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PURDUE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 10, 2016

Darrell Hazell

West Lafayette, Indiana

COACH HAZELL: Obviously a good win for us on Saturday afternoon. I thought our guys handled a lot of different situations pretty well. There are always things to improve upon, but they really responded when they had to to be able to get the victory. So I was proud of them.

Looking forward to this one. Iowa is a good football team. Well-coached, very disciplined, physical. We're going to have to beat them. They don't beat themselves. They're a good football team. Looking forward to it.

Captain's breakfast for us, our fourth annual captain's breakfast, so we'll have about anywhere between 30 and 40 captains back.

Looking forward to kicking off 12:01 on Saturday.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. First off, congratulations on the win. Second, how is Young doing? What's his status?
COACH HAZELL: Domo, we still haven't been able to get an MRI on him. He's still in a little bit of pain, but his spirits are good. Soon as we get an MRI we'll know for sure where he is injury-wise.

Q. The fact you had two guys make all Big 10 honors with Dellinger and Lankford-Johnson, just talk about the fact that they were honored that way?
COACH HAZELL: I was really happy for both of those guys. Obviously Lankford-Johnson had to step up in Markell's absence and did a nice job. I thought he really did a good job with some patients in the hole and then being able to make a couple bursts. Made some guys miss. I thought he ran physical enough for us and he did a good job stepping in.

J.D., can't be more happy for that guy. He's had some struggles this year already, and he went out there and hit that last one with a lot of confidence and hit it right down the middle. He was jacked up after that kick.

Q. As a coach, when a kicker is struggling, do you try to stay away from them a little bit? Do you talk to them a little bit? How do you approach that to keep a guy's confidence up?
COACH HAZELL: Well, I asked him last week after the Maryland game what happened on the kick that he missed there. He started giving me a bunch of details. I said, J.D., you're a good kicker; just go out and kick. That's what he did. He's made those kicks hundreds of times in practice with a lot of confidence all over the field, from the hashes, from the middle of the field, from different distances, so I was happy to see him be able to step up and bang that one through.

Q. The offensive line you got a little creative at times. Is that indicative of what you need to do in the future, and how satisfying was it that the line was able to perform they way they did?
COACH HAZELL: I felt the number one thing going into that game last week was to control and neutralize No. 91 and No. 6. So the game plan was kind of crafted around those two guys. I thought our offensive staff did a good job of making sure we were chipping those guys or blocking those guys with two guys on every pass play that was a dropback.

We also had in the plan to run nakeds and to run right at them. Those were the things we thought could kind of slow those guys down. I thought they did a good job.

Q. Is the Wildcat going to be a consistent part of the offense in the future?
COACH HAZELL: Ours is called the Amtrak, not the Wildcat, but always be in the package each week.

Q. Looking at Iowa, what kind of problems does the quarterback present?
COACH HAZELL: You know, last night I watched all special teams. Today I've watched their first two and a half games. What I see from him is he's just throwing it with great accuracy. He's got a lot of confidence right now.

He did lose a go-to guy. Sounds like he's going to be out one of his wide receivers. But he's really accurate with the football and it's coming out of his hands really fast. He throws the bubble to those detached receivers really well, accurately, so they can run it and with it.

So we're going to have to get after him a little bit.

Q. Pete asked you about Domo. Could you update us on Jones, Lankford-Johnson, Mosley. How are your guys?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, be they're doing well, really well. It's still early in the week, but as they come in and get treatment and check in, we feel like they're all in pretty good shape right now.

Q. Might you have Bentley and Jones, or to be determined?
COACH HAZELL: Probably. We'll probably have them.

Q. Probably, okay. You know, the interesting thing about Iowa, and you guys share a commonality. You almost seem like at times I play better on the road than at home. They've won eight in a row. I watched the game Saturday, and afterwards, Ferentz said many of the same things you said. You're bonding; you're together; there are not a lot of distractions. But they are very good in the road. Have you noticed what they do on the road? They kind of slow it down and play defense and run the ball.
COACH HAZELL: I've been able to play them since 2004. They haven't changed. They're really, really sound. They got a really good offense. Their offensive line is really good, I think. Blocking, the zone, the lead zone, the split zone. Doing a good job more so this year running power. They don't turn it over.

