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
Dec 10 Hour 1: BadgerMBB, BadgerWBB, and some Packer Talk
A gritty rivalry win reframes the Jordan Love debate as we break down his command versus the blitz, the Packers’ offensive line gains, and Christian Watson’s ceiling. We pivot to Badger football’s small class and portal plan, then celebrate big strides in men’s and women’s hoops.
• Love’s numbers against pressure and late-game drive
• Offensive line continuity and assignments
• Christian Watson’s health and WR1 traits
• Badger football class size, rankings context, and portal priorities
• NIL dynamics, targets by position, and timeline
• Transfer departures and depth chart impact
• Women’s basketball upset and recruiting momentum
• Men’s win over Marquette, guard synergy, and frontcourt roles
• Nebraska preview and Big Ten big-man matchups
• Bucks tension narratives questioned ahead of Hour Two
Support the show, support support kids, everything in between. Check them out there. JBC screen printing and embroidery. Five dollars from your purchase will go to Warm Kids, Wisconsin there. Help a kid stay warm this winter season
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 Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we come in for the December 10th edition of the show here. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday so far. I hope you guys are enjoying your week better than better than I am, to be honest with you. The snow is only the uh the tip of the iceberg for the week, right? It I I think it was Tuesday, Tuesday. I uh on the way to work, I found a deer. I found a deer with the work van. So I ended up messing up the radiator on that. So now I got uh another, a different work van I'm driving around now, not as uh not as pristine as my original work van. There I got the spare one, and the spare one is it's in it's it's rough. It's rough. But you know, I'm I'm thankful that we got work fans driving around. But that's been my week. Hit a deer. Wife had the windshield wiper break on the car on her. It's just it's been uh been a hectic week. And then this lovely snow on top of that. So it's been a uh a week for sure, and that is coming off of a fantastic weekend in Wisconsin sports. I mean, my goodness, across the board. Wisconsin men's basketball, huge win against Marquette. We're gonna dive into that game here today on the show, talk about that a little bit. We're gonna kind of talk about that game coming with Nebraska tonight, and then the women's basketball team got a huge upset win over Michigan State. We're gonna die, we're gonna talk about that a little bit today here on the show. We have some uh football recruiting talk we want to get into with Badger football. We're gonna talk about that actually next year on the show. We got Packers coming up, of course. We gotta talk Packers. Packers with a statement win in some eyes, a huge win in some eyes. Some people are still, I was watching, I think it was on first take on ESPN. Why on first take was the conversation after the Packers beat the Bears? Why was the conversation they were talking about can you trust Jordan Love in a big game? And I said to myself, okay, because we love to be all about recent and recency bias, you right? Jordan Love just orchestrated a game winning drive, take the lead drive, against the Chicago Bears, after the Bears tied it at 21. Jordan Love said, hold this for a second. I'm gonna go finish this game off for you, and took the Packers down the field and they said made some big time throws in that game, three touchdowns in total, through an interception, an ugly interception. We're gonna get more into the Packers later on here, through an ugly interception, I will admit. I will say, like, it was an ugly interception. But all in all, after the Bears tied it at 21, they went Jordan Love did his business, took the Packers down the field and and punched it in. Eight plays, 65 yards, four minutes and 28 seconds. What else did you what else did you want in a big game? That was a big game. I don't know what a big game is to you, but that was a big game. And then they went on to talk about all what Jordan Love does against pressure, right? Against pressure, against the Browns and against the Panthers, and you know, against the Cowboys. All those teams pressured him, yes. Do you not think the Bears pressured him? Do you don't think he felt pressure in this game? And against the Blitz in this game, Jordan Love was 9 for 12 for 171 yards and three touchdowns, had a passer rating of 156 versus the Blitz. In a heated rivalry game. Not gonna count that as a big game. Not gonna count that as a big time performance in a big game. Now, are there things that I look back on in this game and I'm like, yeah, Jordan Love has to clean him up? Sure, yeah, 100%. 17 for 25, 234. Three touchdowns, one interception. Not a bad day at the office. Not a bad day at the office whatsoever. So do you trust Jordan Love in a big game? What has he done this season that hasn't 22 touchdowns, four interceptions? Everybody's talking about, oh, he makes these ill-advised throws and he makes these ill-advised throws. Four picks on the year. Four. Can you imagine? And I saw I saw somebody, I can't remember who who was talking about this, but can you imagine if Jordan Love would have had the night that Jalen Hurts had last night? Four interceptions. Four. Can you imagine? The sports, everybody would have blown up. They'd have been like, well, Jordan Love ain't that guy. Right up in the who was that Jeff Saturday said that? Jordan Love ain't that guy. What's he saying now? Is he still not that guy? Still not that guy for you. Like, I don't understand. How can you go week by week changing your narrative on things? Like, oh, Jordan Love's the guy this week, but he's not next week. The Packers are a Super Bowl contender this week, but they're not that next week because they lost that game. That's not how it works. That's not just how it works. And you just see all these major like sports analysts and that they're just like, oh yeah, like, oh well, this week, you know, Jordan Love ain't that guy, but that next week he's that guy. Stop it. Stop it. If Jordan Love had this Jalen Hurts performance, you guys are blown up. But because it was a Jalen Hurts that did it, it's whatever. I the way that they approach the Packers and the way that they approach Jordan Love. Jordan Love is the only great quarterback in the NFL. I think it was Colin Coward who said that. Jordan Love is the only great quarterback in the NFL that they do not crown as great. They won't let him be crowned as great. They hold him almost to a different standard. I don't know if it's because he plays in Green Bay. I don't know what it is. But everybody tries to hold him to this different standard than other quarterbacks around the league. I mean, they talk about Justin Herbert in a better light than what they talk about, Jordan Love. And like I said, Jalen Hurts. Nobody's killing him as much as they would kill Jordan Love for that. Yeah, people are still talking about Jalen Hurts in a bad way, but they're not doing it as bad as what they would have if it was Jordan Love. A hundred percent. I believe that a hundred percent. I don't know why he gets held to this bigger standard than everyone else. But I saw Bears fans coming off that game against the uh against the Packers, and they're like, you would take Caleb Williams for the next, you know, how many years over Jordan Love. No, not even. If you're watching Caleb Williams and you're telling me you love what you're seeing out of him in the passing game, I would call you crazy. I I would. I would I would fight anybody who not not physically fight, but I would fight him with words of anybody who would say that they'd take Cale Williams over Jordan Love. I would ask you to show me and prove to me why, because I would not be able to understand it at the end of the day. I wouldn't. I would not. So yeah, that's that was kind of irking me coming off that Packers Bears matchup was just the media's initial take. And then you had ESPN, Milwaukee or whoever that was, that Homer guy down there blowing up all the defense and everything. And it's like everybody just settled down. They won 28-21. Got the got the NFC North back in their hands, control their own destiny just the way that you want it. It's it was good. It was good. It was a good win all the way around. We're gonna talk about that today. So we got Packers Bears to talk about. We got Bucks talk coming up later here. The Wisco Fanatic guys are gonna stop by for that. We're gonna talk about that. Um we're stopping by for the Packers. Christian will be stopping by next to talk some badger football. We're gonna start badger football recruiting, and then we're gonna get badger basketball right after it there. So we're gonna come back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. Christian's gonna be here. We're gonna talk some badger football on the backside of the eye break. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports. Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. I am your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment is brought to you by Casa M Spice. Are you craving bold gourmet flavor without the MSG fillers or excess salts? Meet Casa M Spice Company, the award-winning spice blend born in Texas. You'll ignite your taste buds and create fresh flavors meal after meal. This stuff is fantastic. You can try it on anything. You put on your steak, eggs, hamburgers, whatever you want. Try it on there. I'm telling you, get down to form it's any ace hardware or search them up online, Casa M. Spice. You will not regret it. I promise you that. Check them out there. Casa M Spice Company. So Christian is here tonight. Christian, how are we doing? The weather outside is it's frightful. It's crappy. It's terrible. The snow is back. That that's that crap's back. But Christian, how are you doing on this Wednesday?
