[msqueri]

* The most interesting parts were probably the discussions of running backs. I'm not expecting a ton from Ryan Butler but it's notable he more readily/seemingly enthusiastically got praise than our returning backs. Taylor also mentioned the true freshmen unbidden (though it took him a few seconds to remember Irvin's name, which probably isn't a great sign). Taylor had to be explicitly prompted on Smith, and never mentioned Filkins. My read is that Taylor is approaching this room like most rational people would - being from Missouri on Smith and Filkins and not letting hopes get too high until they can show some reliability. The comments on Smith when drawn out reinforced that to me. Taylor measured his response by couching it in terms of Smith looking reluctant in the spring coming back from injury and looking more confident now though still not being 100 percent mentally and needing a full summer working with Deatrick and the S&C staff, and Taylor continues to talk mostly theoretically about Smith (e.g., seeing some flashes at the end of spring of what everybody is so excited for) rather than as a coach confident in the player. When Taylor was further prompted by a THIRD consecutive question, there was a bit of a head shake/eye roll that may have had at least a little bit of fatigue with answering so many questions about such a theoretical player but even if that wasn't anywhere near Taylor's mind I think the alternate (probably somewhat more likely) explanation is that the question invited Taylor to think about what a healthy Smith would mean for the offense and Taylor's reaction indicated that IF that could happen it would be big. "He's perfectly fit for that position" (that being a RB position in Taylor's offense that is asked to be versatile and run routes) struck me as a genuine compliment that Taylor came around to on the third RB question because it allowed him to answer it in the hypothetical of what Smith could mean for the offense. I think Taylor understands better than anybody that Smith could be a really good weapon in this offense but we need to see it to believe it.



* When asked about defensive philosophy, Taylor immediately shifts ownership to April and his staff. I think it's clear that Taylor views himself as the culture guy and offensive coach but that defense is about hiring good people and letting them do the job. I never get any sense of micromanaging (or even much sense of ownership) from Taylor when it comes to defense. It comes across as confident, trust-oriented management and I'm glad to see it, just observing that it's interesting that Taylor always and immediately shifts ownership of the defense to April. As for the substance of what Taylor said about defense, it's what we've heard about an odd structure (i.e. 3-4 base) that plays a lot of nickel, is aggressive, and gives a lot of looks. We are also hearing more and more about the mental side of the defense, in this case needing to know your stuff and be able to make the right pre- and post-snap reads rather than just lining up and going. I have some PTSD from all our years of hearing about reads and fits under Anderson's defense and have welcomed indications of less complexity, and it's fair to wonder whether the defense will actually be any less complex. But even if it isn't I have much greater confidence that the complexity will be for a useful purpose as April hopefully knows what he's doing. That being said, it's interesting that in separate interviews several of our non-Wisconsin coaches (Taylor here, Paul Williams previously) have clearly emphasized the defense's complexity.



* The answer on how the offense looked struck me as minimally insightful, as Taylor previewed in saying he can't really know before going back and reviewing the tape. The upshot, for what it's worth, was that for the most part we knew what we were doing but it's still a little sloppy.



* Also didn't think we learned much from the question on being picked last. He just seemed to think it was irrelevant (if anything it seemed like a somewhat unnecessarily loquacious answer to just dismiss the importance.



* Still talking about the players' drive and focus, which is good (although a slight nit is he said they give everything you ask for, which seemed to be a conscious effort not to say they give everything they have....maybe he just thinks the latter is cliche/hyperbolic).



* Amusing moment when Ben's diplomatically phrased question about there being a lot of possible OL combinations elicited a self-aware laugh of recognition from Taylor. The bottom line seems to be we don't really know what we have yet and need to see the OL, especially the freshmen and Bank, move around. Taylor had an interesting comment alluding to how he and his staff didn't actually recruit this class (the way he put it was they haven't had a chance to see them in person). Again Taylor focused on having more depth at OL than in the spring, clearly very much at the forefront of his thinking.



* Taylor pivoted very quickly from talking about how the dearth of returning starters puts more pressure on those few to a general reflection about how our lack of experience is an opportunity for everybody. If one were to read anything into it (which may or may not be sound), it might be that seniority holds little stock and everybody has an opportunity. Of course, that wouldn't be very illuminating as there's scant seniority to even prioritize.



* I loved the way the QB competition question was framed (how are you handling the reps at QB). As camp moves on there will hopefully be other opportunities to ask specific questions about each guy, plans for the opener, etc., but for now a snapshot on how reps are being handled is as illuminating as anything. One of big takeaways from this interview is that Lamson, Patu, and Daniels (for thosee following such things, that was the order Taylor mentioned them) got mentioned separately from Jackson in Taylor's discussion of relatively even reps at this stage. I think this could be read either as Jackson not being on the same footing in the competition (or even outside of the competition at the moment) or as Jackson being settled in more slowly since he's just a freshman. I don't think we know enough to say right now. Also interesting that Taylor said that situation of relatively even reps for the older guys and working Jackson in would be the case for this first week and then we'll see from there. It will be very interesting whether than means narrowing down to a tighter focus, bringing Jackson on more even footing to make it an even more open competition, or potentially a little of both (e.g., if one of the older three gets removed from the competition).

