Football Signing Day news conference transcript
February 05, 2009 | Football
Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema met with the media on Feb. 4 to discuss the Badgers' 2009 signing class. A complete transcript follows.
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JUSTIN DOHERTY: Welcome to 2009 Wisconsin Football signing day. We're joined by head coach, Bret Bielema. What we 'll do is Coach will have a few opening comments, we'll show a video that will take you player by player through our 2009 recruiting class, and then we'll have an opportunity for questions for Coach after that.
We're also joined by our football coaching staff here. They'll be available after the press conference, after Coach Bielema is finished, for a bit in the room here. In addition, four of the 2009 signees that have been on campus already, Jon Budmyar, Travis Frederick, David Gilbert, and Jordan Kohout, we're expecting all of them here in the room at one time or another this afternoon as well.
So with that, we'll turn it over to Coach Bielema.
BRET BIELEMA: Thank you, Justin. It's great to be here today from the standpoint this is a day that kind of culminates not only a year of hard work, some of these prospects that we're going to introduce to you today may have actually come onto our recruiting radar as early as their freshmen. A couple of them we actually offered as sophomores, in state products as well as out of state products. A lot goes out to, a lot of thanks to our staff.
Recruiting I remember as a student-athlete at the University of Iowa. When I was growing up, I used to walk into one of the coaches I really admired, and I saw a saying on his wall that said recruiting is like shaving. You miss a day and you look like, you don't look good. I can't say what it said, but it was something that jumped out to my mind a great deal at that time.
And as I evolved as an assistant coach to a coordinator and now as a head coach, you realize how special even in the last 48 hours leading into this, this day, how volatile of a time this is, and not only an 18-year-old young man's life, but also as assistant coaches try to keep a hold of prospects that are in their area, position coaches that are trying to obtain depth and try to secure, you know, the position that they hold at the university.
And then from a head coach, just being able to bring everybody into our mix. We do have 4 guys that have already started and 17 that will be joining us in the fall, so it 's a very special day and one that I know our kids will remember, but our coaches, just all the peaks and valleys of the recruiting and hopefully we'll be able to talk about these guys four or five years from now what they've been able to accomplish.
I thought we'd run through a video that basically starts off on the defense side of the football. We'll run through alphabetically, and then move to offense alphabetically, and then we'll bring it back at the end with an opportunity to answer any questions from my standpoint and then also make our coaches available.
So with that, we'll turn down the lights and start off with our first product. He's actually a young man that comes to us from Ohio. We were very excited about the opportunity. We expanded in Ohio this year. We brought in really three players from the Cincinnati area, and then Chris Borland , who comes to us as first prospect, actually just outside of Dayton.
He's a state champion this year, and you're going to see this first clip. He's a really good running back. Does the John Clay hurdle move. So we 're going to move him to linebacker, but he is going to come into our program kind of a jack of all trades. He played running back, also played safety, played some linebacker. Here you see him as a lead back knocking a guy down. Just a guy that really jumped out to us.
The neat thing here, he's the guy punting the ball, and then as the play develops, you'll see him come down and make a tackle to the left side of the screen. So he was a one man show on this. And he's kind of a guy that jumped out at camp because he came in, played linebacker, did a great job. We took him over the punters, and he punted the ball well, and then he kicked the ball well on field goals and PATs.
Next guy is a guy by the name of Tyler Dippel , an in-state product. You'll see here he plays at the defensive tackle position. He also plays fullback on offense, has played linebacker during his career as well. A guy that we had in camp, really, really liked, saw him go play a game this fall live and in person, and then we made an offer. Is currently 20-7 as a high school heavyweight wrestler as well.
Next guy, A.J. Fenton out of Erie, Pennsylvania. Here you'll see him playing a little bit of linebacker. He also plays quarterback, running back, safety, does a lot of different things. He's just a very versatile athlete. Here you'll see him as a quarterback position. Does a great job with the football in his hand, very physical, and one of the things you'll like about A.J., once you get a chance to meet him, is just his personality. Very bright, very engaging personality. I think as we get him in our program, he's going to be just as great a person as he is a football player and hopefully going to be a leader, very good at both.