SPEAKER_01:We're good. We're good. It's uh the badges look better, Wisconsin's basketball looks better, women's basketball looks better. I'm good.
SPEAKER_03:Football, and that's where we want to. Football is well, yeah. Yeah, we're not the quit there yet. Football is football. We're not gonna get to that yet. We want to get to, before we get to that, any of that nonsense. We want to get to our Casa M. Spice, bold player of the week. So, Christian, who do you got for me for this week? Your Casa M. Spice, bold player of the week.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, give me John Blackwell. Dude, I like that.
SPEAKER_03:I watched that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I got I watched, I was at the game on Saturday. I got to watch him just torch little brother Marquette. So that was that was fun. He was he was on fire. And Roadie.
SPEAKER_03:I I I message you because you you you posted about Roadie hitting that big three from the low or from the culverse logo there. And I was like, somebody had to take over to giving the uh the uh I don't want it, the belt to uh Marquette there and from Max Klesman. Because Klesmet was always he always went off when it came to Marquette. So somebody's got to take that over. Roadie had a fantastic game there. I'm gonna go with this. Is gonna, it might tick off a lot of people, or it might not. I'm gonna be reasonable here. Give me Keyshawn Nixon for the Packers. And I know everybody's gonna say, oh, that tight end was open if he threw it, if Caleb Williams threw the ball right. You're right. Keyshawn Nixon wasn't in coverage on that guy. He had DJ Moore. He had DJ Moore. He saw Kemet drop back there and he said, Oh boy, I gotta get back. And that was what was the most impressive part was he read the play and said, I gotta get this deep guy. And Evan Williams even admitted it after the game. He's like, He saved me. He's like, he saved me on that play. And play bailing off DJ Moore, maybe DJ Moore would have caught it for a touchdown, but you had more of a chance to get him down than the guy standing in the end zone. So what a play by Keyshawn Nixon in that one. I loved what he displayed there mentally in that moment.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, 100%. That was that was awesome. That was that was awesome. I know a lot of people he gets a lot of hates. I don't think one of the personal fellows should have been there because he got choked out and then somehow still got the flag on him. But he had a he's such an up and down player for people, but that play right there was like, yes, that is what I wanted to see from him. Is a is a step it up play right there from Keyshawn Nixon. So let's get to badger football here because we're like, what do we want to talk about first? Badger basketball, badger football. We're like, might as well just get to badge of football out of the way. Talk about this recruiting class that we saw. We just gotta get it out of the way, just push it to the side here.
SPEAKER_01:Um obligated to talk about it.
SPEAKER_03:We just we're we're out, yeah. Obligated is a strong word. Like we should talk about it, but we should talk about it. So we're just gonna, I don't know. So we're just gonna do it. Badger football, the early signing period's done now. We see the transfer starting to jump into the transfer border there from Wisconsin. We've seen some guys jump in. Let's start with the signees. Who's coming into this class here? What do they got? 14 guys that are on the uh on the list here. 14 guys. The class comes in at overall 72 according to 24-7 Sports, composite rank of 70. Not so great when it comes to the ranking wise. Christian, were there any guys that stuck out to you in this class that the badgers have coming in?
SPEAKER_01:I think, well, before we get into that, I mean, I think the Breesino is you know smaller, so you can choose to believe this or not. Um, fickle said this class was smaller by design. A lot of people are pretty skeptical about that. They think he just whiffed on a lot of people. Um, but I mean, so his thought was, you know, you don't get 22 draft picks in the NFL, which makes sense, right? So and with the transfer portal being what's being like, you see Greg Guard doing this, you don't really prioritize high school recruiting. Granted, football, you need a lot more bodies, so you need guys coming in. Um, but I he's even admitted that the transfer portal this year is gonna be big. So I think and part you could also argue he's doing that because he needs to save his job for next year. So I mean, you're not gonna rely on a bunch of true incoming freshmen to save your job next year when you need to at least make a bowl game, probably, right? 100%.
SPEAKER_03:I'm right with you on that. Like, I I see I see 100% what you're saying, because you know, like you said, there perfectly was the draft pick portion of it, where you're not gonna rely on draft picks to carry your team. Well, if you're Luke Fickle, you can't go into uh you're tough season, basically, right? You're this is it kind of and trying to rely on uh okay, we have this guy, the three-star coming out of wherever Chattanooga. I can't rely on him to be that star for me right now, right? But you need other guys to be in that room.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, Keyshawn Tabateau is gonna be pretty good.
SPEAKER_03:I think the Chattanooga's the first guy I saw on the list, and I was a top-rated recruit. Yes, he is. I'm like, I don't want to for this guy, but he's the first guy on the list.
