g andersen - 7 24 13

7/27/2019 G Andersen - 7 24 13

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An Interview With:

WISCONSINCOACH GARY ANDERSEN

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by GaryAndersen.

COACH ANDERSEN: It's great to behere, excited to get to this point of the year. It'sbeen a crazy six and a half months. And just a lotof thanks goes out to everybody surroundingWisconsin, from the administration, Coach Alvarezand all of his people that made the transitionpossible for the coaches, the wives that areinvolved, the kids that are involved, the staff. It'salways a very difficult time for the moms involved.And I publicly just thank them for allowing thecoaches to move in.

Thank the kids also for putting us in aposition to be able to build trust. Trust is a bigthing with us. We talked about it day one, and Ithink after six and a half months we've got trustwithin players to coaches and coaches to players.

So excited about moving into what we callthe fourth quarter, which is the season for us. It'san exciting time and this is a big part of it. We'rekicking it off today. Questions.

Q. When there are coach ing changes,normally it's with a program that has not hadsuccess. How different is it when you go to aprogram that has, and how do you handle thatprocess differently?

COACH ANDERSEN: You know, I thinkyou always try to -- as a head coach, big part of your job -- I tell myself this all the time hiring thecoach as a head coach is really game day as acoordinator, if you will. You need to be prepared.

It's not something that should catch you bysurprise. You have to formulate a plan,understand a lot of things, what's the pay scale,what type of coach you're looking for, what type of recruiting are you going to be in. Does he fit whatyou need as an assistant coach and for me it's twothings when I hire an assistant coach. Number

one, take care of kids and, number two, you've got

to be able to recruit.So that's how I look at it. No different,maybe a bigger pool of coaches at the Universityof Wisconsin than it would be at some other placesI've been, but it's always a challenge to always getthe best coach available.

Q. What's it like to take over a programthat really doesn't from the outside appear tobe broken or in dire need of great rebuilding?What kind of imprint do you put on itimmediately? What have you put on itimmediately, I guess, to sort of change theswing a little bit?

COACH ANDERSEN: Well, I think,number one, I'm not interested in comparing whatwas different, whether that may have been whatwe deem as being great, good, or indifferent.

There's going to be differences when youtake over a program. It's important to put your ownstamp on it. So I've never asked the question of how things work. There's a lot of different ways todo it. And there was a lot of success.

For us, it's sit back and look at and get ourcore values into place, let our kids understandagain the trust factor. Let them understand thetrue set of core values that we're going to holdthem accountable to a high level.

And as coaches, as players, and really asa university, we expect the kids to succeedsocially, academically and athletically. That's aneasy statement to make. There's a lot that goesinto that, but that's our stamp. Young men thatwalk out socially, our goal is to change them from ayoung man into a man. And our goal academicallyis to allow them to receive a world-class education.

And it's truly a world-class education, it'snot just a degree at Wisconsin. It's powerful. It willcarry you through the rest of your life if you allow itto and to compete at the highest level athletically.

That's our stamp, that's who we are, and that'swhat we've tried to get done in the last six and ahalf months.

And trust me, I do understand it. Wewalked into a program that is absolutely -- was notbroke. It's been very successful and there's great

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young men that have been recruited there, and theprior staff did a great job in that area.

Q. Coach, we've seen that Wisco nsinhas gone and recruited more into Utah, pickedup a prospect there recently. Is recruitingoutside of perhaps Wisconsin's traditionalrecruiting foo tprint, particularly in the MountainWest area, going to be a priority movingforward?

COACH ANDERSEN: I think if you lookback in the past, there's again different staffs,Coach Alvarez was obviously there for a long time.Brett and his staff had an identity where they wererecruiting, number one.

Ours will be no different from those staffsstaying in state. Very good coaches. Football isimportant. High school programs are run very well.And a large number of high schools. I had no ideawhen I walked in that there's 400-plus high schoolsthat play high school football in Wisconsin. Thatwill stay the same. I think as a conference and Ithink as the University of Wisconsin we want torecruit nationally because we can.

The Big Ten, it's a very, very powerfulconference. It's very recognizable and peopleunderstand you're going to play at the highest leveland on the biggest stages.

And I feel the same way about theUniversity of Wisconsin, with what we have to offerfrom an academic standpoint, with what we have tooffer for young men socially.