David Gilbert is actually with us. He's in the back of the room. David joins us from Ft. Lauderdale from Northeast High School. Coach Ratkevich has done a great job building that program. You can see David's got good speed, good sign of things to come. He's been here for about three weeks and he's already put on 12 pounds, so we're going in the right direction there. He plays outside defensive end, and here you're going to see him come back and run the back on a punt return, comes back in and gets a key block. Can really run, we just got to put size on him and continue to grow him as a defensive end.
Next is Shelby Harris , also a state champion. His last game, actually he's 2-3 here in Camp Randall. He's been here for three state championship games, won two of the three. Here you'll see him playing inside. Again, a guy that can really run, probably a little bit heavier than David, but similar. He was about 235 pounds now, comes out of Homestead, a great program here in the state with Coach Keel. Here you 'll see him running and making great effort down the field. A guy that we did have in camp and really liked what we saw, he actually committed to us clear back last January as one of the best in state products.
Next is another young man that we also have here in campus already, playing inside defensive tackle, Jordan Kohout from Waupun. Here you see him good power up the middle. Has really done a great job already, put on good weight, and is in our program trying to get in and learn as much as he can in the film room. He's got great quickness off the ball. I 'm really excited about him hopefully being able to play inside for us on the defensive line.
Next is Pat Muldoon from St. X, a very well thought of program in Cincinnati. Pat took his time. We made an offer to him a long time ago, had a lot of different options, different variety of schools and continued to come back to Wisconsin. We were excited when he came aboard. And you see there he's a guy that can really run to the football. Again, we'll use him on the defensive line.
Conor O 'Neill is actually not only a state champion, but also from St. Thomas Aquinas, a . . . national championship, the nine polls that rate high school state champs or national championships, all of them for the first time in high school football history decided that St. Thomas was number one in the country. We got two guys off of their defense that will be joining us. Conor is an outside linebacker. Here you see him coming up the field. A guy with great ability, good instincts, and hopefully will be able to put on some weight and help us in the fall.
Josh Peprah , Josh comes to us, a very unique recruiting story, just from his family history and background. What you'll see here is he's great instincts on the ball, comes up with the play time and time again. Here you'll see him come down behind the line of scrimmage, come up and make a play in the alley. His brother is actually in his third year, second or third year with the Green Bay Packers. You might recognize the name. Played in the SEC. And Josh wanted to go away, he's from Texas, came down here, you see him, see a great hit, hit, wanted to experience Big Ten play, so we're excited to have him with us.
The other half of our tandem, Dezmen Southward from St. Thomas. Here you'll see him playing the middle of the field, comes over, makes a nice play on the ball, and now he's got some ability and skills after. Neat thing about Dez is he actually only has played football for a year and a half. He's a basketball player that transferred around to a variety of schools in Ft. Lauderdale and finally came to St. Thomas. The football coaches there at St. Thomas recruited him off the basketball court, put him in spring football a year ago. They told us basically be aware, this guy can really run, jump, and he likes to be physical. So we brought him aboard and had an opportunity to sign him late and really liked the abilities that he brought to the game.
And then also last, but not least, on our defensive side of the football, Darious Thomas is a corner. You see him come up in run support here to our left. A guy that we really like his size and his agility, a good 6'2, really rangy, very tough football player, transferred into Cedar Hill, very good football program down in the Dallas metroplex, and here you'll see he made a break on the ball. He's not the guy carrying it, but he made the great break to make the play happen. And then here 's another one with the play out there to the wide side of the field. Just his explosiveness, a guy that gained a lot of interest his senior year in his performance after transferring to a new school.
