DANNY HOPE Q and A a Big Ten Media Day

DANNY HOPE: Thank goodness that

football season is almost here and we can bring

some sanity to our lives. We're very excited about

the upcoming season. I had the good fortune to be

on board at Purdue for a year under the direction

of Coach Tiller prior to taking over as the head

football coach, and that was a great opportunity for

our team and our program. We were able to come

up with some ideas that I think will enhance the

performance of our football team in 2009.

Our guys are excited. We had a lot of

players on campus this summer. Had about 90

guys on campus for the bulk of the summer, and

they've done a great job and we're excited about

the season getting here season soon. Contrary to

popular opinion of the experts and some of our

peers, I think we can field a very good football

team in 2009.

With that I'll open it up for questions.

Q. Some people have made the

comparison between your upcoming season

and Joe Tiller's first season in '97. Do you see

any comparisons there as far as not much was

expected from either team as far as personnel

or anything like that?

DANNY HOPE: Well, there are a few

comparisons. We have a great home schedule for

2009, and we did as well in 1997. From a

quarterback standpoint, I think there's some

similarities. We had Billy Dicken in 1997, and he's

a guy that had not played a whole lot and people

didn't know a whole lot about Billy Dicken. Same

thing with our quarterback this year in Joey Elliott.

He's a guy that the fans and the experts don't know

a whole lot about. So there are some similarities.

Q. I just wonder what it's been like for

you getting established and recruiting in Big

Ten country? What has it been like out there

on the trail getting to know kids?

DANNY HOPE: Well, recruiting is

recruiting. It's business as usual. I got on board

18, 19 months ago the first year as the associate

coach, and that was a great advantage in a lot of

ways. I had the opportunity to be on the road full

time just like an assistant coach to maximize every

recruiting opportunity, selling myself as their future

head coach, so that was a great opportunity for

myself and for our program.

Recruiting is going very well. One of the

areas of our program that I think we can step up in

some ways is to increase the pool size of

top-of-the-line players that can impact our program

in their first two years at Purdue that we have a

chance to get. We have a great pool of those guys

and feel like we've done very well recruiting last

year, this past February. Really excited about the

young guys coming in. A lot of the guys will come

in and compete to play in 2009.

We have an excellent group of guys we're

recruiting right now, and I think we're doing very

well.

Q. It's never easy following a very

popular or successful coach in any sport. How

difficult will it be for you to follow in the

footsteps of Joe Tiller when you look at what

he meant to the game itself, personality-wise,

success-wise? How difficult is that going to be

for you?

DANNY HOPE: Well, you've got to be

your own man or else you'll never have the players

believe 100 percent in what you're doing. But this

is not the first time that I've been through a

situation like this. My first head coaching job was

at the University of Eastern Kentucky. That's my

alma mater. Right now, Eastern Kentucky has the

longest non-losing streak in all of Division I football.

They haven't had losing season in almost 40

years. I followed a legendary coach in Roy Kidd,

who's already been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. So it's similar ground in a

lot of ways.

I really love Joe Tiller. I worked for him

three times: One time at Wyoming and two times

at Purdue. I have a lot of respect for Coach Tiller.

A lot of the things we're going to do at Purdue in

the future will be done the Purdue way, or Joe

Tiller way, and then obviously we have some of our

other wrinkles.

But I don't see any problem with following

a great coach like Joe Tiller. We have our own

plan, and again, you have to be your own man.

Q. Can you talk about replacing the

very productive quarterback when he's kind of

an unknown player? What do you tell him?

How do you get him ready? And why do you

feel he's ready to be successful?

DANNY HOPE: He's been ready. He was

ready last year, and I was fortunate to be on board

last year for the 2008 season. I had a lot of

opportunity to watch Joey Elliott practice last year,

and I thought he was a heck of a quarterback and

ready to go last year. Before he got injured he

played very well.

We're outside of our comfort zone, if you

will, in some ways at Purdue. We're used to

having a guy that's thrown for 10 to 12 thousand

yards and is up for every award that a quarterback

can be up for. That's not the case in 2009. But I'm

a big Joey Elliott fan.

Looking back on last season, I thought he

was a heck of quarterback, and he competed with

our No. 1 quarterback, Curtis Painter, for his job.

He legitimately competed with Curtis, and Curtis

was a record-setting quarterback at Purdue and a

draft pick by the Indianapolis Colts.

I'm a lot more comfortable with the

quarterback scenario with Joey Elliott than most

people would realize.

Q. I was wondering, despite the results

of last season as a whole you had a very good

game against Indiana University. What do you

expect from that rivalry this year, and how do

you see it playing out?

DANNY HOPE: It's a great rivalry. It's one

of the great rivalries in college football. I had a lot

of fun with that rivalry when I was here last time

coaching at Purdue. I don't expect it to change a

whole lot. Look forward to playing them again this

year. It'll be an exciting game. It always is.

Last year we played our very best football

at the beginning of the season and then towards

the end of the season. We had a lot of guys that

were injured and did not have the availability of

their services through the bulk of the season, but

we were probably the healthiest at the end of the

season. I think that was indicated in our game

against Indiana.

But it was an exciting game, and can't wait

to play them again in 2009. Always look forward to

that game.

Q. Obviously over the years a lot was

made about Coach Tiller's offense and the

basketball on grass and what that did for the

Big Ten. How similar or how different do you

expect things to be with you in charge of the

offense that you guys are going to try to run

there?

DANNY HOPE: There will be a lot of

similarities. We had great success with the spread

offense the first go around, and when I went to

Eastern Kentucky University as the head football

coach, we took the Joe Tiller or the Purdue offense

down to Eastern Kentucky University. They had

been a dive option football team for about 39

years.

We had great success down there with the

spread offense. We'll be in the shotgun and we'll

spread the field with multiple formations and throw

the ball quite a bit.

One of the things that I had the opportunity

to do the last couple years that I was at Eastern

Kentucky as the head football coach was really to

research more of the shotgun run game. I think

that can be a real shot in the arm for our program

in 2009 if we can have a formal running attack

along with the great passing attack that we've had

in the past at Purdue.

Q. Can you talk about how possibly the

defense is going to have to be kind of the

leaders at the beginning of the season until you

think maybe the offense can gel out?

DANNY HOPE: Well, I don't think that any

one phase of our football team is going to have to

carry the rest of us. Our offense did very well in

the spring and competed very well against our

defense. We have a very good defense coming

back in 2009. Don't misunderstand what I'm

saying. But our offense did very well in the spring.

Throughout the bulk of the scrimmages

when it was all said and done, the offense had won

more of the scrimmages than the defense. I don't anticipate the defense having to carry the offense

or the special teams in 2009.

We have eight starters back on defense. I

really like our defensive line. I think we have the

defensive line that has the potential to disrupt an

offensive front. We have our starters back in the

secondary. We have some starters back at the

linebacker position that last year was their first time

playing college football and getting in the game.

So we're excited about our defense, but

our offense has great potential as well as our

special teams. I don't anticipate our defense

having to carry the rest of our football team at the

first part of the season.

Q. You may have kind of already

addressed this, but Joey is pretty much your

guy going forward. Do you anticipate

competition at quarterback? And also, talk

about the competition at other positions on

offense? I know at wide receiver you lose a

little bit, and then you had a lot of wide

receivers do stuff in the spring.

DANNY HOPE: There is a lot of

competition on the offensive side of the ball.

There's a lot of competition on our entire football

team. I think that's really important.

We ended the spring with the Joey Elliott

as the No. 1 quarterback, and I'm comfortable with

that. But he does have some competition from the

redshirt freshman, Caleb TurBush. Caleb is a heck

of a quarterback prospect. He had come to Coach

Tiller's quarterback camp, and Coach Tiller did a

great job of equal evaluating quarterbacks, and he

did a great job evaluating Caleb TerBush. He's

about 6-5 or 6-6, about 230 pounds and is an

excellent passer and a very good runner. He's a

guy that has some confidence.

I don't anticipate him sitting back and

waiting his turn. I think he'll compete. I'd be

surprised and disappointed if he didn't step it up

and try to compete for playing time this year. We'll

go into the season wanting to play more than one

quarterback, so you can anticipate seeing both

quarterbacks, Joey Elliott and Caleb TerBush if

they are still one and two when the season opens

up.

But there is a lot of competition at the

offensive side of the ball, particularly at the running

back spot. Last year we lost the services of our

top running back, Jaycen Taylor, who's a heck of a

football player. Missed all of last season. Missed

all of the spring. So we're excited about getting

him back, but he has some competition.

Ralph Bolden did a great job in the spring.

He played sparingly last year. We had to take the

redshirt off of him. He's a guy that 10.5 hundred

meters. He's fast. He's physical.

We have a big running back named Frank

Halliburton that's played just a little bit of fullback

for us. He's trimmed down a little bit. He's doing a

great job of finishing his runs, and that's very

important when you're a 250-pound running back.

Dan Dierking from right here in

Chicagoland is a very complete player. We also

have the availability of the services of a really fine

fresh running back, Al-Terek McBurse who is on of

the top rated running backs in the country.

Rushed for 2,300 yards his senior year in high

school. He was dealing with some clearinghouse

issues in the spring and wasn't able to go through

the spring practices, but he's eligible and ready to

go. He's a heck of a player and a heck of a

competitor.

So there will be a lot of competition at the

running back spot. There will be some competition

at the quarterback spot. Offensive line-wise we

have several players that played and played a lot

last year, and towards the end of the year they

were getting better and playing well. So I

anticipate some competition at the offensive line

positions, as well.

Probably the biggest question mark on our

football team is what will shake down at the wide

receiver spot. We only have two receivers coming

back for the 2009 season that played any at all last

year in 2008 with Aaron Valentin and Keith Smith.

They're both big receivers and good receivers.

We moved Royce Adams from corner. He

was our third corner back, and he's a fast guy.

He's a physical player. We moved him from corner

to receiver to give us a boost at the wide receiver

spot. So those are three senior or older veteran

players that we anticipate being on the field.

We signed a junior college transfer, Keith

Carlos, who was a great player in high school,

great player in the junior college ranks. He's well

over 200 pounds. Then we have three or four high

school receivers that are exceptional athletes that

we signed from the state of Florida who we

anticipate all competing for playing time in 2009.

So there will be a lot of competition for

playing time on the offensive side of the ball at

almost every position on the field.

Q. You told my coworker earlier about the big rivalry between Purdue and IU, and I

kind of wanted to lighten it up. I know there's a

lot of jokes that go around between IU and

Purdue, and I was just wondering what your

favorite joke is about the Purdue and IU rivalry.

DANNY HOPE: I'm not foolish enough to

say that today. (Laughter)

Q. Do you guys somewhat cherish the

role of being an underdog? And how confident

are you that your team can surprise this

season?

DANNY HOPE: I'm very confident in what

we can get done in 2009 just based on the efforts

of our staff and our football team. Our guys are

excited. We've made a lot of progress as a football

team.

And don't misunderstand me, we still have

a lot of work to do, but we anticipate having a

special season in 2009. A lot of people say, what

do you mean by that? Well, we didn't have a

winning season in 2008, so a winning season in

2009 would be one way to start off having a

special season in 2009.

Postseason play would be a great sign of

progress for us in 2009, and then the level of that

postseason play would indicate the amount of

success that we're having.

I'm confident in the guys just based on

their efforts and their attitudes. There are some

talented players at Purdue in spite of the

Preseason All-Big Ten selections. We have some

good football players at Purdue, and we have

some guys on our football team that can be the top

players in their position in our league if they play to

their very best, and tons of players on our football

team that can play winning football.

We're going to have to stay healthy, hit

hard, minimize our mistakes, and keep swinging

for 60 minutes and we'll have a very good season

in 2009.

Q. Now that Michael Neal is healthy,

will this be the year that he becomes the beast

everybody thought he would be on the

defensive side of the ball?

DANNY HOPE: I sure hope so, and he

was in the spring. I was an offensive line coach at

the Division I level for 20 something years, so I

spent the majority of my time looking at the big

butts of the offensive linemen in front of me and

the guys they were lined up against, and I think

Michael Neal can be a great player, not only at his

position, but in this league.

I think he'll be a premier defensive tackle if

he stays healthy and plays up to his potential,

maybe the best defensive tackle that's played at

Purdue since Jeff Zgonina a few years back. He

was from right here in Chicagoland. He's an

exceptional player. He's 6'3", about 305 pounds

and he benches well over 500 pounds. He's got a

good motor and he's usually in a bad mood, and

that's usually a good sign for the defensive tackle.

He was dominant in the spring, and he has a

chance to be dominant in 2009, no question about

that.