Bielema speaks with the media
November 16, 2009 | Football
Nov. 16, 2009
Wisconsin head football coach Bret Bielema spoke with the media Monday at the Wisconsin Athletics' Weekly Press Conference. In his session, he talked about Saturday's win at Michigan and looks ahead to this week's Big Ten finale at Northwestern.
A full transcript from his media session can be found below and the archived video can be found with this link.
Bret Bielema: Thanks, Brian. After taking a look at the film, we had a great day from the standpoint to be able to get our seniors a win, but, more importantly, some of our seniors probably played their best games. On the offensive side of the ball, our two MVPs were Garrett Graham, who got back into the reception category and also did a really good job of blocking, and Mickey Turner, who doesn’t show up in a lot of statistics, but probably played his best football game overall since his entire career here, and it was neat to see that on his way out of the stadium. And then also, the Big Ten nominated or recognized Scott Tolzien for the league MVP, which was great on offense.
Defensively, between O’Brien Schofield and Jaevery McFadden, OB they tested him earlier and really responded well, and then Jaevery McFadden, again a senior, probably played his best game ever in a Badger uniform, so it was special to see. J.J. Watt also played really well, but we gave him special teams MVP.
And then probably one of the low points of Saturday was Will Hartmann breaking his arm on the last tackle that he made on kickoff coverage. Will in itself is just a tremendous story, just someone that really embodies everything that we have here at Wisconsin. Scholarship, former walk-on, earned a scholarship to get to where he is today.
So a lot of positives out there, but the thing that we try to do on Sunday with our guys is snap them in. Michigan, to get a victory, senior day, all those positive things, but we met and visited with them for about an hour on Sunday, broke them down, brought them back into a team meeting when we broke right in to Northwestern and got a jump start on them. So hopefully that will continue to move forward to tomorrow’s practice and then take us into Saturday’s game down there in Evanston.
Injury-wise, it looks like we should have everybody back with us except for Will Hartmann. Josh Oglesby looked better on Sunday. We didn’t do a lot practice-wise, but he did and was moving around as good as he’s moved around since injuring his leg and could be with us on Tuesday.
QUESTION #1: Bret, along those lines, Brian, again, has listed Jake Bscherer as your number one right tackle. Is that solid, depending, or it depends on Josh?
BIELEMA: If Josh looked really good, but Jake did enough positive things in a tough matchup. And actually, Jake, the week before, when he was called into action, really performed pretty well. So I wasn’t, at that point, ready to take Jake out of that role, and it depends on what Josh did. But if Josh was back playing well and, I think I said this last week, I give Josh some credit. He’s a guy that’s going to need surgery at the end of the year, whenever he is done, on both of his knees. So he’s a guy that’s really sucked it up. Now, obviously, our medical people would never let him play unless he was cleared from a standpoint, but I admire what he’s done to this point.
QUESTION #2: Wisconsin, Bret, has historically struggled down there in the last 15 or 20 years. Why do you think it’s so hard to beat, for Wisconsin to beat Northwestern at Northwestern?
BIELEMA: Well it wasn’t long for me to realize on Sunday the last victory we had down there was in 1999, but in the last 10 years, we’ve only played down there twice, lost in ’03, before I was here, and then obviously in ’05 when I was the defensive coordinator in a shoot ‘em out game. It’s a difficult environment, but give credit where credit is due. Northwestern plays very well down there, and it’s sometimes a different environment for our guys to walk into, so it’s something we addressed on Sunday. But history is history. A lot of people told us we weren’t going to be good this year because of what we had developed last year, but this is 2009, and I think they stand for what’s right.
QUESTION #3: When Randy Walker went there, they embraced the spread maybe more quickly than most Big Ten teams. Do you think the fact that there’s a lot of spread offenses around has probably helped you in that regard in defending that team?
BIELEMA: Well, again, Tom, I think what’s really unique about this league is everybody’s spread is totally different. Northwestern’s spread is an entirely different spread than what we just faced in Michigan. If you look, and again, I love to look at the statistics and giving indicators on what you can expect. We’re number one in the league in time of possession, and number three is Northwestern. So they’re, and then you take a look at Michigan, one of the higher-ranking offenses in scoring points, they were last in the league in time of possession.
