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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 3, 2009

Danny Hope

Q. I was wondering, maybe talk about how important it is for your team just to forget about what happened Saturday and turn the page like coaches talk about so often?
COACH HOPE: Well, I think it's always important to move on so that your focus can be on the right things. But you have to learn from the past, so hopefully it'll make an impression so we can go out there and do even better in practice, make sure we do better in the games as a result of it.
I think it'll make an impression, but we're ready to move on. We already have moved on. We've done a good job of that in the past.
In the very, very beginning we talked about the season, I said we had a team that did a good job with short-term goals. I thought that it really made a difference in the development of our football team in the spring and where we started the season at, and I think that's the same case all year long; we've done a good job with moving on.

Q. You talked about learning from your past experience. In terms of specifics of turning the page, I mean, do you spend a lot of time personally watching that film, and I mean, is it tough for you to stomach?
COACH HOPE: (Laughing) Your question is tough for me to stomach. Any time that you don't perform as well you're disappointed in your work obviously; it's not near as much fun to watch as maybe a big win like the Ohio State game. But I went down and saw both films directly right after the game. As a coach you're really always interested to go see what's on the film. I have a tough time going to bed at nighttime after a game without seeing the film. I really do, I really struggle with that and I always have, particularly as a position coach.
I came in and looked at it Saturday night. I don't know if "tough to stomach" is the best way to describe it. I'm disappointed that we didn't play better. We didn't do some things that we've done a great job with all year long for the most part. If we had done those things, we'd have a chance to compete in the game.

Q. I'm interested, I know you as coaches look at it, the film, a lot. But is it just sort of business as usual when you have a game like that in terms of film study with your players?
COACH HOPE: Well, we didn't go into the meeting with the intention of mistreating anybody when we looked at the film of our players. I assure of that. There's some professionalism that's involved in coaching.
But we went in and looked at the film. I went in and looked at the film and then I met with the coaches who looked at the film, and then we took the film and met with our players and looked at the film like we do every Saturday. There were more things that needed to be corrected and more things that needed to be addressed. But it wasn't of any negative. You know, it was constructive so we can move on and get ready to win the next game.

Q. You've talked often about building the Purdue program. After five Big Ten games, I mean, I guess give us an update where you think this program is in terms of physicality. Did Saturday's game give you an indication of maybe there's still a lot of work to be done in that department?
COACH HOPE: Well, there's always going to be a lot of work to be done in that department. The other teams that played against Wisconsin got knocked around some, as well. What we didn't do is we didn't make any plays, and as a result the game got lopsided. But they've played well against some of the best teams in the country.
You're always going to be more physical. Even in our most physical games this year, at times we've lined up and really gotten after the opponent, we still want more.
You always want to get bigger and stronger and play more physical, and if you're looking at the game on Saturday I don't think we came out and played as physical on defense early in the game. I thought as the game went on we got adjusted to the speed of the game. That happens sometimes. Once we got it going, I thought we played much better in the second half and as the game progressed.

Q. You've talked throughout the season about making sure that Saturday is fun and so guys look forward to game day. Was that at all a challenge for you and your staff, keeping it that way on Saturday, and did you feel you were able to do that?
COACH HOPE: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, you go into coaching for two reasons. One is because you can't live without the game, and the other is because you want to work with the young people. That's why we get into coaching, and that's why there's always different levels of coaching and a lot of great men in coaching. We want to go out there and we're going to have fun and we're going to enjoy football. We started playing the game of football to have fun, and that should never change.
Lack of effort is something that if I feel a guy has a lack of effort, then I certainly don't like that, and that's something that's addressed always. But we haven't had very much lack of effort in practice or in the games.

Q. And the last thing I had, maybe just some of your initial thoughts on Michigan. They're a lot like your team will be in terms of their backs I'm sure they're feeling like are up against the wall and they have to finish strong.
COACH HOPE: Well, I think you're right when you say they're a lot like our team. They're a very good football team, and they have a winning record. They strike fast on offense and they're really quick on defense and they have a lot of talented players. But they've had some mishaps in the games that's cost them some games. They've had some turnovers and some unfortunate events that's a difference maker in big-time ball games when there's big-time players and teams playing.
I think we're similar in a lot of ways. We have different styles of offense and defense, but I think we're similar in some ways where even though they have a winning record, they weren't that far off in the ones they lost. They did some great things. They have some great players and make some great plays, lots of them.

