Indianapolis, Ind. -- One can smell the turf inside Lucas Oil Stadium and feel the start of the 2021 college football season forthcoming; A welcomed beacon of "normal" after the past 16 months with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Head coach Paul Chryst and three Badgers -- cornerback Faion Hicks, inside linebacker Jack Sanborn and tight end Jake Ferguson -- met with reporters during Big Ten Media Days on Friday. Chryst chatted three separate times, once on the main podium, once with a group of beat writers, then again later in the afternoon.

One main piece of information from Chryst included his report that the team was more than 85% vaccinated. Here are a couple other quick takeaways from Indy.

Wisconsin brings in five new running backs to the room for 2021. Along with three freshmen players designated for the position during the early signing period -- Jackson Acker, Loyal Crawford and Antwan Roberts -- Braelon Allen will now begin his career in assistant Gary Brown's room.

On top of that, UW will welcome transfer Chez Mellusi, who rushed for 427 yards and six touchdowns on 71 carries at Clemson. Chryst was asked about the latter two.

"Chez, you know, we're excited he's here," Chryst said. "Felt like if it was the right person, if we could add someone -- it's a young room. If we could add some maturity to it and someone that has some experience, and as you went through it and got to know him, the more confident it felt like this is someone who can really help the team and help the room."

Mellusi committed to Wisconsin after taking a visit to Madison in June. Chryst later told reporters that he did not speak with Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, but the program talked with some from the Tigers' staff. That was part of the research the Badgers performed, "because I thought it was really important what we're looking for we need to get a good sense of who we were bringing in."

"And that was made each conversation, whether I had it, Rudy [offensive line coach Joe Rudolph] had it with him. Gary had it. It was kind of fun to share back with each other and find yourself more energized by it.

"Then you know, we took longer than a lot of other schools were. At first, I think it was frustrating for him, but we wanted to make sure he got up and visit and was around our guys. It's a two-way street. Like it's just not what we think about him -- it's what he thinks about us and does he feel comfortable? But I'm really glad that we've got him, and I think he's done a good job and put effort into kind of diving into and getting to know his teammates. Because that's always a little tricky, especially for a guy that you want to contribute sooner than later, right? A lot of freshmen come in and you don't quite know and they ease their way in. [Defensive end] Isaac Townsend is another transfer that came, and they've done a great job. Like kind of put himself out there and so guys get a chance to get to know him, and you appreciate that from him."

For Allen, the four-star standout comes in as a player who initially was a 2022 recruit before reclassifying to the 2021 class. Projections ranged from safety to linebacker before he stated earlier this summer that he would start his UW career as a tailback.

During an alternate spring season, Allen exploded for 1,047 yards on 71 attempts with 21 touchdowns in seven games this spring.

"Throughout Braelon's recruiting, believed he could do a number of different things," Chryst said. "Really, if you said a year ago or just a little bit more than a year ago, you didn't know if he'd be a safety, if he'd be receiver, if he could be a running back. Knew that it might continue to grow. He's young -- young now and he's even younger than -- so you kind of didn't have necessarily a position circled as much as boy, you just want this guy in your program.

"As you go through it, and a lot of those guys that are good enough that you can see them have the ability to play different positions, and you start with, 'What do you want to do?' And then I think it eventually goes to, and I loved his answers -- 'Whatever the team needs.' Hard to say because we know who he is and was as a high school player and where he is now. For me to say and tell him, 'I don't know what you're going to be,' but I'm really glad we got him."

The state of Wisconsin has been buzzing since the Milwaukee Bucks captured the 2021 NBA championship earlier this week. Of course during media day, someone asked Chryst about the organization's fresh title and how he could "harness that energy and momentum into" the Badgers' team this year.

First, Chryst congratulated the Bucks before discussing superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was named NBA Finals MVP after averaging 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds and five assists per game in the series.

"You know, obviously, I was a fan of the Bucks and certainly of Giannis, but as you see the whole team and Coach Bud [Mike Budenholzer] and the organization and how they have kind of navigated everything, you can't help but just become bigger, bigger fans," Chryst said. "I don't know that you say, 'OK, the Bucks won it and this is how we're going to take what they did and transfer it,' but I also think there's great lessons to be learned in it and something in a way that certainly a lot of our guys followed it.

"Our locker room, not every player is a Bucks fan, but when there's enough energy and they see their teammates get excited about it, there was a lot of interest in it. You pull up clips of press conferences and videos, and you talk about how -- I'm fascinated by how Giannis goes about it. He kind of speaks about what we were talking about of being in the moment and taking advantage of it and opportunities, and the best way to take advantage of the opportunity is by putting it all out there. I think he backs it up, and I think their team backs it up. So there's great life lessons, there's great sport lessons in what they did.

"We've got another challenge and it's an opportunity to kind of write our own story and that's, every team in this conference has that. That's what the season's all about."