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Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Bowling Green
Sept. 20, 2014
Camp Randall Stadium - Madison, Wis.

Wisconsin Head Coach Gary Andersen
ANDERSEN: Obviously it's great to win. It's always great to win. And proud of this team. It was some good team effort. We still have a lot we can work on.

But we'll work on those starting tomorrow. We're going to enjoy this victory right now. And there were some great individual efforts. Those are great to see, the unselfishness of Melvin Gordon for the last couple three weeks as we've gone through the first part of the season has been incredible. I'm so proud of the way that he's handled it. Today was his day. Great to see him have the success.

Derek Landisch on defense had a fantastic day. And overall we started to do some things that are really good signs of a good football program. We face adversity. Get a turnover. Defense holds three and out, we turn around, go down and score and special teams gets the big return to help that score.

That's team football. That's what you need to do to have a chance to do special things. So it was great to see that. I'm excited to break down the plan to win to see exactly how we did. And I think we did pretty well overall.

It was a great victory. A lot of numbers out there in this football game. And all the credit goes to those kids. Proud of the way they handled it.

The defense handled the pace very well. We had to disrupt the quarterback's timing and receiver's timing. Did that for the most part.

It's a team victory. And it's great to see Kenzel Doe, is another, another kid unselfish. He got a chance today to do special things and he truly did. I don't know how many games since he's been with us, it's the best game he's had. So proud of him.

He always reminds me of the one (punt return) against Utah State every time he gets a good return. Quick to point that out. 

QUESTION: We've seen in the past running backs when they put the ball on the ground they get benched. Was there ever a thought of making Melvin sit at all, or is he too good at this point?

ANDERSEN: Absolutely not. Zero thoughts into that. I echoed it very quickly through the headsets. It came right back into my ear that there was absolutely zero plan to do anything like that. It was a normal rotation.

The kid did a nice job of stripping the ball. I thought the offensive coaches handled it very well. Melvin handled it very well. And he was right back up when his time came.

Melvin deserves that. Nobody's perfect. It's going to happen at certain times. And we reacted and overcame it very quickly. And he did what he did.

QUESTION: You guys ended up running them into the ground basically. But do you think Andy (Ludwig)'s play calling early in the game, the diversity he showed, kind of opened some things up that way?

ANDERSEN: Absolutely. You get the ability to hit the read zone early on for some big plays. Our zone blocking was very good today with the offensive line. Those kids had an attitude.

And sometimes they don't get talked about. But I was really proud of the offensive line, their physicalness, the way they finished. Tight ends got better.

I thought the play calling was diverse. It was broken up very, very well. The run, pass, the play action, there was a lot of offense to defend out there. It was great to see. I thought Andy (Ludwig) and his staff did a tremendous job.

QUESTION: After three games, Tanner appears to have a slow start element to his game. Is it something you just accept, or at what point, is there something to correct there? Is there an issue that you see?

ANDERSEN: I would say more than anything, I don't really have that feel. So I don't quite know how to answer that. I would say he's not perfect on some of the throws where he's at.

He's done some things with his legs early. So I think overall as an offense we'll look at that. We're not going to point the fingers at any individual. If we're starting slow in one section of the game, then we all need to look at each other and say we need to get better as a unit in that area.

QUESTION: You mentioned Landisch. What specifically jumped out that you saw him today, whether it was blitzing, tackling? Also it looked like he got his hands on the pick that (Lubern) Figaro had which kind of turned things.

ANDERSEN: It was pass rushing. One thing that jumps up at me, his ability to get inside on those guards and the center a lot of times on the turn protection and get past across and have a lot of pressure. I know he had one sack but I know he had numerous pressures.

He was highly involved, very complicated game plan for those inside linebackers. A lot of misdirections, a lot of blitzes coming from different sides and a lot of calls that came with those. And then he to command the defense … we all look over and try to get the call, but you got those freshmen defensive linemen sitting out there. They know the calls when they're sitting in the meeting this morning. But when it gets hot out there and we're rolling, Derek does a nice job commanding the defense and making sure we're moving ourselves in the right direction. And that was very obvious today.

QUESTION: Gary, you talked about the O line being determined. Think Melvin was determined today?

ANDERSEN: Yeah, Melvin and I truly believe this, Melvin's been determined every game. I've never seen him practice different. You throw in a practice tape, watch the guy finish, the way he works through pass protection drills, to stretch, whatever he does, he's done that. I've not seen anything different from week to week with him.

