So "news" broke this week that Purdue plans to keep its coach for next season.
I call into question the newsiness of such things because before the questions of whether Purdue will or should fire Darrell Hazell can truly be put on the table, it first needs to be answered whether it can. The contract is a goliath.
(I suppose it's ironic that the strain football problems have put on Purdue financially actually affords its coach some measure of security.)
But at any rate, the narrative around Purdue football this week, nationally at least, was that Hazell's place for 2016 is secure, coming off the program's biggest win of his tenure, last weekend's worse-than-the-score 55-45 clubbing of name-brand Nebraska.
Well, if the book was supposedly closed on the status of the program's leadership by whoever it was spreading such things, Purdue didn't play like a team Saturday that wanted to keep that book closed.
The Minnesota loss a few weeks back was one of the darkest days this program has seen, if you ask me. Why? Because they let some sunlight creep in the week before.
Same story.
Purdue beat a struggling, injury-riddled Nebraska team, but still a Nebraska team, a feat for a program that's beaten something just north of "no one" the last few years.
So there's that modest trickle of hope again.
Throw in the conceivable interim-coach Illinois tank factor and Purdue was set up again, just like it was before it played Minnesota's skeleton-crew outfit.
Again, splat.
I picked Purdue this week. I knew better.
Once you've seen the movie before, you know how it ends.
This was bad, people, good reason for this announced Homecoming crowd of 40,197 to, well, go home.
Purdue was bad on offense again, worse on defense. The Boilermakers held Wisconsin and Nebraska under triple-digits in rushing, something not often seen previously.
Illinois went for 382.
Look, Josh Ferguson is a good player, a really good player, and he is Illinois' best offensive player.
But, he should not have been the difference between the Illini running for 37 yards at Penn State last week and more than 10 times that against Purdue.
Let me repeat: Illinois multiplied its rushing yardage by more than 10 from one week to the next.
And to think that Darrell Hazell wanted Illinois to run, as he admitted in a post-game comment he may have immediately wanted back.
Purdue couldn't tackle, couldn't adjust, couldn't do much of anything on D. As Hazell said, they were running the same play over and over again.
On offense, Markell Jones showed up. He is good.
Otherwise, well … the things that worked last week against Nebraska did not against Illinois, to put it mildly. How it remains to be that Purdue cannot put together an operational vertical passing game is confounding at this stage. There are lots of NCAA programs playing functional football with youth at quarterback. And if quarterbacks improved at Purdue, which they have not been doing, Purdue wouldn't always be young at the position anyway.
Before the Nebraska game, Purdue committed itself to being aggressive. It worked against the Cornhuskers. Risk paid off. Fourth downs were converted. Blough threw it effectively. Trick plays worked.
Today, aggressiveness blew up in Purdue's face.
A reverse to Jarrett Burgess on a kickoff return got enveloped inside Purdue's 5. An end around to Danny Anthrop lost six yards. Two of Purdue's fourth-down snaps were unsuccessful, including one deep in Nebraska territory. The latter situation hardly mattered. The game was out of reach by that point, if I recall correctly.
Then there was the timeout, the timeout Purdue called after Illinois took possession with 52 seconds left in the first half, after the Boilermakers scored.
Purdue wanted to stop the clock after a first-down run in hopes, presumably, of getting the ball back.
It was being aggressive and, really, it was making the right play there.
But it didn't work.
Purdue stopped the clock, then couldn't stop Illinois.
Ke'Shawn Vaughn - who on this day looked very much worth the two scholarships Illinois used to pry him away from Purdue and others - ripped off a 37-yard run, changing the landscape.
Wes Lunt's 25-yard TD throw to Desmond Cain a few plays later - Cain bounced off safety Robert Gregory like a racquetball around the 5 before scoring - was the proverbial stake to the heart, giving Illinois a 27-7 halftime lead and entirely wiping out the only positive thing Purdue had done to that point.
That summed up the day, one in which the outlook flipped 180 degrees in the span of one afternoon. The Nebraska game brought a glimmer of hope; the Illinois game brought a world of hurt.
As for those reports about Purdue's coaching situation, things are always subject to change. Plans change and all things spoken or "decided" at the start of November are non-binding.
Is Hazell's seat warm? It is. Is he going to get fired? I doubt it. We have been over the reasons why. Should there be staff changes? Absolutely. I said at the start of the season that Purdue's coordinators should be on notice this season and that remains the case.
Inconsistency was one of a hundred considerations that got the last guy fired.
For this group, inconsistency is not a good look.
But on Saturday, nothing looked good.
Except maybe the uniforms. They're pretty cool.
