Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Western Kentucky
August 31, 2018
Camp Randall Stadium - Madison, Wis.
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Opening Statement: Good to win to get the season started. Obviously to win a game, any game, guys have to make plays. I thought defense did a nice job, especially, to start the game and I thought they were really, really good in the red zone.
Offensively, obviously J.T. (Jonathan Taylor) had a couple big runs. Looking at it, if we can help and be more consistent in the running game, but there were some good things there. You know, I thought Alex (Hornibrook) made some good decisions, and extended a couple plays, and those were big on a couple of those touchdown drives.
All in all, it was great to get the season started, and a number of players that we'll be counting on got their first significant snaps, and there's nothing like playing the game. So it was good for the team to get it going.
Q. Do you anticipate going into an opener that you're going to have some rough patches, maybe some inconsistency, whether it's an offense or a defense?
CHRYST: Absolutely. And what's great about the game is I don't know if you're ever in a game where you're always going to go through things.
I thought our guys kept their poise on it, and you know, even the second half, … two plays, three plays, and the ball (down in the red zone) — guys kept playing and held them to a field goal.
Offensively, we were doing some good things and then we kind of sputter, but they kept their poise and that, you appreciate, because no game is going to go perfect.
Q. You mentioned the defense and the job they did in the red zone. There were a number of new players in different roles this year. What did that group as a whole show you? And do you feel like they are ahead of where you thought they were or just what you expected?
CHRYST: Well, I think you're always — you don't have — at least I don't, in my mind, this is the group you've got and you go play. You don't have a bar, like this is where you should be and then you've got to get to here.
I thought you've got to play the game and you've got to grow from it and those guys are going to do that. I thought some of our veterans, the guys who have played a lot, T.J. (Edwards) made a couple big plays and I thought Ryan Connelly had a huge play. You know what, we've just got to continue to grow, and that's for every game during every week.
It was good to get the season going.
Q. How impressed were you with what Cole Van Lanen was able to give, and was Jon (Dietzen) dealing with any type of injury in the second half?
CHRYST: We wanted to play both of them, and Cole's had a good camp. I like the progress that he's — he earned the right to play. I'm anxious to see how it went for him, and I'm anxious to see how it went for him.
Logan Bruss is another guy that got a lot of snaps once Luke Benzschawel went down.
It's always fun to watch the tape and find ways, you know, that you can build on the things that you did well and find ways that you can kind of clean up the things that need to be corrected.
Q. Obviously you want to see all your players play well. How does it feel to see someone like Taiwan (Deal) who has gone through so much adversity, how did it feel to see him succeed?
CHRYST: It was great. I know it meant a lot to him. These guys, they like playing, and when you miss out — you know, Taiwan stuck out to me on that, and Zack Baun is another one that stood out to me. You know, they got an opportunity tonight to get back out on the field and play.
I thought Taiwan ran hard. I thought he was patient. A lot of times, when you're back at it and you're excited to go, sometimes for a back, or really most players, you lose your patience and I thought he had good patience.
Q. What did you think of Jonathan Taylor's night overall?
CHRYST: Obviously J.T. had a couple big runs, and yet I just talked to him and there's things that we've got to (improve) — he'll see and I think he knows now that he can clean up and go.
But you know, he gave us a heck of a spark. The first touchdown, there was a lot of guys that made that happen, but J.T. did a lot of good, and there's going to be, like I said, things that he can clean up and get better at.
Q. You talked about your team maintaining poise. You had a defense last year that erased a lot of mistakes after turnovers in the red zone. How critical is it for a young group with seven new starters to have the experience like tonight where they have two red zone turnovers to stop points from being on the board?
CHRYST: All the situations that come up in a game, and how you handle it, are big, and certainly those were. Like I alluded to earlier, you know, when all of the sudden, you start the second half and quickly the ball is down there but they just kept playing.
And then, I think it was fourth quarter, getting the turnover, the fumble; those are big plays and so you appreciate that. There's always going to be learning that goes on in the game and you want to take advantage of those opportunities to learn and grow from.
Q. Can you explain what led to Dontye's (Carriere-Williams) decision to leave the program this week, and how did the cornerback group kind of react to that?
CHRYST: You know, I had a conversation with Dontye earlier, and so thought it was best for him. The DBs (defensive backs) are fine. You've got to keep going.
