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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 17, 2009

Danny Hope

Q. I guess the first question just as you look at Indiana what impresses you about them?
COACH HOPE: They've got a good football team that plays to win. They've been in all the games, I think, the second half of the season against some great competition. They do a heck of a job throwing and catching the football. Their quarterback is really on fire, and they've got some great receivers to throw the ball to.
They have an offensive line that gets after you and has done a great job of protecting this are quarterback. They've only given up I think 13 sacks on the season. Then they can come downhill at you with the run game as well. They did that last week against Penn State.
So they've played well on offense and create some problems for you. Have to play very well on defense. Defensively they don't do a whole lot. They're not a team that comes out with a hundred different looks, but they execute very well. They have some guys in the defensive front that really get after you. Very physical middle linebacker, couple of defensive linemen that are NFL prospects. They have tough guys in the secondary.
So they're a good football team. They play very spirited. They play to win. They've been competitive in the second half of the season. So it should be a great match-up. I think it's going to be a great game. I really do. It will be a great game.

Q. You mentioned the receivers in particularly, Doss and Belcher have been their big play guys. Can you talk about them a little bit?
COACH HOPE: All of their receivers are big receivers. They're very, very athletic, and they do a great job of going after the football. Their quarterback will throw it up. They've got size and they'll get up and get it. They do a great job of laying out for some passes and have great hands. They're really a lot of fun to watch and they're excellent players.

Q. One of the emphasis you made this year was being balanced offensively. And you have a situation where you have the opportunity to have the first Purdue team to have a 3,000 passing quarterback, a 1,000 yard receiver, and a 1,000 yard rusher. Can you talk about that are opportunity? I know that's not the number one goal, but how it maybe suggests that you've been able to reset that type of offensive balance?
COACH HOPE: Well, if you stay balanced and play hard, we'll reach that goal this weekend. I think that's a real credit to the guys on the offensive side of the ball, the players and the coaches because we had so few players coming back in the 2009 season. Had very little coming back in regards to throwing and catching.
In the spring we were so far away. When camp started we made some progress, but we were a million miles away. To see us embarking on on the 3,000-yard mark and having a 1,000-yard rusher and 1,000-yard receiver, it's a great credit to the offensive coaches and players. They had a lot of fun doing it. But we have a good offense. And those goals are attainable if we stay the course.

Q. They talk about rivalry games being more intense. But is this game anymore intense than playing Ohio State? Obviously you need to be fairly intense to win that game. How much more intense is it for a rivalry game like this?
COACH HOPE: Football games are kind of like arguments. Some of them are more heated than others. It's based upon who you're arguing with. It is a rivalry, and it's a lot of fun. It really is. Rivalries are a lot of fun.
We have a couple of great rivalries here at Purdue. And IU is one of them. Coached some other places and been part of great rivalries. The Oklahoma-Texas rivalry, and the Colorado State-Wyoming rivalry. That's a very heated rivalry. People out here may not realize the intensity of that.
Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky, that goes back almost 100 years. And UK-Louisville are a great rivalry and the Purdue-Indiana rivalry. On that scale, in comparison it's very intensive at the top.
It it's a lot of fun. I think it's great for the state of Indiana. The time of the year where it's located I think makes it very attractive and a lot of fun on the schedule. I know our guys are excited about going down there and playing. It should be a great game, and the whole state will be watching.

Q. How much impact will this game have on recruiting?
COACH HOPE: I don't know if it will have any impact on recruiting because recruiting is so futuristic right now. Most of the guys are committed. People have been recruiting for a long time, and they stay committed. So I don't know how much impact it will have on recruiting. Haven't really given it any thought.
It's a game that we want to win and a rivalry game, but haven't really thought about the magnitude of the recruiting part of it.

Q. Maybe talk about the importance of Saturday's game. I mean, we've heard the players say that it's a pride thing as well as bragging rights, but I would imagine in your mind it's a lot more?
COACH HOPE: It is because of the season that we've had, a lot of the great times that we've had and some of the great experiences that we've had, we want to end the season on a positive note. You know, any time you go into postseason play the only drawback to any type of postseason play is somebody wins and somebody loses. You go to a bowl game, you don't win the bowl game. You go to the playoffs and you get knocked out of the playoffs. It's happened at every level, high school and college.
So you always want to end the season on a good note. The IU game this year for two teams was like a bowl game in a lot of ways. It was our last game of the season, and both teams want to finish the season strong with a win over their arch rival and feel good about themselves and the bragging rights and all that stuff is a part of it.
But finishing the season on a positive note is important to your program or can be important to your program. So it is a big game. With the type of season that we've had, it really adds to the list of some of the great things that we were able to get done. We didn't win as many games as we'd like to, but we've competed in every game, and we've had some great moments. This weekend would certainly add to that, and it would add to the experience and just add to the entire '09 season.