But absolutely, was Melvin determined to be a great back and do what he expects out of himself? I thought he was a great back way before today. I know we all believe that or we should believe that. But this was his opportunity to break out and he made a lot of people miss today against a defense that I thought tackled very well throughout their first games. And it was just, it was fun to watch for a lot of times.

Melvin is determined for his football team. I promise you that's the driving force between Melvin wanting to have the success. He didn't ask how many yards he has rushing.

He found out that the rushing totals were a record in total offense's record. Brought a great big smile to his face to know he was a part of it, not just what he did.

QUESTION: When this game was close early, you have the two turnovers and two big plays you gave up, but at that time what was more troubling to you, giving the ball away to them or letting a couple plays get behind you?

ANDERSEN: All of it was. And that's something that we have got, we've got to grow and learn from that. We discussed it at halftime. And in pretty good detail.

It just wasn't clean. Regardless of the score, that was not a clean first half and it's not the expectations that we should have.

So if we jog out and start the third quarter and we're feeling real good about ourselves in that scenario, then I'm completely wrong as a head football coach to let those kids feel that way.

And I don't think they did. But I wanted to reassure them, make sure they better not, because that is not at the end of the day acceptable if they want to reach the goals that they've told me that they want to reach and they all know what those are.

QUESTION: See any confusion on defense too at times, first half especially, just knowing where guys needed to be lined up?

ANDERSEN: No, I thought it was really pretty clean for a pace team, I thought it was good. I believe we took one timeout when we needed it to try to settle them down. But overall there was … I thought the officials handled it pretty well.

It's never going to be perfect with a team that plays that fast. It's very difficult. Especially when you're playing man and then zone.

And not to get too technical with you again, but this (Bowling Green) is a good football team. They're well coached. You saw the transition go to all of a sudden the stack routes and different combinations to beat man coverage. We were trying to get matched up. Got Michael Trotter, they bring in No. 3 receiver on the inside where they don't put him a lot of times, and all of a sudden Michael's covered him man to man. Caused some issues very quickly, because they're good coaches.

If that looked confusing at times, I'm sure    we're not sitting here saying we're perfect by any stretch of the imagination    but I thought they handled the adjustments when the game shifted to man beater routes pretty well as a defense. That was positive. May not seem like a big thing to a lot of people that don't get technical about football, but that's a sign of maturity.

QUESTION: You mentioned the single game record, 644 yards rushing. Is that perhaps the most impressive rushing performance you've ever been a part of? And also what about Dare (Ogunbawale)'s performance, knowing he was a D back a couple of weeks ago?

ANDERSEN: It was an awesome performance. I've never been around a rushing total like that, that's for sure. There's been some great teams that are part of the tradition here at Wisconsin to be part of something in the record books for those kids, and for every offensive lineman, everybody that played on offense, it's something they should remember for the rest of their life.

As far as Dare, again, an unselfish young man that's playing safety, playing on special teams, involved in some of the nickel packages, playing some corner, some safety. And all of a sudden we ask him to move to a running back spot, which is really a place that he's never played much. He looked at me like I had 12 heads when I mentioned it to him.

But he didn't bat an eye. And it's a great thing, too. Without rambling to you for too long. We take those times during camp to evaluate each and every kid in certain positions.

And Dare was basically, the offensive coaches saw him in a drill during camp that we call speed in space. Where it's used for special teams drill. It's used to evaluate our talent. And Dare was very hard to tackle in those situations. And the offensive coaches came to me and said: What do you think? I was all for it. And the young man was all for it. And it's fun to see him. How many yards, 90 something? That's amazing. That's so cool for that kid. Really is.

QUESTION: Can you take us through as much as you can how you started the game and certain series where you'd have basically a unit and a half defensively on the sidelines, what you're looking for and how you determine who goes on, who comes off and how you get lined up?

ANDERSEN: That's how we need to operate when we have those heavy packages against a pace (offense). You want to get as many kids involved close to the numbers as you possibly can. It just takes off another 15 yards that they have to run on and off the field. So much like a huddle of offense, where they huddle everybody on the sides when they can, we can't see them when they come on the field.

They have 50 kids in the huddle and 11 of them come out of there and we've got to identify it up top very quickly with numbers. We've got to be able to understand what personnel it is. There's a quick number thrown out at us whether it's 10, 12, 22, and not us at the defensive staff, and they have to quickly get a group of kids out there on the field.

