October 1: Hour 1 Brewers and Badgers

Chapters

• 0:00 Weekend Chaos & DIY Fails
• 2:35 NFL Overtime Rant & Tie Fallout
• 5:20 Brewers Clinch No. 1 Seed
• 9:20 Should MLB Reseed The Playoffs
• 13:20 National vs Local MLB Broadcasts
• 18:05 Which Title Matters Most
• 20:40 Sponsor Shout & Fact Of The Day
• 23:05 Brewers Form, Identity & Reset
• 30:10 Postseason Path & Ball-In-Play Philosophy
• 35:00 Guest Christian Joins: Badgers Updates
• 39:45 Badger Hoops: Penny Out, Davison In
• 44:10 Badger Football: Injuries & QB Dilemma
• 49:00 Brutal Stretch: Michigan To Oregon
• 53:40 What Progress Looks Like Now

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. Your place for all things Wisconsin Sports. Now, your host, Trage.

SPEAKER_02: 0:18

How are we doing, everybody? And welcoming to Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here for the October 1st edition of the show here. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday so far. I hope you guys enjoyed your weekend since we last talked last Wednesday there. My weekend, I'm gonna call it adventurous and problematic. Let's go with that. Those are the best words I can think of. It was a so, as you guys know, if you guys have listened long enough, you guys know I'm an electrician. And the wife this weekend, she's like, Oh, well, I the sink, the faucet in the bathroom, the sink faucet, it did a 360 number. It would still work, like you could still get it to flip hot to cold, but it would turn a 360. And she's like, Well, I really like a new faucet in there. I was like, I can do that, right? Uh you guys know I got it, you know, work on a dairy farm, my family's dairy farm there. So, I mean, I've done countless things with cow waters, all kinds of stuff in the mail cows. I was like, Yeah, yeah, I can, I can do this. I can I can do this. Oh man, that was bad. That got bad fast. Oh man, they got the old copper piping in there. It was disastrous with a capital D. I mean, you know, there was water flying, this little like sink that we have in there. It's like getting underneath of it was impossible for me because I'm not that small of a person, so getting underneath there was impossible. It was rough, it was really rough, and I finally got it. I got it, knock on wood. It's good, it's good to go. So I that was adventurous. We had family pictures the next day. That was great. Uh, as you guys know, I like to can. I like to can stuff, canned food there. So I was making apple butter over the weekend. So that it ended up great. I didn't realize it takes so long to cook it, though. So that's like a seven-hour adventure. Started at 8:30 on uh Saturday, kind of gave up at you know 12:30 at night on Saturday, and then on Sunday ended up having to finish cooking it. Uh put it in the fridge, of course, then finish cooking it there. But it ended up great. When it was all said and done, it was great stuff. It was absolutely great stuff there. So it was a good weekend all the way around, just problematic, adventurous, I'd like to call it. Family pictures were great, like I said. But I mean, outside of that, sports-wise, let's look into sports wise. The Brewers. Well, let's start. The Packers, right? The Packers end up in a tie with Dallas. We're gonna get to that. There was a lot of things we disliked about that one. I I don't like the overtime rule you can tie. I don't like that. I I don't understand why, right? You look at college football and they allow the overtime roles. You start with the ball on the 25-yard line, you go in, you try to score. If you score, you kick field goal, the other team has an opportunity to. After that, you got to go for two on both ends. You have to score and then go for two on both ends there. And then if both teams succeed at that, then you end up going to uh straight two-point conversions, and then whoever doesn't get it, last, you know, whatever it ends up being, you know, the loss there. But I like that. I like having a game have a conclusion. It's like watching a movie, right? I got this one show, I can't remember the name of it. Um, the guy from 24 is in it. I think it was called like Rabbit Hole, it was called, or something like that, was the name of the movie. Yes, it was. It was Rabbit Hole. That's the name of the show. Is Rabbit Hole had one season? Fantastic show. Loved it, loved every second of it. It was on Paramount Plus, loved every second of it, and it ended the last episode, ended on this cliffhanger, and I was like, I can't wait for season two, and I never got it, it never came out. I don't know why, they just didn't renew it for uh season two, which absolutely stinks. Absolutely stinks. I thought it was great, I thought it was great, but it's like that not having a conclusion to an episode of your fit one of your favorite shows, or not having a conclusion to a movie, and you want to say, Oh, I can wait until the next season, but you're not gonna get it, right? Because end of the year, I mean, it doesn't really matter now. You're not gonna get that chance unless you meet them in the playoffs, but you're not gonna get the chance to continue that game to see how it would have ended. So the overtime rules, I don't understand why there isn't some kind of way to I don't know, like college does go for two-point conversions. Maybe you can do that. I said, crazy thinking of myself, I was like, well, why don't why don't we just do kickoffs? Let's just have kickers just go out there, set the ball in the 55-yard line, try to hit it. If you hit it, move them back five. If they both miss, move them in five. Then if they both hit, move them back, and just slowly keep working the kickers and just see who wins it there. I mean, get the kickers involved. I'd be okay with that. I'd be okay with that. Just something weird. I don't know. But what do you guys think? Let me know. Anytime, any portion of the show tonight you want to comment in, make sure you're doing it. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. What do you guys think of the overtime rules in the NFL? Because I feel like there's a better way to go about it than ending it in a tie. Because I just, ah, that just drives me nuts. Drives me absolutely nuts ending it in a tie. But so the Packers ended a tie. The Brewers, they dropped three straight series. The Brewers are kind of, and we're gonna talk about it later. You know, fans are saying limping into the postseason, everything like that. So we're gonna get into the Brewers a little bit later on in the show here. But the Brewers clinch the number one seed in all of baseball for the first time in franchise history. They have home field advantage through the entire postseason. That was awesome, absolutely awesome to see. I mean, the Brewers are setting there's stats, and that's this Brewers team all season long. Stats that you didn't even know were a thing. They just kept busting them all season long, setting these new ones, you know, creating whatever. It was just that kind of year for the Milwaukee Brewers, and again, they set another another franchise, not a record, but a franchise. They're the first team in franchise history, or first Brewers team, to clinch home field advantage throughout the entire postseason. So that was awesome to see there. The br in MLB talk, I saw this little factor. Three straight years of rising attendance for the MLB. That was pretty cool to see there. The MLB playoff bracket, and this is a question that I had. So this was a question I was given. The MLB playoff bracket was released, and the Brewers right now, as the number one seed in baseball, or number one seed in the NNL, would have to right now they play the win. Well, they do play the winner of the Padres and the Cubs. And I was asked this. Somebody said, Well, why don't they do it where they reseed it after round one? We've talked about this in a lot of different playoffs, whether