The above comment was written on November 23, 2010 as a response to the article, "Doug Martin to resign as football coach." We all know that Martin's replacement was Darrell Hazell, but if Hazell didn't have Martin's recruits, he would have struggled as much as Coach Haynes. And when you consider all the injuries and tragedies over the last four years, Hazell probably would have done worse than Haynes. Seeing how badly Hazell coached at Purdue, I really don't believe that he would have defeated Miami this year. Although the RedHawks had superior talent, Kent State found a way to win against Miami on Homecoming Day. That would not have happened if Hazell was still here. Why, would I believe that you ask? Well, read what Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer wrote about Hazell.
"Hazell’s hire was an absolute abomination. He was the worst coach in Purdue history. In fact, his tenure will go down as one of the worst in the history of the Big Ten—and arguably the most disastrous since Rick Venturi’s went 1-31-1 at Northwestern from 1978-80."
If you don't agree with what I said about Hazell winning with Martin's recruits, read an excerpt from the article, "Some Thoughts on Darrell Hazell."
"Was he alright as the head coach at Kent State for two years? Yeah, he was actually pretty good. Although he didn’t recruit anyone there, and the last coach left some pretty good players, and his assistant coaches were pretty good. There’s no way of knowing for sure, but I would guess that if Hazell stayed with the Golden Flashes for a few more years, that his great 2012 season would be seen as an aberration. Kent State has been awful since he left; I would be surprised if they would have done better if Hazell had stayed.
Darrell Hazell got lucky in 2012. He had a great player in Dri Archer, and he turned a great season into $12 million dollars or so. He was never an interesting coach who had a lot of neat ideas; he coached at OSU with superior talent, and then did the same with Archer at Kent State.
When he arrived at Purdue, he no longer had superior talent. In fact, he had the opposite. And what did he do about it? According to some reports, not much. He apparently didn’t concern himself with recruiting as much as lower tier football teams need to do."
Now, would I fire Hazell if he was still coaching at Kent and had the same record that he had at Purdue? Probably not because I would be afraid of getting another Pete Cordelli. That is how I still feel about Paul Haynes. I know his record is not good but realize that things could be worse. If you think recruiting is bad now, just wait until the Flashes go 0-12. Who would want to come to Kent State and play football after a winless season?
Will we ever learn from past mistakes? I doubt it. I can just see KSU printing shirts promoting the new football savior just like it did with Cordelli.
https://dks.library.kent.edu/cgi-bi...n-20--1--txt-txIN-doug+martin+to+resign------
https://www.offtackleempire.com/2016/10/18/13312336/darrell-hazell-fired-purdue
http://btn.com/2016/10/16/dienhart-purdue-finally-puts-end-to-darrell-hazell-era/
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