Q. Why wasn't the team prepared to play today?
GREG SCHIANO: I wish I knew that. I know that's my job to know that but I can't ignore that we weren't ready to play. So that will be my mission in the next 48 hours is to figure that out. Change what needs to be date. Don't overreact. Some days you throw a clunker. This was a clunker. I don't want to overreact but I do certainly have to, you know -- have to look at everything, and you can go into all the reasons but at the end of the day, that doesn't matter. You can't have that.

Q. The injuries that happened today, how much has that impacted everything that's going on?
GREG SCHIANO: Certainly it's impacted everything. It's not where we have stacked up guys yet in the program so when we lose somebody, somebody's got to step up. The old thing you learn is every once in a while somebody by injury comes out and just amazes everyone. But the reality is, usually they would have been the starter, and they weren't, they were the second-team player for a reason. But you can't hide behind that. Every team has injuries. That team had injuries. We all have injuries. You've got to figure it out. That's my job.

Q. What do you attribute the offensive struggles to?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, I don't think it's just offensive struggles. I would attribute all our struggles. I mean, what do you attribute everything to? I don't know. That's what I told you. I'm not moving on to UCLA and all that stuff. I'm going to look at Rutgers. Figure out what, as a leader of this program, I need to do and then talk with my staff and we'll out to do it. I know we have really good young men in our program, and they will respond. But you know, it's a tough pill to swallow.

Q. Injuries aside, what do you feel like is attributing to the slow starts on defense that's putting you in early deficit that you're constantly having to climb out of?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, I wish I could say it was a slow start. It was a slow start, it was a show middle and it was a slow end. Like I have to really examine what we're doing, who is doing it, how we're doing it. I thought we played better defensively a week ago and then certainly not today. Different people. Some different people doing it. But that's the way of life in the Big Ten.

Q. Just to circle back to the injuries pregame, Powell and Longerbeam were out. What are their injuries and what's going on with those two guys?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, I'm not going to get into their injuries, per se, but I will say that Tyreem got hurt in practice this week. And Robert tried to go last week, and couldn't, and it's the same injury, and we just got to let it heal. I don't know the timeline on either one of them. And I don't -- you know, I'm sure you're going to ask about the guys who left the game today. I just don't know yet what's going on with them. We'll figure that out, and I'm sure that will have bearing on what we do moving forward.

Q. Athan had a tough day today. Offense had a tough day today. What can you and the coaching staff do to try to get him back on track and the offense back on track?
GREG SCHIANO: Well, just as I was saying, we have to examine everything, see what we're doing, who we are doing it with, how we're teaching it. Didn't go from being a good player to a poor player. We have to look at where we got off -- sometimes you get off the track and you don't even realize how you got there. So we've got to step back and reassess. You don't have a lot of time. Good thing it was a noon game. We have some time today, a lot of time tomorrow, and then we've got to get into UCLA.

Q. Wisconsin rushed for 309 yards, and Walker had 198 yards. What do you think went wrong with the run defense today?
GREG SCHIANO: Like I said, I don't think that there's a single thing that went wrong with the run defense. I think there's a lot of things, and we've got it pull it part and then put it back together again.

Q. You mentioned it wasn't just the offense. Defense, as well. Overall uncharacteristic game from you guys, penalties, drops, things of that nature. While Wisconsin is a great team, do you think there was an aspect that you guys beat yourselves today?
GREG SCHIANO: I don't think you can say that when you get whooped the way we did, to say we beat ourselves.I think we certainly -- again, I can go through all the things we didn't go. At the end of the day, it's my job to make sure we're ready to do that, and we didn't do it. So that's what I have to do, and trust me, I'm not fired up about doing it but that's my job. So get done here, see the recruits and then get to work.

Q. On the recruiting front, a lot of recruits at this game. What is your message to them after what they saw this afternoon?
GREG SCHIANO: Yeah, always the same. I'm honest with the recruits. That's one of the reasons that the guys that are committed to us are committed to us, or that's the kind of young men they are; that they want to be part of what we're building here. I don't think one game changes what they believe and feel and trust in us. If it does, they are probably not the guys we think they are. But I don't think that's going to be the case. We have really good guys in this program, and we have really good guys that were committed to us. We'll just keep playing ahead.

Q. Two weeks ago we talked about how electric the fan environment was in the building. Today there were boos. What do you want to say to the fans?
GREG SCHIANO: Same thing I said to you. It's unacceptable on my part, and it's unacceptable the product we put out there today. But we will be back. We need them, and we'll be back.

