Alvarez Addresses Media Monday
December 09, 2002 | Football
Wisconsin football coach Barry Alvarez spoke to the media on Monday during UW's weekly news conference. Alvarez talked about Jim Leonhard's recent honor and the upcoming bowl game.
A transcript of the news conference follows. The news conference video is available by clicking on `multimedia' on the red menu bar.
Have you ever heard of a walk-on being named All-American ' 'I've never heard of a walk-on breaking school records, being named first team All-Big Ten and certainly not making first team All-American. It may be unprecedented. It may have happened before, but I certainly haven 't heard of it.'
Have you had a chance to talk to Jim today' 'I just found out about this coming over here right now. Jim will work-out sometime today. So I'll try to find him to congratulate him. But I haven't had a chance to see him. No.'
Is there anyone more deserving of this' 'I don't know how he could have played any better than he did or make more of an impact on a team in as many as ways as he did. He just had a phenomenal year. Go back to the first game. First pass thrown he intercepts, the last pass that they attempt, he breaks up which wins the game. Starting with that game all the way through: scoring a touchdown in the Michigan game to swing the momentum to us giving us a chance, making the interception in the Minnesota game to ice the game. It just goes on and on. It's just unbelievable what he's done and I think he's just scratching the surface. I think he'll get much stronger. He's very intelligent. He'll understand the game more and begin playing formations and tendencies better as he goes along.'
When you recruited him was he close to scholarship' How did that go' 'We really didn't know much about Jim until we had him in our summer football camp. The guys show up early afternoon, they go through registration, and it's a long drawn out day. It's normally very hot, kids are nervous. You truck them over, you have a bunch of meetings, they have dinner, an hour and a half later, and then we test them. It's really unfair to them that we 're testing them ' vertical jump, 40-yard dash, etc. Normally you get a guy that runs a 4.6 he'll run a 4.8 that day. Jimmy Leonhard ran a 4.4; now that got our attention. Then you watch them in camp. He was a wishbone quarterback. But you saw the ball skills he had working with the defense. It really jumped out at you. We kept him on our list as someone you want to recruit. Unfortunately with numbers as they are'we always made it known to him that we wanted him, we wanted him in the program. We thought that he could be successful. So we stayed on top of him, and I don't know how close we came to giving him a scholarship. I think he had an option to go some place on a partial to play baseball and football some place and that was it.'
Do you like the match up with Colorado' 'I know they're a very good football team. They're a veteran team. They're a team that has played in the league games. Most of those guys, I think four of five of their linemen are seniors. Those same guys arguably could have been in that national championship game a year ago, played in BCS games, played in their conference championship. So I know we've got our hands full. I know we'll be heavy underdogs and yet I know the brand of football they play, I'm very familiar with what [Colorado coach] Gary [Barnett] wants to do and you know that's very similar to the things we do. So we'll be familiar. I don't know how we'll match up or anything else I'm just excited about being in the game. You know just looking to put some things together and I mentioned this to you guys earlier how important the game was for our program just to practice. I think we have 11 seniors ' 11 four year letterwinners ' 11 seniors and seven of them are starters. We have four three year letterwinners, and I believe 48 first and second year letterwinners. You can see where the majority of our football team is made up of very young players. So this past week, this week, we'll get another spring practice in. We'll get a chance to experiment, work on our fundamentals and that is really important. As far as the game, I think the experience of that game is very beneficial for the future of the program and I think it's beneficial to play a quality opponent like Colorado. It pays dividends. To say: `I think we match up well' I don't know how we'll match up. I know we'll have play very well to compete with them.'
Talk about playing a quality opponent' 'Well, you know what, we've played a number of quality opponents. We've played [No.] 2 and [No.] 3 and [No.] 10 and [No.] 11 and [No. 13] so we've played a number of quality opponents already and beaten a couple of bowl bound teams, but that's what you do when you want to play a ball game. The year we went and played Georgia it wasn't a pretty game, yet I think we gained a lot out of that game and I think the same thing will happen, I don't know about the outcome. It's different preparation, a different league. Our guys have seen them play on TV and know a little bit about them. So I think it's healthy for young guys to get exposed to that.'
Do you look at this as a second chance with this team ' 'I don't look at it in those terms. I just look at it, as you earn the right to go to a bowl game and a good bowl game. I'm really excited about the experience that all of us will have in San Antonio. I've heard great things about the community'that bowl week will be a tremendous experience. That's always fun and we'll just take this game as it comes. I'm just not going to put it in that prospective [of a second chance]. You know the one thing overlooked, I thought we talked so much earlier on about 13 games, how we adjusted our schedule, and I was very concerned about whether we would wear out particularly with a young team. We played maybe our best football down the stretch, the last two games. We played a good football game against Michigan and had a chance to beat them on the road. We did a lot of good things particularly on offense against Minnesota our guys were fresh and won in the fourth quarter. I was pleased that that happened. Hopefully we can grow a little bit. We have a month to prepare, get a little bit better, and clean up some things. I'm just anxious to coach this football team again. '
Talk about the exposure having the game on a Saturday night and being the only game in town. 'I think it's huge. And you know a number of kinds we're recruiting in Texas are all going to come to watch practice or come to the game. There's a high school All-American game. I think those players get there the night of our game and those are guys from all over the country. We've had plenty of exposure; our TV exposure this year has been unbelievable. But that's the only bowl game being played that night. I think we'll get very good exposure. All of that is good for recruiting, and good for your program.'
Will there be coaching changes at the end of the year ' Are you worried you'll lose part of your staff' 'I will. I mean I am concerned and I will. We'll probably have an announcement Wednesday on the coaching change. When you have good assistants, people are always looking, and you know when you hire guys you always know if they're quality guys and if they want to be head coaches there are promotions and professional steps that are going to be available to them. That's always one of the things that you don't like to see it happen, but it's going to happen.'