SPEAKER_01:He was all right. Well, that guy was committed to Vanderbilt and they flipped him, and Vanderbilt is pretty dang good, and they got decent class. But I think the reason they're all the way down at 70 or 72, depending on what you're looking at, is because they only have 14 guys. There's let's you let's pick on West Virginia because I'm sore at them anyway for the crap they pulled with Lat with Amario Latimer anyway. But they they get they're bringing in 45 true freshmen next year. Like so when you're and it's I think oh god, out of the 45, I think 40 of them are three stars. So it's like it that that's it. Is it quality or quantity? Do you want right? So I mean the the recruiting rankings are you know, you got to take them with a grain of salt, they're all different. Um, a lot of classes are in the 20 guy range, so like 14 is a very small class. Um, but again, it's I think it also I think they did realize okay, we're missing out a lot of our top guys. Do you want to just sign guys to sign guys? Or do you just want to like let's get quality players we think are actually good, which is what Fickle said. He said he thinks a lot of these guys could actually contribute next year as true freshmen. I don't know if I believe that, but um, I think there's a couple guys who probably could, like maybe some of the the edge guys, or um maybe even the running the running back, Quantavius Wiggins. That's a that's an awesome name. Um, I love that name. But I think there's a couple guys in here that could actually do something next year, at least at least get into the too deep and just be a backup. Um, but otherwise, it's gonna I think they're gonna rely a lot on the transfer portal, hence the 30 million dollars, the reported number that you know is thrown out there that Kellner was, you know, the big donor was talking about. And so we'll see what happens with that. But so I think you got to take the great rankings with a grain of salt, and I think you know, it's obviously not this is Fickle's quote unquote worst class, but it's also his smallest class. And I don't know, you had you had two studs committed since June that bailed out on you in the last month. So I mean, I mean you're kind of left scrambling a little bit, but I mean Tabato Tabateau is is uh Jaden Pettit's uh replacement. I mean, and Pettit bailed out because he didn't necessarily think his fit with the offense was good because let's be honest, our offense looked terrible. Like, do you blame the guy? Yeah, he had offers from Oklahoma who was pushing him really hard. Look at Oklahoma. I would probably do the same thing. But then the whole Amari Latimer drama, I don't know if anyone knows about that, but you know, sounds like when sounds like Tuesday night going into the early signing period, he him and Wisconsin were solid, they felt really good about it, all that. And then Wednesday morning comes around and they were expecting him to be one of the first people to send in there his you know signed letter of intent, and it just never came. And then they tried to reach out to him, and it was he was pretty much just like ghosting them all day. And that so it just didn't look good, and then it sounds like things got pretty like they thought they had Tennessee and Miami beat out, which they did, and then here comes West Virginia, who apparently just decides they're gonna start throwing money around like crazy. One depending on what you believe, I've seen numbers of like you know, 900 to up to a thousand, up to a million dollars, they wrote him a check for just to go there, and he's like one of five or six running backs in their class. Like they're literally West Virginia right now is just throwing money at their problem, which a lot of people aren't like Wisconsin to do, right? But I think you I think you throw money at the portal, yeah. Because those are like those are proven players, you know what you're getting with that. Whereas you got all these high school kids coming in, like, you don't know. I mean, you you got a good idea, but like you have no clue like if they're actually gonna do well, and that's why you see like a lot of three stars who end up being really good, and a lot of four and five stars who just burn out and aren't anything, right?
SPEAKER_03:No, 100%. If you can get that, you know, half a mil or one mil on a proven, like you said, running back, I'd take that any day over a young running back who you don't know about at this point. You've seen you have no tape except for high school tape, and that high school tape can it can look great, and then it can also show it might be some flaws there you aren't seeing at the very competition either. Exactly. You might not be seeing the competition that you're gonna be seeing at the Big Ten level or et cetera. So I mean, I completely agree. And you know what? Honestly, he's had great recruiting classes over the past how many years? How's it turned out? Like, how's it really turned out for Wisconsin? Not great, not great to this point.
SPEAKER_01:But I mean, I mean, it Mason Post looks great. I mean, he's cool with Kettle on him.
SPEAKER_03:He's got his guys, right? And we we expect Kevin Haywood to look like we expect Kevin Haywood to look good when Dillion Jones gets out on the field. You expect him to look good, right? You expect those guys to actually be able to play, but you need to stay healthy, right? That's the big thing. And that's where if you go into this transfer portal, you're gonna attack. You don't want an unproven offensive lineman. You want to go fortify the offensive line with guys who've been in the been in college football for a year or two, right? And then you want to go look at a quarterback. You want to get a guy who's a little bit more proven. Otherwise, you already have Carter Smith. Otherwise, you're just gonna throw him out there. I mean, you want to go get the proven guys, like you're saying. I'm completely with you on that, especially, and we've said it a million times, but Luke Fickle is going into a I need this year, and you have a schedule that you can win. You don't want to have growing pains and a schedule that you can win. You want to go in with studs like Mason Rieger that you grab and just go and get them. And that's what he's aiming for in this one. So, I mean, we can worry about the class, but we can also look at it and say, how many of those guys? Honestly, I look at all the three stars going to West Virginia, how many of those guys are gonna be at West Virginia next year? Half?
SPEAKER_01:Other half are gonna transfer out, half, half will transfer out, absolutely. So look at Wisconsin. They're literally just what's what's the saying? They're throwing crap at a wall, right? And just seeing what sticks pretty much, you know, and then what what doesn't all right steal it, or you know, and they're out of there. So it's like me, it's it's a it's a technique, it's a tactic, I guess, but we'll see if it works out for good old Rich Rodriguez.
SPEAKER_03:It makes you wonder if they're trying to take the approach of being the stepping stone. I know what last week we joked about Wisconsin being the stepping stone, but some universities some universities might take it as maybe we can be successful by being a stepping stone where we just like guys transfer from us. We know they're going to, but we can be that first stop for them where they can for sure get the playing time this year, and then next year they can they're gonna end up leaving anyway, so they can go off to their bigger school. Maybe that's the approach they're taking out. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Or maybe, or maybe it's because what are they? Oh, is West Virginia in the Big 12?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Okay. See see geographically, I'm so screwed up on now. In my head, I'm thinking, oh, they're in the ACC, which is terrible. Duke just won the ACC with five losses. Like maybe they're thinking, hey, if Duke can do it, yeah, they don't have much of a shot in uh the Big 12, I don't think, with BYU and Texas Tech. And I mean, even without without Texas or Oklahoma, I think the B, I think I don't know, I think Big 12 is still pretty solid.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, isn't Utah? Utah's in there too now, aren't they? Utah's in there and Utah's in the Colorado. Utah's in it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Colorado.
