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
October 29 Hour 1: Packers, Badger Mens Basketball and Badger Football
A road-charged Packers win sparks hope in Green Bay as Jordan Love finds rhythm and the defense smothers third downs. We unpack Badger hoops’ exhibition loss to Oklahoma, then pivot to Badger football’s gritty performance at Oregon and what a youth movement could mean.
• Packers’ first-half issues and second-half surge
• Offensive line health and pass protection impact
• Special teams penalties and kicker questions
• LaFleur’s play-calling and early scripting
• Badger hoops shot variance and rim pressure
• Frontcourt versatility with Rapp and Winter
• Rotation hints and defensive communication
• Badger football effort, officiating swings, weather
• Young core steps up and QB path forward
• Development vs portal and NIL realities
Enter the giveaway: The keyword for the week here is impact
Text: 715-990-4914
This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. Your place for all things Wisconsin Sports. Now, your host, Trage.
SPEAKER_03:How are we doing, everybody? And welcome into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday, October 29th. Goodness, we're already at the end of October, getting into November. Tons of stuff. There is a boatload of things to tap into tonight here on the show. But first and foremost, I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday so far. I hope you guys are enjoying your night so far. Maybe your ride home, whatever it is, coming home from work tonight here. You get to tune into the show here. Love to have you. Make sure, if you want, to text into the show. Let me know your thoughts. Wisconsin Sports, Badgers basketball, men's basketball, women's basketball. We saw them in an exhibition game, football, packers. We're going to talk Packers here right off the bat. So we got Packer Talk to get to tonight. If you want to talk Packers, text me. Brewers, anything in between. Hit me up. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Text me your opinions, comments, anything like that. I'd love to get you a shout-out here on the show tonight. We have tons of stuff to dive into. It was a fantastic weekend for myself. So hopefully you guys enjoyed your weekend. It was a fantastic weekend for me. Like I said, Badger Hoops, Friday night exhibition game. We're going to get to that badger football. We're going to get to that game against Oregon where it was it was weird because they lost, but we felt better, but we still don't feel good. So like we're kind of in this weird zone right now with badger football. We're going to get to that here with Christian later on. We got some brewer talk to get to later on here in the show. Some uh Bucks Bucks talk with Kyle later on in the show. But right off the bat here tonight, I got my man over here. Ummer is on tonight there with Coast to Coast Packers. Ummer is here. Ummer, how we doing Wednesday. Right off the bat, I don't think I don't think I've had you right off the bat ever on the show here tonight. So how are we doing on this Wednesday? You get to be a part of the the intro right off the bat here.
SPEAKER_01:I'm great, man. I'm great. I'm not gonna lie. The um it's a Wednesday is a uh whimsical Wednesday, uh winning Wednesday. I'm hyped, man.
SPEAKER_03:We were we were pondering this before the show started. We were like what are we gonna say? It's uh it's a happy hump day. That's what it is. It's a happy hump day because the Packers won.
SPEAKER_01:That's all Drake has a show, and I'm just a guest, man. That's the way it is. So, but no, it was it's it's awesome. I was um it was a real good experience. I was actually at the game. My uh cousins actually have club seats, so we were able to really enjoy the game. 30-yard line, was able to see many of the scoring by the Packers on this side. So, all in all, absolutely amazing experience. I think I must have met it, it was so many Packer fans there. It was crazy. It was it was to the point towards a home game where Rodgers even said that he had used a silent count on offense at home. So I'm like, you know what? As always, Packer fans, we always show up. Um, majority, if not all, the Steelers fans are pretty chill, pretty cool. Um, like I said, we had a really great time, atmosphere was amazing. First half was a little bit here and there, a little bit up and down, but then they came back in the second half, and I hope that if you remember in 2023 when the Packers played the Steelers, it was right during this the Steelers game, where at the end of the game, Lord like Jordan Love really turned it on, and at that point on, he kind of went on this, he went on this like streak, right? He didn't went on this like real crazy heater. I'm hoping that the same thing will happen now because in that second half he came on and he didn't miss. He went 20 completions in a row, and he looked like the Jordan Love of 2023. And man, if that guy's back with Watson coming back too, leave me so watch out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no, I would agree, and I was just looking up those stats or 289 in that game there back in 2023. That was week 10. That was a week 10 game there against Pittsburgh in 2023. And then, like you said, after that, it was the Chargers, it was Detroit at Detroit on Thanksgiving, it was the city game after that. So he went on that run after that and played pretty darn good. So, yeah, I mean it's it's it looked like a fun game. It really did. It looked like a fun game, and like you said, and like Rogers was saying everything like that. The Packers fans, they traveled well, and you could just hear it. You could hear it once the Packers got rolling, it was like, wow. I mean, in the first half, there we can talk about it. Let's jump right into it. Let's jump right into that Packers Steelers game. The first half, oh boy, I was like, uh, it's all going in the wrong direction. Everything that can go wrong was going wrong. The D if you had to look at a bright spot, I guess, for the first half of the game, you would say probably the defense, right? So, I mean, looking at that first half, what were your what were your bright spots when you were watching it? What were your bright spots that you took away from that? You're like, ah, I liked what I saw in that first half, and we'll get to the second half, but let's look at that first half right off the bat. I mean, things you like, things you didn't like about that first half start there for the Packers.
SPEAKER_01:It felt like Jordan was gaining enough protection. I think that was one of the biggest things we've noticed is the offense line being healthy, and that this is a third game in a row where they're pretty healthy. And he was gaining time to throw the ball. He was just like, he was still able to kind of like, you know, get his guys involved, but he was just a hair off. Some execution was a little off. Defense did play well. They did hold him, even though they had some penalties and they had some some bogus calls. Uh, all in all, the defense still the Steven still played well against a a quarterback who has one of the fastest releases in the game. Even at I don't know, what is that Bama now? He's 83, so he's a he's two years younger than me. So what he's 42? Yeah, he's like yeah, he's 41. Uh going on 42? Is that right? Yeah. Oh no, is he sounds of 41?
SPEAKER_03:41.
SPEAKER_01:41, yeah. So he's 41, right? Yeah, because I'm 43, so yeah, that makes sense. And so for him to be able to, and like you know, Jordan actually also has one of the fastest releases in the game, too. And the two of them were just going back and forth trying to see how we can get the ball out quicker. And for I mean, for all the things that have are maybe going wrong with the Steelers, their offense is still pretty good, you know. And having uh a physical specimen like DK Metcalf, I think Joe Warren is a is an RB1. Uh Roman Wilson was really coming on to. And you know, watching, unfortunately, I know Fairmouth got banged up, but uh Darrell Washington is a is a as a behemoth of man. He's literally Marseille's lose 2.0. I think the way our defense was able to still kind of stand up against that offense was pretty impressive. To come out of that first half with only being down, I think was it was it nine? No, yeah. It was nine, right? It was nine, it was seven, two, sixteen. Um, so yeah, I was I was impressed about that. And then if you want to start talking about the negatives, let me know. But I want to hear what you think about the positives.