Q. When answering Pete's questions, you touched on the Purdue-IU rivalry, and where it might rank among others. But when you first came to Purdue as an assistant under Joe, were you surprised at how heated this rivalry was?
COACH HOPE: Yes. But every rivalry I've been a part of has surprised me when I get there, the intensity of the rivalry, the Wyoming-Colorado State, the Border Wars they called it. It was unbelievable. I had no idea. I couldn't have found either one of those states on a map before I moved out there. Got out there and it was an unbelievable rivalry.
But this is an intense rivalry. It's great they continue playing it on a yearly basis because if they didn't, then the guys on the team right now wouldn't understand it. When I went back to Eastern Kentucky as the head football coach, our biggest rival was Western Kentucky where they had not played each other for three or four years.
We went down to Bowling Green, and they were coming off a national championship, and the team I had didn't know anything about the rivalry. You can try to explain it to them, but until you've been part of it, you don't really get it.
These guys have been part of their rivalry, their careers here, the older guys have. So they understand the intensity of it, and the value of it.

Q. When you look back at the season so far and as you get ready to enter the finale, in your opinion should so many close losses motivate your guys in the off-season? I mean, do you expect it to on and will you push them in terms of that, using that as motivation in the winter months?
COACH HOPE: Well, I think it will motivate our football team because we're competitive. And we've gotten every Saturday we've gotten ourselves ready to play to win. We were really only out of one game. Our guys were very, very competitive.
You know, what you can do is take a good look at the season in review and there is a list of a ton of great things that happened that we're so proud of. Some great steps and great signs for our program, and a lot of great ground work has been laid and a lot of progress has been made.
But you can take a look back at the '09 season, and you can earmark some areas that have kept us from winning 8 or 9 ballgames and being in the hunt for great postseason opportunities. You know, go about finding ways to improve in those areas, and we've already done that some. Earmarked some and met about some so we have a plan to continue to improve.
You know, some of it is just human error, and some of it is things that we can do a better job at. Just like any job, you sit back, assess what you've done, and after it's done you look back and say if I do it all over again what might I do differently? And I think the '09 season presents some opportunities for the future of our program by reflecting back and looking at some things that we might be able to do a better job of and having a plan in those areas.

Q. When you look back, is it hard not to playa the what if game and somewhat frustrating in terms of a play here, a play there and your record could be completely reversed from what it is?
COACH HOPE: It's not hard for me not to look back and reflect and play the what-if game. It might be for some others. But where you're at is not near as important as where you're going. We've got great plans. I believe we've laid some great ground work.
I don't reflect back and play the what-if game. We're getting ready to win a big ballgame this weekend and close out on a great recruiting class, and embark on the next season in recruiting, you know, ASAP.

Q. I'd like to talk about individual players, Keith Smith, Ryan Kerrigan and Carson Wiggs.
COACH HOPE: I think we have several all conference players on our football team. I think Keith Smith's numbers speak for themselves. He's the lead receiver in the league. He's had a great game against almost everyone he's played against. You can put the film on and figure it out. I think that one speaks for itself.
I think Ryan Kerrigan does as well. He's a dominant player in our league. He leads statistically in a lot of categories on a national level. He's one of the premier defensive linemen returning in 2010. You know, so I think those guys are no-brainers.
I think Joey Elliott, you know, the numbers that he's thrown and the way that he's played in conference play this year, I think it speaks for itself. I think he's playing his position as well as anyone in our league and better than most.
Carson Wiggs has kicked some great field goals and handled a lot of kicking duties. I don't know how to assess him or compare him to some of the other kickers in the leagues from a numbers standpoint. There's is so much more numbers oriented.
I don't know of anyone else that can kick the field goals he can kick. He impacted some games. Because of him we were never out of some games, and we tried some field goals with him that some guys never dreamed of ever attempting with confidence in him that he could make them.
I certainly think he's one of the best kickers in our league and one of the best kickers in the country. But how many you made is such a big part of that. And we put him in situations that other people wouldn't do. We put their kickers in some of the same situations. But he could nail them. He nailed a 67-yarder in pregame. That might be a NCAA record, is it not? 67? It's right up there, real close to it. So he's obviously a very special player.
All right, we have several guys on our football team that played their position as well as anyone in the league. I think Mike O Neal has been a dominant player. He knocks guards backwards and disrupts people's offensive fronts. I know everybody tries to double team him.
There are several NFL scouts there to watch him practice. And I think I've been a line coach many, many years and I think he's one of the best defensive tackles I've been around. And he's certainly one of the best defensive players at his position in our league.

