Wisconsin football coach Gary Andersen spoke with the media Tuesday morning on the Big Ten's weekly coaches teleconference, as the Badgers prepared for their first of two bye weeks.
Andersen, in his first media availability since Saturday's 37-3 victory against Western Illinois, discussed the development of the team through two games, the shortcomings in the running game Saturday and tailback Melvin Gordon's mindset entering the bye week.
Here is the full transcript of Andersen's conference call:
Andersen: Quick review of the game. It was a good football game, great to get back home. Obviously, the first game of the year. Tremendous crowd. Thanks to all our fans who came out. It was a great environment, especially for many of those young men that hadn't been in Camp Randall before that were on our sidelines during a game atmosphere. So it was a great victory for us. Needed it. Got ourselves moving in the right direction.
A couple individual performances that were great, in my opinion: Alex Erickson had a career day, 10 receptions, 120-some odd yards, was a big part in that football game. Tanner (McEvoy) came in and had 17 completions in a row, which is a school record. Did some good things, started to feel at home with the offense. I think anybody that saw the game could see that start to take place, which was good. The key now is that those two young men continue to grow and develop. And then Sam Arenson on the offensive side of the ball had his best day as a Badger with his number of catches, receptions. It was good to see him get that going.
I thought Michael Caputo and Vince Biegel on the defensive side had outstanding days. Vince Biegel would have been our defensive player of the game from a defensive staff and player standpoint.
Question: What does the decision on Penn State do for the Big Ten and the competition within it?
Andersen: It's good to have everybody ready to go and eligible and be able to compete. I think that's a positive. I'm sure those Penn State kids and coaches are excited about the opportunity to compete in postseason. I don't know exactly, I haven't read up on it. I just heard this morning that they actually were able to be in bowls and things. So I may be talking out of tune here, but that's my understanding is that now they can compete in postseason and they can be eligible for a bowl game and I guess the Big Ten championship.
I think it's good. It's a good spot for anyone, everyone in your conference to be competing at the same level and have the same opportunities.
Q: Is your team developing at the pace that you projected when the season began?
Andersen: Yeah, I like the direction that we're moving. I don't know that I can ever say we're where I expected us to completely be. Probably never going to be completely pleased with where we are. I think that's part of being a competitor. But I like the progress that I saw when these kids had to face adversity, like I mentioned after the game.
These first two weeks, they truly have. They've dealt with it in a couple different ways, which was good to see. This last game, to see them kind of just keep on fighting when things weren't great, they kept on battling. They didn't start pointing fingers. Things started to fall in place a little bit, and we were able to make some plays to win the football game.
But I like the progression. We're doing some things on defense. We're making some plays on the other side of the line of scrimmage, which is a positive. We talked about having to be able to do that because that was the type of defense we were going to be. That's starting to show up a little bit more.
Our ability to throw the ball this last game was a little bit of a positive. That's a three-hour stint we've done some of these things and a six-hour stint on defense in two football games.
I see the direction, I like what I see in spots, but we have got a long ways to go. Consistency is going to be the key for us, but I love the way we're handling adversity.
Q: Where do you think you're headed in terms of development and where are things lagging?
Andersen: I would say defensive line. Especially with Zags (Konrad Zagzebski) missing most of the LSU game and then he came back last week and played tremendous. But not having Warren (Herring), putting those young defensive linemen in that position to play as many snaps as they've had to, and that's really been (Arthur) Goldberg and (Chikwe) Obasih and (Alec) James have had to come in and play a ton. More reps than we thought. I'm proud of those kids.
I think the development at the free safety spot with Lubern (Figaro) this last game was a positive. A true freshman there. With Leo Musso being out, he's had to play every snap. And that was something that was highly worrisome. Has he been perfect? No. Do we expect him to be perfect? Absolutely not. But he's grown and developing because he has to. There's no real choice there. And PJ (Peniel Jean), I think, has come in and backed up in the safety spot, the free. That's been comforting.