And then they play their shell defense, their two-cover shell defense. Everybody knows where they're supposed to be, and that's why they're so consistent.

Q. Other thing I wanted to ask you about, my last question, a lot of talk going on about the late hits, the targeting. Not just your game, but in college football in general. You had some examples of that. No. 6, you know, horrible hit. Eddy made a bad decision. You talked about that after the Indiana game last year, that you wanted to clean that up. What's the fine line between aggressive play and just making silly decisions?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, they have to understand, which they do, that the white hat is going to protect the quarterback at all costs. If it's close, they're going to call it. That's been the talk for the last two, two and a half years in all the officials meetings and Big 10 head coach meetings. They are going to protect the quarterback.

If there is ever any doubt, just going to pull off. That's what you have to do that better.

Q. We saw Malik Kimbrough on offense for the first time this week. What does he bring from the offensive side of the ball? How do you plan to use him in that way going forward?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, he's really exciting player. He's quick; got really soft hands; he maneuvers through traffic and tight spaces very quickly.

So we have to have him in the package every single week. Seeing how we can get him to five to seven to eight touches, because more than likely he's going to have a chance to break one of those.

Yeah, he'll be part of the plan.

Q. What did you guys do with the Cannon? Where is it now?
COACH HAZELL: Yesterday at 4:30 or so it was in or DFO's office. We're trying to figure out the exact place we need to put that, but it was good to have it in our building, that's for sure.

Q. You talked just about a week ago about the mood, and how after a loss everyone is on you; after a win everybody is for you. What's the spectrum of emotions been from last week to now?
COACH HAZELL: Business as usual. Doesn't change for us inside our walls. We have a set routine of what we do from the time the game is over until the time we play the next game. We can't be like this is as a staff. We have to fare the same way regardless of the outcome of the game and make sure we give our guys the best chance we can to be successful.

That's our plan.

Q. This week's homecoming. I know you typically say every week nothing changes, but is there any added significance with it being homecoming?
COACH HAZELL: Well, you get all your alum back. It's always good to see those people. They're fired up to see the team maybe for the first time this year in person this year. That's an excitement for them.

Obviously there is a lot more energy in homecoming games than typical games for whatever reason. That's everywhere in the country, not just our place obviously.

Yeah, certainly has an added meaning to it being homecoming.

Q. How about Eddy Wilson? Looked like after the call we talked about he didn't come back in. Was that a disciplinary thing or something else?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, a little bit. Obviously crossed the line there, and so Coach Melvin pulled him out and we held him out. He was in for one play, I believe. I think it was the field goal block that he came back in for. We took care of some things last night as a team for those types of things.

Q. With Domo, I know you said there has been no MRI. I assume he's not available this week?
COACH HAZELL: Correct.

Q. Any guess as to the timetable?
COACH HAZELL: No. He won't be available this week, but we'll find out exactly how long and where his future lies after we find out the MRI results.

Q. With the guys who are going to have to step up immediately for him, I assume maybe Bilal is the first guy who steps into that spot. What do you see as the sort of depth there right now?
COACH HAZELL: Couple weeks ago you guys asked about Terrance Landers, and that's why you play those guys that have a chance to be successful as a freshman. We always felt like that about him, and his role will be added now.

He's got to keep coming and learning the system and the signals to be able to help us. He certainly has the physical capabilities to be able to contribute this year at a high level in terms of performance and also in terms of numbers.

So we have to count on him, and all those other guys have to step up. And you'll see Kimbrough in that room probably more so now than the other room.

Q. What is it Bilal that you're getting from the Amtrak beyond just obviously having something that's a wrinkle? What does that give you in your offense?
COACH HAZELL: I think it gives a couple things: One, he's a good player with the ball in his hands. We know that. I think it also makes defenses prepare for something else. If they can take 10, 15 extra minutes preparing for the Amtrak, that means they're not preparing for other parts of our offense.

