Burke supports Hope

With Purdue headed to its first bowl game since 2007, athletic director Morgan Burke on Wednesday expressed satisfaction with the program's progress in its three seasons under Danny Hope.

"You have to look at the plan and you have to say, 'Are they taking steps? Do they make commitments? Have you seen tangible results?' I think the answer is yes," Burke said. "Would you like to be there faster? Sure. But I don't have a sense that anything that we have done has not produced tangible results.

"At this juncture, I hear the noise, but I think (people) are becoming a little more balanced. I think they see things happening. They like it faster, but they are starting to see some things happening. Some people weren't happy with the change that we made at all, and you aren't going to convince them. You just aren't."

At the conclusion of this season, Hope will have three seasons remaining on his contract.

That contract requires a "compensation review" to be done no later than Dec. 31 of this year.

"Based upon this review," the contract reads, "Purdue may offer any increases which Purdue determines are reasonable and appropriate to ensure that the total compensation ... is competitive and appropriate."

Burke said he has "no timetable" to decide whether he might offer Hope a contract extension. He and Hope will meet soon after the Litle Caesars Pizza Bowl.

"He is on a long-term contract. At the end of the day, this is the hardest-working head coach when it comes to recruiting that I have ever seen," Burke said. "I haven't seen him. He was at practice yesterday, but he's gone again today. I can't sit down with him.

"Every time we sit down at the end of the year, that has led us to a lot of the things. I want to sit down with him at the end of the year and have that opportunity. He is under a long-term contract, and you can say to yourself that it is only three years and recruits are looking for five, but what are they saying (right now) at Kansas (where the Jayhawks fired Turner Gill after two years)?

We will get something worked out."

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