SPEAKER_03:You got some good opponents in there. Arizona State just went to the Couch 12 playoff last year there. So I mean there's there's some really good opponents in there. So I don't know. Who knows what West Virginia is trying to do with that stuff there. But Wisconsin. So we talked a little bit about the recruiting class there. It's a smaller size. I mean, we're not too up in arms about it because we're trying to believe, I guess, what Luke Fickles.
SPEAKER_01:And plus the 20, the 2027 class had like the state of Wisconsin, like has like five or six four-star kids who are gonna be who look like they're gonna be really good. And Wisconsin, from what I've heard, is in a pretty good spot with multiple of them. One of them is already going to Notre Dame. He's a legacy kid, his brother went to Notre Dame, whatever. But like there's four or five other kids that are pretty dang good that Wisconsin's already got the inside track on, and probably because everyone was complaining about how they don't do any in-state recruiting. Right, it's nice pushing it. Sound, yeah, but it sounds like well, this is the class to do it. This is kind of like I don't know, was it like 2020, 2021, whatever it is. Like that was where Joe Brunner, who we got, but then it was uh was it Braille and Allen, but I think he reclassified, but it was also um yeah, the that guy, there's a guard from Notre Dame who went there, Billy Schroth, and then there was Carson Hintsman, the center for Ohio State. Like there's and Jerry Jerry Cross was uh tight end. He went to Penn State. I don't I think he's at Memphis or something now. But like there, they had like a bunch of it's that class had like a bunch of four or five star guys, and Wisconsin only got one of them. But yeah, anyways, no people that like to say Paul Chris does you know does way better than Fickle did. Like Christ only got one of those guys.
SPEAKER_03:Well, two, I guess if you don't brain allen too, but they just look at the years of Paul Christ and say that it was better because of the record. Yeah, everyone loves yeah, because of the record was there, and it's like, okay, the record was better, yes. It's just dude. I threw it's a different kind of landscape now. It is, it's a different kind of landscape.
SPEAKER_01:I just threw some just to meander a little too far off of this a little bit longer. I threw some tweet up just talking about, you know, because the NFL released like the fan vote, like Pro Bowl getters. I'm just like, oh cool, six former badgers are on, and I list all the badgers and all the, and of course, everyone's making it about oh, weird, it's all Paul Christ guys, blah blah blah blah blah. I'm like, okay, Kevin Zeitler isn't a Paul Christ guy, like that was a Brett Vila McGuire, you know, whatever. Someone else, oh, they're all from Wisconsin. I'm like, Jonathan Taylor's from New Jersey, they're not all from like everyone just loves to like try to like twist that narrative so it's like fickle's bad, Chris was way better. We never should have fired him, and it's just whatever. By the end, by the end of Chris's tenure, his recruiting classes were absolutely garbage. So right.
SPEAKER_03:Who knows? That's all I know is who knows at this point. So one last thing before we got to hit a break, and we'll come back. We went off on a tape. We went way off. That's my bad. That's okay. That's okay. One last thing before we got to hit a break here. The transfer is going out, I guess. Any surprises so far? We saw being the big one, probably Yakimele, uh Atticus Bertram's is going out. They're the punter. Uh, outside of that, just young guys. Is there anybody surprising, I guess, to you at this point?
SPEAKER_01:No, not at all. Um, Cody Raymond, whatever he didn't play. Cayenne Barry Johnson, guy had talent, but couldn't get in. He had some other stuff going on, I think. Remington Moss, I didn't think he was ever really a big 10 safety. Uh, Bertram's you said, Yacomelli. I think I think that guy is he got the shaft for the bat, lack of a better word. He uh I think he's a guy that probably could have earned more snaps than he actually got for whatever reason. I think maybe the staff just liked their guys with Dupree and Jones and uh Gideon Atuka, which whatever that's you know their prerogative, that's their guys, but so I'd like to see him be successful somewhere next year. Now Joseph Griffin Jr. couldn't really get on the field a whole lot. Tackett Curtis. That's a dude I was super excited about coming from USC. But like, I don't know. He lost his job. You got Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano. Like he's not gonna stick around one year just to back him up, right?
SPEAKER_03:No, 100%, 100%. And like you just named off the guys, there's really nobody that surprises you on that list because they're just not gonna have the playing time here in Madison. So, like Tagged Curtis and Yakamelli and those guys, they're not gonna waste a year in Madison because they know the job's not there for them anymore. They're gonna move on, see what they can do out in the open market there. So, we're gonna hit a break. We're gonna come back here. Kristen's gonna stick around, we're gonna talk badger men's hoops, we're gonna talk badger's women's hoops on the backside of the i break here. We'll be right back here. I'm back here. Wisconsin sports on the go trade. I'm your host, Trage. This next segment here is brought to you by JBC Screen Printing and Embroidery. They take pride in their work because your image is their business. Check them out there, search us when you get to the website there, or you can go to the Facebook page, Wisconsin Sports on the Go Trade. Click my pinned, uh, whatever you call it there, the pinned post. You click into that, you get the link. You can go straight to our apparel store right there on JBC Screen Printing. Five dollars from your purchase. We'll go to Warm Kids, Wisconsin there. Help a kid stay warm this winter season. I'm telling you, what could be better than that? You get a t-shirt, you get a hat, maybe a stocking cap, maybe a trucker hat, whatever you need, and you help a kid stay warm this winter season. I can't think of anything better. Support the show, support support kids, everything in between. Check them out there. JBC screen printing and embroidery. So Christian has stuck around in here. We're gonna talk a little badger hoops now, but first we have to talk about our good, bad, and ugly coming off the weekend there. Our good, we have settled on just basically every Wisconsin sports team outside of our bad. So we're talking women's volleyball, right? They got the big, they got the win over North Carolina there. They're gonna be taking on Stanford now coming up here. That's Friday, I believe. There, they got Stanford there. And then we're talking women's, uh, what was it, women's basketball? Goodness. I mean, they Michigan State got the win over Michigan State. They're seven and three now. We were looking at it, it's crazy. I don't want to seem terrible, but the last time Wisconsin's women's basketball had a winning record, you have to go back to 2010. So what Robin has done, Robin Pingington, what however pington? Pingeton, I don't, I knew I think that's a pinchon. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's like Bielakowskis. Everybody says it different. It doesn't even matter. Belialskis. Beelowskis. Whoever says it, I say I tell myself every year. I'm like, however, Matt LePay says it is the right way. That's all I need. However, Matt LePay tells me how to say it is how I'm gonna say it. So, but she has done fantastic turning the narrative around of this program. I love to see it, and I can't wait to talk about some good things with this women's team moving forward. So we got that going on. We got rest the wrestling team is at 21 in the country right now in the coaches. Are they really? That's impressive. I mean, where that program was to now, where they are, good. They had their first shutout, I believe. I if it's been a long time since they had a shutout. They just shut out over the weekend there. I can't, I was gonna slip my mind here. I don't have time to look it up. But they had their first shutout in a very long time over the weekend there. So they have been impressive. Wisconsin wrestling. So that's awesome to see there. And then, I mean, Badger men's basketball, the big knockout punch they gave to Marquette. It seems like Marquette. Marquette is going to be in our bad coming off the weekend because Marquette is just falling apart at the seams. And we kind of talked about commercial breaks. We're like, who are we gonna do for our bad? And we both said, God, you know, Marquette. Well, we had a whole bunch of different things we were talking about, but we said we we settled on Marquette and we said, you know, we respect Shaka Smart for wanting to still do the traditional route of recruiting his guys and building his program. We respect that. But in this day and age of college sports, you have to be able to sprinkle in a transfer here and there to stay competitive, and that is not what he's doing right now, so it's not going well there. And then our ugly has got to be the Milwaukee Bucks. That is not getting better at the moment. And we have Shams telling us that Giannis still wants to leave, even though, yeah, I just heard I just heard Shams on ESPN yesterday say that he heard from there's tension in the locker room because of how they're feeling about Giannis wanting to leave. And then Kevin Porter Jr. and Bobby Portis have both been on record saying that Giannis does nothing but reassure them in the locker room that he wants to be there with that team and he wants to continue to build it. I don't know where Shams gets his stories from anymore, but it's driving me up. Well, I can't wait for the guys from Wisco Fanatics to hop on later because they're I know Tyler is gonna go off about it. So make sure you guys are checking out our number two of the show tonight here. They're gonna be hopping on. He's gonna go off on Shams here later in the show. So make sure you guys stick out for that.
