Darrell Hazell faces a monstrous task not just in trying to keep his 1-6 Purdue team in the game Saturday against No. 4 Ohio State, but in turning around the Purdue program.
Those who know Hazell, a former Ohio State assistant and the head coach at Kent State the last two years, know how he plans to attack it.
"Detail by detail, inch by inch," former Ohio State wide receiver Devin Jordan said. "He's a guy who knows what he wants and goes and gets it. I can't speak on how far or how close he is at turning Purdue into a contender, but I know there will be no shortcuts. It will be working every day, one inch and one task at a time."
Jordan's unique perspective on Hazell comes from being his protege twice over. When his Ohio State playing career was derailed by injury, Hazell became Jordan's coaching mentor. Jordan spent his final three seasons in Columbus as a student assistant coach. Like Hazell did in the late 1980s, Jordan officially started his coaching career at the NCAA Div. III level and now is in his second year as wide receivers coach at Div. II Walsh University in North Canton.
As a player, Jordan was a three-star recruit in 2003 who had offers from programs across the Midwest. Playing in a pass-first Massillon offense with Justin Zwick as the quarterback, Jordan racked up almost 2,400 receiving yards in his final two seasons and still holds several school records. He suffered a freak injury during fall camp his second year at Ohio State, breaking his fibula and his ankle at the same time, and for the first time he began to think about his life after football.
Hazell made sure he didn't have to look far.
"It was a gradual acceptance, because as an athlete...there is a certain feeling of invcibility," Jordan said. "But I obviously loved football, and Coach Hazell encouraged me to really pay attention to the preparation, the drill work, the little things that coaches preach and maybe players don't always appreciate ."
Even before he started thinking of coaching as a necessity, Jordan said he appreciated what Hazell brought upon his arrival at Ohio State in 2004.
"The drills were harder. The demands were heavier," Jordan said. "At first, guys didn't know how to react. It's natural to fight change, and right away guys that weren't doing one small step right were getting sent back into line to do it again.
"(Hazell) and Santonio Holmes butted heads. Everybody quickly realized things were different, but different was good. It was harder than it used to be. (Hazell's) attention to detail was remarkable."
It paid off for the Buckeye receivers as Holmes, Ted Ginn Jr. and Anthony Gonzalez would become first-round NFL Draft picks. Brian Robiskie would go on to be picked in the second round, and Ohio State played in two BCS National Championship Games in Hazell's time at the school.
Not being a part of it as a player, Jordan said, "was humbling. But Coach Hazell told all of us that worrying about what was or what you no longer are is a waste. It's about working towards what you want to be."
Jordan gave his playing comeback two tries, but by the spring of 2006 "I wasn't the same, and it wasn't the same." Along with then-Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, they developed an arrangement for Hazell to get a medical waiver to remain on scholarship and remain with the program as a student assistant coach.
"Coach Hazell told me that if I did the work, that if I knew what I was teaching and believed what I was saying, that the guys would listen to me," Jordan said. "Looking back, I was fortunate that they did. They were my peers. In a couple cases, they were older than me. And that was a really talented group. But it was group full of guys who pushed each other and really relished the chance to get better."
Away from the field, they kept it light. Jordan said Ginn and some others started calling him "Little Hazell," a name he's come to appreciate.
Today, Jordan sees Hazell in himself when he's offering one-on-one instruction to Walsh receivers. He thinks of Hazell when he wears a long-sleeved shirt and tucks it in, or when he counsels a player he thinks isn't giving full effort.
"He was humble, easy to talk to, always had an open-door policy not just for football stuff but about life," Jordan said. "He taught me I didn't have to yell to get a point across. If you continuously teach, you don't have to yell.
"I look at players now and understand they don't realize some of the things coaches say and do are things they won't appreciate until later, but I learned from Coach Tressel and Coach Hazell to keep reinforcing them, keep demanding their best. You work for everything you get, as a player and a coach, and I was very fortunate to have lots of great role models and coaches. I'm into all those details now. I'm working to pay it back."
