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Now, it's up to Hazell to make the most of it and attract a high-quality staff to West Lafayette. "I think the big thing is fans get so pumped up and disappointed and they always want to react immediately to the next head coach — 'Ahh, that's a terrible hire!' or, 'Ahh, that's a great hire!' It's not about that guy," said coachingindustry analyst Pete Roussel, who runs the site CoachingSearch.com. "It's about that guy and who he surrounds himself with in terms of the nine assistant coaches. That's going to be a big, big deal for (Hazell)." Burke said he hopes to see "all-stars" on Hazell's coaching staff. To that end, a major advantage Hazell held over other candidates for the job was his network, both in his ties to Big Ten Country and his access to the Jim Tressel Ohio State coaching tree. "I think it's something that he understands and I emphasized with Jim Tressel was that we have got to have people who are the same types of people that would be on Michigan's staff or the Wisconsin staff," Burke said. "He understands that and he understands that he has the resources … to do that." Purdue has "upped the ante" — Burke's term — paying its head coach, as well, roughly doubling the money Hazell is assured of over what Hope made in a typical year. Hazell's contract includes bonuses that could bring his compensation to the vicinity of $2.5 million, though $2 million is guaranteed. Burke said Hope's compensation structure was based, at least loosely, off basketball coach Matt Painter's first contract at Purdue and off what Wisconsin did with Bret Bielema when he was hired to be Barry Alvarez's successor-in-waiting. "What we said we would do was put (Hope) there then he could move up, kind of what we did with Matt," Burke said. "That got blown out of proportion by a lot of people. I'm not going to raise the salary just to say I'm paying it. "If we're improving, it's not uncommon for me to include in the contract (a provision that) at the midway point we will recalibrate the contract. We were going to do that this year (for Hope) if we had the success I hoped we would have had (and) we would have moved that up more. That's the same thing with the assistants. Message boards and some fans are looking at this and saying, 'You're paying such substandard wages, you're not investing in football.' The reality is I invest in performance when we get (to high levels of success)." j It's All On GoldandBlack.com The Best Purdue Sports Information On The Web • Real-time recruiting • Game stories, analysis and blogs • Premium message boards • Video, audio, live stream events and more • Exclusive access to premium information Part of the Rivals.com network GBIprint.com GoldandBlack.com Sign up for a 7-day free trial today! Note: GoldandBlack.com is a separate subscription than your subscription to Gold & Black Illustrated/GBI EXPRESS. GOLD & BLACK ILLUSTRATED • VOLUME 23, ISSUE 3 • 17