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PURDUE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 15, 2015

Darrell Hazell

West Lafayette, Indiana

DARRELL HAZELL: Well, after watching the film from last week's game against Indiana State, I thought our guys continued to play extremely hard. Jumps off the film as you study it, doing a lot of good things. Obviously there's a lot of things that we can correct; two turnovers and we had two blown coverages that led to touchdowns. The offense is doing a good job 95 percent of the time, but we have to make sure we clean up those other things. But very proud of how hard our guys are playing and the execution level at which they're playing at. We made some big plays when we had to make those, especially in the special teams game. But you can't leave points out on the field, and we did and we've got to make sure we clean that up going forward against Virginia Tech.

Q. First off, when you look at Virginia Tech, they've got a new quarterback, young quarterback, maybe a little injuries on linebacker. What problems do they present?
DARRELL HAZELL: Well, virginia Tech is always, since Coach Beamer's been there in 1987 has always kind of lived on his defensive philosophy and his special teams philosophy. They haven't changed. They do a great job of pressuring you with the defense. They're going to play what we call a bear front, which means the center and the two guards are covered and they're going to put those ends on the outside and they're going to rush. They're always going to have one extra in the box, so we have to be able to handle those guys, that extra defender in the box from an offensive perspective.

From a defense perspective, they've got the new quarterback in there and he's doing a good job of making the throws. And anytime you've got a guy that can run the ball, you have to be aware of where he is at all times, so that's what we have to do on the defensive side.

Q. Have you ever met Coach Beamer personally? Have you ever run into him at conventions or maybe know him?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yeah, actually my second-to-last year at Ohio State we went down and studied with their staff for a day and a half. Talked about some of the special teams games and also looked at some of the things they were doing offensively. So yeah, I've had considerable amount of time, not that a day and a half is a considerable amount, with Coach Beamer. Great guy. Just a solid, solid person to be around. I can see why they've had so much success.

Q. When you look at your team, center Robert Kugler, his ability over the years, what has he meant to the offense?
DARRELL HAZELL: I'm sorry, I didn't hear who you were asking about.

Q. Robert Kugler, your center.
DARRELL HAZELL: Kugler, he's the staple of our offense right now. He just has such tremendous leadership and his knowledge of the game and the ability to get the guys around him playing, one, at a high level, but also in the right positions to be able to make those plays. Without his leadership, we would not be the football team that we are and are going to be.

Q. I know when he got to Purdue he was a tight end, he switched obviously to center. That athleticism, does that really show in his position?
DARRELL HAZELL: Absolutely. Anytime you can be a guy that plays a skill position and then evolve into a guy that plays a bigger position, it's always going to help because you're going to have those feet and the quickness and things that you need to be able to survive at some of those larger positions, so that definitely helps him.

Q. I just finished watching, it looked like you gave up a couple throws to tight ends in your last game but not a lot of them. Virginia Tech has three tight ends that they use in a myriad of ways. I'm curious, what challenge do the tight ends at Tech present?
DARRELL HAZELL: A lot of times the tight end gets lost. You know, he stays in and he's lost. Like last week, I believe it was, against Furman, they delayed releasing him and leaked him on the back side. So you have to have great eye discipline when you're playing the tight ends because a lot of times they're out of the protection late, they're checking, they're blocking assignments and they release late. So we have to do a great job when we're playing man-to-man coverage with their eye discipline.

Q. Also, when you look at the quarterbacks, I know you mentioned the starter but they've also been playing the true freshman Lawson. How do you prepare for a team that's using more than one quarterback?
DARRELL HAZELL: I think we're going to see No. 9, but they did play No. 2 a little bit last week. They're pretty similar in terms of their ability to run with the ball after they pull it down. We're just going to present our defensive plan to our guys today and we'll play pretty close to the same.

Q. You mentioned leaving points on the board, you've done that a couple times in the first two games. How much smaller does the margin of error become against a defense like Virginia Tech?
DARRELL HAZELL: You've got to be exact when you're playing this defense. They're really good. They're very active. They want you to feel the pressure and the heat right from the beginning part of the game. So you have to be really good at closing drives out, whether it's a field goal, whether it's a touchdown, but you have to be able to put the points when you have opportunities.

