Transcript from Bret Bielema's press conference
November 01, 2010 | Football
Nov. 1, 2010
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MADISON, Wis. -- Head coach Bret Bielema met with the media on Monday afternoon at his weekly news conference. Bielema discussed the team's recent bye week, the health status of players, preparing for Purdue and more. A full transcript can be found below.
Bret Bielema: It’s good to be back in game week. I thought our guys did a good job last week of, first off, a couple guys needed to get healthy, and then just starting a little bit of a jump on Purdue. We got that Wednesday and Thursday and Sunday as well.
Just an injury update, on the offensive side of the ball, Lance Kendricks should return to some form of practice tomorrow. He’s a guy that if I’m betting on him playing, I bet he would be out there, but hasn’t been through a full speed practice yet. I was actually very happy where his injury was at. When you saw it on film, it wasn’t pretty. So he had an ankle sprain that should be back.
Peter Konz should be with us full-go tomorrow, on Tuesday. [He] had some limited activity last week. James White, I think initially he was really sore last week. Once he got the assurance that there was just a minimal amount of damage, and it will repair or heal pretty quickly, he’s come back fast. [I] saw him running around on Sunday. He won’t be in full speed on Tuesday, but hopefully will by the end of the week.
And then on the defense side of the ball, Mike Taylor, after playing in the Iowa game, felt really good on Sunday, practiced last week. We did give some guys some time down last week, particularly at the linebacker position, so all those guys should be back and full-go speed ahead.
As far as Purdue, obviously [they] had two back-to-back games that were rough for them. They were on the road, now are coming back home. They played very well the last time they were there, [the] Minnesota game, probably their best game overall. So they play very well at home, and we’re going to have to embrace the challenge, again, about going on the road. We got a bus trip on Friday that is a little bit out of the norm for us travel-wise that we’re going to have to embrace, and I think our kids are going to be excited to play.
With that, I’ll open it up for questions.
QUESTION #1: What’s your experience coming off of byes? Is it hard to pick up where you left off, and what are some of the concerns you have about that?
BIELEMA: Yeah. I think, you know, going back to my first year as a head coach we went forward with a plan, kind of had some success, I immediately always go back to last year. We had two bye weeks last year, actually three. We had [the] Purdue game itself, the Northwestern game, and then really the bowl game, and played pretty well in all three of those, so we kind of stuck to that formula for our players. Our coaches, it’s kind of changed depending on what our recruiting needs are.
I’ve reminded those guys of the schedule and why we need to do it that way. Because to me, the very important thing is to stay fresh, to be clean. And you know, as coaches, you can’t be too, idle time is sometimes a time when coaches can get overly creative and do things that are out of their norm, but just to stick with the plan, I think that’s what we’ll do.
QUESTION #2: Bret, looking back, how spent was your team, is your team, after the two weeks it had with Ohio State and Iowa?
BIELEMA: I think physically and emotionally they were very spent, I think would be the right way to say it. They put a lot, invested a lot into that Ohio State game, and to go out and play the way they did, me realizing that Madison is Madison and the game getting done at 10:00, they probably didn’t all go straight home and go to bed. So I was worried about them responding, going back into the Iowa week, and I got good advice from Coach [Barry] Alvarez about, during the course of the week, you don’t need to have, hair on fire Tuesday. You need to be a steady crescendo, and that’s kind of the way we approach the week.
And I really felt Wednesday and Thursday we had really good practices, and then we knew it was going to be a dogfight going to the Iowa game, and then the way certain guys had to respond, I knew that they were just going to be emotionally drained on that Sunday. So we really gave them all of Sunday and Monday off, and Tuesday, when I came into that meeting room, you could really just feel the energy. So I was very fortunate and very glad that we could give them that time.
QUESTION #3: You’ve talked a lot this year about, you know, when the subject of turnover margin has come up, you talk about, more about protecting the ball with your guys. Your running backs have done a good job with that. Is it just the usual suspects, good technique, and maybe a little bit of luck, or why have they been keeping the ball and not fumbling it so much?
BIELEMA: It has been a huge point of emphasis, Jeff. For us here at Wisconsin, we know we need to be able to protect the football on offense. I’d like to get more on defense, which could be a number of different things, but that and penalties are probably the two biggest things that I turn to right now while we’re having offensive success is we’re not committing any type of unforced errors, whether it be turnovers or penalties.
QUESTION #4: After Michigan State lost this weekend, was the excitement level, you know, being around your guys a little higher, and do you encourage them to maybe embrace the fact that this could be a team that goes to a BCS game, or do you try and, you know, put a cap on that excitement?
BIELEMA: I was actually in the air. I flew out of where I was at 12:00, which was right when the game was starting there, so as soon as I got off the plane, I ran in and saw the score, and they had just actually gone up 30-0. I just kind of went about my business. I’m sure our guys watched it, or saw it, just paying attention to the obvious, but that doesn’t affect anything that we do. It obviously puts us into a tying position in the Big Ten race, where we stand right now, but if we don’t take of our business this week, it’s all for naught.
So I think this group probably gets that better than years past, that the reason they’re in the position they’re in is they’ve taken it one week at a time. We didn’t talk about Ohio State until we got to Ohio State. We didn’t talk about Iowa until we got to Iowa. And it’s the same reason we’re going to carry it forward into that thinking with Purdue.
QUESTION #5: I guess one common theme with Purdue and Ohio State and Iowa is the defensive front, or at least some parts of it. Can you address what you see when you look at Purdue’s pressure and what you guys have to do to make, to negate it?
BIELEMA: Well, still to this day, I think that Ryan Kerrigan, their defensive end, is probably one of the premier players in our league. I really thought last year he was at a whole other level. [He] plays extremely hard, extremely gifted. Defensively, also like their offense, it has some rotation and given up some things, but their D-line really plays hard. Bruce Gaston, their starting [defensive tackle], we wanted him bad. We recruited him hard, so we know him very, very well. The one thing, in these last two games, kids have been battling and competing all the way through.
QUESTION #6: With different defenses sometimes you hear the bend but don’t break, there’s opportunistic defenses, attacking. How would you characterize your defense right now?
BIELEMA: Well, it’s a matter of they do what it takes, whatever the situation is, they’ve responded very, very good. They’ve given up some plays, but they’ve had a very nice response. One of the guys that I’m most proud of, out of the entire defensive unit, is Niles Brinkley. Here’s a fifth-year senior who, he’s probably playing as good a football as he’s ever been. I know he was going to be disappointed coming off that double-move that Iowa got him on. I just grabbed him and put my hands on his head and said, ‘Hey, I need you for two more quarters,” and he played very, very well.
You take a look at the Ohio State and the Iowa game, two critical points were the turnovers, when Scotty [Tolzien] threw picks and our guys went out and held them to minimal success. So I think they’re a group that really does what it needs to do to win.
QUESTION #7: Earlier this year, you had a breakthrough against Ohio State, but since you’ve been here, you’ve enjoyed success against Purdue. Can you put your finger on why you guys have been successful against them since you joined here?
BIELEMA: Two different coaches, so it’s a little bit different for each one, but I think our kids have played very, very well. They’ve executed the plan. I made a comment to our guys on Sunday, for us to have success this weekend we’re going to have to stick to our formula, and the formula doesn’t change now that we’re playing Purdue than it was versus Ohio State or Iowa. The tactics that you have to do, the ways that we need to beat them, the keys to victory are different because it’s different offense and different defense, but the formula, offense, productive running game, don’t turn the ball over, success in the red zone, win third down.
Defensively we got to tackle well, probably now more than ever because in spread offenses, they create one-on-one spacing, so that’s a big difference in this game, and the speed on the perimeter. Purdue has had, when they really get rolling, it’s usually key-run plays on the outside or quick hits in the inside.
QUESTION #8: Bret, a different topic. As a voter in the coaches’ poll, I’m not asking you to reveal your ballot or anything like that, but how do you look at the TCUs, the Boise States, and the Utahs of the world versus an unbeaten Oregon, an unbeaten Auburn? Is there a huge separation there in your mind?
BIELEMA: I haven’t ever had the opportunity to play TCU, Utah, or Boise, but watching them on film or not really on film, I’ve more watched them when they compete, when I’m just a fan of college football, and been very impressed with their success. I know [Director of Athletic Communications] Brian [Lucas] puts together that media packet, and one guy that always has a better record than I do is [Boise State head coach Chris] Peterson. And I had an opportunity to meet him my first year as a rookie coach, and just an unbelievable human being in the way he handles himself. So I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for Boise.
