Bielema Talks to the Press
October 08, 2007 | Football
After suffering their first loss of the year, 31-26 to Illinois, Badger head coach Bret Bielema talked to the press Monday. Bielema discussed the Illinois game, the upcoming Penn State match up and updated injury reports among other topics.
BRET BIELEMA OPENING COMMENTS: As we watched the film on Saturday, from Saturday's game, several plays left out there on the field could have won the football game. But the bottom line, there were too many plays out there that lost the game for us in all three phases. We can't miss tackles. We can 't turn the ball over. We have to be effective in our return game, both the kickoff return and punt return for us to have success, we weren't able to do that, but there were some positives.
Offensively, we recognized Garrett Graham and Travis Beckum as co-MVPs for their performance on Saturday. Garrett has really come along doing all types of positive things, not just in the catching game, but in what he's doing blocking and setting up certain things for our offense.
Defensively, Matt Shaughnessy played his best game of the year, played extremely hard, and did some good things. Special teams-wise, I named Paul Standring captain before the game. He's from Illinois, and he was out there for the captains, and had his best game this year. In his short career, he's been able to do some great things for us special teams-wise.
Offensive scout MVP; Josh Oglesby is really getting a full understanding of what we need here and is really playing at a high level on our scout team and doing great things for us, and his knee continues to get better every day. Our defensive scout, Jamil Walker, did a tremendous job simulating what Illinois does upfront.
On an injury update, we should get back and set to practice to tomorrow Jay Valai, Kim Royston, Elijah Hodge, and Andy Crooks is going into the week with a full game plan, so we can get him more involved on Saturday. And on a sad note, as of right now, Luke Swan is set to undergo surgery on Wednesday afternoon for a torn hamstring that will basically side him for the rest of this year.
With the absence of Luke and Paul Hubbard, I thought one of the highlights has been the performance of David Gilreath, Kyle Jefferson, and also Zach Brown and Aaron Henry, a couple freshmen, true freshmen stepping up, doing some good things. And then like I said earlier, some first-year players, particularly Garrett Graham and Gabe Carimi offensively really doing some good things for us. With that, I'll open up for questions.
QUESTION #1: It's been about four weeks, a little over four weeks with Hubbard's injury. I know you said six to eight weeks. Do you have any update on him, and if it's looking like the early end of that prognosis'
BIELEMA: Well, last week, I don't know if it was Wednesday or Thursday, was running down the end zone straight ahead, but the biggest thing he's going to have to overcome is any type of lateral movement, cuts, the stuff that he's going to need to do for him to have success. He was introducing that stuff actually yesterday. How well he responds, today, I haven't seen or heard anything. Basically, he did some stuff yesterday, not anywhere close to a full go yet, but with the hope that eventually probably within two weeks from now the possibility of playing.
QUESTION #2: Coach, how is Luke handling the news'
BIELEMA: It's, you know, Luke 's a great kid. He's a great kid in our program. And it was a hard day yesterday. Anytime you lose somebody for a season, but especially when they're a senior, and they've done so many things, it's tough for everybody, but everything happens for a reason. I'm sure whatever comes out of this, Luke will make it as positive as he can.
QUESTION #3: Bret, is he expected to make a complete recovery' I mean, football wise, can you make a complete recovery because he may have a future.
BIELEMA: Yeah, it depends on exactly how severe it is. Early indications were that he basically had some separation between the muscle completely in the bone. And the only way you can fix that is to go in and surgically repair it, and that gets a little bit touchy in there.
During my time here at Wisconsin, the only other player that they kind of referenced it to the same case, Jeff Holzbauer who was actually back during Coach Alvarez's tenure. He actually tore his hamstring completely off during a waterskiing accident, and he missed an entire year.
So there basically are doctors who have done a tremendous job trying to gather as much information. It's not a very common thing, not only with our staff here at Wisconsin in the medical field, but also checking with two surgeons in the NFL that he has ties with that have dealt with this exact same issue.