Q. Are your backs getting better at picking up blitzers?
DARRELL HAZELL: We missed a couple last week but not by assignment. We got out-physicalled on the edge. E.J. missed a wide rusher one time and that was our one sack of the day. They're absolutely getting better, but they've got to be better at the physical part of the block.

Q. This is a game they could be tested?
DARRELL HAZELL: They will be tested, they will be tested this game.

Q. Your third down against, you've given up just seven third-down conversions in I think 27 attempts. Why have you been so much better?
DARRELL HAZELL: Without giving too much away, I think our pass rush is a little bit better now. We've been playing a little bit different schematically in the back end coverage wise. We talked before about putting guys on islands. I think if you can keep guys off the islands, corners, that's going to help everybody. That's going to take a lot of stress off the defense.

Q. That was probably one area before the season you felt you needed to make a pretty dramatic improvement defensively?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yes.

Q. What has Antoine Miles done well in the first couple weeks?
DARRELL HAZELL: I think it's his effort. When he goes, he's pretty good. Sometimes his throttle isn't always hot, but when it's hot, he's going pretty good and he's relentless. He's been able to contain the edge, which is always the big concern. One of our goals is to keep it in front and inside of you and he's been able to do that. Now you get Jalen back, you'll get two guys at that position that you feel really good about.

Q. Maybe he's done enough to earn himself a pretty good number of snaps even with Jalen coming back?
DARRELL HAZELL: Oh, absolutely, yes, yes. At the end of the day on Saturday, you hope it's 50/50 for those two guys at that rush position.

Q. What about your defensive ends in general, have you been pretty happy with the production -- not just the production but maybe the play that you got out of those guys?
DARRELL HAZELL: More so the play than the production. I think at the end they've done their job, they've done what we've asked them to do. Probably could get a little bit more productivity out of the end position; not so much the rush, but the end position.

Q. Productivity in play and rush defense, productivity in rush defense or all of the above?
DARRELL HAZELL: Sacks, tackles for loss, those kind of production points.

Q. Jimmy Herman, what have you -- he had a good game obviously, he was very active. What did you like about what you saw from him?
DARRELL HAZELL: He's incredible. He's been playing extremely well. He diagnoses things so quickly right now which is allowing him to run to the ball before it gets started. He's tackling well in the open field. He's just always around the ball. One clip again this week, almost like the first week where they throw a swing pass, Jimmy runs it down, fronts the ball up and there's nine guys coming to the football. It's fun to watch those guys run.

Q. Is his know-how catching up with his athleticism allowing him to play so fast?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yes, absolutely. I think the first couple years he's trying to figure out the position and what we're asking of him. We've always seen the athletic ability of Jimmy, but now you're seeing the athletic ability as well as the mind part of the game.

Q. His legs healthy?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yeah, he's a hundred percent healthy, his legs.

Q. How about his shoulder?
DARRELL HAZELL: He's a little bit nicked up, but nothing significant.

Q. From Austin, we've seen him have a subpar game in one week, a really good game in week two. So who is Austin Appleby?
DARRELL HAZELL: Well, I think he's a guy that showed us a lot of things on Saturday. One, he showed us his toughness, he showed us his character being able to come back after that subpar performance that some may call it. But I think that he showed his leadership. There's a lot of times, and that's what life's about, you get knocked down that like in the first, a lot of guys are going to go one of two directions and he went the correct direction.

Q. Do you have an open competition for kickoffs right now?
DARRELL HAZELL: Not that I know of.

Q. Did you list him as "or"?
DARRELL HAZELL: No, no, not kickoffs.

Q. What did Joe Schopper do to put himself in position to become your punter?
DARRELL HAZELL: It's been happening really for the last two weeks. Those guys have been punting in practice and every single kick that we had, you chart their hang time, you chart their placement. It's kind of been happening. It wasn't something that just all of a sudden happened in the game on Saturday. It's been happening. We talked about it prior to the game and it just kind of reared its head on Saturday when we didn't punt as well as we needed to those first couple punts.

