Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag is a podcast/radio show aiming at bringing you Wisconsin sports news and opinions! Find the show Wednesdays from 7-9 on Sports radio 92.3 WOSQ or here next day!
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
August 6 Show: Pocket Pancakes and World Series Dreams. Badgers Position Preview Week 1 and more
this is wisconsin sports on the go with trage, your place for all things. Wisconsin sports, now your host trade. How we doing everybody and welcome in to wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host trage. As we come back for this august 6th edition of the show here, I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday. I hope you guys are enjoying your week. So far it's been a great week. For me it's been.
Speaker 1:The weekend was fantastic. We went over to Chippewa, got to the Chippewa Zoo, so that was awesome there. It's always awesome to go spend time with family, see animals I mean, you can't complain right and then a great lunch there over in Chippewa Tucson. It was a fantastic weekend all the way around there. So what also made it fantastic and you can't beat this is that the Brewers just continue to. Whatever is going on I don't know what it is, what voodoo magic or what's going on with Pat Murphy and these pocket pancakes, I have no idea but the Brewers continue to find ways to be the best team in baseball and I want to talk about that today why the Brewers are the best team in baseball, why their world, why I believe they're serious World Series contenders and why the trade deadline. We're going to talk trade deadline today and why the trade deadline didn't really bother me. I want to talk about that today. So we're gonna get into all of that today here on the show. We're gonna talk packers. I want to talk training camp once, our family night. Ummer's gonna stop by. He's back, finally, from vacation. We're gonna talk to ummer about a little bit of packers nights. We got that coming up and we'll be trade deadline as a whole. I'm gonna talk about that. Kyle's gonna stop by. We're the show. After the commercial break we're going to come back. Christian's going to stop by there from Badger Backer we're going to talk a boatload of Badgers here today on the show and start our position preview. So we came up with a new thing that we're going to do over the next couple of weeks here. As we get closer and closer to Badger football kicking off there against Miami of Ohio, we're going to do a position preview each week. So this week we're going to have like quarterbacks running backs offensive line, then next week we're going to get wide receivers and then we're going to flip over to the defense. We got special teams in the last week there. So all kinds of stuff leading up to the first game of the season there. So Christian is going to stop by there. We're going to talk about all that kind of stuff here today.
Speaker 1:Here on the show little league baseball tourney this weekend. That was fun to watch. That. It's always fun to watch when the league, little league baseball uh tournaments going on and then the little league world series starts up there that is. It's always a blast to watch that on tv and you see some darn good, darn good baseball players across there. I mean it's like holy crap, these kids are. These kids are 12. Are you serious right now, I mean.
Speaker 1:And then I love to look when you see like the size difference of some of these kids. Like the other night there I think we were watching Hawaii and they were taking on. I think it was like Northern California or something like that. I could be wrong, but it was Northeast, I don't know some California team versus Hawaii and you had that last kid in the order come up and he's five foot five, 90 pounds. And this next kid comes up and he's like six foot two and he's like a buck 70 and you're like what, they're on the same team, like it's just, it's crazy to see some of the size difference of these kids from all over the place. It's, it's absolutely all. I mean the wisconsin, I believe the wisconsin team from whitefish bay. I thought they lost. I think they lost to. If I I remember right, it was a team, I think it was. Maybe was it Fargo, was it like a Fargo team? That beat them, I believe, there. So they got knocked out. But it was still cool. They had a Wisconsin team in there and they were playing for a little bit in the Midwest region there but ended up dropping out. So I mean, all in all, watching the Little League world series is just awesome. So that's all I gotta say to that.
Speaker 1:I, outside of that, sterling sharp finally entered into the hall of fame. That was awesome to see over the weekend there. It took it took a bit, but you know a career that was. The injury shortened it and before that injury was well on his way to be a hall of famer, a no doubter, and then that injury just kind of halted that. But you put everything together. Yes, definite Hall of Famer. You put the years of stats together. It's tough, but what he showed in the little amount of time that he had in the league, fantastic. So Sterling Sharp enters in the Hall of Fame there. The NCAA a little bit of tidbit coming off the weekend the NCAA is not expanding the NCAA tournament for at least one more year. That's great. That's great, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I don't want I get money and everything like that and I get wanting to have more teams. I can understand the argument. It's a prestigious thing. Honestly, it's always been the same. Why do we always we suck? Why do we have to screw with things that are just perfect?
Speaker 1:Every single year I get excited for march madness. Why do we have to screw with it? Why can't we just leave it? It's awesome 68 teams, you got your playing games knocks down 64. Then it's run with it. Round of 64, round of 32, sweet Sweet 16, lead eight, final four, bam, national championship done. That month is just pure adrenaline excitement for me.
Speaker 1:Why do we got to screw with it? What do we got? 90-something. I've seen the proposals of some people and it's like, oh, it's okay, we're just going to up it to like 70-something. And then it's like, oh's okay, we're just gonna up it to like 70 something. And then it's like, oh, we'll just up to 90 something. And then it's like, well, how many teams you're gonna have in there, what are you gonna award? Right, because right now you award teams for I mean winning your conference tournament, which is a big thing, it's a prestigious thing. We're such a badgers.
Speaker 1:How many years in a row do we watch them losing the conference championship? Like it's? It's not like it's easy. You get teams that get hot in there. They end up getting in. Some teams do they deserve to be in the tournament over others? No, but they. They did it in their tournament. They did their conference tournament. The conference are allotted to and they're a part of. So they won their conference tournament. They get it. Should other teams have gotten ahead of them? Sure, but why do you penalize mid-major or not mid-major, but lesser teams for being a part of a lesser conference? You can't have a team, a Loyola of Chicago, jumping into the Big Ten. It's not going to work. They're going to get completely trounced year after year. Fau's not going to jump into the SEC. That'd be tough. I mean, you can't have these smaller schools be jumping into these big-time conferences just to try to find a slot in the dance.
Speaker 1:Win more regular season games. I don't know how else to say this to you, but it's called winning. It's as simple as that. It's not rocket science, it's not crazy. Ask the Brewers. It's not crazy. Win crazy ask the brewers, it's not crazy. Winning's not, it's not hard, right? I don't want to say that, knock on wood, but I, I don't want to see the tournament expand. I don't. You don't need more teams. It's a prestigious event. Your top teams get in there. Then you have your automatic bids. That's it. You want to get in, be better.
Speaker 1:This is just a bunch of small, the middle of the pack teams from the last couple years complaining right of st john's team complaining. You've had a couple of years of teams like that complaining that they didn't get in. I think villanova would be one of them. You play in the big east win games. I don't know how else to shake it. Put together a better non-conference schedule. Look what the wisconsin badges did with their non-conference schedule. I mean, look at what this season is going to entail. It's going to be nuts. It's not that hard. And yet teams are, you know, fans, whatever they're all about. Oh, we got to expand this thing. We got to expand it. Stop it, just enough. No, no, we don't have to expand this thing.
Speaker 1:So coming coming off the weekend there there was a couple of things. We always start the show with what's grinding my gears coming off the weekend. There were a few things. Number one Shams. I don't know what his sources are now. He keeps finding sources. This is all I'm going to say and then I'm done with it. Giannis is not leaving Milwaukee. He's staying in Milwaukee. He's not leaving.
Speaker 1:I know we've talked about the possibilities. If he did, is that their best bet, anything like that? We've told we've opened all avenues here on the show and if you've disagreed, that's fine, you can disagree. We've opened up all avenues to say this is what they might do, this is what could happen, everything like that. We've never not weighed the option or the. You know the opinion of it, but it's not happening. Shams I. I don't know the, the sources or anything like that that he keeps pulling out, but all the sources close to yannis are close to the bucks indicate that he's coming back. So that's all you need to know.
Speaker 1:Of course, he has probably at some point weighed the option of leaving everybody, everybody who works a daily job, not as a professional athlete that's bryce harper. He can tell you all about, you know, working a daily job and having to get paid a lot of money. Bryce Harper's a proponent for that. We all have probably thought about hey, one day, what would it be like if we left here and went there? What would it be like? Everybody's probably thought about that.
Speaker 1:Giannis has definitely thought about what would my career or what would my playing days look like if I left here and went to, let's just say, the Heat or whatever he's thought about it. Is he going to do it? No Doesn't mean he's going to do it. You weigh all options. If you're not weighing all options, you're not really fulfilling your career. If you're not weighing all options, gotta weigh the options. You're not gonna always go with what you think is all this is gonna be the best thing for, because if you think about it, end of the day, is it really greener on the other side? You never know.
Speaker 1:Giannis is not leaving Milwaukee, so let's just put that to bed. Let's just put that to bed. Shams is looking for clickbait in the offseason right now because, as of this very moment, the nfl is kicking off and the nba is kind of an afterthought. So that's where shams at right now. So that's where I'm at with that whole story. I don't care what his he thinks his sources are or whatever. He has no clue. No clue in my opinion. No clue. Yeah, let's not leave milwaukee. All indications point to he's staying so, so that's what I'm going to stick with there. Last but not least, I am just irritated. Irritated with the Brewers. Are lucky talk. I'm just so fed up with it. I understand.
Speaker 1:When it was first, first the brew, the brewers went on this little bit of a run, got themselves back to 500, everything like that, and they're winning baseball games. And everybody was like this team just get lucky. You know, they got. They lead this in infield hits and they do this and they don't. They don't hit the long ball, they don't do anything crazy. They're not blowing teams out the. They're not blowing teams out. The run differential still looks like this. It's got to blow up eventually. You almost wanted to understand those. What do you have to say to it now, after what we've seen over this stretch from this Milwaukee Brewers team, where that run differential looks fantastic now, and this team is 22- 8 in the last 28 road games a staggering stat, if you ask me. 11 and 1 in their last 12.
Speaker 1:What else can this team do? Because I I still look across social media and I see some I don't know if you so-called team analysts or whatever and opposing teams show like radio shows, everything like that. They're like this team's just lucky, they're going to fall off a cliff at some point. You know this is going to happen, this is going to happen. They didn't do anything at deadline, so you know they. They didn't do anything at deadline, so it's not going to work out, and they didn't find ways to improve their team this and that.
Speaker 1:And I just look at this team and I say this team and I'm going to say point blank. I'm going to say point blank right now. This is the way I feel about it. This Brewers team is the best team in baseball right now. Hands down, hands down. Because at the end of the day, you might be able to say, oh, you might be able to find a hole in their lineup. If you want to say Joey Ortiz is a hole in the lineup, go right ahead. He has his moments, if that's the way you want to put it, yeah, fine. But when I look at this team as a whole, they always tell me you got to have three good or great starting great starting pitchers end up world series teams. How about four? How about five? You could maybe even say five. You want to throw cantana in there. If you want to throw logan henderson at the back half, you could do freddie, ms woody priester, and then cantana, and then you throw. You throw Henderson in there. You tell me this.
Speaker 1:I love to hear your guys's opinion on the Brewers here. 715-990-4914, that is 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear what you guys think about the Brewers right now. You tell me this who would you want to face right now in the Brewers rotation? If you were an opposing team and you're like, who am I? Like you got to look for that break in a rotation or that break in a bullpen, like where, where you're like oh, I can take advantage of this guy, I can take advantage of this guy. Who in the Brewers starting rotation are you going to take advantage of right now? Your best bet and I'm this is honest your best bet is a Jacob Mizorowski blow up, like you get head against the Cubs in the first inning, which then he, after he settled in, or a Freddie Peralta blow up inning. That's your best bet.
Speaker 1:Outside of that, priester's been downright fantastic. Woody has. Woody was just touching 96 again the other day. He's cruising speed. It's 94 again. And but, quintana, if Quintana, quintana's the number five in the rotation, wow.
