EUGENE — Wisconsin lost to No. 6 Oregon 21-7 Saturday night at Autzen Stadium.
Luke Fickell recapped the sixth straight loss for the Badgers (2-6, 0-5 Big Ten), who enter their second bye week before hosting Washington.
Below is a transcript of Fickell’s postgame press conference.
LUKE FICKELL
Opening Statement…
“This is a tough one to swallow again, but tougher because I thought we put ourselves in a position where we had an opportunity, and I thought defensively, our guys came to play. I thought from the get-go, with the surprise onside (kick) that they recovered. Didn’t bat an eye and stopped them…battled their butts off the whole first half. They really battled the whole time. There’s some things to be proud of, there’s also some things to be disappointed in. We can’t play undisciplined. We can’t have as many penalties as we had. We can’t give them more opportunities on third down. We can’t make really poor decisions. One of our seniors to get ejected…that’s not an aggressive mistake. We try to pride ourselves on being disciplined. That was one of those things tonight that you’re not going to win a football game especially against a team like this on the road if we don’t play more disciplined and can’t eliminate some of those big penalties. I think that stands out to me more than anything else.”
On RB Gideon Ituka’s role…
“We saw a little bit at the end of the game last week, and he hasn’t gotten a whole lot of opportunities. He put the ball on the ground. Obviously, the conditions were different but he had put the ball on the ground in fall camp, and maybe didn’t get as many opportunities until things have happened. But I’ll tell you what, I think he showed us some things tonight that he can be a back of the future. I know it’s one game, it’s one opportunity, but I thought he did a really, really good job. I’m disappointed he got a penalty at the end of the game there, but I don’t care if you’re young or you’re old, those are the types of things that can’t happen if it was in a situation where it could’ve made the difference in a ballgame. Those are another one of those things as a young guy, the way he played, the way he ran the football, it gives us, not just hope, but the ability to have a little bit more physical of a run game.”
On thoughts of making a change at quarterback…
“There was a thought, there was. We thought about it again, and talked about it before the game, too, just based on if the first couple drives don’t go our way. We want to give Danny (O’Neil) an opportunity. As we were rolling, I didn’t ask as much until halftime. I think the conditions of things make it difficult to throw another guy in there that hasn’t taken the snaps, hasn’t been in that situation. Whether it was pouring or the wind was blowing sideways. There were a lot of other factors, but it might be one of those ones where he kind of goes back and kicks himself. I think there’s some opportunities there for Danny. And we’re going to need Danny down the stretch. And we need Danny to stick with us and see how this thing goes.”
On freshman LB Cooper Catalano…
“There’s the future. And I’m not saying that Christian Alliegro wasn’t doing really good and Tackett Curtis isn’t a guy that’s been a starting linebacker for us. But those young guys stepped up for us tonight. Obviously watching it from the sidelines, haven’t looked at the film or anything yet, but those guys played really well. They’re mature beyond their years. They actually communicate and talk really well on the football field. I know the guys in front of them, the defensive line guys, really respect them. Not just because of the way they play but the way they lead and how they help those guys up front. There’s just some natural things about them. And to be honest, I think they played pretty darn good tonight.”
On the Wisconsin passing game…
“I mean give (Oregon) credit, they do a darn good job. It’s a really good team, a really good defense. But yeah, you were there. The conditions were very difficult to throw the football in. And not to mention a team that pressures a bit. Your defense is playing as well as they are so I think that’s one of those things that we can’t sit here and think we’re going to score seven points and win a football game. But that is a little bit of the nature of what we are and what we’re doing and the conditions that which they are. Again, you have to be able to throw the ball better, but it was a tough night to be able to throw the football.”
On OL Jake Renfro’s status…
“I think after last week’s game, we didn’t think we felt like he was going to make it this week. He didn’t practice all week. That’s not abnormal, maybe he gets in there later on Wednesdays or some Thursdays, but I don’t think he was feeling very good and he wasn’t able to come practice at all on Wednesday and Thursday so we knew it wasn’t going to be an opportunity for him. We knew we were going to go with Davis (Heinzen), and if something changed, it would change. Davis got rolled up a little bit and Ryan Cory had to go in there tonight. It’s all hands on deck now, I mean you guys can see it. [Cade Yacamelli] went out and not that Gideon wasn’t doing a darn good job, and then, Grover Bortolloti had to go in there and play some tail back as well. That kickoff unit is a whole new unit. Most were just guys that busted their butt and don’t get a whole lot of opportunities just because of how the numbers are right now.”