I think the areas where we're not as far along as we would probably like to say we were: After Game 1, I felt pretty good running the football. After Game 2, I didn't feel great about running the football. That's a very easy statement to make for anybody that saw the game. But we'll be fine in that area.
Our kickoffs improved last game. Where I thought they would be solid for us in Game 1, they were just average. In Game 2, they got better. It's a little bit of back and forth overall on the team, but hopefully continue to move in the right direction.
Q: What did you see from your players emotionally this past week to recover from the LSU loss and refocus?
Andersen: I was proud of them the way they handled it. I thought we came out with a very similar energy that we had at LSU. That's hard to judge sometimes with just the feeling of the way they prepared, the way they looked in the locker room and took the field. And they should be. That's their first home game at Camp Randall for the year. That was good. But the week of practice was, I thought it was businesslike when it needed to be businesslike. I thought it built emotion, it built through the week, which was great. That's what you look for.
Tuesday for us is a work day. Monday is a day of education and seeing what we did right and what we did wrong. Move on, Wednesday is a combination of starting to build toward a work day and have a little bit more juice because we know the scheme and Thursday is the perfect Thursday. I thought they handled all those areas pretty well. So I didn't feel a hangover. I didn't think they had a problem.
It hurt them and we're not going to forget the loss, but I believe they moved on in a professional manner. For a young team, I thought they handled it well.
Q: What makes you so confident the running game will pick up?
Andersen: The first thing is as I break down that tape, a lot of credit is going to go in my mind to Western. I've watched that tape three or four times. They were stout, they were physical. No. 17 (Kevin Kintzel), I apologize for not knowing the young man's name, and 43 (J.J. Raffelson) I think are very talented linebackers. I really believe that.
They did some good things against us. I'm not using it as any type of excuse at all. I'm just giving those kids the recognition that I believe they deserve. Their defensive staff I thought did a nice job. In turn, we need to be more successful. That's what we need to do to be a successful offense. The returning offensive linemen will take that definitely personal and know that myself and all the offensive coaches want us to be able to run the ball more effectively than that, and I believe we will as we move forward.
I think the backs ran hard. Austin Ramesh was in his first start. He'll get better as he continues to improve. It was a combination of a lot of different things in the run game, which in turn opened up the throw game for us. That was a positive. But we need to consistency run the ball better, especially with those two kids at tailback.
Q: How is Melvin Gordon's mindset after the first two weeks?
Andersen: Melvin's in a very, very good spot. Melvin has high expectations as you know. You've met with him many, many times and anybody that's talked to Melvin, he has high expectations of the team and of himself.
But he's a selfless kid now. He's not looking at himself saying, 'Oh I'm not getting mine. I need to get my yards.' He knows it was tough sledding last week. I think he felt good with his production in the throw game, which he should have. Caught one ball all last season. He caught four last week, scored a touchdown. So there's some good things. His blocking is better. The normal fan may not sit back and watch that, but he's pass protecting well, which is great to see. It's very, very noticeable. So there's a lot of good things.
We all want to see him have 200-yard games and rush like crazy and score touchdowns in the rush game, but he is improving. His mental mindset is very good. I like where he is and I think Melvin has high expectations for himself and his team as we continue to move forward, not just running the football but playing even better as a football program.
Q: Have you talked to Melvin about becoming a more complete back in the offseason to be more attractive to teams at the next level?
Andersen: Yeah, if you point that out, next level with Melvin, he's going to kind of say, 'Coach, I want to do what's best for the team next year,' which is a great thing to say. And that's not just coach talk. That's what he would say.
But yes, we did identify some scenarios to help him, which I think will help him in the next level. But I know it will help our football team and help him this season. He identified them. And that was to catch the ball better so he could be more involved in the throw game. So far mission accomplished. And to be a better pass protector. Definitely so far mission accomplished in that area.
Consistency again for him just like this whole football team is going to be the key. He will get his on the ground. I think we all understand that as we move forward. He's going to have those tremendous football games. We'll keep on moving forward. With the pride he has in his individual performances, the pride he has in this team is much greater.
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