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PURDUE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 4, 2016Darrell HazelWest Lafayette, Indiana COACH HAZELL: Obviously looked at last week's film and there are a lot of things we made some corrections on Sunday night. We started on a lot of the detail things that make a difference. So we'll look at those things again today, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we look forward to playing an Illinois team that's much better than their record implicates. You know, Lovie is a really good football coach. I'm sure he's going through some frustrations. They were in a game last week against Nebraska where they were winning 16 to ten going into the fourth quarter. So they're playing a little bit better than what their record indicates. Looking forward to that game at 3:30 on Saturday. Q. Darrell, first off, what needs to happen to get better production out of your offensive line? COACH HAZELL: Yeah, we didn't block very well. They showed us a couple things and moved the front on us and we weren't as coordinated up front as we needed to be. So we have to get better in those areas. Staying on double teams a little bit longer in the run game. Obviously our pass pro, we have to be much better. They matched us up one-on-one a couple times and they beat us a couple times up front and put pressure on David pretty early. Q. What's the status of Martesse Patterson? COACH HAZELL: Patterson is still an evaluation process. As soon as we know more information we'll get you more information, but it's still a day-to-day process for us. Q. And then Neal, can he get better? COACH HAZELL: Yes, he can get better, and yes he has to get better. Obviously got to keep working and making sure he plays a little bit lower and understands the schemes a little bit better. But, yeah, he can get better, and we expect him to. Q. (Regarding defense and rushing attacks.) COACH HAZELL: To stop the run? Yeah, the one thing that hurt us last week - two things - were guys are trying to make a play, and when you try to make a play sometimes you jump out of your gap. That creased us more than enough times obviously. It happens for every team every week, but it can't happen the amount of times it happened to us. Guys have to understand that there is a guy coming down in the hole to help him keep that ball inside. As soon as you overrun the ball and the ball cuts back, there is no second line of defense. So we have to do a better job of understanding where our help is coming from and being able to stay in our gap and be able to tackle the ball that way. That was the one thing that really hurt us significantly last Saturday. Q. And then lastly, how do you evaluate Illinois? What problems do they pose? COACH HAZELL: Illinois is really good up front, Pete. Their defensive line is really good. They got two ends, No. 6 and No. 91, who can really bring it. They like to rush the passer, but they also have some inside guys that are blue collar guys that are strong and they're hard workers. In my opinion, the best part of their football team is their defensive line. Obviously they got an older middle linebacker who has played a lot of football. Transfer guy in. On offense, Wes Lunt is a guy that has played a lot of football for them. When he gets into a groove he's pretty good, and that's where they become really good. Now, they're playing a couple different runningbacks. No. 22 and No. 2 are playing more so than Ke'Shawn this last game, but Ke'Shawn had -- you know, one of those miss-fits by North Carolina, Ke'Shawn hits a homerun third play of the game for 50 yards or 50 plus yards for a touchdown. So he has the capabilities of taking it the distance. Q. Just how do you coach I guess trust a little bit? You're talking about the defense. Players needing to trust each other. How do you get them to do that? COACH HAZELL: That's a great question. How do you coach trust. They have to see it over and over and really believe the scheme of the defense will put you in the right place, and don't try to make a play out of your gap because you know someone else is coming. Just got to keep emphasizing that. You talk to people around the country if they're having the same issues and things and they are, but it doesn't happen as many times, six or seven time, for as the amount of yards that it happened against us last Saturday. It's a common thing, but you got to keep it to one or two times a game and then still be able to tackle the ball for maybe a 15 yard and not 60 yards game. Q. Is that stuff you can show pretty easily on film, how the pieces work together? COACH HAZELL: Yeah, actually. We started on Sunday even before we saw the film. We always have a corrections period on Sunday. The coaches will take our guys in and say, All right, let's walk through the issues that we had the previous day. So that's where we start our corrections. We walk through the same run play that hurt us and all those different run plays that hurt us. We walk through those, showed guys fits, and then you could see where the help was coming from and how