GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 26, ISSUE 3 47
Still Searching
Hazell liked elements of 2015 but knows progress must be made
BY STACY CLARDIE
SClardie@GoldandBlack.com
R
eally, no one saw this coming.
Darrell Hazell was optimistic about how Purdue
would perform in his third season in 2015, thought it'd
certainly take a significant bump in victories from Year 2's
3-9 record. But a close loss in Week 1 at Marshall — after
an offseason in which the mantra was "finish" — may have
changed the trajectory of the season.
After it was over, Hazell still was reliving key, competitive
losses to Michigan State, Northwestern and Iowa.
The Boilermakers will approach 2016 with two new coor-
dinators, perhaps a key piece in finding a spark. But there's
much more that needs to be done, Hazell knows.
On Dec. 17, Hazell sat down with two local reporters to
reflect on the season and offer a quick look ahead to 2016.
Here's a partial transcript of the interview:
Gold and Black: Looking back on the season, how do
you feel about it?
Hazell: "Without studying it — because it's always dif-
ferent when you study it — but just my on-the-surface feel-
ings are … I replay games in my head. I do that all the time
and I talk to people, some of the (coordinator replacement)
candidates, about where we were in specific games — the
Northwestern game where we're 14-14, with Iowa where it's
20-13 and this play, so I do that a lot. And think if this would
have happened and that would have happened … Now (with
the season over), I'll go back and really tear them all down to
see exactly where we were, why this play didn't work, why
this technique didn't work, all the things that didn't work.
"Obviously, we have to make great advances in record in
this fourth season. But I'm very — and I say this sincerely
— optimistic about the guys that we have coming back. But
Tom
Campbell
