Kent -- Darrell Hazell did his best Jim Tressel impression at his introductory news conference Monday, which should bode well for Kent State football fans awaiting a revival of the program with Hazell as its new coach. He spoke in broad terms and few specifics, much like Ohio State's head coach would. He highlighted a need for immediate change...
Kent -- Darrell Hazell did his best Jim Tressel impression at his introductory news conference Monday, which should bode well for Kent State football fans awaiting a revival of the program with Hazell as its new coach.
He spoke in broad terms and few specifics, much like Ohio State's head coach would. He highlighted a need for immediate change and instant winning. He said it was important that the "players in the program understand the importance of winning early."
The formal introductions included KSU President Lester Lefton proclaiming Monday "a proud and exciting day for the Kent State nation."
Hazell has one game left as Ohio State's assistant head coach and wide receivers coach, the Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl against Arkansas. At KSU, he will receive a $300,000 base salary, but the length of the contract and the additional perks are still to be worked out.
Hazell was a news conference hit as he proclaimed Kent as a job he wanted, adding that Tressel encouraged him to take it. " 'That's what you need to do for your career,' " Hazell, 46, said he was told.
He said the 5-7 team he inherits will be a winner, and the program will live up to expectations. "I've waited a long time for this," Hazell said. "I know we can win here. We're real close."
Hazell is the fifth straight in a line of first-time head coaches hired by KSU. The list has gone from Pete Cordelli to Jim Corrigall to Dean Pees to Doug Martin and now to Hazell. The most successful of the bunch was Martin, who resigned after this season with a seven-year record of 29-53, no winning campaigns and just one at .500 (2006).
Kent State has not had a winning season since going 7-4 in 1987 under Glen Mason. It has not posted two straight winning campaigns since 1976 and 1977 under Dennis Fitzgerald.
KSU athletic director Joel Nielsen said there is one thing different about Hazell from Kent's four previous coaching rookies.
"One of the things that separated Darrell [from other candidates] was his assistant head coaching abilities," Nielsen said. "That was a big part of it."
Hazell said he expected to have an offense able to do a lot of things and a defense that attacks and uses multiple fronts. Offensively, the only specific he offered was that "we'll stretch the field vertically."
As for his assistant coaches, he said four are already in place and will be announced by early January. Hazell said he does not plan to have OSU safeties coach and 1992 KSU alum Paul Haynes on his staff, adding that he did not think it was a good fit.
He also would not commit to any of the four KSU assistant coaching holdovers, including defensive coordinator Pete Rekstis, architect of a Flashes defense that ranked 13th in the nation this season.