I know most of you think, "god, a Purdue fan. They're so shitty. They're so lowly. They suck. We have the tradition, everything in the universe is set up so that Purdue is way down here and we're way up here."
I'll tell you a story. In 2003, we had a team that would have kicked the ever loving crap out of today's Nebraska team with Armstrong healthy and everything else going for them. They kicked Penn State and Iowa around. Sure they looked useless v. Michigan and had an opening hiccup v. Bowling Green. But a team with Kyle Orton running the show on offense.. a team that had a center that went to the NFL, a RT who also went and 8 guys who got drafted in the following draft on defense was hanging with Georgia at the end of the Capitol One Bowl.
Purdue fans wanted more. They started I believe 5-0 in 04 before the fumble, an Orton injury and 4 straight losses. They sucked in 05 and 06 and were 7-5 in 07. But in 07, 7-5? Gross. We needed more! We were better than that. Better assistants? The thing that made Joe Tiller's teams good when they were good before they all left one by one? No way. We needed a magic pill head man who was going to take us from an at-will 7-5 to a much better place, because 7-5 is for mediocre ass holes.
Well, Purdue had always struggled to get a physical offensive line who could push those 5 teams they were losing to around. So the thought was... Danny Hope was the OL coach when Purdue had Brees. Danny Hope sent a bunch of two stars to the league, one of whom was Matt Light.. TOM BRADY'S LEFT TACKLE! Come on... of course he'll just pick up where Tiller left off.
Hope went down to Florida and recruited every kid that Miami, FSU and the top half of the SEC didn't want. The problem. None of them were that in to being at Purdue. 7-5 because an annual 5-7. I mean we have to do better than this. Jesus. This is beneath us!
Enter Darrell Hazell.
The guy won at FREAKING KENT STATE! Wow. If you can win there, you can win anywhere. But one small problem. At Kent State he was willing to be aggressive like he was today. His vision for Purdue was to coach the way that his mentor, Jim Tressel, did at Ohio State. He wanted to come to West Lafayette and coach like JIM TRESSEL DID AT OHIO STATE. Think about that. At Ohio State, where you just go to your door and watch all of the impact recruits trying to break into your house. Of course you can be conservative with their players. At Purdue IF you succeed, you do so by being real aggressive, like Tiller was in the Brees years.
I've always thought the road home was to get better assistants, and if you get to be OK again and you let your head coaches contract advance to the final year, THEN go ahead and make a change if you think the RIGHT guy is at your door.
I've got news for you. The new head coach as a magic pill game CAN get worse. A LOT WORSE lol. I'd eat a loaf of moldy bread to get those 7-5 days that were beneath us back... and then I'd ask the AD to improve the assistants first.. and then talk head coach.
I'll tell you a story. In 2003, we had a team that would have kicked the ever loving crap out of today's Nebraska team with Armstrong healthy and everything else going for them. They kicked Penn State and Iowa around. Sure they looked useless v. Michigan and had an opening hiccup v. Bowling Green. But a team with Kyle Orton running the show on offense.. a team that had a center that went to the NFL, a RT who also went and 8 guys who got drafted in the following draft on defense was hanging with Georgia at the end of the Capitol One Bowl.
Purdue fans wanted more. They started I believe 5-0 in 04 before the fumble, an Orton injury and 4 straight losses. They sucked in 05 and 06 and were 7-5 in 07. But in 07, 7-5? Gross. We needed more! We were better than that. Better assistants? The thing that made Joe Tiller's teams good when they were good before they all left one by one? No way. We needed a magic pill head man who was going to take us from an at-will 7-5 to a much better place, because 7-5 is for mediocre ass holes.
Well, Purdue had always struggled to get a physical offensive line who could push those 5 teams they were losing to around. So the thought was... Danny Hope was the OL coach when Purdue had Brees. Danny Hope sent a bunch of two stars to the league, one of whom was Matt Light.. TOM BRADY'S LEFT TACKLE! Come on... of course he'll just pick up where Tiller left off.
Hope went down to Florida and recruited every kid that Miami, FSU and the top half of the SEC didn't want. The problem. None of them were that in to being at Purdue. 7-5 because an annual 5-7. I mean we have to do better than this. Jesus. This is beneath us!
Enter Darrell Hazell.
The guy won at FREAKING KENT STATE! Wow. If you can win there, you can win anywhere. But one small problem. At Kent State he was willing to be aggressive like he was today. His vision for Purdue was to coach the way that his mentor, Jim Tressel, did at Ohio State. He wanted to come to West Lafayette and coach like JIM TRESSEL DID AT OHIO STATE. Think about that. At Ohio State, where you just go to your door and watch all of the impact recruits trying to break into your house. Of course you can be conservative with their players. At Purdue IF you succeed, you do so by being real aggressive, like Tiller was in the Brees years.
I've always thought the road home was to get better assistants, and if you get to be OK again and you let your head coaches contract advance to the final year, THEN go ahead and make a change if you think the RIGHT guy is at your door.
I've got news for you. The new head coach as a magic pill game CAN get worse. A LOT WORSE lol. I'd eat a loaf of moldy bread to get those 7-5 days that were beneath us back... and then I'd ask the AD to improve the assistants first.. and then talk head coach.
