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IllustrateD volume 25, issue 1 19 f c o v e r s t o r y : d a n n y e t l i n g BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com D anny Etling, honestly, doesn't like the kid. Etling cringes watching him play, shakes his head in disbelief at the mistakes, yells at the screen with instructions, too late to be heed- ed. The kid took too many sacks, drift- ed too far in the pocket, did too much thinking instead of just letting it rip and giving teammates a chance. He looked overwhelmed, under- prepared and, at times, overmatched. But Etling has grown up since he was thrust into Purdue's starting quarterback role as a true freshman in 2013. "It drives me mad," Etling says of reviewing the film from his first three starts as a rookie. "Sometimes I just watch it and I'm like, 'What are you doing?!' It just drives me crazy. But now that I look back on it, I can be like, 'All right, this is exactly what I'm not going to do.' "I think I got better as the season went on, and guys got better with me." The Boilermakers are banking Etling has made even bigger strides since then. He's their man, after all, holding off sophomore Austin Appleby after what Coach Darrell Hazell called a compet- itive camp battle, to be named start- er on Aug. 18, less than two weeks before the opener against Western Michigan. But Hazell and offensive coordi- nator John Shoop knew they were choosing a different player this time. Though the rosy-cheeked Etling may not have been able to achieve his intended of goal of looking more mature — he purposely didn't bring a razor to camp but all he got was a thin strip of shag on his jawline — he cer- tainly has been carrying himself that way since the wake-up call that a 1-11 season provided. He's no longer the admittedly naïve teenager who initially strug- gled to call plays, let alone execute them consistently, when he was pushed into the fray against some of the Big Ten's fiercest and most ag- gressive defenses. "(He's) much more comfortable, more confident," Hazell said hours after telling Etling he was the cho- sen one. And it's showing up. Then and now Last year, Etling was prone to stress and struggled to sleep at times, con- stantly wondering what else he could be doing besides sleeping, mind churning and searching for answers. Not surprising, really, considering the pressure he was under, both lit- erally and figuratively. Etling was the most-sacked quar- terback in the Big Ten, and those are only the recordable numbers. He was under relentless attack from op- posing defenses hoping to feast on a Tom Campbell After being "stressed out" for much of his first season, Danny Etling is hoping to play with a more relaxed, let-it-rip approach in 2014. More mature Etling is Purdue's man Growing Up