Jason Simmons hasn't been able to catch his breath. The past few days have been a whirlwind for Purdue's new interim offensive coordinator after Ryan Walters informed the entire coaching staff of his decision to give Simmons the task of orchestrating the offense on Sunday night in response to Graham Harrell's dismissal earlier that day.

It was a decision even Simmons didn't know was coming, finding out with the rest of the staff.

The change kickstarted a mad dash for Simmons to dive straight into preparation for Wisconsin, which sat just six days away from when he was appointed. His unread text messages reached as high as 188 following the announcement and he even forgot to tell his own mother, who found out after Ryan Walters' press conference on Monday.

Strangely enough, it fits Simmons' career arch to this point, or at least the path he's been on over the last few years. Spending 23 years as a high school coach, most notably at Noblesville and Ben Davis the final seven years of that stretch, before taking over for now Purdue running backs coach Lamar Conard at his alma mater Miami of Ohio in the spring of 2023. The two then joined forces in West Lafayette when Simmons was brought on as an offensive analyst this past May.

Simmons' newest role is just the latest opportunity in his coaching career that he intends to capitalize on.

"You don't have control how opportunities get presented to you in life. What you do have control over is what you do with that opportunity," Simmons said. "You get this opportunity, you got to go all in, and you got to do everything you can for the program and the players."

Despite it being mostly at the high school level, Ryan Walters and Simmons believe the experience he's accumulated over the past 25 years on the sidelines will translate for the Boilermakers.

"When you have 24 years of experience behind you, you've seen and done a lot, regardless of where it's at," Simmons said. "Having the opportunity to lead people, whether it's the head coach at the high school level, or lead my own room at the college level a year ago, you got to take from those experiences."

"There's a lot of successful OCs in the college ranks right now that started as high school OCs. I think the fact that he has not only led a side of the ball, but led an entire team, was definitely attractive to me in terms of what our team needs right now," Walters said.

Simmons has hardly had time to get settled in West Lafayette, joining the staff in May. Despite his relatively late arrival to the building, he's quickly earned the respect of players and coaches in the program. It didn't take long for Walters and quarterback Hudson Card to recognize the type of leader and coach he is.

"I think the thing I've been most impressed with Jason, just in the time he's been here, is his presence, his confidence. He's already got a calm confidence to him, and his ability to relate to and hold 18 to 22 year olds accountable. Our team respects him," Walters said.

"Obviously, just got here this year. But he's been great. Anything that he's asked to do, he does it to the best level that he can. He's always been there for me ever since he's gotten here. So, I'm super happy for him. He deserves everything in the world, especially this," Card said.

For Simmons, it's not rocket science. He bases his actions on three main pillars that revolve around treating people the right way. Over the last several months, he's done just that, and now the benefits of building relationships could show on the field as he takes over the reins of Purdue's offense.

"There's really three pillars for me," Simmons said. "I want to work as hard as I can. I want to find ways to add value. And the last thing is, I just want to go treat people the right way."

"You got to be able to dig into people, to be able to maximize what they can do. If you don't have a relationship with somebody, it's going to be hard to challenge them. So for me, like just building relationships is a priority, digging into people is a priority. Now, we got an opportunity to go maximize it."

It's easy to talk about building relationships with players, but it's another thing to make it happen. Simmons' drive to do so has already given the players a sense of confidence with him taking over.

"I had conversations with some of the guys on offense and let them know what direction I was going in terms of the play calling, and all were excited that it was him," Walters said.

"I think the guys have complete trust in him and what he plans on doing," Card said.

The last few days have been filled with excitement and added pressure for Simmons. But, first year Boilermaker head coach has been able to lean on the rest of the coaching staff, however, as he sees the entire village having to come together in the face of adversity to accomplish their goals.

"This isn't just about a one person change or one person taking the reins on it. For us, it's been a village. To make the move that coach Walt did, you really just got to put your head down and keep working," Simmons said.

"It's been a village approach this week. We have really good football coaches on the staff. And for me, it's just being a spoke on the wheel and just making sure that we're aligned and what we're doing and the message that's getting communicated to our players and how we're executing on the field," Simmons said.

One of many reasons Walters picked Simmons for the job was that he wasn't a full-time position coach, so he wouldn't be spread too thin with this now added responsibility. It has been a team effort through the first four games of the season and that hasn't changed despite the abrupt change.

"We've been working as a collective group the entire season up to this point. So really, the workload hasn't changed at all for us, you know, throughout the week in terms of preparation and game planning," Simmons said.

Game week has consisted of a "getting to know you" phase for Simmons and Hudson Card, in particular, as the two will be working together closely over the new couple of months to turn around Purdue's struggling offense.

"Just being on the same page with him in meetings and really talking to each other and discussing what we like. He always asks me what I like too, so just being on the same page. Obviously, I haven't played with him calling plays, so just kind of understanding what to expect, where certain plays are going to be called, and why he's calling them. So that's kind of what we've been going over so far," Card said.

Simmons understands what he has at his disposal and where his difference makers are on the field. There won't be any changes for the Boilermakers' in terms of scheme, but Simmons' philosophy and how he views the game through his lens will differ from that of Graham Harrell.

"We still got the same guys and so that hasn't changed, you know? We've had flashes. We've had good plays here. We've had bad plays. And so for us, it's just about trying to put our people in the best possible position to be successful. So if you're going to do that, we have to understand what our players are good at. We have to understand their traits, and what what those traits are, and how we can maximize them as coaches. That's where the focus has been for us this week," Simmons said.

Now, all of the preparation is set to culminate in the first test of Simmons' new tenure as offensive coordinator when Purdue travels to Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon. How it looks and what changes Simmons makes remains to be seen, but the new leader of the Boilermakers' offense aims to turn the tides and elevate the unit to what Purdue's standard should be.

"The players, the program, the community, all of our people that support our program deserve the best out of us, week in and week out. For us, it's about putting a plan in place to go give our people what what they expect and quite honestly what we feel like the standard of Purdue football should be," Simmons said.