Q. It is "or" but it sounds like you'll go with Griggs?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yeah, I'm not sure why that said "or."

Q. With Virginia Tech, are they similar to what you're going to face in the Big Ten? Is this the kind of defense and overall scheme that you'll face in the Big Ten, and how much of a gauge do you get out of this game as you march closer to the Big Ten season?
DARRELL HAZELL: I don't think it's going to be style-wise the same as we'll see in the Big Ten. They played 62 or 63 snaps of their defense versus Ohio State that first week, which is unheard of, man coverage. Last week they played a little bit of their old style, which they used to play all the time, where they had a weak safety, free safety and a strong safety kind of rotating those guys back. I think we're going to see a little bit of both, but in the Big Ten you're going to see a little bit different style schematically.

Q. But maybe from an athletic standpoint, the kind of personnel they have, is this going to be similar to a Big Ten type game?
DARRELL HAZELL: Athletically, I think it will be in terms of speed. They're a little bit smaller than some of our Big Ten lines, but they're athletic as all get-out in the front seven and the back four guys, too.

Q. What have you seen our the Virginia Tech's defensive line and the front seven? Maybe playing Ohio State's not the right gauge, but what have you seen from them those first two games?
DARRELL HAZELL: Well, the problem that they create is when they put those three guys down and all of a sudden on the snap of the ball they're racing one way or the other way and you have to block moving guys really fast. The thing that they want you to do is be singled up up front all the time. They don't want you to create double teams anywhere and that's why they play that bear front. They put those ends nice and wide, and they want to keep everything inside. They run them up the field and then they always have a free guy that runs through the gap and that's the guy you've got to find.

Q. Does that change what you need to do from the offensive line standpoint this week?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yes and no.

Q. What will be Robinson's role? What do you foresee his role in this game?
DARRELL HAZELL: If we play 70 snaps, he's got to play half the snaps. Get a gauge probably a little bit better today and tomorrow as to where he is. The thing that I can say for the last -- since his suspension is four, five weeks, that he's created havoc for our offensive tackles and our backs. We had a difficult time blocking him.

Q. He's been running scout team stuff?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yes.

Q. And is he caught up from what you guys are doing from a defensive standpoint?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yeah. He's met with those guys every single day and he's down there for the walk-through. He hears all those things, the terms, so I don't have any concern about him knowing his assignments. It's just that that game experience and getting out there and getting his feet a little bit wet will be the adjustment that he needs to make.

Q. Anticipate you'll probably see man coverage again?
DARRELL HAZELL: For us?

Q. Yes, with their cornerbacks and especially Fuller, what jumps out about what he does in the back half?
DARRELL HAZELL: Those corners are really good. Both their corners are really gifted guys. They're fast and they like to put their hands on you. They're going to tug on you a little bit, which they're not going to get called, which that's normal. But they're very gifted in the back end. So we have to be able, one, to beat man-to-man coverage on single routes, but we also have to do things to help our guys beat man-to-man coverage that's not single routes.

Q. You mentioned you spent time with Frank Beamer looking at special teams, but okay, so why are they always so good at special teams?
DARRELL HAZELL: You get what you emphasize, and he's got his hand in it and for a long time they were the team that used to block all the punts across the country. They were always No. 1 in punt blocks. It's funny to watch their film now, they've kind of pulled back and they're about 50/50 a block return team. They've got a really good returner, No. 3. So I'm not sure if that's why they changed their mindset, but they always put pressure on the punter.

Q. Do you see any similarities between D.J. Knox and their running back, Coleman?
DARRELL HAZELL: They're both short, that's about it, yeah.

Q. With going with the freshman punter against a program that kind of thrives on special teams, is there any concern about that?
DARRELL HAZELL: Well, not really. It's a protection, it's not the punter. It's making sure we handle all their overload sides if they show five to a side, which is an overload for us. And we've got to make sure we make the adjustments for the calls and get the guys in the right position to block those guys, not the punter.

Q. Too early in the week for an update on Hedelin?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yes, it's just too early for Hedelin to know. We're going to give him a few reps today in some drills to see how strong his calf is, but we won't know probably until Thursday, Friday how far along he is.

