Wisconsin's new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes was made available to the media on Tuesday for the first time since his arrival in Madison. There was plenty to discuss, from his presumed starting quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. to what made Wisconsin a good fit and much more.

BadgerBlitz.com has compiled the key takeaways:

When Wisconsin reeled in the former Maryland quarterback Edwards, his experience and production clearly made him the Badgers' presumed starter at quarterback.

"Billy Edwards is obviously someone we're expecting big things from. He came here not long after I did, so there's a natural connection between he and I," Grimes said.

"There are a number of things that impress me with his film. I saw a guy that had toughness, was able to stand in there and take a lot of hits, and not impact how he played the game. Threw a lot of balls with a lot of people right in his face as he's letting it go. A lot of times, he couldn't even step up and throw the way that you would like to. But none of that impacted him...I thought he had arm talent, I thought he had good athletic ability. I like his size. I played with some quarterbacks who don't have that size, and they can be effective, but it limits what they can do, especially when you're trying to throw over some of the guys we're playing with on the offensive line."

That last comment about shorter quarterbacks conjures up memories of Braedyn Locke batted passes, intentional or not. Grimes added that Edwards' attitude backed up what he saw on film.

"It was really a combination of all those things at first, and as I got to know him, I recognized that he's got all the intangibles you're looking for. He's smart, competitive and driven to be great. I'm beginning to see his leadership skills emerge already on our team here."

"Well, first, Wisconsin's a place that I've respected for a long time. It's unique because I've coached in every major conference besides the Big Ten. But I've always respected not only the program in general, or their level of success, but they way they won, the way they play the game. That fits in a couple of ways. One, with our head coach, what he was looking for and who I am. Just a mentality that wants to win and a rough, gritty brand of football. One that's going to establish the run and utilize the vertical passing game that comes from the ability to run the football."

Grimes' offense has a track record of dangerous rushing attacks. He delved deeper into why he personally believes the running game - the basis of Wisconsin's offensive success since the 1990s — is so important.

"When I talk about running the football, I'm always careful because I don't want the receivers to check out and think it doesn't include them. There's a couple things I like to talk about with them. Number one, when you can run the football, you can do anything. When you can't run the football, it limits your ability to do a number of other things. But when you have the ability to run the football, and run it effectively week in and week out, it puts a lot of pressure on the defense and allows you to do a lot of other things. One of those things is throwing the football downfield with the play-action game, something that I believe in wholeheartedly. If you look at explosive play rates as it leads to win-loss percentage and point differential in games, it's a huge, huge piece of the game in college football. The other thing is, there's other ways to get receivers the ball, whether that be on a reverse of a fly sweep, or bringing them into the backfield in a number of different ways. So when I talk about running the football, I'm not only talking about big guys and running backs."

Grimes' football philosophy wasn't hard to pick up on in his first interview in Madison. The following are a handful of quotes that illuminate said philosophy.

"You have to be able to throw the football deep in order to be able to throw the football short."

"What makes for an efficient passing game?," he repeated with a chuckle. "A good quarterback, and guys who can get open and catch the football."

"You make (toughness) a big deal. Most of that won't come, in a football sense, until we get to spring football, put the pads on and give guys a chance to do it. I think there's some chances through the offseason program, right now we see that a little bit. You make a big deal out of it, you point to it: 'that's what I'm looking for, that's what I need.' Sometimes, you may have some guys that are more generally predisposed that way. And so you make those guys the standard and you keep pointing at them. And them some other guys say, 'I wanna be like that.'...The other side of it is you have to hold guys accountable when it's not that way. I mean, if a guy is out there and isn't giving his best effort, isn't playing tough and physical, turning down opportunities for contact, they're gonna hear about that from me and the rest of the staff."

Multiple times through the interview, Grimes stressed that he didn't spend much time watching Wisconsin's film from last year. "I'm in the position right now where I'm trying to establish that everybody has a clean slate, and everybody has an opportunity to earn a spot," he said. "One of the things I told them early on was, I haven't spent much time watching film from last year, because I don't know how relevant that is for me, what happened a year ago."

Grimes continued to discuss his process of getting familiar with his athletes on offense.

