Badgers HC Luke Fickell's opening comments after 27-13 win over South Dakota

I'm sure this hasn't been as long a week for you guys as it has been for me um but there's a little bit I knew going into this ball game that that it was going to be a battle and uh I'm not saying that everybody knew that or everybody um knew what kind of week it was going to be you know our guys respected that but um this was one that to be honest with you you know I just knew it was going to be some version of a a true battle and a fight um you never quite know um exactly how things are going to turn out and I think some people just assume you know that you're you know hey your guys are going to blow out these first couple games and things are going to roll but I had a good idea that we were going to be tested and tested in a different way um we got tested in the first week we got tested again this week but I I'm telling you that these are the things that continue to make us grow these are the things that get you battle tested um I know there's a lot of things we want to look better at there's a lot of things we want to be able to do um creating turnovers defensively is just one of those things that man you know they haven't come you know and you know it's our job to make them um but you know first two weeks those guys have done a really good job that's a good football team a lot of fifth and sixth year guys that uh are battle tested and uh you know like I said knew that they were going to give you some different things to to make you have to work and grow and um another chance for us to to grind it out in the fourth quarter and find a way and um it's weird I can't put a finger on it just yet every team and every group and every year is obviously a little bit different but there was more energy I felt better and had more confidence and energy just from the guys around me after we got the stop in the Red Zone after we fumbled the pond on the four yd line get a targeting give him another three or four plays than even I did at halftime and I don't know why um but it was still like we we kicked a field goal last week going at halftime we kicked a field goal this past week going at halftime and it was almost like for some reason it was a let down and I can't put a finger on it again you want to score points as you go into half that's one of the biggest you know things that you know we really put an emphasis on um and both of them I think in some ways have have not been a positive for us so there's some things we got to do a little bit better job of in particular that coming out the start of the second half but uh we grew up even more today and uh I'll just get there's three guys that I brought up there real quick after the game and they all three are new guys but new in different ways and Tyler van djk who obviously is an older guy but new to our team and program and really really think he's continuing to take some steps um and T Curtis was a guy that had to go go in he had played earlier but had had to go in there in a really really tough situation and and you know I think we really saw what tack of curse is made up tonight uh this afternoon and then Xavier Lucas who who was a guy that's played a bit obviously you saw him last week but um played a little bit but had to go in a little bit when when NY got dinged and had to stay in and uh three guys in three different kind of situations that all had an incredible impact on that uh on that game today