RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky University football head coach Danny Hope has joined the Purdue University football staff as associate head coach, it was announced today. Hope, who served as an assistant coach at Purdue from 1997-01, will be the next head coach at Purdue when current head coach Joe Tiller steps down after the 2008 season.

Hope took over as EKU’s head coach in 2003. In five years at the helm of his alma mater’s football program, the Colonels went 35-22 (.614). This past fall, Eastern went 9-3 overall and 8-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play on its way to the program’s 19th conference title. The 2007 Colonels clinched the program’s first NCAA Division I FCS playoff appearance in 10 years helping Hope earn OVC and AFCA Regional Coach of the Year accolades.

Eastern Kentucky University officials have begun the search for a new head football coach.