it was college football or anything like that. Why don't they re not reseed it, but I see it's spoke wrong in there. Why don't they allow, like Cook say if the Reds are playing the Dodgers right now? If the Reds were to somehow beat the Dodgers, the number six seed, why isn't that the number six seed doesn't play the one seed and then the two seed would get the winner of the four and the five? The lowest seed plays the Brewers, basically. The lowest seed plays the highest seed that's left or that is in there, which is the number one seed. Why don't they do something like that? And I was like, yeah, you know, that makes sense. Why why would you have the Brewers if the Reds were to win, they would play the Phillies, and the Brewers would have to play the one of the either the best wildcard team or the second best wildcard team as the number one seed. It doesn't make sense. I would be okay with the if the MLB said, let's just change this thing up after game or after the first series, after wildcard series are done. If there's six seeds left, they play the ones no matter what. If you have a two, if you have the four and the five, you know, who the loser of that goes at five seed wins, they go and play the brewers, or you know, they end up playing the two seed. That's kind of the way that I would shake it. So I I think that's a a smart way to do it. I mean, right now, who are you rooting for? Padres or Cubs? That was a question. It's like you want to see the Brewers play the Cubs, but you also don't. I'm kind of like, I don't want to see the Cubs. I really don't because I don't want that. I don't know if you I don't know if you call pressure. I just don't I don't want to see the Cubs. I really don't. I'd be okay with Padres getting through there. Who did the Brewers match up better with? I guess would be the question. I'd probably say the Cubs. I would probably say they match up better with the Cubs. If Horton's still out, the pitching staff for the Cubs gets real thin. So maybe you can beat that up. We saw Craig Counsel go to Palencion in like the fifth inning against the um blanking against Padres in game one there. So I mean you can see Craig make some crazy moves there. The pitching staff gets thin. There's a lot of different things that I mean you like about a matchup with the Cubs, but you dislike about a matchup with the Cubs there. So it's just it's is one of those questions that I had was you know, should they change up that playoff bracket? So that way this number, the lower seed ends up playing the higher seed in those games. And I I can see, I can see where fans kind of have that uh have that thought there. Should they, and this was another question I had. So I guess I'm just rolling off questions that fans had over the weekend there that I saw. Should MOB have local broadcasts for playoff games? It's always been the uh the age-old thing, right? Everybody says it every year. They're like, I wish that you know Brian Anderson or Bill Schroeder could call this playoff game, stuff like that. And I agree, I agree. At the end of the day, it's all a money game, right? The MOB, they want to own the rights, they want to put you on their big stations and allow everybody out there to be able to watch it, which is okay, but I would be okay with why can't FanDuel host it? Why can't FanDuel have a broadcast there? Why I I have never understood why not? Why not? Because then MOB would lose money. TBS, whoever it is, if they're holding a game on TBS or Fox or ESPN, they would lose money. That's why. Because fans, if you're a Brewer fan, you're going to watch on FanDuel. Now, maybe you could do it where you could have it say the game is supposed to be, because I remember uh the Badgers when they went to the Final Four, they had a team cast. And I think it if I'm not mistaken, it was Wayne Laravie who was calling the game. But they they had this team cast where you'd be able to, if you're a Kentucky fan, you could watch on like TNT. If you're a Badger fan, you watched on TBS, and then if you didn't care which one you watched on, it was on like true TV or whatever. I don't know the I don't remember quite remember the combo there. But you get what I mean. You'd have the ability to watch your broadcasters or your Wisconsin guys on that network. Maybe that's something that MLB could look into is having you know ESPN, ESPN 2, where they had the brewer's announcers on one and the you know, because they're not, but the problem is that they're not employed by uh ESPN. So then ESPN wouldn't want to have them, they'd want to have their guys. So I guess I just talked myself out of my own outcome to this. I agree it is it is kind of uh irritating, but I don't know what you do. It's a money game at the end of the day. That's that's why local broadcasts don't have it. They're probably lucky that they still allow the radio teams to have it. So hopefully, maybe someday we see a way that they get local broadcasters to be able to broadcast games because that's what the fans want. End of the day, that's what the fans want. And I mean, not being able to see, I know some people don't like Bill Schroeder, but not being able to have Bill Schroeder, Brian Anderson call you a game. They call 162 of them, and then you can't call the postseason. I can see the the problem, the uh indiscretion with that. So I can see that one there. So I can definitely see that one. I would love to see it. It's just a problem of money comes into it, and then having their guys on the call and everything like that. So, and you know, my biggest my biggest irritation with that, these ESPN guys don't know Brewer players. They learn them for the first time when they show up. That's my biggest problem. They know Otani, they know Judge, they know Freeman, they know these guys, they don't know Sal Frelick, they just make crap up when he shows up. They're like, Oh, I gotta flip through my papers real fast and figure out Sal Frelik. That's what irritates me the most is when it gets on these national broadcasts. If they actually took the time and understood these small market teams and actually cared about the game, I'd be fine with them. It's just they don't care. They like, oh well, yeah, they yeah, don't care. Don't care about this team. It's a it's the Brewers, whatever. But you know, they're like, oh, Sal Frelick, uh, let's see how me he did this just year and he did this, and it's like, whatever, dude. Like, get out of here. Yeah, that's my problem with the ESPN broadcast. That's why I want local broadcasts. I don't know why everybody else wants them because they just want to have that that home feeling. But for me, it's because these MOB guys, these uh ESPN guys, they don't care. And I don't feel like they care when I listen to them. They care about big markets, they care about big teams, they care about big players, they don't care about the rest. So that's that's kind of where I'm at with that one, I guess, to end that little portion there. And then I had one more question that was asked to me over the weekend. I we're just rolling off the questions that were asked to me over the weekend here to start out the show. Would you rather see Brewers World Series, a Packers Super Bowl? And I added these two to it. This was so is a Brewers World Series, a Packers Super Bowl. That one was asked to me. It was sent to me. Um, somebody ESPN, I believe, Madison posted it and it was sent to me. So I was just like, I I answered it to the person that sent it to me, and then I posted it to the Facebook page. But I added these two Badgers football or a basketball, men's basketball national title. Which would you rather see? It would be super nice to see the Badger Football win a win a national championship, but I I just want to see them win a game. So I'm kind of at that point with that. I would say honestly, for me, it would be between a national championship for men's basketball and a brewers world series. And I'd probably say Brewers World Series, that'd be mine. I would go Brewers World Series, but my next my next would be men's basketball. Just because I feel like they've all they've been good, they've been on the cusp and they're doing good things and trending in the right direction, but they just haven't been able to get over that hump in the postseason. And the brewers, same thing. So I would say brewers to answer that question. I want to hear what you guys think. Would you rather see a Brewers World Series, Packers Super Bowl, or Badger football or men's basketball title? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that question there. But we have tons to get into tonight here. When we come back from the break, Christian's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk badgers. We got brewers to get to, we got packers, we got all kinds of stuff. Make sure you're sticking around. Our number one of two of Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage is just getting going. We'll be back to 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 a fantastic new sponsor of the show here, and that is 1891 Winery. They celebrate history with flavor. Sip on artisan wines crafted on location, or grab a cold beer and pair it with a giant pretzel or pizza. Catch football or baseball on the big TVs, or join us for live music and special events, planning something private. They book parties too. That's all you need to know. 1891 Winery, they are fantastic. The folks down there, the owners, they are great. They are great people. Great wine, great food, great atmosphere. Nothing better. Get down to 1891 Winery here soon. They are open Fridays 4 to 7, Saturdays 11 to 6, and Sundays 11 to 5. Follow on Facebook for upcoming events down there at 1891 Winery there. So today we have our fact of the day coming up for October 1st. And let's see what we got here. Our October 1st fact of the day. Yosemite Park was established by the Congress in the United States in 1890 today. There you go. There you go. And also the for the in 1908, the Ford Model T, the car that revolutionized transportation, began to be sold to the public for$825. Now I can't even look at a new one off the line without saying, yep, that ain't gonna happen. So yeah, that's kind of where we're at right now. That's kind of where we're at right now. So we got Yosemite National Park being established here on October 1st, 1890, and then the Model T car. Ford Model T car,$825. That is wild. That's crazy to think. That's crazy to think. In 1908, a car, the newest one off the line,$825. And where we are now, I got you get heated seats, but I can I can maybe afford the heated seats in the car. I don't know if I can afford the car, but I can afford the heated seats. So anybody wants to go like three-quarter to a quarter on a car with me, I can afford the seats. There you go. There you go. There. So we gotta talk some brewers here. We were talking, we were talking the madness off the weekend in that first part of the show. And if you missed any part of the show so far, and you can listen back next day across all podcast platforms. And if you're getting out of the car, whatever, you want to keep can keep listening to the show, just search up 923 WOSQ. Go in your Safari or whatever you got there, Google Chrome. You can search it up there, top right corner, hit the play button. You can listen live anywhere you go to 923 WOSQ. But if you want to chime in, 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear you guys' thoughts on anything happening, Wisconsin Sports, National Sports, whatever you got for me tonight here. I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything happening around the sporting world. So let's talk some brewers here. Brewers, fans are starting to, I don't want to say they're starting to, they they're concerned. They are mightily concerned over this Brewers team. They it hasn't been pretty over the last you would I I don't want to say month, but month. It hasn't been super pretty. And fans are concerned. Are the the biggest storyline, I guess, that I saw, and I mean you look back at what we saw Cardinals series, Padres series, and then the Red Series. They had three wins mixed into there, three out of three, three, three and six in their nine games there, and then they swept the Angels before that. Fans are on this, like, oh well, are we seeing it again? Are we seeing the Brewers once again go into the postseason cold? You know, you want to sit here and you you want to be overly concerned, and I I keep I get it. I I really do. You don't think everybody's sitting there right now saying to themselves, oh boy, oh boy, like this team's not hot going to the postseason. You're watching a lot of these other teams right now, there's they're feeling it going in, and it just looks like the brewers are on the opposite end of the stick right now. And so so here's my thought. Here's my thought on it. The Brewers won 97 games. Now, and this is a a quote or uh a post that I saw, and I think it's the the worst thing I've ever seen. Number one seed by default. Because they the Phillies lost, the Brewers got in. Like, well, they think they were in anyways, but they ended up getting the one seed off the Phillies losing. And it was like, oh, okay, you know, I can I can see what you're saying, right? And I said the same thing. The Brewers, they got into the postseason. They technically, when they won the central, they lost. Uh, they got into the got the one seed they lost. I can understand where fans are a little bit, uh, well, you didn't really do anything to get it. You just lost the game and you had some help. Understandable. The Brewers won 97 games. That's not by default. They played extremely well for uh three months, and then you got the oh, well, you know, they got hot at the wrong time, this and that, and it's like, yeah, okay. The thing with the Brewers, and this is what I don't think a lot of other teams do, is when they're hot, they're hot. I mean, they other teams when they get hot, they're hitting the long ball. They but other teams rely on the long ball. The brewers rely on, and this is what they've kind of gotten away from. And when you look at the the statistics of it, you look at the stats, you look deep down, the Brewers when in a lot of their losses, a lot of their like losing streaks or when they're losing games, they're hitting the ball hard. They're actually hitting it harder in those games than they did in that 29-4 stretch that they had. So you almost say, well, they gotta hit the ball softer, right? A lot of teams, we saw it against the Padres, we saw it against the Reds. Teams just putting the ball in play against the Brewers, broken bat singles, whatever it was, a bloop, getting it out there. That's what the Brewers, that's where they live. Putting pressure on pitchers, and that's something that I think they got away from. I don't know if it was I you don't you you want to know that they aren't changing their approach, what got them to this point. You know, Sal just being a guy that just digs deep in account and will reach back there and get a catcher's interference, or a guy like Tarang just slapping it to the left, a guy like Yelic being a driving force in there, uh, Contreras being, you know, that guy, you know, just the things that got him this point, Andrew Vaughn. You hope that, you know, Andrew Vaughn, I thought got away from attacking, right? When he first came in, Pat Murphy was, oh, well, I just I told, you know, he told him to swing like a Neanderthal, just go up there and just hack. And that's what he did, and he was impressive. You hope that he doesn't try to, I don't know if you want to say be too patient, but you want him to be in that attack mode to go after guys. And I like that motto. So