I think that's part of he element of having that in our package. But we can do some things because he can throw it. He was a quarterback coming out of high school. We know he can run it. He had a great run the other day. That second down run was big. I thought he was trapped for a two-yard gain, and he ends up getting nine on the play.

It was a big run for us.

Q. What does he add in terms of being a deep threat? That's part of his versatility.
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, we took a shot on him. We had an isolation route on the underneath and they played zone inside. He was outside on the right, and that's the one David overthrew and threw it out of bounds. He blew by that corner. He looked like he was running, so he can stretch the field vertically as well as do some other things for us.

Q. At least two of your cornerbacks got banged up. Norwood and Cason. Do you know what their situation is now?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, they're both clearing pretty good. We'll see where they are. It's still early in the week. It's a day earlier than typical for us here today. It's a day-by-day thing, they were in good spirits yesterday.

Q. Do you like the depth you have there right now? What does it mean if one or multiple of those guys can't play?
COACH HAZELL: Well, you have to go to your next guy. Feel really good about Josh Hayes. Even though he's a young player you got Brandon Shuman who has played for us on special teams.

So guy have to step up.

Q. Any kind of diagnosis on Brian Lankford-Johnson, what actually happened to his shoulder?
COACH HAZELL: Just a shoulder sprain. He's fine.

Q. We've talked to you before about how you do this twice in a row. What do you see as sort of the key to that? Something you try to take from the emotion of Saturday and bring it through the week? Just like if it was a loss, do you have shut it off and go from here?
COACH HAZELL: Well, it comes down to execution. Always does. We got to put together a great plan. The one thing about Iowa that you know where they're going to be defensively. They're going to play their shell. They're not going to substitute personnel or not going to match personnel with personnel. They're going to take their linebackers and walk them out of the box. When you take a guy out of the box, play two high safeties. Once in a while they'll drop a safety down.

So it's not a great mystery as to what they're going to play defensively, but you still have to execute because they're good players across the board. Physical. They're never out of position. You have to make those tough yards.

Q. I think you said Malik started in the runningback room when he got here. Was there something you guys have seen from his skillset or something in the past weeks that has moved him more to the other room?
COACH HAZELL: I think there is a need for him to be there, but I think we're pretty deep in the runningback room. You just can't leave good talent like that on the sideline. So as many times as we can expose him to the field, I think the better off we're all going to be. He's just such a dynamic player.

Sometimes when you're catching punts or catching kickoffs, it's a little bit different than being able to kick one out to you on a bubble or a jailbreak or hitting you on a hitch and letting him do his magic.

Q. Was he in the runningback room in some ways because that can help him in the return scenarios?
COACH HAZELL: No. We started him there in the runningback room because we didn't know where we were coming into the season. Now we think we're going to evolve him right back to the wide receiver room. And he's played both in college.

Q. Desmond King for Iowa, what impressions you about him?
COACH HAZELL: He's scary. He's really scary. He's an excellent football player. I think he's really good both at punt return and kickoff return. I was watching him all day yesterday. There is something about him. He catches the ball like it's a pillow. That's the first thing. You watch him catch punts. It's so soft for him.

But his first step off the catch is really dynamic. He is just so fast off the catch, which allows him to make guys miss him and get the ball started. Then he's got tremendous vision around people. I don't know if he's got great top end speed, but he's got enough top end speed to take it the distance.

I actually had one of our guys in the office put together a cutup of him this morning so Malik can watch it, because he's really good.

Q. What you saw from your young runningbacks on Saturday, does that potentially impact the way you use Markell further on in the season to perhaps keep him fresh?
COACH HAZELL: Well, I think we use Markell the way we need to, whether it's 25 carries or 30 carries. What Saturday did for us is it gave us an insurance, an assurance that we can use those other guys and not feel like you're going to lose too much in the running game.

So those guys did a really good job coming in. Richie pounded them really good, and Lankford was able to make some of those big runs for us.