QUESTION: Where did Tanner (McEvoy), where has he made his greatest strides from the opener from last week to this one, and how would you assess his play?

ANDERSEN: I thought Tanner was effective. He'll have a couple of throws he'd love to be able to get back. Command of the offense. A lot of checks throughout there in the run game, his ability to be able to check the run and be consistent with the run, be patient. There's a couple of those runs, a couple of those times when he's rolling out of there, you want to tell him to run.

And I think his clock is … three weeks ago would have told him to run. And he's trying to make some passes in those situations. He made a few of them. Had a drop on one of them. Had a couple he'd love to be able to get back.

His whole game is continually growing. And I like the way he carries himself and prepares for the week. I like the way he carries himself when things don't go so well, and when things go very well he seems to be maturing in that area and handling things well to this point. But like everybody, we all got a long ways to go.

QUESTION: You had Rafael (Gaglianone) kick a couple of field goals late, was that to give him some work for the extra missed point?

ANDERSEN: Like many freshmen, there's nothing like those game reps. And I don't think we've kicked the ball real cleanly. And we missed an extra point. And we need to get him in the moment and make sure we're putting him in the right spots in practice.

That's something that I need to sit back and think about and I'm doing everything I can for Rafael to put him in the right spots, right situations, and Coach (Jeff) Genyk and I will continually work on that.

But it wasn't as clean as we would like to have it be. The field goals were good. Missed extra point, when it appeared it was a good snap, good hold, is not what we want to have happen. So we're going to continue to aggressively help him get better.

QUESTION: Could you see Dare getting more meaningful carries in the games as he progresses as a running back?

ANDERSEN: We'll see. He's not going to take out Melvin or Corey (Clement) at this point for sure, but the ability for him to get into a game, have ball security, handle the offense with a very, very young offensive line in there and have the production that he had, it cannot go unnoticed.

So I think after one game in this situation you would think he's found a little bit of a home. He's a sophomore by age. And so we'll see how he continues to grow. We all know we're down to numbers there. So being creative with kids is important.

QUESTION: Your defense the last couple of years making a transition installing quicker guys that can play and move across the field, was today kind of a perfect example of where having quick guys against a fast offense can pay dividends?

ANDERSEN: Yeah, there was a lot of times when we had four corners on the field and … Michael Caputo played a lot of man coverage today. And Michael can really run.

The ability for us to get into those sub packages with the pass rushers, with the faster linebackers    Michael played some linebacker today. You saw Moose (Leo Musso) and you saw those kids coming off the edge. P.J. (Peniel Jean) played a lot today.

And so we really wanted to get our speed out there and handle it. But it's going to    the transition is continuing to grow. I was really happy with the way Dave (Aranda) mixed the calls and we were able to handle it.

And again, when you look at us in our development with our kids being able to handle large call sheet, which was a fairly large call sheet today and their ability to be able to communicate is one thing. But the comfort zone for a coordinator, trust me I've been there, when you have a call sheet, that call sheet doesn't look so good because you get confused, you can't get lined up.

I think Dave felt comfortable today. And the belief was there that he could make a call to those kids and they were going to be able to execute it like they did in practice. That was good to see.

QUESTION: Not too get too far ahead on Dare. If he does build off this and you're comfortable with him as a No. 3, does that make your decision easier on to Taiwan (Deal) to redshirt him because of the injury?

ANDERSEN: Absolutely. No question. Dare has so much game experience whether on special teams or playing in games that you just cannot put a level of importance on the ability to be in the moment and be in the Big Ten.

You look at Andrew (Endicott) today, the way he kicked the ball off. He kicked the ball off a lot. He had one he'd like to get back. But boy he was very good and very comfortable. And there's a mature that takes place when you've been in those moments.

QUESTION:In the first half you had some sets where you had Clement and Gordon in at the same time, is that something you want to utilize more going forward, and then how do you make sure that that doesn't give too much weight to the defense that hey we're going to run the ball here?

ANDERSEN: I don't think it will give anything away as far as running the ball. I think it will put a (defense) on quite a bit of high alert, as they've got double issues staring them right in the face now. But we're in a position to be able to throw the ball out of there as we need to, that will always be part of our package. We will not major in that package, but it will always be carried. 

Junior QB Tanner McEvoy
On how he played today…
“I think I played pretty well. It was a great team win. That’s really all that counts in the end. We still have a lot to work on and I’m looking forward to that.”

