Find Your Chill

Stop, just stop it. I get it, I really do, I’m just as frustrated while watching this shit show of a football season as anyone else, but just stop. I know some of you thought that Burke retiring was somehow going to magically change things. That the floodgates were going to open and Mike Bobinski was going to find the money Morgan had squirreled away in mayo jars in the basement of Mackey and everything would be different. Sorry, guys, there might be a new sheriff in town, but the mayor hasn’t changed. Bobinski is going to be held to the same financial restraints as Burke. Is this anything new? No, it’s not. Is Mitch Daniels and his had picked Board of Trustees breaking any sort of Purdue tradition by looking at the bottom line instead of the field? No, they are not.

I have nothing against Bobinski, and personally, I’m interested in seeing how he handles this Hazell fiasco, but I promise you, he’s not going to come out guns-a-blazing, because he doesn’t have any ammunition. You want Hazell fired, I want Hazell fired, Hell, I’m not convinced Hazell doesn’t want Hazell fired after having to stand on the sidelines and watch the Maryland game, but it’s not going to happen right now. It’s just not. That’s not how Purdue runs things under Daniels and the current Board of Trustees, and it’s never been how Purdue has run things under any president or any Board of Trustees, and with the exception of Bobinski stepping into the void Burke left, nothing has changed.

I’m going to go out on a limb right now and say that Bobinski is in the exact same position Burke was in when he retired. He’s got a foundering coach, but he doesn’t have the money to buy him out and replace him with anything different. Now, that might change after the season, but an in season firing, while merited, is a football fever dream. Hazell will be the coach of Purdue at least through this season, and I put 0 blame on Bobinski, and if Burke was in charge, I would put 0 blame on Burke. If you don’t have the money in the budget, and you don’t have the support of the B.O.T. or President to make the move, the move isn’t going to get made. No, Bobinski didn’t sit on his sofa last Saturday and think, “man this is impressive, the coaching seems competent, the players seem well prepared and disciplined,” but there is nothing he can do right now except grin and bear it. Bobinski is a professional, so please don’t expect your pleas to fire Hazell to be met with anything other than the standard A.D. form letter that probably gets circulated at every A.D. conference ever held. By all means, email, fax, smoke signal, sing dirges outside of his bedroom window, do whatever you want within the parameters of the law, but don’t expect any sort of ground breaking response where he bashes Hazell and promises to drop a ton of coin on the next coach, because that would be unprofessional, and as I mentioned, Bobinski is a professional.

So please, please, I’m begging you, Mike Bobinski has been on the job for about a month. Let this season play out, pick up a hobby, go for a hike. Hell, take the kids to the Purdue game, tickets are cheap and you don’t actually have to watch, there is plenty of space to stretch out and play on your phone. Give the man this season to get the lay of the land and if he doesn’t fire Hazel in the offseason, which would totally shock me at this point, know that it’s probably not because he think Hazel has done a great job, but because he literally can’t fire him because of financial reasons. At that point, you’ll know exactly who to blame, until then, find your chill. I’ll try and take the same advice.