A few days ago, after a few days of conjecture and rumour (yes, they were British rumours), Jim Bollman officially left Coach Hazell's staff as OLine coach to become OC at MSU. MSU fans seem OK with it, aOSU fans tell me that MSU now has the worstest OC in the world, Bears fans tell me that Purdue has that in Shoop...I'm soooooo confused.
Not really.
I've never been good with all of the aOSU fan love for Purdue's coaching staff. I think we've been pretty clear here, we don't like Ohio State a whole bunch. We've always thought that they have an athletic department that all-but encourages their programs to play ball, if you will...The fact that the NCAA actually punished them in the last few years says that they just got too brazen in their tactics. If you talk to non-alum Bucknut fans, you'll quickly see that winning is all that matters...and rules are for losers. That's all well and good when you're a cash cow for the NCAA, but not for programs like Purdue. Hazell's thinking as Kent State's head coach (doing things in unprecedented manner, beating the odds, etc.) is closer to Purdue's history than aOSU's. I didn't really care about aOSU fans' opinions about Bollman; still don't. If Hazell thought he was the best coach available for his team, I gotta trust that. Regardless of anyone's opinion, he gone.
Who can blame him? Being an OC in the B1G is a much better job than a positional coach...But I guess MSU's Dantonio is dumb now and has forgotten everything he knows about football since he chose to hire Bollman, correct?
Purdue hasn't released who will be OLine coach in the wake of Bollman's departure...I vote Matt Light (if you haven't figured this out, I like ex-NFL Purdue guys as position coaches). Coach Hazell usually calls me on Tuesdays*, so I'll put that suggestion in at that time.
Spring football practice starts in a few weeks.
*not really
Showing posts with label Jim Bollman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jim Bollman. Show all posts
Monday, March 04, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Hazell's Quiet Hiring Process Continues...
We've had people as us what we think of the coaching staff hirings thus far...so here's our quick take.
J posted about the initial hires a few weeks ago prior to KSU's bowl game, but I'll continue based on what we've heard.
Hazell has now hired six coaches...all with ties to the state of Ohio. That makes sense for a lot of reasons, as much of Hazell's resume references the buckeye state.
This hiring process is a ton different from that of Danny Hope- Hope had some carry overs from Tiller's staff, had a year to build his staff, didn't have much of a budget and didn't seem to have his sights set very high during the hiring process. But, as Hazell is showing, coaches generally go with what they know. Hope knew D-IAA, and had some coaches from the lower division...Hazell knows and is connected to the state of Ohio...so...
We love the hire of FSU's former LB coach, Greg Hudson as the DC. Hudson is a name that's well known in college football and the units and teams that he's coached have been generally good...he'll focus greatly on speed, it would seem, based on his past experience.
The OC hire is not yet public...but Hazell's staff already has two former coordinators within it.
Jim Bollman (today's quiet hire) was OC at Youngstown State, and years later at aOSU. He was also OL coach there for a few seasons...and he'll be the same at Purdue. An Ohio State fan friend of mine told me that Bucknut fans don't like Bollman much. As a fan of an opposing team, I can tell you that I never thought of aOSU offensive lines as soft or easily pushed around...in fact, I thought they were pretty big, damned strong and kinda nasty, as a rule. That's good...those guys need to protect the franchise, so to speak. The last time Purdue had a rock solid offensive line, top-to-bottom, was in the early oughts. It'll be good to have one again in the next few seasons.
The other former coordinator on Hazell's staff is his old DC from Kent State, Jon Heacock. There was talk before Hudson was hired, that Jon's brother Jim, another former Buckeye might be hired as DC. That obviously didn't happen.
So Hazell has a mix of younger up-and-comers (Freeman LB & Williams RB), and established guys (Hudson DC, Heacock DL, Bollman OL, Sherman WR), on his staff so far...all have D-IA experience, some have NFL experience. It's a pretty good looking staff on paper...and Hazell's not even done yet.
For those of you who have had a hard time keeping up with the cryptic updates out of God's country, don't feel bad...it's been tough to keep up. None of Hope's coaches were retained...but a few of the office and off-field personnel will stick around, it seems.
We're hoping that Hazell's staff is out hitting the road very soon. The quiet period has been over for a bit and signing day is fast approaching. Purdue lost a verbal last week, but supposedly picked up a good one today (according to rumors). We don't talk about recruiting, especially recruiting rumors around here generally as we think it's kinda silly to chase the wind that way...Once guys are signed, we tell you...even solid verbals aren't so solid, as we all are reminded about every other year.
There will be more news in the coming days/weeks about the football program...even if it's not shouted from the mountain tops, we'll try to weigh in on it.
J posted about the initial hires a few weeks ago prior to KSU's bowl game, but I'll continue based on what we've heard.
Hazell has now hired six coaches...all with ties to the state of Ohio. That makes sense for a lot of reasons, as much of Hazell's resume references the buckeye state.
This hiring process is a ton different from that of Danny Hope- Hope had some carry overs from Tiller's staff, had a year to build his staff, didn't have much of a budget and didn't seem to have his sights set very high during the hiring process. But, as Hazell is showing, coaches generally go with what they know. Hope knew D-IAA, and had some coaches from the lower division...Hazell knows and is connected to the state of Ohio...so...
We love the hire of FSU's former LB coach, Greg Hudson as the DC. Hudson is a name that's well known in college football and the units and teams that he's coached have been generally good...he'll focus greatly on speed, it would seem, based on his past experience.
The OC hire is not yet public...but Hazell's staff already has two former coordinators within it.
Jim Bollman (today's quiet hire) was OC at Youngstown State, and years later at aOSU. He was also OL coach there for a few seasons...and he'll be the same at Purdue. An Ohio State fan friend of mine told me that Bucknut fans don't like Bollman much. As a fan of an opposing team, I can tell you that I never thought of aOSU offensive lines as soft or easily pushed around...in fact, I thought they were pretty big, damned strong and kinda nasty, as a rule. That's good...those guys need to protect the franchise, so to speak. The last time Purdue had a rock solid offensive line, top-to-bottom, was in the early oughts. It'll be good to have one again in the next few seasons.
The other former coordinator on Hazell's staff is his old DC from Kent State, Jon Heacock. There was talk before Hudson was hired, that Jon's brother Jim, another former Buckeye might be hired as DC. That obviously didn't happen.
So Hazell has a mix of younger up-and-comers (Freeman LB & Williams RB), and established guys (Hudson DC, Heacock DL, Bollman OL, Sherman WR), on his staff so far...all have D-IA experience, some have NFL experience. It's a pretty good looking staff on paper...and Hazell's not even done yet.
For those of you who have had a hard time keeping up with the cryptic updates out of God's country, don't feel bad...it's been tough to keep up. None of Hope's coaches were retained...but a few of the office and off-field personnel will stick around, it seems.
We're hoping that Hazell's staff is out hitting the road very soon. The quiet period has been over for a bit and signing day is fast approaching. Purdue lost a verbal last week, but supposedly picked up a good one today (according to rumors). We don't talk about recruiting, especially recruiting rumors around here generally as we think it's kinda silly to chase the wind that way...Once guys are signed, we tell you...even solid verbals aren't so solid, as we all are reminded about every other year.
There will be more news in the coming days/weeks about the football program...even if it's not shouted from the mountain tops, we'll try to weigh in on it.
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