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ing to keep the fans by winning. When you look at the schedule and some lack of starting experience on the roster at key positions this season, has there been a "be patient" message at all? Hazell: "From me?" Gold and Black: Yes. Hazell: "No. I guess I never look at things like that. I look at things (like) I want to win. I know our guys want to win. Where we are when we get there, we'll figure it out. But I don't go into a season and put as much work into it as we're going to put into it as you've got to be patient. There's no way." Gold and Black: How much have you modeled your approach to coaching or the way you interact with players or the media after Jim Tressel? Is it fair to say that a lot of who you are as a coach is what he was? Hazell: "Not at all. I've taken a lot of things from Coach Tressel. He's got so many good qualities. But any time you try to mimic someone else, it's not as sincere and it's not as genuine. I've got to be myself. There's a lot of great ideas he had, but my personality is going to be my personality and not someone else's personality." Gold and Black: Speaking of your personality, everyone seems to speak very highly of you. Shoop called you an "uncommon man" and nearly all of the former players we've spoken with have referred to you as a father figure. If there was only one thing that people could know about you, what would you want it to be? Hazell: "I always talk about being able to help someone, and I think that's what drives me. That's all. That's all I want: To be able to help someone get better. If I could leave one legacy, that would be it. More so than winning, more so than anything else. If I could help someone get better." Gold and Black: What is success to you? Hazell: "I think you are successful when whatever you are doing, you leave it all out there. That, to me, is successful. I'm sure at some point in time we're going to lose a football game. We might. There's a chance. (smiles) But we'll know if we're successful when we come off the field and when we're in that locker room after the football game. You're going to be exhausted. You're going to play with every fiber you have. To me, that's what success is." 12 • Gold and Black IllustrateD • volume 23, issue 6 Gold and Black: Do you have guys who are like that now? Hazell: "We'll find out pretty quickly. It's easy to go through practices, but until you go through a game or two, you'll turn the film on on Sunday nights and say, 'Hey, this guy, it was important for him to be exhausted when he left the field.'" Gold and Black: You're trying to gauge the character of your guys still, right? You can see them making plays in a scrimmage or the spring game, but when do you know you can trust them to do it when it really matters? Hazell: "We don't yet. I think that's our job as a coach is to make sure that they don't have performance anxiety. I think that's a huge part of a program like Purdue is to constantly infuse confidence in guys, no matter who you're playing against. To me, that's the difference between having a 10-win season and a six-win season. The confidence you play with no matter what the situation is." GBIprint.com GoldandBlack.com