Q. Can you talk about Cortez Smith and what's happened for him?
COACH HOPE: He's a very good football player. More ready to play player than we thought when we took him. When we came out of the spring and had some concerns and some real concerns about where we're at at the wide receiver position, not only from a numbers standpoint, but a talent standpoint as well.
But chronologically there were some issues. We had some older receivers and brand-new freshmen receivers coming in that there weren't many receivers in between. There were some huge voids in there.
So he and Keith Carlos were very important to us to get some guys on board. Even though they did know the offense, and they may not be anymore ready to play than the high school kids coming in other than two years age on them. When it was all said and done, they were more ready to play.
As the season progressed we could see that Cortez Smith was starting to understand the offense. He did a lot of things naturally and he was accelerating his development. He's a very smooth route runner. He has a lot of body lean and arm swing. He can get past you deep. He can go up and get a ball. He has good cuts, catches the ball very well. He's smart. Lines up in the right places and does the right things. He's a heck of a football player. We're very fortunate to get him in the recruiting process.
We didn't know that much about him. We liked what we saw, but we had a heck of a need. We took him and are very fortunate that we did.

Q. Will there be personnel changes in terms of the kickoff?
COACH HOPE: Not many. You know, it's not always the guys that's covering. We can't get the best kick placement. You know, that impacted the kickoff coverage tremendously. You know, we were kicking the ball down the middle of the field, you know, 10, 12-yard line. It was the ideal spot for the return guy.
We get a couple of kicks that weren't great kicks and put him in a good situation. He was a great kickoff return man. His kickoff return, there weren't that many break downs if you grade it as far as what guys were supposed to do. He was just a great player, made a great play, and got by a couple of them and he was gone.
It wasn't all just the coverage part. Some was the kick placement, some was the coverage part. A few of it was not being physical enough and a few was not being what we needed to be lane wise. And that all added up to support coverage on Saturday.

Q. Have the young receivers performed well this season?
COACH HOPE: I really couldn't understand you. I heard something about Beckford and the young guys. Have they done enough for me to feel confident about the future?

Q. Yeah, that's right.
COACH HOPE: Absolutely. Absolutely. Feel very good about what we have coming back, and what they can do this Saturday to help us win this Saturday and what they mean to the program in the future. Absolutely. We've got some good things going on.

Q. My last thing is about Robert. How's he doing health-wise? And in practice, what's involved right now?
COACH HOPE: The last part of the season he's worked some giving the scout team player, giving the defense a look. And he's done very well, very well.

Q. When you talk about looking back at the spring when you guys first started up offensively. Obviously you had a first year starter and bunch of new receivers, just how bad was it? I remember you talked about not being able to complete balls against the air. Can you put that in perspective, just how far you had to go?
COACH HOPE: We were pretty much inept at it. We couldn't connect from a throwing standpoint or a catching standpoint. Route running, skill level was behind, every phase of it was behind.
A lot of guys went out there and tried hard and worked hard. We got a lot better through the course of the spring. We got some simple things in and simple things done. But we started off, you know, neophyte, brand-new. Bunch of guys that had never done it. We were very lean with what we had to work with. Never been leaner. I've never been anywhere that was any leaner.

Q. Now he was obviously good enough in the spring and preseason to earn the starting job. But did you anticipate Ralph having the type of season he's had where he's in position to get 1,000 yards?
COACH HOPE: Yes. And I anticipated Joey doing very well, too. Just didn't know you get all that done in such a short period of time, and everybody else impacts his performance around him having to get it done, too. They've done a fantastic job.
Lot of it had to do with those kids coming in on their own this summer. Throwing, catching, spending time together and working really hard. The coaches doing a great job with them, and players that wanted to do well.
We have a great group of guys that have a tremendous willingness to comply. You know, it's a real credit to them to be where we're at offensively. Ralph had an outstanding spring. He had every opportunity to show you he was a great player in the spring. We didn't have very many backs at the end of the spring healthy. He got almost all the carries and did very well.
We came out of the spring thinking he was a special player. See him do it in the games first, but we were pretty sure he was going to be a darn good one and he is.

