Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
There are plenty of new head coaches around college football going into the 2013 season. If there is one in particular that could have a lot of spotlight on him, it would be new Purdue Boilermakers coach Darrell Hazell. He comes over after a very successful season at Kent State and now must find a way to improve on a 6-7 Purdue team from a year ago. It won’t be easy to say the least.
There is the potential the team may decide to go with freshman Danny Etling at quarterback which wouldn’t be such a bad idea with a new coach in charge anyway. If it isn’t Etling though, it probably will be fifth-year senior Rob Henry who takes over. I would want to go with Etling, though, if I’m Hazell. You might as well start fresh with a new quarterback and take your lumps potentially during the first season. The schedule is very daunting as well with several teams that were in major bowl games this past year.
Hazell may be lucky to get four wins in 2013, but two of those wins may come in the team’s last two games. He must have known what kind of challenge he was walking into in West Lafayette. It is going to be an interesting journey no matter what happens during this big jump in conferences going from the Mid-American Conference to the Big Ten. I think he is up for the challenge, though, and we will be seeing Purdue back on the map before too long with major bowl appearances to show for it.
Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.
