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10 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 24, ISSUE 6 f Q & A : D A R R E L L H A Z E L L BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com D arrell Hazell is relaxed, feeling refreshed even, in mid-June. Nearly 18 months on the job, he's no longer scrambling to get ahead. He's on track in team building and assessing current talent and finally ahead on recruiting. Now, he's just eager to get training camp underway in early August and of- ficially put the 2013 season in the rear view. Hazell recently sat down with Gold and Black to look ahead to 2014. Gold and Black: As a competitive person, have you been especially eager for Aug. 30 and the season to get here to get back out on the field and show people you're bet- ter? Hazell: "You spend eight months listening to people say where you Tom Campbell Darrell Hazell already has seen progress in his team since last season with a strong spring of grasping the systems and what's expected off the field. But, he knows, that work needs to start paying off with victories. Looking For A Positive Restart Hazell has turned page to 2014 If 1-11 did anything, ultimately, it fueled a work ethic throughout the team, pushed by the coaches' pleading message for the strong to overtake the weak, for the lead dogs to pull the rest forward. It appears to have produced a productive, promising summer. And with a schedule that's much more in line with the Boilermak- ers' talents — Western Michigan, Central Michigan and Southern Il- linois are on tap in non-conference play instead of a barrage of bowl- ready programs — perhaps Pur- due could surpass its 2013 win to- tal in the season's first two weeks. Even if they have more in mind than that. "It's a new team. It's a new year. We've got a new attitude and a new mindset and that mindset is to hang a banner," quarterback Aus- tin Appleby said. "I'll promise you, (1-11) will never happen again. You ask anybody on our team — they're sickened by what happened last year, and they will make sure we never have that taste in our mouth at the end of the year. "The time is now. We're not thinking, 'OK, we're going to win a couple games this year and then next year, we'll get a little better.' Forget that. We're going to win and we're going to win now. We nev- er want to have that taste in our mouth again. It was awful. It was miserable. Nobody wants to feel it again. That is fueling us every single day, that we never want to feel it again, and we want to feel the roses." j