Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/339722
ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 24, ISSUE 6 11 f were. It's just over and over again, 'I'm so sor- ry' and all that. That's why you're ready to get back on the field and, obviously, being around your guys and being able to sow that you have improved immensely. But, yeah, I'm excited to see this football team." Gold and Black: Why will this be a bet- ter team than 2013? Hazell: "Everybody (on this team) knows so much more about everything: the little things, how to work, how to line up, how to meet, how to become a better teammate. Ev- erything that you try to instill and learn as fast as you can, they're getting to the point where they know it pretty well." Gold and Black: Players have said it took some time for some guys to believe in the plan and vision last season. Not every- one, ultimately, did buy in. I think some of those guys are gone. But after 1-11, how is the confidence not shaken? Why do you still believe in what you have going here? Hazell: "(No.) 1, you know the process works. As long as you have the players with- in the process, you've got a better chance of making it work. But every year is its own en- tity. It really is. You go back throughout your career and you think you're going to be good, and you're not. You think you're going to be average then you're a little better. Every year, it just depends on how guys perform and how well you can make it all gel in those 12 op- portunities. We always look at the final score of a game, which is what we're measured on, but if you take two or three plays throughout the course of the game and something hap- pens a little bit differently that causes you to win it, you feel so much different on Sunday. I mean, you could have played poorly and still won the game, but you feel a lot different on Sundays. That's the way it is. That's the pro- fession we're in. So those crazy bounces that happen, you get some of those throughout the course of the year — and you create some of those crazy bounces as well — but that's how you make yourself feel pretty good." HEAD COACH DARRELL HAZELL A t some point, the victories will need to start building. That's ultimately what Darrell Hazell is paid sig- nificant money to do: Win. But it's the way he's working on the details, con- centrating on making off-field strides in academ- ics and accountability, on fostering maturity and loving teammates, that's getting the attention right now of his assistant coaches and players. The wins, he hopes, will come because of that effort, as Hazell believes everything — determining personal worth and value, to instilling confidence and faith — is connected with on-field play. His approach is evident in the 621-page "A Player's Manual." It's evident in the thoughtful way he chooses the team's motto — it's "Leave No Doubt" this season. And, with each seemingly minor decision, the 50-year-old Ha- zell is continuing to impress. "I've coached for NFL coaches of the year, college coaches of the year, you name it, I've coached at the highest level. I've nev- er been around an individual that does as good of a job of team building as he does," offensive coordinator John Shoop said. "The things he does, I take home and I'm reading the quotes he gives us to my son. I want my son in this building listening to Coach Hazell when he talks." Hazell's latest build-better-men push was in the spring when he developed an accountability chart that separated the Boiler- makers into teams of about eight players, each led by an assis- tant coach. Players were docked points for missing classes, tu- tors, etc., and earned points for doing community service work. What was quickly made clear: Players and coaches who otherwise wouldn't be interacting all of sudden were a daily presence in each other's lives and started to care. "I think Coach Hazell is a master head coach and he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve that he knows all the right buttons to push," offensive line coach Jim Bridge said. "He does a great job of letting this team know how much he cares about them. He's a tremendous leader, parent and motivator for this group of men. I think the accountability chart was ingenious." Hazell believes the repercussions of the chart will be felt into the season, the bonds and accountability it helped form resulting into all-for-one type of actions on the field. "Coach Hazell has definitely found a way to hit us in all cylin- ders and make sure people are doing everything they need to be doing and not just maybe being great in one aspect and mediocre in another," defensive end Ryan Russell said. — Stacy Clardie