Iceland12
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Below are some excerpts and no, I didn't write them. 
"This is going to be a great challenge. You look at it, and to my calculations, there's 28 teams with eight wins in the country, and two of them are playing each other, and four of them are in the Big Ten.
It's a great opportunity for us to be able to match up against a quality opponent this late in the year, and on top of that, have it be a rivalry game, something that all Badgers are fired up about. We're excited to get started and get prepared today as we move through the week."
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QUESTION: You mentioned Father Mike introduce Minnesota week. Was that the first you'd been educated on the Axe or the level, or what was the first education process you had into this rivalry and what it means?
ANDERSEN: Probably the first day I was here and Coach (Barry) Alvarez walked me through and saw the Axe sitting in the trophy case. Doesn't take too long to realize how important it is.
I'm fortunate I grew up in a tremendous rivalry, and they're very much the same. The feeling that I get -- obviously, my first time participating in this rivalry -- but rivalries that have gone on for this long have so many stories behind them, so many moments behind them. It's what I'm used to.
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QUESTION: Gary, is your respect level for Jerry Kill heightened by the fact that you both share the experience of having rebuilt a program?
ANDERSEN: You know, that's a great question. I haven't thought about that question. I would say yes. The ability that Coach has had to be able to rebuild that program and get them where they're at and the ups and downs that we obviously all go through in those situations, but he's a tremendous coach.
I got to spend some time with him just riding back to the airport basically after the Big Ten Media Days. That was probably a 20 , 25 minute van ride back to the airport.
I asked a lot of questions. Like I always say, I'm not going to sit there and talk a lot when I get around coaches that I have respect for, I'm going to see if they can give me something that can make me be a better coach.
But it was great to sit down and talk with him. A lot of respect for him and his program, where they're at and what he's done in his career.
The other thing is how many coaches have been with him for such a long period of time. You look at that assistant coaching staff I don't have the numbers, but I know there's a number of coaches that have been with him two or three different stops. I believe that's another reason for the success. Obviously, he's a good guy to work for.
-----------
QUESTION: Gary, one of the traditions during Minnesota week is usually one of the assistant coaches makes some sort of presentation about the history of the rivalry, going back to Jim Huber, and then Ben Strickland has done it recently. Is that something you plan to continue?
ANDERSEN: We absolutely will. Henry Coach Mason -- is going to do it for us today, and we'll do a lot of things during the week to make sure the young kids can wrap their arms around it and understand what this rivalry is all about. Maybe they had a rivalry in high school. Maybe they didn't. The kids have been in this program for a long time. They get it. They understand it.
-----------
QUESTION: When you look at Minnesota on film, what stands out, both sides of the ball?
ANDERSEN: I would say this. Very sound scheme. In the simplest of terms, they like to play the game of football at this time of year. I think a lot of teams you look at don't, necessarily. They have to convince themselves they're liking football right now. These guys like football right now, there's no question watching the film.
Well coached, and they use their players the right way. They'll take their best players and put them in position to be able to make plays. Which you look at as a good coaching staff, I personally believe that's what good coaching staffs do. And that's definitely the case.
They've adjusted as the year's gone on to the scheme that they're using now. And the players that they're using now has been very, very effective for them.
Also, they're not real fazed. They get up, they get down. They keep plowing through games and keep battling through there. They expect themselves to make plays at the end to win.
It's a well rounded football team. You can see why they've won the games that they've won when they're closely dissected on film, which we're still in the process of doing.
-------------
QUESTION: Is there any similarity to what Minnesota does on offense to what you guys like to do, even with some of the jet sweep stuff?
ANDERSEN: Yeah, there's similarities as far as you don't see the fast break football, which will kind of be a nice breath of fresh air for maybe both teams as you sit back and look at it. They want to establish the run game. They want to run the ball. They want to be productive in the run game. They will use the fly sweep and the jet sweep. It's a little different version than we use. It's more of a staple of their offense, especially in the last half of the season. It's been effective for them.
They do a good job of working to get you outnumbered on offense with their schemes, by numbers on how they attack you. And they do the same thing on the defensive side of the ball. They try to get you outmanned. Very similar to what the Badgers do.
So down those lines, we're very much the same team when it comes to a theory or, I guess, an identity.
QUESTION: Gary, obviously, Chris Borland made a lot of plays Saturday. How did (Derek) Landisch play? It looked like he was pretty active.
