Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag is a podcast aiming at bringing you Wisconsin sports news and opinions everyday! Follow the podcast and check out the Facebook and instagram page!
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Packers' Victory Deep Dive, Malik Willis and Quay Walker Analysis, and Badgers' QB Transition – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag
Ready to master the intricacies of Wisconsin sports? Tune in and uncover the secrets behind the Green Bay Packers' recent thrilling victory over the Indianapolis Colts. We analyze Matt LaFleur's insights on Jordan Love's readiness and Malik Willis' solid performance, despite the team's run-heavy approach. We'll break down the key plays, strategic decisions, and the importance of balancing running and passing games to keep the Packers on top. Catch our deep dives and live interactive discussions on Twitch and Twitter!
Next, we spotlight the talents and potential of Malik Willis and Quay Walker. Willis brings more than just skill to the field; his positive attitude and dedication make him a locker-room gem. On the other hand, Walker's undeniable athleticism shines, but his run-stopping and block-shedding need refinement. We'll discuss how mentorship from veterans like Rashan Gary and Preston Smith could be pivotal in elevating Walker’s performance, making him a more formidable force on the field.
Lastly, we address the seismic shift for the Wisconsin Badgers following Tyler Van Dyke's season-ending ACL tear and the rise of sophomore quarterback Braden Locke. After facing Alabama's daunting defense, Locke’s performance offers a glimpse of hope, but also highlights areas needing improvement. We explore Coach Luke Fickle's leadership and the roles of coordinators Longo and Trestle within the unique challenges of Wisconsin’s recruitment landscape. Join us for an in-depth look at the strategies and potential paths forward for the Badgers, aiming to keep their competitive edge amid adversity.
How we doing everybody and welcome in to Wisconsin sports. On to go with trade. I'm your host, trade. It is Tuesday, september 17. Oh my, we're already. It's already almost the end of September. I mean it's getting late in the year already. We can tell the sports seasons are just heating up, right. College football is in full swing. We have the nfl kicking I mean kicking off with a bang so far here, and baseball right around the corner. We're gonna be talking about october baseball here as we watch the brewers and phillies, two top teams in their respected divisions and in the nl, squaring off right now in milwaukee. So it can't, it cannot get better than this, except except for March Madness. Right, march Madness, this time of year, it's, it's close. It's close. If you're a basketball fan, you lean one way, but if you're a football, it's this time of year, right, here, right. So it's going to be a little short of an episode today, a little bit shorter today here, not live today, looking to go live probably tomorrow night. So if you want to find the show live, want to comment in on Twitter, on Twitch, I believe we're going to be on Twitch there. Wisco Sports on the go on Twitch. Also on Twitter Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. You can find it live on both locations there. Trying to get live on Facebook, it's a lot to get onto each platform there. Going to be trying to get onto Facebook here soon and get all three platforms rolling there.
Speaker 1:But today let's get into a little bit of Packer talk here. We talked about Packers yesterday. They had an impressive win over the weekend there. A gutsy win let's not go as far to say impressive, but we're going to go gutsy, gritty, whatever you want to use for it was a barn burner of a game, but they got the job done against the Indianapolis Colts. It was a barn burner of a game, but they got the job done against the Indianapolis Colts. So a great win over the weekend.
Speaker 1:We saw Matt LaFleur spoke to the media there yesterday One of the biggest things that I took out of there outside of. He did mention about, you know, jordan Love and everything like that, and they asked him about the way Malik Willis played. They asked if that is going to change his thoughts right, if that changed his thoughts about the plan moving forward, and he's kind of like no, that had nothing. The way that he played will not change how I feel going forward, because Jordan Love's the guy right and if Jordan Love is ready to go, jordan Love's going to be in there. If he's not, he's not right, then we stick with Malik. They trust in Malik, they think that Malik has the talent, he has the ability to get them wins while Jordan Love is out. But if Jordan Love can play, he's in there. No doubt in my mind, no doubt in Matt LaFleur's mind, he's starting Jordan Love when he's ready. So that's what we got out of, that little first statement there.