On our offensive side, this is Kraig Appleton , a wide receiver. You see him catch a little hitch down here at the bottom, convert it into a nice run, and ultimately a score. Out of East St. Louis, a guy that we were on for a long time, as well as a lot of other people, came in today with a decision to come here, which we were excited about. He's got a long line of big plays and highlight reels. We chose these three, but I know he won't be happy with these three. He wanted to put three touchdowns out there for sure.
Montee Ball comes in as a very decorated player. He's the all-time leading rusher in the state of Missouri. Came to us in the summer. He didn't actually come to our summer program, but came on a visit while we were having summer high school camp and committed shortly thereafter because he found a place that he fit into. He was looking for a program that runs a runningback in a traditional style. He liked the tailback position with the fullback in front of him, being able to come down hill like he does here. I think we're a great fit for him, and hopefully several years down the road we 'll be able to talk about how well we matched together. You see him having a little bit of explosion here up the middle. Again, as good a football he is, you meet the family and just great people, excited to becoming a part of the Badger family.
The next guy is actually an early admit as well, Jon Budmayr is here from Marian Central Catholic High School, a guy that we offered, I believe, after his sophomore year when he led his team to a state title game. Unfortunately didn't win it, but a guy that has great composure and at that position, you need someone that has not just the football skills, but has a little bit of the intangibles. And really like what Jon brings to the table. Unfortunately, for him this year, he broke his collarbone in his very first game as a high school senior, had to sit out the rest of his entire year. And fortunately for us, he had made a commitment before the season ever started out of a long list of schools.
Next is Casey Dehn , you're going to see him come down the field here. Is really mobile, agile, he's actually going to be a two sport athlete for us here. One of the best throwers, both shot and disc in the country, not only just in the state of Minnesota. We're excited to get him aboard out of Owatonna. He has a brother and a sister here already in our track program, and a guy that went from 235, I believe, as a junior to playing high school at 290. So we like what he's done as of late.
Jeff Duckworth , a workhorse from Cincinnati. Jeff is a guy that was in our camp as well, liked what we saw, made an offer, kind of earned a scholarship and has done a tremendous job for us. His mom is an assistant athletic director in the school, so he 's been around athletics. Dad's very involved, and just a guy that you like that brings to the table his attitude and all the little intangibles, plus he can run and catch pretty well as well. Another guy out of the Cincinnati area.
Next guy, Travis Frederick is also in here in the back of the room. Came to us, he actually made it to the state title game, unfortunately wasn't able to win it. You see him in number 72 out here. Has done a great job in high school in the classroom, valedictorian of his class, graduated early. Has got great size. He wants to enter, last I talked to him, major in aeronautical engineering, so I had to defer that to someone that knew what he was talking about. But he's doing a great job, and as I said already here in camp, on campus.
Ryan Groy , from right here in Middleton. You'll see a couple clips of him, someone that probably flew under the radar screen just because of where he's at here, but you'll see does a good job. I got an e-mail from his mom the other day because some of the publications only had him at 285. She wanted me to remind everybody that he weighs 308, so he's up there.
Zac Matthias , another great kid. Kind of interesting, we liked him on film, but his high school coach did an interesting thing, put some basketball clips at the end of the tape, and you'll see Zac there keeps his feet and runs really, really well. One of the parts that intrigued us was his ability to run on a basketball court. And now this year he actually plays with some pretty good intensity, a kid out of Michigan, just out of side of Saginaw, from Hemlock, that we're excited about.
This is probably a guy that intrigues us more than anybody, Jacob Pedersen from the Upper Peninsula. We actually found out about Jacob first because he played against Homestead High School and one other high school that I can 't recall right now. The high school coach called us and made a comment about Jacob and his ability after they got done playing with him, and just a guy that you see here, can really run. We're going to use him at the tight end position. His body is just beginning to fill out and hopefully move forward.
Last guy, Brian Wozniak , another young man outside of Cincinnati, a tight end that came into our camp, earned a scholarship, had several offers, but wanted to come here. Joe Rudolph did a good job of getting him in. And you'll see him here, he makes catch after catch with his hands. He also runs point guard on their basketball team. At the size he is and the frame that he has, to picture that is kind of unique, and he's just a kid, when you walk through the high school, everybody was singing his praises, so.