QUESTION #4: If you look at Tyler's 49 pass attempts Saturday, I know it was just one game, but are you asking him to do a little more through the air than you expected' And now with Luke out, if you need to have the passing attack carry you, do you have confidence that he can do that'
BIELEMA: Well, the thing I have confidence in is their offense coordinator. I think for us to score the points that we did on Saturday and to have the yardage that we did, kind of unconventional to what we normally do, speaks volumes about our offensive coaches, what they're able to do to put our kids in a position to have success.
On the flip side, you know, we probably would prefer to have more rushes in there, but just as the game unfolded, and as things began to happen, that was the best rhythm we could get in. And unfortunately, we had two turnovers there, that you know, were big factors in the game. Those two things individually didn't lose the football game, it's what we did collectively as a team.
QUESTION #5: Coach, on the defensive side of the ball, we've been hearing for several weeks in a row now they're close, they're getting there. And the missed tackles have been an issue. At this point, do you go back to the drawing board and try and start some things over' How close are you guys to being the unit that you thought you'd have coming into this season '
BIELEMA: Well, obviously, going in as a head coach, you want to be able to have an understanding that you think you're going to be good. I don't think I've ever said we're close. What I 've said is we're going to come every week and try to get better at what we do best. Tackling was a major issue on Saturday, and tackling can't be changed overnight.
It's something that, you know, has to be instilled in someone, and you can get better at it during the course of the week, but sometimes when I see what we're doing on defense, the basic thing is guys that are in a position to make plays for the first time that are there for the first time, particularly the safety and some of the linebacker positions, aren't reacting as fast as we'd like them to because they're not confident in what they're seeing. So we have to give them those looks, give them the confidence.
Until you do something for the first time, you know, when you learn how to ride a bike, you fall down a few times and skin your knee. So it's not a process we like going through, but it's something we have to build ourselves up to and keep moving forward. You can't let anything from last week affect this week's game, but we have to continue to make steps forward.
QUESTION #6: Bret, we talked a lot last year about the speed of the defense and how fast the defense was. Is this defense playing as fast as last year, and if not, is part of that explanation you just gave of some hesitancy '
BIELEMA: Yeah, I believe that if you just take the strong safety position in particular, and you took Joe Stellmacher out last year and raced him against Aubrey Pleasant, I know who's going to win the race. But on the same count right now the way that we're playing, that doesn't carry over. It's great to have defensive speed, but if it doesn't carry to the football field, it's really a non-factor for you. How you perform, just because you're fast, and you can run doesn't mean you make plays. And bottom line, you can only play as fast as you can see, and that's what we've got to be able to do.
QUESTION #7: Bret, are you contemplating any personnel decisions on that side of the ball' And if that ever comes up, it is a fine line when you've got several first-year starters' I mean, I 'm sure you want to give them a chance and not erode their confidence, but, I mean, we are six games into the season.
BIELEMA: Yeah. You know, I think all positions are constantly under evaluation. I did a radio show this morning with Jim, and he asked me if we thought about pulling Tyler out, and my quick answer was no because there's not a thought of that. But as time wears on, you know, in particular at a couple of defensive positions, you have to go your next option.
But, for instance, last week, Aubrey Pleasant had to play that entire game. That 's the first time he's had to do that this year. We didn't have another option behind him because Jay Valai and Kim Royston both didn't compete in the game, and we didn't have any sub-packages. So now he plays every defensive snap. It was a little bit out of rhythm for him.
The week before, he played very, very well, so the thought I've had is basically expressed to our coaches is he played well two weeks ago, keep him moving forward, you know, don't let him regress. And also in the back line there, you always got to think about that's in a kid's mind is you're the last line of defense, you have a play go behind you, which really hasn't occurred to our defense. It's happened in front of us because we're not supporting as fast as we want.
QUESTION #8: Bret, you've referenced many times how your team grew after the Michigan loss last year. What kinds of things happened either during or after that game that led to that growth, and do you see the same possibility happening here'
BIELEMA: Well, I really felt last year we left the field against Michigan knowing that they were a good football team that we could play with and compete with anybody in this conference. I think that's still established in our minds. We played a team, Illinois, that depending on how things pan out, you know, where they're going to finish in the Big Ten race, they're obviously a very, very good football team, and they went out and earned that victory, committed very few mental errors. They put the ball on the ground twice, but it rolled out of bounds, you know, and just certain things that they played a game and were able to win because of it.