Speaker 1:But he also went on to say they asked him a question about the playbook. Right, if he was going to open up the playbook more. Moving forward here with malik, we saw a lot of runs, right, we saw a lot of runs, not a lot of paths. He was, I think one of the reporters said like 80 20 right, and matt lafleur, he said the playbook was open for malik willis there, but running the football was the game plan. Don't count out the pass. Moving forward, essentially where he went with the whole conversation, he didn't count out the pass. You know he mentioned in his thing he had a couple of nice plays. Malik did the downfield throw to Rome where Rome went up and made a play, right, you're in situations like that. It was a goal ball to Rome. On the third I think it was like third and five or something like that they ran a goal ball to Rome. That's what they wanted, you know, and Roman up made a play. He's one of their playmakers out there in that wide receiver court, so that's what you wanted to see. He had another one to Wicks there. That'll check down play to Wicks and then also even a craft, like craft, made some big plays.
Speaker 1:So the past game wasn't completely out of it, it was. I mean, you went into a game yes, the run, you wanted to run the football. I mean, that was you. You can't go, you can't get out of that game and say we weren't planning on running the football that much. It just happened that way. But it kind of did right Because you went into that one. You said we want to run the football right now. We want to run the ball in this game.
Speaker 1:We don't want to make Malik have to win this game with his arm, but it just so happened. We were finding holes, the offensive line was playing well, tucker Kraft was playing well, blocking at the tight end spot right. Everything was flowing so well. Why would you change the game plan? Why would you change and just start making Malik throw the ball around when it's working so well to keep on running right? So it wasn't like we were avoiding the pass is what LeFleur was trying to say, but in my mind you were avoiding the pass until you had to right. You didn't want to make Malik throw the ball until he had to. I don't think that they don't trust him. I think they trust Malik to be able to sling it around right if he has to, but they don't right. It's one of those kind of things where you don't want to make him do it until he has to right. So that's what we still.
Speaker 1:That's what we got out of there with LeFleur was that the playbook it was open didn't really need the whole thing A lot of. There's a lot of moving pieces, right. A lot of moving pieces, a lot of options, a little bit of everything in that game. And I mean all in all, you come out of there and the game plan was spotty Like. You cannot sit there and complain about the game plan.
Speaker 1:The game plan was great heading into that one and it worked out well, right, and, like LaFleur said in that same press conference asking him about you know the game plan going into that one and if it would have to change, against the Titans, because the Titans are going to see everything that you know the Packers did against the Colts, what worked, what didn't work, what they did to you know, beat the Colts ultimately and I mean, yes, the game plan is going to change, right, like LaFleur said, the game plan is going to change. You're going to have to make bits and pieces. You're going to have to make bits and pieces. You're not going to make this. You're not going to go into the game against the Titans and try to do. You're going to want to do the exact same things, but the Titans are going to try to take away those things. So how do you adapt, right? So it's going to be watching game film, finding their. There's got to be a weakness on every defense, right, finding a weakness, finding a weakness, finding a hole, something that you could take advantage of, working through that spot, doing the little things throughout the game. So it's going to be like it was this last week against the colts, what lafleur, what you know halfley had to do on defense while lafleur did on offense. It's going to be a lot of that going into next week.
Speaker 1:They're trying to come up with a game plan that's going to be right for malik willis and you know malik willis even touched on it after the game there. He said LaFleur always knows how to put us in the right spot. He knows how to help us succeed and that's what I think really sets LaFleur apart from some other coaches in the NFL. Iver Flus down there with the Bears right, take a shot at the Bears there. He knows how to put his quarterback, whoever it is, in the right spot to win. Because I saw some doorknob Lions fans and Bear fans. They were all saying, well, malik Willis can get a win. So that just tells you that Jordan Love's a system quarterback. They changed the playbook. You cannot watch that game and say Malik Willis was running the offense the same way. Jordan Love would have ran it right. It was different. It was different. But Matt LaFleur drew up a game plan that would benefit Malik Willis just like he would for Jordan Love.
Speaker 1:You look at that game one against the Eagles. I thought the Packers should have ran it a lot more. I really did. I thought they went away from the run when I thought they should have went towards the run a little bit more Early on. They were relying on Jordan Love to make the plays. That's fine, but you almost want it to be like a 60-40 kind of game, if you can be right. You want to use that run game when you can. We saw it work against the Colts. They didn't use it as much against the Eagles until late.
Speaker 1:Game plans change right. Game plans change week to week. If Matt LaFleur can draw you up a game plan in this one, I'm not worried. I'm not worried, especially with a guy like Matt LaFleur drawing up a game plan. I'm not worried about this game against the Titans if Malik is the one who has to go Because Love he's still week to week.
