Video: Bielema talks Hurricanes
December 27, 2009 | Football
Wisconsin Football
Champs Sports Bowl Post-Practice Quotes
Dec. 27, 2009
View video of Bielema's comments here
Head Coach Bret Bielema
On Sunday’s practice:
“Today’s like a Thursday of game week, so for us it’s trying to get a dress rehearsal of offense, defense, special teams, like we’ve done during the whole year. I thought our guys had good tempo. Today they had the (Day for Kids) with the other three teams, so it’s kind of a unique day in their preparation, but I thought they handled it pretty well.”
On the benefits of bowl practices:
“Earlier in the preparation we had some great developmental work with some guys that aren’t necessarily going to play Tuesday night, but for us and our program, it’s been valuable. It’s almost like having another spring.”
On the team’s bowl preparation in Orlando:
“The first day was like a monsoon so you’re a little concerned with how the fields are going to hold up, but they did pretty good and I liked the energy (the team) had yesterday, and today was a real big one and they again had good energy and were real clean with the football, so we’ll see where it goes.”
On the similarities between Wisconsin and Miami:
“I think we both believe in a lot of the same things. I talked to Randy today, and to hear his quotes, these teams are a lot more similar than they are dissimilar, I think. Just watching offense and defense and schemes that they have that are like each other.”
On the team’s offensive development:
“For us to get what we need to get done, we believe in running the football. But the part I’ve liked about our development offensively is that if teams want to load the box -- and we’ve had a number of teams go five down lineman and do different things -- and try to prevent us from running the football, we’ve been able to get it in the air.”
On playing for conference pride:
“That was good today with Penn State, a lot of players came by and said, ‘Good luck,’ to me today, and Coach Paterno said the same thing. We’re part of a conference and, obviously, we want to build the reputation of that conference as much as we can. The only way you can do that during the bowl season is to win, so it’s big.”
On being the first Big Ten team to play this bowl season:
“Everywhere I’ve gone during the recruiting season, you travel around and people wish you good luck. I think I was in Fort Lauderdale and there was a Michigan, a Michigan State and a Minnesota coach, and all of them talked about having good success during the bowl season.”
On the team focusing despite the distractions of a bowl trip:
“They’ve done a good job. Our guys really have, I think, a good workman’s mentality. It’s going to throw them off again tomorrow, we’ve got the Kickoff Luncheon tomorrow right in the middle of the day, and they’ve got to go hang out with a bunch of the Miami guys. It’s not something you normally do during regular game week preparation, but they’ll snap in and have fun.”
On the keys to special teams against Miami:
“For us, the two coverage units have to be good. The thing that jumped out to me when I was watching on film from the special teams standpoint is (the Hurricanes) just have a lot of skill. I think, for us, if we could come up with a score in the kicking game, it would be huge. I think we’ve got four scores on the year, and if we could get one more, it would be huge.”
On whether Miami’s running game is “a little underrated:”
“I think it is. They’ve got three guys that are very good. A different run game, too, and, because of their jumping around, they catch a lot of teams off guard.”
On whether the team is buying into the role of underdog:
“If they’re buying, I’m still selling. Miami’s a good football team. Just like us, I thought all three games we could have had a chance to win and didn’t, and every game that they’ve lost they could have (won). On the flip side, there were a couple of games we won that we could have easily, if we didn’t do things well at the end of the game and handle ourselves (well), had go against us, as well.”