Those are our players as we have them right now. I think the things that jump out, I told our staff today when I met with them earlier that we're very excited about the talent that they bring to the table, but when you have a player that you really like on the film and the way that they perform athletically, but when you get to meet them in person, when you get to go in their homes and have an idea of the character that they have and the people that they are, the upbringing that they've been surrounded by, it makes me very excited. Because as a whole, I feel this class probably encompasses what we want here at the University of Wisconsin as a total package more so than ever before.
So with that, I'll open it up for any questions specifically about guys or just overall.
QUESTION #1: Bret, when were you pretty sure you were going to get Appleton, and what does that add to today's feelings to get him '
BIELEMA: When was I sure' When we got the fax at about 7:08 or whatever it was. Kraig is a very talented football player, had a lot of suitors. I'm sure it's very well documented. We were in a pretty intense recruiting battle, and he made an early commitment to another Big Ten school, but I can't say enough about Dave and his efforts down in East St. Louis and getting Montee out of the St. Louis area as well. That's hopefully some of the area that we can continue to grow.
Also Paul Chryst, DelVaughn Alexander, when you get a guy like Kraig, it's a time effort, and we sent repeatedly down to East St. Louis coach after coach after coach, and we 're in the home, want to build a relationship, and I think probably the part that got us Kraig Appleton in the end was that the whole family knew that we were going to look out for Kraig's best interests once he came to Wisconsin.
QUESTION #2: Coach, obviously lost, you know, quite a few defensive linemen, but you come back and you get a couple guys like Harris and Kohout, the number one and two ranked players in the state. Just how much impact do you see those couple guys having early'
BIELEMA: Well, unfortunately for us, at the defensive line, we've had just a very bad string of unfortunate unforeseen injuries. You know, you have Kirk DeCremer who if he was to develop like a normal college football player, might be one of our best returning players into a junior year that he could be a defensive end. Unfortunately, for the powers that be, he can't play football anymore. You got guys like Brandon Hoey, Terrence Jamison that would be still involved in our program. It's just one of those things.
So it's not just this year's class. We've tried to address it with last year's class. Another guy by the name of athid=7368&deptid=111"> --> J.J. Watt who will never get introduced because he's never going to sign with us, but walked on. J.J. is going to have a huge impact, but I do like the fact that, you know, we made am emphasis this year with our defensive linemen. Tyler Dippel, you know, is a linebacker who played a little bit of defensive tackle, who is now weighing, I talked to him earlier today, and he said he weighed 248. So hopefully he 's going to keep moving forward.
David, who I already mentioned, and then Jordan, who are both here, it will be great to have them in spring football. Pat Muldoon is a strong side defensive end, but a guy that has a lot of potential. So it was something that we really, really emphasized in addition to Shelby Harris, but you never really know until those guys get here what you're going to get, but it has been a point of emphasis.
QUESTION #3: Bret, back to Appleton for a second, I mean, you put a priority on keeping the best players in your state, and I'm sure Illinois tried to do that with him as well. What's the key to going into another person's backyard and convincing that kid to come to your place'
BIELEMA: Well, you know, I never look at it as a geographical area once we leave the state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin is our number one priority and will always be our priority. When we go out state, you're always dealing with a foreign border, and Illinois is a border state and all that goes into it, but East St. Louis is a long ways away. And the part that we try to do is when we recruit a kid out of Minnesota, a kid out of Michigan, the guy out of Ohio, Iowa, wherever it is, try to talk about what Wisconsin has. As soon as we start talking about other people, we don 't have enough confidence in ourselves.
So that was the case in point with Kraig. What we did is try to show him what we had available for us here, what the numbers were with past wide receivers. He has a big wide receiver, a guy with size and speed, which we don't have enough of here at Wisconsin, so that was a huge emphasis for us. And fortunately for him, he just saw what was a great fit for him hopefully academically, athletically, and socially.