[msqueri]

* The most interesting parts were probably the discussions of running backs. I'm not expecting a ton from Ryan Butler but it's notable he more readily/seemingly enthusiastically got praise than our returning backs. Taylor also mentioned the true freshmen unbidden (though it took him a few seconds to remember Irvin's name, which probably isn't a great sign). Taylor had to be explicitly prompted on Smith, and never mentioned Filkins. My read is that Taylor is approaching this room like most rational people would - being from Missouri on Smith and Filkins and not letting hopes get too high until they can show some reliability. The comments on Smith when drawn out reinforced that to me. Taylor measured his response by couching it in terms of Smith looking reluctant in the spring coming back from injury and looking more confident now though still not being 100 percent mentally and needing a full summer working with Deatrick and the S&C staff, and Taylor continues to talk mostly theoretically about Smith (e.g., seeing some flashes at the end of spring of what everybody is so excited for) rather than as a coach confident in the player. When Taylor was further prompted by a THIRD consecutive question, there was a bit of a head shake/eye roll that may have had at least a little bit of fatigue with answering so many questions about such a theoretical player but even if that wasn't anywhere near Taylor's mind I think the alternate (probably somewhat more likely) explanation is that the question invited Taylor to think about what a healthy Smith would mean for the offense and Taylor's reaction indicated that IF that could happen it would be big. "He's perfectly fit for that position" (that being a RB position in Taylor's offense that is asked to be versatile and run routes) struck me as a genuine compliment that Taylor came around to on the third RB question because it allowed him to answer it in the hypothetical of what Smith could mean for the offense. I think Taylor understands better than anybody that Smith could be a really good weapon in this offense but we need to see it to believe it.



* When asked about defensive philosophy, Taylor immediately shifts ownership to April and his staff. I think it's clear that Taylor views himself as the culture guy and offensive coach but that defense is about hiring good people and letting them do the job. I never get any sense of micromanaging (or even much sense of ownership) from Taylor when it comes to defense. It comes across as confident, trust-oriented management and I'm glad to see it, just observing that it's interesting that Taylor always and immediately shifts ownership of the defense to April. As for the substance of what Taylor said about defense, it's what we've heard about an odd structure (i.e. 3-4 base) that plays a lot of nickel, is aggressive, and gives a lot of looks. We are also hearing more and more about the mental side of the defense, in this case needing to know your stuff and be able to make the right pre- and post-snap reads rather than just lining up and going. I have some PTSD from all our years of hearing about reads and fits under Anderson's defense and have welcomed indications of less complexity, and it's fair to wonder whether the defense will actually be any less complex. But even if it isn't I have much greater confidence that the complexity will be for a useful purpose as April hopefully knows what he's doing. That being said, it's interesting that in separate interviews several of our non-Wisconsin coaches (Taylor here, Paul Williams previously) have clearly emphasized the defense's complexity.



* The answer on how the offense looked struck me as minimally insightful, as Taylor previewed in saying he can't really know before going back and reviewing the tape. The upshot, for what it's worth, was that for the most part we knew what we were doing but it's still a little sloppy.



* Also didn't think we learned much from the question on being picked last. He just seemed to think it was irrelevant (if anything it seemed like a somewhat unnecessarily loquacious answer to just dismiss the importance.



* Still talking about the players' drive and focus, which is good (although a slight nit is he said they give everything you ask for, which seemed to be a conscious effort not to say they give everything they have....maybe he just thinks the latter is cliche/hyperbolic).



* Amusing moment when Ben's diplomatically phrased question about there being a lot of possible OL combinations elicited a self-aware laugh of recognition from Taylor. The bottom line seems to be we don't really know what we have yet and need to see the OL, especially the freshmen and Bank, move around. Taylor had an interesting comment alluding to how he and his staff didn't actually recruit this class (the way he put it was they haven't had a chance to see them in person). Again Taylor focused on having more depth at OL than in the spring, clearly very much at the forefront of his thinking.



* Taylor pivoted very quickly from talking about how the dearth of returning starters puts more pressure on those few to a general reflection about how our lack of experience is an opportunity for everybody. If one were to read anything into it (which may or may not be sound), it might be that seniority holds little stock and everybody has an opportunity. Of course, that wouldn't be very illuminating as there's scant seniority to even prioritize.



* I loved the way the QB competition question was framed (how are you handling the reps at QB). As camp moves on there will hopefully be other opportunities to ask specific questions about each guy, plans for the opener, etc., but for now a snapshot on how reps are being handled is as illuminating as anything. One of big takeaways from this interview is that Lamson, Patu, and Daniels (for thosee following such things, that was the order Taylor mentioned them) got mentioned separately from Jackson in Taylor's discussion of relatively even reps at this stage. I think this could be read either as Jackson not being on the same footing in the competition (or even outside of the competition at the moment) or as Jackson being settled in more slowly since he's just a freshman. I don't think we know enough to say right now. Also interesting that Taylor said that situation of relatively even reps for the older guys and working Jackson in would be the case for this first week and then we'll see from there. It will be very interesting whether than means narrowing down to a tighter focus, bringing Jackson on more even footing to make it an even more open competition, or potentially a little of both (e.g., if one of the older three gets removed from the competition).