The pull of home

 Jeff  Brohm gave us a peek at his future, if only we'd had our eyes and ears open. It was 2018, and his alma mater had just sent out the Brohm Signal, beckoning him home to Louisville. And Brohm turned them down.

But it was what he didn't say at the time that presaged what happened yesterday, when Louisville beckoned again and Brohm couldn't say no twice.

He didn't say, "Purdue is my home and my heart."

He didn't say, "I'll be here as long as they'll have me."

He didn't say, "I could never leave a place that has both a little train and the World's Largest Drum."

No. What he said was this: The timing wasn't right.

Which implied that at some point it would be.

That point was yesterday, and good on him. Thomas Wolfe might have said you can never go home again, but Thomas Wolfe lied. You can always go home again, because the pull of home is eternal. And so Brohm will.

The practical Purdue fan will wish him well for that, because the practical Purdue fan always knew this day would come. It's a transient business at the top, college football, and coaches at that level are more than anything else creatures of business. They're mecenaries who'll stay in one place until a better deal comes along, and then they'll move on.

What the practical Purdue fan will say about that is Jeff Brohm is less mercenary than most.

The Brian Kellys and Lincoln Rileys leave for money and titles, not for love, but you can't put Brohm on that shelf. He really is leaving for love, because the money Louisville reportedly will pay him isn't much more than he was making in West Lafayette. So good on him for that, too.

That he leaves Purdue far better than he found it is a credit to both him and his dedication to the job, and the thanks of a grateful Boiler Nation should be his due for that. He took over a program that fell down under Danny Hope and couldn't get up under Darrell Hazell, and he made it a winner again.

He took Purdue to two bowl games in his first two seasons, and won them both. Beat Indiana four times in five tries. Went 17-9 in his last two seasons -- including 9-4 last year and 8-5 this year, when Purdue won the Big Ten West.

In short, he did what Joe Tiller did 25 years ago: He made Purdue football matter again. Especially to Purdue.

And now?

Now he moves on, as everyone does these days. Now he goes home, just in time for Christmas.

And that's as storybook an ending as you'll get these days.