What's say you on Coach Hazell's tenure in West Lafayette BEFORE the start of the 2015 Purdue Football Season?
IYO, Is This The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
- Thread starter ghostoffatjack
- Start date
Its obviously make or break time. 5-6 wins and things are on the uptick. Another 2-3 win season and the party is over.
Based on what's returning I lean towards the 5-6 wins - at least I hope so.
Based on the OC (sorry I do not like his efforts) I have a bad feeling it's the 2-3.
Hope I am wrong.
Based on what's returning I lean towards the 5-6 wins - at least I hope so.
Based on the OC (sorry I do not like his efforts) I have a bad feeling it's the 2-3.
Hope I am wrong.
...........still standing by 5-6 wins. Anything else would be a major disappointment................
A lot depends on whether we look like a well coached competitive football team or the stumble bums that opened against Cinci two years ago. I am hoping for the former. A lot depends on how good Marshall turns out to be. If they are again a top 25 team and we play well but lose, not so bad. If they win and we look bad and they end up sub 500 then we are where we have been.
End of the Beginning. 7-5. Offensive line play is going to allow us to score some points this year.
Sep. 6 at Marshall 3:00pm Win
Sep. 12 Indiana St. 12:00pm Win
Sep. 19 Virginia Tech 3:30pm Close loss
Sep. 26 Bowling Green TBA Close win
Oct. 3 at Michigan State 12:00pm Loss
Oct. 10 Minnesota TBA Win
Oct. 17 at Wisconsin 12:00pm Loss
Oct. 31 Nebraska TBA Loss
Nov. 7 Illinois 12:00pm Win
Nov. 14 at Northwestern TBA Win
Nov. 21 at Iowa TBA Loss
Nov. 28 Indiana TBA Win
Sep. 6 at Marshall 3:00pm Win
Sep. 12 Indiana St. 12:00pm Win
Sep. 19 Virginia Tech 3:30pm Close loss
Sep. 26 Bowling Green TBA Close win
Oct. 3 at Michigan State 12:00pm Loss
Oct. 10 Minnesota TBA Win
Oct. 17 at Wisconsin 12:00pm Loss
Oct. 31 Nebraska TBA Loss
Nov. 7 Illinois 12:00pm Win
Nov. 14 at Northwestern TBA Win
Nov. 21 at Iowa TBA Loss
Nov. 28 Indiana TBA Win
If you're gonna be that optimistic (and I like the cut of your jib), then I say screw Iowa and make it a nice 8-4....
End of the beginning. The turn around has got to start somewhere...and sometime...right?
I think it starts Sunday.
I think it starts Sunday.
I will say six wins,and I will be willing to give this staff another year.
I don't think it's as simple as dropping a win number. If we should know anything about being Purdue fans - look at Tiller's last few years, and quite frankly Danny Hope's years. Purdue went years without a win against a ranked team, while still going to bowl games under Tiller. There were literally multiple years where Purdue did not beat a team with a winning record - but still went to a bowl game. Going to a bowl game certainly didn't save Danny Hope's job.
Looking at our schedule, there's obviously some question marks. Illinois is certainly going down in terms of "value". Marshall is not a bad team - but is it really that good of one? Obviously we've seen plenty of 'good' teams like this not match up well at all with power 5 teams - even if they can roll off 10-11 wins.
Minnesota's defense looked decent last night - but you can only judge so much from a first game.
You can't really assess a win total unless you know what you're facing. Right now, we don't know the quality. Last year was not the Big Ten's most impressive year - there's definitely some teams that should improve, doesn't mean they will.
My problem continues to be - I don't know if I see much talent differential than what we saw during the last few years of Tiller's years and during Hope's tenure. And if you don't have much talent improvement - you have to be one of the better coaching staffs and a great system to be able to be successful (ala Boise State).
Anything less than 5 wins is grounds for a house cleaning and a new staff. 3 years is enough time to turn around a program. So far, "coach" hazell's career at Purdue has been a disaster. He either needs to win 7+ games, or be let go and he can move on to a coordinator job at a MAC school where he belongs. Then Purdue can hire a real P-5 Coach.
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Hazell was a coordinator at Ohio State for the better part of a decade. It's a pretty decent football school the last time I checked. Maybe not MAC level, but decent nonetheless.
I see 3 likely wins, 6 possible max. I don't get the optimism from the program. I'll believe it when I see some evidence. I'll be watching tomorrow, I sincerely hope I'm wrong. BoilerUp!!!
In reality it is too early to tell what we've got. We won't know for a week or two. I like sniffing the air of excitement that is brewing in some's minds. But, that excitement and expectation doesn't make us win.