On who stood out this game…
“My eyes went to Melvin Gordon’s rushing numbers. I think I might tease him every week. If he keeps this up, I’m all for it. I’m kidding. The media loved that story this week. Melvin came out and showed what he can do and he is just going to keep doing that the rest of the year and I’m really excited for him.”

On Melvin Gordon…
“We all know what he can do. He was getting stuff that last week that he didn’t want, other things opened up in the offensive and got the win.  Today, it was different. Things opened up for him and he took advantage of it. I’m happy for him.”

On diverse play calls…
“Just like last week, we had trouble running the ball and then all of a sudden we started passing the ball. You have to adjust to what the defense is giving you and whatever starts working. You have to stick with it to put points on the board and that’s what we did.”

Junior RB Melvin Gordon
On being able to show what he can do …
“It feels good when you play well. It was exciting out there. We really played Wisconsin football. Every guy played really well today from a blocking standpoint to an execution standpoint. We were a little sloppy with the football today but we will clean that up when we get in the film room. Overall, I think we had a successful day.”

On fumble early in the game…
“I didn’t let it get me down too much. A lot of the guys were saying “Let’s do it early!” It was the first carry of the game for me. There was a lot of football left to be played. I can’t let that get to me. I definitely felt that I had to make up for it and I did that.”

On having three running backs produce like they did today…
“That’s exciting, especially when you know what Corey can do, but Dare comes in there only playing and practicing that position for one week. Being able to do what he did today, that’s unbelievable. He is my roommate too. I’ll talk to him about it. He says he loves the position and that it is fun to play. I’ve seen his ability. He has great feet and he is sharp. I’m exciting for how he did today, both him and Corey.”

On his motivation…
“I was really motivated today. I just heard a lot of people saying that I can’t do this or that, Melvin is not that and he shouldn’t be considered with this guy. I’ve heard it. It definitely motivated me to get out there and do what I needed to do. Also, I kept thinking about the Western Illinois game, as a player and a competitor that is not the type of performance you want to have. I just kept thinking about that every day in practice and it motivated me.”

Junior S Michael Caputo
On the play where timeouts were called back-to-back…
“There were a couple of times where we would have someone on the field that the offense didn’t like, a lot of things were happening. I can’t remember exactly what happened but it ended up working out really well.”

On having Melvin in the offense which allows for taking more risks…
“Actually, it makes you play harder. You want to get it back in the offense’s hands. Three and outs, all that stuff, as a defense we knew that was a big thing and that we had to get three and outs every chance we had. We had to get the offense back and rolling out there.”

On overall performance…
“There were a couple of missed opportunities. There are some things that we could work better at. We will figure it out and go back to the drawing board to get done next week.”

Senior ILB Derek Landisch
On being proud of what the team did today against a high-powered offense…
“I think we played a pretty good game. Nothing is ever perfect. We didn’t play a perfect game but we went out there and played together for the most part. The coaches had a great game plan and we executed that game plan.”

On the defense finding a groove…
“We pride ourselves on making big plays and I think we’re starting to hit that groove. We just have to keep being aggressive—keep playing well, keep playing aggressive. When we’re all on the same page I think we’re a pretty good defense.”

On sets early on where Bowling Green had a lineman flanked out wide…
“We’ve been preparing for that formation. Coach Aranda is great as far as going back and watching film. The great thing about that is that when you’re in the game you know you’re prepared for that moment because we practice it against our scouts. And the timeouts ensued. Some of the unconventional formations they threw at us, we were definitely prepared.”

Freshman S Lubern Figaro
On response after rocky start…
“We played great defense today. That’s probably the best defense we’ve played all year. Defensively we’re getting better every day. We just have to focus on working and getting better.”

On learning from play to play and game to game…
“I learn something new every day. There’s always something you have to learn. Learning from the little things is important.”

On forcing turnovers and getting takeaways at very optimistic times…
“We played great defense today. Everybody is working as a team. We looked good today.”

On prepping for Bowling Green…
“They’re a great team, but we prepared great for that. We have great coaches that help us prepare for all of that.”

RS Sophomore OL Dan Voltz
On knowing that it was just a matter of time before the big plays came…
“That’s how our offense is designed. We’re going to run a lot of power inside zone to start off, and most plays aren’t going to break away to begin with—the defense is fresh. But once we soften them up by the second, third quarter, there’s going to be some big holes and we’ll start breaking away.”