Q. You all talk about guys who you're curious to see how they respond their first time on the field. Jake Ferguson is probably not a dominating blocker by any stretch, but as a receiver, did he give you tonight what you had seen in practice and in spring and in camp?
CHRYST: He was good. I thought — you know, what you appreciate is that he was who we saw in camp, right. Because you're talking about his first game action, and that's not always the case. I thought Ferg was really good there, and I think he did some things with the run game that were good.
Like I said, talk about a lot of young guys, to get those first snaps are big, and then to get them in moments where you need it, I think that's even more so.
And so for us to be good, Ferg is a guy who can contribute and we're going to need him to be good and continue to grow.
Q. Kind of in that same line, how do you feel like Jack Dunn and Adam Krumholz did for you tonight at wide receiver, guys that maybe didn't expect a few weeks ago to make this big of an impact?
CHRYST: I thought it was — both good. Krumholz had a catch. Jack had a big catch in the two-minute drive, and did a nice job on our punt returns. You know, those two have played in games, but I think the role was certainly different, particularly Jack's.
Then when KP (Kendric Pryor) didn't play in the second half, you know, that put a little bit more on guys, and I thought A.J. Taylor — I was proud of the way A.J. responded. You know, he had the out route that he should have had, and a couple, I thought, but you know what, he kept going and kept playing. You appreciate that out of guys.
Q. Kind of going along with the younger guys, Scott Nelson seemed confident going into this week. What did you think of him tonight?
CHRYST: I thought Scott, I know he made a couple big plays, and you're going to look back at it and he came clean on one pressure and didn't get it, and you know, had an opportunity. Had a pass break-up. What I like about him is I thought that was an opportunity to get a pick.
He had one — he was flying around, I know that, and he's got to do a good job of one — he kind of missed a tackle, but he's going to learn from this one. He's a good player, and it means a lot to him and so he'll certainly grow.
Q. You had a chance to get Jack Coan in the game late, but you kept Alex in the game. Any reason in particular?
CHRYST: Yeah, big thing was we were going to end up getting the whole twos in there, and then all of the sudden went to the sudden change on the two and didn't have time to just work the snaps. We were just getting going there, and so didn't want to — didn't want to go in without having some snaps there.
On staying home on Western Kentucky's trick plays:
"I was manned up. My guy went outside and I just saw it from the corner of my eye. He tossed it to the receiver so I fell off my guy and tried to make plays."
On playing for the first time:
"It was kind of nerve racking. I was more so just anxious to get out there for the first time. It was fun."
On the importance of playing gunner on special teams:
"It's very important. We stress that special teams is a part of defense, like I said I just wanted to go out and make plays. It was fun."
On the first game:
"There's always a possibility a game won't be as clean as you want it to be. You want to be as clean as possible. If it doesn't go that way, it is not surprising. It happens, especially in game one."
On playing next to sophomore Cole Van Lanen:
"There's no difference between him and Jon (Dietzen), which is nice. It is nice to get fresh legs and Cole is going to do just fine."
On playing the full game and whether that was a surprise
"No not really. I wanted to stay in. I didn't really want to come out. I don't think anyone wanted to come out. I don't think anyone thought we played as well as we could have. We're going to play whole games all season, why not start there now?"
On his perspective on the first game:
"It was good to get a win. I thought we did some things pretty well today."
On looking at passing to Jonathan Taylor:
"He just had a one-on-one match-up and he did a good job of winning those today."
On staying up late, watching film and texting teammates about possible things to look for today:
"Yeah, some of those things worked. He (Jonathan Taylor) kind of knew coming in that we would be looking his way on some third downs. We saw coverage that we could take advantage of and he did a good job of winning those battles."
On playing in his first game:
"It's always a little nerve racking getting out there for the first time but I think the coaches really prepared me and my teammates really helped me focus in. All throughout the whole week I was kind of mentally preparing for this and it was awesome to get out there."
On having some key blocks:
"It's always good to be versatile. Troy Fumagalli taught me that if you're going to catch some passes you might as well get some good blocks in there every once in a while. I kind of took that to heart last year working on it and I've been working on my blocking all through spring ball. I still have a lot of work to do but I'm taking the right steps."
On open opportunities at the tight end position:
"I think there's a lot of opportunities in the tight end group but Zander (Neuville) and Kyle (Penniston) are really taking that leadership role right now and they are helping out the young guys like me and Luke (Benzschawel). Luke stepped up early in the game. There's always opportunities. Coach really hits on taking those opportunities and making the best out of them."