And I go back to it academically and the

athletic world, it's a place where we should be ableto recruit throughout the country. And we alwayswill, whether it may be in Florida, California,wherever it will be. Gotta be careful not to get tooseparated out so we cannot do a good job incertain areas. But we will nationally recruit.

Q. It was kind of a revolving door atquarterback last year for Wisconsin with thethree or four different guys who started, theinjuries and everything that happened. Comingout of the spring going into the fall how do yousee that situation? Will you whittle it down just

to two guys at some point and then have acompetition, or where do things kind of standwith that right now?

COACH ANDERSEN: Great question. It'sa question I'm sure is going to get asked a fewtimes in the next month or so. It's a three-manbattle right now, as we kind of came throughspring.

We sat down with all the young men whenwe were first there and gave them a very clearvision that when we sat down in April we woulddiscuss exactly where they're at, what the situationis, and when we came out of it, Curt (Phillips) and

J oe (Ferguson) came out on top in spring.And it was a very unique situation, as it

always is, at the quarterback spot when you havecompetition. We recruited Tanner (McEvoy).Brought Tanner in. He will also compete. Hedeserves that opportunity because he's a juniorcollege player with three years left to play.

Anytime we recruit a junior college playerhe's going to be given the opportunity to walk in fallcamp and compete and get reps with the ones andtwos at times just as every freshman will if hedeems himself mentally and physically prepared tobe able to be in those situations that he has achance to help our team.

It will be a three-man race. I have notimeline on it. And we may jog out there the firstplay of the game with two quarterbacks on the fieldand see what happens from there. So who knows,it will be interesting.

Q. What kind of tangibles does ChrisBorland bring on the field and maybe theintangibles off the field from a leadershipperspective?

COACH ANDERSEN: First of all, I'd say23 seniors, great leadership throughout the team.And Chris is the heart and soul of that defense.But there's some guys that are right there with him

from a leadership standpoint.But what Chris does consistently is a lot of people talk about leadership on and off the field.And his consistency with his leadership is the key.

There's no ups and downs, no really good days orbad days. He's not overly flashy. He's not arah-rah guy, he's the king of backflips afterpractice. So I don't know how he does it, but that'skind of his deal.

But he's so consistent with where hecarries himself academically, the expectation levelthat he has for himself daily, it's easy to follow him.And that's where his leadership starts. But he

also -- he carries himself with the presence of he'sapproachable for the young players in ourprogram. He's a big part of our Big Brotherprogram which we've had throughout the summer,bringing the new young men into our program it'svery important.

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And Chris has also accepted a lot of change at the University of Wisconsin with thecoaches since he's been there, and he figures itout. He understands. He's going to listen to youfirst. He's going to figure you out as you movealong, and then I believe he's going to trust you.

And to me that's what a quality young mandoes. That's what a quality person does. I believehe's the best linebacker in the country in myopinion from what I've seen. I've had a uniqueopportunity to watch him all last summer as weprepared to play Wisconsin while I was at UtahState. And I've also had the opportunity to see himgo through spring ball, see him work himself through the winter workouts and how he leads theteam.

So tremendous kid, tremendous leader,and I believe he's the best linebacker in thecountry.

Q. Any moments this summer whereyou've realized the enormity of the job whereit's hit you? Any moments where it struck youthe enormity of th e Wiscons in job, how big it is,anything big stand out?

COACH ANDERSEN: No, not really. Imean, it's been the transition again has beengreat. The summer's been great. A job is a job,and I think I look at them all the same as far aswhat are you doing to influence kids.

When I say that, you're a coach. So to mea coach is you're an educator and you're a fatherfigure. That doesn't matter what level you're

coaching at.When I say that, that the job of coaching isthat, regardless of the level. This is a very bigstage. It's something we're excited about being on.Coaching at the highest level is something thatselfishly -- I hate to use that word, I hate to speakabout that word, but for me and all of our coachesto have the opportunity to compete in the Big Tenand coach at the highest level, it's important forme.

So if there's a moment, maybe that's themoment, but it's been good. But, again, coachingis coaching in my opinion regardless if it's eight

years old in Little League or it's the biggest stagewhich we sit on here today.

Q. You coached with Urban Meyer for ayear at Utah. I was wondering if you coulddescribe your relationship with him and anyinfluence he's had on you i f any?

COACH ANDERSEN: Relationship withUrban? Is that the question?