Speaker 1:And they got Logan Henderson who his mom and dad drove him up to DC to pitch. He didn't even get on an airplane, they had to quick drive him up there. He just jumped in with mom and dad like he's rolling up to a summer league game, like, hey, boys, I'm here to throw Chucky some innings here, and then just shows up like a boss. And just I'm here to throw Chucky some innings here, and then just shows up like a boss and just I mean, pitches another gem. And then, oh, see you later, dude, I got to go back to Maz Bye, like I don't know.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I don't know what to make of this team. I don't. We're going to try to make something of it today. We're going to talk a lot of Brewers today. You know, later on the show we're gonna talk a lot of brewers. And I just want to talk about some of the opinions I have this team, because I it's taken me a while to come up with what do I make of this team and I want to talk about it today. But what I have to say to all the people that still say this team is you can luck into 10. You can't luck into what we've seen now, you can't. You can't luck into being the best team in baseball to sweeping the Dodgers twice, to taking two or three of the Cubs and just trouncing the Nationals and putting up just ridiculous numbers along the way. You don't luck into that. That is just a darn good baseball team without a lot of holes. They do it in many different ways, finding a way to win games, and that's awesome. And that's what this Milwaukee Brewers team is and that's what I'm loving and I can't wait to talk about it here today on the show. So we're going to get into that today. We have Packer talk to get to.
Speaker 1:Yet today, next up on the show're gonna have uh, christian, stop by from badger back here. We'll be talking a lot of badger football here today, because badger football right around the corner. I want to get into it. I want to get his takes. We'll be seeing out of camp. We're gonna have a position preview today here on the show. We're gonna talk quarterbacks. We're gonna talk offensive line. We're gonna talk running backs today on the go with Trage is just getting. Or two hours, it's two hours, goodness gracious, I almost screwed myself up there. Two hours of Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage is just getting going. We'll be right back here after this quick commercial break.
Speaker 1:Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage, as we come back on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment here, christian's stopping by. We're going to talk some Badger football today and this next segment is brought to you by Foreman's Hardware. They offer you everything from home essentials to farm supplies, house to farm grills to drills. Foreman's Hardware has got you covered.
Speaker 1:Visit today in Loyal Colby or Medford, wisconsin. Tell them Trade sent you. Get 5% off. Nothing better time of year. Maybe you got some landscaping you have to do before the fall hits. Maybe you got I mean you got, maybe got some flower, but maybe got insect problems. I got insect problems out my garden right now japanese beetles are my worst nightmare right now and they got the stuff that I needed to take care of them. I got them off the grapevines. I'm all good now. We got them wiped out thanks to formance hardware. So get yourself down to the formance hardware in loyal kobe or medford, wisconsin there. So, christian, how are we doing? It's Wednesday. We're excited. Badger football is getting closer and closer. There's some good news coming out of camp bad news. So how's it going on this Wednesday?
Speaker 3:It's good, man, it's good. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:Living the dream. Living the dream, Somebody's dream, I don't know. We're living a dream over here. That's for darn sure. That is for darn sure. The Brewers are hot. Brewers are hot. Badger's Brewers are hot. Badgers are getting hot. We had family night preseason around the corner. I mean, it's that time of year, it's just exciting. It's exciting. And the NCAA said no to expanding the field from 68. What were your thoughts on that? We'll get there. Let's start with that Before we get to bad football. I just want to hear your thoughts on that, because I talked about it off the top of the show. There a little bit, but there a little bit. But what are your thoughts on the NCAA? Do you want to see an expanded field or are you good with like? This is the way I like it.
Speaker 3:No, absolutely not. I think this is like perfectly. Even the NCAA is not immune to social pressure from Twitter and everyone on there just ripping on them, you know. So I think it's for the best. Of course, they had to throw in there. Like you know, this year they're not going to, but that doesn't mean they won't consider it in the future. I think this is going to be a battle. We're going to be fighting for a while, but you know, everything always comes down to money. How can they make the most money possible? So expanding the field, just like expanding the college football playoff, it's all about money.
Speaker 1:Sadly, they're going to expand the field. It's going to happen at some point.
Speaker 2:It's a matter of when.
Speaker 3:So that's kind of what we're all uh we're all waiting for now is which year held them off.
Speaker 1:Another year, though right, that's, that's a good thing. That's one more year for greg guard to chase that national championship before they expand the field on them, that's for sure. So so we we got time to talk about badger basketball another time. We got badger football going on. Camp has started up. It's hot, it, it's hot. That's all I've heard coming out of camp. A lot of it is hot. It was rainy one day there and then it was just blistering hot. So what are some of the takeaways you've had from camp? Maybe some good, maybe some bad. What have you heard? What have you seen down there at camp so far?
Speaker 3:Well, I haven't had a chance to make it down there yet, but I've definitely heard Billy Edwards Jr looks good, pass rush looks good, which is a really good thing considering how many resources they've put into it. They got a lot of guys from the transfer portal and they have depth, so that, which is really nice. I mean, I know a couple years ago I think it was last year they had Thomas Heiberger. They were hyping him up as a true freshman and then he got hurt and now you really don't hear about him anymore. You know so a lot of reps during training camp, you know. So now he's got, you got like four, five, six guys that you can rotate through practice and stuff. A lot less reps, a lot less wear and tear on the body. But everything I've heard is they look pretty good.
Speaker 1:From what I've heard, the big name is Mason Rieger right now.
Speaker 1:That is a big name I keep hearing about. Is the hype real with him right now? Like we've heard over the years, like last season I got, we kind of got into the hype I think it was Puce and you know we're in the Peterson those two guys were like so excited because they came in, we were just pumped up. Is the hype real with Rieger? What we're seeing right now, the physicality, I mean he's tenacious, he's after you, right off the snap there. I mean we've heard great things from a lot of different guys talking about him. Mason Rieger is that the name to keep an eye on there right now on that defensive line.
Speaker 3:I think. So that's the guy who I feel like every single practice that's the name that pops out. I've heard a few of the other guys but really, like you said, he's the one that's every single report I've heard Every like you know. You see tweets about it, podcasts, all that stuff. It's always him, it's always Mason Rieger. So I know he's kind of coming off an injury so we really didn't see him much during spring during spring practice and stuff, so we don't really know a whole lot about them. But now he's kind of like popping off the page at fall camp here. So I think that's really exciting and definitely a positive.
Speaker 1:Man, if they could get a solid pass rush, if they could just get a solid pass rush because you have okay corners. I mean we have a position preview coming up. We're going to get to the corners here in the coming weeks. But I mean you have solid corners, you have a solid secondary back there, you got okay linebackers. If you could get a pass rush of some kind there with that defensive front. It's just a different kind of excitement and that's what they I think they're missing last season. So I love to hear that the mason rieger stepping into his own there and kind of being that guy out of the portal there for the badgers so far.
Speaker 1:So let's get to the position preview because we're going to. So this week we're going to start a position Preview. We're going to do it over the following week. So this week we have week one Of the position preview. We're going to have quarterbacks, offensive linemen running backs, and the next week We'll get into more of the skill position On the offense. I will get wide receiver and then we'll flip over to the defense there and Then in week three we'll wrap it up there. So Tonight we want to start with that quarterback. I mean we number one. It's figured out right. Number one is for Edwards, I mean that's so, yeah, done with that. What is? What is the rest of this quarterback room look like? So the number two spot who are we expecting? Who are you expecting to see kind of fill in a number two role and who's in that battle right now? Fill in behind Billy Edwards?
Speaker 3:Honestly. So yeah, like you said, honestly, in my opinion I think most of the room is already set. Billy Edwards is number one, I think. Behind him, though, is the other transfer coming in, the sophomore, Danny O'Neal. I think he's kind of like cemented himself as QB2. And then I know they brought in that redshirt, senior Hunter Simmons. Just, I think he's going to be more that veteran presence. You know, He'd probably be number three if I had to guess. And then Emilio I think that's a snap up top in my head, but a guy who, if he has to get meaningful snaps, we're definitely in trouble.
Speaker 3:And then you've got the true freshman, Carter Smith, who's the future. He came to Wisconsin. He just decommitted from Michigan after Bryce Underwood committed there. He was a big name. Wisconsin got him, and I think everything I've heard is he came to Wisconsin knowing full well he was going to spend a year, maybe two, backing up, being the backup, and then they were going to give him the keys and it was going to be all him. So I don't think we're going to see him this year. I think because he's really this year, I think because you know he's got all these really raw, but I think in the future. He's going to be the guy, but I think it's going to be Edwards, Danny O'Neill, and then, you know, Hunter Simmons and then possibly Carter Smith after that.
Speaker 1:The people want to know. So Carter Smith, how has he been looking so far? From what you've heard, what you've seen maybe out of video and that how, what you've seen maybe out of video on that, how has Carter Smith looked so far in camp? Because that's a guy everybody was excited about going in. I know, like you're saying, he's got a lot of work to do. He knows it very well and that's good to hear. Hopefully not like a Graham Mertz type. Graham Mertz kind of told us the same thing and that kind of fell apart. So what are your thoughts on Carter Smith so far? I mean what you've seen out of him.
Speaker 3:I haven't really heard a whole lot. He's not getting a whole lot of reps with the ones. Obviously that's all. Billy Edwards Jr Maybe I haven't even heard a whole lot of him getting any reps with the twos, but he's had some flashes here and there. I've heard he's had a couple nice passes.
Speaker 3:But I think you know he still makes his mistakes here and there, stuff like that. But again, when he's doing he's got to take it with a grain of salt too, right, like if he makes a really good play he's probably running against the threes, you know. So other guys like that. So I think there's definitely a ton of potential there and I think the coaching staff love what they have with him. But, like I said, the word I've heard consistently is he's raw. So he's got all the physical tools, all the stuff like that, but he's got. I think he's got to learn the offense. He's got to learn you know all how to do all the little things and I think he's going to learn that from Billy Edwards jr. I think that's it's a perfect situation for him right now and just to sit, learn, um, and then just hopefully next year or the year after that, take over the take over the offense, offense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, the key thing for me there, and like you're saying, is teachable. Is he teachable? Is he going to sit there and learn? Is he okay with sitting behind guys and learning for a year or two if that's what Jeff Grimes and Luke Fickle feel like is best for him and if he feels that's best for his career? And in today's wild wild west of college football you never really know with a guy. So hopefully, hopefully, like you're saying and like we're hoping here, is that this guy is a mainstay in the Badgers for a little while here. So that's all I mean good stuff there. Billy Edwards, like you said, going to be the number one, then Danny O'Neal kind of filling in behind him there. I like the quarterback, I like the quarterback room where it's kind of sitting right now. It's not jump off the page, but it's a group where I mean we like the look of that so far.
Speaker 1:Let's flip over Offensive line, the offensive line. You guys start in the trenches. That's where everything starts right. What are we seeing in the offensive line right now? Is there anybody who's kind of stood out to you from what you've heard? Is there anybody, any name that stood out, as you know, being that guy who's ahead of the bunch right now? Is there any battles that we're looking at in camp right now?
Speaker 4:now? Yeah, I think he had a couple battles.
Speaker 3:But first I think Riley Mulliman, our right tackle, is by far and away probably our best offensive lineman. He's, in my opinion, will be probably a middle-run draft pick. He's going to the draft next year. He's going to go to the NFL. He's one of the top offensive tackles in the entire conference. So he's I've heard he's been having a really good camp. Jake Renfro is going to be that starting center. He's one of the media day representatives, like he's, you know, one of the leaders on the offensive line. And then you've got Joe Brunner. He's going to be our left guard. You can just put him in with Sharpie Perlman Marker there. So we've got three spots that are set.