the Brewers going into this, they they can't change that approach. And I think over this last month, in my opinion, I think the approach has kind of been, I don't want to say laid back because I don't feel like they've been laid back, but you can tell with the pitching usage who they're pitching. Bruce Zimmerman throws, and then you know, they had Gasers throwing some in there, Mizarowski coming out of the bullpen, throwing some random guys in out of the bullpen. We've been the Brewers have been trying some things out, trying to just get through games. They haven't had Quintana, Woodruff's been banged up, they haven't had those guys. So now it was about how can we get through this? Get to the finish line. Now, is that a good way to look at it? Probably not. In the perspective of the Brewers, like you don't want to just get to the finish line, you want to get to the finish line playing some of your best baseball. I I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit here and say, like, oh, the Brewers are playing the best baseball they've played all season going into the postseason, but that's not saying another week off here, resetting, getting their minds right, right? Because this team, I mean, you're talking about a team who played 19 games in 18 days. You're talking about a team that it just seemed like the games were never ending and they had so many comeback wins, and they've been a part of the raw emotion of this season, you know the how it started with Euchre passing away. How that's how it started. And then you had the series against the Yankees where you just got the run, they had the worst run differential to ever start a season. They got spanked by the Yankees three straight games. I still remember the the final game of that series where the Yankees did not lead off the game with a home run, and it was a base hit to right by Paul Goldschmidt. And I think it was Lane Grindel on the radio, and Lane Grindle goes to Josh Maurer and he goes, Yeah, you know, it's they're trying something different today. Not hitting a home run to start it, they're gonna try to just you know, hit a single to start it today. Like just those when you heard that, it's like this season is off to a bad start, and the way that it kept going, right? And then they got to that point in May against the Pirates where they came back and won and it flipped the script. The way that this thing started to where we are now, the raw emotion, everything that's gone into this year, the uh the ups and downs, Woodruff coming back, Woodruff looking like he's gonna, you know, might be hurt again, uh, Mizarowski coming up and having that kind of spark plug thrown in there. You've had so many guys, Sal Frelick carrying the offense, Reese Hoskins getting hurt. You brought in Andrew Vaughn, he was fantastic. You're waiting for those guys to come back, Kintana coming into the fold, Priester coming into this. I mean, you've had so many moving pieces, guys getting hurt, guys coming back, guys stepping up. This season's been magical. And to say, like, you know, oh well, it's just gonna be another one of those years. I don't know. I got this feeling with this team. I really do. I don't know. We say that a lot, right? We say that a lot. It's like we got this feeling with this team. When you really look at this team, top to bottom, they have all those things that just they they fill they they like fill in the blanks. And I was looking at the other day, the uh the NVP, you know, like who who led in the batting average and who led in this and who led in that and who's up for MVP. And I was looking at all those, you know, awards stats, everything like that. And you did not see Brewers across the stat leaders, but then you look at the team stats and you see them on there. And it's like this team wasn't one guy, it was built off of a whole bunch of things working together to make the thing happen. It wasn't gonna happen with one guy, not this team, not the way that they did it, and that's what I think they've gotten away from, and that's where I think this reset, this week that they're gonna have before they start that NLDS on Saturday, where if you're going down there, I wish I could get down there. But excuse me there. American Family Field's gonna be bumping. We know that it's gonna be it's gonna be crazy down there, standing room only, maybe, if that's even available. You might be able to stand in the parking lot, maybe, if that's available. You know it's gonna be crazy down there, and you know this team thrives off of the juice. I it's so easy to go back to the, you know, oh well, the Brewers, they're gonna, they're reverting back to their old ways, this and that. It's so easy to go with that. Let's look at it and say, what has this team accomplished this year that gives us the reason to believe they can do something in this postseason? Win some games, win a series, get to the NLCS. What are those things that give us that optimism? And it's the what we've seen all season long, the little things that they do to beat you, putting pressure on you. And when you get into a postseason game at American Family Field with those blue-collar guys playing for those blue-collar fans, and you get them jacked up in the crowd, and you get a Sal Frelick just putting the ball in play down the third baseline on a little dribbler, and that third baseman, whoever it is, whether it's you know, whether they're playing Manny Machado and the Padres, or they're playing the Cubs there with Matt Shaw, or they hit it, you know, a little dribblish, whatever. And they got to try to make that play with a speedster running down the line there, and the crowds roar and everything like that. It just those things are what the Brewers do. They put the pressure on you, and that's what they got away from, and that's what I think they got to get back to putting the pressure on teams, laying the bunt down, those little things that I think is going to make them go far in the postseason here. It's not gonna be the long ball. As much as we look at, like, you know, I believe it was Aaron Boone said, where he's like, Oh, you look at the stats, right? You gotta hit the long ball to win in the postseason, and then you got Pat Murphy after they won. He's like, We're gonna show them it's different, we're gonna show them that it's possible to win without the long ball. And that's what that's what the Brewers need to avoid, and that's what they've been. I I think they've gotten away from their identity. And that's what we saw. I think that I, in my opinion, that's what we saw in these series here, where they dropped it to the Padres, and they dropped that other one there. Um, they dropped that game to the Padres, they dropped that dropped the series to the Padres, dropped that series to the Cardinals, and drop the series to the Reds. I think they got away from what's made them special. So getting back to that is gonna be the key thing for this brewer team moving forward. So we're gonna get to we got more brewers to get to tonight here. Don't worry. We're gonna talk more brewers here in hour number two. Next up here, uh, Christian's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk some badgers, then we're gonna wrap up the hour. Then in hour number two, we're gonna jump back into the brewers. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin 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, Christian stopping by. We're talking some badgers here. This next segment is brought to you by Casa M Spice, the low sodium, clean label, no fillers, no MSG. This stuff is fantastic. It's the real deal. 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So Christian is here tonight. We're talking a little badger. Christian, how are we doing? It's Wednesday, middle of the week, getting close to the badgers coming off the bye week. So I guess uh how we doing?

