[Barron/MGoBlog]
What are your thoughts about this week’s game?
“Well, it’s a big game, obviously. It’s the next game. It’s a very well coached, good football team. Got a big offensive line. They take pride in running the football. They’re, like I said, well coached and good running back and quarterback’s done very well, the freshman—redshirt freshman. They’ve got a number of tight ends that are all good football players, so this’ll be a big test.”
MGoQuestion: Wisconsin’s offensive style is fairly different from what you’ve faced the last few weeks. How does that impact your line rotation, if at all?
“Well, we’ll always rotate, you know, because the guys have earned the right to rotate, and we feel like they’re playing to be able to go in there. It always helps if you’re fresh. You always can benefit from what one guy tells you when he comes off, how they’re blocking you. But it is, you’re right, it is different. The fast pace of spread offense and then go from that to this style of offense is totally different.”
Your thoughts on getting Taco back and how he looked?
“It’s great to have him back. I’m very, very proud of him. I’m proud of our training staff. I mean, he worked so hard at getting back. Spent countless hours in the training room and you could see out there it was good to have him back.
“He’s had a good week of practice and he’s a senior now. He’s got things to prove and that’s what he’s working for. I was really proud of how much time and how much effort he did to get himself back. That tells you how important it is.”
How do you look at Rashan Gary as far as his progression over the first four weeks?
“He’s getting better every game. He’s getting better. He’s working really hard. And again, I mentioned this once before but one of the key things with Rashan is to have role models like Chris Wormley and Taco. He sees them do it right, and if he doesn’t—not that he doesn’t—but if he doesn’t do it he sees, okay, this is how it’s supposed to be. It’s not having to pull up a highlight tape or something like that to show him. He’s working very hard, and I’m very proud of him also because he knows how important this is for the seniors and the kids ahead of him and he’s doing everything he can to help this team.”
[After THE JUMP: Bryan Mone is practicing,Chase Winovich sneaks into the weight room, and Jourdan Lewis is Jourdan Lewis]
You mentioned guys earning their way into the rotation. What has Chase Winovich done to get in there? He talked about sneaking into the weight room and stuff in the middle of the summer earlier this week.
“Well, Chase has worked very, very hard and Chase was recruited as a linebacker and you can see that Chase has the ability. He can run, he’s stronger than he looks, and he’s worked very hard at getting even stronger. But the biggest thing with Chase is his tremendous desire and effort to do what’s right.
“Sometimes he overthinks it. Chase has helped us a lot, and I figured he would. I was hoping that and I feel he has a lot of talent. Again, there’s another guy that to be able to play behind Taco and to be able to see how Taco has grown has really helped him. He’s gonna help us.”
What have the first four weeks of discussions been like with Bryan [Mone]? He was really excited to get back and I know that you’ve had a good relationship with him over the years.
“He’s been great. Bryan has given so much to this program and to this defensive line and he is so in to that group and our players respect him so much, and for him to get the injury that he had and to watch him again be another guy that has worked so hard at training and so hard at getting it back that him being in practice this week is exciting. Guys, when they saw him come out with his pads on and they see him, they’re excited about that. That fires them up because they love him and they like how he plays, they like what it means to him—it’s just always good to have a guy like that back.”
Two years in a row with bad luck for him. It seemed like, when we were talking to him earlier [in the year], he was very much excited to get back to playing. Is it rough for you as a coach to see a guy have to go through that two years straight, especially knowing that he could be a big time contributor?
“I think that’s part of football. Both of them were unfortunate, you know. You never known when something like that’s going to happen. The fact that he probably had one of the best camps of anybody—he had really, really worked at it. But the good news, and I always look at it positively, [is] we got a whole season ahead of us. For him to be able to come through that now, it’s different than it was last time. He’s pick up right where he left off.”
Obviously the better coverage is the better it is for the defensive line. Was it good to see Jourdan Lewis back out there?
“Oh yeah. The thing is, it all works together, and Don does a great job with pressuring. You know, sometimes when you pressure the linebacker or the safety gets the sack. Other times when you pressure they block him and the D-lineman gets one-on-one, but it all starts back there. You can’t be as aggressive as we are if your secondary isn’t doing a great job.
“You’re right, Jourdan Lewis is…he makes a difference. Not that the other guys didn’t, but Jourdan Lewis is another one of those guys that’s invested and has put so much into this program and now he’s a senior and it’s good that he’s back.”
The previous few weeks most of the sacks have gone to the linebackers, a lot on blitzes, then this week they all went to your group, the linemen. Is there anything to that, or is that just--
“Like I mentioned, sometimes if you’re pressuring they’ve got to decide: are they going to block the linebacker or are they going to block the D-lineman. This game, a number of those sacks were four-man rushes. It’s just—there’s been a number of sacks that we’ve left on the field and our guys know that, that if they’d just done this a little different or they just got this they would have got it.