Speaker 3:Right guard, I think, is kind of open right now. I know Kerry Kudenko is kind of in there too, but they've also been putting in the redshirt freshman Emerson Mandel, who is that highly touted four-star Offensive lineman from Minnesota. That was a true freshman last year. He's been getting some run that position too. So I think there's kind of a little bit of a battle there. And obviously you've got JP Benshell Benshell in there too. So I think there's kind of a little bit of a battle there. And obviously you got JP Ben Schell, ben Schell in there too.
Speaker 3:But then I think the big, the big competition right now is left tackle, with Kevin Haywood getting injured in the in spring training camp or in spring camp. That kind of left a little bit of a hole there. So they got that Davis Heinzen guy. He's getting a lot of run with the ones. But I think I've also heard that Emerson Mandel has been getting a little run there too. So maybe they're trying to see, you know, where Mandel sticks the best, where he can play. If they can get him at left tackle that'd be. I mean, I'm sure that'd be good.
Speaker 3:But that's Kevin Haywood's spot in the future, just since he's out all year. I wouldn't be surprised if Davis Hines ends up there just because he's a redshirt senior anyway. So just kind of fill the hole for the year. But for the most part I know I've also heard Colin Cumberley, that redshirt freshman too, as a guard or a center I've heard he's actually been playing pretty well too. He's definitely had some flashes too. So it's kind of nice knowing you have that depth at offensive line Like we talked about last week. Blas has really, really done a good job of building this offensive line room back up from where it was. So I'm just trying to think of what it was like before him. It was so bad, but but like I think right now, I think the Wisconsin offensive line is in a really good place.
Speaker 1:But Wisconsin's offensive line is in a really good place and that's where you wanted to return to right. That's where we kind of Wisconsin kind of transitioned off of and now they're slowly starting to get back to it. I was looking at some of the size of these guys on this offensive line. I did not realize Kevin Haywood I know he's injured and it sucks because I thought he was going to have a great year 6'8", 325,. Holy crap, that is a mountain of a man to be looking at there on the offensive line. I mean, you look across there Joe Brunner's 6'5" and you have Jake Renfro's 6'4", I mean, and then Michael Rezek is 6'8". I mean they got some big boys on the front there and that's awesome.
Speaker 1:And the key word that I think you mentioned great there was the depth, the depth of this offensive line, because I mean we talk about with the Packers all the time Last season there against the Eagles, you know the depth of the offensive line. The drop-off was massive and, like you're saying, there's a lot of talent. There's a lot of battles going on, which could be a good or bad thing. Right, you could have a battle because both guys are, you know, like last, you know a Locke versus Tyler Van Dyke battle which, oh God, I don't even want to talk about that.
Speaker 1:But forget about that guy. Right, forget about that guy. He's down in Arizona now. He's gone, he's gone.
Speaker 3:We're trying to erase him from my memory.
Speaker 1:My nightmares are still there from the Penn State game. But I mean it's huge to have that talent behind and I love what you're saying there with that depth, have that talent behind them where if you do lose a guy, you still have guys that can step into that role and fulfill and still you don't, you don't skip a beat. Maybe you drop a little bit but you don't skip a beat. So I like that depth that the badgers are showing there. So last one we want to look at today here for the position preview, let's look at the running back room because I mean you can't talk wisconsin football well, last year you could, I guess, but you know, years past you couldn't talk wisconsin football without talking running back. So let's look at this running back room. Who do you expect? Who is your guy going into this season? They have, I mean, they have some good talents in that room. So you could, you could look a couple different places, I guess, but I, in your opinion, is there one guy who's running away with that running back one spot?
Speaker 3:um, I know we talked about this a little bit before camp opened up and stuff and everything I've heard coming out of spring camp spring practice was Dylan Jones looked really, really good. He didn't get as much playing time as Darian Dupree last year so I would have said him, but now everything I'm hearing is how good Darian Dupree looks again during fall camp. So I mean, you want to talk about depth. This is probably this is a really deep position too. We got Darian Dupree, got Dylan Jones, and then we talked last week he got Cade Giacomelli, who I've heard almost all of his snaps and reps. He's gotten in camp, have all been with the first team too. So it's like you're trying to figure out how are they going to use all these guys. Or is it going to be kind of like you know the past Badgers when you have Corey Clement, melvin Gordon, you know James White, like that room, which was insane. I'm not going to say these guys are that good, but you have that depth right where maybe it's not just one guy that's going to do everything. We won't have a workhorse. They're going to be rotating guys through and we're going to have fresh legs. They all have just slightly different skill sets. And then, as your number four running back, you've got Gideon Natuka, who's also part of that Dupree Dylan Jones class.
Speaker 3:When they brought the three running backs in a couple years ago, I heard he's looked pretty good. I mean, he's obviously different. He's one of you know that shorter, thicker. He's the what do they used to call him? Maurice Jones, drew oh, I don't know, the bowling ball with knives or whatever you're talking about. That's him Like. He's short, he's thick and he just runs hard, you know. So all four of those backs are a little. They all have a little bit of a different skill set and they all bring something different to the table. So I think maybe it's dependent upon their opponent, you know, or maybe they just have a set rotation that they're going to roll with and maybe they just ride the hot hand. But it's kind of a nice problem to have Very nice problem.
Speaker 1:But then you worry about a guy like K Doc Milllli not getting any touches with eight yards per carry again. So it's like that kind of worry going on. But I mean could you see maybe Jeff Grimes working in some two running back sets where he has two guys out there at the same time? Maybe you have Giacomelli and Darion Dupree on the field split back in the backfield there. I mean could you see Jeff Grimes maybe working that into the offensive scheme this season?
Speaker 3:Maybe. I mean, that's the thing. I haven't really heard anything about it. I'm going to be going at some point this week to camp and I want to, something I'll definitely keep an eye on, because that's again like you're kind of talking about. We have all these backs. Maybe you run two of them at once, but I know they're going to have jackson acre in there too as your fullback.
Speaker 2:I always forget about him I always forget jackson acres still in madison, so yeah, well, you could see, maybe like a would a yakimeli fit as a third down back.
Speaker 1:Could you see him fitting into that third down back? He's a little bit bigger, so more of a run, more of a pass block guy who can kind of chip a guy, get out in the, get out on the field. Don't because you don't want to worry about a guy like you know, dillian jones or darian dupree there, I'm not going to say they're small, but they're. I mean they're no kate yacamele, that's a big, big guy there in kate yacamele and he can move some guys. So could you see maybe them utilizing yacamele as more of that third down back like a, almost like a. Aj dylan was to the green bay packers Packers versus Aaron Jones who you'd have in Dupree and Dillian Jones.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think if you want to have him there primarily as like a pass blocker, you know him or obviously going back to Jackson Aker, right, just a bigger guy back there. But otherwise, I mean I think Giacomelli has the skill to you know, out of the backfield, get some catches and stuff, you know too. So the skill to you know, out of the backfield, get some catches and stuff you know too. So I think I could see him doing that. But again, I'm not 100% sure what Jeff Grimes is kind of looking for in those situations. I think I mean, I think it's just you're going to have a hard time finding enough snaps for all three of them to like be the guy you know. I think it's just going to be a, you know, position run back by committee kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Whoever's right the hot hand. I like that, though I like that right the hot hand kind of thing.
Speaker 1:And when you've got three good backs, you can do it. Maybe it's not Dillian Jones' day, so it's KD Akameli's day. They all do something well. They all do something well and that's where I think we can agree that Jeff Grimes, luke I am Sluke Trickle they're going to find a way to utilize them to the best talents there and hopefully, cade Iacomelli what do you think? What is he going to average this season? What is he going to average this season? Per carry Last season was 8.3, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, something tells me it won't be that high, maybe in the fives. Let's go somewhere in the five yards per carry range. I think last year was. I think he broke a couple of big runs that skewed that a little bit because he had so few carries, but I don't know, we'll see. I feel like he'd be crazy not to use him. But again, that might be the difference between, you know, phil Longo and Jeff Grimes. Maybe Jeff Grimes will value him a little more, that's true.
Speaker 1:That's true. And with all them weapons, you can just imagine what Jeff Grimes could be able to do. Imagine what Jeff Grimes can be able to do. We talk about this playbook that he's got and how he can open it up, and I mean just the craziness that we've seen out of him in the past there with his offensive schemes. I can't wait to see. With all this talent, we're going to get into it more next week here on the show. We're going to have wide receiver and tight ends we're going to be talking about, and then we're going to flip over to the defensive side of the ball to get there. Christian, let the people know where to find you out there across social media. What are you working on at Badger Backer right now?
Speaker 3:Right now I'm kind of on a little bit of a hiatus. I'm being Mr Mom right now. That's the perks of being a school teacher. Summer's off, but free daycare, so I'm just going to have daycare. I am the daycare. I just get to hang out with my boys and so I'm not don't have a whole lot of time to write, but as much as I would love to start writing more about camp stuff but I'll have some stuff coming out on that Cause I'm going to be going to the practices a couple of times, coming up here in the next few weeks. But you can always find my stuff at badgerbackercom or me just Christian Borman, on Twitter or you know, or you know Facebook stuff like that. So feel free to subscribe. It's all free for the most part. I haven't gotten into any paid stuff. So if you want to just come get some free Badgers content, come on by and subscribe.
Speaker 1:It's fantastic, you won't be disappointed. So, christian, thank you. As always, he'll be back next week. We're going to get into more position battle previews Coming up next here on the show. We're going to wrap up this badger talk we're going to get into I believe we're going to talk some packer family night, because back family night just happened. We're going to get into that on the back side of the ad break here. So we'll be right back wisconsin sports on the go with trade. You'll be right back after this quick commercial break, come back into wisconsin sports on the go with trade. I'm your host trades. We come back on this wednesday. And hey, this next segment here we're talking a little packers we're gonna look at. We're wrap up. We had with badge talk there, with christian in the last segment there, but then we're gonna talk some packers here.
Speaker 1:And this next segment here is brought to you by our great people down at casa m spice, the low sodium, clean label, no fillers, no msg. When I tell you this stuff is the, the bomb, the greatest stuff that you could possibly have, the greatest seasoning that you could possibly have, the greatest seasoning that you could have off the shelf there, I mean it. I am telling you what right now. You go down to an Ace Hardware. You go down to Foreman's especially. You go there. You tell them hey, trey, sent me, I need some Casa M Spice. They'll direct you right to it there. Grab them all. I'm telling you, grab them all right now. If you're making pork, if you're making pork ribs tonight, get the whole hog, get the peck in order, throw that on there. You can't go wrong with Toss them Spice. It is just fantastic, the flavor is fantastic.
Speaker 1:And then coming up here, I believe later this month, manny and the crew are going to be up here around the central Wisconsin area and they're going to be doing some demo days at some of the forums, at some of the Ace Hardware. So keep an eye on that. I'll be sharing it out on the Facebook page. Follow us across all social media platforms. I'll be sharing it out there. As he tells me the dates, we'll get you in there. We'll get you to those demo days. Check out the seasonings. You will not be disappointed. I promise you that Casa and spice there At any point tonight.
Speaker 1:If you want a message into the show, let me know Badger what we just talked about there with Badger Training Camp, with the Packers, with the Brewers, anything like that. Make sure you're texting us 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything that has to do with the Brewers, packers, badgers, nfl, anything like that. I'd love to get into it with you tonight here on the show and make sure you're following us across all social media platforms. That always helps us and I mean it. It lets us know that you're tuning in and that you're excited about everything that's happening in wisconsin sports there. So we have lots to get into.