On staying positive…
“It’s difficult but I’ll be honest with you, you walk in that locker room, as disappointed as you are, as much as you want to lose your mind, you look at those guys’ eyes and they’re not batting an eye. They’re not blaming each other, not pointing a finger at each other. They’re not arguing with each other; we might’ve had one, but none of the guys that are playing. They understood what this mountain was going to look like. I think the mountain has gotten a hell of a lot bigger than even what we thought from the get go, but it’s not hard for me to go in there and look in some of those seniors’ eyes and realize they’ve got one month of college football left, and to give them everything I’ve got. I think the young guys feel the same way. They look at some of those guys like [Darryl Peterson III] and Riley [Mahlman] and Jake Renfro, all those guys, and just recognize where we are, but this is unfortunately a part of the game, a part of the game that sucks, but they’ve got something to play for still.”
On slowing down after the first half…
“I don’t want to complain about calls, but the very first play of the second half, with 35 yards, I mean it’s ridiculous, to be honest with you, right there on the edge that you don’t call. But to be honest, even that last drive in the first half, they started to find a little bit of something inside, and I don’t know exactly what it was, but they found some movement up front and did a good job. It’s one of those things where we had some guys even inside, Parker Petersen, that was down this week. [Jay’viar] Suggs played, but he was out most of the week. I don’t think he probably played as much as he would normally play, and I think some of that maybe got a wear and tear on us a little bit there at the end of the first half and a little bit of the second half.”
On ending the scoring drought…
“Everything matters, that’s what I say to those guys in there. Everything matters. It’s the last two plays of the game, they matter. I mean, where we are, everything matters. So, you score points, yeah it matters, we’re not going to win if we score seven points probably. But you’ve got to score seven before you can score ten, and you’ve got to score 10 before you can score 14, and at some point in time, we have to find ways to string these things together, get better, and score more points. It’s not going to change. And I think that we weren’t able to do it well enough tonight, in tough conditions against a really good football team and a really good defense, but we’ve got to expect more.
On taking shots to generate chunk plays…
“Look, there’s guys on the outside that deserve some opportunities to take some of those chunk plays. I don’t know that we took as many of them tonight. But also tonight, the conditions of things, and then you want to play complimentary football, there’s a balance of what we’re trying to do, and some times those shots can put you in a position where you’re right back to where you started. Whether it’s second and ten, or a turnover. But I think, more than anything, we’ve got a game coming up and it’s in our ability to take some of those shots, understand if they’re going to be fifty-fifty, thirty-seventy, whatever it’s going to be. They still have to be taken in order to loosen things up. Tonight was a harder time to do it because for most of the game, or half of the game, conditions were not much conducive to take any shots, but we’re not going to be able to line up there and run the ball for 250 yards against a team like that unless we can loosen some things up downfield. We can throw the football a hell of a lot better, and that’s just what we’ve got to be able to do.”
On what the bye week will look like…
“Well, I don’t know. It looks like we’ll get back around 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning and normally a bye week Sunday is the best time because guys don’t come in on Sundays and get a little bit of time to kind of sleep and rest a little bit, but it’s going to be tough. I mean, you’d love to go out on a bye week and just continue to get better and find ways to get better. Right now, where we are, you know, Riley Mahlman’s taking every snap, and Joe Brunner’s taking every snap on offense and Emerson Mandell is taking every snap on offense as a redshirt freshman. I’m not sure how much they’ll be able, or should do, during a bye week. But yet, we still have to get a hell of a lot better. So, the normal script for a bye week is going to be a little bit different. We’ve got to practice, we’ve got to get back out there, we’ve got to get some guys healthy if we can, but we’ve got to find a way to have some rhythm here for this last month of the season.”
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