Q. What do you need to see from Paul Griggs this week?
DARRELL HAZELL: Obviously we all need to see the consistency, that's what we need to see. He's good enough to do it. We've seen him do it every single day at practice. We need to see him be more consistent when we get those easy opportunity field goals. If you stretch him at 49 or 55, that's one thing, but you've got to hit those 30-yard field goals consistently.

Q. Do you think it's a mental or physical thing for him?
DARRELL HAZELL: I need to sit down with him probably and ask him, did you strike the ball incorrectly, because the snap and the hold were good on both of those that he missed on Saturday. I'll probably grab him today and figure out exactly where he is.

Q. When you look at Patterson and Cermin, I think your whole offensive line is going to be tested, but when you look at those guys specifically, what have you seen from them the first two weeks, and I know Martesse is obviously outside now, and what do you need them to do this week?
DARRELL HAZELL: They'll be challenged this week on the edge, for sure. Obviously Martesse has got to be able to cover that wide guy off coming off the edge and then be able to handle the moving front that's coming back to him. He's not going to be covered most of the day. He's going to be uncovered with a wide five technique that won't have any piece of him. He's got to be able to handle a three technique looping out to him and a five technique coming off the edge. That's not as easy as it sounds for either one of those guys, so they have to do a good job there.

Q. Is the guy playing the five second, he stands almost all the time, right?
DARRELL HAZELL: He does stand all the time unless they're in their even front.

Q. With Jalen, you hope that a situation like this helps a guy mature or whatever word you want to put on that. How have you seen him just respond to maybe personally to this situation?
DARRELL HAZELL: I think it humbles you, it really does. When he made that mistake, we had a long conversation and then we talked about the things, the responsibility he has to himself, his family, his football teammates, the university, and he realizes he made a great mistake and I think he's paid the price and I think he'll rebound from that.

Q. What did you miss without him on the field?
DARRELL HAZELL: I think he's got tremendous strength, that's his number one characteristic. He is as strong a guy as I've been around in terms of one-on-one matchups. He physically can take guys back into the backfield, and that's one of the things that will be a good addition to our football team.

Q. I know the caller asked you about their tight ends. It looks like they have a couple options. Have you seen formationally are they going to put multiple tight ends on the field quite a bit?
DARRELL HAZELL: They do use multiple tight ends; they don't always use them in tight end alignments. They attach them from the formation and use them as slots a lot of times as a detached guy.

Q. It certainly depends on what kind of defense you play, but have you felt pretty good about the way Jimmy has played or some of your outside backers who may line up in that kind of a position?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yeah, they'll be matched up on guys and I think we'll be okay being matched up on some of those guys in the slot.

Q. Through the first two weeks, week one you had nine different receivers catch a ball and then 10 this last game. What's that do for an offense to be able to spread the ball around that much?
DARRELL HAZELL: I think it gives the quarterback confidence to know that he can go in multiple different positions, places. Anytime you can use a lot of guys, it makes it hard to double on people. And I think if Austin continues to spread the ball around from different player to player, that only helps your offense be more diverse.

Q. Does that open up play calling a little bit, make things a little bit more flexible?
DARRELL HAZELL: I think what it does for play calling is you don't have to worry about who's in the game to call certain plays. Sometimes you have to do that when your personnel is limited, you say who's at the X, who's at the Z, who's at the tailback, what plays can we run. When you know that you have capable guys at all the different positions, you can call it frequently.

Q. And then your top two running backs, they've both been contributing in all aspects of the game. Are there any circumstances where you're more comfortable with one more than the other, are you Markell in, D.J. in, or it doesn't matter?
DARRELL HAZELL: I think they're both -- you can do whatever you want to do with either one of those guys. I think one guy might be a little bit better in past pro just because he can physically hold up a little bit better. But in terms of releasing into the routes, in terms of the letting the inside or outside zone call sweep, all those things they both can do.

Q. Obviously happy with the win, but what are the biggest takeaways in terms of room for improvement just looking ahead after watching that ISU film?
DARRELL HAZELL: I think, like I said, it's so important for us now to be able to finish some of those drives, eliminate those turnovers and then still close people out. When you have opportunities to close the door on people, you have to be able to do that.