Speaker 1:Yet here on the show I want to talk about you know what christian was talking about there in that last segment, one thing that really stuck out to me and I just wanted to reiterate, uh, coming back from the break there was that talking about the depth of this Wisconsin Badger team and the depth that they have not just in the offensive line, because we talk about it year after year. This team. Last season the offensive line I thought was subpar and it's been subpar for the past couple this season, from the sounds of it, from the looks of it, from what I've seen in some video and from the, you know, listening to guys like Jesse Temple or Zach Heilperin or Ryan Herrings on the Lockdown Badgers, or listening to Christian talk to me there in that last segment. From what I'm taking away is that the depth of this offensive line. You know you can only tell so much because you're in camp and you just got pads on so you're not really nothing crazy has happened yet, but the depth sounds like it's nice, it's good, it's good and you'll like that. You'll like to have some good depth behind guys too.
Speaker 1:So I love hearing about that depth, especially in that running back room, because when you have a guy where you're talking about a guy like Dupree, who I thought was nothing but fantastic last year, and there's a question if he's going to be sitting behind a guy like Dillian Jones, that tells you that your running back room has got some darn good guys in it. And if you have a guy like Cade Giacomelli, who is, you know, based on that, what do they call it the freak list Because of you know his, I mean he's just jacked. So that's basically what I mean. That's telling you, having a guy like that, who's in your third spot, who I mean? Would he start at a big-time program? No, but would he start at an average I mean a Big Ten program in the middle of the pack. Yeah, he'd be right there in the rotation and he's right there in the rotation with the Badgers. It's just they have some darn good backs in front of them. They have some darn good backs in front of them. So I love what he said there, with the depth of this team heading into the 2025 season.
Speaker 1:So if you missed any of that, if you missed any of the position preview, we were talking quarterbacks, running backs and offensive line today here on the show. If you missed any of that, listen back on the podcast Wisconsin Sports on the Goat Rage across all podcast platforms. Make sure you're listening back next day, tomorrow or later tonight here. I'll have it up there on the podcast platform. You can listen to that segment there with Christian there, because it was fantastic. We're going to get more position preview next week when we talk. I believe we're going to go wide receiver tight ends next week and then we're going to flip over on the defensive side. Look at the defensive line. I believe linebackers are tied in there too. So we're going to get into that next week here on the show. But as we get closer to the top of the hour here, we're going to have Kyle stop by talking some NFL and then Umber's going to stop by later and we're going to talk some Packers.
Speaker 1:I want to talk a little Packers here because we just saw family night. Now it's exciting, as always. I believe they had a good 60,000 people in attendance. That's impressive, as always. I don't want to talk about oh well, the Bears only had this many people at their thing. I don't care, I don't. There's a big, this big stink that some Packer fans or Bears fans, whatever will make and I have to read I have to listen to it and read about it every single year when it's like the Bears only had this many people and the Packers had this many. That's fine. The Packers it's impressive every single year to see what the turnout is. And the Bears I know they have some other things going down there according to what Bear fans say. So I mean whatever, I don't care, but it was impressive as always.
Speaker 1:The Firework and Light show was awesome. I absolutely love and I know they miss things doing the telecast or whatever on NBC there, but I loved that they stuck it around to Like you know some of these programs when the action's done and you know the announcers kind of walk off, they'll just, they'll kind of slide, they'll be done, done for the night, right? And the Packers, they did. They broadcast the whole thing, the whole show, the light show and the fireworks show, and I thought that was cool, that was very cool to see there. So it was an awesome job at the Packers and their TV guys there to get all of that action. I mean a lot, of, a lot of interesting stuff came out of that and we're going to get to it later here on the show.
Speaker 1:A guy that I want to talk about here that continues to impress me we're just going to get some tidbits here before we talk to Umar later on in the show but a guy that continues to impress me and what I've heard good things out of and he's had a good camp, according to some. It's so hard. I mean I was talking to Christian about this at the break. You know about Badger camp and you get this with Packer camp. You listen to one guy, like I'll listen to, like Andy Herman, right, andy will say one thing on the Packer Day podcast about what's going on with the Packers, and then Peter Rakowski says a completely different thing, and then I see, matt Scheinman says a different thing and it's like, okay, what actually happened?
Speaker 1:So you get all those different sides and stories and you know the defense looked good today and then one guy says the offense looked good and then one guy says the defense looked like trash. And it's like, which one was it? What practice was this guy watching? And like, well, it's so hard to just key in on what you know. You go to a practice, you're keying in on certain things. It's so hard, especially in individuals and everything like that, to key in on all this kind of stuff happening. So that's why I'm so thankful for all these different Packer guys out there where they'll go and they'll definitely show all the different angles and everything like that. And it's I mean those, those guys, hats off, hats off to them. They get all the different angles, they get all different guys and they, you know, have different, different people on different players that day and stuff like that. So it's always nice to see in that way.
Speaker 1:But Lucas Van Ness, from what I've seen, I saw him. I saw a couple of clips of him, but the one that really impressed me the other day was it was just a straight bull rush and he took Jordan Morgan right back into Jordan Love Would have been a sack. But Jordan Love's wearing the red jersey, so you're not taking him on or anything. I know it's just Jordan Morgan and I know he's not like. He's not. We're not talking about him as like one of the best offensive linemen that he's going to go up against, but but, but you can still. You can still take that and say it's a pretty darn good play. It's a pretty darn good. It's showing the power of him and you're seeing him out there and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, he's out there and so I lose track of numbers and everything like that, but I mean watching him. I believe he's out there and so I lose track of numbers and everything like that, but I mean watching him. I believe he's out there with no gloves on, nothing like that now, and I mean you love to see it.
Speaker 1:You love to see a guy like Lucas Van Ness coming into his own finally, because if he comes into his own, if we see a guy like Lucas Van Ness finally be the guy that the Packers drafted him for, that we were hoping that he could potentially become, if he becomes that guy, I'm excited. I'm excited because you have a guy like that on the opposite of Rashawn Gary, on the opposite of Rashawn Gary, and then you add guys up the middle. If Stackhouse turns out to be like we hope and you have guys like Kenny Clark, comes back to his own. Maybe Devontae Wyatt fills in there. Koi Walker finally back at practice, he kind of gets into it there. Edgerton Cooper, you have a lot of weapons on the defense. If you have a guy like a Lucas Van Ness finally come into his own on that defensive front, that's scary. That's a scary front. Now he looks like Tarzan. It's just as we always said. He looks like Tarzan, he plays like Jane. I mean I've heard that, I've said that myself, because that's how he looks. Look at him. I mean he's huge. He just never has been able to put it all together. So if he finally does, if this is the beginning, if we're watching Lucas Van Ness finally come into his own right now, oh baby, am I excited. I am excited. So watching him, from what I've heard so far, it's got me ecstatic. It's got me ecstatic. So I can't wait to see what we get out of Lucas Van Ness here.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear what you guys, some of your thoughts coming out of camp. If you guys have seen anything, heard anything anything like that 715-990-4914. That's 715-990-4914. Give me your thoughts. I mean Lucas Van Ness. To me, from what I've seen so far, he has impressed. He's impressed not just their reporters but he's also impressed Matt LaFleur. He's impressed Jeff Halfley there. So he's, and he looks at Matt LaFleur. He talks about Lucas Van Ness' desire for perfection and he believes that was his slow, that was the reasoning behind his slow start to his career. And then last season it was this mental block. So I don't know who to believe or what to believe anymore, with what the reasoning is behind it. But if it's finally him saying enough's enough, I just got to go out there and be a wrecker, a wrecking ball, I'm good at that, I'm good at that. So I love what I've seen out of Luke Van Ness so far.
Speaker 1:Another what's got me worried, right, I mean, hobbs goes out with injury now and they said it was a meniscus tear is what I saw. I don't know. I saw that it was to clean up. They talked about it and they said it was like to clean up the knee or something like that. And now he's coming out and he's saying that it was a little bit deeper, that he found out that his meniscus was torn on Friday and he had a procedure on Saturday. Now they're making it seem like this is not that huge, but this is an injury-prone guy who has now injured a kid. That's got me a little concerned. That's got me a little concerned again.
Speaker 1:Now Corey Valentine's back. That's awesome, because I didn't want Corey Valentine to walk away to begin with. Now, corey Valentine's back. I know some people say that Corey Valentine's not that darn good. I don't think he's great, but he's capable. He's capable of coming in. He's been in this system, he's been with these guys.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, bringing in a new guy to a new system, you have your growing pains. Corey Valentine's been here. He understands some of these guys, he's played with these guys. So I mean you like bringing in a guy that you trust, a guy who's been here. It's just seeing Nate Hobbs already go on and I saw I think it was Aaron Nagler said something he's like you know he's going to come back just in time for you know them to be playing real teams so that way he stops hurting his own teammates. And I was like, oh, that's rough, that's, that's mean, that's mean there. But uh, I mean nate hobbs currently banged up, once again added to that injury report there, so that sucks to see. That was a sucky thing to start the the tuesday off there when that news broke there, but we also saw bad time come back. So a little bit more depth there in that room to combine with whatever else this cornerback room is going to look like, because I I don't know what.
Speaker 1:I watched a lot of the individuals right, and one of the individuals I watched the other day there was matthew golden completely just cooking keisha nixon. He ran a little slant route there and just broke him and then golden was wide open and I was like does this speak more volumes to how good of a route runner and how speedy and you know shifty golden is, or does this kind of point me in the direction of what he shot? Nixon is like where am I looking right now? And it you could look at it one of both ways, right, I kishon nixon, worries me. It worries me, it still does, and I don't know if I'm ever going to get over this until I actually see it out there, but it worries me that keshon nixon is supposedly your number one quarterback and that you had you thought nate habs was the fix. And I agree with the people that say well, you know, nate habs is already better than Eric Stokes and Karenton Valentine has just got to find his way and this, and that I agree with those guys. I'm not saying they're wrong, but you lost a guy like Jair and I know he didn't play last year, I understand that but you don't have a corner in that room where you can throw him out there and you can say I believe he's going to get me a stop, I believe he's darn good in pass coverage. Nixon is good, valentine's is good, hobbs is good. You don't have great. In this day and age of the NFL it's hard to find. You don't have a lockdown corner anymore, but you still have a Jair, alexander, alexander, you still have guys like that out there and I just I don't know, do the Packers have that guy?
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear what are you guys thoughts in the Packers cornerback room? I'd love to hear your guys thoughts on that cornerback room right now. The depth of it, now that Hobbs is out, is it? Have you even more worried? Because with Hobbs out now, it has me even more worried. I'm even more worried now that Hobbs is out. I was kind of not excited for it before and now I'm even more worried. So what are your thoughts on that cornerback room? I'd love to hear it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Packers. We're going to talk more Packers later on in the show when Ummer stops by. That'll be coming up in hour number two there. Text me 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what's going on in Green Bay right now. I'd love to hear your thoughts with the Brewers, badger Bucks, whatever you got. I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything happening in Wisconsin sports. So that is 715-990-4914.
Speaker 1:We're going to come back here, we're going to wrap up the hour and then we're going to jump into hour number two of the show here. We've got Brewer night here yet on the show. So we're right back here as we wrap up our number one here on wisconsin sports on the goat ridge. Welcome back in as we wrap up our number one here on this wednesday. And hey, this next segment here is brought to you by marshfield motor speedway, the half mile paved track just three miles west of marshfield on county road age. Find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom. That is marshfieldspeedwaycom there.