SPEAKER_03:You know, you hit you hit most of the positives there that I would have keeping Jordan Love up, keeping him clean. We've talked about it all year long. That's a huge thing for this Packers team. There, the positives, like you said, was the defense, the defensive side of the football, controlling the run game uh for the Steelers and kind of trying to force them to pass the ball, which is what they've tried to do with a lot of teams all season. What they've had to do. We heard everybody say to us when Kenny Clark was traded away, oh, what are they gonna do in the run game? Micah Parsons can't stop the run. What are they gonna do in the run game? They won't be able to stop it. This run defense is really good. The pass defense, not so much. And I think that's where they kind of ran into that trouble in the first half. And the penalties, I don't, I don't really the ones that hurt me are the special teams penalties. Yeah, every time every kickoff, there has to be a penalty. It's like a holding every time. It's like it's just like that's just gonna happen. We might as well just start 10 yards back from wherever you end up. Like, don't try to do anything here because you're just gonna end up 10 yards back, like whatever. I mean, like, those are the ones that I think hurt me the most because you're you already I mean, a lot of these kickers are really good now at putting the ball where they want to put it, so you already had a disadvantage as a return man. Now you gotta start 10 yards back, it doesn't help out at all. The holding call, like the one on the past inference calls, the holding calls, whatever on like uh Keyshawn Nixon had a couple there. I think it's it's okay. Like, I'm not I'm not really overly concerned with those. I don't think those were like terrible or anything like that. There was a couple where it was just you know prevent getting burnt, which is okay because otherwise, you know, Rogers, you know, this deep threat that they have, you'd have got toasted. So, like, it's some of them are okay. Like, those aren't the ones that are back breaking to me in this game. I thought it was a special teams one. And again, to start the game, it was a special teams penalty. And you know, the slow start, and we can we can jump right to the negatives. I guess this is my my negative. Why why do we have all these slow starts all the time? And why why do we feel as if the run game just needs to get going because it hasn't, and I think it will, I think it will eventually. I just don't think it's like we've tried he tries to force it. It sometimes it feels like a force where you're trying, you know, like Mike McCarthy used to be fantastic for it, he would go for it, and if it didn't work on the first drive or second drive, he was done with it. He was shotgun, shotgun the whole time. Like, we're gonna but there was so much shotgun in the first half. Yeah, why were we in shotgun the whole time? I don't like shotgun to begin with, and you're running Jordan Love and shotgun the entire time. It's like play actions and afterthought, and we're running shotgun the entire time, and then in the second half, then you make your adjustments. Well, don't you strip the first how many plays of the game? Like, don't you want to go into a game and figure out what works? You shouldn't have to take a whole half of football to figure it out because, like we saw last year in a Vikings game or a Lions game, you go down by a boatload of points, and then in the second half you get adjustments, you get better, but now you have to try and scramble back. Well, now your run game becomes even more irrelevant because you're behind, so you have to just throw the football solely. So I guess that I guess is my still worry is that the slow starts are still there for this Packers team. Now they were able to overcome it, like we saw in this one. They were fantastic, but those that would be my worry, I guess. My biggest concern, I guess, coming off of this first half. Well, I mean, what what was your biggest concern? What was your biggest, you know? I don't know if you want to say worry, but like your bad coming off the first half because the second half there was a lot of good. I don't think there was much bad in the second half. So what was your bad coming off this first half here?
SPEAKER_01:Brandon McMahon's. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:If I mean I'm sorry, like the first one, I wanted to see Narvic back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the 57 yarder, I hey, he just missed it by not having enough leg on it, but like that one I didn't really I didn't hate on him for. But on that second one was a 44 yarder and he he cuts it right. I'm just like, yeah, where's her Harvest has? Where's the how you say how's Lucas? Where's my boy Lucas at? Yeah, yeah, yep, yep. Where's Lucas, man? Because uh Lucas, he I mean, I understand he was indoors, I get that, and you know, he nailed some pretty good field goals in those games, but at the end of the day, he just I don't know. I I'm not giving up on McMahon's because he was our savior last year, but just is he is he still hurt, right? Yeah, he even said after the game that they need to reevaluate his uh his leg injury because maybe they rushed him back too quickly or something, right? Yeah, though he missed two weeks. Uh, I wasn't impressed with that. Um, I think there was something that where I think Willie was saying this today, where LaFleur truly does believe in establishing the run. And he even said so much in the postgame that he was trying really hard to establish the run, but in the second half, when he saw Jordan was on kind of gain on a heater, he just said the heck with it and he just kept throwing the ball. Yeah, right. And people were trying to say, oh, you know, Jacobs didn't look right or this and that, or whatever. I thought Jacobs looked fine. I don't think like I think if anything, um the offense line didn't really do him much favors. I thought Emmanuel Wilson looked great. I think he looked like a person of speed a lot. I'm not trying to say that I want there's no competition here because Jacobs is still the man, but like it's just something about Wilson has like a gear that he hits and he's just gone like right off the bat, you know? Yep, he gets to Alliance Groupage very quickly. Yep. But the things, yeah, the biggest thing that got me was I'm with you on that. Like the slow starts, you know what? Like, I'm just talking this up to maybe like you know, our preseason, September, October preseason, right? Maybe just trying to get things figured out now that they figured out that they can really they can they can actually open up by throwing the ball and then running the ball to close out games, I think might be the way to go, right? They have a great test with Carolina coming to Green Bay this week, and I think that's a team that actually you can run the ball on, but I think again, you just you you you let Jordan cook until you can't cook anymore. I think people really underestimate the value of Christian Watson. Oh and Golden's well had four catches for three yards, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, like I understand you have to find better ways to scheme him, and Save Young got a touchdown, which I thought was pretty cool. Uh, I think it's kind of annoying that Save Yon has a touchdown before Golden, but you know, okay, we'll leave that for another day, which is another thing that's kind of annoying, right? But uh again, offensively and special teams has been like one of our cruxes in the first half.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, yep. No, I agree, and you know the hard part's gonna be, and I saw some people talk about Golden getting upset after the game and everything like that with catches. That's the hard part about playing for this team, yeah. Because you have Tucker Kraft, Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, Malik Keith, uh, Savion Williams now. You have Luke Musgrave. When Jaden Reed comes back, you got him to deal with, and you have yourself. So you have eight guys who are very good pass catchers.