Q. Anything new on Danny Anthrop? I know it's been kind of back and forth. Is that going to be a day-to-day thing, a week-to-week think?
DARRELL HAZELL: He's a little better today than he was last Tuesday for practice. We just have to be smart managing how much we use him throughout the course of the week. He has to practice to get out there to get the reps that he needs to get. He's a veteran guy that's been around and he's probably the most productive guy on our football team, so we have to be smart in terms of how we use him throughout the course of the week.

Q. Darrell, you went into the season with Frankie kind of the marquee cornerback there, but especially last week I think Anthony Brown is showing he's pretty darn good himself. Lots of big plays, the special team run, the interception, lots of tackles. Where has he taken his game to put himself maybe up in that elite echelon?
DARRELL HAZELL: Well, I've always thought Anthony was a really, really good player for us. Maybe didn't get the hype that Frankie's always gotten, but he's always been the guy that's been that long corner that plays great man-to-man coverage, that they always throw away from so you don't hear his name as much. But he's a very gifted guy because he's so fast and he's so long and he's physical.

Q. You say you've always liked him. When you got here, was he a guy that impressed you or does he grow on you?
DARRELL HAZELL: It's funny because we played him out of position when we first got here. He was playing safety for us and I was not as impressed as a safety. But he's a completely different player as a corner and that's when he started growing on me.

Q. That fake punt, he could be a weapon for you. Might not use it for seven more weeks, but could we see that again?
DARRELL HAZELL: You might see something just like it. (Laughs.)

Q. From that perspective with Frankie, obviously his history speaks for itself, you've got to feel like as a pair you've got maybe two of the best corners in the Big Ten?
DARRELL HAZELL: Yeah, those two are really good and they allow you to be able to do so many different things. But you're right, they can do so many other things other than just play corner. You've got punt returners, kick returners. You can use them on all different types. Both of them are great coming off the edge in field goal block. Those two are really good coming off the edge.

Q. Last thing, the Associated Press is doing a national story and they wanted me to ask you. You've been in the MAC and the last each -- I think now with Toledo's victory at Arkansas, each of the past 10 years a MAC school has beaten a big boy. What is it about being in the MAC? Is it that some of the kids feel like maybe they're slighted because the bigger guys didn't look at them? The MAC has made quite a name for itself. Can you explain maybe why the MAC has so much success against big schools?
DARRELL HAZELL: I'm not so sure that they feel slighted, but there's not as big a discrepancy as you think there is in the level of play in terms of across the board positionally. The depth is huge, the size might be huge, but the talent level isn't always a huge difference. It's a crazy game, it really is. Each week you'd better be ready to play, and if you're not, somebody can beat you.

Q. We often ask you about connections to opposing programs and Coach Shoop spent five years at UNC so he's quite familiar with Virginia Tech. How big of an effect does that have on your preparation for this game on Saturday?
DARRELL HAZELL: We talked a lot yesterday just about that, him being able to coach against Coach Foster, the defensive coordinator for such a long time. He knows some of his tendencies, how he likes to call a game. I can't give you any detailed information, I don't want to share that with you, but there are certain things that guys do and we're a product of our -- creature of our habits and sometimes that manifests itself.

Q. Nine penalties in two games. What's pleased you most from a disciplinary standpoint about your squad?
DARRELL HAZELL: You look back, I was almost knocked out of my chair a few weeks ago when someone said we had 120 penalties last year. That's 10 a game, and 19 of them were in special teams. I guess I didn't realize that stat. Then I started thinking, man, that's a lot of penalties. So I'm pleased at where we are, five and four, I believe, or four and five, and one of them we took on purpose this last week to try to get ourself in a better punt situation. If we can continue this trend of not hurting ourselves, it helps in winning football games.

Q. You touched about it after the game on Saturday about the crowd. How big of a boost does that give you guys when you're at Ross-Ade Stadium and the seats are full?
DARRELL HAZELL: People have no idea how much of an impact that has on our players when our crowd is out there like that. They did a phenomenal job last week. The student section was nice and loud and they were into the game and that helps our players. They feed off of that energy and we need that each and every week.

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