Take a look at Minnesota for a moment. I know that it is only one team, but is a team that we competed with last year. Some feel that we will beat them this year; because we competed with them last year. I hope we do. But, Thursday night, the (supposed) number 2 team in the nation only beat them by 6 points. Again it is too early to make much of this. But, Minnesota could be stronger than some feel.
I have to stick to my original guess of 4 wins. I will take 4 wins with pursed lips of concern and accept it as the slow grind to building our program. If we eek out 5 wins, I will take it as a small glimmer of over achievement. I will be satisfied with it. If we win more than 5, I will be somewhat giddy.
Take a look at Minnesota for a moment. I know that it is only one team, but is a team that we competed with last year. Some feel that we will beat them this year; because we competed with them last year. I hope we do. But, Thursday night, the (supposed) number 2 team in the nation only beat them by 6 points. Again it is too early to make much of this. But, Minnesota could be stronger than some feel.
I have to stick to my original guess of 4 wins. I will take 4 wins with pursed lips of concern and accept it as the slow grind to building our program. If we eek out 5 wins, I will take it as a small glimmer of over achievement. I will be satisfied with it. If we win more than 5, I will be somewhat giddy.
From the outside looking in, I think it's all about the start of the season and how Purdue would respond. In the non conference I can see easily 3-1 or 1-3. The front end of the Big Ten schedule is tougher to where Purdue might close strong to get to 4-5 wins. If Hazell has a strong culture, he could weather a tough start to finish strong with momentum into the offseason. If it's weak, the wheels will come off. I don't see Purdue beating Va Tech, Minnesota, Michigan St, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Outside of that everything else is a toss up.
This could easily be another 3 win season. 5 is probably the best we can hope for. I've seen the "10 things" posts, but to me it's all about 2 things. QB play and pass rush. That's what we've had when we've been good. Unfortunately, I don't see much at this point to be optimistic about in either of those areas.
I'll say 4 wins this year and Hazell back again,
Another thing being overlooked - wins are not necessarily what is being looked at. Danny Hope was fired in a season after reaching his second straight bowl game.
Remember ticket sales. Ticket sales aren't just for propping up the athletic department's budget - but also are strong indicators of interest (and show decent "futures"). Purdue is basically at rock bottom in terms of ticket sales right now. We thought it was bad with end of Tiller's tenure. Then it managed to get worse - we thought it was rock bottom at end of Hope's tenure. And yet it's managed to even get worse. Purdue's AD is literally scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for every last penny because of this. Basketball is helping some, but football is where you get a big chunk of your ticket revenue just cause of sheer size.
The question is - if you're looking at 4-5 wins as success - will another losing season spark interest in Purdue football? I don't even know if a 6 win season will. It didn't with Hope. So I think there's two things to take note of...
1. Who we beat, who we lose to. At the end of Tiller's tenure, Purdue had built up a reputation for racking up wins against bad teams and losing to pretty much every good team and had quite a streak of not beating a ranked team. If we beat Marshall, Indiana State, Bowling Green, Illinois and IU - not sure how excited people will truly be (and yes, Marshall is a decent team - but they are simply a dangerous team to power 5 teams, nothing more - and should not be a signature win).
On the other hand, Purdue's had some seasons where they've had some utterly pathetic losses. Losing to Indiana State/Bowling Green early on - that really kills interest and makes it difficult to recover interest. And we've not only had some ugly losses against good teams (those will happen), there's also been some really sad games against other bad Big Ten teams which are just difficult to watch.
2. Attendance. Remember, Purdue started planning for Hope's firing well before the season ended. Purdue has a bit more invested with Hazell this year, so I wouldn't expect them to be as aggressive, but I don't believe they will be waiting til the season has completed to make a decision. If attendance is flailing - that is not a vote of confidence by fans, in addition to the financial implications.
And people HAVE to be excited about something to improve interest. While we have a tough schedule, our home schedule is nothing crazy. There is a decent chance we don't play a top 25 team at home. So not only can we have some positive games at home, it wouldn't be some massive upset to beat an unranked VA Tech or Nebraska team (Nebraska looks shaky today - although you can only take so much from week 1, and BYU is typically a good team).
Recruiting is another story. Recruiting can really help rally fans and get excited about something - like we saw with Swanigan/basketball that really got people excited. This class is ok so far, but it's so small (and no "brag-worthy" headliner) that it's not really going to get people excited.
But do not underestimate the budget. Purdue's REALLY been under some stress in terms of its budget the past few years and it's only gotten worse. You fire him - there will be a buyout. But if you don't, you almost have to give him an extension - which if it doesn't pan out next year, you probably have even a worse buyout situation.
Nebraska doesn't look that good right now against BYU, I don't see how anyone can list who Purdue will definitely not beat!
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