Speaker 1:So after break I was just scrolling through social media there's a stat the Brewers are a staggering 47-18 when Isaac Collins starts a baseball game. That is nuts. That is absolutely nuts to read that stat there. They're 23-6 in their last 29 road games and they are 12-1 in their last 13 games. Put those stats into perspective. That's wow, wow, right there. And just remember, that's your tuesday. So don't look, don't think wednesday there, because I don't know the outcome of that trip. That's pre-recorded, as you guys know, pre-recorded there.
Speaker 1:So in hour number two, right after the break, when we come back here, kyle's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk about some mlb stories, if we get. We're talking nfl stories first. We get to the mlb stories. We're gonna get to that one there. So we're gonna talk about that. Almer's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk a little bit more packers here in hour number two and then we're gonna talk brewers here at the end of the show we're gonna talk brewers, what's up next, everything like that. In between we're talking about trade deadline, my reactions to it, all those little events there. We'll get to that later on the show here. So hour number one in the books. Hour number two coming at you.
Speaker 1:After this quick commercial break we'll be right back here on wisconsin sports on the go with trage. Welcome back into hour number two of wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage. We come back on this august 6th and this next segment. Kyle, stopping by here, we got the mellow yellow minute. We have a bunch of little tidbits that we're going to talk about today around the sporting world. We're going to get to it all, but this next segment here is brought to you by badger tree care, the local tree care business serving clark and the surrounding counties, free estimates and insured providing tree removal, tree trimming, pruning, full cleanup, small lot cleaning. They do it all for you, their badger tree care there in clark county. So make sure you're checking them out there across Facebook, make sure you give them a call there, call or text them 715-937-3276. That is 715-937-3276. So, kyle, before we get to the Mel Yeo Minute, how are we doing tonight?
Speaker 2:How are we doing on this Wednesday? Hey, doing well.
Speaker 1:It's less than 30 days until the nfl season. I I cannot wait. I am so happy that sports like have started back up because, like we've talked about in the past you and me it is so hard to find things to like. Like we got shams right now telling us all about yannis leaving milwaukee again because there's nothing to talk about, so he wants to make us something to talk about. It's that time of year where the dog days of summer are real. There's just nothing going on. You're speculating, you're making rumors, people are telling you this and you're like is this even true? I have no idea.
Speaker 1:That is the time that we were in and it's like, thank goodness, we're going to have real pads on hitting everything. College football be back. The nfl will be back, college basketball won't be far behind that, the nba won't be far behind it. So it's like everything is starting back up, thank goodness, so that it's like you said, it's a great time of year. It's a great time of year right there. So, kyle, we got the melio minute coming up tonight. As always, kyle's a part of it because he's my man, so he's got to be a part of it. Tonight, here on the show, we're going to do the top five flavors of ice cream in America, and I'm going to give Kyle the list of five, but he's got to put them in order one through five. So here we go. We have strawberry butter, pecan chocolate, vanilla and cookie dough. Put them in order one through five.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm going to go chocolate, vanilla, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry. I feel like butter. Pecan is probably fifth, so fourth would be what was it? Cookies and cream.
Speaker 1:Cookie dough. Cookie dough, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll put cookie dough.
Speaker 1:fourth, you got one of the five right. You got strawberry right in the middle.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's probably vanilla blend chocolate. There you go. Yes, you got to flip the top two, and then you got it right. So literally, you just you go yes, you gotta flip the top two, and then you got it right so you literally, you just gotta flip top two and the bottom two and you were spot on with that list there. That was a good guess. Though that's a good guess, vanilla I am a vanilla guy myself, I'm just like the most plain jane when it comes to ice cream.
Speaker 1:I'll go to a parlor, I'll go to the ice cream parlor with the wife or what you know family and we'll go in there and they're like what do you want for ice cream? And I'm like vanilla. They're like you're. We're at an ice cream place, like they have a lot of different vanilla. That's all I want. I'm a basic guy like I don't want to get complicated here. I don't want nothing fancy, just it's like when they offer me steak sauce for my steak, it's like did you not season it well enough? Did you not use that k stuff on there? It's like you don't need that steak sauce. So, anyways, anyways, kyle, we got some juicy stories in the NFL right now and I want to talk about them here tonight on the show.
Speaker 1:So let's start out with the big one and I guess it's always big because Jerry makes it big right. Jerry's world is always madness and I want to talk about it here is always madness and I want to talk about it here.
Speaker 1:Micah Parsons puts out this long message, basically saying how Jerry, everything that basically saying what we know that Jerry and the way that he runs things is not right. It shouldn't be that way. And finally I'm like, finally somebody is standing up and saying enough's enough. The way that jerry operates is not right. He's not above anyone else. He needs to be a normal owner. He needs to bring somebody else in to be in charge. He cannot be in charge by himself. And now went backwards, micah parsons. At practice it seems like he's like kind of, you know, back into the fold of things. He's okay, it seems like it's kind of all settled down. So, kyle, give me your take on it. How does it you know this whole situation with micah? How does it look in jerry's eyes to you? Does it look? Does it make you think? I don't know how you think less of jerry, but I mean what?
Speaker 1:are your thoughts on this whole situation that's going on right now in dallas? I?
Speaker 2:I just think jerry is out of touch. He's he's gotten used to operating a certain way and I just feel like 2025, it just doesn't work anymore. Yeah, so one if you're looking at the bottom line, the better team sign guys earlier as opposed to later, because the later you try to sign these guys, the more you have to pay and in a league where you're dealing with a salary cap, that doesn't work for you. I think Jerry, in terms of the way that he deals with these players, I think he's very old school. He doesn't try to connect with them on a personal level. To him it's Cowboys. Brand equals Jerry Jones. The star on your helmet equals property like Monopoly. So Micah goes. I want a new contract. Jerry goes. I'll just give you one when I'm ready to give you one, not knowing that.
Speaker 2:Micah has a mind of his own and if he doesn't feel like he's wanted in Dallas, you could offer him whatever you want. He may not sign and then Jerry's going to have to just go down the line. He'll do his little spin with his radio show and all that talk about how Micah didn't want to be in Dallas. Micah is the reason that people talk about your defense, because Micah is a game wrecker. You take Micah off that defensive unit. They're the team that we saw at times last year get gashed by like the Cardinals and stuff for 200 yards. Or they're the team where their corners take unnecessary gambles and they give up big plays. So if you're looking at this and seeing who has the upper hand, micah is more important to the Cowboys than Jerry Jones, because a lot of people would look at Jerry Jones say the Cowboys probably won't do any better until Jerry's out of the picture anyway, and I think it might be the one who. That could be the last nail in the coffin for a guy like Jerry.
Speaker 1:Jones. He just does this all the time. He does. I mean we saw it with Dak, we've seen it with other guys. Jerry, I don't think, like you said, he doesn't understand that in today's day and age, personalities are a thing like that. You can't avoid personalities. The hardest part is to try and put all those personalities together and have the right guy who can do it. Jerry is not the right guy to bring all these personalities together. I can tell you that much. He should not be in charge. I mean he could be the owner. That's fine. Be the owner, don't be anything else. Just be that and get somebody else in there.
Speaker 1:We saw his head coaching hire Schottenheimer. I mean, honestly, does he have a business being head coach? Probably not, not over a lot of other guys. I mean there was a handful of guys you could have went and picked Look at Vrabel, look at all these guys that you could have at least interviewed or checked in on or anything like that and you ended up with Schottenheimer. So maybe it works out. I conheimer so maybe it works out.
Speaker 1:I mean he seems like a nice guy, so I don't want to. I don't want to like completely write him off or hope for his failure, like. That's not what you know I'm where I'm aiming here, but it just it. The way that jerry operates, like you said, definitely needs to change on there. And micah parsons, he is. What is that defense, like you said? So I, I, I don't know it's.
Speaker 1:I just thought it was humorous when I seen that story come out there. And now it's like, oh, jerry being Jerry once again there, and we see a division rival of the Cowboys there, the Commanders, scary Terry McLaurin. He's asking for a trade. Now I mean you can't let this guy go, because when the Commanders were nothing, he was the only one there and he stuck it out, and he stuck it out and he stuck it out through these years of craptastic football and now they're finally good and he's like I'm not getting what I need, so I'm out. You've got to find a way to make him happy and keep him there, right, kyle? What are your thoughts on that one? That one came as kind of a surprise to me, to be honest with you, but what are your thoughts on that one?
Speaker 2:honest with you. But what are your thoughts on that one? The commanders cannot let him go right. No, I definitely agree. Uh, the commanders have a lot of good momentum right now. You know the dan snyder cloud is gone. You know gladly. Uh, dan quinn came in. The team goes to the nfc title game last year. Perry mcclellan has another good year.
Speaker 2:Like you said, mclaurin's been up there year after year, no matter who the quarterback is. Jaden Daniels is on a rookie deal. These are the four or five years where you're supposed to, if you want to call it, overspend in other positions, because Daniels doesn't have to worry about him. He's not making you know too much right now. I would be surprised if they actually dealt Terry McLaurin, because I feel like Washington understands how important he is. The problem is, whereas Micah's in his 20s, terry McLaurin is in his 30s, and these NFL teams, once you hit that 30, that's when they become weary to give you money. So I think the Commanders and Terry actually get something done. I feel like it's the guaranteed money is where they're kind of wrestling with this right now. So I think they'll find a common ground. I expect Terry McClurin to be in Washington when week one gets here.
Speaker 1:Has to be. He has to be Because it looks like you said that's a momentum killer that can just drop what they've been, take the air right out of those sails. I would hate to see it. But if I'm a Packer fan and they're willing to trade and Packers have got, I mean maybe I don't know I'm in for crazy stuff to happen. We got like 30 wide receivers. What's another one to add to the list? Let's just add another one in there so we also see trey henderson in cincinnati. What's going on over there with henderson? Do you think that's gonna finally resolve itself and cincinnati is finally gonna fork over the money that's deserved for this guy?
Speaker 2:I think it happens. And until they got shamar stewart handled the first round pick, I really doubted whether or not hendrickson would get done as well. You know a lot of people are looking at Burrow playing GM this offseason. Remember Burrow said he wanted Chase Higgins and Hendrickson re-signed. They did two out of the three. Hendrickson probably should have been the easiest of the three but they left him for last. You know Henderson's kind of doing the Micah part of it where he's showing up but he's not participating. And I think on both counts it's calculated to do it that way because fans will read reports and they'll be like, oh, henderson's in the building, he's not practicing because he wants a new deal. And I think Bengals fans are going to put pressure on the Bengals front office to get Hendrickson done.
Speaker 2:Hendrickson was among the league leaders in sacks last year. Even with as bad as that defense was. You kind of have to Steinem. Hendrickson has the leverage here Because the defense was bad last year. Year it would be even worse without hendrickson. So I I think they get that done. That might be another chris jones type where he misses the first game and then they come to turns midweek with him another one where it just has to, like you said, it just has to get done.
Speaker 1:There is no hands or butts about it. But if it doesn't, again the green bay packers. I'm like all these guys, I'm all like green bay packs. Call them up. Call them up, say, hey, you don't want to get a deal done, I'll take them. I'll take them off your hands. I'll give you a fast rusher for your future. You got it.
Speaker 2:You got it, I'll give you a first round.
Speaker 1:You can do that there too. Uh, what's going on with the browns right now? We have a lot of, uh, a lot of draft picks for the browns in that quarterback room right now and it seems to me they're signing up. I saw tyler huntley's getting signed up right now. So, kyle, what the heck is going on with the browns? And I mean, are you hearing any good things coming out of this quarterback room with shador, dylan, gabriel and the whole mess that they have?
