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78 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 f then, you also have to be patient with guys. Everyone who is a freshman isn't going to come in and start. And least that shouldn't be the case as your program develops." "A guy like Danny (Ezechukwu), I think the move ear- ly on was correct to give him some opportunities at end, and he was doing a great job there, but with some time he showed what he can do at linebacker, and then the pa- tience of another year of development (really helped) with Jimmy (Herman). "Jimmy is really becoming sneaky good, he's just qui- etly out there, batting a ball here, recovering a fumble there, jamming a guy and knocking a guy on his back, a wide receiver. And then you get a guy who comes along like (Ja'Whaun) Bentley, who can do it when he's 18, that's awesome. You've got three guys and the key will also be the continued development of the rest of the guys. "I don't have a worry about the linebacker group." Gold and Black: Certainly not like you did when you arrived here. Hudson: "Yeah, they were still calling Sean (Robinson) a converted quarterback. We don't want that. With as good as he became, it was like 'Don't call him that any more.' He really had become a true linebacker. We'll be solid there and we'll get bigger. We're going to do both, we're not go- ing to give up speed for size. We're going to have guys that can run." Gold and Black: You've called Purdue a develop- mental school before, where it has to develop its ath- letes to be ready to play. Where do you feel like you are compared to where you want to be? And maybe you never get to where you want to be. Hudson: "There's two ways you can develop. No. 1 is in the weight room and in the dining hall. Another one is on the field with game-day reps and participation. We've got to get guys to the point where they can get in the game and play eight plays, 10 plays, 12 plays and develop and also be a three- and four-phase guy on special teams from our defense. That's what we've got to do. We've got to get guys running faster and guys bigger. The guys that we're bring- ing in, that's a concern. If you're not going to get the guys like Bentley, who was ready-made, we didn't have to shake him down and whip him up, but the guy who is 218 pounds right now, is he going to get to 240 and get faster? That's what I expect. I expect us to be bigger and faster. There's going to be no accepting a lack of one phase of that." Gold and Black: What did you think of the way the secondary played? Hudson: "They were in position and really had a grasp on what we were trying to do and worked on it hard. The mental errors were gone. It just came down to making a play. As the season went on, our loafs, our missed tackles and our mental errors kept going lower and lower and low- er, to where they were in the low single digits. And then it's 'Hey, the guy's right here, get him on the ground or go get that ball or make that play.' It's what we have to get better at." Gold and Black: A few players graduate from the secondary. Particularly at the safety position, that's a concern because it's a productive spot for this de- fense. Hudson: "Huge. It's big in everybody's (defense). The one thing I really paid attention to this year — because we're very similar is Missouri's defense, they've played in the SEC Championship twice and their safeties are tre- mendous erasers — they make a ton of plays. To defend the entire field, that position has a premium on it. It's a very difficult position to play." Gold and Black: Missouri is similar in scheme? Hudson: "Yes. Correct." Gold and Black: What does an ideal safety look like? Hudson: "Robert Gregory is the body type, and even Austin Logan, size-wise, because that dude (position) is going to take a pounding, but he's also going to have to play off the hash in two-deep (coverage) and then play some man out on the No. 2 receiver at times, so it could get in- teresting." Gold and Black: Is Gregory going to figure out what he's doing enough to help next season? Hudson: "I hope." Gold and Black: He looks the part. Hudson: "For his sake first, because nobody wants to just stand around (on the sidelines)." Gold and Black: From the way in which you called the game, was the defense as aggressive as you'd like it to be ideally? Hudson: "Yeah, it was probably a ratio of where you'd like to be. Two areas where people blitz a lot, we probably did a little less, and those were two of our best phases. We were ranked high nationally in the red zone and No. 3 in fourth-down defense. We were playing base defense with a couple little tweaks on it, and the kids were executing it. That's (fourth down) usually a high blitz area and more