Q. You played Crank a little bit more in the second half. He obviously did some good things in the running game, kind of softening up their defense a little bit. Do you expect him to play a little more this week?
COACH HOPE: Anybody that can help us win will be out there, and he can. He's a physical player who came into the season not knowing a whole lot about him. He hasn't played a whole lot, but we knew he had some tools. He's got a great body. He's got good size. He's fast.
He still has to work on some of the skills at his position to be able to contribute more as a ball carrier and pass receive per. But he certainly has some skills. But right now his role for us, he's the physical player. He brings some physicality to the football field and does a great job as a lead blocker for the fullback.
We have a plan that allows him to be featured more as a runner and receiver, and anticipate doing that some last week and utilizing it just more as a run blocker. But he's a very physical player. He's going to be out there on the field some this week for us.

Q. One last thing. I asked you about Eric Hedstrom who hasn't played this year. What about Colt McKey? Is he -- obviously, maybe not this week, but is he still kind of in position to come back at some point?
COACH HOPE: He is in position to come back. He's certainly somebody we'd like to have back on on the team because he's a big, strong, older guy that was a good technician as a blocker. He could help you in the run game, you know, as a big blocking, physical tight end. So we'd really love to have him back. We believe he'll come back and compete.
But any time you're dealing with a knee and multiple knee surgery hes, you know, you don't want to look too far ahead. But if anybody can do it, he can. He handles that type of adversity very well, and is very upbeat about it, and has a great purpose and mission about getting himself healthy and returning to play.
So I wouldn't count him out. But let's see. Let's see him -- haven't seen him play football in a long time. Jason Taylor went through the same thing. We didn't know, you know.

Q. You mentioned where you are isn't as important as where you're going. What are five or six reasons you would point to that you feel this is going in the right direction? You're going to be better next year than you are this year?
COACH HOPE: There's not as many unknowns coming into the season from a personnel standpoint. Obviously we're going to lose a lot of players in the secondary. And we have some young players who are going to have to step up. And some of the guys that are joining our football team now are guys that will have to play some for us in the secondary. That's what we went through last year at the receiver position.
We'll know more about our football team on the offensive side of the ball, you know, further along with the offensive stalled at the present time. I look at each position one by one without having to go through all of that right now because we don't want to look too far ahead. But if I look at their quarterback position, I like what we have. Feel good about those guys.
And they've had a chance to work with our quarterback coach first season now. We weren't in that position last year. Coach Nord wasn't here. And he hadn't worked with Joey any. Joey hadn't played.
But these guys have been together some now. I'm looking at having good running backs coming back that are good players. Couple good offensive linemen coming back. At least three very good offensive linemen. We have Kenny Plue and Dennis Kelly back. Both of those guys could be Sunday players possibly.
Looking at each position and like what we have coming back, there will be some spots up the field because we'll be losing 20-something seniors that did a great job. And those guys developed into being really good players.
Dwight Mclean is a guy you don't hear a lot about. But he is really a good football player right now. Joey Elliott is a guy a year ago you might not have thought he would be a difference maker after he left the program, but he certainly is now.
We have a lot of seniors that stepped up and played their hearts out and developed into being fine football players. It will allow us to beat Ohio State ranked 7th, and Michigan up there for the first time, and do a lot of great things and compete every Saturday. A lot of that had to do with our senior players, not just from the leadership standpoint, but the level they played at. Really stepped their game up. So there were a lot of voids, but a lot of promise as well.

Q. What will be your procedure for picking the starting quarterback in next year? Will that be a spring decision?
COACH HOPE: We'll see how it goes, you know. If it's obvious when the spring's over, then it's obvious. If it's not, then we keep competing. It's not a perfect equation. Doesn't have to work like that.
Work at it. Compete, have fun playing football. We'll work on it. We won't complicate it that much. It's not a chemistry experiment.

Q. What do you expect out of Ralph next year after the season he had right off the bat?
COACH HOPE: I think he'll be a great player again next year. Keep him healthy, and he can do even better. The times he hasn't been as productive this year health has been somewhat of an issue. That is always the case with a runner. Particularly a guy where speed is the big part of his game. He's very fast, very quick footed, extremely, extremely quick feet.
I think he could be one of the best guys in our league, and certainly a featured back, or certainly will be a featured back. He could be one of the top players in a position in our league next year and has been a lot of times this year.
Some of our game plans steered away from the run game based on what the defense gave us. Sometimes we steered right at the run game. That's been fun this season being able to do that.

