Football
Wisconsin head football coach Gary Andersen opened his press conference Monday by praising his team for its resiliency in what was a hard-fought 27-10 victory against South Florida. After a rather pedestrian offensive performance in the first half, the Badgers rallied to score 24 second half points.
“It’s great to be in the position we’re in to win at home. Very good second half,” Andersen said. “I thought the kids did a great job again dealing with some adversity that faced them which you’ll get every weekend every football game. They did it well.”
Andersen also spoke very highly of his defense, which ranks top-20 nationally in several major categories. Andersen said he’s not surprised by the caliber of play from the defense considering lack of experience.
“I would never say I’m overly surprised,” Andersen said. “But I’m happy with where they sit at this point. And if they can sustain that and maintain that for 12 regular season games, they will be a special defense.”
Although the second-year Wisconsin coach sounded happy with the overall direction that the team is headed in, he did mention that having greater success passing the ball will be necessary in order to become an elite team.
“We don’t want to be pigeonholed as an offense,” Andersen said. “We need to mold the offense to be as effective as it can be with the young men that we have. And we’re still looking for development. That’s coaching. And that’s player performance.”
On the injury front, Andersen confirmed speculation that sophomore wide receiver Rob Wheelwright has fully healed from injury and is ready to go. He also announced that Joel Stave will take snaps in practice again this week.
Women’s soccer
With the 1-0 victory over Purdue, the women’s soccer team recorded its eighth shutout in 11 games. When asked about her team’s shutdown defense, head coach Paula Wilkins said that good defense is a team effort that every player on the field plays a part in.
The cornerstone of that defense is current Big Ten co-defensive player of the week, standout goalkeeper Genevieve Richard. When asked what she has done this year to play at this high of a level, Wilkins told reporters that her experience makes “hard plays look simple.”
However, she quickly added that when one player wins an award, the rest of the team deserves recognition for their contribution as well.
Wilkins also discussed the return of senior forward Cara Walls, one of the best goal scorers on the team.
“Anytime you have a senior on the field that can score goals, it gives confidence to the people around her. She holds possession of the ball better than any player we have right now,” Wilkins said. “That takes away from no other player on the team, but it is just something she has been able to develop over the past couple of years. She adds a different dimension to the field.”
With the victory over Purdue Sunday, the 2014 team became the fastest group in school history to reach the 10-win plateau. Wilkins attributed the historic start to an abundance of quality veteran leadership combined with a large number of players with potent scoring ability.
Wisconsin will play Ohio State this Friday and Penn State Sunday, and Wilkins feels both games will be tough tests for her team.
Volleyball
Coming off a tough loss against Penn State, head coach Kelly Sheffield began his portion of the news conference by talking about how impressed he was with the bounce-back victory over Ohio State.
“I was really happy with how the team responded coming out of [Penn State],” Sheffield said. “Against Ohio State [Sunday], I thought we responded the right way against a team that’s very difficult to prepare for and I thought the team was ready to go. I thought our coaching staff, the assistants did a really, really good job of having the team prepared and ready to move forward.”
A reporter hinted at the idea that the loss to Penn State may serve as a positive thing for the team and bring the players “back down to Earth” after such an incredible run of dominance. Sheffield brushed off that notion.
“I don’t know if it’s a back to earth thing. It’s just I think when you get it handed to you, you don’t play the way you want to play,” Sheffield said. “I think you’re able to really look closely, especially when you’re playing a really talented team. You get to go back and get to evaluate. You’ve got to hand it to us, we weren’t just outplayed.”
The Badgers are slated to play two road games this week against Northwestern Wednesday and then Illinois Saturday. The stout defense of Northwestern, as well as the veteran leadership of Illinois, will surely make things interesting for Wisconsin this week.