QUESTION #4: Do you look at any of these guys as guys that can help you right away or is that something where you got to wait to see what they can do on the field'
BIELEMA: You know, as you go down the list, you 're going to see certain guys that potentially physically could do it. But and as long as I've been in it, the guys that are able to come in and handle, not only, a lot of guys physically could handle it, but they may not mentally be able to handle it. They may not be able to handle playing in front of 80,000 people and the pressure of executing what they need to do when the time counts at that specific moment. But when you go down there, the list, there are certain guys that physically and mentally would appear they could handle it.
You know, we've, since I've taken over, I believe the smallest amount we've ever played is six, the most we've ever played is eight. I expect that number to be at that or above with this class just because some of these guys do have some physical and mental maturity that's a little bit more than we've had in the past, across the board of the 21 guys.
QUESTION #5: Bret, is Budmayr a viable candidate to play right away at that position'
BIELEMA: Twenty-two minutes into the signing, is Jon Budmayr' He is a quarterback. Because he is that position, he's probably going to draw attention. Jon, I think, decided to come in early because he wanted to get a jump on college football. And what that means, if he had an opportunity to be in the mix for the fall, a lot will be determined by this spring. Same thing with athid=6977&deptid=111"> --> Curt Phillips .
You know, I was sitting there this morning, we had 5:30 a.m. workouts this morning, and I was watching Curt go through drills. This is Curt Phillips, a year from now, when we saw him first last year, you know, it's just a totally different player out there, just watching him going through drills, and now he's going to go through spring football for the second time with Coach Chryst and sit in those meetings and understand what each specific word means. So there's going to be a learning curve. Whether he can do it or can't do it is really going to be in Jon's hands.
QUESTION #6: What do you like about him ' I mean . . .
BIELEMA: What do I like Jon Budmayr '
QUESTION #6: Yeah. Is he set apart a little bit from some of the quarterbacks you've . . .
BIELEMA: I think if you have a chance to visit with him, Jon's got an incredible calmness to him. He's a quarterback that, you know, the part that excited me early on was he was a sophomore who took his team to a state title game. And actually, he comes from an area that I was familiar with, one of my college roommates played with him. Andy Hartlieb, who was a good player here, and the Hartleib brothers who played with me at Iowa, are from that same high school, so there was a connection with the families. So we knew a little bit about him before the whole recruiting process.
And then when you sit and talk with Jon, it was a family, you know, it was just a very family oriented decision. Rick and his mom, Jackie, really did a great job of going to each specific school, wouldn't let him get ahead of himself. But on the same account, Jon ran the show. And just the presence he had, the decision that he came to shows to me that he's a guy that can handle pressure.
QUESTION #7: Obviously, Coach, this program no stranger to big, powerful offensive linemen. Talk about, you know, guys like Travis Frederick and Ryan Groy and how capable they are of carrying on that sort of tradition.
BIELEMA: Well, Travis should be very easy to pick out in the back. He's a large human being. The part that I like about it, Travis was in our summer camp, he was on our radar. We hadn't made a decision to make a scholarship offer, but after the first session of summer camp, he was very, very intense in his drills, he was very good at his drills, and he's very large, which made it easy to offer him.
Actually, Ryan was a little bit ill t the time of our summer camp, but he'd be in the summer camp before and really has impressed us as a physical player. And then Zac is the lightest. I think Zac's going to probably come in at about 285, but he 's already, you know, plenty big and runs very well. So it's something that we want to continue. The part that we can't forget is it's one thing to be big and be able to run, but you got to play the game, and I think these guys encompass that hopefully.
