Bielema previews season finale with Penn State
November 21, 2011 | Football
Nov. 21, 2011
• Watch Bielema Press Conference 
MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin football head coach Bret Bielema looked back on the Badgers' come-from-behind win over Illinois and previewed the Leaders Division title game with Penn State this Saturday.
Archived video of the media session is available through the link above, and a complete transcript of Bielema's remarks can be found below.
BIELEMA: I'll throw a shout out to Mick (Byrne). He's absolutely awesome since he's been here, been a great addition to our athletic department, and for him to get his first championship is awesome.
As far as the game on Saturday, as we looked at it on film, really, it was the tale of two halves. I thought our guys did a nice job of, coaches and players, making some adjustments at the half and really came out and played a Wisconsin type of football game to close it out and get the win.
We recognized on offense, Montee Ball was our MVP, as well as the Big Ten. But we also gave it to Bradie Ewing. Bradie probably might've played his best game here. A lot of those great runs are lead and first at the point of attack bis Bradie. I mean, the O-line and tight end are definitely doing some things, but a lot of times, Bradie's right there throwing the key block that the running back reads off of and (he) did an outstanding job. Actually, a guy that played with a little bit of pain, he injured his hand on the very first play of the game and battled through it, so really proud of him.
Our defensive scout MVP was Michael Caputo, a kid that, from the Pittsburgh area, from West Allegheny High School, is really doing a nice job, getting better and better for us. Our defensive MVP went to Antonio Fenelus. Antonio played an incredible game. We matched him up against (A.J.) Jenkins, and he caught one ball when Antonio was on him. I think he had four on the day, which was a season low, his numbers, and in yardage, so Antonio did a nice job.
And then, also, the Big Ten recognized Chris Borland. I figured when he had that many tackles, he was going to get recognition, especially with a forced fumble and the tackles for loss. So Chris is continuing to play well and getting more and more comfortable with the Mike (linebacker), doing some nice things. Our offensive scout MVP went to A.J. Jordan, a wide receiver that we're very excited about for the future, and then our special teams MVP went to Brad Nortman and Phil Welch.
Our two kickers really did a nice job, Phil with kicking, changing the field position. With the wind, he kicked the ball out of the back of the end zone, and into the wind, put some nice sky touches on the ball. And, of course, Brad Nortman, when he changed the field position there, it was a critical point in the game, and one that we really took notice of.
So now moving on, (we) came out of the game a lot better off injury-wise than we had the week prior. We actually gave our guys Sunday off. We take today off naturally because of the way our schedule works out. We'll get great workdays in Tuesday, Wednesday. No changes, really, just stick to the normal schedule, because kids are in classes. Thursday, we'll do a little bit of an addendum. We'll start earlier in the day, so the kids have an opportunity, that are local, to get home to their parents.
But Friday, you know, we'll bring them back over about the normal time we do on Friday, and then a Saturday 2:30 kick. One of the things that I stressed to our guys last night is, obviously, we've got a national holiday right in the middle of our preparation, kind of like what we did a year ago. We'll stick to the same plan that we did for the Northwestern, but it's really in their hands.
If they do anything out of the norm, if they want to do something that they don't normally do during a normal game week, they're putting themselves in a position to have a setback on Saturday. They've got to stick to what they know, and how they know to do it, and, hopefully, it'll come out in a positive way Saturday. So with that, open up for any questions.
QUESTION #1: Bret, obviously it's been covered, the situation that Penn State has gone through, and I think both the home game against Nebraska and at Ohio State last week, there was a little, they had players from both teams come out at midfield. Has anything been discussed along those lines for this, or do you know what's going to happen?
BIELEMA: Not really. I know the administration is meeting on it, and I think they wanted to wait until the last weekend happened, with the road game with Ohio State. I think they're meeting on that. They'll give the final determination. I know they were going to include talks with Penn State, and the people that are involved there.
But, obviously, from our standpoint, you've got to be oblivious to not understand what's going on there. You feel for everybody involved, and I just want to make sure we do the right thing but also understand this is a very, it's a big stage and an opportunity to know that a lot of eyes will be looking at it.
QUESTION #2: What impressed you most in that third quarter drive, the 7:11 30 yards? Did that drive, do you think, say anything about you guys?
BIELEMA: The last drive?
QUESTION #3: The one after Borland forced a fumble for the touchdown.
