Purdue Football Coaching Search: Not So Fast On Hazell

To begin, I take 100% responsibility for the earlier post. I saw numerous rumors that Hazell was coming to Purdue, but I waited until I saw a source I trust to run with it. Brendan Murphy is much closer to the situation than I, so I trusted him. I was obviously wrong. For that, I apologize for sending everyone into a frenzy. Even he admits that he was surprised:

About Hazell to Purdue - I can only report what I'm told WHEN I'm told. Obviously, another situation has grabbed Hazell's attention #wiscy

— Brendan Murphy (@BMurphySports) December 5, 2012

This is not the only negative sign, as GBI is now on board with not knowing for sure. The tweeted that Hazell told his players he was not leaving Kent State, then they took it down. To further add tot he mess, they have put up a post behind their paywall section that basically says they only have the one source as well. This is the most they are leaving up:

Hold up on the Darrell Hazell to #Purdue talk.

— GoldandBlack.com (@GoldandBlackcom) December 4, 2012

For the record, Murphy was not the only one that got fooled.

Sources close to the situation tell us Darrell Hazell will be the next head coach at Purdue. Finalizing the deal FootballScoop.com/the-scoop

— FootballScoop Staff (@footballscoop) December 4, 2012

That was sent out at roughly the same time as Brendan's message, and from a completely different source.

In short, no one has any concrete idea what is going on and I look like a complete ass for running with what I thought was a solid lead. For that, I apologize. I was wrong to do so and I likely destroyed any credibility I had. I am willing to admit that. maybe Hazell was coming and something else got in the way. Maybe he was never coming and Brendan's source was wrong. If anything, the process was extremely fluid today and what was true hours ago may not be necessarily true now. I think we have all learned not to trust anything at the moment.

So, if you'll bear with me, there will be no more attempts to break the story until there is 100% confirmation from a source like GBI or Purdue itself. I'll be only summarizing what is out there and keeping it non-definitive going forward like I did over the first few days. If there is a fact like the Purdue jet going somewhere significant, I'll post it. I've tried to report only what I have heard and stay out of it editorial wise since this process began and jumped the gun today. I really screwed this one up, and I am sorry, everyone.

I've had enough of this for one day. Since it looks like nothing else is going to happen tonight. I am shutting down the computer.