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 5-7 pm on Sports radio 92.3 WOSQ or here next day!
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Sept 24, 2025: Hour 1 Badgers and Brewers
The September 24th edition of Wisconsin Sports on the Go dives deep into a weekend full of contrasting emotions for state sports fans. The Milwaukee Brewers clinched the NL Central division title, but their path wasn't without turbulence. From a 25-28 record on May 24th to going 70-34 since, Pat Murphy's approach of focusing on "possibilities and positives" has transformed this team into a legitimate contender. What makes this Brewers squad special isn't star power but their refusal to beat themselves and their ability to execute the little things consistently better than their opponents.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin Badgers football is experiencing a crisis of identity and performance. After suffering a humiliating 27-10 home loss to Maryland as 10-point favorites, the program faces serious questions about its direction under Luke Fickle. Barry Alvarez's controversial comments calling fans "spoiled rotten" for booing the team only heightened tensions around a once-proud program that's become increasingly irrelevant in college football. The episode examines whether Fickle's attempt to transform Wisconsin's traditional run-heavy, physical identity into something entirely different represents his greatest failure as head coach.
The conversation also touches on Major League Baseball's upcoming implementation of an automated ball-strike challenge system for 2026, a response to ongoing concerns about umpiring consistency. After watching umpire Roberto Ortiz miss 25 calls in a single Brewers game, the need for technological assistance in officiating becomes difficult to dispute.
What emerges throughout this episode is a fascinating exploration of expectation versus reality across Wisconsin sports. When does fan frustration become justifiable? How quickly should new coaches be expected to turn programs around? And what happens when beloved sports traditions get abandoned in pursuit of modernization? Join us for this thought-provoking discussion and share your own perspective by calling or texting 715-990-4914.
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Speaker 2:Wisconsin sports, now your host trade, how we doing everybody and welcome in to wisconsin sports on the go with trade. I'm your host trade. As we come back here for the sept September 24th edition of the show here. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday so far. I hope you guys are enjoying your weekend, your weekend. I hope you guys enjoyed your weekend there this weekend. I mean it was sports-wise, you could almost say it was a I don't want to say a terrible weekend. It wasn't great. It wasn't great right, the brewers clinched the central, which was good, but took some help. It took a lot of help from the reds taking care of the cubs there. So the brewers clinched the central. That was the good.
Speaker 2:The badgers there isn't a lot of good to talk about. The packers there's not a lot to talk about. Well, I guess there's some good. I'm not going to say there isn't any good about the pack. There's not a lot to talk about. Well, I guess there's some good. I'm not going to say there isn't any good about the Packers. There's some good to talk about. It's just the same. Things reared their ugly head one more time and hopefully, hopefully, it's not going to be a continued story. So we're going to talk. We got a lot to get into today. A lot to get into. We're going to talk Brewers. Are they limping into the playoffs here? What's going on with this Brewers team? A lot of fans freaking out over the past couple games. Here we're going to talk about the Brewers here. We're going to get into what Matt LaFleur had to say, because he had a pretty interesting quote that he came out with in the press conference there after the loss to the Browns and I want to talk about it. I want to read it off. I talk about it here today on the show. So we got that coming up. Umber's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk packers with him later on here and then, like I said, brewers we're gonna talk. We're gonna talk to brewers today. I want to get into the brewers postseason. What's going on there? They have some injury news that's not good. They have some good injury news and they have some bad. So I want to get into the both here, because one of them kind of troubling heading into this postseason. So we're gonna get to that. Mlb voted on a uh new rule that's gonna be implemented in 2026. We're gonna get to that. Badgers. Well, like I said, there was not a whole lot good. So we're gonna talk about that. Christian's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk badgers today here and try to dissect. Barry alvarez had an interesting quote. We're gonna get into a lot today here on the show, so let's get into.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I hope you guys are enjoying your week and weekend. I've been spending majority well. It's been like the last month, month and a half now. We've been working up in rib lake, wisconsin. There's a great, great town up there, beautiful town. I mean. You got the lake right there, some pretty good food up in that area, so we've been working up in rib lake, so that that's been great there. So my week's been good. My week's been good so far here, but we're gonna see if we can make it better by trying to dissect what we saw over the weekend there and make it sound better, make it look better there for you. So right away I want to look just top, just the top. Here we had mlb.
Speaker 2:Major league baseball will implement a challenge system for balls and strikes. This was a something that was voted on over the weekend there and it's reported by Jeff Bassett and why this is, I guess, big and you know what we saw was in that Brewer game, this game that basically the day after we watched I think it was. What was his name? Roberto Ortiz was his name there uh, in that game for the Brewers and Padres and he missed 20. Roberto Ortiz was his name there in that game for the Brewers and Padres and he missed 20, roberto Ortiz that's his name missed 25 calls. 25 calls in that game and according to Jeff Passon, he said there are typically around 1,000 missed calls a week. So this ABS challenge system is going to get a lot of use from what the sounds of it are, because I mean we saw, we watched it last night there with the brewer game, or two nights ago, monday night, with the brewer game.
Speaker 2:There there were a lot of missed calls and I understand the brewers well. That game was there's playoff implications on the line in that game padres playing for a playoff spot because they needed one more to clinch and the Brewers are still playing for the one seed and the overall top seed in all of baseball. So you have a lot on the line there and you're calling strikes at Bryce. I mean by his eyes there Sal Frelick had a couple of bad ones called. And then I mean, on the flip side of that, for the Padres there's a lot of bad calls. So both teams were kind of getting hosed.
Speaker 2:So we hear that news coming out that you know the league, they had a competition meeting, they voted to usher in the era of robot umpiring. Teams will receive two challenges to dispute calls by the home plate umpire. So we kind of talked about this because we talked about the introduction. This umpiring has not gotten better. It has not. It has not gotten any better. It's actually probably gotten worse in this season here and Angel Hernandez retired, he's gone, and it's still getting worse. So there was not really a lot of options on how you're going to fix it. And we talked about this. We talked about the you know, challenging balls and strikes We've seen in the minors. Now it's slowly working its way up and now it's in the bigs. We're gonna see it next year already.