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:That's a problem. It's a problem if you are a greedy guy who wants all the catches. AJ Brown would not like playing in Green Bay. And if you are a guy who drafts fantasy, unless you're taking Tucker Kraft, I would not take another wide receiver on the entire Green Bay Packers roster because I cannot guarantee, they can't guarantee, they're gonna have a catch. So, Matthew Golden, I hope that all that hoopla about him deleting his Instagram account and everything like that and getting upset. I hope that's nothing. I really do. I hope that's nothing with the fantastic player, and he just needs to realize that in this offense, a lot of these guys are gonna go away at some point because they're not gonna be able to afford to pay everybody. But you have to remember in an offense like this, if you want to win, you gotta have a lot of weapons, and they have a lot of weapons. Remember back when they won the Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers, you had Driver, you had Jennings, you had Jordy, you had, you know, you had weapons, galore. Brent Swain out there. I mean, you have weapons, galore now. So, like you need to have them weapons, and you have them in the backfield, like you're talking with Emmanuel Wilson. Big time Emmanuel Wilson is. So, I mean, we got lots, we're gonna dive into some more Packers here, but Ummer, he has to run. He's got some crazy stuff going on at home. He's got to run here. He's gonna come back in hour number two. We're gonna continue this Packer talk in hour number two. So, Ummer, thank you for jumping on real fast here to start out the show. Here, we're gonna come back from the break. Christian's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk some badger hoops, we're gonna talk some badger football. Hour number one of two is just getting rolling here. We'll be right back here after this. Quick 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 is brought to you by Casa M. Spice, the low sodium, clean label, no fillers, no MSG. This stuff is fantastic. I just had it the other night on some stuffed pork chops. If you follow on Twitter, make sure you're doing it. Follow across all social media platforms, just search Wisco Sports on the Go, any combination of that, you'll find us. But I shared it on Twitter. These stuffed pork chops, I put the whole hog on there, the pecking order. Fantastic. You can put this stuff on anything. They had all kinds of seasoning blends. You can put it on anything from eggs, steak, ribs. You got a beef roast, maybe. You got turkey coming up, Thanksgiving, right around the corner. Season it up with Cossam Spice. Spice confidently, as they tell you out there. Christian is here tonight. Christian, how are we doing? It's Wednesday. We're back. Badger basketball's back in a way right now. Exhibition. We're gonna talk about that. Badger football looked okay. How are you doing on this Wednesday?
SPEAKER_02:Not too bad. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I'm doing good. I'm doing good here. The bad like I said, Badger Basketball looked, I mean, it's exhibition. Everybody's freaking out, so I want to talk about that. And then Badger Football put up a fight, and that's interesting. So we're gonna get to that in our next segment. We're gonna talk Badger Hoops first. But before we get there, I want to do our Casa M. Spice Bold player of the week. As we do every single week, we award our Casa M. Spice Bold player of the week. And I think for me, I'm gonna go the entire Packers defense against the Pittsburgh Steelers. One third down conversion in the entire game. One third down conversion. That's unreal. And I don't think they had one in the second half, if I'm not mistaken. One third down conversion, one for 10. That is nuts. And I mean, the Steelers were moving the ball early, but they settled in. They played well, they got the Packers. They kept the Packers in this game because the offense started out slow. And then once the offense started cooking, they stayed right there. Michael Parsons, fantastic. Rashawn Gary was huge once again. So I gotta give it to the Packers defense. Christian, who do you got? Cassam Spice, bold player of the week.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like you gotta go Jordan Love, right? I mean, in front of in front of Rogers. Like had like literally one of the best games of his career. He was what 20 passes in a row, he completed, tying Brett Favre for the most all time in Packers history. Like, I'd say, I'd say he's earned it, right? I was it was between him and Tucker Kraft, but I think I'm gonna go with Love.
SPEAKER_03:Jordan Love on Sunday nights. Apparently, he's been unreal on Sunday nights. I was just I was gonna see if I could find the stats. All time of him on Sunday night. Oh, here we go. Is this all all Sunday night games? Passer rating of 100. With is that just Sundays though? I don't know. Somebody, somebody out there told me that he's unreal. I don't want to read some false stats, so I'm not even gonna do it. I tried to look it up here real fast while you were talking, but anyways, anyways, he's been on real on Sunday nights, and he was once again in the spotlight, like you said, against Aaron Rodgers, and was fantastic. So, and there's a lot of guys we could have chosen. I mean, Mason Posta for the Badgers was fantastic. Atuka was fantastic for him there. I mean, there was there's a lot of guys to choose from, not Hunter Simmons. I mean, if we had our worst player of the week, we could probably go Hunter Simmons, but hey, he threw he threw a touchdown pass. Yeah, I know, and that's supposed to outweigh everything else that I watched in that game for me. Helps you forget a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, at one point I think he was one for 13 for 12 yards. I'm like, you have to have more attempts than yards.
SPEAKER_03:It's like your defense is doing everything that they can, and it just is it. But we're gonna get to that. We're gonna get to that ugly here in a little bit. We want to start right away with badger hoops because the badgers, since we talked last, this was on last Friday. I think we said last Friday, didn't we? That's where we came to the consensus of last Friday there with that game. Last Friday night at the Pfizer, the Badgers took on Oklahoma. And a lot of people coming off that game, it was an 84 to 83 loss for the Badgers. They were down five at halftime, they went down in the second, there's continued to trail in the second half, ended up actually coming back in that game, tying it, and then Oklahoma was able to pull away and win this one. It was for me, it was an exhibition game. That's that's plain and simple. It was an exhibition game. The Badgers didn't shoot it well. But I guess let's just start here. My one worry once again has got to be the defense for the Badgers. It has got to be the defense because we saw this last year where it just seemed like they abandoned the defensive motto. It was, oh, we can we can score with the best of them, we can put up 100, and it was all fine and dandy, but we were also giving up 80, 90, you know, and that's that's where I guess my concern comes in with this Badger team is is that they can score. I think this team can score with the best of them. I think the addition of Austin Rapp, Nick Boyd, I think they're gonna be able to score with the best of them. But can they win a game where they have to slow it down, where they have to play defense? Can they win one of those games because shots aren't falling? In this game, I just the shots weren't falling and they couldn't get stops. And that's where the lead kind of ballooned. They had to work their way back, they had to try to grind this game out and weren't able to do it. So I guess is that a concern that you have coming off this game? Is that the defense? We still haven't seen the improvement. Yes, it's exhibition, so you don't know if you're getting, you know, the full force of everything, but you also want to see improvement. And I still think that they have some issues with communication and uh some kind of help. The help side is kind of still in flux for me. So I guess when you're watching this Badger game, what did you see defensively for them?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, yeah, I guess I'm going on that. I guess the defense is a little bit of a concern, but again, that's like the evolution of the team, right? Um they don't run the swing offense anymore. They don't, you know, wait until the last second of the shot clock to shoot and then play really good defense on the other end of the floor. It's let's get some possessions, let's get some shots up, let's, you know, get the most efficient. What is the most efficient shot? Is you know from three. Um but on like the defensive side of the, you know, I it's still like this, I think this is gonna be the new the new normal with the transfer porter and NIL and all that stuff. Like I'm trying to count here. They got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven of the twelve guys that played. And oh, seven of the ten guys that played, I think. I think it's only Blackwell, Winter, and Chanicki. Otherwise, everyone else on the team is new. Like, so they still they gotta figure out how to play with each other still. Like, um, and a bunch of more freshmen. You got Garlock, uh, Hayden Jones. Oh boy, do I really want to uh be a Lauskist? I think I got it. Be a Loskis. Oh, that was there, that was there. There's there's a lot of freshmen. Like, yep. So I mean there's it's gonna take, I think, some time for them to kind of get used to that. Um and like kind of like what we talked about last time now that Brad Davidson's there, maybe that'll maybe that'll help a little bit, you know. Um I think just with some time it'll improve, but again, it's just a it's an exhibition, you know, and technically it was I don't even know if you can count this as a home game because it wasn't at the coal center, but I know I saw somewhere they said it was like super eerily quiet, like most of the game and stuff. So I mean I don't know. I feel like that's hard to play in front of that, you know.
