The house in Buffalo is almost complete.

All it really needs is a retired football coach to put in it.

No matter when the construction is complete, that final phase will have to wait a few months n- at least until former Wyoming and current Purdue coach Joe Tiller is done with bowl season and ready to call it a career.

"It's coming along well, but I wish it was done already," Tiller said. "It's right on schedule, and if it was done I don't know what we'd do."

The keys should be waiting for him after one final season on the sidelines, though there's still some work left to do with the Boilermakers before Tiller can start practicing his fly-fishing.

He may have already started planning his retirement n- and Purdue already has a successor in place n- but after back-to-back eight-win seasons, it's clear the decision wasn't made because Tiller can't win anymore.

"It's really not anything chronologically that determined that," Tiller said. "I thought probably 10 years ago that I would coach 10 years or something. As good of a friend as he is and as nice of a guy as (Penn State coach) Joe Paterno is, I didn't want to be coaching when I was 81.

"I thought while I'm young enough to see things and enjoy life, there's a lot of things I want to do that I haven't done because I'm coaching. People actually tell me that the leaves on the trees change colors in the fall. I've never witnessed that. For the last 42 years in a row, I'm always looking at 100 yards of green grass."

Generally, the view has been pretty good.

Tiller's high-powered offense helped the Cowboys post one of the most successful seasons in school history in 1996 before he moved on to the Big Ten, rebuilding the moribund Boilermakers and turning them into postseason regulars.

But that process takes considerable effort n- a lot of Sundays watching film, plenty of meetings with the coaching staff and too much time worrying about the kicking game.

Add in the outside pressure from a fan base that can't remember what it was like before Tiller arrived and the criticism in the media and on the message boards, and it's not hard to understand why Buffalo might be appealing to Tiller.

"The expectation-level has changed dramatically," he said. "When we went in there the program hadn't been in the postseason in a dozen years, now that's all they are and it's not a matter of are you going to a bowl, it's, 'What bowl are we going to this year?'

"Actually it shocks me really, the last two years in a row we've won eight games and I guess that's not enough anymore. I'm thinking, 'Since when is eight wins not enough in a college football season?' That's taken some of the fun out of it quite frankly.

"But since I've announced my retirement, it's amazing to me how many people come up and thank me and say they're appreciative. I'm thinking, 'Where were they a year ago when the bloggers were nailing me for losing to Michigan in Ann Arbor?'"

Tiller can joke about it now, but the greater expectations are a product of his success, though there really hasn't been all that much to complain about for Purdue.

He could go down as the greatest coach the program has ever had, and he needs just two wins this season to pass Jack Mollenkopf and become the winningest coach in Purdue history.

And one more bowl win couldn't hurt n- the new house isn't going anywhere.

"Purdue's been good to us, and we want to have a good season and get out of there," Tiller said. "This is definitely it for us, the end of the road.

"I'm just not sure how you describe it. I don't know if it's a victory lap or a swan song."

Maybe by late December or early January the Boilermakers can provide a nice house-warming gift.

Something for the mantel.

Contact sports reporter Austin Ward at (307) 266-0634 or austin.ward@trib.com.