What kind of confidence do you think this team has now heading into their bye week?

Well, I think it's tremendous.

I think, um, [clears throat]What they've done is answer the questions that are, that are asked, and you're ...

They're, they're doing what their coaches are, are telling them during practice.

"This is why we're doing this.

This is why we're doing extra things.

This is why we're, uh, spending time on this phase of the game." And all of a sudden it happens during a game, it's the end zone, or it's, it's goal line.

Coach, how did you run your bye weeks?

Yeah, sure, okay, I won't do that,

Coach.

You give him good throws.

You give him things that are safe throws, and you school him on when you have choices where it's an iffy situation, I'd rather you take a sack or scramble.

But, you know...

Quarterbacks have to take some shots, and I read that.

Sometimes we have media watching practice.

And fans will come back and they'll make this place a really tough place to play.

Coach, the question is, is this a program-defining win for Wisconsin?

I don't think so.

And if I'm Luke, I wouldn't make this a big deal.

We're a better team than they were.

I know they were ranked and we weren't.

I think this is a game that shows you what you can do.

You can fall behind on the road in a tough, very tough environment, and you're capable of overcoming that and win going away.

You learn the

The season starts in Happy Valley, in my opinion.

[laughs] If you start...

Yeah, when you start in the Big 10, that's where things heat up and the tempo picks up on Monday, maybe Sunday in the meeting.

But if you're playing non-conference games, you're gonna beat them, and it's just by how much.

Uh, do, are you interested in polls and running up the score? Um, no.

You wanna play well, you wanna play a lot of guys, and you wanna save...

You, you only get emotional for so many games a year.

What are your expectations for the team this weekend, and what do you hope to see after this third game of this college football season for the Badgers plays out?

How are you conveying those messages to your team all week, Coach?

Well, the me- ...

First of all, you can't beat them up because they lost a game.

Um, you have to emphasize the positives.

We did a lot of good things in that game.

Things we could've done better and could have won that game.

And then that's what you, you, you're working on, improvement of those things for the next week.

That's gonna happen.

What did you see in that game on Sunday night?

You know, I'm the eternal optimist, so, um, as a coach, you look at the good things and, and you wanna give your players accolades for that.

And then you go to...

Then you go through and you tear apart the game, and you find the mistakes, and you try to correct them.

I thought we had a lot of positives, particularly in the first half.

You're playing against a team that thinks...

And, and I think they're right there, have a chance to compete for a national championship, and you're competing with them.

Yeah.

So what do you think goes into having a truly elite defense in college football?

A lot of good players.

That's a good way to start.

You need a lot of good players.

And...

And that's exactly what they have.

They have guys that have played.

How do you approach that as a coach? Because we hear a lot about it from that side, preparing your team through the preseason when you've got a matchup like this in the early part of the season, as opposed to, no disrespect, some of the smaller schools, some of the pay games that we see throughout the sport.

And I am curious, when he says he would like to use you as a resource, how do you see that role for yourself? Because obviously you're not gonna be getting involved in day-to-day decisions.

Right.

There, there are gonna be decisions and things come up throughout his tenure, whether it be decisions on coaches, uh, decisions within the athletic department, decisions within the university dealing with people.

Um, there just, e- every day there's something that comes up.

Naturally, the more experience you have, you've dealt with those, you know some, you have some experience with what has worked, what hasn't worked.

And you know, what, what...

when he calls me, what I'll do is give him my experience.

For lack of a better term, how do you go about doing that? How do you get people to feel like their contributions t- in this era of college athletics, their financial contributions to the athletic department is money well spent? It is obviously a donation, but how do you view it, it, from that perspective? 'Cause he made it very clear that that is one of the most important goals for him in terms of the success of this athletic department.

Right.

And, you know, in our routine, it's going to be the same practice.

On Sunday, you're going to correct.

Monday is, you know, installation.

Tuesday and Wednesday are work days.

And you go on through the week, and whether you get beat or not, you're not going to wear somebody out and beat your guys up because they lost a tough game or they lost on an extra point or field goal or missed first down.

And so I learned playing for somebody like that.

Explain to people the background of that, because I think Cindy is probably the key figure in that story as well, being a little concerned about your being tired, as you told that.