Coach [Gary] Patterson at TCU, because of recruiting, he’s a character and a half. And then at Utah, I don’t know as much about them, but they’re up there in my poll. I think any time you have success and you stay unblemished, that’s a big feather in your cap. To never have one game, it’s so difficult in this league to win week in and week out, and in college football, I think, if you hold that record of unblemished, that’s a significant thing.
QUESTION #9: Bret, is your club a good tackling team?
BIELEMA: I would hope so. We haven’t had many missed tackles. In the special teams it popped up a little bit earlier in the season, but, again, now that this is a different type of offense, where there’s one-on-one tackling because of the spread formations, it’s going to be a unique challenge that we really haven’t seen to this point.
QUESTION #10: You know, I don’t know if you looked at the Illinois tape of Purdue, but, I mean, their quarterback situation is a little bit iffy because of the injury to 15. Does that change your preparation at all? Do you have to be more general or broad-based, you know, not knowing maybe what they’re going to come at you with?
BIELEMA: Yeah. The last three games that I’ve really focused on has been a combination of quarterbacks in there, and ever since their starter got out. But I’ve read and I [seen] the statistics when, this last game were a little bit different because, I don’t know if he could throw the football. Obviously, if we’re playing a quarterback who can’t throw the football, you’d have to change a little bit, but I don’t think we know the answer to that question. I don’t know if it was a cut; I don’t know if it’s broken. Obviously we’d pay attention in pre-game warm-ups what’s going on.
QUESTION #11: One thing that seems to get overlooked with [Scott] Tolzien is his durability and especially when you look at Purdue and what they’re going through quarterback-wise. He’s not the biggest guy. He’s been protected pretty well this year. How important is that, as a quarterback, you know, that you’ve got him there week in and week out?
BIELEMA: I think, Scott [Tolzien], if he encompasses one thing it’s he’s very resilient, physically and mentally. Whenever he’s had adversity, he’s come back very, very strong. I think there are times where he’s got a little of, I know one of his idols is [Brett] Favre. I’m not going to say, obviously because of all the things he’s going through right now, but Scotty is probably a guy that other guys might have missed a play or missed a game or, but he’s always found a way to be back out there and found a way to practice. I mean, it’s not just one thing to be out there every week.
Scotty is one guy, if I cut practice, I’m going to have to answer to Scotty. If I try to cut five plays out or ten minute plays, he’s going to want to know why. I remember there was a game last year I wanted to cut back Friday’s walk-through because offensive coaches tend to expand the idea of walk-through to ‘let’s practice for two hours.’ So I tried to scheme everything back, and [offensive coordinator] Paul [Chryst] came to me, he’s like, ‘We’re going to throw Scotty off. Scotty wants these reps,’ but that’s what makes him who he is.
QUESTION #12: Is maybe one of the best plays that is kind of indicative of that about Scott the play right before the fake punt, I think it was, with the bad snap, where he still gathered himself and somehow completed a pass?
BIELEMA: Yeah. I saw the play just kind of happen and just went with the flow. I knew what I was going to do from the call of the fake punt. Now if it was fourth-and-18, I thought the play would probably go for 20 [yards], and in retrospect, it probably could have if somebody hadn’t sniped [Brad] Nortman, but that was another great example. I mean, he didn’t flinch. It was a bad snap. I grabbed him at half and when we put Billy [Nagy] in there at [center], just to be aware that Billy hadn’t done that all that much, so he was aware, he reacted, and the result was what it was.
QUESTION #13: Bret, I don’t know if I missed it at the top when you were talking about injuries, but what about [Nick] Toon, do you expect that he’ll be?
BIELEMA: Yeah. Nick actually practiced last Thursday, Friday, and went through pre-game, if you saw, down at Iowa. So he was right there on the verge of it. Just felt because of the preparation factor that Abby [Jared Abbrederis] and the other guys would give us a better picture or cleaner picture for Scotty [Tolzien], and thought if we could get Nick out of playing when he hadn’t been practicing all that much. He didn’t practice last Tuesday, but practiced Wednesday, Thursday, and practiced Saturday, so he should be full-go.