"It's just spending time with them. Right now, it's not a ton of time. It's watching them in the weight room, in meetings that we're a part of, as we get closer to spring ball and we're able to do more with them on the field, there'll be a heightened awareness of their skillsets. If I chose to base too much of my opinion on what they did last year, I give them less of a full opportunity to show me what they really can do."

Any fresh offensive coordinator hire at Wisconsin is guaranteed to be asked about the offensive line and the running backs. But given that the Badgers didn't add a single transfer to either of those positions, they were especially relevant topics Tuesday.

"There's a good number of players on the offensive line who either have experience or are getting close to the point where they're ready to play, and then we have a staple of young guys who are coming in and ready to compete. So I think the recruiting there has been solid, and I think the volume and type of player — while we may not be returning five starters or a bunch of all-conference players, I still think we've got the makings of a good group up front. Still unproven, especially in a new system that's going to be completely different from what they've done before."

"At running back, I think we've got some guys who again, will compete. I think we've got enough capable players there that we have legitimate competition. And that competition brings the best out of everybody. I think we'll have probably three or four guys who play there, and the guys who produce the most will certainly get more touches than others."

That last comment is an early, early indication of a possible committee backfield in Madison in 2025.

Grimes was asked what it was like getting to know newly minted quarterbacks coach Kenny Guiton, and he proceeded to praise his knowledge of the position despite coaching receivers more recently in his career.

"It's probably not unlike (getting to know the other coaches). 'Hey, how have you done this before, how do you see this concept, how have you coached it, have you thought about it this way...I've really been impressed with not only his knowledge of the game, but his passion for it and excitement about coaching the position. We talked to a lot of people about that job. Interviewed several in person, talked to a lot of people on the phone. It feels like that's all I did...At the end of all that, all of us felt like he was the best guy for the job."

"He's been a receivers coach, he's coaching receivers, you know he knows that position. But then you hear him start talking about the quarterback position, you go, 'oh wow, this guy really knows.' It's not just something he did a long time ago, you can tell he paid attention and learned along the way."

Wisconsin completely gutted its quarterback room this offseason. Out are any quarterbacks associated with prior coordinator and quarterbacks coach Phil Longo, in are two transfers and a blue-chip freshman. Grimes offered his take on building a quarterback room in an era where the transfer portal is so prevalent.

"I think you want as many good players on your team as you can have. If there's a kid in high school that you can have and you think he's a good fit, then you take him, and you hope that it works out and he stays here. One of the things we ask is, 'is this guy really a fit at this school, and is there something about this place that will hold him here, or is he gonna bolt the first minute he's told he's not the starter.' Ideally, you recruit a kid that you like out of high school. He develops, and at some point he becomes the starter. The question for those young guys is, is that time frame acceptable for what they're looking for? And that always becomes the issue."

Grimes then touched on what he looks for in a signal caller, and unsurprisingly, mobility was a key theme.

"They've gotta be able to provide some sort of athleticism. They've gotta be able to escape and get out of trouble when you're throwing the football. And then I'd like for them to present some level of run threat to the defense. How much that is depends on a number of different factors; I look at it on a sliding scale. If a guy is a dynamic athlete, and every time he touches the ball he has a chance to make an explosive play, I might take a little less in some of the other categories. He might not be as tall, or his arm might not be quite where you want it to be now...on the other hand, if a guy has just enough athletic ability to be an escape threat, or run a quarterback draw every now and again, he better be able to rip that football, he better be great at getting that offensive line to the right protection, and he better be great at a lot of other things as well. Ideally, you've got a big guy who's a great thrower and a good runner too."

One of Grimes' final remarks centered on how he got to know his new boss, head coach Luke Fickell.

"It was interesting, because he and I didn't know each other, and didn't really have familiarity with each other, only knew each other by reputation. Honestly, the initial phase was kinda getting to know each other, seeing, personality-wise, if it would be a good fit. And then into a football a little bit more, recognizing there's an alignment here in how we believe the game should be played, and how we want to build a culture in a way that we're gonna win with toughness and guys who have a passion for the game, even more than the scheme."

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