Q. You've said all season that the team has played hard when you give yourself a chance to compete, and you said that the team didn't do some of the things that it had done all season last Saturday. You talked about learning from that sort of thing. Is there anything that you can pinpoint maybe from the week leading up to it or maybe the approach that might have gotten you guys off track a little bit going into it?
COACH HOPE: No, I can't even speculate something or I can't even make something up for you to write about. They practiced really well, and we had keys to victory that even coming out of the game we realized if we had done those things better we'd have had a chance to compete. I don't know what we could have done any different.
It was a big game for us, and it's a big stage, much bigger game for us maybe than some realize. Maybe I make the game too big sometimes. But I thought it was a real chance for us to go up to Wisconsin and if we played well to really come onto the scene from a national picture standpoint in some ways with three wins in a row after accruing some losses in a row. I think everybody recognized it as a big game and got ready to play.
I don't think we overlooked anybody. I can't put my finger on anything. We didn't catch the football very well. Some of the passes weren't quite as accurate, and we didn't catch the ball very good, and that really impacted the game. Made a few mistakes here and a few mistakes there, and they were a really good football team that was ready to play, and they didn't make many mistakes.
Just like a couple weeks ago when we played Ohio State out here, they made some mistakes and we didn't make as many, and that's the difference in the game every Saturday for the most part.

Q. This was a different kind of loss from the other ones. The other ones, many of them were very close, you were right there. This was a different type of loss. Is this in a way an opportunity to kind of find what your team is made of and how they respond to this situation?
COACH HOPE: I think every Saturday has been that way, I really do. I've been pleased with the response every time. And I'm sure we won't be disappointed this week, either, as far as their will to win or their preparation to play the game. But every Saturday has been that way. A test.
You keep believing you're going to win and lay it out there on the line. When it's all said and done in 2009, the team that never quits, that's going to be a great statement for our program and some good things will happen to us here at the end of the season if we can be that team in 2009, and some good things already have. Not as many as we'd like.

Q. Any personnel changes as a result of the last game? Any thoughts of maybe switching some people around or anything like that?
COACH HOPE: Well, we have more good players that we can play, not that that means anyone doesn't deserve to play. But you know, Al-Terek McBurse is a heck of a football player, we'd like to get him more, and the same with our young defensive backs. They're good players, and they're starting to become more comfortable. Still a long ways away, but they got about ten snaps or so, maybe they can get some more. They're in some groupings of personnel that we wanted to utilize in the course of the game, but because the score got lopsided, we didn't get to use that personnel grouping. So we had a plan for them, and maybe they can play some more. I'd like to play those guys some more.
I really like what I'm seeing out of Dwayne Beckford; he's really becoming a heck of a football player, making a lot more sense with the way he lines up and how he plays, indicating he really is starting to understand what to do. It's really very important to him. He's a physical player. He's not a 240- or 250-pound linebacker, but he hits like one. He's really packed together, and he's a very physical player. I really like what I see him doing, and Antwon Higgs, so those guys keep playing more.

Q. What's the latest on Royce Adams?
COACH HOPE: Well, he's cleared to practice now, but we have to see how he does. He's coming off of a knee injury and wants to see how he feels with it and what it's able to do. He's got to test the waters some first, if you will, and we'll know going into Saturday whether or not he'll be a first-line player in some specific roles or just keep him as a backup and hold him 'til next week. But we're going to try to get him ready to go and find out what he can do because we think he's a very good football player, and he's fast and knows what it takes to win, I think, Royce does. He really loves to play. If he's healthy we can certainly use him out there.

