Hazell not worried about 'hot seat,' intent on fixing Purdue's issues

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Darrell Hazell said Monday he has not had any recent conversations with athletic director Mike Bobinski about his job security.

Hazell is Purdue's head football coach. He's preparing his team for its road game at Illinois this weekend. He expects to see a better effort from the Boilermakers, who got throttled 50-7 in their Big Ten opener Saturday at Maryland. He feels like there still is time to salvage the season.

"We’ve played four games, so a third of the season. It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster that we have to get fixed," he told local reporters. "But we’re more than capable of showing some consistency as we get rolling here."

In the summer, Hazell was asked whether he thought this season was an audition for the new AD. He said no. He also said then he wasn't concerned with outside talk about his job security.

On Monday, Hazell reiterated that. He said Saturday's result didn't produce negative thoughts creeping into his mind about whether he'd remain Purdue's coach.

"What was in my head after that game was (first), let me see the film, but (also) they got after us pretty good. They did," Hazell said. "I thought we would be better up front than what we were offensively. So we have to make sure we improve that.

"But, no, the hot seat didn’t cross my mind."

Hazell said he considered not showing his team film of the loss — as some coaches opt to do after a blowout — but after watching it himself, he said there were too many correctable mistakes, so it was valuable for the team to watch it.

Hazell still firmly believes this season is not over, that his team can rally and produce a successful 2016.

He said the loss to Maryland — in which Purdue allowed 400 rushing yards, managed only 10 rushing yards and got its QB sacked six times — was "90 percent" about execution, not lack of personnel. Hazell has insisted Purdue has enough talent to win the Big Ten West, that it just needs its players to rise and make plays.

Hazell doesn't see the recent issues — continued inability to stop the run, for example — as problems bigger than this season. He views performance issues on a game-by-game basis, he said.

“That’s what the fans see. They see 40 (games),” he said. “I don’t see 40. I see four. We’re 2-2. We’re not 2-40, right?”

Purdue is 8-32 under Hazell, including 2-23 during Big Ten play.

In games following a victory, Purdue has lost by an average of 22.3 points. It's never won back-to-back games under Hazell.

When asked about that lack of consistency in Year 4 of the program, Hazell said, "We have to do better."

"Doing better is not just winning game to game, it’s about your performance within those games, and that’s where the consistency has to get better," he said.

"We’re all frustrated. Every game is its own separate entity. That’s what college football is all about. You’ve got to keep coming back and you’ve got to prepare the next week and try to fix the problems and have a better performance the next week out. That’s what it’s all about."

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