QUESTION #8: Looking at the list, Coach, a lot of these guys come from winning programs. St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Xavier, national powerhouses. How important is it to get your foot in the door'
BIELEMA: Well, first off, it's important in the state to get our winning guys. And I think, you know, to get Shelby Harris, you know, a guy that played in the state title game and won it, and then a guy that we just mentioned, Travis Frederick, played in the state title game, unfortunately wasn 't able to win it, but Big Foot has got a great tradition. As you look through our Wisconsin players, they come from great programs. But also, you know, Jordan Kohout is the first player, if I'm not mistaken, to sign Division I in a while out of Waupun. Jordan was a little bit banged up this year, but yet he was a key player for us. So that 's important.
But then on a national presence, it is good. I've recruited south Florida for a long time, and George Smith, the head coach at St. Thomas, he was actually the national coach of the year, and he'd be the first to tell you that it really doesn 't mean anything, but there's a lot of great players that have come out of that high school. And to have two starters on the defensive side of the football choose Wisconsin, especially, you know, Conor was a very highly recruited young man, brings a lot of intangibles to the table, so that's good. And then Joe Rudolph and what he was able to do in the Ohio area. St. X is a great program, and Chris Borland's high school has a winning program, a state championship.
I'm not putting everything in that, but when you have guys that are leaders and they can win, there usually is a carryover effect, and that's a great thing.
QUESTION #9: Coming off a down season, is there any extra pressure on you recruiting or any extra pressure on the recruits'
BIELEMA: Well, you know, there's no hiding the fact that we're not happy with a 7-6 season, but as, unless there 's turnover, unless there's a great amount of change, it's been interesting for me to observe from a young coach to where we are today that sometimes with your best seasons, the products of recruiting don't necessarily match three or four years down the road what the expectations you would think, as much as a team that is 7-6 and these players feel that they can, we didn't have one kid waffle based off our season, which to me speaks volumes about what kind of people they are. They really took the attitude, they can come in and help change things. They can come in and help sustain the level of success that we've had, and that's what gets you excited, you know, to see this class come in.
I really do like the chemistry that they developed, and I thought our coaches, especially, you know, our in state kids know each other. A lot of them have seen each other at different recruiting events and summer camps or whatever they are. But my coaches on the perimeter, guys that, Kerry Cooks in Dallas and Charlie in Florida and Dave in St. Louis and Joe in Ohio and Del got into the first time into Michigan, made those guys talk to each other. We can't text each other, but they were in constant conversations with each other.
Jeff Duckworth, the wide receiver from Cincinnati, I'm talking to him, and I find out he's texting Travis Frederick who is already back here in school, two guys that have never really been around each other except for when on our campus. That stuff goes a long, long way.
QUESTION #10: Bret, can you talk about the job Joe Rudolph did in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and how important was it to get reestablished in Ohio'
BIELEMA: Well, I thought he did a great job, especially last week when you turned on the Weather Channel and everybody was saying to stay out of Ohio and Pennsylvania because there was snow and sleet and ice. We got in the car on Tuesday morning, and I had just left my hotel room where I had the Weather Channel on and said, when you're in Ohio, please do not get out and drive. Stay in your homes. And we're getting driving for five and a half hours one day and six hours the next day. So he definitely knows the state.
I thought our kids, when I was in the home, not only the kids, but the parents, the coaches, the person that greets you at the front of the high school, anybody that we came in contact with would grab me individually and talk about the job that Joe did. I think Joe would probably tell you the first thing is all he wants to do, and one of the things that excited me, and going back to Coach Alvarez and all the people that talked about Joe, he 's a product of this program. You know, any time you've lived it and you 've breathed it and you've saw the rewards of it, Joe had a tremendous career here, had an opportunity to go on to the NFL, and is now providing a good living for his family. It's a product of Wisconsin. He can share that.