Speaker 1:Lafleur said it there. He would love to see Jordan Love get some practice time before going out there. You don't know if that's going to be the case, if that's going to be able to happen. We saw the Ian Rapp report that breaking news was going on all over the place that he won't be back till week five. Matt LaFleur is not saying anything like that so far. He's kind of putting it as we could see Jordan Love before that he's. You know, he said he was in the weight room. He was in the training room there doing some of his work. So he's slowly starting to get back. Maybe we see him before that week five game.
Speaker 1:It's all a wait and see. At this point, it's all a wait and see. When Jordan Love feels like he is about 100%, that's the way I'm going with it. If he feels like he's 100%, he's ready to go. You're throwing him back out there. That's plain and simple. Right, if it starts to go ugly, maybe he comes back a little bit sooner.
Speaker 1:It it's not like it's a have to at this point. Right, malik Willis got to win. Right, you're one and one. Right now. He got you a win. If you can beat the Titans, you're two and one heading into that Vikings game. That Vikings team is a dangerous team. I keep saying it, I keep watching them. That Vikings team is a dangerous team. Jordan Love comes back against the Vikings. You'd love it. If Malik Willis has to go, it's uh, at some point your defense, like we saw against the colts, they got to be able to step up in those spots. When you're missing key pieces like that, the offensive line has still got to play their game right. Everybody's still got to do their thing. It's just the game plan has got to change a little bit quarterback to quarterback, right. So I mean, that's what we're seeing there. Jordan love still week to week. As of what matt lafleur had to say there, you know they, they talked.
Speaker 1:I saw a quote. Actually, I'm going to get to that. First, I saw a quote about Malik Willis. I found it out there on the internet and you know, the more I read into it, the more I saw that it was actually a true quote on this and Malik Willis this was from a Colts fan that actually put this out there. I don't know if it was on facebook, I just saw the post on facebook. I don't know if it was originally on facebook there, but he, this guy, came out no name on it. So whoever it was, if you hear this or whatever, kudos to you on putting this out there. Thank you for the great quote. He said I'm a colts fan, so of course I'm disappointed in their performance today.
Speaker 1:However, when malik willis was in indianapolis for the draft combine, someone captured footage on their cell phone across the street of malik handing out all of his combine swag to a homeless man. In indy they uh, they give the player t-shirts, hoodies, etc. He gave it away and tried to do it discreetly, with no hype or attention or credit. He is a great dude with a great heart and I'm happy for him that he played so well. Keep being you, malik willis. I'll never forget that gesture.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Like I gotta be honest, like I am almost 98 sure 90, I'm 99 sure that this is true, that this whole quote is true right here, that this guy, this is what they saw and everything like that. And that's awesome. Like that's the guy I don't care if he's a backup quarterback, if he's the backup kicker, I don't care what he is. That's a dude that I want in the locker room because that's a dude who I mean. That's a dude you want anywhere right on your team. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:So hats off to Malik Willis. I mean you can tell and watching him play and everything. He is just this. He's a good-hearted dude. Like end of the day, he is one of those kind of guys, right, you get some of your professional athletes where you just want to kick their head. You just want to kick them in the side of the head sometimes, right, and I get that with LeBron James sometimes, right, I just want to kick him in the side of the head. He doesn't do anything that bad, I guess, but you just want to kick them in the side of the head.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is, but to hear something like this, it gives you hope, right, it gives you some of that hope that maybe not all professional athletes are stuck up sometimes, right. I mean, a lot of people came out of the Tyreek Hill situation thinking that was one stuck-up dude, right. And now you hear this about Malik Willis and you're like this is a good dude, like this is a good dude. I'm glad he's in Green Bay, whether it's a backup quarterback, whether I hear him see him, I need him ever, right. I mean that'd be awesome, right, but this is a great dude. So hats off to Malik Willis and I mean, keep doing you, like this Colts fan, keep being you, malik Willis. That was awesome and I'm glad. I am glad that he's getting a shot to put some of his, put some of his talents forward on the football field. Yes, it came at the expense of Jordan Love getting hurt, which isn't great. I'm not going to say that's great, but I'm glad that Malik Willis gets to show it off on the football field a little bit more here. Maybe, just maybe some team if the Packers don't decide to keep him around or whatever it is some team out there sees this and they're like, hey, we could give him a shot in here. You know, you just hope for guys like that that they find a way somewhere else to make things happen. So that was an awesome quote that I read there on the Internet there yesterday.
