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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 20, 2015Barry AlvarezWren SingerTHE MODERATOR: The annual spring football game takes place Saturday starting at 3 p.m. at Camp Randall Stadium. Admission is $5 with proceeds benefitting the UW Office of Undergraduate Advising. Game will be televised live by BTN. Prior to the game, starting at 1:30, UW Athletics will host the Badger Sports Kids Fair in the McClain Center. That event is free. Right now we are joined by Director of Athletics, Barry Alvarez and Wren Singer, the Director of the Office of Undergraduate Advising. Wren will have opening comments, and then we will take questions. WREN SINGER: Thank you. Thank you so much, Coach Alvarez for selecting Undergraduate Advising as the academic partner for the spring game. We are really lucky and excited to be are partnering with the Athletics Department during such an exciting time for the football program. We are all here today, because we are excited about our new coach and for a new era in Wisconsin football, but likewise, you may not know, it's also a new era for advising at UW Madison. So if you think back to your own college experience, some of you probably didn't know exactly what you wanted to do when you went to college. Many of us did know what we wanted to do, but some people didn't, and we hoped that college would be a time when you could figure that out. For most of us, we didn't have much help from the university in making choices and figuring out our options. Times have changed. UW Madison has a strong team of academic and career advisors standing by and ready to coach our undergraduate students. A good relationship with one or more of these advisors provides the focus and support for students to figure out what to do with their lives and how to get there. Advisors are game tchangers. Advisors ask questions, advisors give pointers, advisors know the rules. Advisors help students to make clear and purposeful decisions about their academic and career plans. All of our UW students really need advising more than ever now, because the stakes are higher. It takes more preparation to be successful than it used to. Doing well in school isn't enough anymore. Students need to pair a really good academic program with other experiences like volunteering, working, research, leadership, to create a package that will move them toward their future. Advisors can help students develop that package and it's that package that we call the Wisconsin Experience. We want all of our students to graduate from UW Madison in four years with as little debt as possibly, fully prepared for their future. A relationship with a professionally trained and devoted academic advisor can be a game changer in a student's life, so we're thrilled to have the opportunity to use the proceeds from this year's spring game to improve undergraduate advising at UW Madison. All of our graduates go on to great things and advising helps them get there, so thank you. Q. Barry, do you remember your academic advisor at the University of Nebraska? BARRY ALVAREZ: That was my Coach, John Melton. No, I don't remember my advisor. WREN SINGER: You probably didn't have one. BARRY ALVAREZ: I didn't have one, or I didn't use one. WREN SINGER: Right. Q. You pick one, an organization every year. Why did you find this appealing to you? BARRY ALVAREZ: Well, you know, as you would suspect, since we started this, several years ago and tried to pair with some unit on campus, we had quite a few that contacted us and want to associate with the Athletic Department and partner with us and we take a look at all of them. We know that Wren and her group have been very active in dealing with SOAR, in dealing with a lot of our incoming freshmen, along with our athletes. So they touch so many of our athletes, we felt this was only appropriate and fitting that this would be a very good partnership. Q. Wren, do they come to you? Do the students come to the advisors or‑‑ you see the advisors reaching out to them? WREN SINGER: Most of the students do come to the advisors. Students in this generation are much more likely to seek help than my generation or other generations before us. We don't require students to see advisors in most cases, although in the Athletic Department they do. Students do seek advising. We have over 85% of our students see an advisor in any given semester, so we're reaching the students and the student are grateful for the help. Q. Barry, I'm sure that the recipients of this money from the spring game would love to have the attendance figures of Ohio State, 99,000; Nebraska, 76,000; Michigan 60,000. What's your realistic expectation for this game? Do you feel like there is something missing if you don't have one of those big crowds? Is that a measuring stick for you? BARRY ALVAREZ: It's not a measuring stick because we have tried since 1990 to generate interest in the spring game and I just think there are too many things to do in Madison that we have not been able to‑‑ through a number of coaches been able to generate that type of interest. We felt this was‑‑ and I think all of you know how I feel about different preparations and different settings for practice, anything that you do differently is a teaching tool and helps you prepare for a game. Playing in front of a crowd is a little different than a regular scrimmage during spring practice where you get a response from the crowd according to the play. I think that helps prepare a young player for an opening game. We felt this would be a way, possibly, involving someone else on campus that we could generate some more interest, maybe another faction of people that wanted to support advising, undergraduate advising as well as come and see the spring football game. So, you know, it was kind of a double motivation for us initially. I can't say that it's really affected the attendance. Our attendance will be anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000. That's generally what we've had since 1990. We've promoted it, we've done a lot of different things. We have drafted teams, had guest coaches, done a number of things, but for the most part that's kind of the numbers that we'll get. We have never been able to