SPEAKER_01:It's like Brian Windhorst like saying the same thing, and then literally a day or two later he goes on ESPN Milwaukee or something. He's just like, Yeah, he didn't actually say the words I want to be traded. And it's just like, so what are we doing? Yeah, so what are we doing here?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no, we're just like I lied. I lied, I'm sorry. Like, didn't even say I'm sorry. It's like I lied. Like, it's just it's such bad journalism at this point. It's like, okay, so who do you who can you believe? You guys are just rumors now. That's basically what you're telling me. Is all you guys want to talk about is rumors. It's terrible. We're gonna like I said, the Wisco Fanatics guys are gonna hop on later. And I'm telling you what, if you want to hear somebody rant about it, you just wait until Tyler comes on. You're from Wisco Fanatics, he's gonna blow a lid off of ESPN and the analysts that are going about it right now. So, anyways, there is our good, bad, and ugly coming off the weekend. Let's start right away. Let's just, I mean, this women's basketball team, Christian, what we've seen. I mean, these came off the weekend. They're number 20 Michigan State got the win. I mean, it's been a while since, and I mean, just a couple weeks before that, they had hung with who was it there? It was Ole Miss. Ole Miss pretty mad rankings.
SPEAKER_01:It was like, yeah, they were up there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, pretty good game there. Then James Madison, they got beat pretty good by James Madison. But then they ended up beating Michigan State back at home, beat them by 14. I mean, the direction of this program, and we don't have to dive too deep into it here, but the direction of this program, I mean, it's enticing. It really is to see what, and I mean, this is gonna make Chris McIntosh look good for a hire, right? That he had a good hire here, but I mean, it's looking like a good hire because we're seeing we're seeing productivity, we're seeing a program that looks like it's building into something.
SPEAKER_01:And that's losing Sarah Williams, too. Like, she was like the only decent player they had. Now she's at UConn, of course, but like she's doing really well. They're good for her. But but it's but like I don't know. And the other thing too, I think that I really like Robin Pinchon's doing is she's actually getting recruits from Wisconsin. Like, she's not getting all of them, but like Wisconsin girls basketball has a lot of like when you when you check it out on ESPN their top like 100, there's always like at least two or three girls from Wisconsin that are pretty high up. Naturally, they all either they've been going to like Yukon, like KK Arnold, and you know, but there's one going to Minnesota now next year that got away, and like one snuck down to Iowa, but otherwise, they've gotten a like there's two or three that are already committed to Wisconsin. So credit to her, man. She's at least getting the Wisconsin girls to come in. I heard not to get too again. Here I am getting sidetracked. No, you're good, you're good. Marissa Mosley, so uh Mike is it Mike Wilkinson? He was a badger uh basketball player years ago, right? Yep, you know what I'm talking about. His daughter, his daughter, I think I think she was an arrowhead like a year or two ago, and I heard she wanted to like she wanted to just walk on, like do whatever, and I think she was actually pretty good, but like I don't think Marissa Mosley even like gave her a shot and basically just said thanks, but no thanks. Like she literally would have like this girl's pretty good, she's a Wisconsin legacy. You don't do like almost any in-state recruiting, and she wanted to come to Wisconsin, you just basically turned her away. It just looked really bad.
SPEAKER_03:She she was like the onions on my my cheeseburger. Like, I just want to pick them off and get rid of them. Like, I just she was just a she was just terrible at her job.