On getting tired with expectations after the Western Illinois game…
“When you have one bad game like that it’s all you hear about. If anything, we take it as a positive. It just fuels us. You read all the articles and hear people ask, ‘When are you going to get back on track?’ That just fuels the fire—at least for me personally because I know what we can do.”

On what he thinks about when he sees the school records the offense set…
“It’s exciting. It’s fun to be a part of something like that. Who knows when that record is going to be broken again? It could be a decade, who knows? I think the way we need to look at it is, let’s build on that the rest of the season. We can’t be satisfied that we broke a record. That game doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme. We have to win next week then we get into Big Ten play and we have to play that well against Big Ten teams so we can make it to the conference championship.”

Senior ILB Michael Trotter
On how the team prepared for Bowling Green…
“Well it’s always stressful going against teams like this because they run a play, and you get to looking on to the next play and they’re already up and ready to go and it’s really annoying. We had a good two weeks and we had a bye week to get ready for this, and I think we did well.”

On the importance of having the bye week…
“If you jump from a team who takes its time, like Western Illinois, to a team that does this, you can be out of shape so it’s good to have two weeks. Even on the first drive out there I thought it was a little tiring.”

Senior DE Konrad Zagzebski
On how this game felt coming off a bye week…
“It was a long two weeks and it felt good to get back out there. We’ll get back on it tomorrow again and hopefully just carry that over to next week.”

On the improvement he saw from the first game…
“We continue to improve every week. We’re communicating better, we’re coming together as a unit and I think it showed today with a few turnovers. So hopefully we can keep that going.”

On how it feels to see the offensive side of the ball do so well…
“It’s awesome, especially with as high-powered of an offense that they had. It’s nice to get the ball back to our offense and let them eat up the clock. It’s a great feeling to see our big boys up front move the ball.”

Sophomore RB Dare Ogunbowale
On whether he expected to run for 94 yards today…
“I didn’t even know I was going to get those carries. When I got the ball they were just saying get to 600 rushing yards. I didn’t think I would get 94 in 16 carries but it was fun.”

On changing positions to play running back today…
“I played running back in youth football, but that was the last time I really played a true running back. My last carry was my junior year in high school, so it had been awhile but Coach Brown is a phenomenal coach. In one week, he got me with some good ball security, reading reads and looking at my blockers so it felt pretty instinctual actually. It was a good time.”

On whether he thinks he will see more time at running back…
“I’m just here helping the team, I mean they wanted to make sure we kept the clock running and stayed in bounds. Stay in bounds and keep the ball. That was my job at the end of the game so that’s all I’m worried about right now, anything else that comes, that’s just a blessing.”

Senior WR Kenzel Doe
On this game as a confidence booster…
“You know this whole week, Melvin and I told each other that we were behind the 8-ball a little bit as a team in the Big Ten and in the nation, so we looked at it like this is the game we have to catch up to everybody else in.  We had to go out there and prove to ourselves and prove to everybody that we aren’t going anywhere. That’s what I tried to go out there and do today, and it showed up."

On Melvin Gordon’s performance…
“Melvin was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. All week he looked at the other running backs and saw other running backs kind of doing better than him at this point. He told everybody, “This is the week I’m going to break out” and he came out here today and he did a heck of job. I think that this game was better than the Nebraska game a couple years ago.”

On getting a good first punt return and reminding Coach Andersen of the punt return touchdown against Utah State…
“Since he’s been here, I’ve probably said it about two or three times. He always laughs, but the punt return today was definitely a confidence booster for me. I went out there and I knew I was going to get a couple returns today. Last week I went side to side a little bit, so I knew this week I had to get vertical. As soon as I catch the ball, I just go and it works out for the best.  I give it up to my punt return team.  It wasn’t just me.  It was those guys holding them up and giving me lanes to run through.”

Sophomore RB Corey Clement
On how fun the game was…
“It was fun.  It was probably the most fun game I’ve ever played since I got to this school.  I think we all had fun as a group and as a unit. Dare, a newcomer, did a fantastic job coming from a scout team standpoint putting up the numbers that he did. He felt comfortable but was a little bit shaky. He was a little bit nervous, but I think he did a really good job and is going to be a great guy in the future."

On breaking records…
“You know it really doesn’t come to mind.  It’s a great accolade to come across, but as long as we get the W in the end that’s all that really matters. I see this is a record that hasn’t been broken since the early 30s or something like that. I really think it’s cool just to hold onto it. When you leave the collegiate league and you can say, ‘I had a great record and came across another one with a great contributor today.’”