SPEAKER_01: 30:54

Um not too bad. I didn't have to watch the badgers play football last weekend, so we're good, right?

SPEAKER_02: 30:58

I text, I I I texted Christian on uh Saturday, and I was like, man, do you think they're gonna pull off that game versus bye today? I heard that's like bye's like favored by six and a half right now.

SPEAKER_01: 31:09

Yeah, yeah, they're about seven point underdogs, right, against the bye week.

SPEAKER_02: 31:13

It's like, oh boy, I don't know if they can pull this one out. This team looks tough. This team looks really tough. But all jokes aside, we're hoping that we see some better stuff here coming off the boat. We're hoping maybe they regrouped. They got the injury bug figured out. They maybe get some guys back. They said they were Luke Fickel was talking, he's working with some of the young guys now. So maybe we see some young guys get introduced. I don't know if we're gonna see like a Hunter Simmons maybe get thrown in a quarterback because what's working or what's here is not working. So maybe flipping something. I don't know. Who knows? But let's start out with some bad slash could be good news. I don't know. The bad news is then this is flipping over to Badger basketball, men's basketball. Kirk Penny is on his way out. Not that he's getting fired or not that he's taking a job elsewhere, he's going back home overseas, where he's going to spend he wants to spend more time with family. He, I mean, we all know it, like these coaches nowadays, they don't get many days off. And if he's spending a lot of time in Wisconsin, he doesn't get to spend a lot of time with his family back home there. So Kirk Penny on the way out, but Brad Davidson come in onto the coaching. And a lot of mixed, I guess, reactions, especially to the Brad Davidson coming onto the staff. So I guess, Christian, I'll start right there. Thoughts on Kirk Penny on the way out, but Brad Davidson on his way in. Thoughts of the effects of both of those uh moves there for the badge basketball team.

SPEAKER_01: 32:37

Yeah, huge loss, at least offensively. He's been kind of like ever since Penny's been with the program, he's been a huge part in the architect of their offense, like turning around that offense from I mean being that slow swing, you know, you know, milking the shot clock down, limiting possessions, um, to being the more fast-paced team that they are. It's that's Kirk Penny right there. Um now I don't think because he's leaving that I don't think they're gonna go back to what they were at. I think they're gonna keep trying to do what they were doing, but um, I think it definitely hurts a little bit just because I mean he's he was the guy that ran that, right? So I mean I'm sure they'll try to run the same kind of stuff, but I don't know if it'll still be the same, like as effective.

SPEAKER_02: 33:22

Yeah, no, I I completely agree. I hope that he still stays around in some capacity. Maybe Greg Gard's got him on the horn or something, he's watching practices, he's seeing that kind of stuff. I would expect maybe he stays in that kind of capacity with the badges because you can see he does enjoy like his job. He enjoys it, it's just the time away from home, is the sucky part for him. So, like you said, and I mean we all know it, the offense completely changed when Kirk Penny came in. So hopefully they don't try to like, oh, let's bring in somebody else and try to change this. Let's Luke fickle this thing. Like, no, no, no, no, no. Keep it, keep it, keep it the way we're going. We're going. This is trending in the right direction. Let's keep this thing going. So I completely agree there. Uh, Brad Davidson coming in. I love that move. I do. And it's simple because Brad Davidson, when you watched him play, it was the it was the toughness, it was the tenacity, it was the getting after it kind of guy. I think that is something that's getting kind of guys are getting away from that in the game of college basketball because they're getting away from it in the NBA, the toughness factor. And especially when you play in a league like the Big Ten, where officiating when you go to like Mackey Arena or stuff like that, they don't care anymore. They kind of swallow the whistle, which is okay. But Brad Davidson was a great guy to teach you to play through that, to be tough, right? He dislocated his shoulder every game and just pop back in and get back over to play. I mean, the guy's a little different when it comes to that kind of stuff, but I mean, the thoughts of Brad Davidson coming into the program to uh work in some capacity in a coaching role. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01: 34:46

I think it's awesome. Um, I know that him and Guard have always had a really good relationship and everything. So like when they announced it immediately, it didn't surprise me even a little bit. I I you've always I mean you've always known that Davidson's wanted to get back into coaching. That's not really been a secret. He always wanted to, so he kind of figured eventually he'd work his way back to Madison because he has that really good relationship with guard. So I figured that's you know where he would start. So um I like you said, he I think I mean again, our offense is gonna take it because that's not Brad Davison, right? But I think he's gonna bring like a different something different to the coaching staff, too. And like you said, it might be that physicality or just the mental toughness of um, you know, just getting the you know, the big 10 schedule. So he's been there, he's played it. So I think I don't know, I love the move. Um hopefully he can recruit, right? I know Kirk Penny was huge in like recruiting overseas, like he was kind of spearheading that and Wisconsin was kind of Wisconsin was kind of ahead of the curve. Then a lot, you know. Now you see college basketball just kind of catching up with that. Everyone's kind of recruiting overseas. Um, but uh Wisconsin was starting starting to kind of do that early on. They got a you know, Hayden Jones coming in from New Zealand, and they got another kid too that's uh Jackson Ball. He'll be here the next year, I think. Both New Zealand guys, so Kirk Penny's a huge part of that. So maybe I don't know, like you said, maybe he'll be uh maybe he can be kind of Greg Gard's scout over there, and just even though he's living over there, you can still recruit for him.