We didn't play a clean game on the flip side and lost. So the biggest thing we have to do and understand this week is what we do during the course of the week will directly affect Saturday, but the bottom line on Saturday who's able to play, play fast, play clean, and play a good football game that doesn't involve turning the ball over on offense. It involves turning the ball or getting some takeaways defensively will probably win the football game.
QUESTION #9: Bret, you mentioned Shaughnessy that you thought he had his best game of the year. How much of that had to do with fundamental stuff like keeping the ball inside of him, especially on the option thing like they presented'
BIELEMA: Well, it was. You know, he's been there, done that. You know, he's done it before. Kirk DeCremer and Mike Newkirk, who basically took the share of the other reps at defensive end, it was the first time they had ever been seeing that, and Newkirk missed practice a little bit last week with a knee and was playing with a brace, so he was a little bit hamstrung.
So the part that those guys need to see is the speed of the game coming down the line at them the way that Isaiah Williams was coming down the line was a little bit different than what they saw during the course of the practice last week, but the bottom line, we got to be able to make plays.
QUESTION #10: Bret, when you go to a place like Penn State, there's 109,000 or whatever it is there, how much a week do you spend trying to talk about the atmosphere, and the fans, and the noise, and all that, or do you try to downplay that to not psyche them out too much and concentrate more on what Penn State'
BIELEMA: Well, you do have to be the 11 guys on the field, but the factor that they have is obviously crowd noise. And the fact that there 's a reason that we have a very good home record here is our crowd is very supportive of us here. So we've been in big crowds and big environments, and they played several games, but this is going into a hostile environment. And sometimes teams actually take on a better demeanor almost when they're on the road because they know they're all in it together. You know, and I think that will carry over a little bit into this coming weekend.
QUESTION #11: Hodge's health has been up and down, even since fall practice, and obviously that's affected the continuity of the linebackers. Has that carried over into the defense as a whole having to plug in holes in that linebacking core'
BIELEMA: Well, just overall on defense, we 've been able to get to the game with most of our guys intact, but Elijah was really the first true starter that wasn't able to be there for game time. But just for whatever reason since we've started fall camp, we haven't been able to have all of our defensive players out there for practice all week, and it's really affected the way we practiced, but carried over into what we do on Saturdays.
That's not making excuses. That's just part of the game, and it 's part of football that, you know, Kim Royston was factoring in and playing for us quite a bit at the safety position, we thought this past weekend. He goes up to make a routine play Wednesday on a perimeter play and just steps on his foot wrong and rolls his ankle. So those are the frustrating parts.
QUESTION #12: A different sort of injury question. When you played Penn State last year, Coach Paterno got hurt on the sideline. As you look back and reflect on it, how much of it were you aware of, what did you see and notice going on from his injury being on the bench and then being wheeled off while the game was going on'
BIELEMA: You know what, I was actually oblivious to it. I knew that he was injured over there, and because some of our medical people went over and then when he got hauled off in the cart, that was obviously something that we all were aware of that point.
But during the course of the game, you're so wrapped up in what you're doing as a coach. I think if you're really sticking to the details of what 's going on, you're not really concerned about anything across the way. The thing that I tried to do immediately thereafter was contact Coach Paterno, and send a note, and follow up and make sure that we do everything in respect of him and what he does for college football.
It means the world to me to be able to stand out there before the game and shake a hand of a guy that I watched growing up, and he's accomplished so many good things and so many good players, and stands for what's right with college football.
QUESTION #13: Bret, after watching the film on Saturday, can you talk about your running back play with both P.J. [Hill] and Zach [Brown] '
BIELEMA: Well, one of the highlights for us with Zach and how well he played. He got in early in the Washington State game, tweaked his knee, and because he was trying to be that number two guy, he really was probably pushing himself to practice quicker than he was able to do, and it affected how he was practicing, and how he performed.
