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Wisconsin postgame: Jim Leonhard and players talk win over Purdue

A look at what interim head coach Jim Leonhard and select players had to say following the Wisconsin Badgers' 35-24 win over Purdue

Matt Belz

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The Wisconsin Badgers (4-4 overall, 2-3 B1G) came away with a great double-digit win over Purdue on Saturday. 

Game recaps:

After the game, interim head coach Jim Leonhard and several players met with local media members to discuss the team's performance and what it means going forward.

Here is a synopsis of what was said during postgame availability.

When asked about winning his first career home game as interim head coach of Wisconsin, Jim Leonhard had this to say about the victory:

"It means a lot. Wisconsin, Camp Randall, it means so much to me, and to see the players respond to me, what my messaging is, and the confidence I am trying to pour into them, it means so much." - HC Jim Leonhard

On the topic of team growth of late, Jim Leonhard said:

"I think we are seeing a lot of growth. We had a young, inexperienced team, a lot of guys stepping up into different roles or transitioning into the program from other places where I knew we had to learn a lot about this group early in the season and we found out a ton. It's good to see the response. We are getting better. The effort's been there. Now you're seeing a little bit better execution." - HC Jim Leonhard

Later Leonhard was asked about quarterback Graham Mertz and his play against Purdue. Leonhard had this to say:

"It's just fun to see him playing with confidence. I thought he threw a lot of balls where you felt it, right? When quarterbacks are playing with confidence you just see the way the ball comes out of their hands, you see the reaction as they release and throw it. He's doing a great job of learning defense, but he's doing a much better job of seeing coverages and understanding where matchups are, and you are seeing that with his decision-making, and the confidence in which he's throwing the ball." - HC Jim Leonhard

Wisconsin offensive lineman Riley Mahlman suited up for the first time since the first game of the season when he sustained a knee injury. After the game, I asked him about working his way back toward being 100% healthy, and he had this to say:

"I feel pretty good. I'd say dang near 100% healthy, but you know there's still football shape and you've got to get back to playing. So I'd say I'm definitely not completely back, but I think this bye week is going to be huge for me to get a lot of snaps this week and be back at 100%." - OL Riley Mahlman

After a game in which John Torchio described his performance versus Michigan State by saying that he "played like shit," the senior safety had a huge game with two interceptions against Purdue. "I read everything, I was getting a lot of crap, I missed a lot of tackles [against Michigan State], I know. It felt good to kind of get a good game under my belt"

On the topic of the early 21-0 lead that the Badgers grabbed, senior captain Keeanu Benton had this to say:

"I mean that's nice, but we had to keep our foot on their throats and I am glad we finished the way we wanted to. We knew we could start and do good in the first half, but that finishing part is something we need to work on and we did good at it today." - NT Keeanu Benton

My favorite response of the day came from redshirt freshman outside linebacker Darryl Peterson. He was asked if he felt like the team is making progress lately under Jim Leonhard and had this response:

"Oh yeah, for sure. I think this group has shown a lot of grit, especially last week. You know, that's not the outcome we wanted but we fought until the end. That's something we hadn't showed in a long time in everybody's opinion. We weren't really showing the fight and we weren't finishing games. Even though the outcome wasn't what we like last week we showed a lot of fight, and this week we punched them in the mouth to start and we came back and did it again in the second half. That's something we couldn't do in the first few games. This week we started strong and finished strong." - OLB Darryl Peterson

Quarterback Graham Mertz was asked about throwing the football on first down and Wisconsin's balanced offensive attack on Saturday and had this to say about it:

"I'd say we are just keeping them [defenses] honest. You can't get load the box on us anymore and if you want to we will air it out. If you want to drop into coverage we have the best running back in the country running at you." - QB Graham Mertz

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Matt Belz
MATT BELZ

Title: Publisher, Beat Writer for AllBadgers.com, a Sports Illustrated Channel Hello, my name is Matt Belz, and I am the site manager at All Badgers. I previously wrote for multiple years at Buckeyes 5th Quarter and have been the leading publisher here since March of 2022.  When I am not covering the Wisconsin Badgers football and men's basketball teams, I enjoy being outside and spending time with family and friends.  You can follow everything I write about on several different platforms. First and foremost on our site...AllBadgers.com You can follow me personally on Twitter at @savedbythebelz or check out our Facebook page at Wisconsin FanNation on Sports Illustrated.

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