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q & A : g r e g h u d s o n Playing With An Edge Hudson wants smart, aggressive defense BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com G reg Hudson didn't like the injuries he saw in the spring. Eight of Purdue's projected defensive regulars, and several of those likely starters, missed large portions of the Boilermakers' 15 practices in March and April. It's left Hudson, in his first season as Purdue's defensive coordinator, feeling like he doesn't have all the answers about what to expect in 2013. "You look at the NFL and you see what positions they draft first: D-ends, corners, middle linebackers. You know what I mean?" said Hudson, who replaces Tim Tibesar who departed after Danny Hope was fired following last season. "Where are we in those positions? We've got the guys that we think can help us, but they didn't participate completely in the spring. We are still in projection mode." But those injured are expected to get healthy, which should make for an interesting training camp. Gold and Black talked to Hudson about his style, defensive philosophy and expectations for 2013. Gold and Black: How close — or maybe you are far away — to your style will you be able to play with this personnel? That can be a challenge when you are in Year 1 and you are participating with somebody else's guys. Do you feel like you will be able to put your style on this group? Hudson: "Style? I think you can make guys from any group play to your style, if they buy into it. And we are slowly getting to that style with the defense we want to have. It's getting the guys to be aggressive. We have a very cerebral group. The kids understand the defense; they've learned it. We can talk to them about it. Now you have to go play it and you can't be a robot. We've got to do more fastbreak defense; they snap the ball, we go." Gold and Black: Not to compare negatively or positively to Tim Tibesar's defense, but it is a pretty big difference in what you guys are intending to do, correct? Hudson: "Well, to be fair to the previous guys, I didn't 46 • Gold and Black IllustrateD • volume 23, issue 6 Tom Campbell Greg Hudson comes to Purdue from Florida State, where he spent three seasons as the linebackers coach. He thinks the Boilermakers, devoid of a star player, can succeed if they play as one unit. do a lot of evaluations of the (previous) film. We started watching guys and how they worked out in our stuff and their functional movement. I watched some games where they played a similar style of defense to see how the guys reacted. You can say defense is a reaction game and you can say we are an attacking defense if you are in the blitz defense. After the snap, there is a one-second identity of what's going on. After that, it is like seventh grade in the parking lot. And that's where the playground mentality kicks in and who gets picked first. And that's where we have to find out who the guys are." Gold and Black: At times last year when Purdue's defense was very good, there seemed to be times when the opponent's offense was a more traditional, power-running game, like Notre Dame and Ohio State. But they struggled against spread offenses. In your study of Purdue, why do you think that was? Do you have any idea, looking at this group now? Hudson: "Why do I think Purdue struggled? One area we need to improve in is in the red zone. We allowed GBIprint.com GoldandBlack.com