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Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/141859
f r o m e d i t o r b r i a n n e u b e r t Uncommon Leadership S o it's mid-June and only slightly cooler than the surface of the sun out on Purdue's outdoor practice fields. There are camps going on, so a whole bunch of teenagers are running around on these fields, all of them sweating like faucets, despite the fact they're wearing state-of-theart clothing specifically engineered to keep them cool. Darrell Hazell is surveying these fields. He's wearing sleeves and slacks. What's it take for you to wear shorts, a sun-burnt onlooker jokes. "Bed," the Purdue coach jokes in return. For Hazell, every day is a board meeting, every encounter a chance to make a lasting impression. This is the new face of Purdue football, a man with a tie, typically nearby, for every occasion and more suits than big tobacco. What's different about Purdue football these days? Well, everything. All due respect to those who held Hazell's office before he moved in and totally renovated the thing, but Purdue's public face is now an almost obnoxiously professional, polished one. And an atypical one. Hazell coaches his teams on and off the field from a binder, a text- book of sorts on life and football, a tradition passed down from the coaches he himself learned from, and he investigates tradition, looking for the mark his team can make on it. He dotes over carpeting and interior décor in a football office that's been made into something of a Purdue football-themed amusement park. He wears hats that look like they've been backed over by the team bus a dozen times. And he likes them that way. He oozes substance, he and his staff telling every one of those sweaty teens who came through camp to thank their parents and choose their friends wisely before talking about anything more self-serving. If you met the man on the street unaware of his line of work, you'd guess a hundred different professions before "football coach" came to mind. But Hazell is a football coach, a good one, but one with a difficult job on his hands. He assumes the reins of a program that's been to back-to-back bowl games — for whatever that's really worth anymore — but nevertheless needed a change at the top for myriad reasons. Make no mistake: Hazell and his Purdue coaching staff have some 14 • Gold and Black IllustrateD • volume 23, issue 6 very good football players. They do not, however, have an abundance of them. A drop-off in collective ability lines up perfectly this season with a harrowing schedule, one that by itself might have scared candidates for this job off. Hazell isn't going to ask for your patience while he talks about Rose Bowls to come, but he does deserve it. Purdue is a not an easy job and it stands to reason to suggest that Hazell might only be as successful on the field on Saturdays as he is in recruiting, where it's slightly different at Purdue. You can't just pluck the shiniest apples off the tree like they can at Ohio State; you can't just disregard all the ones you can't easily reach, either, like they can in the Mid-American Conference, where he coached Kent State. Recruiting at Purdue is a grind, a grind that must be met and embraced. Same for coaching at a school where the mission statement is always to make more from less. That's just reality. This is a job where you have to outwork your competition. Where you have to roll up your sleeves. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com GBIprint.com GoldandBlack.com