So what it shows me is Northwestern, even though they’re a spread it out league, they like ball control. They like underneath passing game. They like to run the football. They’re in the top half in the league in rushing. So it’s a spread offense, but you got to look specifically at what they’re trying to get done.
QUESTION #4: Do you think it’s been a bit of an advantage for you guys facing a defense coached by someone who was on your staff only a few years ago?
BIELEMA: We haven’t faced him since Mike’s been down there. Mike is a very good football coach who had success here for two years. I made a change, and obviously Fitz (Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald) hired him up, so we knew this day was coming. It’s something I addressed with the players. But they do enough things now that he wasn’t doing while he was here, conceptually a lot of the same stuff still exists, but, that’s definitely something that I know is being brought up down there and has been brought up here as well.
QUESTION #5: What’s your relationship like with Mike now?
BIELEMA: Whenever you decide to make a change like that, it’s a very difficult situation. Mike is a tremendous human being, has a great wife, and a son that was here and spent time here and I got close with. But I think one of the things that I’ve always tried to pride myself on from a coaching standpoint, especially now as I became the head coach, is business is business and personal is personal. And I really felt at the time I needed to make a change, and it didn’t, it wasn’t indicated by that we were real bad on defense. It’s just something I felt inside of me and needed to move forward on.
I’ve bumped into Mike at a couple different outings or coaching things, and we definitely say hello, but I’m sure I’m not very popular in the Hankwitz household.
QUESTION #6: Bret, a lot of the guys Kerry Cooks has recruited from Texas are defensive backs. What are the advantages when a coach can recruit a guy that’s going to end up playing under him?
BIELEMA: Well, a little bit has to do with the uniqueness of that position. We just haven’t been able to, the Midwest, purely on corner skill, is maybe not the numbers that you want, and so we’re able to get them. And then KC, obviously being from Dallas, but, I always, I hated, when I was position coach, I didn’t want to recruit players to play for me from my recruiting area because you get too close to them. You get emotionally involved, and you have a tough time separating things, so. To each his own.
The defensive backs that start for us now, Devin Smith and Jay Valai, both from Texas, were recruited by KC, and Devin’s really had a pretty good year other than maybe the one or two games. Jay Valai has continued to move forward and still got one year starter in front of us, and then, Niles Brinkley from St. Louis, so, and Maragos from Wisconsin. We’ve kind of got them spread all over the place.
QUESTION #7: With the productivity you got from your running backs on Saturday with John (Clay), and the way Montee (Ball) has come on, and also Zach (Brown) gave you a little bit, you noted it after the game. Is this what you had envisioned, not necessarily the order, but the productivity with three guys?
BIELEMA: Well, you hope so. At Wisconsin, we really believe that we should be able to run the football. It’s one of the keys to our success. I think what I’ve always tried to point out to our guys is when we win a football game, I try to point out the ingredients that made that success happen. Just because you have those ingredients doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work, but when they all work together, that’s what you hopefully get is a W.
I thought John Clay probably would be our premier back and I didn’t know if it was going to be Montee or Zach Brown or our dark horse probably in the race was Erik Smith, but Erik, unfortunately, broke his hand, removed himself from it. Montee has continued to move forward. I tell you, the development of John Clay, I really like what he’s begun to do, preparation-wise, understanding he’s, everybody wants to pay attention to his statistics. He had a couple really nice blitz pickups on Saturday on some play-action passes, which is what we do with a lot of effectiveness.
On Sunday Brian (Lucas) and I had to, well, he gives me the list and I went to my coaches about All Big Ten nominees. We had to fill out that list, and you’re going through it and the three big awards, individual awards, are offensive player of the year, defensive player of the year, and freshman player of the year, in addition to lineman of the year.