Speaker 2:So an interesting development there from Jeff Basson and I was just it caught my eye because watching that uh Brewer game, game one against the Padres, a lot of missed calls, a lot of bad calls, and it was a game that meant something. I would have hated for that to be NLDS game one. Roberto Ortiz is behind home plate and those are the calls that we're getting. That would be, we would be upset, we'd be ticked. So yeah, that's that was I mean good to see.
Speaker 2:I want to hear what do you guys think? What do you guys think of the robot umpiring system? You know the ABS challenge system being implemented 715-990-4914. That 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Let me know what you're thinking. Anything Wisconsin sports-wise tonight here. But what are your thoughts on that ABS challenge system being implemented into Major League Baseball next year? There? So Brewers clinched the Central, there was your good and it's just a crazy, crazy weekend all the way around that.
Speaker 2:Because you think about this, you go all the way back to May 24th with this team. I know we've talked about this before, but this team was 25 and 28 when they were in Pittsburgh on May 24th and they ended up coming back winning that game and it's lit this fire since then. Since that day, this team has gone, gone, 70 and 34. You talk about a flip the script of the season there. This team has just gone on this burner.
Speaker 2:And pat murphy said in a quote, and I'm just going to summarize it basically, somebody said, because he was looking. You know this, this was going downhill. What do you do? You know how do you fix this? Nothing's working. I mean, at the start of this year they had the worst run differential that's ever had to start a season. They were 0-4. They gave up how many home runs to the Yankees? It was an abysmal start. You were heading for what is this team going to do to actually get to 50 wins? And someone told and this is what Pat Murphy said, he didn't give a name, but he said someone told him to focus on the possibilities and the positives instead of the struggles the possibilities and positives instead of the struggles. And somebody told him that and he said it really helped him. It really helped him figure out how he was going to approach this team.
Speaker 2:Because I mean, you listen to a lot of these guys, the Sal Frelicks and the Bryce Durangs and all them guys, and you saw it in that padres game in game one there, when I was watching in the dugout. Well, that person you know tv, you get what I mean the camera uh went over there and he's he's talking to durbin. Durbin had just been thrown out at third base there in that last inning trying to advance on what he thought was going to be a throw to home, ended up going to third. And then he got out and he was talking to Durbin and he was, you know, working with him in the dugout. And that's the difference, that's the Pat Murphy difference that he makes, and you heard it from a lot of these players.
Speaker 2:This team would not have turned it around or been the way that they had been without Pat Murphy at manager, craig Council would not have done this, and I'm sorry for all the fans that believe that Craig Council would have done the same thing as Pat Murphy. He would have been no different. He would have won this many games. I don't think so, because I'm watching what Craig's doing with a roster full of money guys. I mean you think Dansby, swanson, kyle Tucker, seiya Suzuki I don't know, I don't have the contracts up in front of me, but you got decent contracts across the board with these guys.
Speaker 2:And then you look at the brewers and you're like, wow, okay, the way that he approaches the game, the way that he holds his players accountable, the way that he you know isaac collins I truthfully believe the other day why he's been, why he was sitting out of some games because when you think, end of the day, who's your better option Defensively? Blake Perkins right, but if you're looking for who's your better option all the way around, isaac Collins is going to be one of your better options. He's been one of the best hitters on your team consistently all season long. He's up for Rookie of the Year. But he was sitting out and there was that fly ball that ended up between him and Ortiz and it ended up falling or it might have been, not a stare either way ended up falling out there. Collins kind of pulled off. It was. It was gonna be a tough play for the shortstop and Collins ended up pulling off and it was a mess. And it led to a mess.
Speaker 2:And I think Pat Murphy in that he held him accountable, didn't? He didn't see a lot of time after that and you know he did it earlier on this season with, uh, with Joey Ortiz. The way that he holds these guys accountable and the way these guys play, it's like they're playing for a contract. Consistently they're playing for a contract. They aren't your cream of the crop, they aren't your stars, but they're those guys that are going to give you everything they got night in and night out, and that's the kind of manager, that's the kind of team that this was and that's why they were successful.
Speaker 2:And I love that quote that somebody and he didn't say who, maybe it came out that who told him that, but he just said the possibilities and the positives. And that's why, when we listened to Pat Murphy earlier on this season and he was talking about it and he said you know, a lot of these guys are hitting the ball. It's just, you know, we got to see things happen. We got to see the ball fall. You know he's got to see some hits fall. We, the pitching staff's, got to get healthy. We got to see this.
Speaker 2:And he, he was all cool, calm and positive and all the in all the fans, me included, were like wait, what are you positive about right now? This is rough. This is rough. Baseball never wavered, never steered off the course. He just he felt he and maybe it was this guy whoever told him that, whatever it was but he, just he never changed the way that he approached this and this team never changed it.
Speaker 2:They just found, they just started finding ways to win baseball games and and that's the crazy ways that they did it. They had no quit. They would find their ways back. They would find their way back in the games. They would do all the little things better than those opposing teams and that's why they were the best team and are currently the best team, best record-wise team in baseball. They just do those little things right and they make you beat them. They don't beat themselves off and when they do it gets ugly. It can get ugly real fast because when they have a couple airs it's like all the floodgates open for the airs. But this team, this is a darn good team. This is a very good team.
