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ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 121 f work for you. It wasn't just a cookie-cutter approach; it was an individual approach, and that's something I've tried to take when coaching guys." After serving as a graduate assistant at Central Mich- igan and coaching at Northern Illinois for a season, Er- sland found his way back to the Big Ten in 2000 as the assistant head coach at Northwestern, where he said he grew most as a coach. The Wildcats failed to qualify a single wrestler to the NCAA Championships in his first year in Evanston. In his last season before leaving for Nebraska, Northwest- ern finished in 14th at the NCAAs, its best finish since 1990. "It was a very tough job, changing the culture on that team to where it was and where it ended up being when I left," Ersland said. "The expectations weren't as high when I got there, but by the time I left there was guys expecting to win and they did win. It was very reward- ing to change that." Nebraska achieved monumental success with Er- sland on staff. The Cornhuskers finished in the Top 20 at the NCAA Championships in seven of his eight sea- sons with 17 individual All-America honors, including 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs. Ersland's Big Ten track record quickly sold Purdue wrestlers who were allowed to interview the coaches brought in during the hiring process. "It was a great thing for us because we know the sport and we know how to tell if someone knows what's go- ing on," Braden Atwood said. "You want someone who's been in the Big Ten. You don't know what the Big Ten is until you're in it. He's been successful in the Big Ten. He wrestled in the Big Ten. To me, it's a huge thing. He's been in successful programs, and he knows what it takes. We're all at a better stage than we were without him." Said Danny Sabatello, "He's been around the block. We know he has a lot to bring to us. A bunch of us like to think we know our way around the sport and we know wrestling pretty well, but when you have a coach who has been in multiple situations, we know we can look to him and ask him questions and he'll be there for us because he's been in so many situations." With so much success in his individual wrestling career and then as a coach, it's not surprising to hear Ersland's long-term goals for Purdue's program. "I would love to bring a national championship to Purdue wrestling and a Big Ten championship," Er- sland said. "Purdue's values align with mine, and I think we can recruit the kind of student-athletes that can do very, very well. They can win national titles and still be engineers, take a career in business or whatever they want to do." Ersland's vision won't come easy for a program that's struggled in the nation's top wrestling conference. Pur- due has finished better than ninth in the Big Ten just once in the last 10 seasons and won four Big Ten duals in a season just once since 2004. "Obviously, (Purdue) didn't have the success that it had wanted I'm sure, but I recognized them as a hard-fighting team," Ersland said. "They were going to come out and battle you. I do feel like there's a good work ethic here and a mindset of wanting to work hard. It's doing the little things, it's the details that lead to big wins. "In every athletic contest, there's a little moment where you win the moment or you lose the situation. The match is going to go either way. It's understanding you have to win that moment and change the match in your favor. We're spending a lot of time working on the little details, the mindset that goes into that." Ersland brought in a pair of assistant coaches who have achieved a lot of the goals he wants his wrestlers at Purdue to accomplish in Zach Tanelli, a 2009 All-Ameri- can at Wisconsin, and Tyrel Todd, who earned All-Amer- ica honors at Michigan from 2008-10. "They are two great guys who have been through it all," Atwood said. "It's really easy for a guy to listen and take in what a coach says knowing they know what it takes and have been there and done it and had success." The coaching staff overhaul comes after Ersland replaced longtime Purdue coach Scott Hinkel, who re- signed in April. Hinkel's departure was tough to swallow for Purdue's wrestlers. "It was devastating," Atwood said. "I hated it. I really liked Hinkel a lot. I owe that man a lot. He's a major- ity of the reason why I came here. It caught us all off guard. At first, everyone was upset and hurt by it, but at the same time we knew we still had our future and our career to look at." Ersland said building the trust of the wrestlers after