And offensive player of the year, John Clay has just as good a right to say that he has that as anybody. Defensive MVP of the year, I don’t see why O’Brien Schofield wouldn’t be in that. You got a guy that’s among the leading in tackles for loss and what he’s done. And then Chris Borland, if there’s a freshman in this league that’s had more of an effect on the team, I would be surprised.
He’s been a defensive MVP of the league. He’s been a special teams MVP of the league. He’s one of, I think, two or three players in the entire world of college football that has more than three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries, in addition to a blocked punt, a kickoff return, and probably to seal the deal I got to let him kick a field goal. If there’s a freshman in this league that’s had more of an effect on a team that’s in the upper half of its division, then I’d be surprised.
QUESTION #8: How significant would it be to hold Northwestern under 100 yards rushing and go through the whole Big Ten season and not allow . . .
BIELEMA: It’s big, I’m sure, and you read in the press release it doesn’t happen very often. That was a stat going back to my days at Kansas State. A lot of times teams used to put out, I remember when I first started coaching, keep a team under 100 yards rushing. And I don’t know how realistic that was, but I always did think if you had someone that was their main rushing guy, if you held him under 100 yards, you would more than likely have success, take away their best threat, and that goes back to back when I was at Kansas State playing Nebraska when they were really good at running the option.
They were going to get their yards, but if you could limit their best player to staying under 100, and that’s kind of what I ingrained when I first came here. And one of the stats that Dave (Doeren) and the staff carried forward was to keep an individual from gaining that ground.
QUESTION #9: Continuing with that rushing theme, the fact that your team leads both in rushing defense and rushing offense, is that maybe the truest sign and statement that this team is not only playing the way you want it to, executing on the field, but an attitude that this program has?
BIELEMA: I would like to hope so, Rob. You know, it’s something that we ingrained in their head 365 days a year. We don’t just talk about it during the week when we’re trying to beat Northwestern. We talk about it all the time. Six a.m. workouts come January 23rd, we’ll enforce that, ingrain that when we’re talking to them. And again, I think in this league, even though the spread is the pretty thing to do, if you’re able to run the football effectively, and if you’re able to stop the run, you’re going to have a good chance to win football games, and that’s what we’ve been able to do.
I think that stat, in itself, and then the penalties department, last year where we were and this year being in the top one or two in league play in penalties, has probably been the single biggest factor in our turnaround. One of the biggest reasons we’re at where we are today.
QUESTION #10: Bret, statistically, (Mike) Kafka’s one of the top three quarterbacks in the league. Your impressions on him, and do you see Northwestern’s defense showing some improvement lately too?
BIELEMA: Well, I think first off with Kafka, when you don’t play a team for two years, you kind of just get bit and pieces. I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve watched this year in some crossover games, but more importantly in the last 24 hours of watching what Northwestern does. He obviously missed a game with the injury, but he’s being very productive.
And then defensively, they’re very similar to us in a lot of ways. Personnel-wise, same thing, they’ve battled through some injuries. They’ve started a lot of different players at the cornerback position. They’re strong up front. Mike has done a good job with them and getting them to play his way. I think they had a couple bumps in the road in the middle of the season, but have really played well now in the last two games.
QUESTION #11: You mentioned the improved rushing defense this year. What do you, in your mind, is the biggest difference this year to last year?
BIELEMA: Jeff, I think the depth of our defensive line. You got guys, last year you knew our four, and that was the main four. Now you got a, inside, Jeff Stehle, Dan Moore, and Patrick Butrym have given us a steady rotation through there. And also, another player, Jordan Hein, who has come in and given us maybe only five to ten reps, but they’ve been critical for us, not only to close out the games, but now to allow us to play strong down the stretch of the season. And it’s had a big effect.
And then at the defensive end position, probably the play of our two starters, O’Brien Schofield and J.J. Watt, has been tremendous. And then with Louis Nzegwu and Brendan Kelly just to pop in there and do what they do, because we really had a mixture of linebackers in there. Culmer (St. Jean) and Blake (Sorensen) have been rotating pretty much even. Culmer’s probably gotten a little bit more of an advantage.
