Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Wisconsin Head Coach Bret Bielema
Opening Statement:
“First off, I just told the team, too, that they gave us an injury update on David [Gilreath]. He was basically concussed pretty heavily on the field and probably was out, maybe for that first minute or so. The doctors were just being precautious with what they did. They took precautions, doing what you guys saw. A minute and a half into it, he started talking and moving his arms and trying to get up. They were pushing him down. He was coming out of it. That was encouraging. We knew that going off the field. All the tests that they’ve run at this point have been negative. He should be discharged sometime this afternoon, basically just suffered from the concussion.”
“As far as the flow of the game, I thought the guys came out and really started off the game in a positive manner, were doing things, moving forward. I’ll address the red zone turnovers. The first one was a true freshman. James White wants that touchdown as bad as anybody, but here at Wisconsin, we run the ball in the end zone, we don’t reach it in. It’s something that he’ll take forward and hopefully be good in the future. There were two fumbles that were kind of exchange issues. The first one was Scotty (Tolzien) and the center. Scotty was putting it on himself as you guys know, he’ll beat himself up over it. It’s just something that we have to clean up a little bit. The other one, Ryan (Groy) got a little close to him, and as a lineman, when he turned around he hit it off of Ryan’s position just because of alignment issues really.”
“I told the team afterward that if I came in that locker room and they weren’t disappointed, I was going to be disappointed in them. I know that they expect to be good. I really like this football team. They kind of remind me of my first-year guys that really, really, really want to have success and when things don’t go well, they’re upset. Two things I’ve never questioned with these guys are their effort and their desire to be successful. They give tremendous effort and great intensity. The other thing that kind of popped up to me today, as I look back on the fourth quarter, going into that last drive, there is no flinch. They were in a tough position. We wanted to move the ball, keep the chains alive, do what we do. We didn’t want to put our defense back out there and our offense stepped up there at the end. It’s not exactly how you wanted it to wrap up, but I’m glad the way it did.”
On teaching moments in game two:
“We’re football coaches. Back in the olden days, that’s how football coaches moved on in their profession. They started out as high school teachers, they got a chance to go to college and move on. College coaches today, I remember Coach (Hayden) Fry telling me that the only thing he regretted is that he never got a chance to teach in the classroom. That’s what we are. It doesn’t matter what we know. It matters what the players know. Sometimes, you can’t teach things unless they happen. I guess fortunately, they are happening.”
On the play of Jared Abbrederis:
“Abby has been a guy, since he came in here, he had an injury in high school and came back. He ran our scout team’s quarterback on offense a year ago. We switched him to wide receiver. Anybody that was in fall camp saw a guy that can make plays. I thought he really did a nice job securing some catches today. The quarterbacks, I know, have confidence that he’s going to be where he’s supposed to be. Fortunately for us, that kept some of our drives alive.”
On Scott Tolzein not looking sharp:
“You know, I would agree with you, but then the best play of the day came on that last drive. We had a play that was going to get nulled and the check was wrong. He totally changed the play at the line of scrimmage, and I believe it was an eight-yard first down. He is there. I get what you’re saying. There are a couple things he needs to clean up, as the whole team does individually.”
On concern for ball security:
“If there was one guy who kept repeating it, I would be. If it was the same situation, but there are very specific things that you can point at and say that is what caused it. Because this is going to be such a teaching tape, that point will go forward even better.”
On running and passing game today:
“I don’t know what our numbers were. We didn’t get to do certain aspects of the passing game at UNLV that we wanted to work on, and that’s kind of why we went to it. I thought there were a couple plays that were big hits that we missed in the throwing game. I know that we’ll get those corrections on film, and that’s obviously a combination of both the route and the thrower.”
On where the team is at in comparison to where you expect them to be:
“We just made the point in the locker room that we’re guaranteed 12 opportunities, and we’re two games into it and we’re in the right column. We’ve got two wins under our belt. The reason, as coaches, that we’ll get on them and correct them and help them move forward is because we love them. I think it’s a group that really respects and admires offense, defense, special teams, the coaches like the players, the players like the coaches. If we don’t do those things, we’re lettingthem down. We think they can get to high levels of success. We’ve got to take every game for what it is. There is no flow chart to show where you should be, it’s just important to get those two wins. Half of the teams today in college football won’t win.”
On J.J. Watt:
“Because of what JJ brings to the table, I think he really inspires guys to play harder. Off the field, he’s going to the hospital on Friday afternoon. He’s over a 3.7-3.8 GPA. He’s an exception.”
San Jose State Head Coach Mike MacIntyre
Opening Statement:
“I thought our young men played hard and we had chances in the football game, that’s a heck of a football team and Wisconsin really plays hard. They’re very well coached and a very tough football team. I thought it was a great football game today and my prayers and thoughts go out to number 85. I talked to coach after the game and he thought that they would do an MRI and check him out but they felt like he was going to be alright so hopefully he is. That was a disappointing thing to see in a football game, with a great kid in the football game.”
