Well, it's gonna be another long off-season - another long offseason - of more questions than answers after Purdue finished its season Saturday, in the final analysis, a failure.
Yes, this season was a failure, win total tripled or not.
The eyeball test told us this was a much-improved football team in October and not even close, but October is long gone and the picture's a very different one. The upward trajectory flattened and ultimately turned south, to the point that on Saturday at IU, Charlie Brown reared back to kick the football only to wind up with a badly bruised tailbone.
For progress to be progress, the bottom can't drop out.
Saturday's was a sad game to watch for those invested in it.
Purdue's defense delivered - Tevin Coleman didn't make a single play that mattered - except for when it mattered. There were too many third-and-long breakdowns against a stunted passing game and a turnstile act when the game was on the line.
But the defense was good enough to win with today. It shouldn't have been in that final position.
To finish a season in which Purdue never once put the best of its offense and the best of its defense on the field at the same time, it was a sputtering offense that sent the Boilermakers into the offseason in a funk.
This was not Michigan State faced today.
Hell, this wasn't even Northwestern.
This was a notoriously and consistently atrocious IU defense that Purdue had almost no chance to score against short of Akeem Hunt working some magic on his 82-yard run.
Three of Purdue's field goals came inside their own 10-yard line. The passing game has reverted to the Mesozoic Era, chased into an east-west aerial "attack" that's produced more fumbled-lateral turnovers than substantive gains during the past month, if memory serves correct.
This was a limited passing game all season, even when Purdue was scoring. Danny Anthrop is a good player, make no mistake, but the drop-off in productivity since his injury is startling. Amazing, really.
Purdue is never going to be much of a winner until it can functionally throw a football and it now goes into the spring with the quarterback position wide-open again, far as I'm concerned.
If Danny Etling is considering his options right now and looking for a chance to play, he might already be in the best situation. Austin Appleby was amazing for the span of three games, bringing an energy to the field that brought an offense to life. It was not sustainable, though, and when an offense can't throw 15 yards north, it's up to the offensive coordinator to keep staying a step ahead of scouting. John Shoop could only do so much. You might not agree, but he should be commended. You can only move the vegetables around the plate for so long before you have to eat something. That said, he is also the quarterbacks coach
In Appleby's defense, this offense was left with weapons akin to an empty cap gun once Anthrop was lost at Nebraska. B.J. Knauf never had a chance to do much this season due to constant injuries and DeAngelo Yancey's regression into a pedestrian is one of the great disappointments of the season.
Coming into the season, I said one cause for enthusiasm was the sophomore core on offense, the battery of Etling, Yancey, Knauf and maybe Dan Monteroso if he became something.
Yeah, well
And now Purdue rebuilds on offense.
Akeem Hunt and Raheem Mostert and their dynamic speed - the foundation of Purdue's playbook - are gone. They can't be replaced.
Tight ends Justin Sinz and Gabe Holmes (despite his inconsistencies) are gone, too, and they were big parts of this offense's machinations and productivity. They can't be replaced either.
But the most important position is quarterback, a position of instability for what seems like a decade at Purdue now.
Beyond that, Purdue has to become what was promised: A solid, low-turnover, mistake-averse unit.
Instead, it's been riddled with giveaways, killed by penalties (like the personal foul that cost Purdue a win at Minnesota), prone to protection breakdowns on third down on offense and prone to coverage breakdowns on third down on defense.
Darrell Hazell brought to Purdue the Ohio State model of not beating yourself. The past two weeks, Purdue beat itself. Nine turnovers in eight quarters of football, today against a winless Big Ten team with an awful defense and last week against a team that just got worked over by sad Illinois today.
Purdue had an opportunity today, to enter the offseason with some mojo, to stick it to its rival and maybe reap some publicity and recruiting pop from it.
Instead, the game turned out exactly how you may have figured it would as soon as Purdue picked up Tevin Coleman's fumble at the Hoosier 24 and settled for its third "and-goal" field goal.