to get there and why you can't jump out of your gap. Because as soon as jump our of your gap you're sealed and then there is the cutback lane. That's where it starts. You can obviously keep watching film to validate all those things that we're trying to teach them. Q. Part of it is physical, too, though, right? They have to not only be in the right spot, but then complete the play which you missed on a couple times on Saturday. COACH HAZELL: One or two times we got knocked off the tackle, which is a physical thing. And we missed a couple tackles. We didn't miss a whole lot of tackles. More miss-fits than missed tackles. It was more of us not trusting each other in the scheme as opposed to be out physicalled on the defensive side. They were playing good defense at times. As crazy as that sounds, they were playing good defense to create plays, creating sacks, and then all of a sudden, bang, a big one would hit us for 50 plus yards. Obviously that's not good. Q. Illinois did that to you a little bit last year. What are they doing definitely in their running game this year? COACH HAZELL: You know, Garrick McGee, he's done a nice wherever he's been. He's been at Northwestern, Arkansas, a couple other places. He's been a one back kind of a guy. Showing a little bit more of two back. I'm sure that's Lovie's influence from the NFL. But they're spreading you out; trying to run zone; trying to throw the ball. Quickly right now I think they're a little concerned about their offensive line, so they're trying to get it out of his hands. So your typical things. Outside zone, inside zone. Q. What do you like about Eddy Wilson's performance this year? COACH HAZELL: Well, I think Eddy is a really talented young man. I think he keeps getting better each week. He just plays with such hip and pad leverage. He's able to create penetration and also makes plays. He brings an energy to our football team defensive line-wise. He's been a good player for us. Q. How do you feel like Markus Bailey is playing for you right now? COACH HAZELL: We talked about that at length as a staff, about how well Bailey is playing and how well Bentley is playing. Those two guys are guys we got to keep out on the field as long as we can keep them out there, as long as they're not gassed. Those guys running around and making some plays, you know, it was great to see Bailey step up that third play or whatever play it was of the game and get the interception. Unfortunately we couldn't punch it in, but he's playing really well. Q. Does that play sort of show his growth as a coverage linebacker and what you need in the defense? COACH HAZELL: Well, he can run. That's the thing about Bailey. He can run, but he's also very physical. He's 230, 27 pounds, whatever he is. But he's fast. He's really a fast, instinctive guy. That's probably his best quality of all of them, is that he's very, very football instinctive. That's why he's so productive. Q. You told us in August, and I think Big 10 media day, the only thing you're concerned about is the guys in your locker room. You can't focus on the chatter. You're experienced but still young. Is that hard to do for a group of young men, block out that chatter? COACH HAZELL: For the guys in the locker room? Q. Yeah. COACH HAZELL: You know, I can't tell you how they're thinking obviously. One of them came up to me. Usually I'm coaching them to not worry, and they were coaching me on Sunday walking off the field. One of the players said, Hey, Coach, don't listen to the noise outside. I'm like, Okay, thank you. So obviously they hear it, but I'm glad to hear the fact that they're not listening to it. They understand that people are going to talk. They have to worry about the things that they can control. That's not one thing that can control. They can control us trying to get to 3-2 against Illinois on Saturday. Q. That led to my next question. Obviously the answer is yes, but in your career here - you won there two years ago. If you win this one you're 3-2, not 2-3. How important is this game for this program at this time? COACH HAZELL: Well, obviously every game is important at this time. Two years ago has no effect on this year's football game, but it's very important for us to keep moving forward and try to get this one. Obviously Lovie is thinking the same thing. He's going through a rebuilding process over there. He's got issues over there. He's thinking the same thing. We got to find a way to get to 3-2 from our standpoint. Q. You had said that you've seen the tangible improvements. When you took this job four years ago you said it was going to be a process. Every coach it's a process. How do you feel about where you are right now? You said things are better, but the Ws and the Ls aren't certainly where I would think you would have thought they would have been four years ago. COACH HAZELL: Well, again, you look at Saturday's performance and then everything feels so heavy to people. So you say, Oh, this is what's going on. All those comments you get after a performance like Saturday. Which Saturday obviously was not good. But, again, we're four