Q. When you look offensively at what you've done this year just having the offensive line healthy for all 12 games, how important was that piece to the puzzle offensively?
COACH HOPE: Well, that was huge. Just like once we got the secondary healthy, we got a lot better on defense. We were very fortunate to have our offensive line stay healthy. It was an experienced offensive line. Great group of guys that wanted to do well. They had put a lot of time and effort into it a year ago and when they weren't quite ready. So it was time well invested. I loved their effort last year.
But some of those guys weren't ready yet. Some of them were new and some of them had been had been injured. We talked about that last year when things weren't going quite so well for us up front. It wasn't going to be long before we were a good offensive line. We looked back at this year together and realize it was invested very well. And I think that statement speaks loudly on Saturdays right now.
When you watch our line play, they do a great job protecting the quarterback. They don't make a whole lot of mistakes. They're a physical offensive line, athletic. They've done an outstanding job. They're a lot of fun to coach which is just what you want your O-line to be.

Q. Did they click from the beginning?
COACH HOPE: Yes. Coach Clark is a big part of that. He was a no-brainer to bring him here to Purdue. I only worked for him for a semester at the University of Louisville. He had very little experience. And I hired him full-time as my offensive line coach when I first got the job at Eastern Kentucky University. I thought that much of him in that short time I was with him at the University of Louisville.
He does a great job. He's very demanding, but he's a lot of fun to be around. And there is a 100% transfer of training that's really important on offensive linemen that they become very polished at their techniques and fundamentals of the position that they play. It's more important at that position than any in football.
So it was 100% transfer of training from what I was doing to what Coach Clark has them do. That helped a lot in their development. He's been a big part of it. He's done a great job with those guys.

Q. How much confidence does it give you that your offense was able to generate this kind of production based on where you started? Now as you look ahead, the confidence you have and what this offense is capable of doing the next year or two, three down the road?
COACH HOPE: We have a lot of work to do. But obviously there's great potential. The better we do recruiting and the harder our guys work, and the better job that our staff does, there are still a lot of things we can do a lot better on the offensive side of the ball in '09, looking back on it, that would have impacted our offensive output.
Whether or not we could have gotten all those things done in that short period of time that we had to get those guys ready, I don't know. They sure got a lot done over there. But there are two or three things more detailed in our route running in the '09 season, then we would have been a much better offense.
If we had secured the football a lot better, there would have been a better offense. There's no telling how many yards and how many points if we could have played a little bit better in a few areas.
So I'm very optimistic about the future. I don't want to take away from anything they did this year. It was outstanding. Outstanding job. But you look at it and think hey, there is still room for improvement.

Q. You have a lot of kids from out of state, which is part of having a roster of 105 guys. But you have a lot of kids from Florida. Do you educate them on the bucket, the players? I mean, Joe Tiller at one point had handouts one week. Do you go to that extreme?
COACH HOPE: They're going to get a graphic description of the entire event here in a couple of hours, okay. They'll have a full understanding. There's always a method to the madness.

Q. You talked about Joey earlier. Overall what's it been like for you?
COACH HOPE: Coaching Joey this season?

Q. Yeah.
COACH HOPE: Made my life a lot easier, that's for sure. We went on a 30-event PR spiel this last spring and summer and talked to everybody about Joey Elliott being a coach on the field, and he's the guy that can help me look better at times. And I think he did a great job with both. He's really a sharp guy and into it. You didn't have to worry about catching him on a down day as far as trying to teach him and get him ready to play.
Sometimes he plays better than others. He always played pretty good, but he made things a lot better and lot easier for us this season. All the things we needed to get done in '09 -- not all of them, but the most important things -- Joey was a big part of: From an attitude standpoint, a momentum standpoint, a competitiveness standpoint.
All those things that are the most important parts of your program, Joey epitomized and brought those things to the table and really accentuated that with his presence on our football team. Those are the most important things about the football team, the intangibles are.
You can coach hard, get them lined up right and guys are going to make plays. But if you have the intangibles it takes to be a special football team, you can be that. And Joey epitomizes that and brought it all to the table. That was huge for our team this year.

Q. Was it a pleasant surprise when you look at where you are and the kind of numbers that he put up?
COACH HOPE: No question. Very, very proud of him. You know, he's a great effort guy. Looking back at last year in '08 when Curtis Painter was the quarterback, I was watching Joey in practice and thinking this guy's really good. He's a really good quarterback.
I really liked Joey Elliott watching him last year. And he competed for playing time against a guy that was one of the great players in Purdue history. So it was evident to me a year ago he could be a heck of a quarterback. He just had not played yet. Sometimes it takes a couple of years of playing time to get to where Joey has gotten to as a player at this point in time in the end of the season.
He's playing as well as anybody anywhere at his position. He's an outstanding quarterback right now. He's expedited his growth and development playing his position in the last 11 to 12 weeks.

End of FastScripts

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