Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/113203
f r o m e d i t o r b r i a n n e u b e r t pointing fingers you're deIn coaching, you handle fined by how situations, good and bad. When former Purdue football coach Danny Hope goes back on the job interview circuit, whether it be this season or next, he has done himself no favors with his handling of this situation. Why, a prospective employer might ask, would Hope call an "exclusive" TV interview three months after his firing for the sole apparent purpose of pointing fingers and hurling grenades? That was the gist of Hope's supposed tell-all interview with WLFI, the television station he dubbed his chosen platform for the airing of his grievances, as he decided to go out like a man who's not going to leave without a hunk of bloody flesh in both hands. Hope skewered A.D. Morgan Burke for a lack of "accountability behind the neck tie" — no specifics were offered — effectively buckpassing in hopes of either drawing attention to himself or tearing down Purdue now that it's moved on under Darrell Hazell. Hope going on TV to blame people for his fate at Purdue sounds like the definition of irony. And questionable, to put it diplomatically. Did Hope get a raw deal at Purdue? There's a weak leg to stand on there — he did take the Boilermakers to back-to-back bowl games, all while his teams were often undercut by injury — but that's life in coaching, the reason why Hope and his professional colleagues get all those commas in their contracts. They are paid to be accountable, no matter what. You know what accountability is? It's owning up to a mistake and taking decisive action to remedy it. That's what Burke did, his mistake through this being hiring the wrong guy in 2008 when the right guy for the situation at the time, Brock Spack, was right under his nose. Yes, Purdue left Hope dangling the past 24 months or so. Last winter's game of Chicken with his contract did leave him blowing in the wind. So if that's a lack of support, then OK. But support would have been unconditional had it been earned and the results prior to that point dictated Purdue's course of action. (Hope also accused Burke of handling his firing "unprofessionally" without the most critical component of accusation: Elaboration.) Again, Burke recognized Hope was not viable long-term and took decisive action. That's accountability. That Hope was collateral damage stinks for him, but it's business. Purdue was accountable. That's where the hypocrisy of Hope's comments lie. Accountability was never the mission statement of his program, whether it was him or his players, who he loved dearly — for better and worse — often to the team's detriment. When a player was suspended for delivering a cheap shot against Northern Illinois in 2009, it was Rich Rodriguez's fault, you'll recall, and when Hope beat Rodriguez, he took some of the shine off a landmark Purdue win by handling that situation WWF-style. When the Boilermakers struggled this season, it was because it's "tough" at Purdue because players have to go to class, that explanation coming in a year when Vanderbilt won nine games, Stanford went to the Rose Bowl and Notre Dame played for the BCS title. And when the scrutinous bogeyman Hope always thought was haunting him in this microscopic media market, it was the "mendac- ity (translation: dishonesty) of the media" that swayed public opinion against his staff's curious decisions at quarterback. That was a new one, a day in which a bunch of people who use words for a living learned a new one, in insult form. A coach philosophically opposed to transparency loved to call other people "misinformed." I could go on and on. In going on TV to chastise Purdue over a lack of accountability Hope himself was a picture of unaccountability. And it was yet another indicator that the correct move was made in late November. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com GoldanDBlack express • volume 23, express 24 • 4