Illinois head coach Bret Bielema spoke with the media in advance of the Illini's Week 5 road game at Wisconsin.

Opening statement
"Excited for the guys this week, getting back into Big Ten play. You know, when the schedule came out a long time ago, knowing we had Wyoming, knowing it was going to allow us two bye weeks, moved the Chattanooga game into that Thursday night game, I thought it would be an advantage for us going into the Cattanooga game and hopefully it will be an advantage for us going to play at Wisconsin. So I think our guys enjoyed a little day off on Saturday watching other people work, got a good jump yesterday, and today is a day off in our program so, we'll jump into it tomorrow. I like where we're at from a health standpoint. You know, Josh McCray is kind of a work in progress. He actually started running on land; he was doing the things that would indicate that he's getting closer to his return, though I don't know if it'll be this week or next week, but excited for him to continue to move in the right direction. Overall, the rest of our guys got out of it pretty healthy. Actually, we're going to see Jamal Woods back, he's been out the last two weeks. He got cleared about 24 hours before the game last week, so we'll get him involved this week in practice; it's going to be a huge advantage in a tough game, obviously. Two teams that play a physical style of play and where that is, but otherwise everybody should get back to being back with us."

On preparation
"I think just the general work in progress, but it's going to be a great one, right? So this is week five, rematch two. Last week when I got pointed the question about playing an FCS opponent I kind of gave the answer that I gave because this is the same thing, right? It's our second Big Ten opponent, it's game five of our 12 opportunities we're guaranteed, it's the second rematch game of seven, so a lot on the table but this game is about Illinois going to Wisconsin and playing in a Big Ten road environment. I don't believe we've won there since 2002, as someone pointed out to me. Not an easy place to win at, obviously I know about that more than anybody, and I think the flip side of it is our guys, really, since we got together last January we said, "What's behind us is behind us and what's in front of us is what matters," and they've really taken that approach through all the way until I left them last afternoon and I expect Saturday to be more of the same."

On matchup of defensive coordinators
"You know, I had Jimmy [Leonhard] as a player, never worked with him as a coach but my guess is a lot of things that made him a great player make him a great coach. And just to compete against him last year, you can see all the things that he does kind of tie together. I know this from recruiting against him, but I know he has a heck of an ability to connect with players; doesn't matter if it's DBs, wideouts, running backs, d-linemen, linebackers. He's probably very, very good at player communication. He's his own man, I don't think he does anything different from the things he believes in. Obviously, I've worked with. Ryan (Walters) and never knew him as a player, but my guess is that some of the things I've seem from him as a coach are what made him a good player as well. Two very talented guys, their results show that. I think they'll be the first to tell you that it's not about Jimmy Leonhard versus Ryan Walters, it's about the teams that play on Saturday. They're both great competitors, so excited to see how all phases of the game Saturday play out."