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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 17, 2016

Paul Chryst

Madison, Wisconsin

Georgia State - 17, Wisconsin - 23

COACH CHRYST: I'll tell you -- one time I'll tell you guys what I told the team. But after the game, I told them, I appreciate what they did. It was good to find a way to win. It's hard to win and appreciate that. Certainly, there's areas -- and believe this for every week -- that we can get better, and we need to take those steps.

But I was proud of the way they battled and fought. There's no question we did some things -- I think the first half we had four drives were inside the 20 and come away with six points. We had a great opportunity off of the punt that fumbled the snap, and we ended up fumbling, putting the ball on the 6. You know, we just -- third downs, we didn't convert early.

It takes -- football's great. It takes all 11 guys to execute on each play -- offensively, defensively, special teams. And even today, I thought guys had even made some mistakes or were part of the negative responded in a big way. And, you know, that you like seeing. I thought guys just continued to play.

I thought P.J. did a nice job on the kickoffs, and I thought it was good to see how they respond after -- did a nice job of stopping right before the half and got in field goal position, and we didn't finish that drive with points.

Kyle had an early third down -- first one after Fum got hurt. Came in and kind of had a couple plays that he didn't like but finished -- there was a big catch on the corner route and then finishing with the score. So that's the game.

We got to play it and appreciate that, and Georgia State is a good football team. Knew that going in. Good players. Really well coached. But I'm proud of the way the guys played and kept playing and found a way to score one more point than Georgia State.

Q. Paul, why did you decide to put Alex in in the third quarter and that kind of gave the offense a spark?
COACH CHRYST: I was hoping just that, to try to get a little something going. It certainly isn't all -- wasn't Bart was the reason why. I just talked about it, right? We fumbled going in, but I thought we just needed a little bit of a spark, and I liked how both of them had been working and preparing. Thought it might give us a little something.

Q. Are you looking to start Bart or Alex against Michigan State next week?
COACH CHRYST: Just got done with the game. Like I said, Bart's our starter right now. I'm proud of what Alex did and how he came in. So I'm not planning anything right now other than appreciating this win.

Q. Paul, you've done a great job of controlling possession in the first quarter, especially controlling yards, but haven't been able to score many touchdowns. Are you more encouraged by what you've seen in the first quarters of this season or discouraged about the end result?
COACH CHRYST: I like a lot of the stuff we're doing. Yet time of possession on its own isn't enough. You've got to score points. You know, when we go -- we had the one opportunity. We fumble on the 6. We have a serious miscommunication on the third and two going towards the student section. We don't capitalize on that. So we've got to clean up some things.

I like a lot of things they're doing, and yet we still have areas that we've got to get better at. We've got to take care of the football. We got the drop (indiscernible). That was a big play. I thought we were starting to get a little bit of momentum going there. So we've just got to keep working and keep improving.

Q. I know it's early, but do you have any idea on the severity of the injuries to Fumagalli and Deal? And do you anticipate Clement will be able to go next week?
COACH CHRYST: Not quite sure on Fum and Taiwan. Corey, took him in and did a pretty good workout this morning, seeing if he can go today. I think all three of them -- you know, you're optimistic, but we don't know. I don't know.

Q. Paul, you talked about the last two games, we have things to improve, even though they were impressive wins. Do you think people believe you a little more after this one?
COACH CHRYST: I think our kids knew it then, and that's really all I care about. That's not true. I care about other things. But you know what I'm saying? Our kids see it, and we try to shoot 'em straight. I told them afterwards that there's always lessons to be learned. If we could each grow and learn from them individually and grow from it, then we collectively learn and grow. And it's going to be -- I think that's the way you approach every week.

And yeah, I do, I appreciate what they did. Thought we had a good preparation work week. We knew this was a good team and had to battle and find different ways to win. Guys stepped in and made significant plays.

What a big play by Conor Sheehy. No one's really quite sure if he's the one that got it, but he claimed it. Jeff gave me the nod. It's official. Those are big plays, and you appreciate that.

