Here's the second half of my interview with Purdue head coach Danny Hope. For Part I, click here.
You've talked a lot about the seniors, and the hard part is you won't have a chance to coach them again. As far as the guys below them, do you have to talk to them about continuing what was started this year, or can guys like Keith Smith and Ryan Kerrigan continue the legacy?
Danny Hope: The things that our seniors stood for at the end of the season, a lot of the success we had, was a result of some of the great experiences that we had. Sometimes overcoming adversity and overcoming all odds, those are bigger milestones than achieving things that you were supposed to. The fact that we had some special moments in 2009 will give some credibility to what the seniors hung their hat on, and that will become contagious and spread to the underclassmen.
When you go back and watch the game tapes from this fall, will there be a lot of cringing and what-ifs because of all the close losses? It seemed like you were snake-bitten for a while.
DH: I don't think so because what's done is done. You want to learn from the past. We've already sat down as a staff and earmarked a whole list of things that, at one point in time in the season, may have been somewhat of a liability. We didn't tackle early in the season. Well, we've got to put that on the list of things we've got to get corrected. We didn't have hardly anyone coming back from a throwing and catching standpoint, hardly any experience, and some of our precision in the route running could have been better early in the season. The result of that was we had some [incomplete passes] or maybe an interception thrown. So, we've earmarked all the things that we feel like we can improve on that would have impacted the '09 season. We start working on those things and not dwell on what-ifs.
You mention the tackling. What are some of the other things on that list of things that need to be corrected for 2010?
DH: There's a whole giant list. That's just one that sticks out in my mind. Our kick coverage was poor in the second half of the season. It cost us a game. Some of it was the actual coverage part, some of it was the actual kick placement. Those snakes that rear their ugly head, you make a list of those things and try to have a plan to eliminate them, or at least minimize them, where they don't become a liability for you in the future.
You're going to have some key guys coming back next year, but a new situation at quarterback. Are you excited to see how that will shake out with Caleb [TerBush] and obviously Robert [Marve] entering the mix?
DH: Well, it's going to be a lot of fun, and it should be some great competition. It's a unique situation in some ways because of Justin Siller not being on the team this year. That was a surprise, kind of caught us off guard a little bit. It projected Caleb TerBush to a No. 2, and he probably wouldn't have been No. 2, so he's got a ton of valuable reps. And it projected Rob Henry to a No. 3, or he'd have probably been on the scout team, running [the opponents'] plays. And then you have Robert Marve, and even though he was ineligible [to play in 2009], he has played in some games before. He's been a starting quarterback at Miami in some big games. So each one of those guys has had some opportunities to prepare themselves to compete for the job. It ought to be a great competition and a lot of fun.
You did a lot of good things in Big Ten play this year. How does that help these players going forward, knowing what it takes in the league and also being ready for nonconference play?
DH: We have a very competitive nonconference schedule and I anticipate it staying that way. And when you start off with the record we started off with, we didn't have any choice in the end but to compete. When you start off 1-5, there's not much margin for error. When I was at Eastern Kentucky, we had a real competitive nonconference schedule. We played [Division] I-A teams, Appalachian State, Western Kentucky, and most of my career there, we started off struggling because of the level of competition. We always started off 1-4, 2-3 or 2-2, so I wasn't outside my comfort zone. But the fact that the kids stuck together and persevered through that was a great sign. And we did compete in conference play the second half of the season.
You've talked a lot about the seniors, and the hard part is you won't have a chance to coach them again. As far as the guys below them, do you have to talk to them about continuing what was started this year, or can guys like Keith Smith and Ryan Kerrigan continue the legacy?
Danny Hope: The things that our seniors stood for at the end of the season, a lot of the success we had, was a result of some of the great experiences that we had. Sometimes overcoming adversity and overcoming all odds, those are bigger milestones than achieving things that you were supposed to. The fact that we had some special moments in 2009 will give some credibility to what the seniors hung their hat on, and that will become contagious and spread to the underclassmen.
When you go back and watch the game tapes from this fall, will there be a lot of cringing and what-ifs because of all the close losses? It seemed like you were snake-bitten for a while.
DH: I don't think so because what's done is done. You want to learn from the past. We've already sat down as a staff and earmarked a whole list of things that, at one point in time in the season, may have been somewhat of a liability. We didn't tackle early in the season. Well, we've got to put that on the list of things we've got to get corrected. We didn't have hardly anyone coming back from a throwing and catching standpoint, hardly any experience, and some of our precision in the route running could have been better early in the season. The result of that was we had some [incomplete passes] or maybe an interception thrown. So, we've earmarked all the things that we feel like we can improve on that would have impacted the '09 season. We start working on those things and not dwell on what-ifs.
You mention the tackling. What are some of the other things on that list of things that need to be corrected for 2010?
DH: There's a whole giant list. That's just one that sticks out in my mind. Our kick coverage was poor in the second half of the season. It cost us a game. Some of it was the actual coverage part, some of it was the actual kick placement. Those snakes that rear their ugly head, you make a list of those things and try to have a plan to eliminate them, or at least minimize them, where they don't become a liability for you in the future.
You're going to have some key guys coming back next year, but a new situation at quarterback. Are you excited to see how that will shake out with Caleb [TerBush] and obviously Robert [Marve] entering the mix?
DH: Well, it's going to be a lot of fun, and it should be some great competition. It's a unique situation in some ways because of Justin Siller not being on the team this year. That was a surprise, kind of caught us off guard a little bit. It projected Caleb TerBush to a No. 2, and he probably wouldn't have been No. 2, so he's got a ton of valuable reps. And it projected Rob Henry to a No. 3, or he'd have probably been on the scout team, running [the opponents'] plays. And then you have Robert Marve, and even though he was ineligible [to play in 2009], he has played in some games before. He's been a starting quarterback at Miami in some big games. So each one of those guys has had some opportunities to prepare themselves to compete for the job. It ought to be a great competition and a lot of fun.
You did a lot of good things in Big Ten play this year. How does that help these players going forward, knowing what it takes in the league and also being ready for nonconference play?
DH: We have a very competitive nonconference schedule and I anticipate it staying that way. And when you start off with the record we started off with, we didn't have any choice in the end but to compete. When you start off 1-5, there's not much margin for error. When I was at Eastern Kentucky, we had a real competitive nonconference schedule. We played [Division] I-A teams, Appalachian State, Western Kentucky, and most of my career there, we started off struggling because of the level of competition. We always started off 1-4, 2-3 or 2-2, so I wasn't outside my comfort zone. But the fact that the kids stuck together and persevered through that was a great sign. And we did compete in conference play the second half of the season.
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
Adam Rittenberg
Rittenberg joined ESPN.com in 2008 after four years at the Arlington Heights (Ill.) Daily Herald, where he covered sports at Notre Dame, Northwestern, DePaul and several other colleges. He lives in Chicago.