On reasons to be positive after the loss:
“Well, I think we, what we keep telling our football team is we want to improve every week and if you watched us play last week we improved this week, and we’ve got to keep doing that. What these young men have to do, what we talked about in the locker room, they’ve got to believe. Every snap, every play, they’ve got to believe and I think they grew in that as the game went along and I think they really enjoyed playing and that’s part of believing. If you enjoy playing then you free yourself up and you’re able to make plays and do thing, so I think they felt that as the game went along, and they just kept fighting and clawing and they just got to get back to work and work again hard next week and go play extremely hard again.”
On playing two ranked teams back-to-back:
“The Badgers are good. They’ve got a bruising football team running the football. They can run the ball as good as anyone in the country. And when you can do that you’re in any game, because you can control the clock, you can keep it close, and now you’ve got to make plays. I think they’ll have a hard time losing this year in conference, I really do. I think they’re right there where they should be ranked. I think they’re a top 10 team not a number 11, I think they’re better than that.”
On how Wisconsin and Alabama match up:
“I think you just got to put [Wisconsin and Alabama] on the field and let them play. They’re a little different but I think you put them on the field and let them play, I think it’d be a heck of a football game.”
On not letting Wisconsin’s running game control San Jose State:
“Well our young men, we just told them to play aggressive. We put extra linebackers in the game when they came in with tight ends and took out some littler guys so we could be able to at least match up with them, and that did help us some during fourth down. He made one run there and busted loose in the third quarter, which was a shame. And then we held them on fourth down down there which was big. So I think if we wouldn’t have let him bust out on that one, we had a miscommunication by one of our linemen and he didn’t step correctly. And if you don’t step correctly with that running game and you’re not in every gap, then that big sucker will run through an arm tackle and keep going. He’s a really good football player.
Redshirt freshman WR Jared Abbrederis
On his overall play:
“I think I did a good job stepping up in the place of (David) Gilreath and (Nick) Toon, but I need to keep on moving forward. I missed some plays. I missed some blocks and I just need to keep working in practice at getting better.”
On his thoughts about the win:
“A win’s a win, but out team made some mistakes that obviously we need to clean up for the future games. It’s a 1-0 concept and we won this game so that’s a good thing.”
On using this game as a stepping stone for Arizona State:
“Every win counts. It’s good to get out there and get a win. We just need to go work hard in practice and then get at it against Arizona State next week.”
On Scott Tolzien’s play:
“I thought he was really good. He kept us confident and positive, so I think he did a really good job. Sometimes you just make a bad play and there is nothing you can do about it, you just have to go back and make the next play. He did a really good job leading our team.”
Senior QB Scott Tolzien
On the team’s overall play:
“We just need to get better and that’s an obvious statement, but we are not there yet. I need to be accountable for myself first and foremost and play better.”
On his three fumbles:
“(The fumbles) are on me. I need to make sure it doesn’t happen plain and simple.”
On his interception:
“It was just a bad throw and a bad play. I need to be smarter than that and I’ve got to play better, period.”
On the mistakes made in the game:
“We didn’t improve enough from last week and that’s not going to get us where we want to go. It’s getting to the point where we can’t keep talking about it and we just have to do it.”
Junior DB Antonio Fenelus
On improvements that could have been made:
“Obviously we want more points on the scoreboard, but a win’s a win and we’re 2-0. We’re just going to go out there and practice and get ready for Arizona State.”
On things to work on defensively in the week ahead:
“We need to work on just being able to finish. We had a pretty good first half but we need to continue through four quarters.”
On the David Gilreath injury and how it affected the team:
“We just kept him in our prayers and thoughts. We continued to play and just kept him in our head.”
Junior DE J.J. Watt
On the blocked field goal:
“I had Josh Oglesby and Gabe Carimi standing right next to me knocking the guard over, so I have to give a lot of credit to those guys. They knocked the guards back and all I had to do was put my hands up and get the block.”
On making plays on the ball:
“It seems to be a trend. I’m kind of happy with this trend. A couple of blocked passes last week and a blocked field goal this week-I’ll take it.”
On what he’ll take from this game:
“What I’ll take is the fact that we haven’t seen the best Badger team yet. We have a lot of work to do and a lot of film to watch tomorrow. The best part is we have another week. Arizona State is coming in next week, and we have a whole week to work on and correct our mistakes and we’ll come out stronger next week.”
On where he thinks this team measures up against other top teams in the country:
“I can’t compare us to Alabama, USC, to anybody. I can compare us to the Wisconsin Badgers. All I can compare us to next week and how we play next week and if we correct our mistakes from today. The biggest thing is we need to come into film tomorrow and see what needs to be corrected.”
Freshman RB James White
On his fumble:
“I got so excited and all that excitement went away just as fast. I took the slow walk to the sidelines because I know what I did wrong. I’ll have it corrected for next week.”
On how you feel on the win:
“We’re disappointed. We knew we could have come out and played better but we have to come out next week harder. We need to correct a couple of things like snaps and carrying the ball, like me, and catching every ball, things like that. If we correct those things mistakes we’ll be fine against Arizona State.”
