Imagine if Darrel Hazell were still coach....

[TMA62]

....we would be winless now. That's how lacking our team is. Simply put, after 4 years of recruiting that were essentially last in the B10, it is quite evident that Purdue has huge holes in talent and depth, especially on the offense. We have a WR corps that most cannot consistently catch a football (wasn't Hazell a WR coach at OSU?) There is a noticable percentage of players on our team that simply should not be wearing a B10 uniform (perhaps a smaller conference but not the B10)

Brohm & Co. are doing a good job, with what they have to work with. They inherited this team and have to make something.....anything work. Its not them. Put in any coach you desire in their situation and they too would not be getting instant or increasing success with this team in the first year.

Many of us were predicting a season like we are experiencing now. Winning some games we weren't supposed to, losing some games we should have won, playing hard and competitive but eventually fading down the stretch. We are looking at a 3-5 win season, what many of us predicted this summer.

This will take time, folks. Starting next year, more incoming B10 caliber classes will replace DH2's classes and the team will improve. There will be growing pains and steps taken backward, but the overall direction is upward.

Keep the faith, this will take a while.

 

[BBG]

There was an interesting thing I think I heard last night, there is not a player on the team that has ever won more than three games in a season. That is exceptionally telling considering how far this season has come with the potential to win out and go to a bowl (I know that won't happen) and at the very least hopefully go 2-2 and bring the bucket back home.

I think with the way the season started we all fell in to the hype because the last several season have been so horrible. Yeah there were some coaching issues last night but there always will be since no coach is perfect. What it boils down for me is the players have to make plays on offense and not keep doing three and outs.

Also we have to be honest that there is not a lot of talent on this team and getting what we are considering that, is nothing short of amazing to me.

But that comment one of the announcers made about not every winning three games floored me. I guess I either blocked it out or just forgot, but winning just one more is already going to be an improvement over what we had before.

 

[fcboiler46]

Good post. I am like most fans - extremely disappointed and frustrated after the last two weeks, both of which should have been wins. But we need some perspective - the last 4 years we wouldn't have even been this close. The talent gaps are very clear and the rebuilding project that this is becomes more evident each week. As I've said before, Brohm is probably struggling a little bit internally with what the right things to do are offensively. He is not used to this extreme lack of ability. So he has to decide what to do with that and he is learning. I saw that in the post game conference talking about Blough. He said Sindelar needs everyone around him to play well to succeed but Blough can make things happen. That is why we are seeing Blough. I said the same thing a while back. But I have been a coach for a long time and have been in some tough situations where as Brohm is just used to winning and talent.

He will get us there; I have confidence. We are just looking at a 3-4 year rebuild as we all probably projected initially. The competitiveness fooled us all early on but talent and depth issues are rearing their ugly heads as you would expect throughout the Big Ten.

We will be okay and Brohm is the guy to get us there if there is one. It may just take longer than we would like.

 

[depthcharge623]

The players that came from WKU would jave won more than 3 games.

 

[SKYDOG]

Thank goodness Hazell and Burke are gone.

 

[boilermaker75]

Thank goodness Hazell and Burke are gone.

Amen

 

[MilwaukeeBoilerFan]

Good post. I am like most fans - extremely disappointed and frustrated after the last two weeks, both of which should have been wins. But we need some perspective - the last 4 years we wouldn't have even been this close. The talent gaps are very clear and the rebuilding project that this is becomes more evident each week. As I've said before, Brohm is probably struggling a little bit internally with what the right things to do are offensively. He is not used to this extreme lack of ability. So he has to decide what to do with that and he is learning. I saw that in the post game conference talking about Blough. He said Sindelar needs everyone around him to play well to succeed but Blough can make things happen. That is why we are seeing Blough. I said the same thing a while back. But I have been a coach for a long time and have been in some tough situations where as Brohm is just used to winning and talent.

He will get us there; I have confidence. We are just looking at a 3-4 year rebuild as we all probably projected initially. The competitiveness fooled us all early on but talent and depth issues are rearing their ugly heads as you would expect throughout the Big Ten.

We will be okay and Brohm is the guy to get us there if there is one. It may just take longer than we would like.

While I agree with your post, I cannot excuse Brohm not using DJ Knox and Markell Jones more on the last set of downs. Richie Worship up the gut for 1 yard then QB to left for 2-3 yards is inexcusable. DJ got the last carry for 3 yrds but all those carries should have been to our workhorses. Quite honestly I could swallow the loss better if we would have gone for it on 4th down for the win. Then, prevent defense sealed our fate. That loss again is on the coach more than on the players. I do not buy it that players have to learn how to win.

 

[New Pal Boiler]

While I agree with your post, I cannot excuse Brohm not using DJ Knox and Markell Jones more on the last set of downs. Richie Worship up the gut for 1 yard then QB to left for 2-3 yards is inexcusable. DJ got the last carry for 3 yrds but all those carries should have been to our workhorses. Quite honestly I could swallow the loss better if we would have gone for it on 4th down for the win. Then, prevent defense sealed our fate. That loss again is on the coach more than on the players. I do not buy it that players have to learn how to win.

Um... Did you watch the game? Worship was our leading rusher...

 

[pb1941]

That

While I agree with your post, I cannot excuse Brohm not using DJ Knox and Markell Jones more on the last set of downs. Richie Worship up the gut for 1 yard then QB to left for 2-3 yards is inexcusable. DJ got the last carry for 3 yrds but all those carries should have been to our workhorses. Quite honestly I could swallow the loss better if we would have gone for it on 4th down for the win. Then, prevent defense sealed our fate. That loss again is on the coach more than on the players. I do not buy it that players have to learn how to win.

that is your opinion,but if the receivers had not dropped a couple of passes when they were wide open we would have been up 34-19 with a minute to go.