Q. King is a pretty good defensive player, right?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, he's good corner. He really stands out in the return game. He's a good corner.

Q. When you look at that, I'm sure he'll match up with DeAngelo. Best against best. What do you know DeAngelo now that Domo is not on the other side?
COACH HAZELL: Well, you know, he's got to play and continue to raise his game in terms of technique. I don't know how much press they're going to play against him. They don't play a whole lot of press. He's got to work his technique and be able to separate?

Q. Just personally speaking, I thought Posey was going to show up more over the early part of the season than he has. What have you seen form him? What do you need him to be?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, we missed him the other day on a dig route, third down situation. David threw it out in front of him. There is a lot of the football left, so I'm wanting him to get hot as well. Hopefully he can catch four, five, six balls a game for us. We're going to need him the last seven ball games or so.

Q. What do you think of David's performance from Saturday?
COACH HAZELL: Missed a couple easy ones that he has to hit. Missed a flat throw on a big third down to Brycen/Bryson. [Phonetic] he missed a, for the lack of term, an outcut to Yancey to their sideline. He missed a couple other easy ones.

I felt like he was calm the entire day. He just missed them. He's doing a nice job for us. I really like where he is. Got to hit those shots though.

Q. After having gone back and watching the defense, what do you think of the way they played?
COACH HAZELL: They played well enough when they had to. Offensively you want to make all those tackles you need to make. Missed a couple tackles. I'm not sure exactly how many. When they had to step up and make the plays they did. They did a nice job. I am proud of them.

Q. You used some of a four-linebacker package there, and you played 4-3 as well. Seems like you mixed it up quite a bit. Did you like the diversity of the defense?
COACH HAZELL: We're matching personnel. That is what it comes down to for us. I thought and Andy Garcia played well and I thought Danny played well. Bailey is playing lights out right now. He is really playing like a guy, so it was good.

And Jimmy Herman played well. Made some good plays for us. Good to see all the young guys or the guys that haven't played a whole lot come in and do a good job for us.

Q. Bailey's hand okay?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, he's fine. He's a tough guy. They went out and did what they had to do in the locker room and he missed like three plays and he was back out there. I didn't know he left the field. I heard something over the headset and they said he's back in the locker room. Didn't realize he left.

Q. The way Terry called the offense on Saturday is not necessarily what I think maybe he would like to do in terms of taking more shots down the field. Is this what this offense has to be, or do you think it shows you can do different things with this offense?
COACH HAZELL: I think we have to be accommodating to what we're seeing defensively. I really do. Different teams will pose different problems. This week is completely different than last week, so I think that's where the game plan starts.

I don't know how many shots we took, couple three shots down the field. Probably need to take a couple more. I thought he did a great job calling the offense and putting guys in position to be successful. We didn't have very many negative delays, no sacks, and we felt like we were in a rhythm the entire day.

Q. Personally seemed like you guys opened it up without opening it up, going over the top. Some of the plays or trick plays or whatever you want call them, what's the play where you put those two offensive linemen out wide?
COACH HAZELL: What's it called? Polar Express. (Laughter.)

Q. Why?
COACH HAZELL: No idea why we call it Polar Express. It's another train, right?

Q. Did you assume Illinois was going to take a timeout there when they saw that?
COACH HAZELL: No. No, we did not. Not at all. But we have a lot of options off that formation.

Q. The side that he threw to ultimately had two cornerbacks right on top of those guys and the safety ended up coming over. Is that one of the reads there, depending on how they defended is what he does?
COACH HAZELL: I'm not going to give you the whole package. Come on.

Q. These are Monday questions I'm usually not asking in front of everyone. Also with Bilal, they asked about the Wildcat type package or whatever, but you moved him around, too.
COACH HAZELL: Amtrak.

Q. I know, sorry. I don't know if I'm going to buy into that one. (Laughter.) You lined him up in the back field once, too, on the play he ended up going deep? You like to move him around in the formation as well?
COACH HAZELL: Bilal?