SPEAKER_03:So I heard it was hard to get tickets, dude. I heard it was hard to get tickets, like expensive.
SPEAKER_02:Was it really? That's what I heard, was that it was expensive and watched it. It looked like there was a lot of just empty seats there.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yes, that's what I heard it was expensive to get in there, which is crazy that you would it's an exhibition game, so I can't believe it's a bad boy mowers sponsored. It's it's the bad boy mowers, you know it's gonna get intense.
SPEAKER_02:So I think I don't know, I think that I would love to see them, you know, eight games in this season once again the conference play. I think then it'll it'll be a lot closer to what we would like to see rather than what we see in an exhibition game. And now they have another they have another one on was it this Friday? Thursday, something like this River Falls. There's a no playable, I believe. Yeah, yeah. I think it's playable. Yeah, Guards Brothers coming to town. So they'll get another tune-up game and then they open up the season next Monday on uh against against Campbell. So I mean they should have you know another tune-up game, you know, like they'll get there. But I think just all the new all the new pieces and stuff, I think it's just gonna take some time.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and it definitely improved first half to second half. And and it does go to show that Oklahoma was hitting shots in the first half. I mean, look at the stats 62% from the field and 66% from downtown. They are eight for 12 from three in the first half. Then you put that into comparison to what the badgers were doing in the first half, three for 14. Well, there's your disparity right there. The badgers weren't able to find it from the arc, and that's where they they started to settle. And I guess that would be my worry if you look offensively, is we saw with this badger team. We've seen it last season, maybe even a little bit the year before, is that the inside presence, and I think they have it now. I just think sometimes they go away from it. They Austin Raps sometimes likes to work his way from away from the basket. Same with a guy like Nolan Winter, where you want them to stay down on the block, get something going, get something going to the rim. And I thought they did that better in the second half, and I thought that was a lot of there's two guys that I credit with that. John Blackwell, it always seems like when the Badgers are struggling, and this is John Blackwell's career with the badgers, but when they're struggling, he always seems to find an offensive rebound and a putback. Yep. He seems to get dirty on the glass when he knows they need a bucket and they need a quick, they need something, and he always gets dirty on the glass. Him and then Nick Boyd. I thought Nick Boyd was fantastic getting downhill in the second half. First half, and I think he had a couple, he he goes at a million miles per hour. And it's great, but it also gets him into trouble because he gets out ahead of himself at times, but he can also blow past the guy. And in the second half, I thought he kind of settled in. He got he was pumping up the crowd, he was trying to get everybody involved in it. But Nick Boyd and I thought John Blackwell in that second half were big reasons why the Badgers came back because they started to attack the rim, which is something that I think this team needs to do. What did you like offensively from this team, especially in that second half where we saw him? It was a lot better than that second half. But in total, what did you like offensively about this team?
SPEAKER_02:I think I like the aggressiveness. Um, like you said, Boyd's gonna be one of those guards that's, and we already know what we have in John Blackwell, right? Get to the rim, get to the rim, get to the rim, right? And I think Boyd's a like a lot like that too. Um I would love to see, like you said, I'd love to see Winter and Ramp and be a little Bielowski actually get down low. That was one of the things I was kind of looking for before the game started. I'm like, I would love to see us have that physical presence down in the paint again. I know I know we are an offense that you know would love to shoot threes all day long if we could, but I mean when we have games like this and we're not hitting threes, we've gotta be able to get down and score, you know, get some easier shots, right? Um, we had 14 offensive rebounds and only like 19 defensive rebounds in the MC. Like almost, you know, that's a lot of offensive rebounds in the second half turning a lot we had for second chance points, but just oh 14 second-chance points too. So I mean that's definitely something you like to see too, because this isn't like an exhibition against you know a Yack Division III Yack team. Like this is Oklahoma, SEC school. So if they're doing that with Oklahoma, I mean hopefully we see a lot more of that this year, too. So maybe if the threes aren't falling, at least we got guys crashing the boards and you know, getting some second chance points. So I liked that.
SPEAKER_03:But yeah, no, this is a very this is a good team in Oklahoma, like you were saying there. It's a good team. Like Nigel Pack coming over, he's fantastic. They have a couple good Darien Reed was hitting shots. Uh, there was a couple other guys that I was gonna touch on, but they they slipped my mind. I think Forsyth had a good game there. There's a couple different guys for this team that I mean they're they're a well-rounded team that I think is going to compete in the SEC. So a lot of people coming away from this game saying, Oh my goodness, the badges lost by one. How is that even possible? It's an exhibition game. Remember that.
SPEAKER_02:I think everyone's freaking out because the Oklahoma's not ranked.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know what I mean? We're 24th, but they're not ranked, so we should be if like Purdue was is ranked first, and they just lost to Kentucky, who's like ninth. And Kentucky didn't have their good players. Wow, who was not playing? They are like their two top players. I thought I thought I saw like two of their top players. So like it's an exhibition game. Like, who knows what guards doing? The dude's a man mad scientist. He's just pretty I don't know. I think he's still trying to figure lineups out and rotations and stuff. Like, I don't know. Yeah. Like, we're not gonna go what 40 and oh. Like there's we're gonna have losses, we're gonna whatever, but like, I don't know. A one-point loss to Oklahoma in an exhibition game isn't isn't really a red flag or very concerning to me.