On what it’s like to watch Melvin put on a performance…
“I believe he really needed that. I think we all needed a confidence boost like that coming off of last game where we didn’t really produce how we should as a Badger unit. Melvin had an outstanding game. He just hit the holes 100 miles per hour. I believe they struggled on defense to try to tackle him. He’s a great guy.  Trying to keep up with him in practice, me and him competing, that’s what I think gives the best results.”

Senior TE Sam Arneson
On what comes to mind seeing the big numbers that were put up…
“It’s pretty special. Especially just from the teams I’ve been on in the past, we had some great running games and to set a school record is awesome. It’s a good feeling. Last week, people were asking ‘What’s wrong with the running game?’ I think we kind of showed them that the running game is just fine, so it was fun.”

On using negative talk as a motivation…
“The O-line, the tight ends and the running backs take a lot of pride in our ability to run the ball and that kind of came into question. We know what we can do and I think we came out and showed them a little bit today.”

On the long runs…
“That was Melvin (Gordon). That’s the way Melvin and Corey are and we expect that.  We want to have those long runs.  We’ll kind of sit there and be in the course of a drive and know one of them is going to pop. We just have to keep doing our job as an O-line, as tight ends and fullbacks. We know our running backs are special players and that they’re going to make big plays like that.”

Bowling Green Head Coach Dino Babers Postgame Quotes
On Melvin Gordon’s performance and ability…
“There is no doubt about it, that’s the best tailback I’ve seen in a long time. We helped him, there’s no doubt about it. We missed a bunch of tackles, but you can’t take anything away from that young man. There’s a shiftiness about him, then you see his breakaway speed, and then heck, I saw two or three stiff arms. He’s stiff arming kids like he’s grown and playing in a Pop Warner game. And I know the guys were strong that he was throwing off of him. So honestly he’s very shifty, great speed, and great strength.”

On the second quarter getting away from Bowling Green and whether Gordon was part of the reason why …
“There’s no doubt, but I think the whole team, I mean the physicality of that football team, trying to match up with them, you can hit a wall once or twice and it might dent a little, but over the long haul that thing is going to stand up. It was obvious that they were a lot more physical than us, a lot stronger than us, and that was the difference in the game.”

On Wisconsin’s interception in the red zone during the second quarter and what effect it had on the team/game …
“I mean that was a big play in the game, but when somebody beats you by 51 points you can’t pull out one play and say that was the difference in the game. We lost by 51 points. You have to give that team their credit. You need to take your whooping and move on.”

On whether this is a game to learn something from or one to ‘chuck the film’ and start over …
“I think you can always learn something from tape, and I think a lot of the lessons are not only with the starters but with the back-ups. There were some guys that came in and made some plays that were buried pretty deep in the depth chart based off the score, and I’m watching those guys and thinking, ‘Hey, that’s a better play in the fourth quarter than the same situation in the first’. We are going to be able to reorganize our depth a little bit based off of some guys getting game experience that they normally wouldn’t be able to get. Maybe they didn’t have a good camp, maybe they didn’t come back to camp in the shape that they should have, but now they may be in a situation where they showed some things and they’re able to move up the depth chart and be able to help us. So I think you can still learn from tape.”

On the play of their quarterback, James Knapke …
“It probably balanced out with as well as he played against Indiana. The tough thing when you’re in a situation like this is that I think James played the way that James plays. There were some drops in the game that you just can’t have if you’re going to play Wisconsin. I mean we’re dropping, I can remember dropping touchdowns. You get a couple of holding calls and a couple of sacks, a quarterback gets hit a couple of times and all of a sudden the ball is three, four inches over somebody’s hands instead of being right on them. So it’s an effect, it’s a total team effect, and what it really comes down to is just the physicality. They were a lot more physical than we were, we lost the physical battle, and when you do that, all these other things start to show up.”

On his takeaways from the game…
“Well I told the team in the locker room that Wisconsin beat us once, it counts as one loss. It doesn’t matter if it was one point or 51 points, it counts as one loss. Now we have to make sure they don’t beat us twice. We have an opportunity to go back on the road, start defending our MAC championship against UMass. We haven’t won on the road yet, so we can’t call ourselves a good football team until we win on the road because good teams win on the road. So we have another opportunity to go out and prove that we are a good football team, it starts tomorrow, and we need to all come to work ready to go to get the result that we want at the end of that football game.”