By TOM LEA
tlea@espnwisconsin.com

MADISON - Junior wide receiver Jared Abbrederis has played extremely well through seven games so far this season. Following Tuesday's practice our intern Tony Cartagena had an opportunity to chat with him one-on-one.

The following is a question and answer with Abbrederis:

This week the team had great success running the ball. How much of that do you attest to the wide receivers holding blocks down the field?

Abbrederis: I first give credit to the linemen and our running backs, they did a great job. Montee (Ball), James (White) and Melvin (Gordon) all ran hard. All our receivers take pride in blocking down field ad making sure that if there is a tackle it isn’t going to be our guy. I had a couple nice blocks, but Jordan (Fredrick), Chase (Hammond), Duck (Jeff Duckworth), Reggie (Love), Kenzell (Doe) and everybody that got in there, we were all kind of aggressive in the blocking game and we took pride in it. I’m not going to attribute it just to us but it definitely when we had our number called, if it was one on one for us we were going to get the job done.

Early on in the year wide receiver Coach Azzani talked about the importance of blocking, as a receiving core top to bottom have you seen an improvement in the performance?

Abbrederis: It’s getting better, it’s still not there yet. We’re working on technique and starting to understand it and how it works. We’re really getting better at the kind of technique that he wants to see used. We still got to keep getting more physical and things like that. Still some things to work on and get better at, there is always room for improvement but we have come a long way.

Joel Stave mentioned that he pulled down a couple passes instead of throwing you the deep ball because it was the smarter decision, what have you seen in his maturation process over the past few weeks?

Abbrederis: I think he’s done a good job. He sticks in the pocket and he’s comfortable, he throws the ball the only place that you can get it. He gives you a chance and doesn’t really give the DB a chance. But he does have faith in you, he’ll throw a ball up there and hope that you go get it for him. I like that about him too. He does have good poise in the pocket, he’ll stay in there and take a hit, that’s not something we want him to do all the time but he’s just comfortable in the pocket and that’s really good for him.

As a Wisconsin native what does the Minnesota rivalry mean to you?

Abbrederis: A lot, it’s the longest rivalry in College Football so that says it all right there. Coach mentioned today in 1906 the President cancelled the game because there was so much violence in the stands and on the field. It is a border battle, obviously that means a lot to us so we’re excited to play in it again.

Do you preach the importance of a Border Battle to the younger receivers on the team?

Abbrederis: We prepare but obviously you got a little more energy, it’s against Minnesota and it is the Border Battle going for the Axe. But it is another game on our schedule we have to prepare the same way. We just have to pick up the energy and show a little more intensity.