Q. Yeah.
COACH HAZELL: Yeah. There are a couple things we have planned for him to do. One of the big things we tried on Saturday was to keep moving guys. I don't know if you saw that. We moved guys I would say probably two thirds of the time, and it was done for a reason.

It worked.

Q. Did he almost run into the snap on the Kimbrough run play?
COACH HAZELL: Almost.

Q. I didn't think I missed that.
COACH HAZELL: Yep. Almost.

Q. Defensively have you made an adjustment where if they're in kind of a tight formation and you switch, like Robert Gregory would go to a one-high safety and you would move the safety down. Is he still kind of playing a different role depending on motions of the offense?
COACH HAZELL: Kind of. Yeah.

Q. You guys haven't worn the gray uniforms yet. Will that happen on Saturday?
COACH HAZELL: It will not. We will not be in the gray uniforms on Saturday.

Q. What are you going to wear?
COACH HAZELL: Going to wear gold helmets, black shirt, and gold pants.

Q. For the first time now you have a dilemma with your helmet stickers because you've won a couple games. Where you going to put them?
COACH HAZELL: The helmet stickers?

Q. Yeah.
COACH HAZELL: They're on already. They start on the right side, I believe, and they go up the right. When the right side is covered we'll start on the left. Yeah.

Q. Bunch of follow ups here. Defensively in the second half did you feel like you were more assignment sound than you had been maybe in the first half and the week before?
COACH HAZELL: What happens is when you knock a quarterback out the whole plan changes. So you're planning for one type of quarterback. I'm not sure when they left the game, what quarter that was. Second quarter?

So you got to adjust to all the running things that had hurt us prior weeks. That's where the adjustments were coming from.

Q. Yeah, you guys weren't great against Maryland, against some of the motion stuff they did, but then were much better in the second half against Illinois. Does that help you to have to seen that the week before and make those adjustments on the fly pretty easy?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, I thought Coach Els had some good answers. You know, the previous week when we played Maryland, one of the problems was that the guy we were bringing down into the front, he was getting so close to the line of scrimmage that he couldn't handle the cutback run. He might as well have taken a knee.

So we were keeping him a little bit further off the line of scrimmage so if the ball cut back there could be another second level defender to be able to tackle the football.

Q. When you were talking about cornerbacks earlier, I don't think you mentioned David Rose. He played a lot for you down the stretch.
COACH HAZELL: He did.

Q. He's not a guy that has been in the rotation until maybe the last couple weeks. What did you see from him?
COACH HAZELL: A lot of the energy. He's still learning the system. I heard a lot of the guys yelling at him to get in the right place. When he got there I thought he did a good job competing. That's the one thing you know about him. He will compete. He's got some quick twitch, and he'll battle for the football.

Q. Could he stay in that mix a little bit?
COACH HAZELL: Oh, yeah, absolutely. He will certainly be that third corner, fourth corner that you would need to help us continue on.

Q. Just back to Malik real quick, how is it that he got overlooked by everyone except for you guys late?
COACH HAZELL: I think Mike Wall does an unbelievable job. I said, Mike, we need to get a returner. I don't care what position he plays. We need to find a returner.

So he went and scoured the country and brought me back six guys. We narrowed it down to three, and Malik is obviously the guy we settled on. I just think he does an unbelievable job of just watching film and finding those guys that are out there that might be overlooked.

He's a dynamic player I think, and he's just scratching the surface.

Q. I would imagine not a lot of guys get recruited for return skills. Did he not show up as much of an offensive player?
COACH HAZELL: He showed up both as an offensive player and a defensive player as times, but I wasn't looking for that. I was looking for the returner.

Q. So what did you tell the guys last night about unsportsmanlike? You said you took care of it last night. And what did that entail?
COACH HAZELL: Just not doing it.

Q. Told them don't do it?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah.

Q. Anything new this week you can tell us about Martesse?
COACH HAZELL: No, I can't tell you anything right now. Hopefully at some point in time we can give you some news, but I don't know anything I didn't know three days ago.