SPEAKER_02: 36:11

That's what I was gonna say. Maybe he's just recruiting closer to home now. I don't know. Maybe he just wants to be over there all the time to watch him send him over to Madison. But yeah, I agree. And you know, Brad Davidson with the Minnesota Ties, bringing some of the Midwest players around, the different style of players, right? And that's what Brad Davidson was when he was in Madison, a different style of player. So bringing those kinds of guys into a program, definitely worth it. End of the day, it's definitely worth it to have guys like that in your program. So I definitely I love that move too. Um, so let's get off of the badge of basketball. Let's look over at volleyball's off to a great start. So that's cool. That's great. I mean, they're off to a great start. They've been having some. I mean, we've been watching a couple, me and the wife have been watching a couple of matches there so far, and our sets, whatever. My lingo's way off. I don't know. I'm in baseball, football, everything. Matches, matches sounded right. It sounded right, and then I changed it. Sets within the matches. I'm there now. I'm there. It's like hockey started to it. I'm like, I can't. I can't.

SPEAKER_01: 37:06

There's so much going on.

SPEAKER_02: 37:08

I can't try to be involved in this one here. So volleyball's off to a great start. That's awesome to see. Um, I saw wrestling was ranked. I don't know how. Like, I really wrestling was ranked number 20, I believe. I wow the wrestling program at Wisconsin, and this is the nicest way possible of ever saying this. So I don't want if anybody's a big wrestling fan out there, I don't want them to feel like I'm trying to offend you right now. But the West wrestling program's been terrible. So I have no idea how they got punched in at number 20, but I saw a thing that they were to number 20. So that's cool. And then I saw that they added to the bottom of that graphic that the Wisconsin Badgers put out there, and it said like football, and it was like 362 or something like that on it. So I was like, yes. Oh man. Yikes. Oh, the football program's rough. That's all we know. So let's get to the football. Let's talk about it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 37:58

Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_02: 37:59

Yeah. So let's just start out with uh Luke Fickle had a press conference, his opening press conference coming off the bye week, looking ahead to the Michigan game. It's Michigan press conference. And he was talking about protecting his players, which practicing protecting his players and especially protecting his players from themselves. And he, as we were talking at commercial break, he said this a while ago, too, that he wanted to protect his guys from themselves, especially a guy like Billy Edwards. But almost he said this, and then he knew, and almost saying that he knew that Billy Edwards wasn't ready to go for the Maryland game, still proceeded to allow him to go out there and play. And as we saw, Billy Edwards tried to escape the pocket, it wasn't there, and we saw it, he re-injured himself out again, back out. I don't know that that irritates me. Like you you were, I don't know. I don't want to say he's a ball, I don't want to say he's lying. I don't want to say he's like lying about everything that he's saying right now, but you're preaching one thing and you're doing another. And I don't know. I I don't know if I what are your thoughts on that? I guess what are your thoughts on that, Christian?

SPEAKER_01: 39:08

I think Fickle's trying to coach for his job. Like, honestly, I don't think Maryland was a game they could drop, which they did, you know, it was ugly. Um I think he, you know, he's looking at that, he's looking at his schedule and goes, yeah, it's gonna be a rough year. Like, I have to win the games that we should win. I don't know if maybe I don't know if he has any confidence in Danny O'Neill or not, but um obviously he thought because he because he talked about that as soon as you know he got hurt as soon as Billy Edwards Jr. got hurt against Miami. And he was talking about how, oh well, we're gonna he's you know competitor, we're gonna have to protect him against himself, all that stuff. And then they start talking about him coming back, and like I put out on Twitter, I'm just like, I'm not sure why you would want to do this, like if he's not like ready, you have a bye week the next week and then get ready for Michigan, right? Like, why rush this thing? And I got crucified. Like, people are like, Oh, because you need to win Maryland, you need to do this. I'm like, but what if he gets hurt, then what? Everyone's like, well, you need to win this. I'm like, if he gets hurt, then who you know, whatever. This season's over anyway, regardless. Who cares, right? But um, so I think uh part of me is like, I wonder if he's like I don't want to say desperate, because you know, whatever, but like he's he feels the pressure, and he's like, I gotta win this game. Like Billy Edwards Jr. gives me the best chance to do that. He maybe that kind of helped Edwards talk him into it, you know. Because I mean, I have no doubt that Edwards also was probably like in his ear, like, I'm ready, I'm ready, you know. So um maybe between I think that between the two things he probably folded and was just like, Yeah, let's do it. You know, and then what he played 10 snaps and he was back out already. And now did he re-aggravate it, or is it just more of like a yeah, I know I'm just not there, or is it you know I mean, because he was in street clothes the second half, so yeah, like he was done, done. Yeah, so I don't know. I think I think Fickle's feeling the pressure a little bit, and I think he was kind of like, I gotta I have to get this win. So Billy Edwards gives me the best chance to do it.

SPEAKER_02: 40:57

So he was I can completely see that. I can completely see that. And I think I don't want the desperate was like a word you didn't want to use, but it's the feeling, it's the feeling that you had when you were like, This is why he did it, because he feels the pressure. He's like, I my job's on the line, my fans are starting to get irritated, they can only yell for so long. So yeah, I I completely agree there. It's just that quote that he had, and he said it multiple weeks ago, and then he just basically goes against his word and it's like, Okay, how many other things have you told me that's not actually happening? Because I heard from you that the quarterback battle between Braden Locke and Tyler Van Dyke last year was neck and neck, and then I watched Braden Locke play and I was like, this cannot be neck and neck, because otherwise Tyler Van Dyke is pretty darn bad. So, I mean, there it's just those things where it's like, what else are you telling me that's not right? That's not right at all. So, okay, yeah, I like that one there. Let's look, let's look at what's coming ahead. Okay, so they they're gonna move on, hopefully, from that Maryland loss. I don't know how you do because the rest of the schedule gets very ugly very fast. Michigan coming up next, then you have Iowa, then you have Ohio State, then you have Oregon. That's all in a month's time. Oh man. Okay, so we look ahead from here. The wins don't look like they're coming plentiful. But what are some of the things, I guess, that we want to see from here? Because we've this has got to be, I don't know what rock bottom looks like, but if we aren't there, I don't want to see it at this point. Where where do where do you gotta see this team get to, I guess? What do you want to see from this team? Because this stretch of games, I mean, you're going to Ann Arbor to play Michigan. Iowa just played a darn good game against Indiana, probably could have won that game. Indiana just had a last, I mean, a last ditch effort right there to beat Iowa. And that's a really good team in Indiana. Ohio State, I mean, they've buried teams that I mean, yeah, that's all I need to say there. And then Oregon is well, yeah. I mean number two. You you might lose Oregon. I mean, that might be 65 to nothing. I don't even know. Like, that could be a good one.

SPEAKER_01: 43:06

So we like right now, the AP poll right now. We have Ohio State and Oregon back to back as the number one and two teams in the country.

SPEAKER_02: 43:13

Yeah, that could be day, that could be fun. That could be knock off the number one team and number two team back to back weeks. I mean, come on, you're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01: 43:19

And then fickle will have people lining up to kiss his feet after that if he pulls that off.

SPEAKER_02: 43:24

Right, right. You better just throw us in the college football playoff because we have head-to-head wins versus Ohio State and Oregon.

SPEAKER_01: 43:30

We don't we shouldn't have to play the rest of the stage. We should just be in.

SPEAKER_02: 43:33

We're done, we're done. So I guess I mean, just hearing that, we all have our own thoughts about that. Listening on the everybody listening, and you have your own thoughts on that. We want to hear your thoughts. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Let us know your thoughts on the badgers, what you want to see coming up here. But Christian, what do you want to see from this team moving forward? Advancement, everything like that.

SPEAKER_01: 43:57

I think the thing I want to see the most is something that's probably the least likely is I want to see the running game come back. That's what Grimes is supposed to be known for, right? Yeah, but I mean, I you they got a banged up offensive line. You're on your third string off your third string center. I get it, but like at the same time, you can't run the ball against Miami or um Middle Tennessee. Still like you can't run the ball against them. Like, I understand maybe struggling with Alabama and struggling again, like Maryland. Like, yeah, I don't know. That's what Wisconsin's supposed to be. Offensive line, running back, you know, running back you, right? Offensive line, you that's what they are. That's what they're supposed to be. And it's those two have probably been like the worst aspects of the entire team so far this year. Their offensive line sucks, they can't do anything in the running game, even though they have Darien Dupree, Dylan Jones, Katie Accomelli, you know, like these guys who are supposed to be pretty good, they can't do anything. So it's and of course now we're gonna go Michigan, who's you know, tough defensively, Iowa, tough defensively, Ohio State. So it's like I I want to see the run game improve, but the next four teams, I just honestly I don't see it happening.

SPEAKER_02: 45:10

There's like, you know, the Maryland game was your chance to improve, right? Those were the games where you're like, you gotta see the improvement, and now you're at, like you just said, a stretch of games where it's like this is the hardest part of the schedule to try to turn it around to find something, is when you back it up with Michigan, then you play Iowa, one of the better defenses in the Big Ten, and then you play Ohio State, who is all around, and then Oregon, who is all around and just beat Penn State. So, I mean, these are some darn good teams across the board. I would completely agree. It's it's the seeing this team look like they're progressing in the right direction, seeing players, and that's where I'm kind of at right now. It's like you don't want to say like you don't want to win games, but I'm not worried about winning football games right now, to be honest with you, because the season's done. I mean, after you lost to Maryland, and then I've seen the crap show that was even, I mean, you look back to Middle Tennessee, that was second half. That was second half that that looked good. Miami of Ohio, I mean, that could have been a loss. That was just an ugly start to the year. And I mean, you get you lost Billy Edwards. I understand that. Your offensive line's been banged up, but I mean, man, oh man, when you can only run outside the tackles, when you can't even go anywhere inside. What do you what are you trying to open up? You're never gonna be able to get anything else going in this offense if you can't just run the ball at least for five yards. I mean, I don't even know the what their uh average yards right now is, but I'd imagine round two.

SPEAKER_01: 46:31

I'd imagine that's that's what I was gonna say. Probably like two something.

SPEAKER_02: 46:34

Three point one. There you go.

SPEAKER_01: 46:36

3.1, that's of that, yeah. And how much of that too is like Danny O'Neill running or like outs, you know, uh end rounds or reverses with receivers that pick up 10, you know, 10 yards.

SPEAKER_02: 46:49

Yep, nope, yep. I I'm 100% with you. Like this this run game needs to find it somewhere, and that's what I'm saying. Like, just seeing that's what I want to see from here on out is just a progression of this team looking like they're they're working towards something, getting better. I don't care. You lost to Maryland, like I don't I don't even I don't even care about the wins and losses at this point. I just want to see this team get better week after week, see like this team is progressing in that right direction because otherwise, end of this season, I have nothing to vouch for Luke Fickle. I have nothing. There's nothing. If this team does not look like they're improving, this was a season where we set it point blank, we're like, there's some look of like look like they could win some games on here, but all in all, this is a really tough schedule. It's gonna be hard to win these games. We just want to see this team play competitive games. They didn't even play competitive against Maryland, so we got to see this team play some competitive games against some, I mean the Iowas, the Minnesotas, whoever it is, see them play some competitive games moving forward here for us to feel comfortable with this team moving forward in the next season there. So let's just look ahead to Michigan real quick here before I gotta let you go. Is there anything I guess in particular you're looking for like for in this game against Michigan? It seems like I don't even know.