Q. The defense has been a strong unit the last couple of games. Today they were a little bit sloppier, some missed tackles. Was there something new that Georgia State threw at you that you hadn't been able to prepare for, or was it just about executing?
COACH CHRYST: I thought they did a good job executing. We didn't think we were going to go through an entire season without giving up a touchdown. You're right, we had some missed tackles. Part of that, when we do it on offense, it's what we expect. You know, you're running through it, and defensively we want to make every tackle. So there are always going to be those things we've got to keep working on.

But you know what, they kept playing, and we needed them in the end, and they came up with a big stop. So it was good. But I thought they executed really well on some things. We'll probably look at the film and see how we could have maybe helped ourselves a little bit, but I thought they did a pretty good job across the board, and they had some good players that they made plays as well.

Q. Paul, in the long run, from your standpoint, will a hard fought, tough game like today be better off heading into Big Ten play compared to a runaway victory?
COACH CHRYST: I don't know, you know, and we'd have to play a season with the same group of guys with a different outcome to find out, right? And I think that every time we get to play, we're pretty lucky that way, and do play. You grow from what happens, and you build on the things you do well, and you find ways to get a little bit better.

I don't know how -- I don't know how to answer that, but I appreciate what this group did, and you know what, we're 3-0 going into Big Ten play. That part's good.

Q. Do you think Alex showed more poise than a lot of redshirt freshmen you've been around?
COACH CHRYST: No, I've been impressed. I think that's one of his characteristics that stuck out to me. I thought he did show some poise. I thought one of his better plays was just getting the ball in his hand, and we ran kind of a naked play into some pressure and kind of just stayed with it.

I thought the first third down, that was the first time they'd played that coverage and had good protection, and Jazz ran a good route, and he finished it off. I thought he did some good things today.

Q. What kinds of things gave Bart trouble out there? What kind of caused you to take him out?
COACH CHRYST: You know, it was -- we were just off a little bit on some things. We've got to look back at it. You know, it just seemed like it was a little bit -- we just weren't in rhythm. You know, I didn't feel like he was and initially thought, just give him a little chance just to kind of breathe and see it, and didn't know how the game would play out necessarily.

But we were just -- and I'm anxious to look at it and see. We had that one third down, and we just missed it to Jazz, and we just missed a couple of other ones. There might have been a drop or two in it.

I feel bad for Bart in the sense that so much of the focus will go on that. And I like a lot of what he does, and I thought there were some things today that we'll look at, and I'm sure we can clean up and correct, and we'll look at it and say that was pretty good.

Q. Shaw had a big fumble going into the end zone on that one drive. But how did you like his reaction once he got into the game again?
COACH CHRYST: I thought he was good. I mean, he and Dare carried the load. You appreciate that. I thought -- you know, as we were going into that end of the game, every play was a big play. I thought he ran hard. That's what Brad -- I think that's kind of who he is. You know, he's able to stack two weeks together to kind of start building who he is in games.

I thought the kids -- I appreciate how they just kind of kept their poise and kept playing. I think that no kid goes out there and says, this would be a good time to fumble. This would be a good time to drop one. I think you've got to be careful how you react to them and coach them, and yet there are things that are really important, and we can't -- you know, we all know that we don't want to turn the ball over, and that hurts. Therefore, you don't want to tolerate -- you don't want it to become, well, it just happened.

But you know the intentions of this group. If we're playing a kid that does that, that's on us. I think that stuff happens, and how you respond is as important as what happened.

Q. We saw guys like Shaw and Steffes and A.J. Taylor get into this game a little bit earlier than they did last week. Is that something you think they earned from last week, or is that just getting guys in there for different rhythm and different energy?
COACH CHRYST: I think it's a little bit of both. Bradrick was in early because we were down two tailbacks. Kyle Penniston played earlier because Fum got hurt. A.J. and Q.T., we're going with four, five receivers, and they're part of that mix. We kind of knew that was coming, and I think they've been doing some good things, and they've been earning those reps and gaining confidence in them as they gain confidence in themselves.

But it was -- they're part of that rotation, and we're going to play them.

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