WISCONSIN FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 19, 2020

Paul Chryst

Postgame Press Conference

Wisconsin - 20, Minnesota - 17

PAUL CHRYST: Well, it was a good football game and I'm awfully proud of the way our guys competed and played. There was some tremendous efforts by a lot of guys, and this game means something, and certainly saw that and felt it at the end. Just really proud of the way the guys fought through a lot of different things and, to get this win, and the number of different guys that contributed sure is good.

Q. You mentioned a lot of guys contributing. Wolf stepping in, Burrell with a pick, Dunn, Larsh, but what about Groshek? You're down to not many guys who can tote the rock. What did his performance tell you today?

PAUL CHRYST: I thought it was a tremendous performance and I thought the way he finished runs and obviously had the, they got off to a good start and had the big touchdown run. But I was just impressed with the way he just kept driving the pile and I thought it was a guy that played with a decided heart and put it all out there. It shows you what he, he cares about this team and was going to do anything he could to help this team.

Q. Can you talk about your continued struggles on offense and how hard is it for these kids to keep playing through that when it's obviously frustrating to them that they're not doing things on offense they usually do?

PAUL CHRYST: Yeah, I think that's part of the battle and I thought that, kind of kept fighting through that, and know that it takes everyone. Obviously, when you struggle it can wear on not just the offense, the whole team, and yet you just got to be resilient and you got to keep going and I thought in many ways they did and came up with some drives.

And there was times where we didn't change the field, but I thought we had some good drives and guys stepped in and, obviously, we got to be and want to be a lot better there and it's hard, makes it hard to -- you're going to be in a lot of games like this, it's going to be, you got to be able to score points. But we found a way tonight to score more than Minnesota and that was big.

Q. When Chase came in the second time for, when Graham got injured, that's a tough moment. You guys are in the middle of a drive and kind of knocking on the door. What did you think of his poise in that moment and really throughout the game?

PAUL CHRYST: Yeah, it was, that was a -- we had a little package for him and tried to use that at the beginning of the second half. But to come in and, where we're at and, obviously, came up with a big play and showed poise on that play. And there's a guy that has a lot of respect in the locker room and shows up every day and competes and cares about his teammates and so it was, he was good in many ways.

Q. You mentioned the way that you guys responded to some of the adversity today. Both times that Minnesota went ahead, you guys came back with a 75-yard touchdown drive. What do you think that says about your team that even with the struggles you've had that when they went down like that they immediately answered?

PAUL CHRYST: Yeah, you know we talk all the time but to be able to do that is impressive, when you can answer a score with a score. We were able to do that some other games, but they were field goals, and that was a huge response, and we had a lot of guys, you know, Jon Dietzen stepped in and went to left tackle and Seltz went the whole game and Cormac Sampson did a nice job. I thought up front there was a lot of really, really good things being done, and I thought Mason played well, and it was -- they care about this team and obviously we haven't been real explosive at all and struggling at times offensively, but we were able to put together some plays, some drives.

We had some good stuff in the passing game on those drives. The one that Chase finished we had a couple big throw down to Ferg down the middle and there was a big third down where Dunner stepped up. I mean, Dunner, I think he had six or seven catches and it was, we had a lot of production out of the guys that, older guys that, you needed them to be productive.

Q. I think on the field after the game you were asked the meaning of this game. I don't know if you were watching the celebration. What does it mean to you? I know the record's not what you wanted, but this, just this day.

PAUL CHRYST: You know, when you can see your guys -- I think what it means is, you saw it after the game. It's genuine joy. Obviously this game, growing up here and being around it has always meant a lot.

But we have got guys on this team that didn't know much about it until they got here, but they quickly realized that this game means a lot. To be able to find a way and come out victorious, that is special. There's guys on this team that last time we played we didn't win the Axe and so I think that certainly it's not taken for granted and, but you just saw it at the end. I mean, there was genuine, it was every guy on that team rallying around each other and just celebrating together and that was a, personally for me, that was a great sight.

Q. Was Jack Coan available for you guys today after not being available last week? And do you know anything about the extent of Graham's injury at the moment?

PAUL CHRYST: Yeah, Jack was -- Graham was out there celebrating, so I think he's, obviously he was, he had the hit and wasn't going to play the rest of the game, but saw him in the locker room afterwards and he was out with the guys. So we'll find out more tomorrow, certainly.