By KEITH CARRELL
ISL Correspondent  

Darrell Hazell’s tenure as Purdue Football’s head coach has come to an end, announced Sunday afternoon by Athletic Director Mike Bobinski. The decision brings an end of Hazell being the head mason with his “One Brick Higher” mantra that he adopted from Purdue lore. The decision also brings added responsibility to Gerad Parker, who was promoted to interim Head Coach from his Wide Receiver responsibilities.

 The decision by Bobinski came after consulting with both President Mitch Daniels and trustees chairman Michael Berghoff. As many would say, Hazell is not a bad guy, but this is a results-oriented business and the results were definitive over Hazell’s three and a half seasons at the helm, netting a meager 9-33 record (3-24 in Big Ten).

 In the school’s official press release, Bobinski stated, “I could tell (Hazell) was a man of high character – a quality person who you would want leading a group of young men – but our inconsistent performance and inability to generate positive momentum thus far this season, along with the disappointing results of the past three seasons, made it clear to me that we needed to make a change.”

 In the release, Daniels echoed those sentiments of Hazell’s upstanding character and added that “while character is mandatory every day at Purdue, positive performance also must be there. With new leadership and the rapidly evolving Football Performance Complex, I’m confident that better days are ahead.”

 Some might argue the timing of such a move is questionable and provides little value to execute mid-season, but this wasn’t a move just for the football team, just for Darrell Hazell, or just to bring the figurative hammer down in honor of Purdue Pete’s 60^th birthday. This was a thought out, deliberate move by a new athletic director looking to make a statement and set a precedent as a warning sign to all within the athletic department that Bobinski’s tenure will be one that is fair, but demands results. Outside of the campus borders, this is a move that looks to re-energize the fan base (undoubtedly at the gates and in their pocket books), send a message to potential coaching candidates that the department will not allow the program to simply go through the motions any further, and provide current commits and recruits with some level of certainty that Purdue is eager to compete on a continual basis. This, this is a move to declare the status quo is no longer acceptable at Purdue University.

 “I don’t like doing it in the middle of the seasos” Bobinski said. “For me it was about finding a way to allow our team to have the very best chance for success.”

 So the timing can be explained, but now… what’s next? This is the question that many will be asking themselves for the foreseeable future with an eye on who will be named the next head coach. For Bobinski, next is now as he iterated during the press conference that “at this moment in time, the priority for us is with the current team.”

 For Parker, next appeared to be more personal. “I have an obligation to Mike (Bobinski), to Purdue University, those guys in the locker room, and our coaching staff to make sure that we put our best foot forward in the last six games to do something that our seniors, and the guys that are going to leave this program, feel proud of.” He later continued, “This is an awkward situation, but … we’re going to move forward and do things a little bit differently.”

 The big question now, the money question (figuratively and literally), is who will be the next head coach and who would be interested in filling a position that will undoubtedly be an uphill climb back to relevancy. Throughout the season I’ve personally wondered which would be a more desirable job, Purdue football head coach in 2017 or Marshall football head coach in 1971 following the well documented plane crash which resulted in the tragic loss of the coaching staff, athletic director, boosters, players, and others. Marshall was almost obligated to hire a little known coach (Jack Lengyel) from a little known school (Wooster) to lead their program. While Purdue has less tangible pain to endure and more physically to use as a foundation, a long road is ahead that the next head coach will have to be willing to accept and embrace.

 When asked on the level of financial support Bobinski felt he’d receive when searching for a new head coach, he quickly replied that “(President Daniels, the trustees, and I) had multiple conversations about our ability to be fully committed in the event that we got to this point and I received assurance from day one that we’ll be in a position to do whatever we need to do to build an organization that’s capable of winning a championship.”

 To fill the coaching vacancy, rumors will swirl until an official announcement is made – likely after the season, but the most common names floating around thus far are Les Miles (most recently LSU), Brock Spack (Illinois State, former Purdue assistant and player), Kevin Sumlin (Texas A&M, former Purdue assistant and player), P.J. Fleck (Western Michigan), and Bo Pelini (Youngstown State, former Nebraska head coach). There is no definitive answer on if Bobinski would have interest in any of those coaches or if any of the coaches would reciprocate interest in Purdue. Saying anything either way at this point would be pure speculation.

 Other quotes of note from the Press Conference:

• Bobinski on Hazell’s response to being fired: “He was the gentleman that we all would expect him to be. Obviously he was disappointed, he felt badly, but he understood it was part of it.”
• Parker on recruiting: “I’ll talk to every one of our committed guys tomorrow on the phone and let them know where we’re at and what’s going on.”
• Bobinski on why he chose Parker to be interim head coach: “(Parker) handles himself extremely well, he has the respect of the players, they respond to him in a really favorable way… he’s been here for four years so he understands our program and he understands what has and hasn’t happened.”

Official Press release: http://www.purduesports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/101616aaa.html