Speaker 2:Heading into the postseason they're limping, they're they're limping. We're gonna talk about that here in the next segment here. But they they're limping into the postseason, as some might say. But at the same time there's reasons, right, and there's different things, different perspectives to look out. When you say that so we're going to talk brewers here in the next segment of the show, we're going to keep with the brewers, talk about what we've been seeing here as of late, um, and then just kind of look ahead to what the brewers have coming up here. We're gonna look at the injury report, kind of what we're seeing there, and then later on we're going to have Christian hop on, we're going to talk badgers because, yeah, it's, it's been ugly, it's been ugly.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of fans calling for, uh, luke fickle and even Chris McIntosh and McIntosh. And now we got a whole boatload of people coming out. The uh, was it the Dean, kate was it the Dean came out and, you know, spoke highly of like McIntosh and like faith and fickle in this program and everything like that. And it was like man, who else is going to come out and vote confidence? Like, who else do we need to vote confidence in Luke fickle and this program? Because I just got here, chancellor, the chancellor from uw, uh, jennifer manukin, I I might have, uh, might have butchered that one there, but she released a statement basically on the ad, uh, chris mcintosh and gave full support to look fickle. So we have everybody's given that boat of support, except for the fans, as, as we saw, the fans are pretty upset with this whole thing, pretty upset.
Speaker 2:And Barry Alvarez came out and Barry Alvarez said and this was on the Barry Alvarez show he said I think it's embarrassing, this was about fans booing Luke Fickle and calling, saying you know, basically fire Fickle, everything like that he said. I think it's embarrassing, I think it's terrible, despicable. They're spoiled, rotten. Here's a team, you have young players trying to come on and competing. They're going to have a chance to get better and you flip on them early in the season and you flip on them and you're chanting for the coach to be fired. How do you think that makes the players feel? That's the quote right there, and I've been thinking about that. I've been thinking about that. So we're going to get into that. Let's get to that. Let's get to that.
Speaker 2:When we come back here, we'll talk about that a little bit. We'll get into what Barry had to say. When we come back from the break here, we'll talk a little bit of Brewers and then Christian's going gonna hop on. Later we're gonna dissect that maryland game, what we saw, everything like that we'll get into that. Almer's gonna stop by later. We're gonna talk a little bit of packers there and then we're going to look at kyle's gonna hop on, look at the nfl, look at the grand scheme of things, everything like that. So we have a boatload of things to touch into today here on the show. Our number one of two is just getting going here. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. We're going to talk Badgers here on the backside of the air.
Speaker 2:Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment here is brought to you by Badger Tree Care the tree removal, tree trimming, pruning, full cleanup, small lot clearing cleanup, small lot clearing, storm cleanup. They do it all, badger tree care. Their caller text 715-937-3276. They will get anything done for you need some cleanup maybe. Maybe you just got some wind damage, whatever it was. You have a tree in the backyard you just want to get rid of before the winter. Whatever you got going on, call trevor down there at badger tree care. He'll come over. He. They do great work. Check them out on facebook some of the pictures that they have on there. I try to share them out whenever I see them, but they do fantastic work. It's like they weren't even there when they're done, it's like they weren't even there. Check them out Badger Tree Care. There Trevor Barth does fantastic stuff there.
Speaker 2:So we went to the break and we kind of hopped around in that first little intro there. Just, I mean, you know you gotta go. You get a little crazy with it off the top, but we were talking about the badgers and what it was this weekend. It was a just a. It was a terrible performance. Let's just go with that. It was terrible. It was just absolutely terrible. That's just basically how I saw it. I did not see it any other way, I really didn't. I did not see it any other way. You can say oh well, you know, they're on their second string quarterback and their offensive line is banged up and this and that. Okay, fine, fine, you got your doors kicked in by Maryland In camp Randall. That's the thing that people leave out of this. They come up with all these excuses and everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but for me, you just got stopped at Camp Randall by Maryland.
Speaker 2:I look at the rest of the schedule and we're going to talk to Christian here coming up here next on the show. But I look at the rest of the schedule. If you couldn't beat Maryland at home, what other game are you looking at, where you're like yep, that's going to be a good one? Your home games that you have left are Iowa, ohio State, washington and Illinois. Yeah, I mean, it's going down fast right now and I want to be as optimistic as I can be I really do. But what part of that looked good.
Speaker 2:There's good portions, right, I don't want to say because the defensive line for Wisconsin has played well. Mason Rieger has been fantastic. The defensive line's played good. The pass defense not good. Quarterback play. I don't blame Danny O'Neal, I really don't.
Speaker 2:The offensive line how do you not have a backup center that can snap the football? Where's any depth? I thought we had depth. We talked about this in the offseason there I thought there was depth and you lost Kevin Haywood. That should not have completely kiboshed the entire offensive line.
Speaker 2:The running backs you can say, oh well, they're not getting that extra yardage after contact. Okay, they're getting hit at the, they're getting smoked at the line of scrimmage. There ain't much room to run at all. And maybe there's room on the outside, sure, but outside of that there's nothing going on. The wide receivers are good, but there there's nothing crazy in there.
Speaker 2:This team is just spiraling and it just seems like there's no, no fire, no ambition. It starts with the guy at top right. So that's why, when we went to the break I mentioned because there was a quote by barry alvarez. He was on his own, the barry alvarez show, and he's on espn madison maybe and he had a quote he said I think it's embarrassing. This is about the fans chanting fire, fickle and booing the team. He said I think it's embarrassing. I think it's terrible, despicable. They're spoiled rotten. Referring to the fans, here's a team. You have young players trying to come on and competing. They're going to have a chance to get better and you flip on them early in the season and you flip on them and you're chanting for the coach to be fired. How do you think that makes them feel? That's what Barry Alvarez had to say and I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Quote from Barry Alvarez 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Here's my thought. Okay, here's my thought. And, like I said, everybody has their opinion on this one. I want to ask Christian his opinion to be called spoiled rotten as fans first off, and I think I was listening to the camp, I think it was the camp they're listening to, just temple, and he had a great point. He's like calling out the fans. Probably not your best bet as fans, barry, I'm sorry you started this.
Speaker 2:The badgers went through a they. They had years, years of success, years where they built a tradition, a program Offensive lineman, great defense, good run game. It was never enough. It seemed to beat the really good teams, which beat the teams you're supposed to beat, and you were a consistent force. You were relevant in the world of college football. You were a consistent force. You were relevant In the world of college football. You were relevant and now, now you're no longer relevant. You are Wisconsin. Football is irrelevant in the world of college football.