SPEAKER_01:Well, wasn't she wasn't she like a Gino disciple or something? Like she like to under him for a while, and then and then she went to like and then she went to like yeah, but Boston and did okay there. I mean, I don't think she did anything great, but I think they hired her because she's like, Oh yeah, she was a coach under Gino, so she's probably really good. And I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:I think we did I think they just kind of looked at it and said, I think see, that's the problem, is I think now they're finally looking at the program and saying, let's fix it, right? Before it was like, oh, whatever. It's what you know, it's like oh let's go. Women's basketball doesn't bring any money in. Yeah, and now it's like, okay, now we're bringing it to the, you know, Kate, like, I don't want to get too long-winded here, but Caitlin Cart brought women's basketball in the forefront. Then you had Paige Beckers, and then you had all them great athletes come through there, and now we're starting to see women's sports come back into it. So they're like, hey, let's get a good team on the court here and let's see what we can do here at Wisconsin because we have a good men's team, let's get a good women's team now and see what you can do together. So I mean, I love, like you said, bringing in recruits from the state of Wisconsin, bringing in some good transfers to fit into the system. Love what we're seeing there out of the women's basketball team. I believe they're next on the court against San Diego. Such a weird schedule. They got San Diego. Badgers play in San Diego at San Diego, like this. Who is it? It's San Diego. Uh it's like San Diego the Toreros. I think it's the actual university out there in San Diego. So it's where Wisconsin played that little thing with Providence and then TCU. Oh, yeah. They're playing them, like they're playing San Diego. So I mean it's it's interesting, it's quite interesting. But yeah, they have them. That's gonna be coming up tomorrow there at the call 11 a.m. Really, like that's women's bath. Women's basketball does that. They have the weird early start times. So this is an 11 o'clock game here in the morning. So, because I know they have their their next game on the 21st is at 11 a.m. too. So the badgers will play back-to-back games at 11 a.m. That's weird. I don't like that. That's weird. But Big Ten Plus. So if you guys can make sure you check that out because they've they're the program is looking good. They're looking good as of late here. So make sure you guys are checking them out there. So let's flip over men's basketball. What a win against Marquette. You were down there at the call center. Tell me about the atmosphere, tell me about the vibes coming out of that game.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they so they got to uh debut their red their alternate red jerseys, which I think look pretty slick, by the way. That's true. I'm a sucker, I'm a sucker for those, anyways. So they had their red out, almost everyone was wearing red. I mean, I was the only other game I've been to so far this year was the Campbell game, the very first one. Not that many people there, but right. So I mean it was the atmosphere was a lot better. There was a there was a good chunk of Marquette fans too, but mostly Wisconsin fans. And I don't know, I thought the the and especially the uh are the students on break yet?
SPEAKER_03:It's gotta be close.
SPEAKER_01:They gotta be, but like they it was pretty full. So that was that was awesome to see too. So they it was rowdy, it was awesome. Um bit of a slow start for the badgers. It's like three turnovers and only like one made field goal in the first like five minutes of the game. So that was a little uncharacteristic of them. Um, but then once uh I think it was once Blackwell hit a three, kind of just opened everything up, and meanwhile, Marquette just still couldn't hit anything. So it was they shut down Chase Ross, and like I think he is like him and Ben Gold are the only two guys on that roster I could have named. So there's a bunch of guys I don't know, and Wisconsin just you know took it to him, and John Blackwell just pretty much did whatever he wanted the entire game. So that was and there was a few times too where they hit a couple threes in a row, and then there was like a third one went up, and you could just tell, like if that went in, the whole place would have just absolutely gone crazy, but of course didn't fall. But either way, awesome environment. I mean, that's really what I wanted to go to the game for because like I saw I would love to go to a Marquette game, right? I mean, it's too bad they it's too bad they aren't good this year, but I don't know. It's it was it was fun to watch, fun to see them, but I think we'll see if things are gonna get a lot tougher for them coming up here now.
SPEAKER_03:100%, 100%. You know, just watching it there, they did the little things right in this game, right? They they took away the points in the paint for Marquette. That's where they wanted to get. Chase Ross, those guys, they don't want to finish on the outside, they want to finish inside. The badgers did a really good job denying them the paint, keeping them out of there. They ended up, I know they ended up with 40 points in the paint, but you that's a skewed number because it ended up ballooning to a big lead, and then it got a little crazy on Wisconsin there a little bit. So numbers do get kind of fudged in that area. But I thought they did a great job in the first half controlling that paint area. They we finally saw a complete game out of the Badgers where they just looked good wire to wire on both ends of the court, I thought, in this game. Like they look good on both ends of the court there. John Blackwell and Nick Boyd in this game, I thought they finally clicked together. And that's kind of something I want to talk about. So we've talked about it all season long now, where we were like, both these guys are fantastic, but can they figure out how to play on the court together? And I thought in this game we finally saw Nick Boyd notice John Blackwell and say, I should flip you the basketball because I know you can hit shots. I mean, is that something that you also saw in this one?
SPEAKER_01:See, I think I know I don't want to yeah, I mean, I think I don't want to say he realized Nick Boyd realized he's you know not the top guy because I think he still could be, you know, but like I think he realized, yeah, John, John Blackwell is that dude. Like this is his team. Um I think Boyd, I mean, looking back like after at the post-game notes, you're like, this is Wisconsin is one of two teams in the country that has two players averaging 20 points a game or more. It's them and USC, but it's Blackwell and it's and it's Boyd. And I think again, I think the night the nice thing about Boyd too, though, is if Blackwell's having an off night or the defense is just absolutely smothering him, denying him, not letting them get shots of anything like that, then you got him, you know. So I think I think they kind of just looked at who has the easier matchup, and I think it was definitely probably Blackwell in this game. So I think they took advantage of that, and I think they played really well off of each other, to your point.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no, and that I love to see it in a game like this, and I thought there's another duo that I think plays way better together, and it's Bielowskis and Winter. Because when rap is out there, Winter is forced to be more of the five, more of the physical big, and that was, and I know we loved it. We always everybody loved to hate on Steven Crowl. But when Steven Crowell was there, I thought he took that off of Nolan Winter, where then he was the big no one was able to play more of that four role, more of that, you know, more of that athletic big guy. And I think with Bielawskis out there, he's not an athletic guy, he's a big guy. He doesn't really want to be out like he can knock down the shots on the perimeter. We saw that there at the end. He just started ripping him at the end there and he couldn't slow him down. But I mean, you you watch him out there, and he's a good defending big, he can get down to the post, he can do the dirty things for you. Bielowskus can, which is surprising because it's like you don't usually see young guys step into such a big role like he has already. 10 rebounds, he would have had the 10 rebounds already. The points wouldn't have came unless he started burying threes at the end there. But and he ended up with a double double, which is awesome to see. But just seeing a guy who's able to do that kind of stuff for you in that natural big guy role, I love it because I don't need another scorer in the all in the starting role, right? I have Blackwell, I have Boyd, I have Noan Winter, and I have Roadie. And we saw Roadie in this game finally have a great game shooting the basketball. I don't need Bielowskis to be an all-the-time scorer. I need a guy who can get down to the post, play good defense on some big guys, and also because you're gonna have guys like Trey Coffer and Ren, right? You're gonna take on him and Purdue. You're gonna have to be able to slow him down in the post. You have the big guys from Michigan, you're gonna go across the board. You have Kohler from Michigan State there. You're gonna have the big guys that you have to be able to control from these big 10 teams that you have coming up. Uh, who's that? Um, I can't remember the guy from UCLA. Is it it's not Beatty. Beatty played for Oregon, I believe. I can't remember who the who the big guy is there, 32 from UCLA. I can see it on my head right now, but I can't remember it's. Name is, but um uh Biddle Biddle was the guy from Oregon there. From Oregon, yeah, very from Oregon. I can't remember who the heck the guy is from UCLA, but you got some good bigs that you had to bang up against. Yeah, I love that Bielowskis is out there now and getting those starter minutes because I think he he is good in that role. Whereas I'm gonna give you this comp and I want to hear what you think. Austin Rapp is Connor Assesian, just a bigger version. He is Keish.
