do they have any interest?

Kyle Orton:

No. I got a 10 year old daughter, who’s a great horseback rider and a little outdoorsman and then a 6 year old son who’s just getting into sports himself and getting into football and he’s still pumped up to come to the game this week and then drive up to Chicago and get to go to the Bears game. So he’s going to have some big ice for sure come this weekend.

Kate Young:

Okay. So they’re a little too young to be looking at colleges, but I hope they come to Purdue.

Kyle Orton:

My wife is a big Tiger. So my wife’s from LSU so she’s all in there about Baton Rouge and Go Tigers, but I think my son will probably listen to me when it comes to that.

Kate Young:

We hope to have a little Orton on the football team again.

Kyle Orton:

Yeah.

Kate Young:

Is there anything else you want to say to the fans, to the Purdue community?

Kyle Orton:

Thank you for the support over all the years. I had a great time when I was playing and definitely fun to turn on Boilermaker football and watch them when they were playing.

Kate Young:

We had such a fun time talking to Kyle and we want to extend our congratulations again to him for being inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame. You can watch our full video interview overlooking the course at Coyote Crossing Golf Club on YouTube. Just head over to youtube.com/purdue. Thanks for listening to This Is Purdue. For more information on this episode, visit our website at purdue.edu/podcast. There you can head over to your favorite podcast app to subscribe and leave us a review and as always, Boiler Up.