Hazell on ESPNU

During the third quarter of the Heart of Dallas Bowl Tuesday, incoming Purdue coach Darrell Hazell visited the broadcast booth for a segment.

Here's what he had to say to the ESPNU crew.

Why did you decide to coach Kent State in the bowl game?

Hazell: "There's a lot of great young men at Kent State University. We started something at the beginning of the season and we wanted to finish it off the right way."

Has anything been compromised due to the late date of the Kent State bowl game while most new staffs are fully in transition?

Hazell: "No, not at all. Obviously, you don't have control over when you play the game. But as I said, we set out a long time ago - it's been 40 years since Kent State's been in a bowl game and that's pretty special for our young men there."

In two years, how did you forge such a strong player-coach relationship at Kent State so quickly and how can you do it again (at Purdue)?

Hazell: "That's very important to success, that that relationship is there, the trust is there, the love is there, for there to be that trust there on game day. That's very important to success."

There's a lot of evaluating going on, and things haven't gone Purdue's way today.

Hazell: "There's been too many turnovers and missed opportunities. You play a good team like Oklahoma State and it's hard."

On young players in Purdue's program now.

Hazell: "We'll take a look at the young players on this roster and look to develop those guys in the springtime."

What have you liked about roster?

Hazell: "There's a lot of young offensive linemen and that's where it starts and some good young quarterbacks to look at. From top to bottom the roster is pretty good right now. We're going to have some more young guys coming in but top to bottom it's pretty good right now. We're just not playing as well as we'd like to be today."

Still time for Purdue to show some positive signs (as of the third quarter) ...

Hazell: "You want to see how guys play through adversity down the stretch, take care of the football, all those little things it takes to win championships."

Robert Marve, this is the sort of spirit you want to see in your players at Purdue.

Hazell: "Absolutely. Take a look at some of these guys who've been through some ups and downs. You want to see them finish out the right way, but we have a lot of support for these guys."

You've said you want to recruit more in the Midwest.

Hazell: "It's very important to put people in the seats. When you get guys from the local states - Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and any state that's right next to us - you have a chance to get more people in the stands and more support from the fans."

Signing day is in February.

Hazell: "It's coming up pretty quickly."

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