SPEAKER_03:No, and you you like the way that they battled back, they went into the half, and it was all seamen going the opposite direction from them, and they came back in that second half, they battled defensively, got after it, got some turnovers, and late in that game, they had some turnovers that made that. I think they went down. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think it was like a 12-point game. It was like 11 or 12. It got to a pretty ballooned to a pretty big lead there for Oklahoma, and the Badgers battled back, they got some turnovers, they had some big buckets. I thought a guy, I love the confidence of a guy like Austin Rapp. Oh my goodness. I I love the confidence. He had that late one where he knocked down that three to tie it at 78, and he didn't do anything, but he he just stepped into it. He didn't think about it, you know. With Steven Crow, I thought the biggest problem with Steven Crow was at times he just thought about it too much.
SPEAKER_02:He'd catch it and it's like everyone, everyone's saged way off of him, and he's like, Do I shoot it? Don't I shoot it? Yes, yes, and then he clangs it right off the back of the rim.
SPEAKER_03:And I just every time, and I just think with a guy like Austin Rapp, that confidence, and he can get the thing with him and winter, and this is where if winter winter had a rough game, everybody's worried about that. Winter's gonna be fine. Well, the thing with him and winter is that they have the ability to go three levels. We talked about this last week, a little bit there too. Watching in this game, they have the ability not just to hit that mid-range shot. They had, I mean, they were doing some pick and roll with those two, they were doing a lot of different actions with Winter and Rap involved in it, and they have that athleticism now with rap where he can drive, he can get you off the bounce. Whereas Steve, he could try, he was just a little bit slower getting to the rim. Rap's a little bit quicker, he can get downhill, he can also pull down you. There's a lot of talent there in that front court. I thought Roy uh Roadie, I didn't think he had a terrible game. A lot of people thought he had a terrible game. I thought he was okay. He's a good passer. Like watching him, he's a fantastic passer. I thought he got a little ahead of his skis at times. He was trying to force things, which I think they had a lot of in this game, where they were trying to force some passes that weren't there. I thought that's where they got themselves into trouble. But all in all, I thought the front court played decent, and I was surprised. Uh, Alexis Bielakowskis was the first one off the bench for the Badgers. I was surprised that they love him, and he's a solid dude. And Will Garlic, I was yelling at my TV screen because he's he's got this little guard on him, and it's like, get back in the post. He he keeps coming out trying to set ball screens. And I'm like, if I'm Nick Boyd or somebody else, you gotta be for general. Get down there. You have the mismatch, get away. I don't want these guys to switch, I want you to stay down there. I thought there were moments like that where the Could take advantage, and I still think they can, especially having guys like Winter and Rap who can beat guys off the bounds. It's gonna be hard for teams to do rotations, like trying to rotate on guys because they're gonna run into those kind of issues, matchup nightmares that they don't want to deal with. Because John Blackwell, he's good in the mid-range, too. So there's a lot of weaponry that I think this team has that we didn't get to see in this game because I thought they were just cold and and they were cold. They were still like you said, trying to find their footing together. It's a new team, you know, everything. A lot of these guys knew together, so you have that to deal with. I mean, all in all, let's just kind of put a bow on what we saw here. Fine, this just your final impressions of what you saw from this exhibition game as we move forward. I mean, we're talking next week, we're already talking Badger basketball being back against Campbell because that's what November 3rd. Oh my goodness, we're already at the we're at the end of October already. Isn't that wild? I know. Oh my goodness, Chris. Time flies, man. Holy cats, we're at the end of November 3rd. So next Monday, the Badgers will be opening up against Gamble. So that's I mean, wild to think about that next Monday we're gonna have college basketball back. But by anyways, anyways, final bow on it. Wrap it up. What were your final impressions on that badger game? Just give me your quick hitters.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, number one, I'm just happy Badger basketball's back. Number two, take it with a grain of salt. It's a it's a scrimmage, it's an exhibition game, whatever. I think I think they are going to be just fine. I think they have depth, and that's what I like. Well, he played what 10 deep today? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they played 10 deep, and like I mean Will Garlic and Hayden Jones are the two. I'm kind of like, uh, but that's because they're true freshmen, right? Um, but like Bielowskis and like Jack Janicki and Braden Carrington, like I don't know. They look good to me. I think like they know it's looks like a team that has players that know their role. And I think we'll just hit some shots and we'll be fine, right? Like Nick Boyd came in to score the ball. He he went six of 17. Like, is he? I don't think he's gonna be that cold every game, right? So I don't know. I think they'll be I think we'll be fine. I think we're gonna be right there in the mix for the Big Ten regular season, but we'll see.
SPEAKER_03:I am 100% with you. This is a really good badger team that just needs to settle into its offense. They need to find an identity on the defensive end. I still think they need to find that toughness that we've talked about for a couple years now. I think they need to find that tough, that grit. I think that's something that's gonna come with time. I love seeing Brad Davidson on the bench. You can see him getting a little fired up there with the refs and everything like that. I love that. I love that energy that I feel like he's gonna bring from a coaching aspect on this team. I think John Blackwell and Nick Boyd are gonna be a really fun backcourt. I think it's gonna be one of the best backcourts in the Big Ten, if you ask me. The energy that Boyd brings is like a Brad Davidson, is like a Max Clesmont. I think he's going to bring that juice to this team that they've been lacking because you saw it with him trying to pump up what crowd was there. He was trying to pump them up. And it was, you know, it was like, oh well, there's not much there to chill. But they were getting, I mean, the crowd was getting after them. They loved it. Nick Boyd loved it, so I love to see that. Uh, Carrington, I think he's gonna be big time. I think Braden Carrington is gonna be your Kamari McGee from last year. He's gonna be a defensive guy, he's gonna get after it, he's gonna be able to bang some threes for you, but he's gonna be a hustle guy, and that's how he's gonna earn his minutes. And I love that. I love how this team battles, and I love I loved how they battled in an exhibition game. They were ticked. When you watched him at the end there, Nick Boyd looked ticked off that they were losing that game. John Blackwell looked ticked off that they were losing that game. You I I love that in a team because they're telling me in a game that doesn't really matter for anything, they're irritated that this is what's going on and they're losing. I love that because that tells me this team is gonna have some drive when they come back here against uh Plattville, and then when they take on Campbell, they're gonna have that drive to just go bury some teams until they go play. I mean, they got some big dogs on the schedule. I'm pretty sure they're gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, that's by design too, right?