ANDERSEN: He was. That play he made down there on the goal line was a big time play. He was very active. You saw late in the game we pulled Chris out and (Conor) O'Neill and Landisch came in and played both of the linebacker spots with Trotter being a little bit gimpy also.
So the versatility of both those kids has been very good, and they've both been very productive. Huge part for this season and the way the defense has played is the way that those two young men – (Marcus) Trotter is in the same boat, the way he's stepped up and played -- but I think O'Neill is very solid. These last games are important to those young men. He's playing at a high level.
QUESTION: I want to ask about playing the fast offenses the past few weeks. What different challenges does it present when you have to play a very deliberate offense as a defense when you have to prepare at the line of scrimmage?
ANDERSEN: There's a lot of checks that take place, I'm sure, just like our run game. You've got to be careful not to trick yourself and not try to change too many things as you get out there.
But it fits us. It fits them as far as the way we want to be able to line up and the way you line up in spring practice in the offseason against each other.
So it's a little bit of a calming factor, I'm sure, for ourselves and for Minnesota, the fact that you get to line up and have a little bit of time and get things called and communicate and talk pre-snap on offense and on defense really.
So I don't know what that means at the end of the day, but it's similar philosophies, again, with both teams.
QUESTION: Gary, I would assume in practice your defense goes against the offense and tries to stop jet sweeps or fly sweeps. Has the defense done a decent job in that regard?
ANDERSEN: You know, we I guess we do okay. It's kind of tag on football right now, so you never know the end result, whether you tackle them or not tackle them in practice.
It is an advantage because you do see it. I will say this, though, their offense is a lot more built around the fly sweep, where the fly sweep for us is more of a smaller package. So there's much more to defend with the way they go about it. It's basically set from a spread formation, not all the time, but a lot of the time. And it is truly part of their offensive scheme. They base what they do off coverages and formation or coverages and what they're seeing up front on defenses.
Our fly sweep series is more built on we're going to run the fly sweep if we like it. If we don't, we check to another play that they're overloading. And where they're not overloading, we try to go the other way.
I think we've done a good job with it overall. It will be interesting to see how we'll handle it on Saturday.
http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/111813aad.html
"This is going to be a great challenge. You look at it, and to my calculations, there's 28 teams with eight wins in the country, and two of them are playing each other, and four of them are in the Big Ten.
It's a great opportunity for us to be able to match up against a quality opponent this late in the year, and on top of that, have it be a rivalry game, something that all Badgers are fired up about. We're excited to get started and get prepared today as we move through the week."
-----------
QUESTION: You mentioned Father Mike introduce Minnesota week. Was that the first you'd been educated on the Axe or the level, or what was the first education process you had into this rivalry and what it means?
ANDERSEN: Probably the first day I was here and Coach (Barry) Alvarez walked me through and saw the Axe sitting in the trophy case. Doesn't take too long to realize how important it is.
I'm fortunate I grew up in a tremendous rivalry, and they're very much the same. The feeling that I get -- obviously, my first time participating in this rivalry -- but rivalries that have gone on for this long have so many stories behind them, so many moments behind them. It's what I'm used to.
------------
QUESTION: Gary, is your respect level for Jerry Kill heightened by the fact that you both share the experience of having rebuilt a program?
ANDERSEN: You know, that's a great question. I haven't thought about that question. I would say yes. The ability that Coach has had to be able to rebuild that program and get them where they're at and the ups and downs that we obviously all go through in those situations, but he's a tremendous coach.
I got to spend some time with him just riding back to the airport basically after the Big Ten Media Days. That was probably a 20 , 25 minute van ride back to the airport.
I asked a lot of questions. Like I always say, I'm not going to sit there and talk a lot when I get around coaches that I have respect for, I'm going to see if they can give me something that can make me be a better coach.
But it was great to sit down and talk with him. A lot of respect for him and his program, where they're at and what he's done in his career.
The other thing is how many coaches have been with him for such a long period of time. You look at that assistant coaching staff I don't have the numbers, but I know there's a number of coaches that have been with him two or three different stops. I believe that's another reason for the success. Obviously, he's a good guy to work for.
-----------
QUESTION: Gary, one of the traditions during Minnesota week is usually one of the assistant coaches makes some sort of presentation about the history of the rivalry, going back to Jim Huber, and then Ben Strickland has done it recently. Is that something you plan to continue?