Q. Last thing from me, I realize you're worried about your own team, but any surprise at all when you hear about what Oregon did against USC? I mean, you play them on their home field. Any thoughts on that and just what they were able to do in that situation?
COACH HOPE: Well, I'm not surprised at any scores I see on any Saturday anymore. It's amazing, really. There's the parity that's in college football, and the difference from one Saturday to the next what a little bit of help can mean to a football team. It doesn't take much for things to swing real big one way or the other.
They're a heck of a football team. In my mind looking at Oregon and looking at Michigan, to me they're a lot alike. They're a whole lot alike in a lot of ways, from what they're able to do with the football to the talent level that they have.
On the defensive side of the ball, Michigan is not the biggest defense we play all year. They're not small by any means, but they attack quick and run to the ball hard and they're aggressive and they bring a lot at you. They've got real mobile quarterbacks and a similar style offense and similar style skill players. I think they're very similar in a lot of ways.
So I'm not surprised by the scores. I think Oregon is a really good football team, and I think Michigan is a good football team, and I think Notre Dame was a good football team and Wisconsin and Ohio State. We've got a pretty good schedule.

Q. I just wanted to ask you a quick follow-up about Royce Adams. Are you most eager at this point to get him back to use on special teams, to use on offense?
COACH HOPE: Special teams probably first, and then -- not that that means I don't think he's going to make a difference on offense because I think he has, but we don't have enough starter-type guys on special teams right now. He's a senior that has 4.5 or better speed and we could use some of that on special times right now. He was exceptional at it before he got hurt. He was one of our better guys. So we'd love to be able to do that with him, but we'll have to see how he does in practice.
He practiced Sunday and ran routes and caught the ball pretty good, looked fine. There were a couple routes that we didn't have him in for and there were a couple plays we didn't have him in for, but we got some work with him on Sunday and liked what we saw. So we're optimistic, but we're not going to count on it. We'll see where it goes.

Q. The other thing I wanted to ask you about, I know during the season you've had scrimmages on Sundays for some of your younger guys. How has that gone? Has anybody jumped out at you that you like that maybe is red-shirting right now or being a backup that has kind of caught your eye for the future?
COACH HOPE: Yeah, there's a lot of good players out there. We have good speed at some of the skill positions. We get Al-Terek McBurse a lot of work so we get to see him a lot, still trying to get him ready for now, gotta catch him up reps-wise, and he does a great job and really stands out. And then the freshman quarterback, Najee Tyler, has done very well in the scrimmage. We've been real pleased with him. We didn't know much about him because he's always run someone else's plays. We got to see him run our plays some, and he did well.
Some of the defensive linemen physically are talented guys and guys that could be top-of-the-line players for Purdue in the future, Kevin Pamphile and Justin Kitchens, and there's some talent out there that -- players with their hand on the ground that I really like, some skill kids that can run. I like what I'm seeing out there.
We've had a lot of fun with that. It's not just been the scout team scrimmaging. There's lots of guys on the team that might not be getting any reps for now. Some of the next guys that will go in the games on Saturday, we'll keep getting them some work, and then the other twos. So it's been great work for us, and we're going to continue getting a bunch of it.

Q. I know you haven't sorted out anything with all those young linemen in terms of who's going to offense or anything like that, but do you expect that to happen after the season like in the spring?
COACH HOPE: We'll wait and see how it goes. We don't have to put a bull's-eye on the calendar. We'll wait and see how it goes and let them scrimmage some and let them eat and lift and see how they grow. We don't have to pick them yet.

Q. The last thing I wanted to ask you about, obviously you can't go into specifics, but can you tell us how you feel your 2010 recruiting class is going? Are you happy with things?
COACH HOPE: It's going great. It's going great. We have about 21 guys that feel really good about Purdue and have indicated that they'd like to be part of what's happening here, be a Boilermaker, and that's exciting. We still have several spots to fill, but we're filling up fast. We like their caliber.
There's a lot of guys in the recruiting process when we get on the recruiting board, a lot of guys, when we rank them, they're ones. If they want to come, you'd take them right now; they're a first pick for you. You could have several guys at a position. You might have several ones at running back to get a top running back, and there's a 1.1 and a 1.2 and a 1.3 and a 1.4, but any one of those six or seven guys are guys you think could really make a difference in the program, and we've landed a lot of guys in this recruiting class before that were 1.0 or 1.1s, very, very top guys that were on our board for us when this started out several months ago after we've sifted through and came out of the spring evaluation period. So it's gone very, very well.
There's some key positions that we still have to lock up, and those will be the focal point of the recruiting process here for the next couple of months, and obviously spending a lot of time with the guys that are the most interested in Purdue and the guys that have decided to come to Purdue to continue to learn more about each other and establishing that relationship and then obviously getting into a futuristic recruiting plan, which is something that's really important to our program right now. We've embarked on it, it's in process, but getting more involved in that.
So there's a lot going on recruiting-wise, but this time of year a lot of it is the result of great groundwork laid early in the recruiting process, so it's going very well for us right now, very, very well. We have commitments from top players in each one of the areas that we chose to go in and recruit, local and far away and in the southeast, local and south, and then all the way out to the southwest, as well. So it's going very well. I wish we could sign twice as many if we could do it.

Q. Just a quick follow up on that, in terms of total number of recruits you'd like to bring in, is there a number?
COACH HOPE: A hundred (laughing). But 25, 26, somewhere in that range. I never like to sign them all up. I like to hold back one scholarship. We've got to continue shopping. Once you give them all away, kind of like a guy who calls last call; they have to turn the lights off and go home. As long as you've got one scholarship you can continue recruiting, so I don't know if we'll fill them all in February or not.

Q. And in terms of Michigan, their running attack, I think they've got basically six guys who have run for 200 yards or more. Talk about that type of problem they present.
COACH HOPE: They're really fast and they're really good, and they spread you out and they get the ball to them in a hurry, and it happens fast, and you'd better get there in hurry or they'll be gone.

Q. Two of those guys are the quarterback, so that puts even more pressure on you.
COACH HOPE: Sure, absolutely.

Q. Is that anything like anything you've played so far this year? I guess you mentioned Oregon.
COACH HOPE: Well, they run a spread offense and we run a spread offense. We'll line up in a little more "I" eye and a little more tight end and running back personnel maybe than what Purdue has in the last 15 years, but we're still a spread offense and we run a lot of the same things. So we have a defensive plan that we're used to and comfortable with against a spread offense. You have to execute it because there's a lot of great players, and they're very good at it, very good at it.

Q. The quarterback rotation, one guy is mostly the passer, one guy more the runner, but does that add any extra --
COACH HOPE: That would be what their stats indicate, but I don't look at either one of them as being that much different. Maybe they choose to use them differently, but both of those guys can really run and both of those guys can really throw, really pass. So we recruited them, and they're exceptional athletes. Both those guys are really fast. One of them was the fastest guy in the whole state of Florida last year. He's really fast. And they both can really pass the football.
We thought both of those guys were top-of-the-line passers and runners. I don't see them defending differently.

Q. This is more an interpretation from your standpoint. There was a play in the Indiana game where a guy, the defensive player knocked a guy out of bounds, he used his shoulder but helmet-to-helmet contact eventuated, even if he didn't initiate that. From what officials tell you, if I'm a defensive player and I hit a guy but the helmets inadvertently bump, is it still a penalty?
COACH HOPE: No, it can be clarified pretty simple. I was on the NCAA rules committee when all of it was going on, and really what you're looking for is targeting a defenseless opponent above the shoulder pads. If you target a defenseless opponent above the shoulder pads, then you could accrue a personal foul. There's lots of contact out there where there's helmets that collide, and that why we had to determine it that way. I don't know if that's exactly verbatim but I bet it's pretty close because we were in a meeting and we spent a lot of time on it. There's targeting; you and I run into each other and we didn't target each other, that's a little bit different. Targeting a defenseless opponent above the shoulder pads, particularly with your helmet. It's really simple, really. That's why I look at it as there's no way, they're just playing football hard. Sometimes you look out there and see what their intention was, and that's when the flags come out. I wouldn't want to be an official.

Q. I just want to talk to you briefly about Joe. He hadn't had a game quite like this last one. Do you expect him to bounce back pretty well?
COACH HOPE: I think he's always done a great job of bouncing back from any adversity we've had all along. A guy who's never played much in the game, becoming the starting quarterback. I think he's handled every aspect of that role from the media to the game day very well all season long, and then when things haven't gone our way, the next play he's ready to go.
I don't anticipate anything being any different. I'm sure there won't be anything any different, either. Great competitor. Strong-minded, strong-willed and prepares him self. He has confidence in the way he prepares himself. I think that's key, and I think that's key to our whole football team this year, we've always gone back and prepared ourselves very well, and that helps us get ready to play. If you're not willing to pay the price of preparation then you can't get up on Saturday believing you can win, and I think he pays that price.