SPEAKER_03:They could BYU with one of the best recruits in the entire country. They're gonna have Villanova on there who's up and coming with Willard there.
SPEAKER_02:Uh, I know they have Marquette, Providence, oh Providence, and then if they win that, they can play.
SPEAKER_03:Potentially Florida. Yeah. So I mean, they have some big dogs on the schedule there. So it's gonna be a very good season.
SPEAKER_02:And then and then you get the Big Ten. So it's I mean, that's the thing. I don't don't expect this team to stay in the top 25 all year. Don't expect this team to be a top 15 team consistently. I mean, if they are awesome, but like their schedule's brutal. I mean, that's a good thing. I think they're gonna obviously gonna play well enough to get into the Big Ten or into the NCAA tournament, but I mean, what that's they'll be battle tested, you know. They'll you know, you know, they'll have plenty of experience playing tough teams, and I think sometimes that's maybe has been a problem for them because like they have you know enter the into the uh NCAA tournament, and then all of a sudden they start playing like these higher-end teams, these quadrant one teams. Not that they don't in the Big Ten, but like their non-conference schedule usually outside of Mark 10 isn't like amazing. So I mean, guarded that was that was by design, and guarded purposely did this to help in the postseason.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, and you love that. You love that your coach is trying to get out there, trying to get some good teams on the docket and trying to get some good trying to resume boosters, right? Hopefully, when you head towards March. So, yeah, exactly. You go you love resume boosters. I think there's gonna be some big ones on here, and I love to see it there. So we're gonna come back. We got some badger football talk as we wrap up our number one. We'll be back here on Wisconsin. Back into Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we wrap it up here on our number one of the show, hour number one of two. Just remember that. This next segment here, we're gonna talk a little badger football. This next segment is brought to you by Foreman's Hardware. They offer you everything from home essentials to farm supplies. House to farm, grills to drills, Foreman's hardware has got you covered. Visit today in Loyal Kobe or Metford, Wisconsin. Tell them I sent you, get five percent off. Nothing better. Five percent off your purchase, all your fall supplies. You might need a rake because of all these leaves falling. You might need a rake. Maybe you need to stock up a snow shovel, some salt, anything like that. Get down to Foreman's, tell them I sent you 5% off. That's all you need to know. And get involved, go on the Facebook page. We're doing a giveaway right now. We're doing a giveaway for a gift card to an ace hardware, multiple gift cards. We got multiple different seasonings we're gonna throw in there. And the keyword, the keyword for the week here is impact. There you go. So if you text me right now, 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. If you text me the keyword impact, we'll get you entered into that drawing. You can win a gift card. There you go. That's all you need to know. You get some ace hardware gift cards, you can get down there, grab yourself some stuff. So, Christian, we're back here. Christian, right now, he's texting me up. He's like, I gotta text you over impact so I can win one of them gift cards. This is what he's doing over there. We gotta talk some bad football because this game has me thrown for a loop. They actually played close. 21. Yeah. Which here's my question. Here's gotta be my question for you. Why does this team show up when they play a team like Oregon and they can hold a team like Oregon to 21 points in in Eugene, not like it's in Camp Randall again. This is on the road to 21 points. But when they play Iowa at Camp Randall, under the lights, on homecoming, a game that you prepared for for a year, you get trounced 37 to nothing. Explain that one to me because Iowa run, they like to run the ball, and the run defense is good. The quarterback play for the badgers stinks, but they throw a lot of interceptions against Iowa, give them good field position. Like what happened? What is going on with this badger team? We get this kind of play on the road at Oregon, but we get that kind of play at home at Camp Randall.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. It's unexplainable. It's in an I don't I don't know. It blows my mind. I mean, I think you'd like to say that the Iowa game, Iowa's relatively one-dimensional, too. All they couldn't do is run, but they ran all over us. But I think the weather definitely played a role in the Oregon game, too. I don't think they could pass the ball. No one could. And it made our already terrible passing even worse. So I mean, I think that helps. But I mean, then we held them, I think, at one point in the first quarter. They had like negative 16 rushing yards if you include all the sacks and stuff. But I think they ended up they ended up kind of going off, didn't they? What have they? I think they had two running backs both over a hundred yards against us by the end of the year.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, Davidson for sure had 102.
SPEAKER_02:But they only threw for 132 yards. Which that's very unlike an Oregon team, and it was a 68% completion percentage. So, I mean, I think I think the weather and like all how wet it was, and I think that was a big part of it. But and but I will say one of those completions they had was garbage, and Emilio Guard should have had that pick on that one, it just fell right into that. Oh my god. That when I watched it, no, it is not your year.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, that's when you're when I watched that, and then the calls. When I watched the refing calls in this game, oh my god, where they had to review clear first downs. Like, I don't even understand these first downs that they're reviewing. They get it by like two yards, and then they'd go, Oh, we gotta go to the booth to check this one out. Then we gotta go to the booth. It's like you're just telling me what's happening, and then there was that call. Oh, who was it? It was uh a late hit on a lineman for Oregon.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, on Oregon, and they called it on Wisconsin.
SPEAKER_03:And they call it on Wisconsin and just watching Luke Fickle's like, What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? I got nobody on the field.
SPEAKER_02:That's like that's gonna be a meme. I think I already saw a meme on there. I think that's how scary Alvarez posted that on Twitter, and I was just like Fickle's like bewildered face. He couldn't believe it. It was about something.
SPEAKER_03:That's the season. That's the season in a nutshell, right there. We're getting penalties called on us. We don't have guys like that on the field right now.
SPEAKER_02:We don't even have a 72 on the roster.
SPEAKER_03:We don't even have 72 on the roster. We're getting penalties called on him. But it's it's crazy because we went into this and we're like, this team seems like they like quit on him at times, right? We we thought, you know, you come off a game 37-0. It's Iowa and it feels like the team quit on him because you don't you get your butt kicked like that, it just feels like they're quitting. And then you go to on the road to uh Oregon and you watch Mason or you watch Post out there and you watch Catalano out there, and you watch Agar out there, and I mean Allegro last week, where he broke his arm, came back out, it still hurt, he got to cast it even more, and then came back out again and finished a game that they were getting their butts kicked in. I mean, you can team like this. Atuka, the way that he are uh however he's a tuka, right? That's how you say his name.