But you know, recruiting is recruiting. I hope Joe has that type of productivity, and I hope those players come in and do a lot of good things for us, but there's so many things that go into it, when they're on campus, the position coaches and the job they do. I believe on this staff, probably more so than any other part of any staff that I 've been with, if you are a area recruiter, and you're bringing a player from Cincinnati, Ohio, and you're bringing in A.J. Fenton who is going to play linebacker, Dave Doeren is all over him. If he's going to bring in Pat Muldoon, Joe was the first one to ask me to let me, to let him have Charlie Partridge to go in the home as a defensive line. And I thought that was great with our staff, you know, because it really brought that team concept to all of our marquee players.
QUESTION #11: Coach, you mentioned Joe and what he was able to do. Can you just talk about what Charlie was able to do for you guys in Florida, his first year' I believe he got three, three of your recruits.
BIELEMA: Yeah. Charlie did a great job. Charlie is from south Florida. Actually, the first time I was ever really got to know Charlie was when I was recruiting south Florida as an assistant. Every place I went into, everybody would talk about Charlie Partridge because he was from down there and he'd done a great job at Pitt recruiting down there. But again, and I understand why we want to label coaches and put certain names on certain guys, and you know, as a young coach I used to think the same way. I got this number of guys.
But it's really a sense with this staff, I believe from the top down, it 's we have them. Once they decide to become Badgers, they sign the national letter of intent, they didn't sign the national letter of intent to Joe Rudolph, Charlie Partridge, Dave Doeren, Paul Chryst, Bob Bostad. They signed a letter with the University of Wisconsin. As we buy into that as a staff, and as our players kind of buy into it, I believe that that 's something that speaks volumes, because it wasn't one guy getting him, it was a team effort. Again, that's something that we just try to breed into the program.
QUESTION #12: Coach, Ethan Hemer a first-team all-stater, preferred walk-on, just talk about what he can bring to the table.
BIELEMA: Well, that's a good point. We have a variety of walk-ons that we actively pursued. Ethan came in. I guess I should get clearance on who the other, if I can say the other ones. Nick Hill is also a young man that is going to walk on to our program from Washington High School over in Milwaukee. Ethan Armstrong, I believe he got his letter in, right' Ethan got his. There's a little bit of a process from an NCAA standpoint, but Ethan accepted a letter of admittance as well. Ethan is a young man out of Ottawa, Illinois that we pursued.
But Ethan was in our camp. We really liked him. He was on the verge of getting a scholarship, not only from Wisconsin, but had several other scholarship offers from Division I AA schools. The part that I like about Ethan is he has a dream. He has a dream about playing at Wisconsin, earning a scholarship. I can always say as a head coach, you know, I was a former walk-on myself at one point, a guy that had the same dreams that you did, was able to go out and earn a scholarship. The part that the NCAA is, has put in place that makes a lot of sense is if someone wants to come here and it doesn't work out, they can always transfer down. I know Ethan doesn't want to go down that road, but it does provide that same option that's open to him now and allow him to come in here next fall and try to prove his way up the ladder and get himself in a position of success.
QUESTION #13: During one of the Web interviews, Dave talked about adding toughness to the defense, and Muldoon was the guy he singled out. When you say this is a class you like overall, you know, maybe the best, is it some of those characteristics, toughness and a love of football, and is that what you're talking about'
BIELEMA: I would. Toughness, character, ability to stick with things when things aren't going well. Chris Borland, the first guy that we talked about. You know, Chris is a guy that didn't really have a home position. Everywhere he'd gone, everybody told him he was maybe a little bit undersize and a little bit not being able to do this, little bit of not being able to do that, and he came to our camp, I think in two nights of 7 on 7, probably had over 8 to 10 interceptions and a couple nights of, and just was unbelievable, just a football player, a guy that would symbolize what we want.
In state, guys like Tyler Dippel, Jordan Kohout, probably one of my best recruiting stories. I always love it when I'm able to sit in my office and offer a scholarship to a young man. And the reaction that Jordan had and his parents had when I was able to offer them a full scholarship to the University of Wisconsin, it wasn't necessarily the scholarship, it was the achievement of getting something that he had dreamed of for a long, long time. And anything, any time anything means something that much to an individual, it's very hard to deny them success in the future.
And I'll reference it back, you know, there's certain things that I 've noticed in this class that I've noticed in our team just since we 've returned from winter break into winter conditioning. It's a very, very hungry football team, very eager to please, and hopefully can move ourselves forward.
QUESTION #14: Yeah, Bret, after P.J.'s decision to leave and pursue the NFL, I mean, I know you guys are pleased with Montee, was there any contemplation of maybe adding a second running back' Are you pleased . . .
BIELEMA: No, there wasn't. First off, that came real late. There's certain positions, maybe, where you can kind of come up at the end and find a guy that's escaped under the radar. Top quality running backs usually aren't that. I'll go back, you know, when I first came aboard here, you know, we were a little thin at the running back position and there was a departure, a defracture at the last minute at the running back position, and Wisconsin couldn't sign a running back that year. When P.J. made his decision, I had kind of had an indication that that's probably where it was going to go based on what I 'd seen out of him the last couple months. But at that point, there really wasn 't anybody live on our recruiting board that we felt could come in, so we 'd rather bank it and move forward.
There are a couple of guys in our program right now that are non-scholarship players that have put themselves in a position to be starters. And we really felt with the returning players that we had, with athid=6579&deptid=111"> --> Zach (Brown) , athid=7365&deptid=111"> --> Bradie (Ewing) , athid=6725&deptid=111"> --> John (Clay) , the induction of athid=7357&deptid=111"> --> Erik Smith who redshirted this year, in addition to Montee, we felt that we were all right at the running back position.
QUESTION #15: Coach, obviously every coach tries to go out there and, you know, protect the home state when recruiting, so to speak. You guys did a pretty nice job of doing so with five top guys in the state, even after a little bit of a down year for this program. What does that say about Wisconsin football'
BIELEMA: Well, hopefully we're doing this right within the state, you know, building relationships over time with our coaches. You know, when I came in with my staff and kind of made an overhaul of the staff, it may have taken some time for our assistant coaches to get accustomed to the familiar faces in the state, but I've tried to give an outreach. Bob Bostad has done a tremendous job in the state of going out and culturing those things. We'll also begin to do some things this coming spring and winter to try and cultivate our in state coaches even more. But it stands to this date that any player that's been in the state of Wisconsin that we've offered, we've gotten at the University.
Unfortunately, there are certain tough decisions that have to be made, and it goes back over the years that sometimes every player that wants to come to Wisconsin from Wisconsin isn't going to get a scholarship, and that's part of it, and that 's a very hard thing. I wish I could take every one of them, but sometimes we just have to make decisions. But if someone is in our state, and we feel that they can play championship level football and do all the things that we're going to ask them to do here at Wisconsin, then we're going to make that offer.
A part that probably is becoming more and more an effect on the recruiting scene than ever before is this is an unbelievable academic institution. And because of that, as much of a reward that is for our current student athletes and our players that we're recruiting and they're accepting our letters of intent to come here and play, it 's harder and harder, from an admissions standpoint, to get to where we need to be. And we don't want to lower that standard by any means, and wouldn't ask that to happen, but it does become, in certain recruiting situations, a factor that you really can't talk about because you can't say those type of things to a current situation.
QUESTION #16: Coach, with Appleton being a late commit, did you have a scholarship available for him or did you have to make any personal moves in order to accommodate him'
BIELEMA: Well, Appleton has been on a super quiet double secret commit for quite a while, but we're just never sure. We had, the Big Ten has a policy that you're able to sign by the number of scholarship players you have leave the program, and obviously when P.J. left, that freed one more scholarship up. And then by Big Ten rules, you're allowed to sign three over your scholarship count. So we could have gone up actually higher than we did today, but we opted, because of where we're at, to bank some for our current players that are non-scholarship who we feel have put themselves in a position, if they do what they 're supposed to during spring football. But we had one, when you have a guy with the ability of Kraig Appleton, you always make sure you have one.
Thank you very much.