On how his first game went:
"I think I did some good things, did some bad things too. I think there's some things I can improve on. Punt returning wise, there were probably some things I could've done better, some things that could've gone worse but the first time out there there's going to be some problems for all position groups. We'll watch some tape tomorrow to see what we did well and what we didn't do so well and try to fix it and try to get better for week two."
On where the offense is at:
"I think we did well overall. I thought we had times where we threw the ball really well and times we ran the ball really well, too. I think just being more consistent throughout the whole game would be huge for us. We had times where we started to stall out a little bit but I think overall for a week one performance I thought the offense did pretty well."
On if there are added nerves to perform well after given this opportunity to play:
"There's going to be some nerves, especially the first time really seeing some really legitimate game action. I would say it's just more excitement for getting the chance to be out there making plays. I haven't really felt that level of responsibility since high school so to have it again felt awesome. Hopefully all of the young guys we have can grow from that experience and keep getting better and learn from that experience and keep becoming better players as the weeks go on."
On how it felt to get back out there today:
"It was good. It was fun. I think the team just had a good time playing against someone else, it's been awhile. I thought we all competed hard and had a good game."
On keeping his poise through rough patches on both sides of the ball:
"I think we've always done a good job here of picking each other up and today we tried to pick up the offense when we could and they did a great job of picking us up and just kind of keeping us off the field for as long as they could. I thought as a unit, as a team together we played really well."
On having a sense of pride keeping the ball out of the end zone:
"Yeah for sure. You never want a team to score so when you can do that I think it's a really good job. It was a very talented offense and I thought that we just did a good job of competing."
On the win:
"I think it was just the ability to carry over what we did in practice and translate it onto the field. With the young guys behind us, the fact that they were communicating makes me feel confident in them."
On the red zone defense:
"It's just a mentality, the same as last year and this year we practice red zone specifically throughout so practice, so just being able to translate those red zone periods onto the field is really important."
On all the new faces on the defense:
"Yeah, I think we did a great job, it was nice to know that I wasn't out there by myself, it was multiple people's first times and it's great we all worked together."
On getting back on the field:
"Oh, it was so awesome, every time I was out I was just itching to get back in and play."
On being back out on the field:
"Aw, it feels so great to be out there, it's been a long time, lot of work put in this off-season, but getting out there with the guys for the 2018 season was definitely good."
On his approach to this season and his mentality towards every football game:
"I'm definitely trying to take everything in just like it's practice, so when they call a play, just run it how you run it in practice, don't try to get the whole game atmosphere into your head… just think about your assignment and what you have to do, that's one of the biggest things."
On the win:
"That's one of the things we try to do, we try and keep the same formula, make sure we just keep churning out yards, keep churning out yards. One of the biggest things I think is that we don't get relaxed, and keep the same mentality. Second half coming out, we've gotta come out with some fire, and that's just one of the biggest things is to make sure we stay consistent throughout the game."
Western Kentucky Head Coach Mike Sanford
OPENING STATEMENT:Â First off, hats off and credit to an unbelievably talented and well-oiled machine in Wisconsin and its football team. After having a chance to see them in person they are as advertised and then some. Coach (Paul) Chryst and Coach (Jim) Leonhard have done a great job with both sides of the football and on special teams. You look at that team, it's a complete team in every way shape and form and I look forward to following their season the rest of the way.
  As it relates to our team, I left the game really looking at, in the second half, four red zone trips. I thought we moved the ball very well in the second half and to get inside the redzone, you do the math, come away with three points and turn the ball over twice, that's the name of the game. It's a 31-point game that we end up losing by, four trips to the redzone, you get 28 points ideally, your goal is to score a touchdown every time you get in the redzone. With that we're competitive in the fourth quarter. But that starts with me and continuing to make sure we're putting our players in the best position to be successful in those red zone opportunities."
"I did like a lot of things, starting with our defense and how it fought against the best offensive line in the country and best running back in the country, hands down. Seeing that firsthand, it was something to be seen. Our defense fought, they fought hard, they were on the defense way too much in the first half, I made some adjustments in the second half and I thought we got them off the field quite a bit more in the second half. I was proud of how Drew Eckels played, he's a first-time starter, this was the biggest environment that he'll play in in his career as a college football player. I thought he came out and settled in nicely, made some really good throws and did some things with his legs. I think he comes out a little dinged up but he's going to be just fine."