SPEAKER_02:Give me a tuka, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:There you go, a tuka. I figured I'd say I figured after I heard it enough, I'd say it right, and there we go. So, but the way that he was running the football, I mean, he ran the football better than anybody else who's ran the football all season long, just running hard, getting after it. The offensive line looked fantastic, getting after it in this one. This is all the backups, no rent for all. Maulman, he's Maulman still, I don't know what's going on with him, but Heinzen out, and I mean you have Kadonko's out, you have all these guys out, and you looked better, but your quarterback looks terrible, which begs the question. I don't know how Danny O'Neal could possibly be worse than what we saw in Hunter Simmons. But, anyways, this team doesn't feel like they're quitting on Luke Fickle, actually, the opposite. Posa, when you listen to him talk, he's like, I'm coming back. And you listen to these guys talk about him. And it's almost like the locker room's still behind. The fans aren't. I can tell you that much. Fans aren't behind Luke Fickle. But it feels like the players are. It really does. Like the more and more that I listen to these guys and see these guys and hear about these guys talking and watch them play, it feels like there's more guys behind Luke Fickle than not. I mean, I don't know. Am I crazy? Am I crazy for thinking that?
SPEAKER_02:No, it's that's absolutely I mean, what was it? I mean, before this game, they were talking about they had a players meeting or you know, whatever with the with uh Chris Macintosh and stuff. And afterwards, uh man, I don't know what it is. Renfro, they don't had my client blinking on his name, came out and like they were interviewing him and asking him stuff, and he goes, Oh yeah, like and they said you know, they basically I don't know if they explicitly said or not, but basically implied that Fickel wasn't going anywhere. He said everyone everyone was like excited and chanting and hooting and hollering in the locker room. Like that's they clearly like him. They all everyone committed to him. They like, I don't know, it's just I don't know. Yeah, clearly they don't think it's them. I think they probably think it's you know they're not playing well enough, or you know, just I don't know what it is, but they obviously they believe in him.
SPEAKER_03:And I keep circling back to this quarterback thing. I really do. I keep circling back to this quarterback thing, questioning if okay, if if Tanner Mordecai stays healthy, if Tyler Van Dyke stays healthy and we can avoid Braden Locke. And now we have a guy right now who's worse than Brayden Locke.
SPEAKER_02:I don't, I don't know, so I just uh I don't know if Tyler Van Dyke's any better than Brayden. Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_03:You're a Tyler Van Dyke hater. I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_02:That's much a hater, but like when I went to a field of practice, I'm like Woody have been better than Brayden Locke, though.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yeah, see, so maybe something.
SPEAKER_02:So does a does a Tyler Van Dyke beat Oregon last year? I would say so, probably, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But I mean even a Penn State game without that back breaking interception.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think he helps us against Iowa, though.
SPEAKER_03:No, no, but well, but yeah, you're the running quarterback aspect, I think, is something that even a game like this against Oregon, I don't know why you don't throw Danny O'Neill out there because he's he's just he runs the ball well. So, like in a game like this, I thought you could have you don't need to sling the ball with Hunter Simmons. Can't throw. I don't know if they're trying to get better throwing the ball by Hunter Simmons being out there.
SPEAKER_02:It's not better, but he can't throw either. I I don't know what it is. I'm fully on board with like I think O'Neill, just based on absolutely nothing, just my thoughts on about why he wouldn't be going out. I think he's just like kind of feels to me like he's like telling Fickle, no, I'm not going out because I want to keep my eligibility. I think that's what it is. Same with Billy Edwards. Yeah. So I think there's like, okay, I guess we literally have Hunter Simmons or Milosh, whatever his last, yeah, I can't say his last name, but like Milosh, right? Like, yeah, and they're not, I think they're gonna again based on absolutely nothing, but just they're trying to play the young guys, and I think they what is it? You can play four games before you're burned out of the game. Four games.
SPEAKER_03:So I think Carter Smith's.
SPEAKER_02:Like, this is perfect. Like he can they'll give him two weeks to prepare for Washington for him to be the guy, and I think then he'll come back next year. Red shirt freshman, he has another year of eligibility, he's got four games of Big Ten play under his belt. We don't have to see Hunter Simmons anymore, and they don't have to worry about Danny O'Neill, they don't have to worry about you know Billy Edwards, like, okay, you guys can keep your red shirts, you can get out of here, whatever. You're we don't need you. It's this is Carter Simmons show now. I think it was and I think playing Cooper Catalano and Mason Post a like add like starting in middle linebacker at linebacker in this game was like a very clear indication of they wanted okay, season's done, season's lost, it is what it is. Let's see what we have in the young guys. And I think again, Post has showed out, Catalano showed out, they they looked good. And I mean, I don't know, I'm trying to figure out who else played. I mean, obviously Gideon Tuca, but he was more out of necessity because Dylan Jones and uh Darien Dupree are hurt, and Yacamelli now, and Yaccomelli got hurt too, so I get you don't have a heavy, heavy dose of a Tuca, right? Um, but I think then we even saw uh Eugene Hilton, he had that nice catch that I still think should have been a touchdown. They got a touchdown, yeah. That was a touchdown. So he should have had one catch for 43 yards and a touchdown instead of one catch for 42 yards down to the one yard line. But I mean, he only got one target by Tretch. I think he's still young. Maybe he comes back next year, especially if he like thinks hey, uh Carter Smith's actually good. Yeah, you know, but I feel like if he doesn't have quad faith, I could see him taking off too. But again, that's based on absolutely no knowledge of any situation. That's just complete opinion.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, yep, yep. No, I I would agree 100%. I, you know, though, like I said before with the quarterback room, I just feel like they they keep trying to reach for these quarterbacks, right? You had Tanner Mordecai, you're like, oh, we're bringing in this guy who's had 7,000 yards in college. Oh my goodness. And then you bring in this guy and Tyler Van Dyke, and you're like, oh, he played in Miami, he played in the air, right? It's just gonna match up. One really good year. Yeah, he had that one good year, so now it's just really gonna match up. I honestly think the best move, the best move for this team right now is like we were talking last week. And if you guys missed that show, make sure you listen back because we talked about the state of program, everything like that. Listen back, Wisconsin Sports and the Go with Trade John, everywhere you get podcasts. But we I we mentioned it there. Building this team up from the youth, right? Getting guys that you want to, you know, grow with and bringing in those, not the I don't want to say like bring in the one-star guys or anything crazy like that, but bring in the guys that you can develop. And that's where we're seeing with a guy like Posa, Catalano, but with a card.
SPEAKER_02:Guys that want to be there.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, bring in a quarterback that you can develop in your system, your system now, where you can develop that guy, not a guy that you're just swinging into a system in an offseason. Let these guys grow together. I know it's a crazy pipe dream, but it's still a real thing. It's still a real thing, and I think you can do it. That's what Dan Lanning does with Oregon. He has dipped into the transfer portal a little bit, trying to bring in some because you have to. I mean, to compete in today's day and age, you have to. But he also doesn't lean away from recruiting. And I think Luke Fickle and this badger team has gotten too far away from the recruiting side and the developmental side, where we don't even see guys develop because they leave or they're already seniors, juniors, or seniors, they're out the door already, basically. Gets guys into your because now, honestly, in this game, we saw the recruits, and the recruits look good. The recruits, they feel good, they look good. Maybe it's a sign of some decent. I I don't want to, I can't believe I'm like trying to make myself.
