Do you realize fans think winning just 1 big ten game is a benchmark right now?

[Foolmeoncefan]

That is how low we have fallen since Hope. Hope was fired for averaging 4-4 in the big ten with a 2-4 record against Ohio State. It should have been 3-4 and the loss in overtime was a fluke win for OSU that should have never happened. Hope beat Michigan at Michigan, something Tiller couldn't even do and hadn't happened since John F Kennedy was shot. Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon after the last time Purdue beat Mich at Mich until Hope did it. That is how long ago that was. All in all, in my mind losing to Rice is what did it for him. That Rice loss was just devastating. Yet, look at the teams we've lost to under Hazell. A far and away drop off from where Hope had the program 3 years ago. I knew something was incredibly wrong when Hazell took Hope's crop (about average athletically and physically) and just took those guys who were a 6/7 win team and had them at just 1 win the next year? All the Purdue fans were in denial. Next year happened and it was the same old crap. And this year it is even worse. You can't have a team coming out on the field like yesterday to a team like Minn and get beat like that. You just can't. Now our expectations are if we win just 1 big ten game? REALLY?

 

[Foolmeoncefan]

Wanted to just add too I admit I was fooled with Hazell. I was happy to see Hope fired because his teams were so weak in certain areas every year as though we just ignore that and move on. That isn't how you build a championship team. Those issues needed addressed and so the correct move was to fire Hope at that exact time. Though, it could have been a lot better. And in hindsight it is hard to really give Hope a fair evaluation during his tenure because it was so apparent that his staff was wildly underfunded. Hope and Tiller for that matter, were never given the proper funding to establish a strong and dedicated coaching staff needed to handle all the offseason development. Yet with that Hope was able to win 4 big ten games which is amazing actually. This puts the issue squarely on Burke's shoulders. Both the flatlining Purdue had under Hope and even more so the Hazell era. This result is on Burke right now. How could he not have foreseen far before Tiller that financing the coaches was an issue? We were last in that category for a very long time. And even with the Big Ten media outlet now making many times millions more, while all the other schools were mounting up capital ammunition to throw at the coaches to ensure their programs, Burke was cutting corners and putting us on a powder keg that we are on now. Burke needs fired and he needs fired right now. We cannot afford even one more year with Burke in there. He is costing this university tens of millions a year exponentially. This guy has run Purdue football into the ground. Burke is one of those AD's that cares much more about softball stadiums and volleyball and thinks he can neglect the football team on their behalf. Meanwhile, it is the football team that is the engine of all sports on Purdue's campus. That is the reality. That is the show that everyone wants to see. That is the only game in town for a real athletic director. Everyone can prosper when the football team is doing well and people can be at least mildly proud of. All athletics at purdue suffer immensely when football is where it is at now. Basketball too, but much less so than football. Football is the real sugardaddy here with near 70,000 seating capacity. We need an AD a lot less worried about softball practice and a lot more worried about where the hell the football team will be in two years from now.