BIELEMA: Oh, yeah. That was the longest drive in a short amount of field that I've ever been a part of. I knew we needed to have a touchdown, so that's why I kept calling for fourth down, to keep going for it. But it speaks volumes. The thing I loved about it, we talked about in the locker room was, I knew, as a head coach, you have the ability to tell the officials where you want to kick off.
And I grabbed the official, I said, hey, we're going to take the wind to start the (third) quarter. We're going to kick this direction. And I knew that my coaches would have different opinions on it and a lot of different feedback, but from my perspective, I wanted to be aggressive on the kick coverage. I wanted to be aggressive on defense. Hopefully, we were going to get the ball in good field position, and (I) made a comment that our offense will start this thing off the right way, and, in part, led by our defense and special teams play. And then I couldn't ask for anything better, obviously, with a turnover, and the way our offense played. And it really flipped the game at that point.
QUESTION #4: Bret, can you expand on how opportunistic your defense was in recovering from the rough first half you guys had?
BIELEMA: Yeah. I think in the first half, there were three things that we basically weren't doing. We weren't setting the edge of our defense. They got around the edge. And in a variety of different formations, there were a couple critical errors and structural things that we need to get corrected. We got it corrected.
We weren't tackling very well, which was creating some yards after contact that were big in the first half. And then, also, just some penalties, we had a defensive pass interference, and those things aren't typical for what we do.
So I think in the second half, guys knew where routes . . . I'll tell you, a great one that set up the game winning drive, which ended up in no points, but the Shelton Johnson pick, we probably had repped that, maybe I would guess somewhere between four to eight times during the course of the week. You can see them communicating before the snap. Chris cut off the low crosser, and Shelton made a beeline right for the pick. And it was just a classic case example of how practice carries over to the game.
QUESTION #5: A couple of your offensive coaches yesterday raved about their stud defensive tackle, (Devon) Still, and that front seven, in particular. When you study that front seven, what jumps out at you?
BIELEMA: Well, Still does jump out, #71 is, you know, they use him in a variety of different fashions. He's a big guy that can move extremely well. He's got a very quick first step. I always admire that in defensive linemen, how fast they can penetrate the line of scrimmage.
I know they had an injury to the linebacker at the beginning of the year, he was supposed to be one of the better players, but to me, the linebackers, Tom coaches them, I believe, they're all square at the line of scrimmage. They tackle well. They shed well. They get off blocks. They haven't given up a lot of yards. They definitely haven't given up a lot of points. You don't see them breaking down. You don't see gaping holes. Even with movement or anything like that, they're very sound in what they're doing.
QUESTION #6: Bret, the way the schedule played out, obviously, this game against Penn State is for the right to go to the Big Ten Title game. Could you have pictured, you know, a better scenario for this team to, you know, you have this home game, and everything's kind of on the line? And, also, was there ever a point where you kind of looked ahead at the schedule and noticed this might be the game . . .
BIELEMA: No. When I got the e-mail ... however many months ago, I might be kind of a knucklehead, but I look to the end. That's what I do, because I've been preaching about trying to have an end-all game. You know, Ohio State and Michigan have their little glory, and everybody knows about that.
Well, to me, we're a team, I saw it in the press release here today, we've won more games in the last (three) years than anybody in this conference, so I'd like to have some entitlement to playing a game that means something at the end, that you can kind of circle your calendar. And, you know, I guess because they moved our game to 2:30, national ESPN, it's got a little bit of an awareness, so I was excited.
The way it's worked out, obviously, where we're at and where they're at, everything is, it's for all the marbles to get to go play in the big dance. But, you know, on the flipside of it, even if we had won those two games, it wouldn't have changed. Still, where we're at, we still would have to win this game to get to where we want to be. So it is fun.
And for senior day, for us, this senior class is so unique. I've got walk-ons that are captains. I've got transfers that have become critical components of us winning football games. I've got guys that have had glory coming in maybe went through some trials and tribulation. They're playing good football now, so it's, for me, it's a very, very satisfying day to let our seniors have the big stage.
QUESTION #7: So if you could just refresh my memory. Is this your season-ending game every year from now on?
BIELEMA: It is through `14.
QUESTION #8: Through '14. And do you expect, I guess, some kind of a rivalry to build, or is there a possibility of a pretty good rivalry building here?
BIELEMA: Oh, yeah. I mean, we haven't played them in two years, as you know, so it's kind of uncharted waters right now. And then, obviously, with the coaching transition, I think anytime your, maybe your marquee teams in your league can have a little bit of a rivalry going, it's a good thing, you know.