crack through and have the numbers that you just mentioned at those other schools. Q. Coach, for many years the spring game and Crazy Legs run were held as a single‑day event. Do you prefer them separately or together as they're going to be this year? BARRY ALVAREZ: I like it together. I just like a day of celebration, you know, the Crazy Legs is a function of the Athletic Department. It ends in the stadium; there is a celebration of completing the race. A number of those‑‑ I'm not sure of the timing, but we have had it before where we have had to clear the field to let the kickers come out and start warming up. We have a number of those who ran in the race who stay in the crowd. I think that is all good. You know, there is always a lot of energy at the end of that race, people were excited. I think there is a little carryover there, particularly if it's a nice day. I think both of those together fit very well. Q. Will you look to do it more as a dual event day in the future? I know in the past, 2012 and this year it will be in one day, but I know it was based on the request of the football staff for those two years. Will you look to do it more often? BARRY ALVAREZ: The spring game is the call of the football coach. They will take a look at spring break and how they want to break their practice up. Gary Andersen preferred to start earlier and finish earlier. This originally was scheduled a week earlier. Paul wanted it practice‑‑ his thinking is much like mine: Have half of your practice prior to spring break, break, you may have some nagging injuries that will be healed up when they come back. It makes you think about football longer. Those are some of the reasons that I liked it. Paul happened to agree with that, that's why we changed the date to a week later, and you have a better chance for a nice day. Q. As a former player, Coach, now Athletic Director, can you talk about the evolution of spring football? Every conference has a spring football game and they are on TV and get replayed. Just from what you played to now when everybody is on TV. BARRY ALVAREZ: Used to be a big deal when you got a regular game on TV. You know, up until about 1990 if you had two games on TV that was pretty good. That's when ESPN was just coming on to the scene. Now every game is televised and spring games are televised. I think it's great for the kids, I think it's wonderful that family and friends have an opportunity to see young people perform and they normally wouldn't, particularly if you're at a distance. I look at it as a recruiting tool, our spring game will be on TV, coaches' shows will be on. You will see all those things, and see your youngster or player, if you're talking to a coach, play every game. Spring ball has ‑‑ there has been an evolution. I think when I played we practiced for thirty days. We had a complete month of practice and finished up always on May1st with a scrimmage, and it certainly wasn't televised. Q. Barry, as a Coach, your initial thoughts on Coach Chryst as a coach here at Wisconsin? BARRY ALVAREZ: I've been impressed. I thought as an assistant and as a coordinator, he was one of the best play callers and quarterback developers I have ever been around. I like what I see and how he manages his vision for a program, how he deals with his assistant coaches, how he delegates, how he oversees. I love my conversations with him about, you know, his vision, what he sees with the players, how he wants to bring them along, how he coordinates playing with the strength program and everything else, so I've been very impressed. Q. Along those same lines, Coach, have you had the chance to see some spring practice, and how do you think the spring practice sessions are going under Coach Chryst? BARRY ALVAREZ: You know what, I didn't see the scrimmage, I just got back into town. I saw a scrimmage last Sunday. They are progressing as you normally would in spring practice. This is a time to work on individuals, try to find‑‑ particularly for the new staff, familiarize yourself with your individual players, what their limitations are, what they can actually do, what you can feature as you go into the summer and start preparing for next year, how you will taper your playbook according to the skills of your players. All those things are happening right now, plus you're starting to build a chemistry of a staff and players. I think Paul has gotten a lot out of his guys. He was left with a funny schedule timingwise. I don't think he was crazy about that, but that will be rectified; he's worked his way around it. I think the players have reacted very well. Q. Wren, what's the sense of folks in Admissions at the University of Wisconsin when you see the success of the Athletic Department and the excitement that you might have being able to partner with something like this? WREN SINGER: Well it's exciting. It represents the University in all ways. It strengthens the brand of the University, more students apply at our university when our sports programs are doing well, so I think it's a really good partnership, and the fact that the Athletic Department chooses an academic partner for each year's spring game and allows us to work together is, I think, a strong demonstration of that partnership, so I think the success of the sports programs makes everything work better for all of us. Q. Coach, next season the hockey team is going to look different coaching staffwise with a lot of the assistants needing to be replaced. What do you envision there? BARRY ALVAREZ: We have always had a strong tradition of hockey. This is obviously not what we have been accustomed to in hockey, and I have all the confidence in the world that Mike Eaves can correct it. This year you talk about a young team; next year they should be veterans. I feel confident. You know, you run into bumps in the road, occasionally. The important thing is you address them, you tear things apart, you find out and try to come to conclusion what the issues are and how to correct it. That's what Coach Eaves is trying to do right now, and I'm very confident that he can do that. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. Thanks, Wren. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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