SBNation: Purdue football is clearly improving. No, seriously
"The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps."
It's one of my favorite quotes from one of football's more quotable coaches (
ULM's Todd Berry), and while it is purely anecdotal, it's also catchy.
And sometimes it's perfectly descriptive. A team struggles dramatically with a new coach in his first year (the Year Zero effect) then starts to figure out what it's doing in his second year. And in his third year, with a two-deep made of either seniors or his own signees, the program takes a healthy step forward.
There are about 100 different obstacles that can throw this happy train off course along the way -- injuries, costly recruiting misses, coaching defections, bad luck, random personnel issues, simple poor coaching -- but in theory, this is what you want.
It's what we've seen so far from Purdue and Darrell Hazell. Hazell's disastrous 2013, his first after leaving Kent State, was the quintessential Year Zero. After ranking between 80th and 87th in the F/+ ratings for three consecutive years under Danny Hope, Purdue looked for a fresh start with Hazell, and it began with Purdue sinking to 101st with a 1-11 record.
The Boilermakers were young and awful in 2013, but they made well-defined progress last year. You might not have noticed because the progress stopped when injuries ravaged the two-deep, but for the first two-thirds of the year, Purdue was playing at a top-60 or top-70 level. It's impressive, considering the level of youth.
Sleeping in year one? Check. Creeping in year two? Check. So now comes the leap ... in theory. If the talent and coaching are where they need to be, then the experience could pay off. Purdue boasts two experienced quarterbacks, an explosive No. 1 receiver, a loaded offensive line, and a patient defense filled with sophomores and juniors. It might take two leaps to get Purdue back to respectability, especially with a schedule that features six teams from last year's F/+ top 40, but barring land mines, Purdue appears to be on the right course.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2015/5/20/8626311/purdue-football-2015-preview-schedule-roster