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Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.
I call into question the newsiness of such things because before the questions of whether Purdue will or should fire Darrell Hazell can truly be put on the table, it first needs to be answered whether it can. The contract is a goliath.
(I suppose it's ironic that the strain football problems have put on Purdue financially actually affords its coach some measure of security.)
But at any rate, the narrative around Purdue football this week, nationally at least, was that Hazell's place for 2016 is secure, coming off the program's biggest win of his tenure, last weekend's worse-than-the-score 55-45 clubbing of name-brand Nebraska.
Well, if the book was supposedly closed on the status of the program's leadership by whoever it was spreading such things, Purdue didn't play like a team Saturday that wanted to keep that book closed.
The Minnesota loss a few weeks back was one of the darkest days this program has seen, if you ask me. Why? Because they let some sunlight creep in the week before.
Same story.
Purdue beat a struggling, injury-riddled Nebraska team, but still a Nebraska team, a feat for a program that's beaten something just north of "no one" the last few years.
So there's that modest trickle of hope again.
Throw in the conceivable interim-coach Illinois tank factor and Purdue was set up again, just like it was before it played Minnesota's skeleton-crew outfit.
Again, splat.
I picked Purdue this week. I knew better.
Once you've seen the movie before, you know how it ends.
This was bad, people, good reason for this announced Homecoming crowd of 40,197 to, well, go home.
Purdue was bad on offense again, worse on defense. The Boilermakers held Wisconsin and Nebraska under triple-digits in rushing, something not often seen previously.
Illinois went for 382.
Look, Josh Ferguson is a good player, a really good player, and he is Illinois' best offensive player.
But, he should not have been the difference between the Illini running for 37 yards at Penn State last week and more than 10 times that against Purdue.
Let me repeat: Illinois multiplied its rushing yardage by more than 10 from one week to the next.
And to think that Darrell Hazell wanted Illinois to run, as he admitted in a post-game comment he may have immediately wanted back.
Purdue couldn't tackle, couldn't adjust, couldn't do much of anything on D. As Hazell said, they were running the same play over and over again.
On offense, Markell Jones showed up. He is good.
Otherwise, well … the things that worked last week against Nebraska did not against Illinois, to put it mildly. How it remains to be that Purdue cannot put together an operational vertical passing game is confounding at this stage. There are lots of NCAA programs playing functional football with youth at quarterback. And if quarterbacks improved at Purdue, which they have not been doing, Purdue wouldn't always be young at the position anyway.
Before the Nebraska game, Purdue committed itself to being aggressive. It worked against the Cornhuskers. Risk paid off. Fourth downs were converted. Blough threw it effectively. Trick plays worked.
Today, aggressiveness blew up in Purdue's face.
A reverse to Jarrett Burgess on a kickoff return got enveloped inside Purdue's 5. An end around to Danny Anthrop lost six yards. Two of Purdue's fourth-down snaps were unsuccessful, including one deep in Nebraska territory. The latter situation hardly mattered. The game was out of reach by that point, if I recall correctly.
Then there was the timeout, the timeout Purdue called after Illinois took possession with 52 seconds left in the first half, after the Boilermakers scored.
Purdue wanted to stop the clock after a first-down run in hopes, presumably, of getting the ball back.
It was being aggressive and, really, it was making the right play there.
But it didn't work.
Purdue stopped the clock, then couldn't stop Illinois.
Ke'Shawn Vaughn - who on this day looked very much worth the two scholarships Illinois used to pry him away from Purdue and others - ripped off a 37-yard run, changing the landscape.
Wes Lunt's 25-yard TD throw to Desmond Cain a few plays later - Cain bounced off safety Robert Gregory like a racquetball around the 5 before scoring - was the proverbial stake to the heart, giving Illinois a 27-7 halftime lead and entirely wiping out the only positive thing Purdue had done to that point.
That summed up the day, one in which the outlook flipped 180 degrees in the span of one afternoon. The Nebraska game brought a glimmer of hope; the Illinois game brought a world of hurt.
As for those reports about Purdue's coaching situation, things are always subject to change. Plans change and all things spoken or "decided" at the start of November are non-binding.
Is Hazell's seat warm? It is. Is he going to get fired? I doubt it. We have been over the reasons why. Should there be staff changes? Absolutely. I said at the start of the season that Purdue's coordinators should be on notice this season and that remains the case.
Inconsistency was one of a hundred considerations that got the last guy fired.
For this group, inconsistency is not a good look.
But on Saturday, nothing looked good.
Except maybe the uniforms. They're pretty cool.
-------------------------------------------
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.
