Purdue begins an important year for head coach Darrell Hazell with its first spring practice Tuesday afternoon.
The Boilermakers have won six games in the last three seasons since Hazell came to West Lafayette, two of them against Big Ten opponents. The floundering program has shown glimpses of progress in that time, but the same annual issues have kept them from making a dent in the sizable gap left to close between Purdue and the surging conference. Hazell may be running out of opportunities if he can’t put together some reasons for optimism in the 2016, which begins with this week’s spring practices.