I know going to Michigan State game, everybody talked about that was a rivalry game. I think Ohio State and the fan reaction when they were able to beat us, shows that we are a rivalry game with them. I know we got under their skin pretty good. So I think this Penn State thing with just the tradition, we recruit against each other quite a bit, and if it is at the end of the year, I think it'd be something that could be showcased and be very special.
QUESTION #9: Could you talk about the wildcat formation that they might throw at you?
BIELEMA: Yeah. A lot of teams do it. We haven't played Penn State for two years, so this is the first opportunity in reading the papers that it had popped out. But, you know, it's a formation that is really pretty common now.
They put two different wide receivers, their wide receivers, by nature, at Penn State, both of them have a high school quarterbacking background. No. 5 is a little bit more thicker, and a little bit more powerful, but they run a couple nice plays off of it, and, obviously, caught Ohio State a little bit off guard on the very first one. They had a little D-line stunt on that got creased and got gashed, and then there were several other plays that, really created some opportunities that they didn't match up well against.
QUESTION #10: Will you do anything different in practice this week yourself to prepare for that?
BIELEMA: Oh, yeah. The good fortune is we've seen this so much, we've actually had this happen already this year, where teams popped in some imposter, we call it imposter, wildcat, whatever you want to view it as. What we view is it's just somebody's in there impersonating a quarterback. That's why we call it imposter. Don't think that we're calling anybody, that's just how we name it.
The wildcat goes back to, I think, to Arkansas, when they were doing it with McFadden and those guys. But we've got a little package to use against that. Every team's a little bit different, so you've got to be careful what you're going, but it's definitely, our guys will be wired into.
QUESTION #11: Getting back to Still for a bit. It looks like they will put him on either outside shoulder, either the right or the left guard, and, obviously, (Bob) Bostad talked yesterday about changing, putting Travis back at center. Do you think your three interior guys will look forward to that challenge? And, also, do they have to be more cognizant of maybe staying on their double-teams longer if he's the guy, as opposed to if you slip off too soon, maybe he breaks, you know, hits a seam and gets in there?
BIELEMA: Yeah. Wherever he's at, and whatever the blocking scheme is, I think you've got to be cognizant of how you're blocking him, and what you're doing. As far as our guys, I hope they take it as a personal challenge, you know. I kind of stole this from Moff (John Moffitt) and Gabe (Carimi) a year ago. The year prior, their junior year, maybe in some of the bigger games against premiere lineman, they didn't perform as well. In their senior year they took it as a personal challenge.
Throwing it at the guys this year, you want to be considered one of the best you've got to play good against the best. For the most part, they've responded pretty well. This is another good example. Unfortunately in this league everybody else's D lineman are staying healthy. All of ours get banged up. We've been real lean in that regards. He's probably the best interior lineman in our league.
QUESTION #12: Beside from the possible wildcat stuff, what other things about Penn State stand out?
BIELEMA: I think since Tom (Bradley) has taken over, I don't know what, who decided this or whatever, they've gone with a quarterback. They've gone with (Matt) McGloin and he's just kind of stayed with it. They had been rotating them through. So they've kind of settled into that offensive package with him. He's got a real connection with No. 6, the wide receiver. You can see they've got a connection. When he's given time, he's very accurate in what he's doing with the football and where he's going with it. They've just gotten better and obviously played very well last week on the road.
QUESTION #13: One of the seniors, (Kevin) Zeitler, said he didn't want the senior ceremonies to distract from the game. Is that a concern at all in your mind because the game is so important?
BIELEMA: Yeah, when I first came here, I saw this senior day transpire in front of me for two straight years. Honest to goodness, that entire summer leading up to senior day I almost flipped it. I was going to do kind of Bo Ryan thing where they honor the seniors after the game and really just fought with it. Didn't know where to go with it. Stayed with the way it had and stayed the course.
We've played very, very well on our senior days at the end of the year. Being my first year when we had to close it out with a win to last year we had to beat Northwestern to make sure we played well to stay ahead in the BCS rankings. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I get what you're saying and understand it. I get the question every year. You'll have an emotional coach.
One of the things I flipped three years ago was I shake their hand. Before I kind of just stood on the sidelines. These kids, I've been in their homes. Been through good and bad, so it's a tough day. It's a day you don't want to let go and we've got a little bit of football after it, hopefully. You've been with those kids so much.
