|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 5, 2013Darrell HazellCOACH HAZELL: Well, obviously we didn't get off to a great start last week against the Buckeyes, throwing an interception on the second play of the game and then shanking a punt the next series out, and it's hard when you're playing against any football team, let alone a football team of that caliber, to get anything going when you don't get off to the right track. We met as a staff on Sunday, we met as a team on Sunday and talked about some of the things that we have to overcome, and obviously those are some of the things that will help us become a better football program, football team, is not creating those adverse situations to ourselves, especially when you're playing good football teams. But we're moving forward, and we're looking forward to playing a good Iowa opponent, and after studying these guys the last 48 hours, they're a very good football team, especially their offensive and defensive lines are very good. They're simplistic in structure. You know where you're going to line up offensively and defensively. You're going to run zone inside and outside on offense, and defensively you're going to sit in their four man front and play cover‑six for 1st and 2nd down, play cover one on 3rd down, so it's going to be a good opponent for us on Saturday, and I think it'll be a great football game. Q. Cody Webster got the weekly award. Can you talk about the way that maybe you guys had a little talk? He seems to have really picked up his punting, and certainly against Ohio State he really did. COACH HAZELL: Yeah, Cody has really been a staple for us this whole season. He had the one bad punt, but after that I thought he kicked the ball extremely well. He's getting great punt location as well as hang time and has allowed our guys to cover the punts bright spot for us this 2013 year. Q. Have you talked with Etling in terms of 16 sacks in the last three games? How do you help him keep perspective and how is he dealing with that type of punishment without losing confidence? COACH HAZELL: Danny worries about himself more so than the sacks and the offensive line. He doesn't worry about those things. He's his own worst critic. He beats himself up a little bit sometimes, we talk to Danny about we'll help you get some of those issues fixed schematically to make sure he gets the ball out of his hands and to do some things protection‑wise so he doesn't have so much stress on him. Q. And just the overall mood of the team when you're in a losing streak and then you have the result you had against Ohio State. Is there still a sense of enthusiasm, or do you have to really kind of push them now, or what's the mood of the team? COACH HAZELL: You know, I had a chance, I called all the seniors in on Sunday, and I spent probably 45 minutes with the seniors, and I just said, what are you guys seeing, what are you guys feeling, and we talked about a few things. But they're still very upbeat, and they understand what our schedule looks like going forward the next four weeks. Our seniors have 26 days left in the program, and they're going to put everything they have into trying to be successful on their way out. We talked to the team about that, as well, and we understand where we are. But we're going to prepare as hard and as well as we have and better in the weeks prior. Q. In your estimation, it's just sort of business as usual this week? You don't change anything? That's just your philosophy? COACH HAZELL: Well, we don't change the plan, the grand plan. Obviously you've got to see where you need to make the improvements and you've got to make those improvements, but the structure, the scheme and the vision, that doesn't change, and if you start to waver, then you have some issues. But we're going to work hard and we're going to find those solutions to the problems we are having. If we can fix them we're going to fix them, and then we're going to go and attack Iowa and the rest of our opponents just that way. Q. You mentioned that you're going to do some things, try and do some things schematically to help maybe with the protection. Are you looking at personnel moves inside there, as well, or is this just strictly a schematic situation? COACH HAZELL: Well, right now I think the only thing we can do is schematically, some of the things that we can do to help our protection right now. That's what we need to do offensively. Q. Is there a common thread that you've seen in the sacks, in the pressure that you've given up? Is there acommon thread, I guess? COACH HAZELL: Pretty much. It's a physical breakdown typically inside, sometimes on the outside, but typically on the inside. Q. When you look at this offense and you see 116 yards of back‑to‑back shutouts and those sorts of things, do the problems go deeper than just schematics? Is there something else at play here? COACH HAZELL: There's a few things that you have to address. Obviously there's certain plays‑‑ if you