Lovie Smith

"We're back in the office today. Just recapping Friday night's game, it was a disappointing game. You assume you are in a different place going into the season, we assumed we were in a different place going into the season. I thought we were more prepared to play a better football game than we did.  Normally you get to the first game and truly see where you are and as I said we are not as far along as I hoped we'd be but we still have time to get better. When you make an effort like that you can't wait to play as soon as possible. We watched the video with our team and now we're moving on to Purdue."

"We had a chance to see the [Purdue] game and it was an outstanding game for them to be behind and comeback and play hard throughout. They had injuries, the starting running back didn't play but the next guy moved up and played outstanding ball… Pretty impressive how they competed and won the game while playing without their coach… We will definitely need to step up our football game this week."

"He [Rod Perry] has a low center of gravity, he has good quickness, everything you look for in an interior lineman. We need for him to get out. He practices against outstanding centers and guards each day so I think it was good for him to see how he matches up against other competition. Very pleased with how he played, it was a very good coming out party for him and that's what gives us hope. Getting Jake back out there and that defensive line back together also."

"It's always a combination of both. You have to give Wisconsin credit; they are an outstanding defense when they play that way. They shut us out. We didn't score any points so you have to start with them. In order for that to happen though we have to say that we left plays out there, we didn't convert three fourth downs when it felt like we needed to get things going. We are going to say that we had opportunities to do more than we did in this offense.

We are going to practice better this week. After a loss you have to evaluate what you did bad or or what you did right and go back to the practice field. That's what we're going to do. When you play your first game that's where you see where you really are and when you can really start making improvements… We are going to have great week of practice. We are going to get some of our guys back and hopefully be as healthy as we can be and as close to full force as possible. We are going to coach better and we are going to play better.