Speaker 2:When was the last time they were ranked? 2023, and that was preseason. This team they haven't sniffed the top 25 in the longest time. Their best wins in the Luke Fickle era one of them, as we looked up I think it was just last week there that we were looking it up and one of the best wins was against Oklahoma State. And that doesn't even count because it was still 2022. So you can't even count that one.
Speaker 2:And I'm not saying that the program there weren't some hits in 2022. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that the program was heading in the right trajectory, if you wanted to talk recruiting and everything else. But what we're seeing right now? A bunch of lackluster performances. And it starts at the top, because you're looking at a team right now where it seems like when they get smacked, when they get punched in the mouth, they don't know what to do, they fold. There is no fight, it's a fold, we're done, we're out. When they get out to a lead, they're fine, and we've only seen a couple. But the Alabama game that just went downhill fast and you know there was a lot more that factored into that. But that team, I mean they had opportunities. It was like they turned them over. They stopped them on fourth down, they got the ball back and then interception and then it was like downhill maryland stomped them in camp randall. That's the worst part. It was at camp randall. So you know what? To tell the fans? That they're spoiled, rotten. You're right. You're right.
Speaker 2:This fan base me included, as a fan of this team, I was raised with the tradition that was Wisconsin football the running backs, the offensive linemen, the great defensive players that came through Madison from Brett Bielema, then he had the year with Anderson, but then you went on to Paul Crist and Jim Leonard running the defense. You had sustained success. You were going to bowl games, you were doing all this and I am completely there was. I saw a couple people talking about this. They were, like you know, going back and forth on social media and they were talking about. Well, you know this team. They were never going to compete the way that NIL is and everything like that. They were never going to compete for national that nil is and everything like that. They were never going to compete for national championships. Honestly, I don't care right, we were promised championships. When luke fickle came in, we were promised all these championships. That's what we were told. Though this is, this is a move to win championships. We'll wait and see on that one.
Speaker 2:But, end of the day, like I, I don't believe that this team, in the way that college football set up I mean, you're watching some of your programs that were powerhouses a couple years ago I mean clemson, look what's falling up. Clemson's falling off. Dabbo said straight up, he's like dabbo saidabo said I'm going to stay with recruiting, I'm not going to try to do this transfer portal stuff. It doesn't work that way anymore and Luke Fickle keeps trying to go into the portal every single year and grab quarterbacks and grab this.
Speaker 2:And you went back to what was a running offense. It was sold as a running offense, getting back to the roots of Wisconsin, but you didn't grab the guys that you needed. And maybe these guys do develop. Maybe this offensive line gets better. Maybe they do, but there's nothing there. That offensive line right now, I get you have some young guys in the offensive line, but when you're watching that, how do you blame Danny O'Neal? How, how do you blame Danny O'Neal? And they're like oh well, if you had a good quarterback in there, sure, if you had a good quarterback, you could maybe drop off some quick two-yard dumps, because that's about all you're going to get off. You have to have one step boom balls out.
Speaker 2:But the way that this offensive line lines blocking and this was against Maryland, maryland's I don't want to take everything away from Maryland, because Maryland's they got some talent. They're not great, though. And if that's what it looked like against Maryland, what's it going to look like at Michigan? What's it going to look like against Iowa? What's it going to look like against Ohio State, oregon, indiana, illinois? You know what Illinois and Iowa did and what frustrates me. They take all the guys that wisconsin used to take the road graders, the running, let's run the football the tough nose guys. That's what they're doing and wisconsin's going out.
Speaker 2:I I don't even know what they're grabbing at this with what luke fickles. I don't even know what he envisions at this point Luke Fickles? I don't even know what he envisions at this point, but for Barry Alvarez to use the quote, they're spoiled, rotten. That irritates me, because I don't think it is that. I think this is a fan base that's frustrated. So do I think? Oh well, we should get upset at the fans for booing and saying fire Fickles, sure, you feel for the players? Yeah, I feel for the players. Sure, but don't you think the players are standing on the sidelines saying to themselves man, we're losing at home 27-10 to Maryland.
Speaker 2:We were 10-point favorites, 10-point favorites going into that game against Maryland, and you laid an egg. You didn't just lay an egg, you got beat. You got beat in about every facet you can think of. It was ugly. So where? Where do you think that this program is trending towards? Because if you're a player, do you feel like it's heading in the right direction?
Speaker 2:The fans have expectations for this team, for this program, and when you continuously see, year after year, under the luke fickle era, the same problems and no advancement, no, getting better, it doesn't seem like it's getting better. Don't you think that's going to affect the fans a little bit too? And it doesn't matter if chris mcintosh says he believes in luke fickle. Or the chancellor says or they get the board of directors or whatever whoever you want to call next, I don't care who you want to call next and get them to say that he's doing a good job. Guess what? The fans, those fans, the ones that Barry's like oh, if I was sitting next to him I'd have told him to get out. Those fans booed and they left. They didn't stay Pretty soon, though, if you don't, this schedule looks even worse. Now those fans that were sitting in those seats booing fickle probably won't be there. What looks worse Fans in the crowd booing fickle, or no fans in the crowd at all?
Speaker 2:I love Wisconsin football. I do Through and through. I will watch every single game. I will be irritated watching every single game, but I'm going to watch every single game and I'm going to cheer for this Wisconsin team. But right now and this is just where I'm at, looking from what we've seen from the Maryland game, the Alabama game before that to Maryland Alabama, I we were kind of frustrated after Alabama just the performance and the way that it not really the score, but more or less the way that team looked like. They were like no fight, no give. And then you watch this performance against Maryland manland man I, I'm looking at this now and it's like where's the wind gonna come from? Is there? Is there another win on the schedule?
