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Local Focus
Purdue's new recruiting operation starts at home
BY BRIAN NEUBERT
BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com
W
hen the April evaluation
period began and college
football coaches were free to span
the country visiting high schools,
Purdue made its intentions clear.
Nearly half the Boilermaker
staff spent its time recruiting in
Indiana, visiting as many in-state
high schools as could be hit, part
of new coach Darrell Hazell's initiative to re-connect with Purdue's
home state, after the past staff
heavily emphasized the Southeast
in recruiting.
"I think we've got to do a great
job of cultivating some relationships with the Indiana coaches
and some of these neighboring
states," Hazell said as the evaluation period began. "We have five
coaches in the state of Indiana and
we have to make sure we get to as
many schools in this state and let
them know we're very interested
in their school and their players. I
think that's one of the main goals."
Indiana certainly isn't Florida,
Texas or California in terms of
the number of BCS-level players it
turns out every year, but it is usually good for a handful of high-end
Big Ten-caliber prospects per year
and any number of lesser-heralded
prospects with upward mobility.
It's just a matter of finding them
and getting them to West Lafayette.
And history has shown in-state
players' importance to the BoilerGold & Black IllustrateD • volume 23, issue 5
New Purdue coach Darrell Hazell's aim
is to re-establish ties with the program's local base by recruiting Indiana
first and foremost, hoping to turn the
state old gold, then branching out.
maker program, which has seen its
last four NFL first-round draft picks
hail from the Hoosier State: Rod
Woodson (1987), Anthony Spencer
(2007), Dustin Keller (2008) and
Ryan Kerrigan (2011).
Should defensive tackle Kawann
Short sneak into Round 1 of this
month's draft, that number would
move to five.
It's not like Purdue has been a
non-factor recruiting in Indiana.
Just this past February, it signed
the state's top quarterback recruit
in Danny Etling and maybe its top
running back in David Yancey,
