there was a huge difference between Hazell and brohm. you could see it in the first two days after Brohm was hired.
the first thing brohm did was start recruiting. he went back to WKU and brought a bunch of players he recruited to WKU with him to Purdue. he broughtb grad transfers. he brought juco players to fill holes. he went after high school players. he flipped players from other schools.
on the other hand, hazell brought zero players from kent st when he came to purdue. he brought 0 high school players he was recruiting at kent st . he basically did no recruiting other than trying to keep the players who had previously committed to Purdue. in the 6 weeks before the signing deadline, he was able to add 6 players to our recruiting class - mostly RBs when we already had plenty to begin with.
and after the first few weeks in the job, you could still see Brohm actively recruiting people and making contact with Indiana high schools. Whereas, hazell basically said, I'm the new head coach at Purdue. I expect you to come here.
it will be very easy to predict Waters future and how successful he will be by his actions in his first week on the job. Will he get his new staff in place, or just sit back and watch the remaining staff do everything. Will he take charge immediately, or sit back and watch and learn? Will he actively start recruiting, and try to flip players like brohm did? or will he say, we've got a pretty good incoming class, and do little to improve it other than just add a few remaining unsigned players? Will he sign a 4 star player? will he flip a 4 star player? Will he bring any players with him from Illinois? or any players he recruited while at Illinois?
These are things I'll look for to either change my opinion of him, or to strengthen my views against him.
I'm more frustrated and upset with BOBO than I am with Waters. BObo said the same things last week that Morgan said about how everyone will like our new coach, and he will build upon and improve the team over what Brohm provided us. Our future looks great and people will be really impressed with our new hire. Those words were almost word for word what morgan said before hiring hazell. I would have been happier if Bobo had been honest and said, I tried to land 4 other coaches, and i struck out, and Waters was the best coach of those that said yes.
the word will leak out about who Bobo tried to hire. I can't believe Waters was the first coach on his list. Did our hiring committee have people from Michigan, IU, OSU on it this time? andhe came highly recommended by Tressell?
we should know long before the season starts if he is the second coming of hazell or the second coming of brohm.
and PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE don't say you can't judge a coach before he coaches his first game. it was very obvious in May that hazell was in way over his had, and what his future as a head coach would be. and it was very obvious in January of what brohm would be capable of doing and that he would turn this team around.
and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't say you can't judge or critisize a coach until you see their 4th year of recruiting. with the portal, recruiting changes every year.
and as far as a recruiting class goes. it's Waters job to sign the players Brohm recruited to an LOI. You saw with prime time, that he was not going to honor scholarships given out to players by his predecessor. this class is now Waters' first class. it's his job to sign those players that committed and to add to them before the signing date. Sure, he doesn't have much time to add players. brohm added players. Hazell added a few before the signing cut-off. Waters' first chance to impress people is with his hiring of assistant coaches. his second priority is recruiting. We shall see very quickly, what he is capable of doing.
247sports.com