Speaker 2:And I mean honestly, at this point, do you trust chris mcintosh to make another hire, to hire the next football coach, if you do end up firing Fickle, which I don't? I'm not firing Fickle yet, because what do you do? What do you do, honestly? So you're kind of at this point right now where you're like, okay, we ride it out with Fickle, because how much worse could it get? Probably worse, maybe, but how much worse could it get? Maybe that's, maybe that's the thought you're having right now. I don't know what they do, because how much worse could it get? Probably worse, maybe, but how much worse could it get? Maybe that's the thought you're having right now. I don't know what they do. I don't think they fire.
Speaker 2:If they're going to fire Fickle, chris McIntosh wouldn't have came out and made the statement that he made, and you have a bye week coming up. So I don't think they're going to fire him, not today, at least Not tomorrow. Maybe, maybe I, maybe I spoke too soon and maybe it happened. I don't know. I don't think they're going to in my opinion. I don't know, if you do at this point, you give him, at this point, you just give him the season to fix it, and if he doesn't fix it then you move on. There you go. There's my, there's my honest opinion. Am I at the camp where I think he's going to be able to fix it? I don't know, I really don't at this point. But I, at this point, I think you have the rest of the season figured out, and if you can't, then well, maybe you look past them. You have to buy out that contract, but maybe you look past them. Then we'll see. We'll kind of see what they have to do, what the badge is going to do there. We have more to get to with the badges here.
Speaker 2:Christian's going to hop on in the next segment here we're going to talk badges with him. I'm going to get his take on what we saw against Maryland, what we're looking for here in the bye week, what we're looking for moving forward there, his thoughts on the Luke Fickle and the Barry Alvarez comment. But let me know what you're thinking Luke Fickle, the Barry Alvarez comment, the Badger, the state of the program, everything like that. I love to hear what you guys think here, uh, about anything badgers, because we have some more badge talk coming up here. After the quick commercial break. We'll be right back here like jumping around after that badger game or what we talked about in the last segment here. Christian's here, so that means we have to play it. We just have to play it. When christian hops on here, welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your hostge. We're coming back on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment here, christian, stop by. We're going to keep this Badger Talk going on.
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Speaker 1:I'm good, I'm good. I'm still kind of recovering from Saturday. That was a very long game to be at.
Speaker 2:You were there.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I was up in the press box watching the whole. Thing. Oh okay, it was hard to watch in person whole thing.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, so it was hard to watch in person. That's. That's actually better. He was there. So let's start there, because I was just talking about in the last segment we're talking. I was talking a little badgers, but by myself. Can you believe that I was talking badgers by myself and I was talking about the barry alvarez. So I'm going to read it again and I want to hear what you guys think out there 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Text us, let us know what you're thinking about this quote here.
Speaker 2:So Barry Alvarez, on the Barry Alvarez Show on ESPN Madison, he comes out and he says about the booing that was happening in Camp Randall, about the booing and the fire fickle chants. He says I think it's embarrassing. I think it's embarrassing. I think it's terrible, despicable. They're spoiled, rotten. He said in in reference to the fans here's a team, you have young players trying to come on and competing. They're going to have a chance to get better and you flip on them early in the season. You flip on them and you're chanting for the coach to be fired. How do you think that makes the players feel? He says it's not loyal. You're not a fan if the person sitting next to me, booze, I say get your butt out of here, we don't need you. Here is basically what he said. Christian, just uh. I mean I didn't really have a great reaction to this because he just called me a spoil, rotten fan who didn't, wasn't loyal, didn't really care. Um, give me your reaction to, I mean, one of wisconsin's legends telling you this yeah, um, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I thought it was kind of uh, I don't know preachy. Maybe that's what I'm looking for, but just like I mean, are you watching the game? Are you seeing the product they're putting on the field? And he's talking about the fans. Like when I was up in the press box, I first and I first heard the fire fickle champs. I had to like do a double take. So I'm like is that really what I'm hearing? Right, and it was all coming from the student section.
Speaker 1:Well, if you think about it, who's all the students in the student section they ever seen? How are they spoiled, you know? I mean, like when, as students, when have they ever seen a good quality product on the field? Maybe some of them are there like near the end of the christ era, which is terrible. And then you hire fickle and it's this big, like you know the great, you know the great hope coming in and trying to fix everything. You know like they're essentially promising things about promising like everything's so hyped, right, so you get your hopes up and then you have the last two and a fourth year of what you've had. Like it's just Maryland comes in to camp Randall as 10 point underdogs and beats you by 17. Like what are the? What are they supposed to do? Cheer for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that was that's what I said. My biggest problem was and that's where I think, a lot of these, a lot of these hosts and every show that I've listened to, they leave out the fact that it was in camp randall. You got owned by maryland, who has a. They're not good, they're decent, they have good players on that team, but you got manhandled in all facets of the game once again. This time it wasn't even by iowa or minnesota, it was by maryland, a team that you were favored against.
Speaker 2:Again, like you said, what do you want? What do you want from the fans who expect tradition, pride, you know, going out there, physicality, being tough, that's what they were all, what we were given by you, barry, by Barry, by Bielema, by we get rid of the Anderson era but by Paul Christ. It was the toughness, it was the attitude, it was the getting after teams. It was, yeah, you're going to lose to Ohio State, but you're going to beat the teams you're supposed to and you're going to be physical in all those games. It's going to look like you, like you're not giving up, but you and I have said it a million times this team gets punched in the mouth and they fold. They're done. There's nothing there. There's no fight, there's nothing.
Speaker 2:So I guess, christian I mean I was talking about Luke Fickle and there's we just talked about it the fire fickle chants are going crazy right now and it's all across social media and everything like that. It's even worse than the fire guard chance. It's like that would start up every year. Now the fans want him gone. Chris mcintosh, the chancellor of you know uw I don't know who else is going to give him the boat of confidence here, but the fans the dreaded vote of confidence well, it's like who else we have the chancellor giving a boat of confidence.
