MADISON -- After Monday's scrimmage, Wisconsin assistant coach Jon Budmayr spoke with reporters on a variety of topics about his group of quarterbacks.
Budmayr spoke for over 10 minutes with reporters, answering questions regarding the mindset of junior Jack Coan - who has looked like the No. 1 quarterback in the practices open to the media - to the abilities of redshirt freshman Chase Wolf and the biggest challenge for true freshman Graham Mertz.
Check out the highlights from his availability below:
As he's coached/played quarterback, when you see a quarterback starting to get to feel comfortable, what some of the signs are:
Budmayr: “I think the biggest thing is when you’re looking at it, you want to look at timing, the decision making. Are we valuing situations? Is the ball coming out? And for timing, a lot of it is driven by the feet. We’ll study the feet a ton to say OK, if you’re feet are on - we’ll work that in pre-practice all the time - bounce and throw your first read, hitch hitch to your second. When they’re on with that, then you can truly understand timing. The guys are working hard to get that. Those are the biggest things, the decision making, the timing, and when you look at it from concepts is are we spreading the ball around or is it going to one guy consistently or one spot of that progression? Those would be the big things with it.”
What Chase Wolf has done to elevate his himself:
Budmayr: “I think Chase has got a lot of playmaking ability. He’s got a good grasp of hte offense right now, and what’s even better though, is he’s playing with confidence and he’s got great understanding of the types of throws that he can make. With that, I think we got to reign him in a bit with some decision making which he understands. It’s important to him, but he can make some unique throws and extend some plays with his feet that present some problems, and it’s been fun to watch him grow in that area. But he’d be the first one to tell you with that, he’s got to clean up some of the decisions and value the football just a little bit more.”
Does Wolf remind Budmayr of himself when he played?
Budmayr: “He does. The way he plays, I think that that was something that jumped out at me early in the recruiting process when you see the way that he threw. There were some similarities, not just because he’s short. [media laughs] Jump around that question.
“The way that he throws the ball, certainly it reminded me of a bit of that, but I think he moves a lot better. His playmaking ability, the way he extends plays, he’s got a unique skillset there.”
Has Jack taken the step you’d hope he’d take since the spring?
Budmayr: “He’s grown. What we’ve asked him to do is take a big jump in decision making, understanding situations and being able to protect the football. That’s not just protecting the football, not throwing picks. It’s protecting the football with your decisions. If something’s not there down the field, being able to get through a progression quickly to spit the ball out to a checkdown and avoid kind of the negatives early in the downs. I like the approach he’s had to it. He understands that he’s into it. Certainly room for improvement. We got to keep going. This next week is big for that, but he’s taken what we’ve asked of him in the spring--stretching the ball down the field, making good decisions, playing within yourself, and that part’s been fun to see so far.”
Biggest challenge for Mertz during fall camp:
“I think a big part of it is early on, there’s a lot of install. We did about four, five heavy days of install to get it in, so therefore now we can run a bunch of those plays. So early in camp, I think it was just that OK, seeing those pictures, understanding those progressions, what did I retain from the spring? Getting a jump on those installs is a lot.
"Those are heavy at times, and now it’s fun because the last couple of days you’ve seen him -- Graham’s best as with any quarterback, but especially Graham -- when his feet are in rhythm. Early on a little bit in camp, you saw those feet where I think you got going a little bit, and once they get going, you can tell that the brains’ going a little bit. The last couple of days have been fun because there haven’t been any install so we’ve been able to tighten down the plan and start just running plays, getting ready for what would be the season. Since then, he’s done a great job of getting back to that rhythm with his feet. He can make all the throws. That’s not the issue. But it’s just understanding, recognizing defensive coverages and progressions and trusting his eyes. I think that’s a tough thing when you take that jump is the speed of the game. What a window might have been real last fall, is it real this fall? He’s getting that understanding and I’ve loved the way he’s attacked it each day.”
On Coan and if he’s seen him looking over his shoulder or if he’s focused on whatever he’s got to do:
Budmayr: “He’s been locked in to getting better. Had a great conversation with him during the winter of that and what his goals, what his vision is. One of the neat things about Jack is, it’s important for him to set the standard for the room. Jack knows what he has to improve and what he has to get better on, but he wants this unit to be the best unit. He’s taken it upon himself to prepare himself to play at the highest level but also to make sure that when there’s questions asked, when there’s discussions being had in the meeting room, that he’s feeding them with knowledge.
“That’s a standard that he took, and he said, ‘I want this to be.’ You can appreciate that from him because he’s worked at it, and he understands what he’s had to do to get better, but at the same time, he’s also set a standard for the group that they’ve played to, and they feed off of each other with that. They play well together.”
Different when you’re chasing somebody down rather than when you are the guy at the front of the room to answer those questions?
Budmayr: “I think either way, whether you’re chasing down or you’re at the head of it, I think eitehr way, it sounds cliché, but when you feel that competition, that competition is within yourself. That’s something we talk continuously, because that group, our whole group needs to know if they’re competing to be the best of them each day, and they’re improving, then this team’s going to get better. I think for that, there’s definitely probably a comfort when you’re the oldest one because of your experience. You’ve been around it, but there’s certainly I think it’s a choice, too ,that you make to say, ‘OK, this is going to be improtant to me or it’s not going to be improtant to me.”
Is not being rattled an aspect of Wolf's game?
“Yeah, he has a great presence to him, on and off the field. That’s one thing about Chase is his personalithy is a fun one to be around and I love that way that he handles himself in the huddle. I love the way that he handles himself on the sidelines, in the meeting rooms, on the field. I think he truly feels that no matter what the situation is, he’s going to have an opportunity to move the sticks or make a play. When you play with that confidence, it definitely is noticeable.”
Lot of other attention on other guys -- if Coan has that right mindset that none of that will affect him and he’ll focus more on himself:
Budmayr: “I think what’s been fun is you go back and you look at the snaps he had last season, and that’s something he and I spent a lot of time going through in the spring. You watch those and you start defining the areas of growth that we can get better at. That list, that’s enough to excite you and to make you lock in to say, ‘Oh man, I got a lot on my plate.’ So he’s truly taken all that stuff that he’s playing the game of football and understanding how to play quarterback efficiently, there’s a lot that goes into that. If you let yourself veer off from outside the moment to distractions, you’re never going to be able to maximize who you are. That’s what I’ve appreciated about him is he understands where he has to get better at, he understands what he has to get better at, and he’s taken it and just completely dove into it. It’s been fun because you can see him making progress.”
Highs and lows from Coan’s performances last season:
“I think the highs were when he was playing in rhythm, particularly the Purdue game. You look at that and you see a guy on tape who’s putting the ball where he wants to put it, not trying to throw away from defenders. When he’s playing with that rhythm with his feet, he’s truly saying, ‘OK I’m throwing this guy open. I don’t care where that defender is.’ That was the confidence that you saw and I think a lot of that was tied into understanding what he was seeing. Having his feet underneath him, not rushing himself through progressions but just truly trusting it. If it’s there, cutting it loose. If not, getting through a read, so those were some of the highs was you saw him playing with confidence.”
“I think some of the lows that you point out ties into some of the decision making. I think that’s ability to avoid those big negatives. Not everything is going to be perfect. If something goes south, then you know what, how can I level it out and turn a ‘minus’ into a ‘zero’, instead of a 'minus' into a ‘minus-minus’ and those things that he saw them. He saw at times where he could spit the ball out of his hand. Then there were other times where protection was clean, and it allowed himself to get through a read and we got hung up a little bit early on so timing would lead to some of those.”