Q. Yes.COACH ANDERSEN: Very good. You

know, Coach has been very good to me. I have alot of respect for him, the way he carries himself.We had a great run.

I tell people all the time when they ask meabout Urban Meyer, my first thing is it was great forme. We were 12-0 and won a BCS Bowl, so therewasn't a lot of confrontational times in that situationfor us.

But very good friend. Somebody I reachout to when I have questions about things. I thinkthere's very much a mutual respect there. Andlook forward to seeing him this morning andhopefully we'll be able to spend a little time as wego through. It's great to compete against yourfriends.

That's going to be a big game. It's waydown the road at this point, and we're excitedabout the opportunity to compete. But he's a goodperson, good family man, and somebody I havegreat respect for.

Q. Along those lines, coaching withUrban, this last weekend they had some kidsact out, some discipli nary things. Wonder if you could speak to his handling of that, how hedoes that in-house. He might take a bit of a hitbecause of that. Do you think that's fair or unfair, just what is your take on all that?

COACH ANDERSEN: First of all I have noidea how Coach Meyer handled the situation. I'mnot big into that stuff. I haven't read anythingabout it. So I don't know. But I know he's going tobe very fair. The tricky thing in today's world isexactly what happened and allowing yourself as acoach to get your athletic director and your athleticdirector get everybody involved regardless of thesituation, if it needs to be and try to help the youngmen that are involved and get the facts straight,that's the key, before it gets out there and then itnever has the opportunity to be fair to the kid that'sinvolved with a group of people that are involved.

So fairness is important. I think Coach willhandle it very fairly. He always seems to do that.And education for kids these days is important,regardless of the scenario of the situation they getthemselves in, you try to educate them. You try totalk to them, but the decisions that they make,

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when they walk out of your facility, the decisionsthat they're making nightly are so very important.

And, again I go back to it, as coaches,we're father figures. I've raised three boys of myown. They're far from perfect. When you put 105young men or 120 depending on the time of theyear, they're never going to be perfect, but doesn'tmean we shouldn't strive for that and, again,educate them, help them grow from young men tomen as much as you can, and then you hope theymake the right decisions.

But discipline is -- it's for everybody else tohandle their own way.

Q. As far as the offensive call play isconcerned, what kind of freedom do you thinkyou have with James and Melvin in the backfield? Any kind of versatility that you can getwith those guys?

COACH ANDERSEN: J ames and Melvinvery complementary to each other, very different intheir styles. And a lot of it is going to depend onhow those four tight ends come around that allowMelvin and J ames to possibly be on the field at thesame time, which quarterback's playing, how wellthe quarterback can hurt you with his legs that'sactually in the game, that matters.

And so there's a lot that goes into that.But those two packaged together, whether they'reon the field at the same time or separately, cause alot of problems. You saw it last year when therewas times when Melvin got out there and lined upand the fly sweep was very effective in some

games for them and J ames was in the backfieldsometimes. Monte was there a lot obviously, but J ames was in there, too. So it will be hopefully avery powerful 1-2 punch.

I know they worked extremely hard thissummer. I'm proud of the way they handledthemselves throughout the summer as a runningback crew. Need a third back to step up. Butoverall as the football team, I'd say those twoyoung men are prepared like so many on our teamthe way that you would hope they would as aprogram as a whole.

But proud of those two. They'll be a big

part of our offense.Q. Any update on Tanner's (McEvoy)

health and what the reaction was like inMadison w ith the news this week with Tanner?

COACH ANDERSEN: Tanner's fine. Those were always tricky situations, and, again, I

go back and share with you what I tell young menall the time in team meetings.

And I say this in recruiting all the time, yougotta understand your situation. You gottaunderstand your surroundings. Doesn't matter if you grow up in a town of 40 or grow up in a town of 4 million. There's always -- there's issues that canpop up and you have to be careful.

And still there's still problems that pop upthat you can't prevent. So it happened. We'regoing to do our best to learn from it as a footballprogram. I know we'll do our best to reach out tomany of the student-athletes as we can to talkabout it and not just football players, to be able tobe prepared to understand your surroundings.

But Tanner will be fine. He's back with usnow. Expect him to walk into camp full steamahead and be prepared to compete for thatquarterback role.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.FastScripts b y ASAP Sports

g andersen - 7 24 13

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