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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 26, 2013Darrell HazellCOACH HAZELL: Well, what an exciting time this week, getting ready to play for a chance to retain the Bucket. We started off the week with our great band coming over at 4:30 on Sunday and playing with our football team, giving us a mini concert till about 5:10, exchanging some greetings there. We'll have some special things for our guys today in regards to the Bucket Game. All week long, we'll have some special activities. It's going to be an exciting week. Our guys are ready to go. They're fired up, even after a disappointing loss last week. Our seniors are jacked up to play their last game down in Bloomington. I know they're excited for this game. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. Indiana has been very explosive offensively for most of the season. What is it about their offense that makes them so explosive? COACH HAZELL: Well, they're doing this no‑huddle offense where they're always getting themselves into great plays. Every single snap, they look to the sideline, they're waiting for the play from the sideline. They're probably running 95% of plays that are good looks that they're running against. If you watch their players, the quarterback does an excellent job of getting the ball out of his hands. He doesn't take too many shots. I think they've got two very solid runningbacks who make people miss and are strong runners. But they're a very efficient offense. Q. They're playing two quarterbacks. In this case you have to prepare for both, don't you? COACH HAZELL: When Tre comes in the game, you see a lot more of zone read and option football as opposed to the other guy where he's going to throw quick game and down‑the‑field passes. It's almost like they're jockeying the offense a little bit when Tre comes in. There's more two‑back systems when he's in the game, running zone read with two backs, but a little bit different style. Q. In your case offensively the last three weeks, I know you're not where you want to be yet, but you're showing signs of improvement. Talk about that. You will be going against a defense that has shown some vulnerability. COACH HAZELL: Yeah, I really do think we're getting better offensively even though we really came up with 14 points, especially off of four turnovers. But you watch the development and the maturity of Danny Etling each week. I thought he did a good job of taking care of the ball, throwing the ball away last week. I thought he was very accurate with the ball. We have to be able to hit some of those big plays. One of the critical plays in last week's game was that crossing route down inside the red zone. We got to make that play and it's potentially a different football game. Q. To win this game, what are the keys you have to do to win on Saturday? COACH HAZELL: I think when you get into these big‑time rivalry games, I told the staff that less is more this week. It's not about all these great schemes that you diagnose. It's about getting our guys to know exactly what they're supposed to do, getting them to play as fast and as hard as they possibly can play. I think those are the keys to the victory. Obviously, you got to have such things against this coverage, that offensive play. It's about playing fast, not making mistakes, handling the ebb and flows of the football game. Q. Once this game is over, you have like a recruiting period you have to dive into. Do you get a break at all, or Sunday everybody starts going in terms of recruiting? COACH HAZELL: My plane flies out at 10 a.m. Sunday morning, so there's not much of a break. I won't be back in town until our recruiting weekend on the Friday. Q. Coach, I know you've got that clock up there in your hallway. Talk about what's going through your mind as the clock has ticked down and the Indiana game approaches. COACH HAZELL: It's a constant reminder of how important this game is to our football program. There's a countdown clock that we've installed probably after the second or third week that we got here. It's finally down to those last couple days, last couple hours and minutes. We want our players to understand that this is more than just a game. Q. Is that kind of a trick to make the players understand this is more than just a game, but at the same time trying to simplify things, like you said, less is more? COACH HAZELL: Yes. I think it's very important you do subtle things to make them understand the importance. We're going to do something in our team meeting today with the Bucket. But, again, I've even trimmed down practice a few periods today, a period tomorrow, to make sure our guys are fresh. I don't want coaches to install all these different defenses and offenses. I want them to make sure we're exercising our best things we're doing from the beginning of the camp. That's what we did last night as a staff. There was nine people in the room. I asked each person in the room, You give me the three best things we've done as an offense since beginning of camp. We got some great answers. That's what we're going to do. Q. I know you're not from Indiana. How long did it take you to understand the importance of this game, or was that pretty evident from the minute you walked in? COACH HAZELL: Oh, it's very evident. People constantly reminded me from day one how important this game is. It doesn't take a whole lot of knowledge to know