 

[boilermaker75]

That

that is your opinion,but if the receivers had not dropped a couple of passes when they were wide open we would have been up 34-19 with a minute to go.

If our receivers did not drop passes, and made their blocks, this game would not have been close at the end. Neither would have been the Rutgers game.

I recall only one drop by a Nebraska receiver and don't recall seeing them miss any blocks.

 

[lbodel]

....we would be winless now. That's how lacking our team is. Simply put, after 4 years of recruiting that were essentially last in the B10, it is quite evident that Purdue has huge holes in talent and depth, especially on the offense. We have a WR corps that most cannot consistently catch a football (wasn't Hazell a WR coach at OSU?) There is a noticable percentage of players on our team that simply should not be wearing a B10 uniform (perhaps a smaller conference but not the B10)

Brohm & Co. are doing a good job, with what they have to work with. They inherited this team and have to make something.....anything work. Its not them. Put in any coach you desire in their situation and they too would not be getting instant or increasing success with this team in the first year.

Many of us were predicting a season like we are experiencing now. Winning some games we weren't supposed to, losing some games we should have won, playing hard and competitive but eventually fading down the stretch. We are looking at a 3-5 win season, what many of us predicted this summer.

This will take time, folks. Starting next year, more incoming B10 caliber classes will replace DH2's classes and the team will improve. There will be growing pains and steps taken backward, but the overall direction is upward.

Keep the faith, this will take a while.

Not that we need to go argue the past (and this is not a direct link to your personal opinion because I don't know what it was), but it's humorous to me to read SO MANY posts on this board about how bad our talent was when Brohm got here.

So many people on these forums for YEARS with not only Danny Hope, but with Hazell - how our recruiting classes were good and they were underrated. And recruiting rankings were biased. And how we got the undiscovered Florida athletes!

This post is correct - there isn't enough talent, and in particularly that means there's no depth. It's not an overnight fix in football. We aren't a Michigan where a new coach can come in and they have the talent, there was just poor coaching. There's not enough talent here. This can take a couple years to start seeing results on the field.

And while it's still early in a coaching tenure, I'd also caution that it's all going to be fine. We have a recruiting class put together right now that's really not THAT much improved than what we've seen with Hazell and Hope.

Purdue's current recruiting class is currently 75th in the country in terms of average star of the recruits. It's 44th in points, but Purdue also has a large class which can boost that ranking - and quite frankly, 44th isn't "good".

A perfect comparison is with Northwestern:

Purdue has 22 commits and 13 of them are 3 star, the rest are 2 stars. That's an average star of 2.5

Northwestern's class is ranked 3 spots behind Purdue. But Northwestern's class is 14 players right now, with 13 of them being 3 star recruits and 1 being a four star recruit. They have 0 two star commits right now. That's an average star of 3.07 stars.

Now if you think about recruiting stars as "chances of success" - i.e. a 4 star player has a good chance of being a good player, a 3 star player has a 50/50 shot at being a good player and a 2 star has a below average chance of being a good player - Purdue's class is bigger, but half of the class will likely not be good Big Ten caliber players.

This isn't all doom and gloom, it's Brohm's first real recruiting class. When you inherited this bad of a state/reputation, you may not see that turn around be immediate. However, I certainly would not state that there's been a demonstrable "shift" in our talent level. We may see some recruits start considering us, but until it's beyond just a consideration, it's not going to be mean much when half of our team are 2-star caliber players.

 

[Cantonman]

There doesn't seem to be much difference yet!

 

[SIBoiler2]

The thread title is based on a faulty premise. That premise is that Hazzell was EVER a coach.

 

[BoilermakerD]

....we would be winless now. That's how lacking our team is. Simply put, after 4 years of recruiting that were essentially last in the B10, it is quite evident that Purdue has huge holes in talent and depth, especially on the offense. We have a WR corps that most cannot consistently catch a football (wasn't Hazell a WR coach at OSU?) There is a noticable percentage of players on our team that simply should not be wearing a B10 uniform (perhaps a smaller conference but not the B10)

Brohm & Co. are doing a good job, with what they have to work with. They inherited this team and have to make something.....anything work. Its not them. Put in any coach you desire in their situation and they too would not be getting instant or increasing success with this team in the first year.

Many of us were predicting a season like we are experiencing now. Winning some games we weren't supposed to, losing some games we should have won, playing hard and competitive but eventually fading down the stretch. We are looking at a 3-5 win season, what many of us predicted this summer.

This will take time, folks. Starting next year, more incoming B10 caliber classes will replace DH2's classes and the team will improve. There will be growing pains and steps taken backward, but the overall direction is upward.

Keep the faith, this will take a while.

You're right ...

I think that one thing I would want the parents of these players to know if they read this board or my comments is that... we often don't post for 24 hours after a loss or even a win for a reason..

And emotions run higher after a loss the better we are or are supposed to be as a team.

I mean we now have what... 5 losses by a combined 34 points.. and only Rutgers just isn't good.

Danny hope brought SOME good things.. but Brohm is the first good overall head Coach since Tiller. And to find another coach as good as Brohm before Tiller you are talking about Young?? Young was the coach when I was born.

We might be waiting for a year to start getting those wins that seem oh so close now.

Illinois is a pendulum game. If we lose that the criticism will soar...