It needed a touchdown there.
It needed a touchdown anywhere.
This season was an unadulterated success, for a while. But that while was fleeting and Purdue regressed to its mean, almost to last season's depths.
The narrative has changed.
So what now?
I know the angry Twitter mob wants blood. Darrell Hazell is not getting fired, nor should he, nor is a "hot seat" imminent, but Purdue has to show progress next season and do it without some critical pieces from this season. It's going to have to reinvent itself on offense again, at least to some extent.
Staff changes? You never know, but I'm guessing the coordinators will be back if they want to be.
I actually think Shoop did a solid job this season. Only so much you can do with one hand tied behind your back.
Greg Hudson? Nah. The coordinator carousel at Purdue has to stop and there's a reason it's spinning in the first place. No coordinator at Purdue has put together so much as a good defense since Brock Spack built what might have been the best defense in school history a decade or so ago.
As for some position coaches, I suppose you never know.
Morgan Burke? I know that's a popular target but an investment was made. It may have been a reactive investment when backed into a corner, but it was an investment nonetheless, and anyone cutting bait on said investment two seasons in might be acting prematurely.
He'll leave on his own terms, whenever that may be, here's guessing.
Just saw a former player tweet about the success Danny Hope had at Purdue.
I will repeat: It may not seem like it right now, but Purdue absolutely made the right call making a coaching change. This program was an absolute mess and those longing for that mess are those who enjoyed the comforts of that mess. There was going to be a bottoming-out and it just so happens it fell in somebody else's lap.
Purdue made the right call on making a change.
Whether it made the right call on the next in line, I think that remains up for debate.
I have said from Day 1 I think Darrell Hazell, in context, was the right guy for the job at the time of his hiring.
But sometimes the job is too big even for the right guy.
We'll see.
It's a huge offseason, one that'll be full of message board hyperbole about "rock bottom" and "losing what was left of the fan base," etc.
Purdue is not in a good place right now and this is a tough place to simply recruit your way out of it, as much as you hate to hear that.
It's just Purdue's reality right now, a hard one, after a hard loss to finish a hard month to finish a hard season.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
Yes, this season was a failure, win total tripled or not.
The eyeball test told us this was a much-improved football team in October and not even close, but October is long gone and the picture's a very different one. The upward trajectory flattened and ultimately turned south, to the point that on Saturday at IU, Charlie Brown reared back to kick the football only to wind up with a badly bruised tailbone.
For progress to be progress, the bottom can't drop out.
Saturday's was a sad game to watch for those invested in it.
But the defense was good enough to win with today. It shouldn't have been in that final position.
To finish a season in which Purdue never once put the best of its offense and the best of its defense on the field at the same time, it was a sputtering offense that sent the Boilermakers into the offseason in a funk.
This was not Michigan State faced today.
Hell, this wasn't even Northwestern.
This was a notoriously and consistently atrocious IU defense that Purdue had almost no chance to score against short of Akeem Hunt working some magic on his 82-yard run.
Three of Purdue's field goals came inside their own 10-yard line. The passing game has reverted to the Mesozoic Era, chased into an east-west aerial "attack" that's produced more fumbled-lateral turnovers than substantive gains during the past month, if memory serves correct.
This was a limited passing game all season, even when Purdue was scoring. Danny Anthrop is a good player, make no mistake, but the drop-off in productivity since his injury is startling. Amazing, really.
Purdue is never going to be much of a winner until it can functionally throw a football and it now goes into the spring with the quarterback position wide-open again, far as I'm concerned.
If Danny Etling is considering his options right now and looking for a chance to play, he might already be in the best situation. Austin Appleby was amazing for the span of three games, bringing an energy to the field that brought an offense to life. It was not sustainable, though, and when an offense can't throw 15 yards north, it's up to the offensive coordinator to keep staying a step ahead of scouting. John Shoop could only do so much. You might not agree, but he should be commended. You can only move the vegetables around the plate for so long before you have to eat something. That said, he is also the quarterbacks coach
In Appleby's defense, this offense was left with weapons akin to an empty cap gun once Anthrop was lost at Nebraska. B.J. Knauf never had a chance to do much this season due to constant injuries and DeAngelo Yancey's regression into a pedestrian is one of the great disappointments of the season.
