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Joined in progress.
Q. (Question about the offensive line)
KIRK FERENTZ: I think we’re thin at pretty much every spot up front outside of the center position. I don’t think we have a lot of flexibility right now, and I think probably the guys that are at guard will stay there, and the guys that have been playing tackle, three guys there, we’ll just keep working with those guys and see how it goes.
Down the road, you never know, but right now, the immediate future, probably what you’ve seen is what we have. We’re best served just to keep those guys in their spots.
Q. What did you see from Plumb with his start?
KIRK FERENTZ: He did a good job. Fought hard. Had some good plays and bad plays. Probably say that about anybody right now, and part of that’s a credit to Wisconsin, but also he did some good things. I think he’s improved and everybody in the group is improved, and we have to improve faster.
Q. How do you get someone like Tyrone more involved on offense?
KIRK FERENTZ: That’s a question we’re trying to ask and answer in some ways. He’s got film, plays on film that have been documented, and certainly if we can get him more involved, that would be a good thing. But it’s easier said than done. We’re trying to probe every option there might be to try to get the thing moving a little bit more.
Q. Parents, family members speak out from time to time on social media. How do you address those things when those things pop up?
KIRK FERENTZ: I really don’t and haven’t unless there’s something that needs to be addressed. I’m not aware of anything. Is something out there?
You know, everybody has opinions. You can sit in the stands and hear opinions. I’ve done that at my kids’ high school games, and it’s horrifying to me, a horrifying experience. I’m talking about three kids that played in a really good program and had a lot of success. It’s an emotional game to be a fan or a family member, but from my perspective our families have been really supportive and encouraging. I hope every parent would be. I know Mary and I, that’s always been our role as parents is to try to be encouraging to our kids and also teach them when it gets bumpy, you push through things. That’s part of life. That’s what we try to do as coaches do.
Q. During times like this it’s easy to ask what kind of changes need to be made. How do you make changes during the season, and is it more a matter of just being better at what you guys do?
KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it is. You can’t change your system wholesale in season. That would be really counterproductive, and you can’t go out and get mercenary players, either. That’s not part of the deal in college football.
You try to forge ahead. I guess if there’s any good thing here, we have plenty of experience. You can go back historically and look at a lot of our seasons. Can’t think of many that didn’t have bumps and adversity along the way.
Really all you got to do is look at the last three years. We lost three in a row three years ago; we lost two in a row the last two years, and things turned out. I think everybody was fairly happy at the end of the season. At least internally we all felt pretty good about our team and the way we did things.
But that’s the great thing about sports and really life, too; it’s how you handle the bumps and what are you going to do when they do come. If they don’t come, that’s wonderful, but it’s usually not real life. It’s certainly not college football too often, at least not for us.
Q. We talked to Spencer; he said he’s okay to play and all that, but just checking the box, he’s your starter, right?
KIRK FERENTZ: Expect him to, yeah.
Q. I know you walked into Evanston six years ago and without a quarterback and got it done —
KIRK FERENTZ: Thanks for reminding me of that one.
Q. But you did get the run game going that day. Is that something you need to focus on this week?
KIRK FERENTZ: It would help us every week. As you know, in a perfect world, and the world is certainly not perfect right now, but in a perfect world we’d like to be balanced and be able to do both, throw it and run it. It helps in every game. To be able to run it effectively — nobody had visions of running for 200 last week, I can assure you. Just look at the stats; it would be unrealistic.
You have to run the ball effectively, and when you need to or really want to, it sure helps. That’s always a goal for us, and we’ll continue to work hard on that. Same as the passing game, you’re just trying to figure out what can we have the best chance of executing and then try to be proficient at it, and somewhere along the lines if somebody makes a big play, that really helps, too.
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