how important this game is to the Boilermaker fans as well as the Indiana Hoosiers fans. Q. You mentioned a little bit there you've seen some signs of improvement. You mentioned Danny. Are there other areas that you can identify where progress is being made? COACH HAZELL: Yeah, absolutely. I think you look at our left guard. Jason King is really starting to play like we hoped he would play. He probably was a year away when we first started the season. But he's starting to look like a guy inside at the left guard spot for us. I'm happy with his maturity and development. But also those young wide receivers. You see Cameron Posey starting to show up a lot more, you're seeing Danny Anthrop starting to show up a lot more. Unfortunately we didn't have Yancey last week. Hopefully we can get him back this week. Mike Rouse is really starting to show up on defense creating some penetration here the last couple weeks. There's a lot of promising things that are happening that a lot of times you can't see as an outsider. Q. Can you talk a little bit about what a win would mean for this program at this point going forward, the kind of momentum that would give you going into next season? COACH HAZELL: It's huge. I think it does so much for everybody. It's a mental health game potentially. But, no, this is a big game obviously. It's not a die‑or‑not situation. But it's a game that you have to find a way to play as well as you can possibly play to give yourself a chance to win the football game. Q. What do you think of the way that Cameron Posey has played for you recently, especially last week? COACH HAZELL: Cameron Posey is really starting to step up for us. I think he's studying the system more. He's getting more involved. As soon as you start to have a little bit of success, you'd like to have a lot more success. You throw yourself into it just a little bit more. He came in last night, picked up the ready list. He's having fun right now. Q. I am sure you are not going to answer this, but what are you doing with the Bucket? You keep referring to something you're doing with the Bucket. COACH HAZELL: Something a little bit different with it today (smiling). Q. On this Thanksgiving week, what are you thankful for? COACH HAZELL: Well, I'm thankful for a lot of things. First of all, I'm thankful for my health. I'm thankful to be around so many great people on a daily basis. I'm thankful for the vision that we'll have for this program. I'm thankful for all of our military people who really do a nice job so we can do the things that we love to do. There's so many things that we're thankful for. You don't want to take anything for granted. It's a great week, it really is. Q. You talked throughout the year about laying a foundation. What is that foundation going into 2014? COACH HAZELL: The foundation to me is constant growth, from everything you do, your meetings, how you prepare, the players, how they see things. You know, it was great to see our players. Everything is an education for our guys right now, it really is. It's hard for you to understand right now. You walk into the team room at 4:00 on Sunday. You explain to them how something gets away from them. You put it up there visually so they can see it. Their eyes are like this, Give me more knowledge on what happened, how can we get it the next time. That's what drives you, when you get that information. Whether it's verbal or non‑verbal feedback from your football team, that's what fires you up as a coach. Q. You've been involved in a lot of rivalry games as an assistant, probably at Kent in your two years there. What stands out about the games you've been involved in that mean so much not only to the programs you've been at but the fan bases? COACH HAZELL: As crazy as the rivalry can be, and you're right, it's been Army/Navy, it's been Ohio State/Michigan, backyard brawl with West Virginia and Pitt, Akron. As crazy as it gets, you got to be calm when the game. You really try to do a good job with your players of letting them know it's not a street fight, it's a football game. You can't take those crazy penalties that are lingering out there when you want to take a shot at a guy. It's a football game and you got to execute and you got to be able to handle all this that's going to occur at some point in time during the course of the game. Q. Is there a memory that stands out from these previous games you've been involved in? What was your favorite? COACH HAZELL: I'm not sure what my favorite was. They've all been really, really good football games. I remember walking down the tunnel when we played Michigan. Early in the game there was a little bumping between two of the opposing teams in the tunnel. This is two hours before the game. It ignites the whole rivalry deal. But it's fun. It's a lot of fun. Q. I take it that game was at Michigan? COACH HAZELL: It was at Michigan, yeah (laughter). Q. How special was the Army/Navy experience, that game? COACH HAZELL: That was a great football game because of what it means to everybody. Who doesn't have a family member that's involved in the Army or the Navy or some form of the services? There's such a competitive suggestion throughout the whole course of the year. You look at things on campus. On top of the building, Beat Navy. Same thing on Navy's campus. Let's beat those guys the first Saturday in December. Then you get to the game, the cadets are marching in, the midshipmen are marching in. It's pageantry at top level. Then you have commercials on the Jumbotron of each other going after each other, and then you have the game. It's back and forth, back and forth. It's similar offenses going back and forth. At the end of the game you got one team that's really just devastated and the other team that's feeling pretty good about themselves, but they're all hugging each other because they're in the same fight. Q. Is there a tradition that you brought to Purdue from one of these rivalry games that you want to start using here? COACH HAZELL: There's a couple things that we're going to do. We're going to do a senior run on Thursday, Thanksgiving Thursday. Our last time for the seniors take a run around the practice field, have our underclassmen greet those guys as they come off the field for the last time. We have a couple things we're doing like that. Q. A hard run? COACH HAZELL: Just a little jog (laughter). Q. You talked about recruiting. Is your window smaller now to get out and see recruits? Do you have a longer dead period? COACH HAZELL: Yes. Q. How will you adjust to that? COACH HAZELL:  Yeah, it's a little bit tougher now. We're going about 14 days where we can actually have some contacts with the recruits, which we're going to have to hustle, get to a lot of different places in those two weeks. You're right, it goes dead that third week in December, then through the convention, then that week between New Year's and the convention is also dead, which used to be open. There's a little bit smaller window, so we're going to have to get out, get around, see a lot of people. Q. What is your number one priority in the off‑season? COACH HAZELL: Recruits. We've got to get players in. That's huge. We have 16 guys right now committed to come on that December 6 weekend. We'll have probably 40 to 50 family members coming with them. That's a big week. It's coming on fast. Now the whole staff is leaving on Sunday, and all those people will be here next Friday. We have to do a good job with organization, making sure we have everything just on point so we can do a great job that weekend. We have the banquet that weekend, as well. Q. When you start looking at next year's team, what is the priority for them? Just to get stronger? A whole host of things or is it something coming out of this year that needs to be addressed and fixed or corrected moving forward? COACH HAZELL: Talking about our current roster? Q. Yes. COACH HAZELL: I talked to our staff this morning. I was watching No.99 from the SanFrancisco 49ers last night. He gave me a great idea. I told our staff this morning, I want to do Project 99. I want you to take two or three NFL players and give me a whole locker full of, at your position, guys doing it the right way. I want our guys to study those guys in the off‑season. I want the great runningbacks, linebackers, all those positions. That will be an off‑season study for our guys. The other thing for us is we got to develop, we got to get bigger, faster, we got to get a lot stronger in this off‑season. Q. You mentioned the receivers a little bit. You really built a career on molding receivers. When are they not young anymore? COACH HAZELL: I don't know if you can put a time on it, per se. It's a lot to do with plays, how much they're playing, being able to see those different looks week in, week out, being able to play with some speed around press coverage, bump coverage, being able to play faster. I can't put a timeline on it. But you know when you know. Q. When you look at this offense that does have so many of those young guys, obviously the receivers, is next season the time you want to see production? Are you putting a time limit on that? COACH HAZELL: I hope it's Saturday. I hope it's Saturday. Again, you don't put a time limit on it. I think we're going to develop very quickly as soon as we get some stability up front, more stability up front, where he has a chance to sit back there and read defenses. Those guys are starting to understand how to get open. You saw them cut themselves open on Saturday. They got to finish the play. But they're getting better. Q. (Indiscernible) why 8? COACH HAZELL: Before I've done 10, before I've done 5. I just randomly picked 8. Q. The Iowa game, they ran 23 plays and you had 3. Is that something you absolutely stick to regardless of how the game goes? COACH HAZELL: The only time you go off script on a third‑down situation, where that play might not fit into that category. Normally you'll say, Okay, these are the 8 plays that we selected, that we like, coming out of the gate based on practice, based on the looks they're giving us. Q. The crowd last week wasn't what you would have liked it to be. How do you get people back in the stands? COACH HAZELL: You got to win and you got to play good football. They'll be back. There's no question in my mind they're going to come back and they're going to be very happy when they all get back in there. They'll be very happy when we get this thing flipped the way we want it flipped. I didn't want to bring this up. I did a little bit of research, not a lot of research, of some of the guys that have coached, from Kirk Ferentz, to Frank Beamer, Chuck Noll, Johnson to Jim Tressel, where they started that first year of their program and where they ended up. That also fires me up. Q.  In terms of their results or fan support? COACH HAZELL: Nothing to do with fan support. In terms of where they started and what their end result was. Q. You mentioned yesterday you showed a highlight tape of the guys with different rivalries. That tape ended with Purdue and Indiana? COACH HAZELL: It did. Q. You mentioned earlier everybody was saying how huge this rivalry was. Did you do research or did you have a crash course in this somehow? COACH HAZELL: It's a continual process where you're constantly looking up things and numbers. Today we're going to show part of our meeting the top 10 best plays of the Purdue/Indiana rivalry that Purdue made. That will be part of our presentation today. Q. Who put that together? COACH HAZELL: My film guy. Q. Who is the head coach for the week? COACH HAZELL: That would be me. Q. Talk a little bit about Indiana's defense. Statistically one of the more troubled. How do you exploit them? COACH HAZELL: Well, I think you got to get 'em in space. That's where they're most vulnerable. We got to do some things to get the ball on the perimeter, get our guys one‑on‑one against some of their backers and secondary players. They've got some big inside guys who will hold up pretty well if you try to fight them in a phone booth. But if you get them out in space a little bit, I think that's where they become more susceptible. Q. Their receivers really stand out. Talk about what you've seen from that trio and the tight ends as well? COACH HAZELL: They run very good routes. Again, what helps those guys so well on the perimeter is how fast he gets the ball out of his hand. His ball location is premiere. He allows them to run after the catch because of his location. Q. Tevin Coleman has been out the last two weeks. He is one of the best guys in terms of big plays as a runningback. COACH HAZELL: Right. Q. Talk about whether you expect him back and how are you preparing for him as opposed to their other two backs? COACH HAZELL: If you're not gap sound, they'll hit big plays on you. You saw that when they played Illinois a few weeks ago. They're running zone plays, typical zone plays. Illinois was one gap off. He went down the sideline for 50, 60, 70 yards. You see it constantly over and over and over again. They're strong. They're strong backs. We're going to have to do a great job of wrapping those guys up. Q. Kevin Wilson talked about yesterday his respect for you and your staff. He said he's familiar with a lot of guys on your staff. Talk about what you know where they may have crossed paths? COACH HAZELL: There's definitely a mutual respect. I personally have not coached against him before, but I've watched his work. He's phenomenal at what he does. You watch their offense work. He's working that offense. Their special teams are outstanding. We're going to probably play the best special teams team we played this year in terms of being sound and how hard they play on special teams. They're doing a great job down there, I think. Q. You talked about the rivalry. What does it add to or does it add to the fact that it's the last game for both teams? COACH HAZELL: Well, you put everything into it. This is their last opportunity to put the Purdue football helmet on. That adds everything to a rivalry. I think, again, another very emotional game for our guys on the field on Saturday. We're going to have to do a good job of controlling our emotions. But this is the last chance ‑ think about this now ‑ you played football for 15 years, your whole life, all of a sudden you're putting your helmet on for the last time, a rivalry against your biggest opponent. Watch out. That's a big, big, big deal. Q. You personally have been passionate on a couple answers. You've been energetic. How have you been able to be that way in a difficult season? COACH HAZELL: It's been a very difficult season. But you know what, there's so much promise that's coming. Being able to visualize that and see the future, understand what our staff is doing, making the right steps to get us to the future, is what inspires me. Q. You talked about Thanksgiving. What is your favorite dish? Don't tell me turkey. COACH HAZELL: My favorite Thanksgiving dish is these things my mom used to make, mincemeat turnovers. It's a floury dough with mincemeat inside of them. They're like potato chips, you just keep eating them. All the high school coaches that are in the area, if they'd like to come to practice today and tomorrow, if you're in driving distance, we'd like to invite all those guys to come watch us practice. I think that would be awesome for both parties. Q. When you were doing the research on those coaches who got off to slow starts in their careers, you're looking at numbers at that point. What did you learn out of that? COACH HAZELL: All five of those guys are solid. That's the first thing that jumps off the page. They're not going to flinch. They had a plan and they're going to work the plan. They're going to get all the pieces in the right places and then success is going to happen. Q. Did you have a chance to talk to Kirk or Alvarez, other than Tressel obviously? COACH HAZELL: No, I haven't. I didn't have time obviously this week. At some point in time I probably would like to sit down with two to three of those guys and say, What was the difference in year one to year two to year three? THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much for your time this season. We appreciate it. COACH HAZELL: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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