SPEAKER_01:Keyship and doesn't play defense.
SPEAKER_03:100%. That's Connor Assegian, isn't it? I mean, it's just a bigger version of Connor Assegian.
SPEAKER_01:But I think the difference there is I think Rap is going to probably I think he's gonna be more like willing to learn to play defense and work his butt off to play defense. Whereas I think Asijin really had no interest in that.
SPEAKER_03:Right. No, 100%. I 100% agree. It's just when a Sejin, when he tried because to fire him up, he'd start to foul. So I hope that I hope that Rap doesn't try to push himself to the point where now he's fouling guys, which we saw a little bit there. He gets in the last couple games, he's had a little bit of a not a huge foul issue, he only had three in this game, but he got him quick in that game against Marquette. He got him like back to back, basically. So, like that's something to keep an eye on there is if he starts to press it on the defensive end because he's not in that starting role, because he mentioned it after the game, he's like, I've only been used to being a starter, I've never really been in this role before. So it's just something interesting to keep an eye on there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and going back to kind of what you're talking about with like the bigs that they're gonna be running into. So, I mean, with recorder with technically Wednesday, tonight when the Badgers play Nebraska, that rank masked guy is really good. Like he's gonna be he's absolutely gonna be a problem. They're gonna need Winter, they're gonna need Bele Alskis, they're gonna need God, they might even need Will Garlic down there to guard him a little bit, maybe just to you know, maybe take a foul or two if they need to. But I think that's that's the Big Ten, though. Like you're gonna be running into that all year.
SPEAKER_03:So that wasn't a dynamite transition to the next point. That was dynamite, the game coming up against Nebraska tonight. There you go. I think you're 100% right with the rank mass thing. I think it's gonna be a lot on Nolan Winter tonight to control him because I don't think Bielowskis, because rank mass is a good three-point shooter, I don't know if Bialowskis can get out on him there because he might be get beat off the bounce. I think it's gonna be a lot on Nolan Winter. Maybe even a guy like I don't know if you you would sacrifice a little bit of height there with a guy like Braden Carrington, may you know, just a little or roadie? Yeah, a little bit of, I mean, a little bit of height, but rank mass loves to play out on the perimeter a little bit. So if you can keep him out of the post area, maybe you'd be fine in that sense there. But I mean, this is a good Nebraska team coming into this one. They've had a a good season so far, they're undefeated right now. You're heading.
SPEAKER_01:No connerseion, though.
SPEAKER_03:No contrastion, darn it, darn it, right? Darn it.
SPEAKER_01:Kind of wish he was in there. Let him let him launch seven or eight threes and maybe hit one or two.
SPEAKER_03:I know. I want to see him try to beat Wisconsin by himself and end up failing there. So, so Christian, I gotta run here. Make sure you guys checking out that badger game tonight here. Eight o'clock, though. Should be a fantastic game. Christian's gonna be back on Saturday. Saturday here. He's gonna be back on Saturday. We're gonna talk about the game. We're gonna recap that game and then we're gonna look ahead to who do they got coming up after? What do they got coming up this week?
SPEAKER_01:Is it is it Milwaukee? No, I can't remember off the top of my head.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, isn't it some weird team? Villanova. Villanova coming up. Oh, they got Nova?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. Nova just got smoked by Michigan.
SPEAKER_03:Nova just got smoked by Michigan. So we're gonna find out what Wisconsin can do against Michigan after that one there. So we're gonna recap this Nebraska game coming up on Saturday here on the show for you guys. So, Christian, let thank you as always for hopping on tonight. Let the people know where to find you out there across social media.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. At Christian Borman on all my social media stuff, and make sure you check out and subscribe to the Badger Backer.
SPEAKER_03:Make sure you guys do it there. He has got fantastic stuff. He's tracking the transfer portal for you guys right now for Wisconsin football. Keeping an eye on that recruiting portal, that everything. Everything in between with Wisconsin football. He's got that covered. He's got Wisconsin sports down to a T. So make sure you guys check him out there. Badger Backer across all platforms there. So we're gonna come back here. We're gonna wrap up our number one. Look ahead to our number two when we come back here. 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, Ummer is stopping by. We're gonna talk a little packers here. This next segment 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 Ummer is here tonight. Ummer, how are we doing on this Wednesday? I mean, we got snow here in Wisconsin. How are you guys doing out there?
SPEAKER_02:It's freezing. It is cold, cold, cold, but no snow. Um, but definitely uh how how cold is it for you guys? We're like in uh between the 20s and 30s.
SPEAKER_03:How cold is it for us? Well, yesterday, yesterday was super cold. Uh yesterday it was about 29. I believe this weekend, Saturday, the feels like temperature is supposed to be down to like negative 30, is what I thought I saw. I think the actual temperature is like five, the overnight's like negative 10. So it's gonna get cold fast. And then next week I saw Wednesday's like 35 degrees. So I don't know what's going on. I can't my body can't handle that. You're all over the place, right now. It can't handle that. My body needs once it gets cold. I tell I tell us my co-workers at work, I'm like, for the first week when it gets super cold, I'm gonna be useless. Yeah, because I need to my body needs to accustom itself to the cold. I need to like get I need to get ready for it. And then once I get accustomed to it, I'm fine for the rest of the winter. But I cannot handle the fluctuant temperatures because then my body gets thrown for a loop. I don't know what to do. It's just madness. It's just madness there. This is madness, anyways. Enough about my body and what's going on with that crazy mess. Let's talk some Packers because there was a there was an awesome game that we watched this last weekend here. A nail biter, gritty, I mean, an NFC North battle, right? And that's what I think I want to start with. I loved it because it was an NFC North battle between, I say it for the first time in a long time, the Bears are a good football team. And thank goodness, thank goodness, it makes it all better. Like, honestly, everybody's like, well, what do you would you rather have the Bears be bad for this? No, I don't want the Bears to be bad for the rivalry. It's not where you have rivalry when it's one-sided, right? I want to see where you have some good football games, you have two heated teams going at each other. That's what I want to see. Like, that's that's the that's the fan in me. I want to see good games. I want to see like Wisconsin and Marquette this last weekend, the in-state rivalry. Wisconsin beat him by 20. I don't want to see that. Like it was awesome to see them blow them out, like that's cool and all, because I'm big badger fans, don't really like Marquette. But at the same time, like, I want to see a good game, and I'm glad it's back. I mean, Umer, are you kind of in that same boat where you want to see the rivalry be good? You want to see the Bears be good because it adds the extra juice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm I'm opposite of that.
SPEAKER_03:You're the opposite. What?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I'm like you sound a lot like Jason Woldy. Waldy says the same thing. He goes, I want a good rivalry, I want a good game, I want I want it to come back. Me, no, I want total domination. I want total domination. I get it, like I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_03:Good team though, like I agree, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But if you don't want it, makes you better. Adverse team makes you better. So if you're playing teams that are as they're just as good as you or a little bit under you, it helps you prepare for playoffs. I think for many, many years that our division had its moments, but there are times it didn't. So that we were going to playoffs and just you know, we're playing a different type of caliber of teams, right? And so because of that, uh I feel like you know it has maybe softened us a little bit. And I think what the Packers have gone through this year has really showed them some resiliency, right? I mean, that Chicago game was good. I don't think Chicago's going away. I mean, with me being saying that, Chicago's not going away. Like they're here for a long run, you know, Ben Johnson and Cal Caleb Wills are gonna get it right. You know, that defense is opportunistic and it's gonna be a battle for years to come. I'm just hoping that LaFleur and Jordan can keep up their success against them.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, 100%. 100%. I agree with you there. And so let's start right there. Let's start right there. You're talking about the defense for the Bears, let's talk about the offense for the Packers a little bit. Jordan Love in that game. I still see the national media coming off that. They they talked about it to open up the show today. That, you know, I saw the video of Cam Newton on first take talking about Jordan Love and do you trust him in big games? And he's like, I've seen him against the Panthers and Browns and Cowboys, and he couldn't do anything in there. He can't handle the pressure. I was like, what do you mean he can't handle the pressure? He was nine for 12 against the Blitz against the Bears. He was fantastic. Like, I don't know, three touchdowns against the Blitz in that game against the Bears. I don't know what else you want from the guy in a big moment in a big game. But, anyways, that's enough about that. Jordan Love in this game had the one bad interception. Outside of that, he played a pretty good game. I want to go, let's start with the offensive line, though, for the Packers. Have you, I mean, have you seen the same thing as I have where I love the combo of Sean Ryan and Anthony Belton up the middle? Just that combo since Elton Jenkins went out, and I love Elton Jenkins, but man oh man, Sean Ryan has played fantastic at the center spot, and then Anthony Belton right next to him has been huge for him. Zach Tom's been good. Aaron Banks is playing better. Actually, the only one I have any kind of problem with is Rasheed Walker because a video that Andy Herman put out there, I believe it was Andy Herman that put it out there where he was kind of dogging it on a play and kind of just let a guy go around him where it just seemed like he's like whatever. And it's kind of odd in the contract year. But let's start right there with the offensive line. We'll work to Jordan Love, work to the rest of the offense. Let's start with the offensive line. What have you liked from them from what you've seen? Because I've just been totally impressed.
SPEAKER_02:Honestly, I'll the one thing that got me about that offensive line is like you just said, with Ryan and Belton being kind of incorporated into the offensive line, we really have seen some continuity finally across the line. Our run game for the most part. I just feel like it's I'm not saying it's 100% better, it just feels better because you're right. Because Rasheed Walker missed like four run blocks in that game, and Aaron Banks played pretty decent. I think Ryan and Belton are having their their their their like you know learning curve, a little bit bumps in the road as they're you know, trial by fire kind of stuff. Zach Tom is legit Zach Tom, but overall, like the offensive line has made it to where I felt like before it was where it is right now, Jordan's eyes were going down. He wasn't looking downfield with the if the pocket was coming around him and he would get scared, he'd bail out, he'd try to throw off his back foot, which he does really well, but he would rush throws or he'd try to throw deep balls and he just wasn't gaining a little bit enough into it. I see him in a Detroit game and in this game, as well as at both Detroit, Minnesota, the all these games, he's seeing the pocket kind of come around him, and he's not he's not in it's not impacting his ability to see down the field. And he's he's seeing guys, he's throwing the ball downfield, he's having pressure directly in his face. And in the beginning of the year, when that not beginning of the year, but like after Rashi Um Jaden Reed got hurt, and then when Tucker got hurt too, when he would have that pressure in his face, he would take a sack or you know, he'd make a bad throw. He's not doing that now. I mean, he had a guy, a rusher, a clean rusher coming right at him, and he was able to throw a dart to Lucas Luke Musgrave. I got, I mean, I I think because the offensive line where it is right now, you're starting to see what Jordan really can be. Because the thing this year was if you had a clean pocket with no pressure, one of the best quarterbacks in the league. But if you have pressure and he was being blitzed, one of the worst quarterbacks in the league. These last four or five games, he's number one in both situations with a clean pocket and against the blitz. And I think a lot has to do with that continuity on the offensive line.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 100%. And you can see it in the command that he has in the offense right now, right? I love that command. And you saw it in a couple different plays. The hot routes that he's calling as of late here, seeing the coverage, seeing what's happening. I mean, that Christian Watson touchdown, he called it. He told him, like, you got man to man. Christian Watson's like, yeah, I got man to man. And he called that little slant to him there, hit him, boom, gone. And Christian Watson, I just want to hit that before we got to hit a little break. Yeah, you gotta come, you gotta, you gotta show him his love. Christian Watson, I'm gonna tell you this now, and I'm gonna tell I'm I want to hear what people have to say. Hit me up. 715-990-4914. 715-990-4914. Christian Watson, knock on wood, stay healthy for five minutes. He could be a number one wide receiver. Easily. He might be the number one wide receiver. He might be the Packers fans, everything in between, have been complaining about not having a wide receiver one for years now. It's because he's been hurt. It's because he's been down. He's there, and we're seeing it right now. The explosive place, turning what was just a slant route across the middle, what we've seen in the past, the Dobbs or Wicks or anybody like that, to a touchdown, just like that. That's what Christian Watson can do. He can blow the top off of defense, he can also do some things across the middle. They had him in the backfield. I mean, he's everywhere. So, I mean, we're gonna talk more about that. I want to get your opinion on that, Elmer, here, when we come back from the break. We're gonna hit the break here. We're gonna come back. Hour number two of Wisconsin Sports on the Go trade. It's coming at you after this quick commercial break.