Paul Chryst met with the media on Sunday afternoon to discuss his team's preparation for their season-opening game against Utah State on Friday, Sept. 1. Video is courtesy of UWBadgers.com.
NEWS AND NOTES
-- Sophomore outside linebacker Zack Baun will miss the entire 2017 season with a foot injury, according to the team's preliminary week one injury report. Losing Baun thins out Wisconsin's depth at outside linebacker, where they were expecting him to back up starters Garret Dooley and Leon Jacobs. Incoming JUCO transfer Andrew Van Ginkel and walk-on sophomore Tyler Johnson were listed as the second-team outside linebackers on the team's initial depth chart.
"It really wasn't until a couple days ago when he got the final tests and what he needs to do to fix that," Chryst said when asked about Baun's injury. "But Tyler's been impressive in the way that he's grown. When he came here he really hadn't played a lot of defense, period ... I think he's put himself in a position to grow and truly earned this opportunity."
-- The Badgers named true freshman Jack Coan as their backup quarterback, over redshirt freshman Kare' Lyles. Chryst said that he thought enrolling early for spring camp paid off for Coan, who built on what he learned in that extra semester during fall camp.
"I thought in spring he did a good job of learning it and kind of attacking the learning end of it and continuing to grow," Chryst said Monday. "I think that through fall camp he did a nice job of building on the things that he felt sure of from the spring but then also adding to it. I thought that he did some good things in the course of practice when we're scrimmaging."
Chryst also said that he's not worried about redshirting Coan right away - so if the Badgers need a backup to Alex Hornibrook, they'll put him in the game.
"I think that was a conversation that we had right away. I think if a guy is ready to play, they need to be ready. And I think Jack is (ready). We're not worried about a redshirt right now for him."
--
John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
