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c o v e r s t o r y : t h e r e b u i l d i n g It Takes Time, But How Much? Boilermaker program not only one to suffer slow start BY ALAN KARPICK AKarpick@GoldandBlack.com L ike all Purdue fans and supporters, Morgan Burke hoped history would repeat itself. He didn't expect it to, but he had hoped that big changes would come to Purdue football right away. Burke and fellow Boilermaker followers remembered 1997 and how Coach Joe Tiller caught lightning in the bottle, turning around the fortunes of a struggling program in a span of a season. Just this past August, some glass-half-full fans were talking of quick-turnaround scenarios and similarities between 1997 and 2013. A wave of optimism greeted first-year coach Darrell Hazell. But what happened on the field was not even remotely close to what happened 16 years ago. "I knew in 2012 that this was an average team," Burke said after the season. "We were a .500 program for what, the last five, six, seven years? That's not bad. But that's not where we want to go. "Would I have liked to have been better? Sure." That might be the understatement of the year. Since, the question among many is how long will Hazell's rebuilding process take? One year? Two years? Longer? No one knows for sure. Burke is clear in his message that he believes Hazell is the right guy, but he also knows the turnaround requires patience and demands wildly f cancy for the 2013 season created by a dismissal, only four (Malzahn, Addazio, Colorado's Mike MacIntrye and Southern Mississippi's Todd Monken) posted more wins than the previous coach. That figure would be fewer if Colorado and Southern Miss had more than a combined one victory between them in 2012. When times are as troubled as they are in Purdue's football program, it is common, if not comforting, to look to other comparable programs that have faced similar situations. Most point to two coaches: Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez and Iowa's Kirk Ferentz. Each suffered through one-win seasons in their first years at Wisconsin (1990) and Iowa (1999) and as slow, but steady, progress turned their programs around to Tom Campbell consistent winners. Kirk Ferentz won only one of his first 16 "The first step to getting things games as Iowa's head coach. But once turned around is getting your program the winning started in the latter part back to the level of being relevant," of the 2000 season, it has been pretty consistent in Iowa City. said Steve Malchow, a current athletic administrator at Iowa State who has more positive results on the scoreclose ties to both Iowa, as an underboard than was seen in 2013. BIG First-Year Struggles Relevance A First Step Since 1990, eight coaches were Hazell is far from alone in strug- winless in Big Ten play during gling in the first season as the head their first seasons in the league. coach at a new school. Of the 31 FBS coaches who had new Date Name, School jobs in 2013, only two were able to turn 1990 Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin 1997 Ron Turner, Illinois a team with a losing record in 2012 1999 Kirk Ferentz, Iowa into a winner in 2013. Gus Malzahn 2005 Ron Zook, Illinois flipped Auburn from 3-9 to 12-1, and 2007 Tim Brewster, Minnesota Steve Addazio at Boston College went 2011 Kevin Wilson, Indiana 2012 Tim Beckman, Illinois 7-5 from 2-10. 2013 Darrell Hazell, Purdue Of the 14 coaches who filled a vaIllustrateD volume 24, issue 3 9