Speaker 2:Who else is the governor going to come out and give him a boat of confidence at this point here? Like, what else are we gonna get for luke fickle? But the fans are calling for him to be gone. I said in the last segment, I said at this point there's no reason. I mean, you could fire him after the season, sure, but give him a chance, let him see if he can fix this. You already owe him all this money. What's it gonna do to fire him at this point? Looking at the rest of the schedule, I mean let him see if he can fix it by working it out. What are your thoughts on the luke fickle situation? Are you moving like they have a bye week? This is like if you're gonna fire a guy, it's now, it's not it's not like wait until the michigan game.
Speaker 2:It's now. You have a bye week. You have two weeks to you know, get over it. What are your thoughts on the luke fickle situation? What's going?
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know why you'd fire him now. I mean, the season's already going to be a complete I don't want to say waste, but it's over right.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:Maryland was supposed to be one of the winnable games and they lost by 17 at home. Now we're looking at Michigan, iowa, ohio State, oregon right, and then Indiana hand up. I thought they were frauds for the last year and a half, but they just absolutely took Illinois to the woodshed. They're legit Washington. I mean they might be okay, but I can't, I'm not going to sit and say that they're better than Maryland, right, or they're worse than Maryland, like I don't know. Maybe it was a Joe Klatt. It's hard to find three wins on this. We might go completely defeated in Big Ten play.
Speaker 2:We thought that he was nuts.
Speaker 1:Yep, everyone laughed at him Like dude, you don't know what you're talking about. Now he looks pretty smart, right. So I mean, I don't know. I agree with you. Maybe Fickle can pull something out of his butt and just like, maybe he'll work him. Here's the problem. Do you really want him to keep coaching? What if he accidentally beats Ohio State or Oregon or something like that, and then that's just enough to keep, like McIntosh? Well, he didn't just beat one of the top teams in the country, even though he lost to every other game. It's there, we just got to get there, right?
Speaker 2:It's the double-edged sword now of it's like the brewers, right, I say, every year the brewers keep winning games with these weird rosters where they don't spend money, and that just helps Mark and Anasio not have to spend money because they just keep winning games somehow, so he doesn't have to. If Luke fickle finds a way to win one of these games which I don't think he will, to be honest with you I don't think he's gonna find a way.
Speaker 2:I think the players are gonna show up and they're just gonna find a way to win a football game. That's what's gonna happen there. It is a fear. Yes, it is exactly a fear. I just, I just think you let him finish it out. I don't think he, like you, just said where's the next win on this schedule? I mean, I I'll say point blank I called, like an ohio state, like trap game, that they were going to pull that one off. I I feel crazy now.
Speaker 1:I'm just far I think joel klatt, spot on I mean I said, here I was, I was overly confident they'd beat iowa and minnesota. And I'm looking at this, I'm like I got her.
Speaker 2:I got her record predictions written over here on the way I know. I think I got seven and six six and six. I'm like that was extremely optimistic, but I man for me to find seven wins on this schedule now, oh boy.
Speaker 1:Well, maryland was supposed to be one of them, right?
Speaker 2:I'm looking through this and I'm like man, maybe Iowa, maybe Washington, maybe Minnesota there's three. I still have to pick up two wins there. Where are they going to come from? I don't know, and you know what there. Where are they going to come from? I don't know. Like, uh, and you know what, you brought up a great one. I, I've said it and I've heard it and I tried to vouch for it and I tried to understand it. They told me luke fickle needed to get his guys. He needed to. You know he needed this many years. He.
Speaker 2:You know it's hard to turn around a program that's sinking right. Kurt singetti, I mean as much as we want to, like you said, I wanted to believe. Believe it was just some crazy little lightning in a bottle thing and everything like that. It's just he turned that program around. They're relevant. They went from irrelevant to relevant within two years, within a year. Basically, wisconsin went from one of the most relevant football programs around to irrelevant in five years. Yeah, and you wouldn't even say in five, you'd say probably you'd give them a grace period of a year. There's a four, let's go for right. Five to six. Whatever you want to say, they went from one of the most relevant programs for 20 plus years to irrelevant, like it was nothing. Yeah, but it makes us question that. You know cause we sat here and we're like yeah, but it makes us question that you know cause we sat here and we're like Luke fickle, he could, he could turn this around in a year. And they're like no, he can't. No, he can't Right, they didn't have the recruits, he didn't have this, he didn't have that. I don't. I mean, it was the Indiana or was the Indiana situation just that much more like enticing the players that they wanted to head off there? I don't.
Speaker 2:Kurt Zangetti brought a lot of guys with him, yeah, but it all comes back to and this is this is where Luke Fickle's greatest failure will be and why he will lose his job. He tried to turn Wisconsin football into something it wasn't. He brought in Phil Longo. He said let's just say to heck with tradition, to heck with whatever was going right here in Madison. Let's bring in Phil Longo, let's blow it up, let's call it the dairy raid, let's sell it as the dairy raid. This is going to be fun. Watch this, guys. That is his biggest failure, I mean. Am I wrong? That is his biggest failure. I mean, am I wrong? That is his biggest failure. That is why Luke Fickler, when you're here in Madison, is going south faster than it went north, was because he tried to change the entire program and with the players that were still there, they weren't even meant to run that. They weren't even meant to run that kind of system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I don't know. On one hand I agree, I absolutely agree, but then there's just that little thought in the back of my head. It's like, well, paul chris was still doing everything they've been doing, but not doing it. Well, you know, or maybe things are just getting a little stale. So maybe he's like maybe we do need to change, like we need to catch up with the times, we need to be able to have points on the board. We can't win games 17 to 14 or 13 to 10, you know, nonstop. So maybe I mean, I get it, you're trying to come in, you're trying to be you know cause. What if it did work out? What if, I mean, they did put up 30, some points a game and then they still had a solid defense? Then we'd, you know, we'd all be like man, this dude's a genius, right, completely revamped the program.
Speaker 1:But I think obviously longo was not the right guy. I think he looked better than he really was. He was kind of coasted on, like the players he had, like old miss, he had dk metcalf and aj brown, right, um. But and I mean he had drake may in north carolina and sam howells. I mean, when you got players that can actually do stuff like that. Then you're trying to bring in tanner mordecai and tyler van dy and you know it's just I don't know, it's just not going to work, but I don't know, I just so.