Speaker 1:But moving on here, a couple more Packer tidbits that I want to get to for the day here. Lots of people calling for Kway Walker to get benched yet and I just wanted to give my thoughts on it. I just wanted to give my thoughts on the whole Quay Walker situation. Quay Walker is one of the most athletic linebackers, if not the most, I think he might be the most he is. He is probably the most athletic linebacker the Green Bay Packers have. I really do think, right.
Speaker 1:So where does his issue come in? He, I mean in the open field. He makes tackles. He's a good in pass coverage. Where's his problem, right? His problem comes stopping the run, and it seems like Quay Walker's always there, right, if you watch back. I watch the game film, I watch all this stuff here. I'm watching the game live or whatever it is it always seems like Quay Walker is there, right, but he blows past the play or he's in the wrong spot, right. Sometimes, you know, honestly, my thing with Quay Walker isn't as much the talent's there, right, the talent's there. This dude has talent. He has. I think he has a ton of upside.
Speaker 1:What I think is, and what I've said before, is Quay Walker needs to play discipline. I don't think he plays discipline. That's my problem with Quay Walker. It's not the fact that he doesn't have the talent I'm not going as far as benching him yet but what I think is that I don't know what it's going to take, right, I'm not in the locker room, I'm not'm not the linebackers coach, I'm not jeff halfley, right, but somebody in that room, somebody on that defense.
Speaker 1:They've got to be able to help him develop into a more disciplined, because the dude flies around, he's, he can make plays, you know he can make plays, right. He can't shed a block, right. That's a problem. He can't shed a block. So maybe you got it.
Speaker 1:There's bits and pieces to his game that need to be fixed, that need to be worked on. I don't know if that's more. I mean you look at this defensive line. You look at guys like Rashawn Gary. Maybe Rashawn Gary needs to work with Quay Walker a little bit more on shedding blocks right. Or even looking like a veteran like Preston Smith who's been there, done that. Some of those guys right, they I mean Rashawn Gary. He finds his way into the backfield a couple of times here and there. Maybe some of these guys need to step in and say, hey, quay, let's work a little extra, let's do a little extra here Shedding this block. You know working on shedding these blocks. You know Jeff Halfley working with them on being more disciplined right, letting the play, seeing the play, vision right.
Speaker 1:Matt LaFleur preaches vision, using vision right. I mean he dropped an interception. Right. Being disciplined, calm, under controlled, disciplined football. Right. We talked about it yesterday there. I mentioned the packers defense and how they did play disciplined against anthony richardson and his ability to get outside the pocket and run. They played very disciplined football keeping them in that pocket. Not, they blitzed, they blitzed all day long, right, but they played discipline. They sat back, they didn't allow Richardson to get out of there do his thing.
Speaker 1:So I'm not completely done with Quay Walker, like a lot of people want to be. I think Quay Walker needs work yet now. You would hope right, the hope was is that he would develop a little bit faster than what he has, because it has been. It's been a little bit right. It's been a little bit now for quay. He's had his moments, right. I mean we talk about the ejections and everything like that. He's had his moments. I feel like he's been getting a little bit level-headed now. Now it's about the play on the field right being disciplined, under control, doing your thing at the middle linebacker spot. So I'm not going to go as far as benching Clay Walker at this point, but what I'm going to say is he needs work yet. He definitely needs work yet.
Speaker 1:Last but not least, I actually got two more things. I want to get to Narveson. I wanted to get to Narveson today because there is too many people. Too many people out there are already saying are we really going to stick with this rookie kicker who's six for eight on the season? Are we really going to stick with him? To my answer yes, yes, we're going to stick with him. He's six for eight. I get that you want to get nervous, that's fine, you can be nervous. I get that you want to get nervous, that's fine, you can be nervous. He's I mean, he's nervous. Right, he's come up in a couple of pressured spots. Now, I'm not saying that he's not an NFL kicker and he shouldn't be able to make those kicks in pressured spots, right, but he's a rookie.
Speaker 1:His first miss came in Brazil. The second miss came in Lambeau. I would be more nervous if that one in Lambeau missed wide right by 15 yards, maybe even five, maybe even five feet. I'd be a little more nervous. Right, it missed the flag. I mean, it went over the flagpole just to the right right. It went over the pole, whatever you want to call it there the field goal post. It went over to the right of it. I mean what want to call it there? The field goal post. It went over to the right of it. I mean what? Maybe? Uh, not even a foot right. I'm not worried, I'm not sitting here worried about that.
Speaker 1:Six for eight has not missed an extra point yet. Six for eight on the season. I believe his two misses are from 40 to 49. Inside of that he's been money so far. Knock on wood, right. Knock that. He's been money so far. Knock on wood, right, knock on wood. He's been money so far. We just got to relax. We got to relax. We got to let Jordan Love come back before we start freaking out, right? We're freaking out right now about our kicker and we don't even have our starting quarterback out there right now.
Speaker 1:Yes, it would have been great if he would have made that kick against the Colts, right, would have made that end of that game, zero pressure, right. But what if Josh Jacobs doesn't fumble the football? So do you want to blame that game? Because I saw people quoting that. Well, he missed that crucial kick against the Colts there. It was crucial. Yeah, I will 100% agree with you. It was crucial in that spot. But what I will say, too, is do you blame Josh Jacobs, then, for fumbling the football going into the end zone? Do you blame it on them Because that was a touchdown, right? Do we blame it on Josh Jacobs, then? Because that was a crucial touchdown too. That was 17-0 at that time. 17-0, 17-0. It was 17-0 at that time. I believe it would have put the Packers up 17-0. Do we blame that fumble and the close win on Josh Jacobs. No, we don't.
Speaker 1:We don't sit here magnifying Josh Jacobs. Why are we magnifying Narveson for a miss there? Right, If it continues. If in the crucial spots he can't hit all season long, now we start to worry. Right, if it continues. If in the crucial spots he can't hit all season long, now we start to worry. Right, if we get to mid-season and it seems like every crucial kick is a miss, okay, now we got to look a little bit deeper here. Now we got to figure it out, or we got to find somebody right. Until then, you have a rookie kicker who in two games, has gone six for eight as long as 46. He's missed two of them from 40 to 49 yards. We just gotta take a breath, we gotta relax. It'll be okay, it'll all be okay. I'm the guy who freaks out all the time, right, my job is to like blow up. That's what I do a lot. We have our we have our overreaction mondays, right. Sometimes I'm good. Let's just take a breath, we'll be good. Right, we'll be good there Next.
Speaker 1:Last but not least, with the Packers here, tucker Kraft getting more snaps than Musgrave. Why is that? Why is Tucker Kraft getting more snaps than Musgrave. Well, we went off of game one Packers a lot more pass. They weren't really using the 12, right, they weren't really using the double tight end set there. So Musgrave didn't see a lot of time. So a lot of Tucker craft there. But in hindsight, why is he receiving more time? Well, number one against the Colts they ran the ball right.
Speaker 1:Tucker craft is a better blocker than Luke Musgrave. That's just plain and simple. I mean you look at him blocking out in the open field. Tucker Kraft is an excellent blocker. So that is your first thing. You look at there. He's a great blocker. I mean you watch the game film back.
Speaker 1:Every time they ran the football they followed Kraft. Right, that's just how it was. They followed Kraft wherever he was going. They followed Kraft wherever he was going and he set great blocks down the field. So that's number one reason why Tucker Kraft is getting a lot more time. Number two he has developed into a good route runner and pass catcher. I mean he wasn't terrible last season. I'm not saying that he was terrible, but what I think is he's developed a lot.
Speaker 1:Right, they utilize him in the pass game. I mean you look at him this season here. Looking at him on the season, he's got four catches there, I believe. Just to get four catches on five targets for 53 yards. Not bad, not bad. Tucker Kraft is doing his thing, right. Tucker Kraft is doing his thing, not bad. Tucker craft is doing his thing, right. Tucker craft is doing his thing.
Speaker 1:So, in hindsight, why is tucker craft receiving more time than luke musgrave? I believe tucker craft I don't know if, uh, matt lafleur wants to admit this or not because he didn't right, they compared snaps, they compared everything. I don't know if he wants to admit this or not, but I'm pretty sure tucker craft won the job. Like, just be honest, just just being honest, from my, what I've seen is that tucker craft has developed more than luke musgrave. He's more versatile, right, I don't have to run this set where I'm throwing luke musgrave out there on pass routes and if we're going to run the ball, tucker craft is out there, right.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's like a mercedes lewis kind of thing, right, you don't really pass the Mercedes Lewis, you just wanted him out there for the run blocking. It's one of those kinds of situations where now you have a tight end who you can utilize. In both situations. You want him out there for the run. You know he can catch passes. I mean, end of the day, that's the guy you want out there. So to me, tucker craft has, I mean, taking a lot more snaps. He's been in there on more snaps and I think that's right. I think that's the way that they got to flow with it.
Speaker 1:Luke Musgrave is a fine tight end. I'm not dissing on Luke Musgrave. Luke Musgrave is going to get his time right. He's going to get his time in there. But as of right now, I'm all for Tucker Kraft getting time because he is playing well. He is playing well. He deserves it. I mean run, blocking pass, catching pass, route running. I mean great, great on all ends there. So great stuff there out of Tucker Kraft. Great talk there with the Packers. I want to get to the Badgers now. I want to get to a little bit of Badger talk here. Badgers now. I want to get to a little bit of Badger talk here.
Speaker 1:The breaking news coming out of yesterday was that Tyler Van Dyke is now done for the season with an ACL tear. Not great news. Not great news on that front. So what now? What now? Right, the question is when your starting quarterback goes down. What now? Well, if you listen to me, through weeks one and two and three now excuse me, there I've thought the offense has struggled to find its footing already. Now you lose your starting quarterback. Now you have to turn to the sophomore there in Braden Locke. Now it's not the end of the world, so don't get me wrong. It's not the end of the world. I mean end of the day. You play with what you got right. You play with who is healthy. You get out there. You try to win football games. So, braden, you get out there, you try to win football games. So Brayden Locke is now the man in Madison.
Speaker 1:I didn't think he played great. He didn't play great in the game against Alabama. He didn't play. I didn't think he played terrible, I thought he was kind of just. He played okay, right.
Speaker 1:So, moving forward, what do you got to see out of Brayden Locke to feel comfortable? Well, you got to see him get into a rhythm. I thought that was the biggest thing that we didn't see against Alabama him getting into a rhythm. Now, it's tough to do it mid-game, right. It's tough to do it in a game. It's tough to do it zero time in a game against an opposing team, right, all season long All he had to go off of was training camp. Now, what makes you feel better was that, coming out of training camp, it was a battle. Right, all we heard was it was a battle. You know, it was a close battle between him and Tyler Van Dyke all summer long, all into the fall, everything like that. It was this close battle of the fall. Everything like that. It was this close battle. So now we get into. Okay, if it was a close battle, we shouldn't really take that big of a step back, right, I don't think we will as much.
Speaker 1:I thought his performance against alabama showed a lot of rust. Right, it took him a little while to get on rhythm. He was throwing behind guys. It didn't seem like he was on. So now you had to play usc. He has. He has the talent.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to sit here. I don't think that Brayden Locke is just this no talent, no good quarterback that the Badgers have sitting there in the backup spot that we're going to throw out there and we're just screwed. I don't think that Luke Fickle and Phil Longo as much as I don't really trust in Phil Longo right now I don't think that that's what they're throwing out there. I think Braden Locke has some potential. I think he has arm talent right. He's got a big arm. We saw him air it out over Will Pauling's head there in Madison. He's got the arm right.
Speaker 1:Now it's about accuracy. Now it's about hitting those deep throws. Can he be accurate, right, is he going to? You know, I talked about it coming out of that Alabama game was that at times it felt like he held onto the ball too long. So now it's about getting into the rhythm of the game, right. Feeling the game, feeling the pressure, knowing when you got to get out of the pocket, knowing when you got to step up it's all those little things. Right, I thought he played rushed against Alabama. I thought he wasn't thinking. You know it was. It's a tough game to get thrown into right, especially against a great defense, a good team in Alabama. Right, it's a tough game to get thrown into. I think it's going to be a lot of. That game is going to help, simply because I don't think USC's defense is as good as what we saw in Alabama's defense and I thought Brighton Locke going up against that Alabama defense there is going to help him moving forward, because it's going to get. I think it's going to give him a little bit of confidence, right, and, all in all, I just I really think that Braden Locke, I'm going to hope, I'm going to hope, I'm going to give a hope here. I think that Braden Locke can find a groove. I really can. I think he can find a groove.