Coming into the season, I said one cause for enthusiasm was the sophomore core on offense, the battery of Etling, Yancey, Knauf and maybe Dan Monteroso if he became something.
Yeah, well
And now Purdue rebuilds on offense.
Akeem Hunt and Raheem Mostert and their dynamic speed - the foundation of Purdue's playbook - are gone. They can't be replaced.
Tight ends Justin Sinz and Gabe Holmes (despite his inconsistencies) are gone, too, and they were big parts of this offense's machinations and productivity. They can't be replaced either.
But the most important position is quarterback, a position of instability for what seems like a decade at Purdue now.
Beyond that, Purdue has to become what was promised: A solid, low-turnover, mistake-averse unit.
Instead, it's been riddled with giveaways, killed by penalties (like the personal foul that cost Purdue a win at Minnesota), prone to protection breakdowns on third down on offense and prone to coverage breakdowns on third down on defense.
Darrell Hazell brought to Purdue the Ohio State model of not beating yourself. The past two weeks, Purdue beat itself. Nine turnovers in eight quarters of football, today against a winless Big Ten team with an awful defense and last week against a team that just got worked over by sad Illinois today.
Purdue had an opportunity today, to enter the offseason with some mojo, to stick it to its rival and maybe reap some publicity and recruiting pop from it.
Instead, the game turned out exactly how you may have figured it would as soon as Purdue picked up Tevin Coleman's fumble at the Hoosier 24 and settled for its third "and-goal" field goal.
It needed a touchdown there.
It needed a touchdown anywhere.
This season was an unadulterated success, for a while. But that while was fleeting and Purdue regressed to its mean, almost to last season's depths.
The narrative has changed.
So what now?
I know the angry Twitter mob wants blood. Darrell Hazell is not getting fired, nor should he, nor is a "hot seat" imminent, but Purdue has to show progress next season and do it without some critical pieces from this season. It's going to have to reinvent itself on offense again, at least to some extent.
Staff changes? You never know, but I'm guessing the coordinators will be back if they want to be.
I actually think Shoop did a solid job this season. Only so much you can do with one hand tied behind your back.
Greg Hudson? Nah. The coordinator carousel at Purdue has to stop and there's a reason it's spinning in the first place. No coordinator at Purdue has put together so much as a good defense since Brock Spack built what might have been the best defense in school history a decade or so ago.
As for some position coaches, I suppose you never know.
Morgan Burke? I know that's a popular target but an investment was made. It may have been a reactive investment when backed into a corner, but it was an investment nonetheless, and anyone cutting bait on said investment two seasons in might be acting prematurely.
He'll leave on his own terms, whenever that may be, here's guessing.
Just saw a former player tweet about the success Danny Hope had at Purdue.
I will repeat: It may not seem like it right now, but Purdue absolutely made the right call making a coaching change. This program was an absolute mess and those longing for that mess are those who enjoyed the comforts of that mess. There was going to be a bottoming-out and it just so happens it fell in somebody else's lap.
Purdue made the right call on making a change.
Whether it made the right call on the next in line, I think that remains up for debate.
I have said from Day 1 I think Darrell Hazell, in context, was the right guy for the job at the time of his hiring.
But sometimes the job is too big even for the right guy.
We'll see.
It's a huge offseason, one that'll be full of message board hyperbole about "rock bottom" and "losing what was left of the fan base," etc.
Purdue is not in a good place right now and this is a tough place to simply recruit your way out of it, as much as you hate to hear that.
It's just Purdue's reality right now, a hard one, after a hard loss to finish a hard month to finish a hard season.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