Now as he got healthy over the last two weeks he really had a great week of preparation last week. And you just saw that energy he has. A couple plays yesterday, I think on John Settler 's grade sheet that was as high as he had ever graded a freshman. You know, it was a limited number of plays, but he just got a little bounce to him. And it's the thing that we saw in recruiting.
And when you talk to Zach, he's kind of that type of kid. On Thursday, I believe, I ran into him in the hallway face to face, and I said are you ready for this. And he said, yeah, he goes you got to take every play for what it is. There's no given plays in college football. You know, you've been saying it to them, but now it kind of apparently sunk in a little bit. And now we can use him a little bit, I think, in the kicking game as well, another player for us on special teams.
QUESTION #14: Is there any comparison, Bret, to what's happened defensively in 2005, do you think'
BIELEMA: Well, probably a little bit from the standpoint the new players that were in there did play tentative at first in that season, and it took a while to get through it. You know, the fact that we have a number of good players out there that you know balances out what we had that year as well, but I try to refrain from comparing seasons, whether it's offense, defense, entire seasons, or whatnot. Every team has its own attitude, its own chemistry, and its own personality.
As I see things defensively right now, we have two types of players. We have players that are playing pretty well. They get themselves in trouble because they try to overcompensate and make up for something because they're pressing. And then you have guys that aren't overly confident in what they're doing or what they 're seeing and not making plays because of their tentativeness. And we got to kind of get those two in line and in check for us to be able to have success on Saturday.
QUESTION #15: Bret, as a head coach, you 've haven't had a lot experience dealing with losses. Is there a personal learning curve here for you in how you react to this with your team'
BIELEMA: Saturday, I was in the locker room, and the fact that they were able to convert that last first down, you know, I had basically about a minute to compose myself and think about what I was going to do when I walk over and shook Coach Zook's hand.
And one of the things I really try to do is to be the last one off the field. I just always want to make sure our players are in and are safe. I walked in and thought about some messages I wanted to say to the team. And then really just on the plane ride home, I was just numb. And it wasn't, you know, a feeling other than, you know, you 're not used to this. We've spent 13 months, it's been over a year since you had to endure something like that.
And as the day went on, I usually enjoy watching college football, and I didn't enjoy watching college football Saturday night. You get up Sunday, you know, I'm going to tell you guys a joke here. I didn't feel like eating, which is good for me, but, you know, you just had that feeling in your stomach that you left something. I told our kids, I want you to feel the pain of losing because if you ever begin to accept it or are okay with it, it'll become more of a habit, and that's a road you don't want to go down.
QUESTION #16: What do you see leadership-wise on defense, Coach' Is it similar to last year at all, or are you still looking for someone to step up and say I'm going to take control'
BIELEMA: I can't say compared to last year. You had some dominant seniors that were there. Nick Hayden has done a tremendous job for us up to this point. He came up with a big play early. You know, it's hard, Joe Monty was a great leader for us a year ago, but a D lineman is kind of a silent leader just because of the nature of the business.
You know, your leaders, just like offensively, usually come from the quarterback, tailback position and kind of work your way back. And our linebackers and our Dabs need to take more of a, you know, I don't need to see great, I just need to have accountability. I want you to do what you're supposed to do and be able to count on me. And I think that will carry forward a lot further.
I saw DeAndre's [Levy] comments in the media where he said what he said after the game. And it's one thing to say it, but now you got to go out and do it. So those things continue to be prevalent for us. Our good players need to play well on defense for us to have success.
QUESTION #17: Bret, are you surprised at how far you fell in the rankings'
BIELEMA: No. I'm done being surprised by anything in the rankings. You know, it's just one of those times in college football, there was, you know, the week before, five teams lose prior to us. And, you know, automatically, I was hit with questions on Sunday. The fact that you lost may be softened by the effect that USC lost, and LSU struggled to win a game, but the only team I worry about is the Wisconsin Badgers. I vote in the coach's poll and basically follow kind of the guidelines that they had laid out when we were doing that poll, but other than that, I don't really try to go off field or go out and try to overanalyze. I just go off results.