Speaker 2:I think the browns are where the commanders used to be, where they just need one thing to go right for them and then you hope it kind of leads to a prosperous future. I think maybe the good thing going for them is Shador's starting preseason game one. If Shador goes out there and lights it up, I think you feel better about the whole situation With all the attention that he got during the draft. If he goes out there and he stinks even though it was week one of the preseason, I feel like Browns fans will lose it Because you have Joe Flacco, who you know what you're going to get, but Joe Flacco's like 42 years old. There's questions about whether or not he can make it through a full season. So somebody between Pickett, shador and Dylan Gabriel need to give you some type of hope.
Speaker 2:I think Huntley is just for camp and then when everybody's healthy they'll probably just move Huntley and I do think Pickett's probably a guy to watch as a trade candidate towards the end of the preseason. The hope is Gabriel or Sanders. The end of the preseason. The hope is Gabriel or Sanders distances themselves in the preseason. You know you throw them out there if you lose games whatever, because you know, maybe you jump back into the quarterback class next year when Arch Manning's obviously the prize. So yeah, there's not a lot going for them Because Deshaun Watson is still there. Browns fans are definitely not happy with that. So you may not get any good hopes out of Cleveland until Watson's fully out of the building.
Speaker 1:They'll make another stupid move by then. They probably will. They'll pull off another one there. Is there any games? So we got Thursday night, tomorrow night there we're going to have some preseason games kicking off there. Is there any game that you're looking out for at this very moment? Because I mean maybe a rookie's playing or something like that that you've heard. Is there any game that you're looking at and saying I can't wait to see this guy in some preseason? I mean it's preseason so it's hard to get hyped about it, but is there any guys who you're excited to see there in this first week?
Speaker 2:Uh, I mean look Shador's starting for the.
Speaker 1:Browns.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he'll. I believe their first game is against the Panthers. I think that's going to be the game of this first week that everybody's going to be tuned into, because you're going to be the game of this first week that everybody's going to be tuned into, because you're going to get two reactions. If he stinks, the crowd, that was fine, with him going in the fifth round, will be like see, there was no collusion or anything. The league was telling you he's not that good. If he goes out there and looks like a top-five pick, then it's. So why did he go in the fifth round again? So I think that's the obvious answer. I'm excited to see Cam Ward with Tennessee. Okay, I like that. Yeah, will Levis was a disaster last year. I think Cam Ward has a chance to really, you know, change the spirits of Titans fans. So I'm excited to see him play.
Speaker 1:One last thing before I have to let you go because I gotta run to a commercial break. But one last thing do you like to see guys or all your starters play in preseason a fair amount, do you? Are you a proponent of that? You want to see your guys out there? Are you a guy who wants to see them rest? Where are you at when it comes to preseason and stuff like that? Are you for like joint practices? If they get a lot of time at joint practice, you're fine with them missing that preseason and stuff like that. Are you for like joint practices? If they get a lot of time at joint practice, you're fine with them missing that preseason. What are your thoughts on kind of that situation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm right there with that. If the starters do the joint practices, I'm fine. If they don't play preseason, I think preseason is more for your fringe guys and your young players. So let them have all that Starters and the joint practices. I just want to know at the end with the notes from the insiders, who looked good, who looked bad. That's good enough for me.
Speaker 1:I like that. That's a great answer. Great answer there from Kyle. Kyle, let the people know where to find you out there, across social media, because you've got great stuff. You're working on great stuff right now. Let the people know where to find you.
Speaker 2:You can look for me kind of everywhere Facebook, youtube, chomping at the Bit. Even get into some blogging over on Tumblr doing some kind of NFL previews over there as well, so you can check out Chomping at the Bit over there as well.
Speaker 1:Awesome stuff. He's always got awesome stuff over there. The NBA he's big into the NBA, but that's kind of on the back burner right now. He's big into talking NFL right now. So all kinds of stuff over there from kyle. So make sure you're checking out. Next up here on the show when we come back, umber's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk packers, training camp. We got all kinds of stuff we want to dive into preseason game coming up. Like I said before, I mean it's preseason, so there's not a whole lot of hoopla going on, but training camp's going on. So we're talking about that coming up here with umber here when we come back back from the break. So, kyle, thank you. As always, we'll be right back here on Wisconsin sports on the go trade. Just a quick commercial break.
Speaker 1:Welcome back into Wisconsin sports on the go with trade. I'm your host trades. We come back here from a good talk with Kyle over the last segment. They were talking a little NFL stories and if you missed any of that, you missed any of the shows so far tonight here. Make sure you're listening back on the podcast platforms. Across all podcast platforms you can find the show. Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trades. You can find us across all social media Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trades across all Facebook. You can find it Facebook, twitter, anything like that. You can find it. X whatever they call it now you can find it there. And if you want to text into the show, let me know what you're thinking tonight here 715-990-4914, that is 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear your guys's thoughts on anything that are happening in the wisconsin sports realm and maybe high school sports. Whatever you want to talk about, I'd love to get into it tonight here on the show.
Speaker 1:So in this next segment we're going to talk a little brewers here. What we got coming up, what's going on with the brewers as of late, the trade deadline thoughts, everything like that. That next, this next segment of the show here, is brought to you by Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. They're expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming. Call for flexible scheduling and evaluations. Just call Chad down there at Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. He'll get you right, doing whatever you're doing, feeling better than ever. Sport and Spine Clinic of greenwood, wisconsin.
Speaker 1:So the brewers trade deadline came and went. Trade deadline came and went and the brewers did not make a splashy move and we I, oh, who the heck I can't remember off the top of my head who the name of the person was on espn milwaukee that I saw a clip of and they said the brewers are like this close to a collapse, like so close to a collapse, this thing could all go sideways fast. 56 hits against the Nationals, 56 hits Completely just routed the Nationals and everybody. And this is the story that you're going to get the Brewers. Well, they play the Nationals. The Nationals are not a good team and I get that. But here's the thing You're still playing a Major League ball. You're still playing a Major League ball club. You still put up 14 plus runs. You put up 14 and 16 runs in two games. You put up eight runs in another game and across those games you gave up. I don't even know if you want to count that first game against the Nationals, because that was going to blow up at the end there. But outside of that, you completely shut the Nationals basically down. That was an unreal series offensively for the Burris and pitching-wise they were just fine. I don't know what part of that was a collapse coming out. This was off the weekend that we were told that oh, you don't have Eugenio Suarez and you don't have Ryan O'Hearn and you don't have Josh Naylor and you didn't go get Ryan McMahon, so now you're going to collapse. What tells you and this is just my honest opinion, and you might say I'm crazy because it's just hypothetical what tells you that you could even bring a guy, say Suarez comes to Milwaukee and he just stinks? Guys are subject to situations sometimes too, and sometimes even a good situation. Guys can't figure it out. It happens. Andrew Vaughn's the opposite, right, andrew Vaughn, we're going to talk about that in a minute here, but Andrew Vaughn's been nothing but fantastic. What tells you you don't bring a guy to Milwaukee and he just doesn't produce or he gets hurt or anything like that. You're making a speculation off of. Just because they didn't do this, they hurt or anything like you're making a speculation off of. Just because they didn't do this, they're just going to collapse. Why hasn't it collapsed so far? Why? Why hasn't it collapsed? Because when you watch this team, when you look at this team, they aren't built off of just one thing, right. They're not built off of oh, if the long ball ain't there, it ain't going to work. They aren't built off of oh well, if we can't steal a bunch of bases, well, it ain't going to work. They're a combo, they're built up of all that. They do just about everything, if not better, good or better than the opposing team that night, that day Starting pitching fantastic, bullpen fantastic. They got long relievers that can chuck gas. They have back-end and bullpen guys who can chuck gas. They have a rotation with just I mean, you got Mizorowski one day and the next day you got Brendan Woodruff in there. You just constantly go through day after day of it's a war with this starting rotation, with the brewers, and you don't know what you're going to get as an opposing ball club. And that's so hard because there's such a hard and I heard this and I love this, take on it there's such a hard ball club to prepare for. Because what do you look at when you look at that starting rotation? What are you looking at? Because, like I talked about earlier on the show, who do you want to face? I don't want to face freddie. I definitely don't want to face ms. I don't want to see any part of brandon woodruff right now. Quinn priester has been fantastic since coming to milwaukee. I want no part of him. And jose quintana for being a number five in the rotation is downright just fantastic. You don't want any part of them. And then you look at the lineup and you look at a guy like Sal Frelick and what and when? Jackson Turio's healthy, hopefully. You knock on wood. He comes back, you know, in September there and he's ready to rock. You have a Christian Yelich that's rolling. William Contreras just figured out how to hit with a broken finger. I don't know how that happened just overnight, he just figured it out. But you look at all these, the little things that they're able to do as a ball club, and they do those little things right. That's what separates them. It's not a oh well. If they can't hit the long ball, they're screwed. If they can't do this, they're screwed. They just find ways to win baseball games. Sometimes that separates the good clubs from the bad clubs is they can do it in different ways and they've proven it and they've showed it week after week, day after day, game after game. We keep seeing it over and over again in that winning streak against the Dodgers, against the Nationals. We saw it against the Mariners out there when they went out west. We saw it against the Cubs back home there they're going to have that big five-game series against the Cubs. That feels like it might be a make or break for the Cubbies. The Cubs keep losing, they keep finding ways to lose to the Reds there and the Reds are kind of doing the Brewers a favor and knocking the Cubbies back a little bit, so that I mean that's good in a good way. But this Brewers team that quote that I had, that I saw from that ESPN Milwaukee saying that they're close to a collapse I just I don't buy it. I don't buy it. I don't buy it because I was already. I was prepared for it weeks ago. I was like what are the? What are the wheels finally gonna fall off? When is this train gonna derail? Because it was gonna happen. I just felt like it was gonna happen. Is that a crappy fan of me? Sure, but I just didn't see how a caleb durbin, joey ortiz, south frolic, all these random guys were going to find a way to keep winning baseball games. And you know what they did. They did and they did it and they're doing it better than anybody in the game. They are 100%. And I said off the top of the show, and I'll say it again. The Brewers are, 100%, in my eyes, the best team in baseball. They're the best team in baseball. I don't care about the analytics. You can throw all the analytics you want onto this team. You could say they don't have the you know they don't hit a lot of home runs or they don't have the big slugging or anything like that. They don't have the hard contact rate. It's fine. Look at the record. That's all that matters to me, end of the day. End of the day. I don't. Honestly, there are too many people out there who get so deep in the stats and they get lost in the stats that they just forget about this. One simple thing, and that is at the end of the day. What is the win-loss column? Look like it doesn't matter how you got there, it doesn't matter If you win. Whatever you wipe the hands, you're good, you won that game. That's what they do. That's what this Pat Murphy Ball Club does. The pancake, the pocket pancake, guys, that's what they do. They just they go out there and they find the little things that they can do right to win baseball games, whether it's running out, you know, we saw I believe Contreras ran out a ball the other day. That would have been a double play beat it out and then ended up scoring later on there. And then we saw I believe it was a couple weeks ago base reloaded, churrio was on second. He came around and scored from second base before Vaughn was thrown out from third. He could have slowed down coming around third base. He didn't slow down, he kept hustling and that was the difference between a run and not a run when Vaughn got thrown out at third. It's those little things that can make up a difference of so many games. And the Brewers just they out-hustle teams, they out-do teams in that way. That's where you got to be. If you're the Milwaukee Brewers. What we saw and, like I said before, what we saw early on in the season versus what we're seeing now. If you would have asked me early on in the season after that Yankee series I mean even about a quarter of the way through if you would have said Trage, what do you think Brewers? Are they a World Series contender? I would have looked at you dead in the eyes and said what are you talking about? Not even in the stratosphere of a World Series contender. I don't even know how you look at this team. I don't even know how you put Brewers and World Series cont right now. Right now, even after the trade deadline and we're going to talk about that in a second but even after that trade deadline, I'm going to tell you this right now, even after the trade deadline the Brewers are a serious World Series contender. They went into that trade deadline. They went into it and the talk of it was the Brewers. Jeff Paston said the Brewers are one big bat away from being a World Series contender. That's what they kept telling us. They're one big bat away. That's what the big talk was and we were waiting for that big bat. Was it going to be Suarez? Was it going to be McMahon? Who was going to be that big bat? The Brewers were going to take a shot on right. Nobody. Danny Jansen and people freaked out the Brewers. They made one, w Miller and Jordan Montgomery, and he hasn't even pitched yet and this and that and everything between he's on the IL. What are they going to do? They didn't get a big bat and they're freaking out. And I think people failed to forget, failed to remember Sorry, failed to forget Failed to remember that the Brewers won the trade deadline months ago with Quinn Priester. The Brewers won the trade deadline With the Aaron Savallee trade to the White Sox. For Andrew Vaughn they won the deadline already. Because Andrew Vaughn, since coming to Milwaukee, this guy it's hard to even put into words what he has done With the Brewers he is currently Batting 370. 