ANDERSEN: We absolutely will. Henry Coach Mason -- is going to do it for us today, and we'll do a lot of things during the week to make sure the young kids can wrap their arms around it and understand what this rivalry is all about. Maybe they had a rivalry in high school. Maybe they didn't. The kids have been in this program for a long time. They get it. They understand it.
-----------
QUESTION: When you look at Minnesota on film, what stands out, both sides of the ball?
ANDERSEN: I would say this. Very sound scheme. In the simplest of terms, they like to play the game of football at this time of year. I think a lot of teams you look at don't, necessarily. They have to convince themselves they're liking football right now. These guys like football right now, there's no question watching the film.
Well coached, and they use their players the right way. They'll take their best players and put them in position to be able to make plays. Which you look at as a good coaching staff, I personally believe that's what good coaching staffs do. And that's definitely the case.
They've adjusted as the year's gone on to the scheme that they're using now. And the players that they're using now has been very, very effective for them.
Also, they're not real fazed. They get up, they get down. They keep plowing through games and keep battling through there. They expect themselves to make plays at the end to win.
It's a well rounded football team. You can see why they've won the games that they've won when they're closely dissected on film, which we're still in the process of doing.
-------------
QUESTION: Is there any similarity to what Minnesota does on offense to what you guys like to do, even with some of the jet sweep stuff?
ANDERSEN: Yeah, there's similarities as far as you don't see the fast break football, which will kind of be a nice breath of fresh air for maybe both teams as you sit back and look at it. They want to establish the run game. They want to run the ball. They want to be productive in the run game. They will use the fly sweep and the jet sweep. It's a little different version than we use. It's more of a staple of their offense, especially in the last half of the season. It's been effective for them.
They do a good job of working to get you outnumbered on offense with their schemes, by numbers on how they attack you. And they do the same thing on the defensive side of the ball. They try to get you outmanned. Very similar to what the Badgers do.
So down those lines, we're very much the same team when it comes to a theory or, I guess, an identity.
QUESTION: Gary, obviously, Chris Borland made a lot of plays Saturday. How did (Derek) Landisch play? It looked like he was pretty active.
ANDERSEN: He was. That play he made down there on the goal line was a big time play. He was very active. You saw late in the game we pulled Chris out and (Conor) O'Neill and Landisch came in and played both of the linebacker spots with Trotter being a little bit gimpy also.
So the versatility of both those kids has been very good, and they've both been very productive. Huge part for this season and the way the defense has played is the way that those two young men – (Marcus) Trotter is in the same boat, the way he's stepped up and played -- but I think O'Neill is very solid. These last games are important to those young men. He's playing at a high level.
QUESTION: I want to ask about playing the fast offenses the past few weeks. What different challenges does it present when you have to play a very deliberate offense as a defense when you have to prepare at the line of scrimmage?
ANDERSEN: There's a lot of checks that take place, I'm sure, just like our run game. You've got to be careful not to trick yourself and not try to change too many things as you get out there.
But it fits us. It fits them as far as the way we want to be able to line up and the way you line up in spring practice in the offseason against each other.
So it's a little bit of a calming factor, I'm sure, for ourselves and for Minnesota, the fact that you get to line up and have a little bit of time and get things called and communicate and talk pre-snap on offense and on defense really.
So I don't know what that means at the end of the day, but it's similar philosophies, again, with both teams.
QUESTION: Gary, I would assume in practice your defense goes against the offense and tries to stop jet sweeps or fly sweeps. Has the defense done a decent job in that regard?
ANDERSEN: You know, we I guess we do okay. It's kind of tag on football right now, so you never know the end result, whether you tackle them or not tackle them in practice.
It is an advantage because you do see it. I will say this, though, their offense is a lot more built around the fly sweep, where the fly sweep for us is more of a smaller package. So there's much more to defend with the way they go about it. It's basically set from a spread formation, not all the time, but a lot of the time. And it is truly part of their offensive scheme. They base what they do off coverages and formation or coverages and what they're seeing up front on defenses.
Our fly sweep series is more built on we're going to run the fly sweep if we like it. If we don't, we check to another play that they're overloading. And where they're not overloading, we try to go the other way.
I think we've done a good job with it overall. It will be interesting to see how we'll handle it on Saturday.
http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/111813aad.html