QUESTION #18: You said coming into the year, Bret, one of the best things you had going was a three-man rotation at defensive tackle. Having to play Newkirk at end, have you lost a little, what have you lost because of that '
BIELEMA: Well, Jeff Stehle is a guy that we felt had really come on, but if we had the combination of those three inside, without Stehle being in the mix, he would have been a fourth guy and probably gets us more when we 're playing the spread team from a defense. Because Mike Newkirk is a defensive tackle playing defensive end because it's our best option.
QUESTION #19: Bret, there's some fans out there that think because of your loss Saturday, your season is over. Can you assure them that the season is not over'
BIELEMA: Yes, I'm sure as a double-bad weekend, if the Badgers and the Packers lose, it sends a lot of people in Wisconsin into turmoil. But, you know, the one part that we really try to install into this program is a 1-0 mentality, and everybody has made note of it. You know, you win so many in a row, you 've won so many in a row, how do you keep them on focus, and then we say the 1-0. But really, the conception of the 1-0 mentality is its strongest in dealing with a situation like that.
The worst thing you can do in football is let a team beat you twice. Illinois earned a victory and beat us this past Saturday. We got to make sure that we focus on Penn State and leave that behind us. I see that going on in college football. I see teams that possibly may get defeated twice in a row by a lingering effect from the first game, so we try to shake that out of us. It's one of the benefits was have by practicing on Sunday, giving them today to kind of come back and re-gather their thoughts and come tomorrow with a Tuesday attitude to beat Penn State.
QUESTION #20: Bret, generally speaking, how has Jefferson done' And now with Luke out, you know, Jefferson's going to show up at home behind the defense a little bit. Can his development help you when you 're short at that position'
BIELEMA: Kyle's a ballplayer. Kyle enjoys football. He enjoys competing. He enjoys everything that's right with game days. One of the great things that we got two weeks ago, three weeks ago when we started getting academic reports back, just Kyle and how he handles himself in the academic world, the way he's on time, the way he's responsible, the way he's respectful.
And that's really the case with all of our freshmen. I love to hear that. And it's not surprising because you know, you can tell very early on, if you 've got a guy that's a little slick, you know, getting in and out of things in the classroom, or it usually carries over to the football field. There's probably a balancing of scales there too guys that can be extreme playmakers, you know, they can get away with a few things, but you just like the seriousness that Kyle has, and that does carry over.
And, you know, for instance, Kyle's touchdown pass the other day was the first time that they really had been repped in a game situation because of Marcus did what David did, David did what Luke had been doing, and Kyle was the only one consistent. So just to have the wherewithal with all his coaches to get that done shows me that you got some guys that can click on the sidelines, and that's an indication of usually something special.
QUESTION #21: Bret, when you talked about Luke at the top of the press conference, I could sense some emotion. Is that the toughest thing for you when you have a program guy like that who's done all the right things, and you see his season or career come to an end like that'
BIELEMA: Yeah. I knew I was going to get asked that question. And I guess I got thick insides still trying to be tough all the time, but the part that, what's your toughest job as a head coach, and I've said all along, it's when a player has to be dismissed from your program. And that 's the toughest part because that's by my choice as a head coach when someone has basically completed their season or their career.
I had the same thing with James Kamoku. James is a guy that I coached at linebacker for a little bit. He gives you everything he's got. You love him to death. And he tore his Achilles tendon, and he's done for the year. And last year, we didn't have those problems to go through, so to experience this for the first time as a head coach with two guys that you absolutely love, you know, I braced myself.
I thought I was going to have to do it with Hubb[ard], but, you know, he's working his way back in there. When things are ended without it being your own decisions, those are very, very hard to deal with. And bottom line, the only thing I do care about is the personal safety of our players.
I thought a couple weeks ago when Kyle Jefferson was put in that situation, the way his father kind of responded to me on Sunday, you know, the way that our trainers and our medical people contacted him immediately and assured him that Kyle was going to be taken care of, and we did every test imaginable to make sure he was cleared to go, that 's the stuff that lets you sleep at night, sleep better if you're winning. But, you know, on the same account, it makes you feel good that you're treating people the right way.
