Second-year Purdue coach Hazell sees progress

Darrell Hazell plans to take more than a win or a loss away from his trip to Minnesota this weekend. Purdue's second-year coach is always collecting inspiration in his quest to revive and restructure a damaged program. And the Gophers meet his criteria.

Fourth-year coach Jerry Kill has the Gophers at the top of the Big Ten West standings at 5-1, 2-0 entering Saturday's game. Hazell can take some solace knowing that Kill's teams had their share of rough times in the turnaround process.

The Boilermakers have scrapped together three wins and restored hope midway through Hazell's second year of change. The coach believes the program is close to turning the corner the way Kill and the Gophers have.

"You look at [turnaround stories] all of the time," Hazell said. "Jerry was one of the guys, Kirk Ferentz at Iowa was one of those guys that started struggling the first couple years and got it flipped and did some great things and is still doing great things.

"You draw inspiration from those guys. You know that the process works and that you have to stay with the process and the guys start to see that. They start to feed off that. As long as you don't waver as a coach, they go full steam ahead and do the things you're asking them to do."

The commitment to Hazell's new system has been obvious throughout the first half of the season. The Boilermakers scored 31 points against No. 8 Michigan State's stout defense last Saturday and had a chance to tie the score in the final minutes.

The Spartans intercepted sophomore quarterback Austin Appleby and returned it for a touchdown to secure a 45-31 victory. It was the most points allowed by Michigan State since the 2011 Big Ten Championship Game.

Purdue is 2-3 in its past five games but built early leads against ranked Notre Dame and then Iowa, and rallied against Michigan State. The offense has scored 30 or more points in three of the past four games and continues to improve under Appleby, who took over at quarterback two weeks ago against Illinois.

It's a stark contrast to Hazell's first year leading the program after replacing fired coach Danny Hope. The Boilermakers were 1-11 overall and 0-8 in the Big Ten and lost their last 10 games for the worst season in program history. Their only victory was a six-point win against FCS opponent Indiana State.

Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke anticipated a slow start to the rebuilding initiative. Hazell, however, has reassured Burke and the Purdue fan base the flip could happen sooner than later.

"We're definitely taking major steps in the right direction," Hazell said. "We have so many young guys on our team that still have a lot of learning to do. Obviously we're not there yet, but we're getting closer each week. I feel like they're competing at the level intensitywise that we need them to compete at. Now we have to make those other steps in terms of making plays and being in the right position defensively so we don't give those big plays away."

A win against the Gophers would go a long way toward getting this point across. The Boilermakers will rely on another big performance from Appleby. Gophers associate head coach Tracy Claeys said the Purdue offense isn't as predictable with Appleby's legs and quality arm in the mix.

Appleby and running backs Akeem Hunt (6.2 yards per carry) and Raheem Mostert (4.9) are protected by a big offensive line that plays with a chip on its shoulder, Claeys said.

Kill applauded the Boilermakers' secondary and man coverage, which has forced opponents to rely more on their run games.

"They've locked up everybody they've seen," Kill said. "That's the one thing I've noticed as the season's gone on, they've gotten more and more confident with what they're doing on the defensive side. I think that's a lot to do with their secondary.

"So it's a football team that we got to do a good job and we got to have great preparation this week."

The more Hazell hears comments like these, especially from those he's watching closely, he'll continue to be inspired.