games, a third of the way, through the season right now. So much can happen from game 5 to game 12. You got to evaluate the whole system when you go through the process. Q. On your offensive line I think on the depth chart it is Neal at left tackle and Cermin at right tackle. During the game you seemed to have flipped them early on and kind of shuffled some other guys through there. What do you envision the tackle position looking like? COACH HAZELL: Well, when we lineup for practice today you'll have Cerm at the left, and McCann feels really good, so he'll be back at the right. We'll push Neal back over at the right side and continue to bring some of the other guys. Trying to decide whether or not we should put Mendez outside or inside. We know he can play inside. He's worked a little bit at the tackle spot. So we got a way of moving some of those pieces around to find the best combination until we can get Martesse back out there. Q. Do you imagine Martesse practicing today with the team? COACH HAZELL: He will not be practicing today. Like I said, it will be a day-to-day decision. Q. Do you think that's going to be a major matchup, the tackles versus the defensive ends. Kind of touched on the skill level of the defensive ends. COACH HAZELL: Major matchup for sure. Those two guys are very, very skilled. 91 and 6 are really good players. They are up the field, speed rush, strong, all those things that have to do, and you have to give your tackles help and do other things to make sure you can kind of settle those guys down a little bit. Q. How about on the defensive side? You talked about some guys playing well. You thought linebackers were playing well, Eddy. What areas do you think need to improve on defense or what position groups need to pick up the slack a little bit? COACH HAZELL: I think everyone needs to improve. I told the team that on Sunday. Every single position group needs to improve. It's no different whether it's the secondary or it's the linebackers. We all need to improve and get better. I think that's how you continue to win football games. But, you know, the defensive backs obviously have to get ball in the air a little bit more. There was a couple opportunities we had a chance to get it out of the air. Every single position group needs to improve. Q. You mentioned Illinois is better than their record shows. In what ways do you think they're better? COACH HAZELL: You know, I have watched all four of their games and then I went back and watched the last three of their games against North Carolina, Western Michigan, and Nebraska. The TV copies give you a different perspective of what people were saying and some other things. They're playing hard. Sometimes they make some mistakes that -- quarterback drops the ball one time. He's on the five yard line coming out and just drops the ball and gives the opponent an easy layup. So you can't do those types of things. But they're very competitive. Last week's game against Nebraska, I mean, they got a chance going into the fourth quarter. They're up 16-10 and just couldn't get them stopped in the fourth quarter. Q. Do you know Lovie at all? COACH HAZELL: We've had several conversations in the past. Yeah, uh-huh. Q. At all during this season? COACH HAZELL: No, not at all during this season other than media day. Q. Something about his coaching style, approach that you expect? His style, his influence, are you seeing it on in this team? COACH HAZELL: I think some of the things you see from Lovie are some NFL influences on how they do things schematically. For example, in the kicking game. No, let me give a better one. Quarterback, playing against the quarterback run schemes. You don't see that in the NFL. Quarterbacks don't run in the NFL, so all the zone read things that they have to learn and adapt to, that's some of the things that you see that's a little bit different from his philosophy. Q. You're playing for a trophy this week, traveling trophy. You're defending it. Is that a good thing for this team, to have something like that at stake this week? COACH HAZELL: I think the biggest thing is we go in there and find a way to get it done. That's the bottom line. We obviously know there is a trophy involved. Trophy is extremely important to us, but the win is very important to us. Q. Eddy, he was a defensive end a lot at the high school level. Did you guys always him moving inside, and why? COACH HAZELL: Well, he's very big now. He's a little bit bigger than what he was when we recruited him. - he was 270-ish when we recruited him out high school; he's 303 pounds right now. We knew if he could bring that speed from the exterior to the interior that that would create issues for the guards. He's been able to do that, penetrate as much as he has. He's really strong penetrator. Q. Considering what happened with Ra’Zahn where would you be? COACH HAZELL: I can't answer that question about Ra’Zahn, but obviously Eddy is a guy we were counting on as a guy competing for that job regardless. Q. From a coachability standpoint, what have you seen from him? Talking to his high school coach, you