WEST LAFAYETTE – Purdue football interim coach Gerad Parker spoke with the media Tuesday morning on campus and shared his thoughts on his first couple of days on the job.

Parker took over for Darrell Hazell, who coached the program from 2013 until this past weekend, when he was fired after his team suffered a 49-35 loss to Iowa. Purdue in that time was 9-33 overall, with just three wins in 27 Big Ten Conference games. This season, Purdue is 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the conference ahead of this weekend’s game at No. 8 Nebraska.

Parker joined the Purdue coaching staff in 2013 and has been a tight ends and wide receivers coach along with the recruiting coordinator.

Began Parker at the press conference, “Just want to get started. Obviously tough situation. Wanted to reach out and make sure to tell just the whole administration and Mike Bobinski and the Purdue family, everybody has been so supportive in a tough time for everyone including our staff and our players.

“And just want to say thank you to all them for all the support, including my family and friends and past teammates and past coaches and all those that have reached out in countless number of texts and social media, and just reached out in support.

“I really want to say thank you to all those people.

“You know, I think in moving forward, and that’s going to be the big topic for the week, and as we go, is to move forward, and moving forward from this we’ve got a bunch of committed guys on our staff and our players in our locker room that we’re going to force into doing things a little bit different, no question, in how we move, how we talk and how we act.

“And as we do that, we also gotta be under the realization that we are in the middle of a season and we’re headed to go play a great Nebraska team that is undefeated and presents a lot of issues that we have to prepare for.

“I think our guys and know our guys will be excited for the challenge to go up there. And we’re just really excited to get back to work today and kind of get away from some of the distractions, some of the stuff that’s went on the past 48 hours.

“It’s been pretty interesting. I’d be lying if I said — it’s kind of been spotted sleep. It’s like having a newborn and I have a newborn as well.

“It’s been pretty crazy. You wake up and stuff and you’ve got some cold sweats, and you’re trying to think about everything in the world that you want to try to do to help this staff be okay and the players.

“So it’s been crazy for time obligations as well as just thought.”