Chris Borland, since he’s become a starter, I believe he’s been the leading tackler in most of the games since he’s been in there. Mike Taylor was leading the team before he got hurt. Jaevery McFadden just played his best game. So it’s kind of hard to say what one of those guys have been a factor, but just a steady performance by all of them.
QUESTION #12: Bret, you talked about John Clay a little bit before, but has just the way he’s emerged as a workhorse, and given his size and everything, just allowed you to, maybe for the first time, to just wear people out and really take over in the second half?
BIELEMA: Well, I know that that’s been the plan, and it’s worked out a few times. When it doesn’t, you get frustrated. I think that’s one of the major areas that we’ll have to adapt as coaches during the out of seasons is, what’s our next step. If we’re not able to do what we do, how can we go to another venue? And what do we need to do to get that across?
But I know John gets a certain look in his eye in the third and fourth quarter. We talk a lot about at halftime, hey, you put two quarters behind us, this is where we’re at, how are we going to finish? And then that’s been a big thing. This past Saturday, we finished our schedule at home in Camp Randall. This Saturday, we finish our Big Ten schedule on the road at Evanston. When we go to Hawaii, we finish our ’09 regular season schedule. And then the bowl game will be the finish to our season. So we’ve been able to break up these last four games and kind of put it in perspective.
QUESTION #13: I don’t know if you care to answer this or not, and I know you need to take care of business in Evanston, but will you openly and allow your players openly to route for Michigan on Saturday?
BIELEMA: It will be involved in pretty, we actually have our, the way that we do it, I’m not saying this is right, four hours out from the start of your game you begin your pregame ritual. So we’re playing at 2:30, so at 10:30, we’ll have our pregame meal, and they’ll be pretty locked in there. I’m not going to bury my head in the sand and not realize that they’ll pay attention, I’ll pay attention. It reminds me a little bit of my first year here when we went down to Iowa, and if we were able to win that game, we could have had a share of the title and how Coach Alvarez played that out.
But the one thing that I’ve appreciated about this group since the bye week is just the way they’ve approached every week, about this is just what we’re going to do. This is how we need to go about it. And what they showed me on Sunday was they were buying into that. Now there’s some big things out there that are apparently still alive on our plate, depending on what happens on Saturday. But the only way we can worry about that is to take care of Saturday.
QUESTION #14: I know you and Fitzgerald bonded your first year together. Was it easier to be closer to him the last two years when you weren’t facing each other? And he seems to have adopted the 1-0. Have you talked about copyright infringement at all in that?
BIELEMA: No. Fitz, I think just because we both come from defensive backgrounds and we do share a little bit more of age similarities than me and Joe Pa (Joe Paterno) or some of the older coaches in the league, people are going to naturally draw that. But you know what, this is going to come, it’s a respected rivalry, I think, amongst coaches and players because, just because of proximity and because of the student body that we have. Northwestern and Wisconsin are very, very high prestigious academic institutions. So the type of kids that we recruit got to meet those same standards, so we end up recruiting against each other quite a bit.
And I’m not saying that we’re perfect angels in recruiting, but it’s gotten a little nasty out there, and I definitely know that there’s a lot on the line. I go through and do the statistics breakdown. The first one that jumps out to me is we’re 5-2 in league play, have a chance to get to 6-2. They’re 4-3 in league play. If they beat us, they go to 5-3 and we go to 5-3 and we’d be split. So I know that that’s real, and I know that’s being enforced down there.
But the biggest thing is that we have an opportunity in front of us, as a team, to continue to move forward and make some good strides and carry ourselves into another bye week before we play Hawaii.
QUESTION #15: You mentioned the potential for some big things on your plate, depending on what happens Saturday. Have you allowed yourself to look at bowl possibilities and what you think might be the best scenario for this team?
BIELEMA: I do, but I do that with only the people I have to do it with. I have to foreshadow bowl prep practices, possible dates, possible departure dates, and work on a lot of different case scenarios, just big picture-wise, but it’s not in front of my coaches. My coaches aren’t doing anything but worrying about Northwestern. I don’t spend any more time out of my day other than the necessary things I have to do.
