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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 22 • 26 INTENSE SESSIONS Purdue coaches didn't do much encouraging Monday during the team's first 6 a.m. workout. They're trying to build a relent- less, fit, fiery team that finishes, so it was quite an intense hour-long ses- sion on the first of the eight work- outs leading into the start of spring practice on March 10. Even though multiple times players were penalized for not fin- ishing — not getting to the next station quickly enough, not touch- ing a line, not arriving on time — Hazell declared the first effort "not bad for the first day." "Got a ways to go but not bad," he said. "It's hard for them. This is a hard deal to get up and to go through all of those different (sta- tions)." This year's 6 a.m. workouts were different than last year's ver- sion, as Hazell boosted the amount of stations in the circuit to six, gave players only 20 seconds to transi- tion from each one and tallied a "winner" in each head-to-head drill. The latter element fueled com- petition as multiple groups of play- ers nearly literally fought over a towel — whoever grasped it at the end of a drill was the winner. Nei- ther Dan Monteroso nor Trae Hart would let go after they grabbed it together after a shuttle drill, and af- ter trying to pull it away from each other for about 10 seconds, John Shoop finally called a draw. Later at the same station, receivers Gregory Phillips and Alex Hilger kept tug- ging until after the horn to signal a move to the next station. "If you lose, you stay out and do extra up-downs," Hazell said of the consequences. Purdue also has 6 a.m. work- outs on Feb. 24, 25, 26 and 27, March 2, 4, 6 and 7. RUSSELL CONFIDENT Ryan Russell was confident go- ing into the NFL Combine last week, and he left feeling just as good. Russell was one of the top per- formers among defensive linemen Sunday with the fifth-fastest 40 time (4.75), sixth-best broad jump (119 inches) and eighth-best in the three-cone drill (7.25). He'll still participate in Purdue's pro day on March 4, he said last week. "I think any time you can com- pete and put yourself out there and show people what you're all about and your strengths, I think that's a great opportunity," he said. "There might be teams that with the Com- bine having so many guys, maybe focusing on just a couple key guys and not really get to see you until pro day then be like, 'Oh, OK, you went to (the) Combine, let's go back and look at that now.' You just never know how things are going to play out." 'JUST CALL IT PURDUE' Since he's been with the Boiler- makers, Shoop has never wanted to label his offense. It's not quite a spread, not quite a West Coast. And it'll keep changing, the of- fensive coordinator said last week when he was a guest on "Gold and Black LIVE." "We try to run the Purdue of- fense," he said. "It has elements of spreading the field, certainly. This year, I thought we did a really good job in the run game of mak- ing teams defend 53 yards of width. So if we implemented some ele- ments of the spread run game, so be it. But I think we did it with our own flavoring and our own iden- tity. There were elements where we were spread out and there were ele- ments where we were in tight. "The one thing we try to do is what our players can do best. I think it's important to not be put in a box. … So every year, we're going to look a little bit different. But we're start- ing to develop and identity and a core group of guys who can do cer- tain things well. Whatever you want to call it, just call it Purdue." Change-ups to the offense this spring will be using more no- huddle with a quicker tempo and stretching the field vertically, he said. Regardless of the personnel in the backfield — speedsters Akeem Hunt and Raheem Mostert are gone — Shoop said Purdue will run some of the same concepts behind the same blockers. It's in the passing game he'd like to see more prog - ress, not just in finding a QB but also in identifying receivers who can consistently make plays. Shoop met with all of the re- ceivers last week, emphasizing the importance of winning outside the numbers and on 50-50 balls. "We watched 103 clips of 50- 50 balls, some college, some NFL," Shoop said, "where the quarterback has to understand, you're wait- ing for a guy to get wide open, he ain't going to be wide open. When he's one-on-one, we're talking a lot about the technique and the skills we need to have to win those 50-50 catches. Guys like Anthony (Mahoungou), DeAngelo (Yancey), Greg (Phillips), they've got to make those plays for us outside the num- bers." j Tom Campbell Offensive coordinator John Shoop relayed Purdue's priorities for spring ball on a recent appear- ance on "Gold and Black LIVE." Watch Shoop's interview here