I remember Joe Thomas, my first year as a head coach just crying like a baby. He went out a played as good as he could so I just think it is a part of college football you've got to embrace.
QUESTION #14: How do you build Ryan Groy's confidence after switching him from center to left guard, or do you even have to build his confidence after that switch?
BIELEMA: Ryan went into that game with a lot of confidence. There were two back-to-back plays there where he got a little rattled with the football in his hands and the good thing is Bo (Bob Bostad) recognized it right away and made the switch. Travis finished it out very, very well. Ryan is a pretty confident player and he's been waiting for this opportunity so he'll continue to play well and hopefully do the job on Saturday.
QUESTION #15: Follow up on senior day. How are the emotions different in relation to Russell because he's only been here one year, but obviously he's had as much or more impact than any senior on your roster.
BIELEMA: Russell is just kind of a cool cat. He handles everything for what it is. I don't know what it is. Obviously I've known him such a short amount of time. The thing that's neat that I've really witnessed, I felt has grown with every game, is just become so much more confident with all of our other players and dealing with them. Seeing him interact with our guys. Getting to know a little about bit them from the history of the Axe to go through the trials and tribulations back-to-back games. Didn't miss a beat. Just kind of kept going. He really truly does want to make every day great. It will be what it is for every senior. I don't know what it will be until it gets here, I guess.
QUESTION #16: You've not had a lot of success when it comes to making suggestions to the students when they come to the games. Having said that, do you feel compelled to perhaps do so this week again. To address their decorum with Penn State coming in?
BIELEMA: You know it's a great thing to kind of always talk about and put on the forefront. I think just in general students obviously because our kids feed off them.
There's a reason we come out where we come out and a reason we leave the field in that area. They put the students there because our kids feed off that energy as much as anybody. The whole stadium, in general. 2:30 kickoff.
I figure everybody's going to get their turkey tryptophan bugaboo kicked out of them on Friday. Saturday you should wake up feeling great for that 2:30 kickoff. A couple extra hours of tailgating. It should be a great environment for our senior class.
They are a group of kids, if they are able to win on Saturday, it will be the first time in program history that you would have three-straight double-digit win seasons. That's never been done before. They are currently sitting at 37 wins. I believe our record is 40 for a senior class, so there's just so many things these guys have accomplished and for the most part have handled their business the right way. They've represented the University of Wisconsin so well of the field. Academically with Academic All-Big Ten.
It's just a really fun group to be a part of and if the students could be there in full force, they can sing Buttercup as many times as they want to and Sweet Caroline. I think that would be awesome and just give some respect to a group of seniors that really do deserve to be treated like champions.
QUESTION #17: You go back to a team this week that has a dangerous kickoff return man. I think last week, Illinois' unit obviously wasn't as good as others have been. Does Welch's ability to hit a variety of kicks give you a little better comfort level now then you might have had earlier?
BIELEMA: Yeah, Philip (Welch) placed the ball extremely well on Saturday. Obviously when you kick it deep, but he kicked it in the quadrant that we wanted. Those sky kicks were kicked about as well and efficiently as possible. Phil does have the ability to kind of move around with the same approach which makes him unique. We've really stressed the coverage aspect of it. We've broken down every element that you can talk about and explain the kick coverage and stressed it on every day of the week.
QUESTION #18: Every senior group seems to have something that is just a little different about it. Is there anything really special or unique about this group for you?
BIELEMA: It's a hodge-podge group. It's my sixth year as a head coach so a lot of these guys, not all of them. Every one of these kids, as a head coach I've decided to have them in the program, whether we offered them a scholarship or if we didn't offer them a scholarship.
I just looked at the list this morning. Here you got a guy, Kyle Wojta, who may have performed as well as anybody over the last three years was a guy that basically came to us and begged to us to be on the team. We let him kind of show us what he had and he's been great.
On defense, you've got Patrick Butrym, Aaron Henry, Kevin Claxton, Antonio Fenelus, who never redshirted. Kind of a group from all over the place that has really gelled to play well together and after some adverse situations.
On the offensive side, it's really kind of unique because you have Kevin Zeitler, who's playing as well as any lineman in college football. Jake Byrne never redshirted. A kid who contacted us from Arkansas because his grandparents and parents are from Wisconsin. He's got diabetes and probably one of the most enjoyable dry sense of humor kids I've ever been around. He's got a little Eddie Haskell in him. He always looks and says the right thing, but behind closed doors I bet you he's probably a little bit of fun.