370, 11 strikeouts to 26 RBIs, 10 walks, 10 walks to 11 strikeouts. He's got a 671 slug and his OPS is above 1,000. 1,106 right now on that OPS 49 total bases, 27 hits. He comes up with clutch hits. I don't have a clutch hit stat on me right now, but he comes up with clutch hit after clutch hit. When there's runners on, he finds a way to drive them in. Andrew Vaughn has been everything and then some for the Milwaukee Brewers. So we can sit here and say, well, the Brewers didn't do enough at the deadline. I think Andrew Vaughn changed their whole perspective on what they had to do. Because here's the thing We've been waiting for the Brewers to get healthy, right, we've been waiting for them to get healthy and I know what you're going to tell me. Oh well, you're just expecting this guy to come back. Yes, sal Frelick to be fully inserted back into the starting lineup, jackson Turio to be back. Reese Hoskins to come back. You have Jake Bowers still on the aisle right now. I don't know if Jake Bowers is even going to factor into it. I don't know if Reese Hoskins is good everyday playing time, but you have a guy like Reese Hoskins on your bench. That's a power back coming off the bench there. I like that. I like that. Look that could be your DH. I like that. Look you get Jack Centurio back healthy, ready to rock. You put Shelby Miller on that bullpen. Look at that team. Look what you got then. I know they didn't do anything crazy at third base and get, you know, slide Durbin over and get Ortiz out. They didn't do anything crazy like that, but they went after that deadline when they did nothing and people were freaking out. They just completely buried the Nationals and I know, not a great team, but completely buried them, as they're supposed to. And now two games from the Braves at least, like I said, pre-recorded, so I don't know if they won game three. Hopefully they swept them. If they swept the Braves, you got two sweet. I mean, you're talking about two great series in a row. What else I mean, honestly, they get Suarez. Does it change this team? Yes, what are we talking about though right now? I mean, are we looking at this team in a different light just because Suarez is in that lineup? Maybe, possibly. I wouldn't say that adding a guy like Suarez would make you worse. Possibly I wouldn't say that adding a guy like Suarez would make you worse, but at this very moment, I don't think. I'm like I'm not upset with the trade deadline, like a lot of other people. The Brewers didn't go all in, and if it comes back to bite, it comes back to bite. It just it happens that way. But the recipe for success that the Brewers are kind of rolling with right now, it's not a crazy recipe. It's not crazy. It's just put the ball in play, and that's what this lineup does, and they find ways. So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. I'm not freaking out over the trade deadline. I'm kind of okay with what happened there. So we're going to here. Umber's gonna hop on, we're gonna talk packers. I know, after kyle was on, I told you guys umber was gonna hop on. He's a little late here, but he's coming. He's coming. So we're gonna talk packers here when we come back from the break here, and then we're gonna wrap up the show for the day. On the back side, trage Ummer will be with us when we come back. So we're right back here. Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage, as we come back on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment. Ummer is finally back. It's been a two-week hiatus. He's finally back from vacations and everything else which sounds nice. Sounds nice to get a vacation. But anyways, this next segment here is brought to you by Warm Kids Wisconsin, our not-for-profit donation group that we are a part of there, and they get snow pants and boots to kids around Wisconsin. Snow pants and boots, not coats. Everybody, it seems like all the donation groups. They do coats, these guys. They do snow pants and boots. It's different. Their snow pants though, they handpick them. They don't get you just any pair of snow pants. They make sure to get the best ones that they can find out there in the market. Boots, everything like that. They work with schools. They want to get from Minnesota to Michigan, up to the UP down in Illinois. They want to be all over the place at some point in the future. So make sure you're checking them out. Warm Kids Wisconsin. Check out their links, make sure you donate to them. Check them out TikTok, facebook, everything like that. Make sure you're checking them out. They are fantastic people. They work harder than anyone else out there. They got day jobs, they got kids and they're still doing this on top of that. They are downright crazy, I tell them, but that's a great cause, so make sure you're checking them out. Warm Kids, wisconsin, there. So Auburn. It's been two weeks. It's been two weeks now. I mean, what's going on? How was vacation? Finally back from vacation? Football's back. You just went on. You're like the writers they just go on vacation for that little stretch and then come back when football's back. How are we doing on this wednesday?
Speaker 4:I wish I was in the the variety in the realm of the writers, of the phil hubers and the robert muskies and the jason wilde's of the world. I would love to be in that status, but no, no, I just thought we took some time off, uh, got to spend some time with the family in the Bahamas and really just got away from everything, really enjoyed ourselves. And now we're back and training camp is in full force, which I'm absolutely enjoying. Seeing a lot of conversations on Twitter, I've been told that I cannot miss family night next year, so I've been told I need to be there next year. So I'm going to do my best to be there next year and so, all in all, it's been great. Man, I just got a little bit of a tan going, which is kind of funny for me, I guess. And, yeah, just really enjoying myself and just really ready to talk more Packers and just what we're expecting this weekend with the Jets in the preseason game.
Speaker 1:It's funny. I know we're radio so you guys can't see it. But ummer is what? What is your ethnicity? What? What is it? I, I, I can't, I'm not gonna guess it because I don't want to be wrong. What is it?
Speaker 4:so yeah, born and raised, born in green bay, raised in the states, but my family's from india. So I got that. You know that that indian uh uh, what you call it a genetic history, or they're going for me so so the tan part was funny.
Speaker 4:He's got the tan going on that's what he's trying to tell us yeah, whatever I got like a year-round tan and now it's like a little bit darker you don't even know what it's like to burn man. You don't know what it's like to burn oh, trust me, if I don't put that sunscreen on, I peel I peel just like the rest of y'all. Hey, no lies, yeah oh, I've had my moments, trust me. So my wife does not let that happen at all.
Speaker 1:He's like that little kid going out of the house. They've got to hit him up with the spray tan real fast on the way out the door Real quick just shh, stop, stop, stop here, shh, shh, shh. All right, you can go now. So since you've been gone, I mean there's been a lot of stuff happening around training camp. I mean we didn't even get. I mean we, we talked about it two weeks ago, but the zach tom deal happened. I mean we haven't talked about anything like that.
Speaker 1:So I mean what have been? You've seen a little bit of training camp. You've watched the highlights. You've seen all that. You've heard the you know the writers, reporters were everything like that from every perspective possible, telling us what's going on down there. What are some of your early takeaways from what we've seen coming out of camp right now, the big stories that you've seen?
Speaker 4:I think Nate Hobbs is the kind of dude who does play with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, a little bit of intensity that I do like. Unfortunately he does have a meniscus injury and he's out for the next three weeks, maybe not longer, and I do remember when we signed him one of his knocks coming out was the fact that he was injury prone. Now, did he play through injuries? He did, but you know we switched out a cornerback like jair, who seems to be having a pretty good training camp right now in baltimore, with another corner who seems pretty good but also has injuries as well as has knee injuries. So we'll just kind of see how that plays out.
Speaker 4:I've been hearing a lot of great things about car, about Carrington Valentine, who people are really starting to say that he may take the next step and be in the next number one corner for Green Bay, which I think would be great. The transition for Bo Melton has been going as well as it can. I do have all the trust in the world when it comes to Derek Ansley and Halfley to get him up to speed and get him right. Seems like he does have the natural skills to do it and he did practice playing corner with his brother, max melton, who plays for the cardinals, uh, in the offseason. So he has been training for this transition, now for majority, since the season's been over, so I think that's pretty cool. Uh, lucas van ness has been looking more the part, which I think is awesome. I think that, uh, he's doing his thing. A guy that isn't looking the part and of course, we have to still give him some time, but it's Jordan Morgan. He didn't look that great in family night. Of course it's just a practice, but his not coming out of college, out of Arizona, was play strength and my thing is, if he's going to be transitioning to a guard, brian Balaga talked about this as well too, with Homer yesterday, where a couple days ago, he talked about where, if you're going to transition from tackle to guard, all the guys that did it, like the Sittons and the TJ Langs, they had an amazing base, they were extremely strong, and if Jordan is not, really that's not his strength pun intended, there might be a little bit of trouble there. I did see some tape of Anthony Belton out there playing left tackle. I know Rasheed Walker is currently dealing with a groin injury, but I don't see him giving up the left tackle job right now. I think that that's his job to lose.
Speaker 4:Golden looks like he's the real deal. I saw so many tapes, so many different clips of him just looking like he's just running at a different speed. I know there was a lot of talk about Jordan's footwork and I have to admit there were things that Rodgers used to do when it came to his footwork that would drive me crazy. But again, if you have the arm, talent and the ability to play with I wouldn't say improper footwork, but a different style of footwork, as long as the ball gets where it needs to go Aaron Nagler said this today as long as the ball goes where it needs to go, I don't care it's when he has an incomplete or the ball is short or the ball is intercepted and you look at his footwork, it doesn't look as great as it can be. That's where we're going to start nitpicking, right? So this is training camp. This is the time to try out different things. I know people are complaining about him not doing too many deep ball shots during family night. Again, I feel like it's practice, like let's just. Let's just wait to what the priest if he plays in the preseason how he looks.
Speaker 4:I remember last year in the preseason he looked amazing. Uh, I know that in the majority of the philly game he looked pretty good and that, you know, minus that injury that he, you know sustained and multiple other injuries he has to take about the year, I think we would have seen a better Jordan Love last year. Now, you know, destroy just came out about him and his upbringing and his father and, and you know, his, his unfortunate um. You know experiences with suicide and things like that and just seeing how he had to get past a certain adversity to break through mental states of you lose your dad and you don't know what to do, and then basically getting past that with the support of his sisters and his mother to then eventually, you know, now he's the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, a guy that was not a five-star talent you know, he wasn't as talented as Rodgers or Brett Favre coming out of college, say, like you know, from high school to college, right, and I think he just wants to be his own person and I think that's actually pretty cool because you know those guys have some really big shoes to fill and no one's asking to fill them is asking this rooks in the package as best he can. I think he does that. So, all in all, this training camp has looked pretty good. I think we are seeing they're talking about this guy named uh ball. What's his name? Ball king, bk, bk. Ball came window.
Speaker 4:This who's been talking about fumbles and talking about how they would they want to be the top team in causing fumbles, which, I have to admit, that was the thing that I really got annoyed about.