know, early in his career he hadn't really been pushed. When he got that, it brought something out in him. Wondering if maybe Randy is kind of that same mold. COACH HAZELL: Well Randy is spectacular. He is one the best defensive line coaches in the country at any level, professional included. He has a way of bringing the best out of those guys. Those guys are playing really well, pretty hard up front. They're playing well. Obviously some things they can get corrected, just being able to turn the ball inside and those types of things. Randy has done wonders for Eddy. Eddy is one of those guys that he loves football. He absolutely loves football. He very much has a feline mentality where sometimes you got to keep pushing him and pushing him, because those guys sometimes want to do their own thing. He's a guy that really adapts to what Randy has to say to him. Q. In terms of Cermin, did the health stuff linger longer that you expected and that held him back a little bit as far as getting ready through the pre-season? COACH HAZELL: Cerm? Yeah, his shoulders were not good coming out of the spring. Took a little bit longer. Still, he's had two of them repaired, so that's always an issue. He'll be fine for us. Cerm is smart enough to figure out what he can and can't do well. He'll figure it out and get in position to block guys. We'll give him help when he needs help, especially this week. He'll do a good job for us. Q. Seems like the bulk of his experience has come at right tackle; started there a lot last season. What can your coaching staff or whoever do with him this week to make him better as a left tackle? COACH HAZELL: Like I said, we got to help him. There are different ways of helping him. I can't give you all those ideas of ways of helping him, but we have about three or four different ways we can help our tackles this week. When we stat down and started make the game plan, okay, when do we have to do to neutralize their best players? That's how you start building the game plan. Q. How healthy was McCann when he came into the game second half? COACH HAZELL: I would say probably 70%. Probably closer to the 90% now. About 70% when he played, but we had to play him. Q. That's got to be a tough call to make as a coach when you're in an urgent situation. COACH HAZELL: Yeah, it was very urgent. We were getting hurt pretty significantly, so we had to go to something. You can't just stand there and watch it happen. You have to make a decision on what you want to do and how do you make the adjustments. We decided to go with Matt. He'll be better this week than he was on Saturday for sure. Q. You talked about every game being important, but this is the first West Division game for you guys. Is that something you emphasize behind the scenes? COACH HAZELL: That's a good point, because you stand around and say, Woe is me, and then look at the rest of the conference. Everybody on our side of the conference has one loss except one team. It's a very, very important game because we're on our side of conference. When you look at the big picture, playing people on your side matter. They all matter, but playing on your side if the conference really matters. Q. When I was in your office yesterday you had the Nebraska game on the film. What did you see in the final quarter from Illinois and why they came out on the short end? COACH HAZELL: I thought Nebraska made some really big plays. Again, I thought that they had trouble blocking Nebraska's line up front. Nebraska started mixing it up a little bit and put them on their heels, but they made the plays in the fourth quarter and Illinois didn't. That's what it comes down at the end of a football game. Q. I know you harped on it too yesterday about consistency. I know easier said than done, but how do you become a more consistent football team? COACH HAZELL: I think it's about the process of what our guys are doing, a better understanding. I think still a lot of guys are young within the defense, so they'll get it. It'll click for them. Okay, I'll stay in my gap. That's part of the whole picture of consistency throughout the entire program, is making sure we understand exactly what our assignments are and the details of our assignment and that will help us being a better football team. Q. Thoughts on Wes Lunt. COACH HAZELL: Yeah, when he gets in a groove he's really good. If you can make him move in the pocket he's not as good. He's played a lot of football. He's got a lot of experience. He doesn't get rattle. If you can make him move a little bit then you got a chance. Q. This is a team that's struggled when it comes to scoring 6 in the red zone and moving the chains. How do you take advantage of that? COACH HAZELL: Number one 1 thing we have to do is we have to stop the run. We have to. If you can stop the run and then do what you do on the outside in coverage, with our line, I believe we're going to be able to penetrate. We need to bring extra pressure to keep him moving side to side. We'll see if we have to do that. When we stop the run, we're so much better football team than when you don't. That's not just