If you squint you can see the improvement.
In Darrell Hazell’s first season, the Boilermakers went 1-11, finished 87th in Football Outsiders’ S&P+ rankings and 157th in Jeff Sagarin’s wins-and-losses-based rankings. In Hazell’s second season, the Boilermakers went 3-9, and finished 79th in S&P+ and 99th in Sagarin.
Whether Purdue was correct to off Danny Hope who had the Boilermakers in two straight bowl games could be debated (and until Hazell accomplishes something similar I’m probably going to start off these previews wondering about it out loud), but Hazell is trending up, if ever so slightly.