Purdue's No. 1 quarterback? Wait until August

Darrell Hazell exited spring practice without naming a starting quarterback but doesn't plan to let the situation linger once Purdue's training camp starts in August.

"We have to figure it out pretty quickly," Hazell said Tuesday, three days after spring practice ended. "We can't go too long into camp not knowing who the guy is going to be."

The position remains unsettled going into another offseason.

In fact, there's no order when it comes to ranking Austin Appleby, David Blough and Danny Etling, Hazell said. About the only certainty is freshman Elijah Sindelar is fourth, only because he's recovering from knee surgery and didn't fully participate in spring practice.

"I thought for the most part that Austin and Blough were pretty consistent but Danny had his good days," Hazell said Tuesday. "We need them all to have good days. There's no lineup right now with those three guys."

Hazell did say Sindelar will receive a serious look in the fall.

"It will be hard, but you have to, don't you?" Hazell said.

But don't expect to see multiple quarterbacks on the field during the season. Hazell remains committed to playing one quarterback, even with the offense planning to use a variety of tempos this season.

"Whoever the guy is has to be able to do it all," he said. "There's some similarities with them but there's also some things that are different."

Elsewhere

• The theme for the recently completed spring practice: Smarter, faster and more confidence.

"It was out in front. It was declared early that's what we wanted to do - be smarter, be faster and much more confident and finish," Hazell said. "I think we got better at all of those. Still not perfect on the finish part but we're better."

• Linebacker Danny Ezechukwu suffered a bruised sternum in the spring game, but the Boilermakers head into the offseason in good shape from an injury standpoint. Hazell said there are no surgeries planned at this time.

Receiver Danny Anthrop, offensive linemen J.J. Prince and Cameron Cermin, cornerback Frankie Williams and Sindelar didn't participate in spring practice. They'll be ready by the start of training camp.

Anthrop and Sindelar are expected to be 100 percent by mid-June.

Hazell was surprised Anthrop and Sindelar did as much work as they did after each underwent surgery in December. With Sindelar, Hazell said the Kentucky native was struggling to throw during the first three practices.

After a meeting with Hazell, who recommended Sindelar sit on a bucket and throw, last year's Kentucky Mr. Football became more comfortable.

"You can see him the last two weeks spin it where the first two weeks he couldn't," Hazell said. " You could tell the balls were sailing on him and dropping. He couldn't rotate off that leg. After the break, he went home and sat down on a bucket … he was very frustrated and he came in and we met.

"He started throwing sitting down. It helped his mechanics because his stance was so open because was trying to compensate for his leg where he wasn't getting his shoulders pointed toward the target. It helped him. You can see that he can throw it."

• Could the Boilermakers add to the roster before the start of training camp? We're not talking about walk-ons.

Maybe.

"Potentially two marquee guys out there that we're keeping our eye on and we'll make a decision in the next month or so," Hazell said.

Hazell won't rule out adding a player out of high school, but that doesn't seem to be his preference.

"I wouldn't want to look like a guy not telling truth, but that could happen," Hazell said of another high school player joining the program. "More than likely that won't happen but it might be some other avenues that they're getting here."

• Hazell said 84 players are on scholarship, including tight end Jordan Jurasevich.

The Crown Point native was awarded a scholarship during the spring game draft when Hazell made the announcement, much to the delight of his teammates.

"I tried to keep it from everybody," Hazell said. "I wasn't sure when I was going to do it within the meeting but we had just exhausted the tight ends, so I thought maybe now is the time."