us. That's everybody. If you can't stop the run, you're in for a long day. Q. After coming off a loss, as a coach, what do you say to your group to keep the morale high? COACH HAZELL: I think you have to show them where you fell short. That's always where you start. Got to show them where you fell short and then just keep driving. We'll talk about it for one more time today for two minutes, and then everything is Illinois and how to attack Illinois. But that builds morale. We need to have a great practice on the field today. Energy, execution, and then really starting to feel good about ourselves. We've been a little bit like this, and have to start feeling good about ourselves today when we leave the field. Q. Kind of piggybacking off what Andy said, do you have to fight with your players' here-we-go-again mentality coming off a game like that? COACH HAZELL: No, not at all. Not even a little bit. That's not the way the players think. When you're in the locker room the players are obviously disappointed about the outcome of the game and how it got to that outcome. But there are so many good leaders. Da'Wan Hunte was unbelievable on Saturday. Let me say a couple things. He was unbelievable because we were down whatever we were down, 50 to 7 or whatever it was, and he was out there in the offensive huddle saying, You better keep fighting. He didn't need to say that because they were, but he was trying to pick his teammates up. We've got a locker room full of those guys. It doesn't concern me at all. Q. How do you level a rollercoaster season out? COACH HAZELL: You got to play better. That's how you level it out. You play better and you string some together. Again, that's a lot easier said than done. You got to play better. The one thing that we'll know is every game will be hard. We're not going to walk into a game and beat people by 21, 14 points. Got to find a way to win the games we need to win. They will all be hard. There is no question about it. Q. You mentioned stringing them together. Earlier in the season I asked -- you haven't won back-to-back games and the margin hasn't been close. You said, I don't care about that. That's in the past. This season, in the two games after wins it's 30.5 points or something like that margin. How do you get good performances back to back? COACH HAZELL: It's about the details, and it always will be. When you fix those details and trust them and believe them over and over again and work them out, that's when you start stringing them together. Until then, you don't. Q. Is Illinois similar schematically to teams you've faced already this season? COACH HAZELL: Defensively, yes. Defensively they're very similar in terms of structure to the team we just played. They want to lower the safety into the box. They are going to play two linebackers in the box. They don't play as much press coverage on the outside, but they are a one-high team. Obviously Lovie worked for Tony Dungee, and all that history of te Tampa 2, so you expect to see Tampa 2 quite a bit on third and long situations, second and long situations, because of that lineage. But they're a one-high team in run situations. Q. Will be it easier for your defense (sound cut out.) COACH HAZELL: I think what will help them is the fact that what happened on Saturday, now they'll understand the importance more so. You hate for something like that to have happened to learn the lesson, but I think they'll understand better the importance of, I'll stay in my gap. I won't try to jump out of my gap and make the play. I know someone is coming. They'll play more help defense that way. Q. So when you look at the matchups, what makes this a winnable game for you? COACH HAZELL: Well, you know, I think that if you look at -- I think we'll be okay with our defensive line if we can stop the run. I think that's where it starts. I think we can. Offensively we have to be able to run the football. We'll have some matchups on the outside that I think we can win on the outside. We got to protect him though. That's the key. Got to protect the quarterback. Can't let him take those shots. I think the first game of Western Michigan No. 6 had a sack on the very first play; the second play I think someone had a sack. So you got to be really careful on picking and choosing when you drop back and really do five-step protections without help, five-man protection as well as six-man protection. Q. In terms of the consistency, you had said yesterday it's not just about consistency over a season, but about in games. What does that look like? COACH HAZELL: In games is about continually stopping them on the defensive side. We had so many short fields on Saturday. That was probably the most disappointing thing. We had the ball. We had dropped it punted well, really well. Dropped it inside the 20 four times; inside the 15 three times; got a turnover twice down inside the 20. I mean, then came out pointless in those situations. You got to come up with points when you get those opportunities. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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