SPEAKER_01: 48:03

That's what's that's so hard. It's like, yeah, I want I want to see the run game like dude, like it's so hard to be even relatively optimistic about anything with this. Yep. I just I just hope we don't get blown out. Like if we can keep it, you know, two touchdowns or less, I'll be happy. I would be happy with that.

SPEAKER_02: 48:22

But 100%. I think it's a game where like I like Oregon. I think Oregon's gonna curb stomp. Like, if I had to be completely honest, and this is my nicest way possible as a Badger fan, diehard. I'm gonna watch every game. But like Oregon's gonna curb stomp them, Ohio State's gonna stomp them. This is a game against Michigan where I know it's in Ann Arbor and it's gonna make it really hard to do anything in this game, but I feel like it's gonna be closer just because young quarterback and Bryce Underwood, I feel like they're gonna be able to keep it just I I don't think Michigan's gonna bury him. They might I'm they might score 35 points. They might score. I just don't feel like like Ohio State, Oregon. I have no optimism at all that it's gonna be anywhere near close. I could see it being 63 to nothing in the Oregon game just because that's how fast they are, and I just think they're gonna blow us away. I Michigan, I don't know if they blow you away. I think a young quarterback, maybe you can get to them, maybe you can rattle them a little bit. I the defensive lines played well at times. Rieger's been good. They just have those stupid penalties, right? So if, and I hate using the word stupid, but if you can avoid those silly penalties, I mean it's it's the Alabama game. You can avoid the silly penalties, you can get out of drives, you can get off the field. Those are the things that maybe against a team like uh Michigan with Bryce Underwood, a young quarterback, maybe you can take advantage of. So there's some things that I think you can optimate, not optimism. I don't think they're gonna win this game in Ann Arbor, but I think they can do some things in there that we won't walk away from and saying, okay, they're progressing in the right direction. And I think that's what we're kind of both looking for in this one here. So, Christian, thank you as always for hopping on. Let the people know where to find you out there across social media.

SPEAKER_01: 49:58

Yeah, you can all follow me out on uh Twitter, Blue Sky, and all the socials at Christian Borman or at the Badger Backer. Uh starting, hopefully starting to get some best stuff back up here, getting rolling. It's hard to find some motivation to write about the badgers, right?

SPEAKER_02: 50:12

But Badger Basketball's right around the corner. That's all you go. Badger basketball's back. Media days coming up here pretty soon. We're gonna have media days to talk about here pretty soon for Badger Men's Basketball. So that's exciting stuff right there. So, Christian, thank you as always. We'll be back here after the quick commercial break. We're gonna wrap up hour number one. Look ahead to our number two. We'll be right back here on the show. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, if you missed any portion of the show, that last segment with Christian or any other portion of the show here, make sure you are listening back next day across all podcast platforms. Just search Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. You can also find us across all social media platforms. Just search Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade, Wisco Sports on the Go. You can find it across all social media platforms. And if you want to text into the show at any portion of the night here, if you have a question, comment, anything like that, you want to uh comment in 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. There. So we're wrapping up the hour, hour number one here. This next segment here 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. Visit today in Loyal Kobe or Metford, Wisconsin. There, tell them I sent you get 5% off. Find your costume spice down there, find your tools. Friday frenzy happening right now. Right now, they're hiding a little stuffed animal around the store there. If you've got a kid, get down there, you find that stuffed animal, you can get entered or you get a prize. So you get a prize there. So they have tons of exciting stuff there happening down at Foreman. So we have in this last, we're gonna wrap it up here for hour number one, but this little portion, we're gonna do the fan zone, and that is brought to you by Marshfield Motor Speedway, the half mile paved track, just three miles west of Marshfield on County Road H. Find upcoming events and races at Marshfield Speedway there. So the fan zone, we had a couple questions come in. Um I'm gonna answer them quick because we only got a little bit of time here. If the Brewers don't make the World Series, is this season a bust? I'm gonna answer this one more thoroughly for you in the next segment here after the top of the hour, but I'm gonna say no. I'm gonna say no. There's stipulations, but I'm gonna say no. So we're gonna get to we're gonna answer that one more thoroughly. Better acquis accusation accu better trade. I try to say acquisition, accusation, eight words, right? Words. Better trade this season for the Brewers. Priester or Vaughn? Man, that's tough. That's tough. I'm gonna have to go Quinn Priester. That's tough. That's really tough. I'm gonna go Priester, but you can say Vaughn. You can make an argument for both. But yeah, I would go Priester. I would go Priester just because he has been dominant on the mount at times, and he's been like that guy where when you're losing games, he can get you that win. Almost basically an ace of the staff. So Priester has been fantastic, but you could go Vaughn. I can completely see that one there. Um best outcome for Badger football. Best outcome for Badger football. I'm going to go. Best outcome, they continue to improve and find a way to, I mean, just look better week in, week out. That's all you can do. Look better week in and week out. I don't know if there's a lot of wins left on the schedule, but just looking better week in and week out is about what I'm looking at right now. So, yeah, there you go. There's a couple questions that we had there. Uh, if you want to get involved in the fan zone, make sure you hit us up 715-990-4914 or message us across all social media platforms. We'd love to hear if you're missing. So, we that is hour number one. We're wrapping up hour number one. Hour number two, brewer talk coming at you after the uh after the commercial break here. We're gonna hit the brewers. We're gonna after that, we're gonna hit the Packers. Kyle's gonna stop by, we're gonna wrap up the show. Tons of stuff to get to in hour number two. Here we'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade.