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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 13, 2011Bret BielemaAaron HenryTHE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Bielema. Coach, thanks for joining us. COACH BIELEMA: Thank you. Good to be on. THE MODERATOR: Give us an opening statement and we'll take questions from the media. COACH BIELEMA: Absolutely. We've gotten practices down in our spring ball and excited to finish it up here the next two weeks, take us into the fall camp which enters the season. Very excited to be part of the new conference, to be part of the Leaders Division, have an opportunity to play in a championship game, something we as a conference have been able to sit back and watch over the years. Now we have our own tradition to set up. Excited about how the league has shaped together. It's going to be fun to watch the end of this month, too. A number of players on our team, a number of Big Ten players entering the draft. Be exciting to see them entering the next step in their careers. THE MODERATOR: Let's take questions from the media. Q. Losing a lot of the offensive line to graduation, what do you see there? Talk a little bit about the state of rebuilding your line. COACH BIELEMA: The first thing we did is we took Ricky Wagner, who started at right tackle and moved him to left tackle. He's handled that transition pretty good. I told him he had big shoes to fill. He's got a difficult task in front of him, but I think somebody that's up for the challenge. Kevin Zeitler at right guard is playing really, really good football, hasn't given up a sack in three years as a starter. Excited for him to go in his senior year. The part that we have enjoyed is we actually have six guys that have started ballgames coming back to vie for those five spots, really feel good about the work they've done. I went in the indoor facility the other day. There were actually six NFL offensive linemen working out in our building, guys because they're on lockout. To see the tradition they have, know that our guys want to uphold that tradition, is the easiest way to make those guys go. Q. Losing leading tacklers, are you more concerned where the defense is than where the offense is? Where is your hole right at the moment? COACH BIELEMA: The big thing is you always are worried about production. J.J. made a lot of really good plays for us. We have some core guys coming back up front. To have Patrick Butrym playing the way he is right now has been a great leader for us up front. At the linebacker position, Mike Taylor has done a great job for us. We'll have Chris Borland returning for us in the fall. In the back end, a guy that has been a rock in our program, Aaron Henry, has done a nice job of building those guys during the winter when the coaches weren't around. Saturday was probably our best defensive scrimmage of the spring. I think it's a reflection of a unit that's really continued to grow. Q. Of all those changes coming into the Big Ten with Nebraska, two divisions, championship game, new coaches, what intrigues you the most? Is there something with this new landscape that you're most interested to see how it plays out? COACH BIELEMA: You know me, I'm a one-game-at-a-time guy. Big picture for us here at Wisconsin, you know our history, for us to be able to say every year to a recruit that we're going to play Ohio State and Penn State, those are marquee teams with a tradition that goes across the country. For us nationally to recruit kids and be able to say that is pretty special. We commonly recruit against other schools in the Legends Division pretty heavily. They try to battle us, Ohio kids, East Coast kids. For us to be able to say that is a big thing for us. I'm really excited for the buildup in the race for the championship game, to be able to have that to look forward to for the end of the year. When I was at Kansas State, we lost two games early in the schedule, went on to run the rest of our conference record, ended up in a Big 12 championship game against an undefeated No. 1 team in the country, Oklahoma, we beat them handily, 35-7, put us in a BCS game, did a nice thing to flavor up our season. Q. You've been in a league that had a championship game. Have you sat down and thought about the advantages and disadvantages? COACH BIELEMA: Absolutely. There's two sides to every story. I think if you're a team that maybe loses a game early on, you realize you can battle back and get yourself in a position, if you win the game, to be in a BCS game, is something special. On the flipside of it, when we were at Kansas State, we knocked off Oklahoma who was No. 1. They went on to the championship game and got beat by LSU. In today's day and age, that wouldn't happen. If you have a team that's undefeated, ranked 1 or 2, you lost that conference game, you'd be knocked out of the championship game for sure and possibly the BCS. There's a scary thought to everything. The best thing, I think it allows us to showcase the great conference we have longer in the season, which is a good thing. Q. The Big Ten is probably at a point where it could absorb a loss like Oklahoma did in 2003 and maybe still play for a championship. COACH BIELEMA: Well, it is I think because of strength of schedule. Bringing in Nebraska bolsters everything that much more. It's an intriguing thing to look at. Q. Everybody has rivals in the other division, you're thinking about what Michigan is up to, what Michigan State is up to, yet at the same time there are the other five teams in your division. Does it take a little while maybe in regular conversation between fans or players and coaches to adapt to the whole setup? COACH BIELEMA: Without a doubt, I think it's sparked an interest not only within our fan base but every team in the league. To bring in Nebraska with their tradition and history, I think coaches and players are a lot alike. It's fun to talk about. When the season buckles in, you have no idea what's going on around you except the game in front of you. That changes obviously every Sunday. What we're all in it for is to build interest for our fans, have a chance to showcase this great league across the country, not only on the Big Ten Network, but our affiliations with all the major networks. It's only going to be a positive thing and makes us part of what's special with college football. Every week is a playoff the way we do things, and nothing is going to showcase that more than this year. Q. I can't believe you haven't gotten a quarterback question yet. I'll do that. Jon Budmayr is the heir apparent. How is that going? Assess the situation. COACH BIELEMA: He has been running with the ones. One of the things he's benefited from, this is actually his third spring. He came in as a high school senior early in the graduation process, entered school in January. That is really beneficial for him now in a year where he could potentially be the starter. Another guy in contention is Curt Phillips, a young man that has had some knee issues since he's been here. If all goes well, he'll be back with us in the fall and could provide some competition there. Two freshmen, one a redshirt freshmen, Joe Brennan, from the East Coast, from Jersey, really has a live arm. He's trying to get better every day. The game comes at you pretty fast when you're a freshman, but he handled it well. Kind of a newcomer that we're excited to have with us, Joel Stave, turned down some scholarship opportunities. He's on a deal here with us that he walked on initially. Indicated he'll get a reward early on. He can always earn that scholarship faster than later if he continues to do the things he's doing. Great huddle presence, a very live arm. He's a big, tall joker, about 6'4", great reach, great arm strength. Fun to watch him practice. Q. Some people may have overlooked Tolzein. How difficult will it be to replace him? COACH BIELEMA: It's going to be extremely difficult the way Scott was able to manage the game. He's a guy that from preparation Sunday till game time on Saturday, nobody put in more film time, more diligence into game planning. The thing that was really good was to watch his growth from year one to year two. If you remember back two years ago we lost three games. I know he really learned from those losses, put himself in a position this year to lead us to the season we had. I think a lot of it was learning how to deal with adversity. I think young quarterbacks, because they've always been that confident guy, the guy that everybody looks to and respects, anytime they have a little bit of adversity, it's always tough to overcome. That's what age and experience will bring you. Q. You thought Wozniak was ahead of Jacob Pedersen before he got hurt. I'm curious, what do you think he can bring next season? COACH BIELEMA: Not to mix the two. Brian has just been a guy that has always impressed us from high school recruiting, to bringing him into camp. Very strong, very determined. Every one of those setbacks he's had, he's come back sooner than later. He's had the injury bug unfortunately. To get him back out there yesterday was great. We think he might be able to bring us some things like Jake Byrne on the line of scrimmage, powerful guy, in blocking, pass protection. But also he's a gifted athlete that hopefully can add to our passing game. On the flipside, in reference to Jacob, I would say he's impressed me so far that he might be three years from now one of the best tight ends we've ever had in this program. I think we have five guys on NFL rosters now before he enters the draft. He could fall right in line with those guys, if not even better. Q. What have you seen that allows you to make that statement? COACH BIELEMA: Going back to his freshman year, a guy that came in my office and was going to drop out of school and become a mortician, to a guy that stayed in, put his nose to the grindstone, I think he caught a minimum of three or four touchdown passes, really filled in well when Lance went down during the season, athletically is very gifted. He's got sufficient strength, 245-pound kid now, originally was 210 pounds. He built his body into a dominant athlete that can play big on the big field. Q. He came in and said he was going to leave and be a mortician. What did you say? COACH BIELEMA: You know how freshmen go through transition issues. He said he was going to drop out, play summer baseball, become a mortician. We had a conversation, slowed things down a little bit. It was ironically the week we were playing Minnesota. The name escapes me. They had the big wide receiver who could make plays all over the place two years ago. We put him in his jersey on a scout team and he had a ridiculous week of practice. It kind of propelled him for the rest of the year on the scout team. Translated big into last season. THE MODERATOR: Coach, appreciate you coming on. Talk to you soon. COACH BIELEMA: Thank you very much. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Aaron Henry. Thanks for joining us. AARON HENRY: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Talk a little bit about how spring football is going, then we'll take some questions. AARON HENRY: Spring football is going relatively well. Defensively we're still working out some things that we're going to do that is going to be new schematically. A whole new defensive mindset. We do have some new guys coming in, but I think it's only going to be for the betterment of the program. THE MODERATOR: Let's go to questions. Q. When you first saw the schedule, how did you look at it? AARON HENRY: Me personally, I was more so excited about it. Man, I guess our whole new mindset is putting the ball down. Doesn't matter who we're playing, who is on our schedule. I was pretty intrigued by it. I was pretty intrigued we were playing Ohio State, Nebraska. Know what I'm saying? I kind of looked at it and took it as a challenge. Q. When you look at the defense in front of you, who do you think you miss more right now, J.J. Watt or Culmer St. Jean? AARON HENRY: That's a tough one, man. I think both of those guys brought something different to the table. It's pretty obvious that J.J. probably had the biggest impact as far as a whole defensively. Anytime you have people doubling you, anytime you can command teams to key on you, it can definitely free up other players to make plays on the back end, especially myself. Both of those guys were tremendous in our program. I think J.J. from a defensive line standpoint brought a whole other aspect. He created plays for not only the people on the D-line, but the people on the back end. He turned those one and two yard gains into losses. J.J. was definitely a key player for us. Culmer played tremendously as well. Q. How have you transitioned from being the spokesman of the secondary to the spokesman of the defense at this point? How has the new offensive coordinator been? AARON HENRY: It's still a work in progress, don't get me wrong. I'm still learning. I think I have some really, really good characteristics of becoming a leader. Just being a spokesman on the back end, it all evolves around me making plays. With the more plays that I make, the more people are willing and going to listen to me. Just like J.J. Watt last year, I don't think none of us would have believed him if he didn't make any plays. Because he played at a high level, he commanded so much more attention, you know what I mean? Being with Coach Ash, our new defensive coordinator, I think it's just going to allow us on the back end to do a couple more things schematically and allow other secondary to get involved in the blitz a little bit more. Q. How is it going with Shelton at strong safety? AARON HENRY: I think Shelton has done tremendous things for us, especially this spring. He's definitely coming along. Like I said originally, both of us safeties, we're still learning, you know what I'm saying? There has been some new things added to our defense. I think those guys, they're definitely learning, taking things in stride, working with them. Shelton has done some tremendous things for us this spring. The better his play is, the easier my job will be and the easier the defense will be. If we can have better play from that strong safety position, it's only going to make us a better team. Q. One other guy is Southward. Is he starting to show up on the field? AARON HENRY: Yes. Dez is starting to see the big picture. Originally when Dez first got here, he was just an athletic freak, you know what I'm saying? He still is, but he's starting to see the big picture. The game is starting to slow down. Coach B talked about experience and age is the best teacher. With Dez, he has had a year under his belt for him to play on the field, whatnot. I think coming into this spring, he's starting to see the big picture and things are definitely starting to slow down for him. Q. Chris Borland, how does he look this spring? AARON HENRY: Chris Borland brings a whole bunch of things to our defense. He really hasn't been able to practice this spring. We definitely look forward to having him in the fall. He's like a hard-nosed football player. He's like one of those old school guys that is going to get to the ball. Doesn't matter how he gets to the ball, but he's definitely going to make plays for you on the defense. With him as an addition, being our middle linebacker, the kid is freakishly athletic, it's going to make us a better defense. I think once we have him back healthy, you know what I'm saying, the sky is definitely going to be the limit for our D. Q. Going against the offensive line, has anything changed there even though you lost the left side of the line? AARON HENRY: To be completely honest with you, if it has changed, I haven't noticed it, man. These guys, every day they come out to play. Coach Chryst does a tremendous job as far as play calling goes. Our offensive line is tremendous. We lost two All-Americans last year and I can't tell. These guys have definitely stepped up and been playing the whole time. These guys are giving us a tremendous look. I'm definitely excited about the season for them. Q. What is it like to face someone who is 320 pounds? AARON HENRY: I guess I can sum it up in one word: hell. It's extremely tough when you're playing those guys and they get to the second level. Along with our quickness, I think that's definitely one thing that helps us. Our linemen here are so freaking athletic, man, it's kind of crazy because you try to put a move on them, they moving with you. I think the linemen here, man, it's only been going on for the last, what, five or ten years, the linemen are extremely good. They do a tremendous job in giving us a look and getting us ready for the season. Q. You talked about some of the defensive backs. Talk about Antonio Fenelus. AARON HENRY: Man, Antonio has done a great job for us in the past. What he brings to the table, him being a hard-nosed football player, he's one of those guys, if he could, he would press you every down, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes our scheme doesn't allow that. I'm extremely excited to see what he's going to do this year. Being that we do have veterans back there in the secondary, I'm excited to see him play again. He was going through a couple knee issues during the off-season. But all those are corrected, man. I think he's more so excited than we are to see him back out there playing. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Aaron. AARON HENRY: Thank you. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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