Darrell Hazell has six wins in nearly three seasons as Purdue’s head coach, and one of them came at exactly the right time. Four days after his Boilermakers blasted Nebraska 55-45, Yahoo Sports‘s Pat Forde is reporting Purdue plans to retain Hazell for a fourth season in West Lafayette.
At just 6-26 since arriving from Kent State, Hazell holds the worst winning percentage of any Purdue head coach to last longer than one season. But every Purdue coach for more than 40 years now has lasted at least four seasons, and Hazell’s school-record $2 million annual contract runs through 2018.
“Purdue is pretty close to the buck, and they’re not going to pay him that kind of money to [buy him out],” former Purdue head coach Joe Tiller told Yahoo. “People have asked me during the course of this fall if coach Hazell is on his way out and I said, ‘I don’t think Purdue will replace him for at least one more year, and maybe two.’”
The Boilers also recently announced a $60 million facilities upgrade last month, and the administration appears to be willing to see if the momentum from that project can kickstart the Hazell regime.
Another possible factor? A crowded coaching market that’s already seen three openings in the Big Ten (Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland) and could possibly see two more at Rutgers and Indiana.