Q. Could you tell what was going wrong with him, or was it just a matter of things going wrong offensively and he was a product of that a little bit?
COACH HOPE: Well, I think he's a product of the drops some. Then you start pressing a little bit and you're trying to compete. It happens to everybody. It's hard to stay the same when the circumstances all around you change from a behavioral standpoint. Maybe when things don't go right, the coaches yell more. Maybe when things don't go right, maybe the quarterback presses more.
Who knows, but the bottom line was he didn't play as well. The receivers dropped some of the passes that he threw, way too many of them, and that didn't aid to his performance at all.
He was a little antsier in the pocket than he needed to be. We protected pretty good. A couple times they got on the edge of us some, but that's going to happen. But he just didn't play as well as he has. He came out Sunday and practiced very well, was the same guy in charge, ready to go, ready to play football.
From the very beginning we talked about him being a football junkie and all that kind of stuff, and he is. He was a perfect quarterback for us this year. We could have had a guy that may or may not have been more talented or may or may not have had starting experience that would not have had the resilience that he has, which I think has really made a difference in our football team and our football season this year. It may not be indicative in the record, but I think it is for being competitive on Saturdays. He's been a huge part of that, his makeup has been.

Q. Obviously Big House has been a difficult place for Purdue play over the years. Is it just that Michigan has been good?
COACH HOPE: It looks like it numerically.

Q. Is it just simply the fact that they've been so good or is there more to it?
COACH HOPE: They're so good. They're really good. They've had lot of good teams over the years. They've been one of the winningest programs in all of college football and have been in the upper echelon of their division over a long period of time and recruit a lot of winners at home because they're a really good football team, a great football program. Those type of programs have a great record at home.

Q. I imagine that's something you probably don't bring up with your team, or do you?
COACH HOPE: Well, they can read, so they're fully aware of it. To me it makes it more exciting. It makes it a greater challenge. It makes it a bigger coup, a bigger stake. Those are exciting.
When you're growing up playing football and you fall in love with the game and you watch it on Saturdays and you watch other young guys that are a little bit older than you playing big-time college football in a big-time college atmosphere like that, and there's something inside you that says, I want to be like that and I want to do that, and you get an opportunity to do that, that's living a dream. I would think that would make them more excited about going up to Ann Arbor. It does me.

Q. I wanted to ask you about David Pender and the ability he has to break up passes. How much of that is instinct and play-making ability on his part?
COACH HOPE: It's a lot of both, and experience has a lot to do with that, as well. With experience at that position comes confidence, and that's huge back in the secondary.
I think he's playing much better now. He wasn't as healthy really the last 12 months of his career as he has been the last two months of his career probably or the last six weeks of his career. He had some ailments that affected his speed and burst some. I thought he was still real fast and still burst real well, but he's a class athlete, he really is, and he has really played well the last four or five weeks and gotten better and better. He's very smooth and very fluid.
The number of balls that he gets his hands on in practice, he goes after every ball in practice. He gains some confidence from doing that and some timing, and as a result he is not as apprehensive as a lot of other corners to go after one. So I think it's as a result of a whole bunch of things. He's real fast. He has real long arms. He'll do very well when his time comes to try out for the NFL teams because he'll be a six-footer with real long arms that runs real fast that's experienced in the top league that has all the intangibles that you want at that position. So he has a lot of redeeming qualities that makes him tailor made for that position.

Q. When he was a little banged up, did you have to tell him you don't have to go after every ball, or is that just natural instincts taking over on his part?
COACH HOPE: My point is when he was banged up, he wasn't quite as smooth. The gears weren't turning quite as fast, he didn't corner quite as well or stop and start quite as quick, and that's a difference maker when you make decisions in judgments when you go after the ball. I think he's really in tip-top shape right now, and he's fresh and feels good. I don't know that he did towards the tail end of last season, and I know he didn't for part of the summer because we had some health issues with him that we had to deal with. But he's very healthy now, and it shows.