You got Brady Ewing who came as a walk on. Had to decide if he wanted to play for Bo Ryan or if he wanted to play for us. His football has been one of the best fullbacks in college football. He's going to get rewarded, I think, in the NFL opportunities he'll get. You've got Russell Wilson now who has a great target in Nick Toon.
A very special story on Saturday is going to be that Al Toon is going to be our guest captain and to be able to be on the field with his son. Both his son and his dad have contributed so much in their time at UW and is a pillar in our society. And Russell, his whole unique story is just an incredible thing that we've all had the joy of being able to be around.
QUESTION #18: Another senior is Aaron Henry. I don't know how you sum up five years with him in one answer, but is he a guy who just. If you talk about off the field and on the field maximize this experience that he's had about as well as you could?
BIELEMA: I don't know if anybody covered the scholarship luncheon, but the athletic department chose to have Aaron speak and represent all student-athletes and you got people there in the crowd who have given us $250,000 to endow a scholarship is not chump change. So people who mean and who care a lot about the university and Aaron gave a 10 minute speech and there wasn't one `um,' there wasn't one `ah," there wasn't one break in his voice. I think everybody walked out of there with like `Wow." They got to see it for 10 minutes, I've gotten to see it for five years. And Aaron and I have had, you ask him, we've had our disagreements. I'll be honest and open with him. And on the same account, there's not a kid that means more to me in a program than him, so it, he's special.
QUESTION #12: In getting behind last week against Illinois, how much is the benefit of those two losses that you did have, the fact that you were battle tested, you've been in those situations and have come back, and how much can that experience carry over into this week, in what should obviously be a tight game?
BIELEMA: Our guys snapped into that mode, I think, right away. You know, that first half, it could've been worse. I mean, we didn't do anything well, really. You kind of even saw it, if you watched the video, when we got the turnover with the punt, you know, on the 1-yard line, I mean, there's guys trying to get that thing in the end zone, but bottom line, they spot it on the 1.
First play fails. Next play, Montee gets it in there, and he just slams the ball down. You could tell what he wanted to do and just get that ball in his hands. So I think at halftime, you just, there weren't any big eyes. There wasn't anybody looking for the corner to crawl into. There were guys who ready to listen.
Our defensive coaches go in one area. Offensive coaches go in another area. I kind of walk around and say some things individually to guys, but then address both offense and defense, what we're going to do when this thing gets an opportunity to get rolling again, and, fortunately, it went as scripted. But the great thing was, there wasn't any flinch. There wasn't guys looking for excuses. They were just guys ready to go out and prove what they could do.
QUESTION #13: How did Wagner come out of it with his knee, and what, is Zac Matthias available, or is he hurt?
BIELEMA: Yeah. Ricky Wagner, I'll put this in perspective, had a second-degree MCL strain that he came back out, and a lot of kids won't even come back out and play, but the doctors assured us structurally there wasn't anything wrong. He probably played as good a second half of football as he's ever played, just peer gut, willpower, intensity, desire to guide him there. So we, he actually had an MRI, he's having an MRI today at 4:00 just to make, to rule out anything. I expect he'll probably, we might sit him Tuesday, but he'll practice Wednesday, Thursday and be good to go.
And then Zac Matthias has just had some reoccurring back problems and really flared up on him last week, so we didn't even travel him. I'm sure you probably saw that. Hopefully, he'll kind of get it under control this week. But, unfortunately, seems to be one of those things that, unfortunately, comes up in the world of college football, a very bad back.
QUESTION #14: I believe Montee said after the game that at halftime, whatever you might've been saying, your speech, he was listening to headphones and kind of in his own zone. Does that change the approach of future halftime speeches, and are you ordering more headphones?
BIELEMA: I think what was said, when I talked about taking, we had the whole team up, I know he didn't have them on then, but when I come in where the offense is sitting, he is sitting over to the side with the headphones on. I saw him over there. Yeah. I thought that was entertaining.
I was sitting there Saturday night, and I heard that. I was chuckling. But a lot of times, kids do, it's amazing to me how if you get kids out of their rhythm, out of their routine, how much it screws them up. And he likes to go in there, and Montee's a very self- centered, or not self-centered, but focused, you know. He wanted to get his mind right, and whatever he listened to, shoot, I might listen to it now. It was all pretty good.