Speaker 4:The Packers over the years was like, you know, we get interceptions, things like that. But you would see other teams like the Lions and back in the day with Peter Tillman, with the Bears, where they really emphasized on fumbling and causing fumbles and disrupting things, and you see that with the Lions all the time Seeing that right now, with as emphasis for Halfley. Everyone's saying it too when you listen to some of the interviews where they were talking about hey, like last year, we were just learning the defense. This year we already know the defense. Now we're just trying to add on to it, which I think is pretty cool. I'm expecting a defense technique step. Last thing Nazir Stackhouse and Omar Brown, two guys who are undrafted free agents who I think are going to find a way to make the team. I think I've talked enough, so now you tell me, sir, I think I got everything.
Speaker 1:That was a lot of quick hitters. That was a lot of quick hitters. I agree with the Stackhouse take there. I love what we saw he looks good man. He's going to be the undrafted free agent who takes Warren Brinson's job.
Speaker 1:I's going to take a spot. Both those guys have been impressive so far in camp. So I mean it's going to be. Stackhouse looks more defined, he looks like he's going to be that run stopper which the Packers are going to need. I really do like that.
Speaker 1:Take, though, on the causing fumbles, because I agree, I mean the Packers, they seem like a team, they pick teams off, but they don't force a lot of fumbles, and I think, honestly, that has to do with the physicality. I think it comes with the physicality of this team and what they've lacked in physicality, and I I don't chalk that up to matt lafleur, I'm not saying that. I think it's the guys in the room. I just don't think they've had the physical football players in a while. I mean, you remember clay matthews in that uh, super bowl? They told him go get me a turnover.
Speaker 1:Right, he needed that big turnover. He goes out and gets him a turnover and I mean it's a couple of plays later. It wasn't like, it was like immediately right after, but it's just those kind of players who can turn it on. You have that now in an edger and cooper, you have that ball hawk. You have a guy in quay walker where, if quay walker finds it, if he finds it like we talked about lucas van ness, if those two guys can find it on the defense man man, oh, that's going to be something to watch there.
Speaker 1:I do the Nate Hobbs, the cornerback room still.
Speaker 1:I get it, that cornerback room is worrying me like crazy. I hope Carrington Valentine. I like the talent. I think he can be a darn good corner. Can he be a cornerback one? I don't know. Can Nixon be a cornerback one? After watching Golden completely torch him, I don't know if I'm thinking Golden's going to torch everybody or if Nixon's. That I don't know. Or maybe it was just one play. Individuals are so hard to tell what. Who did what, what. What a good there. Valentine coming back. I like the Valentine coming back because he fits the system, I think, and he's going to be an easy fit because he's been with these guys. He's going on. So I like that one coming back.
Speaker 1:I saw a take. Somebody said the Packers their biggest. Who's the Packers stars? Right, they always say that you have to have stars on your team and the claim was that the Packers don't have stars. This is my question Do you have to have stars to be a good team, to be a great team, to be a Super Bowl caliber team? Do you have to have stars to be a good team? To be a great team, to be a Super Bowl caliber team, do you have to have takeover stars? I mean, if you had to pick right now, who would be your stars? I mean, would you look?
Speaker 4:at Josh Jacobs, who you're going to love.
Speaker 1:Who's your stars in this Packers team? Do you have to have them to be a good, great Super Bowl caliber football team? Do you have to have stars in that team?
Speaker 4:What do you have? To have stars in that team. What do you think? I think? I think that it needs to be a combination. I think you need to have guys that are either they're star ready or are stars right.
Speaker 4:I think, like when we I hate to say, like you know, it's been like what? 15 years since you won a super bowl, right, but the fact is, when they had that super bowl championship run, you know you had charles woodson, former defensive player of the year. You had clay matthew, a budding outside linebacker, star of the works. You had a wide receiver core that had a bunch of really good guys but no one that stood out as a number one dude right. Then you had Aaron Rodgers, who was really starting to come into his own position, their run game. I mean you had a six-round pick at University of Buffalo, james Starks, coming in there and taking over basically the running back reins and help kind of give us a running game that we kind of had and didn't have a brandon jackson, right. I feel like that's just that. That was just. You know, that's the last of the packers on the super bowl. But when you do look at some teams like I think philadelphia is like the outlier because they do have stars up and down that roster. I mean, I think like when you look at that team, I feel feel like it's not maybe a true, realistic perspective when it comes to teams that have star power and also, you know, can become Super Bowl champs. Because if you do go back, you know the years previous there were teams that had some pretty good players but they weren't like up and down the rosters just stacked players Like the Eagles are. Unfortunately, that's just how they're built right and for us I feel like we have that with Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney. I do believe we have those stars on both sides and we have guys that are coming. I think Jordan Love is on his way to becoming that next top five, top ten quarterback. I truly do believe that.
Speaker 4:I feel like there are makings in Golden, which I know might be a hyperbolic, but the way that guy just moves, I can't wait to see him in preseason and I just can't wait to see him against competition that's not the Packers and just see if he's able to do the same things he's been doing in training camp and OTAs and everything else On defense. Rashawn Gary is supposed to be that guy right. And you know, kenny Clark kind of was that guy up until last year. I feel like those guys haven't gone away.
Speaker 4:And like I said previously, carrington Valentine just don't be surprised if he becomes CB1. I truly think that he has the skill and the moxie to do it. And yeah, like, is he great in run defense? Not so much, but, like you know, maybe he worked on the noxies and he did get bigger, they said right. So I guess my biggest thing too is you know that team has a lot of young developing talent and the question is going to be like, are they able to take that next step? Because that's going to be the difference between us being a playoff team and us being a Super Bowl team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and don't forget about I mean a guy like Edrin Cooper, I mean.
Speaker 4:Oh, Edrin Cooper.
Speaker 1:I mean, he could be the best linebacker, one of the best, if not the best, pass rusher.
Speaker 4:Look they're talking about. He's a defensive player of the year. Yeah, this year I mean it's insane, he's a second-year guy, I'm like I love it.
Speaker 4:Don't get me wrong. Hyperbolic maybe, maybe not right, and I'm with you, man. I just think that, like times, the teams that win Super Bowls is because they have a combination of star players and just very good players and then good depth players too, Like guys that are not great or good but average, but they just know when to show up and play at the right time and their best football.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, last year Frederick Cooper too, was limited snaps, I mean, he was limited with injury and everything like that. He was out. So what he was able to prove in that, oh goodness, it was just, I mean unreal. There and I, I I touch into that defensive line and I think that's where people kind of look at the packers and they're like, ah, they don't have it on the defensive side. Because when you look at all these other teams who are, you know, your super bowl caliber, you have that guy in the defensive line, the chris jones, with the kansas city chiefs. You have Zach Vaughn coming off the edge there for the Eagles. I mean, you have all these different pieces around. I'm forgetting the guy Jalen Carter. That's the guy I'm thinking of for the Eagles.
Speaker 3:I think that's the guy in Zach.
Speaker 1:Vaughn, but Jalen Carter coming up middle there with the Eagles. You just have these. You look across the line and your Super Bowl caliber teams Aiden Hutchinson going to be coming off there for the Lions, coming up this year, and then Van Ginkle for the Vikings. I mean, how many you could go through the laundry list. Everybody has that one bona fide great pass rusher. What did the Packers, what did they lack?
Speaker 4:They didn't have one, they had three, they had Nolan Smith, they had Jalen Carter, then, of course, on the other side too, like you're saying, zach Vaughn. It's like they find a way to just these teams. They get the right talent. It's funny you say that because you look at Detroit, you look at the Vikings. Vikings went and got greener, they let go of Hunter, then you got Vikings sorry, the Lions, who left Hutchinson, but opposite Hutchinson they went and picked up Marcus Davenport, but he hasn't lived up to his first-round grade right.
Speaker 4:And I feel like the Packers, if they can get what they were expecting to get out of Devontae Wyatt, Lucas, van Ness and Rashawn Gary we're good. I think we're good. I mean, people forget Brenton Cox was an undrafted free agent who literally probably was a five-star recruit coming out of college who had every God-given ability in the world. He just unfortunately had some unfortunate situations at Florida and Georgia, but again, he played for two SEC schools that had amazing defenses and he's right now second on the depth chart behind Lucas Van Ness. So I'm with you. I just think that the talent is there. We just unfortunately, because of the way the season ended last year, because at the end of the way the season ended last year, because at the end of the year we didn't play very well and then against Philly we looked really bad. People were kind of sleeping on, not just the Packers as a team, but also talent-wise too.
Speaker 1:I can see the argument.
Speaker 4:I don't like it, but I see it.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, I agree, and it's a bona fide, like legit argument. It's why this past offseason we were looking and saying.
Speaker 1:Because, we looked at what they had and we look at opposing teams and it's like what do they have that we don't even the Steelers. Why did the Steelers stay relevant? Look at what they got on the defensive front, coming at you with TJ Watt, I mean, you can look across there and say why was this team good? They had a, they had a pass rush, they had a good pass rusher in there. That made everybody better. What did the Packers lack? A everybody better. So, albert, I got to run here, we got to wrap up the show here on the backside of the ad break. But let me know, let everybody know where to find you out there across social media, where they can find your stuff there about everything. Packers.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sure, I was going to say you can find me on Twitter at AMAR3455. I know we're having a little bit of a change when it comes to the network that we're belonging to. We work with Game On Wisconsin. We're going to me and Trey. We're going to be working together trying to probably create our own little thing, and we're going to be displaying our new place and our new show here, hopefully in the next week or so, and so Game On Wisconsin is going through rebranding. They're going to be doing some different things. So more power to them, best of luck to them. And me and Trey are going to try to who I used to do a coach show with. He wants to kind of come as a guest and come help us out too, so I told him that would be great. So we're going to try to do things a little bit differently. I know we've been a little bit of a hiatus on our coast-to-coast Packers. We may even change the name of that too, because it doesn't make sense for me.
Speaker 1:You gotta be you too, man. Oh yeah, oh yeah, thank you. Thank you for the shout out. Thank you for the shout out there. Make sure you're checking them out and, like he said, we're gonna have stuff coming across for you guys once packer season gets rolling up. We're gonna, next couple weeks, we'll have something figured out there, we'll announce it across social media and make sure you guys are included. So thank you as always, umber, I want to come back here backside of the ad break. We're gonna break it for the day. We're gonna get out of here for the day here as we wrap it up here on this wednesday. We'll be right back here after this quick commercial break. Welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host trades as we come back on this wednesday and we wrap it up here for the day. That was a great last segment there with Ummer and if you missed any portion of the show tonight, make sure you're listening back tomorrow, next day, across all podcast platforms Wisconsin Sports Network, goatrage. Make sure you like, subscribe, follow wherever you find us across social media. That'll be a huge help to us here on the show. So, as we wrap it up for the day.
Speaker 1:I just one last stat here I had with the Brewers. They entered August with the best record in the MLB for the first time in franchise history. That's awesome. That's crazy to think. In franchise history this has been the. They have the best record in the MLB for the first time in franchise history and there's some I mean decent teams that they've had in the past and this is the first time that they've had the best record entering into August. So that is awesome to see there. The Brewers have a couple of important series coming up here for them. They don't I believe it's not that Cubs series coming up yet. I was just I just lost my page and I came back to it here and they are going to have after they wrap up the series with Atlanta no-transcript going up here as we get into the middle of august and we roll into september. So some exciting stuff happening in brewer baseball right now. Exciting stuff in wisconsin sports right now.
Speaker 1:If you missed any portion of the show, make sure. Like I said, you guys are listening back. Podcast platform Wisconsin sports on the go, with trade across all podcast platforms there iTunes, spotify, wherever you get podcasts there. So with that, that's about all I got for a day. We're wrapping up. We got two hours down. We don't have a third hour to get to, but maybe soon. So we'll see how. But with that this has been Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. Thank you all for tuning in. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Wednesday.
Speaker 1:But, until I talk to you guys again next Wednesday, see ya.