Q. I just wanted to ask you about the Michigan team that started 4-0 this year as opposed to the Michigan team now. What are you seeing as the difference between then and now?
COACH HOPE: Same thing that's the difference between the games we've won and lost; some plays, some turnovers, a couple bad plays, a couple mistakes that impact a game when you're playing against top competition. That's the difference.

Q. You talk every week about earmarking things that you're going to work on. What are some of the things that you're going to be looking at specifically in practice to do better?
COACH HOPE: Obviously catching the football. We went out there and did a bunch of that on Saturday.
We got the jugs machine out, that's the one, the mechanical passer, cranked it up to 2,000. They got a bunch of reps at it. I'm being facetious.
Catching the football, obviously. It's a different team, and they do some of the same things, but you can't sit there and say, well, we didn't do this well, we'd better get better at that right now, but yet that's not what you have to prepare for this week. But.
We will go into practice really trying to focus a lot more on the throwing and catching part of it with the quarterback in the pocket. We weren't in sync with routes. We had a couple routes we can run better. We spent a lot of time in that on practice on Saturday, more time with the quarterback in the pocket this week. I think that's really important for us.
We'll continue doing what we're doing on special teams. Right now it's making a difference. We've spend a lot of time on special teams, and we're playing really well on special teams right now, other than the blocked punt, but the other phases of it, when you start looking at across-the-board execution wise, we're doing much better.

Q. Obviously drops are drops, but in terms of route running and things like that, did Wisconsin press you guys on the line? Were they getting physical and maybe took you guys out of sync, and is that something Michigan does?
COACH HOPE: No, we weren't pressed up on the line of scrimmage. We ran some sloppy routes, and that affected the passing game in some ways. And then as the game progressed and we got behind and we had to throw it, then when you only have one plan how you have to throw it, then things can change out there on you in some ways. It wasn't anything really that they did. We got open. We had a good plan, and we worked hard and got open. We didn't complete the routes.
And they've got a good team. They defended lots of plays, don't misunderstand me. But we got open and hit the receivers. Drops mean they hit you. If he doesn't catch it, it's not a drop, that's an incomplete. A drop means he hits you. If we catch those, then that makes a difference in the first part of the game.

Q. Did you consider once you get into the game against Wisconsin that things became more of -- this was just a blip on the radar and it wasn't what this team really is and you really don't want to harp on it too much because that could just be a bad Saturday?
COACH HOPE: Well, I don't want to just blow it off that it was a bad Saturday because then that's too easy to me. I think you have to address what you didn't do well and go out there and really focus on that. You have to turn the page and move on, but you have to look at what you didn't get done well and focus on those things. When we don't tackle well, we have to figure out why and then try to address that and put in those situations and practice it. If we weren't at ease in the pocket, we needed to do some things different in the pocket from a throwing and catching standpoint that we don't feel good about, we go out there and we practice that. So we don't just disregard it. But it's not something that you go out there and just continue to harp on. It's not a negative thing; it has to be constructive or else you're not building. And if we're not building, we're taking it apart.

Q. Are you more open to giving younger players an opportunity now?
COACH HOPE: If it'll help us win. You know, the ones that we've taken the red shirts off we think can help us win this year. We're shorthanded special teams wise, and when we start getting guys injured now that have been dressing and been getting the varsity reps, when those guys start getting injured right now, it greatly affects special teams. We've got some young guys that can help us on special teams that can also help us on the field some this year, and it would also be in our best interest as far as next year goes. We don't want to start playing guys just for the sake of playing them to get ready for next year. We still have a list of several great things that could be had in the 2009 season that's real important to our football team and some things we'd like to get done. We're not going to worry about getting people a lot of experience for next year unless it's going to help us win.
Now, Saturday the game was out of reach towards the end, and that's called mop-up football. Whether you're on the good end or the bad end, it's mop up at the end sometimes. Sometimes you'll put some guys in just to get them out there on the field. I called a time-out at the end of the game, and their fans booed us because I guess they wanted to get out of there, but we wanted to save a couple of plays and get a couple guys in that had worked hard and hadn't been in games yet. That's mop-up football. But as far as mop-up football, no, we're not going to do that, we're going to play to win.

End of FastScripts

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