Speaker 1:I think the biggest thing with him is I think he is a program builder. Like he's brought in good recruits. He is like actually like they haven't recruited this well in a long time. I mean I guess Chris had that one really good year where we had Mertz and Logan Brown come into like four or five star guys, you know. But like outside of that, like we've always been like maybe in the top 50 in recruiting, but with fickle we've been in the top 25 a couple of times now already. Right, but I think the thing with him is he's just not a good coach. He's like our development, which is that maybe it's kind of hard to develop players nowadays because kids just want to transfer after a while.
Speaker 1:But I feel like that's what Chris always had was he could coach guys and always had. I mean, yeah, we didn't recruit particularly well, or at least by rankings-wise, but he could actually they could develop players. And then all of a sudden there was just an offensive line factory or linebacker factory, running back factory, you know, just because they, the guys who didn't play, like developed and then when it was their turn, they were really dang good. So I think that's kind of the difference between the two coaching staffs. I think fickles, you know, he knows how to sell the program, but once they're here it's like what do they do? Like it's you know. But I mean a part of that is part of that's Longo too, right.
Speaker 1:But I just think none of them, none of the players he even he brought in, really developed or did anything, and that's why you got that mass exodus of defensive backs over the offseason. Where do they end up? I mean other than Xavier Lucas, but like otherwise, yeah, like two guys that are playing for Toledo, that are playing for Toledo. Now One guy is playing I don't even know where Jace Arnold is anymore but one of them went to Sam Houston State. None of them are going to power four schools. So it's not like they were necessarily good players. At least they haven't shown anything.
Speaker 2:It's the development. It is the development of this program and building it from inside out. And that's where the constant turnover of quarterbacks, where flipping quarterbacks are. How do you build a program and flipping quarterbacks every year? How do you build a program and flipping offensive linemen every single year? You get no cohesive unit. This line is terrible. You want to talk about recruiting? That was terrible, recruiting by him. I get there's freshmen on there, but you don't have a guy who can snap the football right now.
Speaker 2:I mean, mean, honestly, your second string guy can't even snap a football. And then I hear on the radio they're like, oh well, you know, he's got to worry about going left first. It's like he's got to worry about snapping the ball first and then worry about going left. I don't care what's going on over there. If he can't snap the football, danny o'neill, the play is already it's, it's hosed before it starts. So there's just so much wrong right now. And I completely agree. It comes down to he doesn't? He's not a, he's a great recruiter, he's a great seller, he's a GM. Yep, that's maybe, maybe. Maybe they can bring it.
Speaker 1:Obviously I'm not down on the sidelines ever, but like I just caught myself. Maybe it's because it was a blowout and I was already kind of like, wow, this sucks, you know. Yep, I kind of caught myself just like watching every time there's a huddle, the coaches are in there, like talking to the players and stuff and fickles, just kind of stand in a couple, two or three steps back, just kind of watching every like almost in every single huddle offense, defense, special teams and I'm thinking, okay, so he just like doesn't want to overstep. I know it's not fair at all and I just maybe I'm just, you know, old man yelling at a cloud because I immediately thought of, like what is the office space?
Speaker 1:I just kind of thought what is it exactly? Do you do here? You know that kind of thing Like when, when they're on the field, like they don't make adjustments, they don't really. It just doesn't feel like it. I, he's just kind of there it's almost like.
Speaker 2:It's almost like and I know my uncle and I've talked about this many times it's like he's got all these scapegoats right. He had phil longo, he's got trestle, now he's got grimes. How many more offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, are we gonna fire before we go? Ah, maybe there's a constant problem.
Speaker 2:You know, this constant turnover. And that's where I was. You know, I was just thinking maybe you bring in, like, uh, an assistant head, right, somebody who comes in, who you know he can't. You wish Paul Chris would come back because, like you said, and that's the thing with Paul Chris, was he a great seller of the program? Was he a great recruiter? Maybe not as much, but was he a great coach? Was he a good coach?
Speaker 2:Yeah, when they beat Ohio State number one Ohio State guess who was the offensive coordinator for the Wisconsin Badgers one ohio state. Guess who was the offensive coordinator for the wisconsin badgers? Paul chris. He was calling a heck of an offense that night there. This guy knows how to coach it, just he didn't know how to bring the talent in there. If you would have brought in a luke fickle oh, and you know, you would have said ah, do you want to be our, our higher up guy? Do you want to be a high up guy in the system here? Maybe not down on the sideline, maybe you're up in the booth, you're just overseeing everything, as you're saying he is. Maybe that's the move I mean that's just crazy talk.
Speaker 2:That's just crazy talk. I don't know how it worked right. He probably quit because he's like I'm too good of a coach to do that.
Speaker 1:It's like no dude, where are you gonna go?
Speaker 2:where? Where is he honestly gonna go? If the badgers like if, if mcintosh says like yeah, we think you would be better off as the gm of this team, and it's like maybe, maybe so I don't know expensive gm that's an expensive gm, but what do you?
Speaker 2:I mean, you got to buy them out regardless. Yeah, exactly, let's do something with them at this point and if he can get you the recruits and the guys in the room, you just need somebody to come in there and coach them up. Maybe you have jeff grimes step into that role. I don't know how jeff grimes is we we've only got a small sample size of him so far, but maybe he's a guy where you could have him, do I? I don't know, it's just. I'm just throwing things at the wall right now and hoping something sticks at this point.
Speaker 2:But you're kind of stuck and macintosh dug it and now he's got a leg in it right, and that's kind of what we're seeing right now. That's why he had the, the boat of confidence. It's like no, you don't see the upside in this man. You're just like this is my boy, I hired him you have to think like McIntosh.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm going to ask you this because McIntosh has made I could be wrong, but he's made really one coaching hire since he's been in Madison and it was Luke Fickle. I, like guard was there.
Speaker 1:The women's basketball coach.
Speaker 2:Okay, Can we really Robin Pinchton, which actually I heard?
