Takeaways from Paul Chryst's radio interview with WIBA-AM

On Tuesday, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez provided insight into the program after the athletic department announced it would cancel its upcoming game against Purdue and continue its halting of team activities because of the number of positive COVID-19 cases.

Two days later on Thursday morning, head coach Paul Chryst spoke with WIBA-AM and delivered some smaller nuggets of information. Last week, UW confirmed the former Badger turned leader of the football program tested positive for COVID-19, but in an updated release on Oct. 31, the "earliest he would be able to return to work, should he remain symptom-free, is on Thursday, Nov. 5."

Here are some takeaways from Chryst from the 11-minute conversation with WIBA's Brian Posick.

Tuesday, Wisconsin stated that there were 27 active COVID-19 cases within the program (12 from the UW staff, 15 student-athletes), "all since Saturday, Oct. 24." That included five additional people (two staff, three student-athletes) since Oct. 31.

The Big Ten's protocols released in September state that the "earliest a student-athlete can return to game competition is 21 days following a COVID-19 positive diagnosis."

Chryst was asked if any position groups were affected to the point where it could cause concern for Wisconsin's upcoming cross-divisional clash at Michigan next Saturday (6:30 p.m. CST, ABC).

"Not really that way. Kind of going through it, and certainly there’s some positions that maybe don’t have a lot of numbers to begin with," Chryst said. "We’ve only played one game so we don’t have a lot of the football injuries necessarily to deal with. But there’s enough different times throughout the year where different groups kind of got hit with the COVID, so in many ways, it’s spaced itself out.

"There’s a couple position groups that have, knock on wood, have not contracted the virus, so I would suppose those groups would be the ones that are most susceptible if we were to continue, if we had another outbreak and what not. But right now, kind of going through and just where we’re at roster-wise at each position, we should be pretty good right now so long as there are no other names that pop up, kind of.”

The next question revolved around if he had players within the two-deep of the program may not have available next week, and he said that "there will be a few, and yet we kind of knew that going into the year."

"So I think we got spots where we feel that certainly guys are ready. You have to always as a coach, and we’ve talked about this I think before, Brian, that you never want to play someone before they’re ready. I think that we wouldn’t be in a situation that you’re playing someone before they’re ready to go. So I think roster-wise, right now as of today, we’d be alright.”

When speaking with Posick, Chryst admitted he was excited to get out of isolation but also looked at the program in broader picture.

“For us, we got to let the numbers drive it, and we’re all hopeful that we can get back sooner than later," Chryst said. "The key for us is to just stack days with no numbers or low numbers and let the data drive kind of when we can return, but we’re certainly hopeful that we can get back and get going again.”

Alvarez mentioned this on Tuesday, but former Wisconsin cornerback Troy Vincent -- now the National Football League's (NFL) executive vice president of football operations -- sent him NFL protocols.

Chryst, who played at UW from 1984 to 1987, also mentioned another former Badger sharing information in current Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard.

"You’re just trying to find ways different ways. We're all trying to do the same thing," Chryst said. "What are better ways to maybe do it? Whether it’s from traveling or how many people you get on the bus to when you get on the bus to how you stagger that. Just trying to come up with different ways to mitigate as much as you can.”

Many have pointed out the margin for error for Wisconsin to qualify for the Big Ten championship game is thin. Remember, according to the Big Ten 2020 divisional tiebreaker:

A team must play at least six games to be considered for participation in the championship game. However, if the average number of conference games played by all teams falls below six, with the average rounded up/down at .50 (i.e. 6.50 or greater would round up to 7, 6.49 or less would round down to 6), then teams must play no less than two fewer conference games than the average number of conference games played by all teams (i.e. four games played if the conference average is six) to be considered.

Is Chryst worried about competing in enough games to qualify for the conference championship game?

“No. I mean I understand obviously and certainly have that as a goal, but really we just want to have the opportunity to get back, and to do that, we had to stop the spread," Chryst said. "That was kind of what’s most important. Then it’s getting back to where we can be practicing and then playing games. Really of all the years, this one would be the last one that you ever try to spend any time or take any of your energy looking forward, right? You should be grateful to get an opportunity to play.

"Then I’ve always believed that, then you stack it up and at the end of the year, what did that season, did you earn another right to play another game? So to look down the road, it seems a little crazy right now because all that matters is that 1) we stop the spread -- and so far the numbers have been good as we go this week, and we need that to continue -- and then you just want an opportunity to play, and then another opportunity to play again. Truly, you got to go one day at a time and one week at a time.”