GAME NOTES: No. 14 Michigan 38, Wisconsin 17

Postgame quotes from head coach Paul Chryst and some of the players, following the loss to Michigan.

• Head coach Paul Chryst on if he is angry following the team’s 1-3 start.

“The first thing you do is, you look inward,” Chryst said. “I appreciate this group and the way they put it out there and you want to do everything you can do to help them have success and when it doesn’t happen you I look inwardly and what do I have to do differently, to do better and I think that’s driven by a lot of things, it’s driven by a competitiveness, it’s driven by a care, it’s drive by… you know that’s your profession and I’ve got no problem if people want to bitch about me, because this is my job, this is where I am at, I want to take it and not project it on the kids.”

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• Coach Chryst on the offense’s identity so far this season.

“What are we going to hang our hat on, there’s been times when its been good running the ball and there have been times when we have thrown it efficiently, but I think that we are absolutely, there isn’t a strong identity right now and that’s something we have to work towards getting,” Chryst said. “Right now I don’t want us to be known as an inconsistent team, but that’s what we have been. Maybe that is our identity right now and we gotta change that.”

• WR Chimere Dike on the team’s inconsistency on offense.

“I think we gotta continue to improve, we had a bit of trouble finding our rhythm today especially early on,” Dike said. “So I think it’s really important to get back and continue to work and try to find a way to find more consistency in our offense.”

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• CB Faion Hicks on whether failing to stop Michigan on fourth down, hurts the defense’s pride.

“I wouldn’t say too much, it hurt our pride, but moreso just frustrating,” Hicks said. “We know we gotta get off, because that type of stuff is big, that momentum change is big, winning on fourth down, winning on third down, that’s huge momentum for the offense coming on the field, so to not be able to get off on those downs was frustrating.”

• Hicks on where they go from here.

“Just keep going, keep pushing man, we gotta keep punching, that’s the whole motto right now, is keep punching,” Hicks said. “We’re going to put the best guys on the field and keep going every week and keep punching.

• Kendric Pryor on the rest of the season.

“I feel like we still got time to fix things around,” Pryor said. “With the West coming up now, strickly Big Ten West Opponents, just kind of focusing on that and winning out the rest of our games and just fixing the mistakes that we’re doing, not shooting ourselves in the foot with mental errors or just the things that have been going on.”

• Pryor on if he thinks the offense should be always as dangerous as it was to close the first half.

“I definitely feel like we’ve got the play-makers on the outside,” Pryor said. “Me and Ferg just moving the ball down the field throwing it and then on the next drive, Chim coming in and making some plays, so we got the guys to make the plays on the outside, we just gotta execute, just keep doing our things, we see bits and pieces or little spurts there every now and then, we just gotta find a way to have that momentum throughout the game.”

• Pryor on Graham Mertz.

“We all think highly of each other, I got great trust and confidence in Graham and he has great trust and confidence in us,” Pryor said. “It’s just us doing what we need to do to give him that confidence on the outside whenever he throws us the ball and make a play so he can have that confidence and walk with that swagger.”

• Nick Herbig on what the team needs to do, moving forward.

“I think we just gotta stay together,” Herbig said. “No front runners, don’t ride the wave, don’t ever get too high, don’t ever get too low and just stay together and be one family.”

Wisconsin statistical leaders

Passing: Graham Mertz, 8-of-15, 115 yards, one TD, zero INTs, three sacks; Chase Wolf, 3-for-8, 52 yards, one TD, one INT, one fumble lost, three sacks

Rushing: Jalen Berger, eight carries, 18 yards; Chez Mellusi, six carries, 13 yards; Braelon Allen, five carries, 19 yards, Kendric Pryor, two carries, 17 yards

Receiving: Kendric Pryor, three catches, 25 yards; Chimere Dike, two catches, 54 yards, one TD; Jake Ferguson, two catches, 28 yards; Clay Cundiff, one catch, 25 yards, one TD

Tackles: Jack Sanborn, 13 (six solo); Leo Chenal, 12 (six solo); Collin Wilder, eight (four solo)

Interceptions: Alexander Smith, one