Q. You said a year ago after losing to Wisconsin, the team was not there yet, and to suffer a year like this, in year five for you, that it seems like in some ways the team took a step back?
GREG SCHIANO: The team, the whole day, couldn't chew gum and walk at the same time as a group. We just couldn't get it going, coaching, playing, everything. But step back, no, I'm not ready to sit here in one game and say, oh, the sky is falling. You know what, we've got work to do, and we'll do it, and we'll get back on track. I think that's going to be the challenge to just get back on -- back on it, decide what it is that has to get adjusted and then go adjust it.


Wisconsin Head Coach Luke Fickell 
Opening Statement
"It's never easy on the road, that's what this league is all about. To win on the road – and I give our guys a lot of credit and I'll tell you what, they battled, they worked, and sometimes it looks a little bit different than the finale, but it really was about our ability to to play together, our ability to go on the road, our ability to silence all the different things that are out there. They don't bother me, but I know at some point in time the guys have incredible pride in what they do and in their program, it does bother them, you know, but you can't do anything about it but continue to battle and work and maybe have an opportunity to write your own story, and I think that's what we're continuing to focus on. This is a team that's getting better and just like I said last week, it's exciting, it's exciting obviously to win, it's exciting to see things continue to grow in front of our own face and that's where to me I'm just happy and as proud as anything. I saw it this week during practice, I saw it this week as we moved forward with guys that were dinged up and guys that wanted to be back out there, and their ability to – whatever role was placed in front of them – they were gonna take, and I think that's where we're starting to see a culture form in front of our face. That's what's exciting to me, and obviously we can talk about Tawee Walker who had a 201 or something like that or 198 yards and his impact is huge, it's because of those guys up front. And if I were to say anything about today, we challenged our guys because there's a lot of similarities in programs just about the way you wanna go about things. I think the challenge was how are we gonna handle this thing up front and on both sides of the ball we handled it and took the challenge and executed pretty well." 

On play of RB Tawee Walker and how he has stepped up lately
"I do think he's getting healthier, I do think that it was a unique situation in the first game. The first series he was in there and getting dinged up, and he's getting healthier and also I think he's getting himself into a groove. I think that there is an ability and the offensive line and running backs to work hand in hand. That's what I always thought was impressive about watching Rutgers, their ability to run the football and how their offensive line and back work so well together, and I think that's what we're seeing with Tawee and his ability and those guys' ability to understand the things he does well, and how we can continue to rely on him, and it's great to see him get healthy." 

On what stands out about defense's performance last two years against Rutgers
"I think the edges were really a critical point for us today – our ability to control the edges. We had to be able to do it – I thought that's what they did a great job with – their back is really patient, so we had to make sure we were patient as well, and our ability to kind of control the edge but also to mix up the edge. I think (that) gave us a chance that they couldn't just tee off on knowing exactly where we were. So I give our guys a lot of credit – Darrel Peterson, Aaron Witt and Leon Lowery who's a Jersey kid. I mean they took some pride in the challenge (that) I I laid upon them on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. That was going to be a major factor in this ball game was how we controlled the edges." 

On team's confidence in practices after losses to Alabama and USC
"That's all I've ever known from these guys. And I mean that not in last year's sense, but these guys have leadership, they have a pride about what it is that they're doing, not just the name on the back of their jersey, but the name on the front of their jersey. That doesn't go unnoticed. What happened to us early in the year and our ability to not make some of those plays was a challenge, and I think that they continue to step up. They know we've got a long way to go, they know that this is a mountain to climb, but if you don't continue to take steps you never have a chance to get there." 

On team's ability to battle through adversity 
"It's showed up the last few weeks. I think what we've learned from some of those situations that we haven't done really well – whether it's the first game we dropped punts, or the second game we dropped punts, or even when Tyler Van Dyke went down, and our ability to kinda handle some of those situations. I'll tell you that these guys are maturing and growing in front of our face and everything that we're doing, the play shows and a lot of other things show as well."

On if he has seen QB Braedyn Locke's consistency grow 
"I think there's a confidence and there was definitely a wind factor out there today, and sometimes that can play a lot of games with quarterbacks especially when they're with wind or against the wind. His ability to not let that bother him, his ability to continue to grow, his ability to have confidence and do the things on a daily basis not just on Saturday – the guys around him you can see and sense and feel the confidence that they're growing in him as well." 

On if team has turned a corner the last few weeks 
"There's a lot of corners, this is like a Nascar race. I don't know if there's truly any corners, it's just continuing to go slight curves and turns that you've got to continue to push, you're up on top of that thing. I'm not a big Nascar guy, but (when) you're on top of that bank you've got to keep the pedal down in order to stay up there, that's kind of how it works. There are some things that we're doing a lot better, there's some things that we know that we have to continue to do even better, if we're going to continue to win, and I just kind of told them there … that there's a long mountain, there's a long ride to go. Nobody needs to talk about us or anything like that, we've just got to continue to do what we do, find ways to continue to get better and put the product out on the field on Saturdays in particular. That's what they understand, that's what they realize."