Speaker 1:I don't think the Badgers are just going to go into this complete plummet. I don't think they're going to plummet to the bottom of a cliff right now. If they weren't plummeting before, I don't think they're going to plummet now. Right, there's a lot of Badger fans out there who think the Badgers are plummeting. So I don't think that the Badgers are just going to fall into this abyss. I think they're going to be able to hang on. I think they're going to give teams some troubles. Right, that's the hope. That's the hope. Right, they're going to give some team troubles. That's what we got to hope for. I mean, end of the day, that's what we got to hope for. This is a. You know, you look at the rest of the team. It's the same situation that we're looking at with the Packers and Malik Willis.
Speaker 1:Right, brayden Locke needs the offensive line to continue to play better, like just like we saw against Alabama. I thought the old line played better against Alabama than they did against Western Michigan and South Dakota. I thought they got better. I really did. So the offensive line has got to continue to play better.
Speaker 1:Give him time in the pocket right Malusi Tyree, walker Dupree whether it's Dillian in there, I Dupree, whether it's Dillian in there, I mean, what's his name? Katie Akamele Jackson, I don't care who it is coming out of the backfield. They got to find ways to be able to get yards right. Find the hole, get yards right. That's big for a young quarterback who's just trying to find his footing there. Wide receivers got to help him out there and, last but not least, phil Longo's got to help him out. Phil Longo has got to draw up a better game plan than what we've seen so far, because that leads into my next topic that I want to talk about. It's kind of in the same group. There.
Speaker 1:I've seen a lot of people saying that, a lot of people across social media and everything like that, saying that the clock is ticking on Luke Pickle, that we haven't seen what we've wanted to see so far. So now we're to this point where we're giving up on Luke Fickle. Maybe it wasn't a great hire, everything like that. Well, I'm going to tell you this now I don't think I was completely sold on Luke Fickle right off the bat. I've kind of bought into it a little bit. Right, I think he's got the potential to turn around the program. My biggest thing is I don't think he brought the best team along with him Longo and Trestle, right, I don't think those two are good coordinators.
Speaker 1:I really don't. Longo is not this air raid, whatever this crap is that we're throwing out week after week. I don't like it. I don't Trestle's defense. I don't like Trestle's defense that time. I mean, we dissected the whole thing yesterday. If you didn't hear the talk about the defense or anything like that, go back to yesterday's show. I gave the recap there, so I'm not going to go through it completely again today. But I have not liked those two as coordinators since they walked through the door. So before we're talking about canning fickle, I think we got to look at those two. I think we got to look at those two first. Right, you know that leads you into them.
Speaker 1:With fickle, was the rebuild worse than what we thought, right, with fickle coming in, we saw some of the guys, some of the talent that he had. Leftickle coming in, we saw some of the guys, some of the talent that he had left over from Paul Chris and some of the guys that weren't really you know, the not-so-good talent that Paul Chris left. Was this rebuild that Luke Fickle had to do? Was it a little bit harder? Was it going to be, you know, wider, A longer span? That's what I'm looking for, a longer span than what we thought and that could be what.
Speaker 1:You know, what we're feeling, what we're seeing, is that he doesn't have the talent he wants yet. He doesn't, truthfully, have the right recruits that he wants yet. Right, these young quarterbacks that he has in the room now, matatur and LaCruz also in there yet, and then we see Paskiovich is also in there. Yeah, those three guys, freshman quarterbacks on the roster. One of those guys are they actually the guys that he wants to fit his system Right? The glorified Paul Christ offense is what I like to call it, because it's a lot more run than air raid, right? It's all of those things that I think we have to look at before we completely say let's just fire on luke, luke, fickle. Let's fire him. Let's get rid of him. Right, we're done with him. Let's go find somebody else.
Speaker 1:At the time this was a big time hire. Now everybody seems to be turning the door on him in his second year. I'm the first to shut the door on somebody and I'm going to say right now I'm dialing it back a little bit, I'm dialing it back a little bit. I'm letting it progress. If it gets to year three and we don't see any progress, then you come back to this show and I will be blowing a lid.
