Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell press conference: James Thompson, Chez Mellusi updates

week one in college football is different than any other sport I think out there why because we have no real preseason game we have no scrimmage right it's probably the only sport out there the high level sport that you don't have some idea some type of scrimmage some type of com competition with another group that you can you know get a little bit of a better idea of where you are and how you do things and how you handle things so you know this is the my I think my 24th year um so right around there in college coaching and and I don't know that it's going to change and it hasn't changed so You' think that well coach you ought to be used to this by now you know but it I don't know that you do get used to that each and every year week one is so unique as we saw even in week zero last week there's a lot of unknowns coach um do you have an update on on James Thompson and you know how long he might be out with his status no it it doesn't look like James is probably going to make it um I don't know that we'll have him for the year um so you know there's a lot of things that are still we got to wait and see right I mean um I don't know if it's a four to five month thing um he he had surgery I think last week uh you we really haven't really talked about it but um you know it's it's a it's a big loss it's tough you know a guy in his senior year that has been through so many things and has meant so much to us I mean obviously over his time here but even in this offseason you know and our ability to continue to grow and do the things we want to do and you know kind of really you know put guys in leadership roles and he's done an unbelievable job and fired up and ready to go and uh you know the unfortunate thing happens and uh now he'll be in a little bit of a different role for us this year I don't know that we'll have a chance to get him back just wondering what you've seen from chz during this preseason offseason just what what it says for him to come back after all the injuries he's kind of dealt with over the years yeah that's the thing I mean injuries are injuries and and how people deal with them are are really key and critical and chz has had his right he's had his ups and he's had his downs and um he's had these really tough moments and you know for us more than anything obviously we love chz and we want him to have an incredible season we want him to have you know all the things that he expected and expects the thing about it is building that confidence from coming back from a lot of those injuries and I can say this that he's in a much different place from what I've known even from last year and I mean that because in Spring football we went live with chz and it wasn't something that maybe we thought we were going to do and I think it's started to build his confidence when all of a sudden he was able to go live and get that feel back and then in Fall camp we went live with him again in there and have the true ability to you know kind of test yourself and see where you are and I really do believe I've seen you know he's had a great attitude he's worked his tail off in everything that we've done but that confidence level of truly carrying the football truly making plays truly taking care of it um when you do some of those things we did in Fall camp and let him go in live situations I think it's really kind of helped build his confidence you know not just in his leg but in in all things that uh that tends to get taken away sometimes when when you go through as many tough injuries as he has so I'm excited to see him play I'm excited for him to you know kind of let loose again and uh I really do think that his confidence level and stuff is in a really good place Luke another kind of off field bigger picture question for you Beer's going to be at Camp Rand for the first time ever this season what do you think about that I don't know that I'm gonna get to enjoy that um that was probably the only thing I didn't say at the beginning right of of some of the stuff that has happened uh with within uh within college football within obviously our Administration but but uh I think if it it it it you know adds to the to the uh atmosphere and it adds to the experience in in Camp Randle I think it's great um you know I'm not an advocate either way I just you know more than anything uh an atmosphere is really really really important and Camp Randle has always been an advantage in the atmosphere um as good as any place in the country and if it helps us create a greater atmosphere meaning maybe we get the students into the seats a little bit sooner so that they can you know go and get a drink um that's even better but I think all in all it's just we're all seeing the change of you know the times and and we all got to be on board with understanding that there are some traditional things that we love and we don't want to let go of but also there's some things that if we don't you know let go of them we don't adapt and adjust and grow with the time times that we'll be left behind and