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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 3, 2013Darrell HazellTHE MODERATOR: Welcome to week two of Purdue football, the game time is 12:01 and game will be shown live on the Big Ten Network. We'll go ahead and open it up for Coach Hazell's opening statement and then we'll go to the phone calls. COACH HAZELL: Good morning, obviously it wasn't the way we anticipated starting but after watt watching the game film there was a lot of encouraging things we saw as a staff, obviously fixable things that is always the things that you're looking for, and I'm very encouraged about our football team and the guys in our locker room. I thought the morale was very good yesterday, and guys stopping in the office to study more film, the guys are very anxious to get back out on the field and prove that they are much better football team than we showed last Saturday. So we'll begin our physical preparation today at 2:15 and make sure we're ready to go on Saturday at 12 o'clock. We did have some personnel changes just today at the linebacker position. We are probably going to start Will Lucas at the will linebacker, play Sean Robinson at the sam, and Keep Joe at the Mike. We are going to put Michael Rouse back on defense, and then we are probably going to start Ryan Watson at the nose but still had an eight‑man rotation on our defensive line but that's where we are. Personnel in terms of those guys that are a little bit banged up, Ricardo Allen is a probable for Saturday. He has a high ankle sprain but it's not as bad as we thought it would be. Landon Feichter has a couple beat‑up hands but he should be ready to go by Saturday. Q. I know you might have scaled back the offensive package in Cincinnati, when you are going against them this week, do you keep it scaled back, or do you say, let's just let it rip and go for it? COACH HAZELL: It's very important for us, we talked about this extensively as a staff that we are able to execute the things that are on the game plan, and we didn't do a great job of that last week. So we scaled it way back and we want to be able to line up both sides of the ball on special teams and play as fast and as hard as we can. So our package is very thin, and I told Coach Shoop before I came over here, as we go through the week and watch film and find things that we think will help us, I said, you've got to cut something else out of the game plan. So there's no more adding. There's only reduction of the game plan going forward this week. Q. In terms of what you need to see on Saturday, what are the keys? What has to happen not only for you to be successful, but for you to build and grow from last week? COACH HAZELL: I think the biggest thing right now is for us to play with a tremendous amount of confidence, no matter what the situation is. One of the messages to the team on Sunday is that it doesn't matter what the scoreboard says or the clock says; you've just got to play, and everything else will take care of itself. But sometimes, and I've seen this before, sometimes you get paralyzed by the scoreboard, and it doesn't allow you to unlock your potential, so we are going to make sure that our guys are focused on the game and not the scoreboard. That's more important. Q. Facing an Indiana State team that gets beat that badly, they didn't stop the run, they didn't stop the pass, they didn't do well in a lot of areas, what's the point of emphasis, what are the concerns from Indiana State's point of view? COACH HAZELL: Well, for sure, and that was an uncommon thing to get beat as much as they did. But if you watch the film, there's a lot of things where they self‑destructed on special teams early in the game, and they gave up some big plays, a lot of big plays, which allowed the game to get out of hand pretty quickly. It was 42‑7 rather fast, so I'm sure they are going to play better. They have good players on their football team. But it's about us playing the way we are capable of playing more so than anything. Q. What do you absolutely have to do better this week that you didn't do last week? COACH HAZELL: Well, the biggest thing offensively is we've got to be able to get the plays and get the plays called so we can get out of the huddle. Sometimes you put stress on yourself when you're breaking the huddle with ten seconds, and all of a sudden you're rushing up to the line and you have motion and you have shifts; that creates stress. So what we are going to do this week in practice, I want them out of the huddle and at the line of scrimmage by 15 seconds; so we can see the defense and understand what we are blocking, make our calls up front. Those are the things that we are trying to concentrate to improve upon. Q. You obviously don't want the guys to panic, it's only one game, just stay the course, but what can you use from last week to build off of going forward? COACH HAZELL: Well, there's so many things. It's easy to see once you watch the film. Guys are at a gap sometimes on defense because they are not doing their job. But there's so many different things you can take from the film to help us get better. And that's what this, from one to two is all about, making sure we are make the improvements in all the right areas. We have to make plays, both sides of the ball. The third down was probably the biggest component of the game that stuck out. They were 60 percent or better and we were only at 36 percent conversion. It's hard to win football games when you don't run so many plays. And we ran 28 plays offensively in the first half, and not enough plays in the second half. And if you look at the time, like we talked about yesterday, if you look at the time line of the game, it's a 7‑7 game with about 25 seconds to go in the second quarter and give up a seam route for a touchdown and make it 14‑7. And then they drove the ball for about seven and a half minutes in the third quarter. But it's still a football game, and that's when you can't stare at the scoreboard. Q. Is that a culture thing that you're talking about, that maybe these guys need to be‑‑ I don't know if it's mentally tougher or how would you kind of look at that I guess. COACH HAZELL: Well, it's got to be proven to them that that is what happens a lot of times when you're not used to being down, or you don't know how to respond when you're down and that is a little bit of a culture thing that we'll continue to work at. Q. Antoine Lewis, why can he be important to this defense? COACH HAZELL: He's really, really coming on. He's a guy that just makes plays. There's nothing flashy about him. He plays extremely hard. He has a great energy about him all the time. He's upbeat. He's going to help us in a lot of‑‑ you saw him covering punts the other day, did a phenomenal job for us and I'm really excited about the prospects of him. Q. Why do you think he's able to make plays like that on defense? Is it just that he plays hard and he does the right things? COACH HAZELL: Well, he's got a couple things going for him. One, he loves the game. He studies the game.  But he plays with so much energy which allows you to see things out there. Q. How do you award the helmet stickers? Is it a grading out position by position, or if you get a sack, you get a sticker? COACH HAZELL: It's a grading out‑‑ there's a certain percentage that you must meet. Each guy has a criteria that he must meet positionally. No one will get a sticker for this game because we didn't win the game but we'll go through all the things this week as to who would have got a sticker if we had won the football game. For example, our punt unit would have got an extra sticker, probably would have got two stickers. On defense, Latta would have got a sticker and on offense it was Justin Sinz. I can't remember the other two guys that graded out winning performance. Q. So you only give them out after a victory? COACH HAZELL: Yeah. Q. Why do you line upwith ‑‑ I don't know if you guys call it the swinging gate formation on the extra point, or what you would call it ‑‑ why do you do that? COACH HAZELL: Try to catch guys off‑guard. We call it muddle‑huddle. We tried to put Gabe out there by himself to see if we can get isolation, and then if they are not sound and they are not covering our kicker and holder and our snapper, we have a call‑‑ if they don't have an overload to where all of our linemen are, we have a call and if they line up properly, we'll go back and kick it. Q. So who was in charge of making decisions on that? COACH HAZELL: Comes off the sideline first. He comes to me and asks me, what do you want to do, and I'll say, one, two, three, whatever the call is, but he has a green light if we have something. Q. Did you do that at Kent? COACH HAZELL: No. Q. So who thought to do it here? COACH HAZELL: I think Coach Bridge brought it to my attention a while back. Q. And how often on defense did you run zone versus man, and do you feel more comfortable with this group playing one or the other? COACH HAZELL: I don't know what the percentage was last weekend.  But I think this weekend, we have to do a certain thing‑‑ I can't tell you exactly what that is, but I think we have to do a certain thing this weekend. Q. You played a lot of guys, based on the heat, too, or is that something going forward that you just like to do? Seemed like especially linebacker you had different guys in on every series almost. COACH HAZELL: That was the game plan going into the first week, but we'll also play a lot of guys going into this second week regardless of the weather. Again, you have to create depth. That's the only way you create depth is by putting a lot of guys on the field. Q. You mentioned the culture, guys don't know how to respond when they are down‑‑ COACH HAZELL: You have to point it out to them, and they all understood once i explained it to them. I said, on the sideline, there was this blank stares at times when we were down. And I said, you can't worry about those things. It's a 14‑7 game or it's a 21‑7 game. You can't worry about those things.  You just have to keep fighting and do your assignment for those particular plays that are coming up. That's the only thing that you can control at that point in time. We'll get it fixed. I'm very confident. Q. Looking back at the game film, what would you say Rob Henry struggled with the most, and what, if anything, did he do well? COACH HAZELL: Well, the biggest thing is our communication from Rob to the rest of the guys in the huddle is probably the No.1 thing, didn't allow us to get lined up as fast as we can and to execute, and he wasn't as on as we had seen throughout the course of camp. So he needs to be a little bit more accurate, and get us in and out of the huddle a little bit quicker. Q. You ran the ball 22 times in the previous games. How important will it be this week to establish the running game and not only run more often but effectively? COACH HAZELL: I think that you have to be able to run the football. I think everything in our offense comes off of a run play and we try to make it all look the game, but you've got to be able to be physical up front and run the football. I know the other guys that graded out winning performances were two of our offensive lineman, Kitchens and Pamphile, they both played pretty well for us. If we can keep those guys going forward‑‑ Kugler played well, so I was very pleased with our offensive line play. Q. Were there maybe one or two people that stood out that played extremely well? COACH HAZELL: Justin Sinz was a guy who played well for us at tight end spot. Justin was the one that also graded out a winning performance; it wasn't Kitchens. Kitchens was real close but he didn't grade out winning. Justin Sinz played well for us. Our young running back obviously continues to get better each week, Dalyn Dawkins and he's got a bright future for us. So those were some of the guys that stood out offensively. Obviously Latta did a great job, he was our defensive Player of the Week that we voted. He doesn't know that yet so don't share that with him when he comes over here. He did a good job for us. Q. You just mentioned Dawkins; can you elaborate on what he brings to the table? COACH HAZELL: He's just got so much explosiveness between the tackles, and he runs hard and he runs like a 200‑pound back. He's quick and he's starting to see things very well and he was great in protection, so look to see a lot of him. Q. Your expectations schematically from Indiana State, what kind of things do they do from a strategy standpoint and what kind of looks can you expect from them? COACH HAZELL: Defensively they play a little different‑‑ I don't know if a lot of you football guys remember Michigan State used to play, a long time ago, back in the 80s and ‑‑ 70s and 80s. They used to play this tilt 4‑3 where the nose guard and the three‑technique were on the same side and they did a lot of looping. So that's what you're going to see a lot of. Coverage‑wise, they are going to be a quarter coverage team, play a little bit of man. They got themselves hurt last week against Indiana playing press man against the wide‑out, and that came back and got them a couple times. I think they are going to be a 4‑3 team, walk the sam or the will linebacker out when we detach a guy. Offensively, they run the ball and they are going to try to run the football. They are playing some different guys up front. You saw their left tackle come out and backup left tackle go in or ‑‑ excuse me, their right tackle go out and the right tackle come in.       So I'm not sure if they are going to continue to try to run the ball, or if they are going to try to get it out of their hand as quick as they can. Q. The mental toughness of the team, last year things snowballed on them in a lot of games. Is this a tougher situation than what you thought trying to get them back mentally when they get behind? How do you gauge to pull them back, when you see that's happening? COACH HAZELL: It was‑‑ obviously it's not good for you to see it, but it gives you some awareness now where we are in terms of those things. And if you can point those things out to them, and they understand those situations, then you've made a step forward, and I think we've done that, and we'll see when we get in that situation again if we're ever down again, 7‑0, we'll see how they respond. But I've got a good feeling right now just talking to some of the guys passing my office that they get it now. They understand that they can't have that look in their face, and they have to be able to attack those problems and not worry about that thing that's up in lights. Q. Is that more leadership? COACH HAZELL: It's leadership from us, but it's also leadership from guys that are on the field. Because we can scream and yell and try to excite them as much as we can, but if they don't have it within themselves to understand the circumstances, then it will be hard. But I think they are going to get it. Q. Do you rely on captains at that point? COACH HAZELL: I think you rely on everybody. I think you've got to rely on every single guy who has a voice on the sideline, and then they will understand. Q. We haven't seen you scream and yell yet. So we're curious about that. Will Lucas, what things did you see on tape or during the game that he's now elevated himself to starting spot? COACH HAZELL: Yeah, Will did a nice job. I was pleased with how Will played. He made some mistakes‑‑ we all made some mistakes but Will did a nice job running to the ball and tackling. I thought he did a good job of coming downhill on a couple plays and striking the guy. So we are going to give him an opportunity to prove to see if he's that guy for us. Q. Is that something you saw coming the last few practices or the end of training camp at all? COACH HAZELL: He's been a little bit up‑and‑down but you always knew that he had it in him. So if he can continually get better and be focused enough to make that his goal to help us consistently be that kind of a player, then he has a chance to be good for us. Q. What is Rob's strength in this offense, this West Coast offense that you have? COACH HAZELL: I think he's got to be able to take exactly what they give us. And we have open guys, he's got to hit those open guys. And he's got to be able to facilitate the ball to the guys that he's got‑‑ he's got playmakers around him and he's got two good backs right now and he has wide‑outs that are really starting to come, and he has the tight end that in my opinion is going to be a great weapon for us. He's got a good offensive line so he doesn't have to feel like he has to win the game. He's got to get the ball dished out to all those people around him, and then we'll start seeing the change move, and that's what we need, we need him to have plays so he can make plays. Q. You talk about doing a line change on the offensive line, I know you rotated some guys in at the middle position‑‑ did the game just not dictate that? Or how would you like to see that play out in the future, too? COACH HAZELL: We have to figure out who our third tackle is. We are not sure yet. We feel pretty good that we have eight offensive linemen right now. We need to bring those‑‑ they are all inside guys, the substitutes of inside guys, the two guards in the center. We need to develop a third tackle and that's a little bit of a concern right now. You have to be careful what you do if one of those other third tackles comes into the game right now, so got to be very cautious. But we are talking about taking Devin Smith out and giving him some backup tackle reps when he's not playing guard to give him some experience outside. So we have some depth when we get down the road here. He's playing good at guard, but at some point in time, maybe if King gets in at the guard spot, we can push did he have on out at the tackle spot to create some depth outside. Q. With Rouse, did it not work on offense, or is he needed more on defense? COACH HAZELL: Well, it was his suggestion that he wanted to go back. He thought he could help us better on the defensive side right now so we are going to honor that for him. Q. Inaudible. COACH HAZELL: Well, I thought he played with some power inside‑‑ we saw him play early in camp and I thought he played extremely hard. He's that kind of guy that has a sense of what's happening around him with schemes and those types of things, so we are going to probably go with him first this week. They are all going to play. Q. Has Isaac played both spots? COACH HAZELL: Yes, he does. And that's probably where he struggled a little bit. He's probably a little bit better at the three than at the nose right now just because it's all new for him. Q. Gary Bush has had a transition from the old offense to this one, how do you think he has handled that transition, and it seemed like he got a lot of snaps out there and played pretty well on Saturday. COACH HAZELL: He played okay. One time he turned the ball over, and we can't do that. That was one of the biggest‑‑ probably one of the biggest disappointments and something we emphasized from meeting one is that you carry the football and going to get the football. But you're right, Gary is coming and I hope that he continues to come. I like the direction he's headed and I like how he's working now so hopefully we can get a lot of productivity out of Gary in the next few weeks. Q. Was it a bit of a struggle to go from the screen‑oriented offense to what you guys are running now? COACH HAZELL: I think it was tough for all of them. It was a lot of different languages, techniques are different, running routes downfield against press coverage, against cover two, seeing all those conversions. It's different for everybody. So I'm sure there's a learning and adaptation period that these guys all need to get going fast. Q. I think you played six or seven wide receivers, as a former wide receiver guy, is that a good number for you? COACH HAZELL: I don't know if we want to expand it much more. I think if you can settle in with five to six guys that really step up, I think that gives you the best opportunity to get successful reps in practice and during camp, because there's not that many reps that go along in practice to get all those looks that you need to get: You have to get man coverage, you have to get cover two, you have to get three coverage, you have to get bail coverage; all those different looks that you need to see as a wide‑out. If you're rotating guys constantly, they don't get to see all those looks and techniques. Q. Commonly the case at Purdue, fans are very, very hard on the quarterback position; can you tell fans why they shouldn't be bent out of shape by Rob Henry's performance? COACH HAZELL: Well, I think that you have to give Rob an opportunity to go back into the position. The guy has not played for a couple years. I understand that the fans are probably a little upset as we all are, but I think you have to have a little bit of patience with him and for him, and then at the end, they will be happy about Rob Henry's play. Q. I just want to ask one thing and that is, you talk about the culture and that they understand that they can't have that look; have you talked to the guys, whether it's the captains or Rob Henry or any of these guys specifically, about what you expect them to do on the sidelines in the case that they get that look; so what did you tell them? COACH HAZELL: Yeah, we did talk about it. We talked about it specifically that you have to be able to respond when those situations happen and respond in a positive way, and encourage each other. Greg and I actually talked about it yesterday‑‑ encourage each other, when one unit might be struggling, and that's part of the game. At some point in time, the offense is going to struggle and the defense has got to pick them up. At one point in time the defense is going to struggle and the offense has to pick them up, and that's all part of the game. We talked about making sure that we support each other in those situations, and that's how move through those tough situations throughout the course of the game, because it's going to happen. At some point in time, it's going to happen. Q. Your first chance to shine in front of the home field crowd, they look at the results of the first game and maybe roll their eyes a little bit, but what do you say to those folks who go, okay‑‑ COACH HAZELL: I would say to evaluate us as we go through this process and see what happens, and have a little bit of patience. But great things are going to happen for this program. Tell them that we have a great football team in our locker room and they are going to show it, and I really believe that, and if I didn't believe it, I wouldn't say it. But I really like our football team and the guys that are in our locker room right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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