Speaker 1:Last but not least, wisconsin has a higher academic standard. Now, I know they fluctuated that a little bit there, but the higher academic standards there, plus NIL money you cannot forget about NIL money. There in Madison the Badgers don't have a lot of NIL money to be thrown around. This whole new NIL bullcrap that they're throwing around college sports personally to me, ruined the game that we loved, that we were loving for years. It ruined it Right. And I said right off the bat, when they did this whole NIL and all these you know the endorsement deals and everything like that I said there was a smart way to do it and there was the wrong way to do it. And I thought they you know, there was this dam and on one side, on the other side of that, you had all the student athletes, everything like that, the complainers that were going completely bananas. Right, and instead of just cracking the damn a little bit more, maybe just open up the bell and let some of it go, right, they cracked that baby, they blew it up, they blew up the damn. Colleges gone, everything gone. We have a select few now select few colleges where players actually look at the rest, just kind of disperse to everybody else. 100%, it's made a wider playing field.
Speaker 1:But you look at the football scene right now, where's everybody going? Right, sec's got the power schools. Right, they got the big money. And then you look back at the Big Ten you have Ohio State, you got Michigan. You have Ohio State, you got Michigan. You have teams like Oregon in there. Right, those are your big schools. Oregon's got a boatload of money to spend in the NIL department. Wisconsin doesn't, wisconsin doesn't. They have to disperse it everywhere else, not as high in the football game, right? So NIL money that has killed Wisconsin football. So we can blame it all on luke fickle, we can blame it all on the recruiting front and everything like that and getting the right players into the system. But at this point it has to come down to coaching, because we're back to barry alvarez leading three-star recruits, two-star recruits, building them up and just making them go right. That's where we're at right now. We need I I wouldn't start with what I mean in hindsight.
Speaker 1:Long story short. I'm not starting with luke fickle. If you're gonna fire, if you're going on this firing squad right now, trestle longo, bam gone, find somebody else to fill those roles. I am still praying deep down inside of me right now that the badgers find a way to bring Jim Leonard back. I really do. I know Jim Leonard is probably never coming back. There's probably a .00001% chance that Jim Leonard even decides to come back because he feels you know people say that he feels like the Badgers outed him of the head coaching spot and everything like that. I get it, but, dude, you aren't going to recruit. This gives you a spot to come back to Madison. I want him back. I'm going to be honest with you. I want Jim Leonard back in Madison. I really do. I really do. I miss those defenses. I really do. I miss those defenses under Jim Leonard. If you can find a way to get him back, that would solve a boatload of my problems. I'm going to be honest with you. It Now the Longo side of it just get rid of him, find somebody else. I did not think that his offenses were that great. At North Carolina I did not think they were that great. And now he came to
Speaker 1:Madison. We just expected this whole air raid crap show to just go fantastic. We were branding it the dairy raid. Everything was going to be great. It hasn't been great. So if you're going to start with any firings, you look at those two guys first, then you move on to pickle after that. If you go through defensive coordinators and offensive coordinators left and right, and it's still a crap
Speaker 1:show. Now we got to look further. Now you're looking at the whole regime. Now you're looking somewhere else for head coach, but right now, the way that the NIL system is set up and everything like that, the Badgers are a team that has to recruit guys who are going to develop, stay in the system and find a way to get them to the point where we are competing at a high level again. Right now it's about recruiting those kinds of guys and building them up over the years. We got some young guys right on this roster. We got some young guys, some youth that we're hoping to build off of. Those are the guys that you're looking for in the future there to be able to progress, and that Luke Fickle can get going there. You're hoping that the recruiting class is coming in. We'll help it out there. Same with the transfer portal, which I also think sucks, but the transfer portal will help them out in that facet there and they find a way. Right, they find a way
Speaker 1:there. So with that, that's about all I got for today. I mean the Brewers right now. Washington they're playing the Phillies right now three to one game here. I still dislike Hobie Milner, but he found a way to get out of the inning, so that's great. Great for him. Found a way to get out of the setting Brewers up three to one right now. Hopefully tomorrow we're talking about a Brewers win. We got more to get into with the Packers tomorrow there. We got more to get into with
Speaker 1:the. So, like I said, tomorrow hoping to get live on Twitch or Twitter. Find those at Wisco Sports on the go. You can find it in both locations. Otherwise, hoping to get live on Facebook at some point here. Tell your friends about the show. When you find me on the podcast sites, whether it's Apple, spotify, wherever it is make sure you drop a like Subscribe to the show there. Also, leave a review. Reviews help out tremendously. Let me know what you thought of the show. Anything like that, anything you thought of what I was saying. If it was wrong, if it felt like I was right, anything like that, would love to hear from you there. But with that, this has been Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, but until I talk to you guys again,