take a look at the first play of the football game, this was one example, we run a play to Raheem, to our left, to our bench side, and we have Kug pull out in front of it, and the safety misfits, just like we thought he would, we have someone else pulling out, and if we get the block on the linebacker the ball is down the sideline for a huge play. Missed the block on the linebacker. So there's breakdowns, there's fundamental breakdowns within certain plays that when you're not hitting on all cylinders, it's hard offensively. Q. You've been through a couple of these streaks before. Does this feel any different to you? COACH HAZELL: Well, it's been a while since I've been through one of these streaks, since I think the last time was in 2001 or somewhere around there back at Rutgers. But you take each year individually and you analyze it and you try to find ways to get better. You don't look back at your successes, you don't look back at your failures. I think you look forward to see how you can get better. Q. Injury‑wise this week, how did you guys come out? COACH HAZELL: We've still got some question marks on the roster right now. Ryan Watson is still questionable with a hamstring/knee. Jalani Phillips, we're still trying to get his strength back in his shoulder. Landon Feichter should be a go for this week. There's one other one. Devin Smith is the other guy that he will not practice today, but he is questionable for Saturday. It's going to be how he feels. Q. What concerns you most about Iowa? COACH HAZELL: Well, Iowa, they do a great job running the football. They're going to run inside and outside in zone, play after play after play. They've got a good offensive line. They cover up people. They do a great job on their double teams, and they're just solid enough that they're going to chip away and get four and five yards, and the quarterback throws it well enough that he can hit those naked throws off of those zone plays. Defensively I think they've got a great defensive lineman, No.71, who is‑‑ he's a very talented guy, 6'5", 315 pounds and plays in the backfield a lot of times. He's a really good football player. But I think their front seven is really good. I think that's the strength of their defense. Q. How would you evaluate your defense since you switched to the 3‑4? COACH HAZELL: Well, it's hard to evaluate it after last week's performance, but I still feel good about it. I know our coaches are working extremely hard getting some of the issues fixed. You play a team like Ohio State that can hit you in a lot of different directions and sometimes you get exposed no matter what defense you're playing in. But I like the direction that we're heading. Q. Have you settled on a couple linebackers then? COACH HAZELL: Sean Robinson played well last week. Ruben Ibarra is a physical presence inside for us. We've got to keep Will Lucas coming along these last four weeks. That's kind of where we are right now. Q. Who is your best defensive player, and who's been the most consistently good player on defense? COACH HAZELL: I think if you would have to put a name on one guy, I'd say Ricardo Allen has probably been the most consistent. Bruce has played better the last two weeks. I think Frankie has played pretty consistently. He's been healthy. Q. Obviously you need Bruce to play well. Do you think that this change has fit him pretty well then? COACH HAZELL: You know, I saw Bruce this morning. He had a very upbeat step walking into the building, so he was really excited. I think his body is feeling a little bit better, he's feeling healthy, and I would be shocked if we didn't see great football play out of Bruce in the last four games here. Q. Why is the military appreciation day important to you? COACH HAZELL: Well, to me, I mean, it says so much about the people, men and women, who have served this great country and all of the services that have given their lives to this great country so that we can do the things that we love to do, and that's why it's so important. Q. Do you have connections in your family or friends that have military connections? COACH HAZELL: Yeah, my dad was a Korean War vet. My brother has also served in the Army. Many cousins and uncles, so yes. Q. What was your dad's name? COACH HAZELL: Daniel, Daniel Hazell. Q. No one else cares, but cover six, is it a combo of two and four? COACH HAZELL: Cover six is quarters to the field, halves to the boundaries. Q. How did the Rob Henry punting package come about? How did you realize that Rob could punt some? COACH HAZELL: Well, it was an experiment, but we thought that if you can make teams prepare for other things, it takes away from preparing on some of the other things that they need to prepare for. So we'll always have a Rob Henry package. We talked to Ohio State after the game, and we asked them, we said, hey, what were you thinking when we were punting the ball. They said, we want to know where 22 is at all times. That's some of the things you try to put into other teams' heads, scheming up things for them. Q. Did he punt that second one a little bit better, catch some guys off guard? Seemed like they didn't cover quite as hard? COACH HAZELL: How many times did he punt, twice? Q. Twice. The second one went 44 yards into the end zone. COACH HAZELL: You know what, I think it's Danny Anthrop had a chance. He circled around the returner instead of getting back to the end zone on that one. We could have downed that one inside the 5. Q. As you look at your offensive line and sort of projecting forward, do you feel like you have the fixes here for years to come, for next year? Do you have to go out and recruit some immediate help? How do you feel like that stacks up down the line? COACH HAZELL: That's a priority in recruiting. We're going to take four of those guys and might even take five, but that's a big priority in our recruiting this off‑season. Q. How will you measure progress these last four games? COACH HAZELL: Well, the two things I want to see, and I told our football team this on Sunday, is energy and execution. Energy and execution, that's how I'll measure the progress of our last four games. Q. Obviously there's some execution issues that have plagued your team, but just from an energy standpoint are you happy where they're at? COACH HAZELL: Well, you know, sometimes after a Saturday when we throw the interception and we don't stop them on that first drive where they have the ball, some of that comes out of your sails, some of that wind comes out of your sails. We've got to be able to play with great energy and intensity through those situations. It's been pretty good. I didn't think it was where it needed to be on Saturday at times toward the end of the game, but that's what we're going to look for here going forward. Q. We've talked before about dealing with adverse situations, always going to come up with a game, and just kind of where you think your team is at today compared to the first game against Cincinnati. COACH HAZELL: We're better. We're better than that game. I still think there's a little bit of confidence that we lack, especially when you're playing a good team like Ohio State. When those things happen, you're like, oh, here we go. But we're better than where we were. Obviously not where we need to be. Q. If you could help explain, what kind of goes into the whole net punting thing and just the coverage that you guys have been able to put out there. Obviously you're No.1 in the country in that, but just from your standpoint, how is that working and why are you guys excelling in that? COACH HAZELL: We want to punt the ball 4.0 hang time or better. We want to put it outside the left hash. We want to kick it to our cover guys, and we want the opposing team to average less than five yards a return, and those are our goals as a punt team unit, and it starts with a snap. We need a perfect snap, as crazy as that sounds, it makes the punter feel comfortable, and then obviously it comes down to punter and then I think we've got great snipers on the outside, and it's all about speed and want‑to. Q. Has that coverage team stayed pretty consistent or have you rotated guys in and out? COACH HAZELL: We've rotated guys on the outside in and out but not on the inside. We've been pretty solid on the inside in terms of our core. Q. You said yesterday really no new personnel you're going to look at from a true freshman standpoint, but just from a position standpoint are there guys you want to tweak and move around a little bit to get a gauge where they're at the last four games? COACH HAZELL: I don't believe so. I think we've kind of exhausted personnel changes and shifts and moves and things like that. Obviously you saw Dolapo on the field a couple snaps last week.  We'll do the same thing this week. We'll have a little Dolapo package to bring some of his physical presence. But other than that, I don't know if there's anything else personnel‑wise we can do. Q. Iowa's offense, what they usually do is they usually play it pretty safe, have a pretty physical running game. Is that the same Iowa team you're seeing this year? COACH HAZELL: It is. It's the exact same football team. They're going to run inside zone, outside zone, play action pass, nakeds and boots and things like that. They play it very close to the vest. You know what, they pretty much do the same thing defensively, however they have changed a little bit since Coach Parker retired. They used to play all cover, quarters coverage or sometimes you'd get a little bit of half coverage. They're playing more cover one, man free, on 3rd down, which they hardly ever did before. Q. What about Rudock? What's he doing pretty well for them? COACH HAZELL: You know, we've got to get in our gaps and get in our coverage lanes and make sure we take him away. I mean, he's a good player. But if we're capable of doing the things that we're able to do, then I like our chances. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|