SPEAKER_02:You're you're coming around on pickle, aren't you?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I don't know if I'm trying to really. I I don't I don't think he's the greatest coach in the world, but I think right now, what we saw this last week with the young guys, I like the young guys. I do. I I think Trestle, I I don't know if I really like Trestle's defense at times, but honestly, Trestle's defense is about the only thing that's been a bright spot in games for the past like three years. So Trestle might be the only one that might be safe for me. Jeff Grimes, I I don't know what he's trying to run out there on offense right now. I don't know if Jeff Grimes is even the right fit for this offensive, uh, what they want to do on offense, but also he was tossed into it a little bit late. I don't think they got the guys in that he even wanted in this offensive team. So maybe it's an offseason where now you have Carter Smith, like you said, play him in the last four, see what he can do, work with that kind of thing. I I I kind of like the look of what this team could be moving forward, as long as these young guys stick around, which listening to Mason Posa, he says they're staying. So, I mean, yeah, they're there for good. That's what he's saying. I won't believe a single person with anything they say anymore until they're on the roster, but well, we'll see.
SPEAKER_02:So, yeah, go the whole Jeff Grimes thing. I mean, maybe it's a case if he doesn't have guys that fit his scheme because we have leftovers of the half times that are half hazard error. Because when Longo came in, we didn't have guys for that. So it's just like when you're constantly changing schemes like that, like you're always gonna have guys that personnel that don't fit, which sucks. So I don't know, maybe is it because is it because he just didn't have guys that fit a system and his offensive line was barely being held together? Like there was four quality starters at any given point all year, of course he's not the guy. But I mean, if if they are truly getting that 30 million dollars that you know is getting floated around, you know, from Macintosh and everyone else, well you have the quarterback, right? And Carter Smith, hopefully, and like yeah, Pose, you got Catalano, you got like essentially your building blocks, right? And then if you do need to, you know, throw them a little money to make sure they stick around. I mean, based on what you hear, what you see on social media, it doesn't sound like you're gonna need to. Um, especially a guy like Catalano, like that dude wants to be a badger. It's just like just like Hunter Wooler, just like going to basketball, Max Clesman. Like he didn't like the money was secondary. He wanted to be a badger because he grew up cheer informed. Obviously, Mason posts is a little bit of a different situation being in New Mexico, but I think he's a loyal guy, and I think there's a reason he committed to fickle. So I think I don't know. I was fully on board the fire fickle train. I could not believe it, couldn't, but now I'm like, oh, I'm kind of just maybe just resigning myself to the fact that he's not gonna be gone, so I'm just trying to make a peace with it and try to look at the bright side of it, like trying to look at the bright side of like, okay, he's there. He obviously has some he has a few really good looking recruits in this upcoming class, which is looking a little shaky now, right? Yeah, but if from what I've been hearing and seeing, you know, all that if it goes around, there's a decent shot to hang on to him, right? Which I mean, so obviously they believe in him, bring in those guys, and I don't know. Maybe if he does have enough financial um support to like get guys in the portal, we can actually compete with you know some bigger schools rather than having to get Lance Mason out of like Missouri State or wherever he came from, right? Maybe maybe they can turn this thing around in a couple of years, but that is a hundred percent where I'm at.
SPEAKER_03:That's what I was about to say before you even said it. I was gonna say, we're not like we're still on the we're still questioning Luke Fickel, we still have our question marks with it. If he got fired, I wouldn't sit here and like we need to boycott. No, no, no, I'd be okay.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, I'd be like, yeah, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_03:We yes, but we like we know he's we we we're pretty darn sure he's staying, like our opinions. We're pretty darn sure he's staying. So we're trying to make the best and see the best outcomes for this, and we can kind of see some good, so why not embrace it? I at this point, why not embrace the good that we see and just try to run with it? And that's kind of what we're doing here. I agree completely. A lot of youth, a lot of good. There's this we have bye week coming up, so hopefully a little bit rester, and maybe we see Carter Smith coming out of the bye week. So we'll wait and see on that one. Right? We'll wait and see on that one. So, Christian, I gotta run here. Thank you as always for stopping by. Let people know where to find you out there across social media.
SPEAKER_02:Uh, follow me, find me at uh at Christian Boardman on Twitter and you know everything else, and at the Badger Backer.
SPEAKER_03:You gotta check him out. Badger backer there. He's got a lot of great articles. He's gonna be covering Badger Hoops coming up here. Badger men's basketball. Women's basketball's gonna be kicking off. They said they're gonna be good. He's gonna have to cover that if they're good. We're he's gonna have to get in on that. We got Badger Football. We got Badger Football getting towards the end there. So, yeah, like like I like I said, make sure you're checking them out there. The Badger Backer there with Christian Barman. So, with that, we'll be right back here. We're gonna wrap up our number one. Look ahead to our number two. We'll be back here on Wisconsin to Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, if you missed any portion of the show tonight, make sure you listen back across all podcast platforms. And if if you can, like, subscribe, follow to the show across all podcast platforms, across all social media platforms. We'd love to see you out there across the Facebook page, especially following there on Twitter, everything like that. Show the love. We love to see you guys there. But this next segment here, this little segment, as we wrap up our number one, 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 marshfieldspeedway.com. That is marshfieldspeedway.com there. So before we get to our number two, there was something I forgot to hit it, and it just came across the news feed a little late. As you guys know, the show's pre-recorded, so I wasn't able to uh it's not like it's Wednesday, it's Tuesday here when we're talking. But Elijah Gray was dismissed from the program. Uh, Elijah Gray from the Wisconsin Badgers there, the forward. He was released from or dismissed from the program Tuesday, according to a press release from a UW spokesperson. It says Gray's dismissal came as a result of events preceding his enrollment at the University of Wisconsin. Due to privacy laws, the university couldn't share more details at the moment. So an interesting development. We will see what kind of comes of it there. Uh, but the Badgers will be one man down as they get into this last exhibition game where they're gonna be taking on platfield there and then looking ahead to their first game out there against Campbell. So we'll see kind of what shakes out there with the roster uh here moving forward here. But with that, we're gonna roll into hour number two. That's the end of our number one. We're gonna roll into hour number two. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports with the go on the go with Trage. Uhmer is gonna stop by again. We're gonna talk a little bit more Packers here on the backside of the eye break. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage.