COMMENTARY: Hope Spoke The Truth
The Boiling Point: What Purdue football coach Danny Hope said was true. Get over it.
By Scott Nielsen
As you probably already read, Zach posted one view on the Danny Hope article from the Lafayette Journal & Courier. Everyone has different opinions on Hope, and its clear Zach isn’t the biggest fan, which is fine. I haven’t made my final decision on Hope as a coach yet. I just wanted to offer my view on the article. I’m not going to summarize and if you want to pick and choose quotes to look at please read the article linked.
Be completely honest and ask yourself, what exactly did Hope say that isn’t true?
Most fans don’t have a clue what they are talking about. I’ve been at almost every home Purdue football game for the last 8 years and 90% of the people around me don’t know what’s going on. There’s people that question every single decision. Seem to think they would make a better coach than anyone else, but there’s a reason you sit in the stands.
Why should Coach Hope worry about what fans have to say about him? That’s not his job. His job is to coach his team. Let the athletic director worry about grumpy old people. Why would he want to surround himself with negativity and let it get to him and his team? Makes no sense to bring it in and let it fester with players. He’s doing exactly what he should.
Coach Hope has been dealt with terrible circumstances his first two years at Purdue. First year he doesn’t have any of his own players when recruiting went down somewhat during Tiller’s final years. And save me the argument about throwing names like Ryan Kerrigan out there when one or two players don’t make a team. The next year he is destroyed by injuries with his top 3 QBs being injured or ineligible at some point, top 2 RBs injured, and top 3 WRs injured. Yet all he did was almost make a bowl game if it weren’t for late game let-ups against Michigan St and Indiana. No coach in the country would have made a difference with that situation.
Despite the above, Hope’s record his first two years is still be than Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz or Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema in their first two years. Should they have been fired to at that point in time? I’m not saying Hope is going to be as good as them, but its too early for a final judgement with what he has dealt with. I think any coach should be given 4-5 years to show what they can do. That’s when all their own players will be in their system.
If you’re upset about what coach Hope has said, look in the mirror. Ask yourself, what have you done to support anything? Do you just boo every game? I’m sure recruits love to hear that or see empty seats. Probably makes them want to come to Purdue in a second. Or do you just want to be the negative person in the crowd where anything that is done isn’t done right? Hopefully I’m not stuck by you again this upcoming season.
Playing sports all my life, I know that negativity has a bad impact on a team. If Hope is going to try and prevent it from reaching the team, I’m all for it. Like I said, its not his job to worry about it. He has other more important things to do every day of the week.