“It’s not about sacks, you know. I’ve said this before. Sometimes you get hot and you get sacks, but it’s about pressuring the quarterback. It’s about making sure that that quarterback can’t set his feet and that quarterback doesn’t have the time that he wants, and sometimes you get the reward of getting a sack and you get that minus yardage, but a lot of times if you make him move around in there you get the same result.”
The impact of adding Bryan back in the mix: does it help those guys in the middle? Have you seen times the last couple weeks where they could use that extra guy to be in there?
“I haven’t.”
Colorado, you didn’t rotate as much.
“No, not as much, but we had a three-man rotation. It’s a credit to them, too, that the 3-technique can play the nose and the nose can play the 3[-tech]. I mentioned that earlier that that’s what we always want to do and they bought in to that, and it gives us a chance then to be able to keep a fresh guy. It’s always good when you add another experienced football player.”
When you have a guy like Jourdan who radiates such charisma on and off the field, what can that do for your program?
“That’s what you want in your whole defense. But Jourdan, you just feel him. You feel him pregame, you feel him out there in warmups, and then you see him make a play like the fourth-down play. You just go, ‘Well, Jourdan’s back.’ That was just coming off of being out, so I look for him to get better and better every week.”
Were you involved in his recruiting much?
“Yeah, yeah. I remember specifically him coming in here. It’s neat, him and Delano [Hill]. I was teasing Delano, I was in his home and the young man Lavert Hill I think was an eighth grader at the time, and I remember him standing by the kitchen while we were talking to Delano; now he’s here. It’s just great to see those guys have success.”
When a young quarterback keeps his composure like Wisconsin’s did up at East Lansing, does that get your attention?
“Yeah. It tells you a lot about their program. It tells you they’re well coached. It tells you that, I mean, that he’s a good quarterback. Their offensive line protected him for the most part. That’s why I say it’s a test, and they’ve done a very good job.”
You guys have been doing this a long time. Do you look forward to facing more of an old-school offense, especially after Penn State?
“Yeah, I like playing against this kind of football. It tests your guys. It’s kind of like how you were brought up. The good thing is we kind of see that a lot in the spring, so it kind of brings back, ‘Oh yeah, we did this in the spring’ instead of having to play all the spread stuff and all that kind of thing. Get back to good old fashioned football.”
Jim said maybe the field’s not wide enough to handle all you guys. Is it just their size with that line, or is there something more?
“They’re well coached and they’ve got playing experience. I think a lot of these guys, even though they’re fairly young yet, they played a lot last year. I mean, a lot of these guys played. They’ve got one senior, but most of them have started for a full year going into this year, you know, so they’ve got Big Ten experience.”
Are there any classic guys, any of these elite guys or anything?
“I don’t ever like to single a guy out. I think they’re all good. I really do. I think they’re a typical Wisconsin offensive line that is gonna keep coming and keep coming and give you everything that’s there.”
Do you think Bryan will play this week?
“Yeah, I mean, he’s practicing. We’ll make that decision at the end of the week, but he’s been practicing.”
Do you think this will be your, and maybe from a defensive line perspective particularly, most physical game of the season?
“I think it will be. I think it will be. This is gonna be—the style of football they play, the experience they have, and they’re Big Ten. You’re gonna get physical football in the Big Ten, and all of those lead up to that.”
Every team wants to play physically, obviously, but you’ve really hammered that home, the physical and the depth thing. Is this a game that will highlight that?
“We hope every game highlights it, you know. I mean, our guys know that this is a big game. It’s the next game. It’s a Big Ten game. It’s a team that’s undefeated. We know this is a big football game. Experienced football players and talented football players and Michigan football players, when you play that kind of a game then you step it up. That’s what we’ve been talking about all week. This is, okay, let’s go, let’s get to the next level now. Let’s take another step. That’s what we want to have happen in every game, whoever we’re playing.”
Asking about an offensive player, but De’Veon seems to be taking it up a notch in terms of tough running? What do you see from him in practice? He was outstanding in pass protection last week?
“He just works extremely hard, you know. All of our offense does. When you’re going against our offense in practice, it’s like, who’s this guy? He’s going hard. Who’s this guy? He’s going hard. De’Veon’s been out there, you seem him out there every day and he brings his lunch bucket and goes as hard as he can. I’m proud of him. You see him as a young high school kid and you see him now…he’s doing a great job.”
How satisfying is it for you to see? For a few years you talked about all these linemen that were freshmen and young then, to see them finally fulfilling what you had—
“That’s what makes it really rewarding is just to see these kids and watch them grow and watch them grow and watch them grow. And Jim’s done such a great job of making sure they kept coming and that they grow the right way. To see them in their senior year now, that’s what it’s all about. You say, ‘Okay, this guy is getting what he’s worked for.’ You hope it keeps going that way.”
That’s what you projected a few years ago.
“Yeah, yeah.”
So you thought even then that they would become what they have.
“Yeah. I felt these kids played very early. Some of them weren’t probably ready to play yet but had to play and played. They just keep stepping and keep going and that’s rewarding.”