Q. So your last two wins have come down to the wire. How do you think your team is handling the pressure-packed situations?
COACH HAZELL: I think next seven games are going to be exactly the same. We're going to be in tight battles, three minutes left in the game, two minutes left. It was great to see us be able handle that situation.

That game of the crazy the last three minutes of that football game. We stop them; we get it back. I really feel good about our two-minute situation that we always work every Wednesday. We're going to go down to be able to kick a field goal.

All of a sudden we get a deflected pass. It's picked off. Now you got to play defense at mid-field. They make a couple first downs and get themselves in field goal position, and we come up with a big stop there.

It was a great effort on that field goal block unit, by the field goal block unit that they missed. Great effort.

Then you go down and make a couple big runs with Richie and then you kick it into overtime. I think that's the way it's going to be. I just really do. We got to handle all those situations and stay calm and be able to close the game.

Q. Iowa's last four games have been decided by seven points or less. How do you, much like North Dakota State, like Northwestern, how do you pull out the win?
COACH HAZELL: Again, it comes down to executing, making the most plays between the two teams, and not panicking throughout the course of the game as a football team.

You know, one of the messages I talked to the team about on Friday night at the hotel was just being able to play a collective game between all three units.

I think that's one of the things we have to do better. Offense, defense, and special teams. I really felt like we were playing off each other. I thought the punt, again, unit did a great job dropping it in deep, defense got them off, and the offense moved it down the field, all those things that you look to see for performance.

Q. Your kickoff approach versus Illinois, was that a strategic thing or a confidence thing?
COACH HAZELL: It was a thing that we -- the pooches went to was because they were hurting us. We had missed some lanes a couple times. Sealed us off a couple times. So we went to the pooch, and I think we got them to fair catch it once and they returned it to roughly the 30 the other time.

The other times they hit a big one on us and got it out beyond the 35, 40 yard line.

Q. How do id you think Leroy played?
COACH HAZELL: Really good at times and other times missed a couple tackles. Couple times he came down the hill and he did what a safety is supposed to: hit a guy up and get him on the ground. There was one time he missed the quarterback. First touchdown he had a chance to get the quarterback down and missed the tackle.

He did a good job.

Q. You have been drilled about Desmond King, but what have you seen from their run game?
COACH HAZELL: Really good. Just finished watching those first three games of their offense. They have two really good runningbacks. Nos. 25 and 29 are really shifty, quick, and strong. Their offensive line is excellent. They're excellent at zone blocking and gap schemes.

The back always makes them right. If they're a half shade off a guy and the guy is coming off, the back always corrects the offensive linemen. So they're really, really good.

And then they're throwing it well.

Q. On the flip side, Mitch Leidner from Minnesota this past weekend, as you said, he keeps you just uncomfortable. How do you ensure, much like this past Saturday with David, that he's comfortable in the pocket and able to make plays?
COACH HAZELL: In terms of protection you mean?

Q. Correct.
COACH HAZELL: Yeah. We haven't gotten to the nuts and bolts of it. I probably shouldn't say this, but just studying their ends, a little bit different creature than it was last week with 91 and 6, but there are god players, really good players, but different types of player.

We have to make sure we start with, one, running the football, being able to run the ball, but also be able to protect the passer.

Q. Their quarterback stats won't jump out at you, but he's won the last eight road starts. What is it did C.J. when it comes to his intangibles that makes him the player that he is?
COACH HAZELL: Yeah, that stat jumps out at me right there, that he's won. That's the number one stat. He just manages the team. He makes the right throws. He doesn't turn it over. Really, really good at being the leader of that offense.

Q. You've gone against Iowa, as you've said, since 2004. How close are you with Kirk?
COACH HAZELL: Really have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a person. I think he's an excellent football coach. There is always those guys in the head coaching room that you really -- I mean, he started at Iowa a long time ago and struggled for his first couple years.

You study that. He's the guy that stayed the course. Because of it, he climbed to the top. I mean, obviously Big 10 champion, all those things. That's why you like him so much, because he's really steady.

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