Speaker 1:I actually heard. No, just this just to pile onto Macintosh. I actually read something from drew ham. He used to write for a Bucky's fifth quarter, but now he writes a sub stack for a, basically about women's basketball, cause he follows that really closely, basketball. Because he follows that really closely, he like put in a bunch of like records, requests and stuff and it kind of found out that robin pinchton was the only candidate that he interviewed for the women's basketball coach. So it's just, it's like, are you serious? Like I mean, I think they also reached out to a lot of people and a lot of people said thanks, but no thanks, because that program's just down badly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but she was the only one that they actually interviewed it's like he just doesn't care, like he just picks and chooses and doesn't care, like at the end of the day right, and I saw us there's a whole bunch of articles out there about the amount of money that they're actually putting into the football program now and they're like getting down towards the bottom of the big 10. So you want to see why there isn't a lot of nil money floating around they're not putting it into it.
Speaker 2:And that's where we thought kind of all the money was going. So now, where's it going? Is it going to guard, cause the talent that? Hopefully guards been bringing in a lot of good talent just give it, give it all the basketball now, just give it to guard, see what he can do with it with all the money there.
Speaker 2:So I mean, it is. It's going to a question, I guess. So grand scheme of things. One last thing before I have to let you go do you trust chris mcintosh to make another hire? Because I don't know? There you go, plain and simple I, I don't, I, I don't. I. I said in a facebook post right after that game. I said luke fickle for me is not the guy and I don't trust chris mcintosh to make another guy make another hire. So I don't know what they do, but it's you gotta get, he's gotta go along with him. And if the chancellor's giving the boat of confidence to mcintosh, to give the boat of confidence back to luke fickle, this is a whole messed up thing going on right now and I don't think it's gonna get better anytime soon, and that is the problem that we're facing right now. So, christian, let the people know where to find you out there across social media, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, find me Christian Borman at Twitter or X, whatever you call it nowadays, whatever it is right, and then at Badger Backer. You can follow my stuff there.
Speaker 2:You got to check him out. He's got great stuff. What are we working on coming up here?
Speaker 1:I don't know, it's busy man. At this point it's so hard because I'm busy with school, busy with kids, but then also the motivation's not really there either. It's hard, like it's hard to write about a team that loses by 17 to maryland you know, I kind of thought about just talking men's basketball today.
Speaker 2:I was really. It was on my mind. I was like maybe I could just throw some men's basketball questions at christian and just just completely avoid football. But I was like, ah, we gotta talk some luke feckle. So, christian, thank you, as always, for stopping by here tonight on the show. We'll be back here after a quick commercial break. We're gonna wrap up the hour. We're gonna hop into hour number two of the show here. Of the show here, we'll be back here to wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage. As we come back here and we wrap up our no, our number one of the show here tonight.
Speaker 2:I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday, and this next segment is brought to you by Marshfield Motor Speedway, the half mile paved track just three miles west of Marshfield and County Road H. Find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom. That is marshfieldspeedwaycom there. So we went to the break. We were talking about the Badgers. Christian stopped by, we were talking Badgers there and if you missed any portion of the show so far tonight, make sure you're checking it out next day across all podcast platforms iTunes, spotify, apple Podcasts, spotify anywhere where you get podcasts you can find the show out there and check us out across social media. Just find us WisconsinSportsOnTheGoTrade. You can find us across all social media platforms. So we always do the Marshfield Motor Speedway the fan zone. So we got the fan zone coming up here.
Speaker 2:A couple of questions that we had across messages. So if you want to get a hold of the show, make sure you're doing it. 715-990-4914. We can answer your questions here. But this first question comes in from Cameron there and he said would we be in a better spot if we hired Leonard instead of Luke Fickle? If we hired Leonard instead of Luke Fickle? Head coach terms, yes. Recruiting-wise, no. I don't believe that Jim Leonard would have been a better recruiter than what Luke Fickle was or what he is. I think Luke Fickle is a good recruiter. Luke Fickle is not a good head coach, and Christian and I were just talking about that in the last segment there. He's not a good head coach, he's a good recruiter, he's a good GM, he's a good runner of the organization, just not a good head coach. So would Jim Leonard be a better head coach? Yes, would he be a better recruiter? Would he have this program in a better spot? That's a whole, nother question, because I don't believe he was going to recruit as well as Luke fickle did. So I guess that would be my take on that one there. Um, also, he had another one. Would fickle I've taken the Wisconsin job If he knew NIL would be there, it be where it is today. He did pass on the notre dame job the year before he took the wisconsin job, if he remembers correctly I I don't remember if that was maybe he was in the talks for the the notre dame job, but it was always freeman, I don't know. You know, nil changed a lot and it changed a lot of perspective. I think luke fickle is set up for it just because I think he's goodle is set up for it, just because I think he's good at working he's he's good at being a general manager. He's not good at being the coach, so I think he's good with the nil. I just think the problem is is the ability to coach is his biggest problem? So that's where I'm kind of at with that one there.
Speaker 2:I believe there was one more question that I wanted to touch, and I thought it was along the same lines as the as the Luke fickle one I was. So how much more heartache can we take as badger fans? We have. This. One comes in from man. It was how much more heartache can we take as badger fans? We have the talent and yet we can't seem to even compete with teams that seem beatable.
Speaker 2:Is this issue deeper, and does it start with firing our AD or and only our head coach? So, is it both? Is it one or the other? Basically, what was the question there? I would say we can't take much more as fans. It's you know Barry Alvarez said we should be able to, right, but it's getting very hard to watch and we kind of talked about in the last segment there. But we think it goes deeper than just a head coach. It goes deeper into the do you trust the ad to have another hire. So that's kind of where we're at with that right now. So we're gonna be back here. Hour number two is coming at you after the quick commercial break here. We got some packer talk to get to umber's. Gonna stop by. We by. We're going to talk Packers here on the backside of the ad break. Hour number two is just getting going here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trades. We'll be right back here after this quick commercial break.