Jake Kocorowski, of Wisconsin Badgers on SI, joins Wayne & Matt to talk Badgers Football

Wayne and Matt dive into Badgers Football with Jake Kocorowski from Wisconsin Badgers on SI. Plus, they break down the key areas the Packers need to address this offseason.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I do wonder. I don't know how it would work,
and I'm not an economics professor. I'm not, you know,
an expert in many of those fields, But like I
do wonder, what would it be take just to make
them employees of an extent and that way you have
collective bargaining and then you have them sort of like
the NFL and whatnot, so that you have contracts laid

(00:20):
out so you're not seeing these players transfer every year
or there's negotiations every year or whatnot. To me, I
feel that's the you know that that's a good way Ford,
But I also don't know how much that affects Olympic
sports down the road and if schools need to cut
them or if there's a new classification that needs to
happen there.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
This is the Lavie La Pay Podcast, a production of
iHeartRadio Podcasts with host Swayne Lavi, the voice of the
Green Bay Packers, and Matt Lapey, the voice of Wisconsin
Badgers football and men's basketball. The Laravie La Pay Podcast
is presented by you w Credit Union.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Here for every U.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
Hi, everybody, I'm Wayne Larvivi and I'm Matt Lapet. On
this episode, of the Lara of Vila Pay podcast. In
our final episode of the season, we focus on the
Wisconsin Badgers and we're joined by j Ko Karowski of
the Wisconsin Badgers on SI, and we'll talk about the
Packers as if we get into OTA season, where are
they in Pro Football's toughest division. Stay tuned, We've got

(01:26):
good stuff coming up on the Lara Vila Pay podcast.
Ready to give fees the stiff arm. UW Credit Union
can help because since nineteen thirty one they've been committed
to eliminating fees for members joined today UWCU dot org
ensured by NCUA terms and conditions apply.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Well, one thing we haven't talked a whole lot about
throughout the course of spring ball because I'm trying to
get names and numbers straight with roster transition with the
Wisconsin football program. Going to talk a little Badger football
with Ja Kokorowski, who has covered Wisconsin football for more
than a decade, going back to twenty thirteen. He's a
UW and brad and now covers the Badgers or Wisconsin

(02:06):
Badgers on SI on Sports Illustrated. Most recently, Jake was
at the Wisconsin State Journal. Jay Kokorowski joins us. Now, well,
I'm happy to see Jake that first. Thanks for being
on with with us on our Larva and Lapay podcast.
Good to see you are still covering the team. But
we've all been we've all had these things happened. Business happens,

(02:27):
But covering this wisconsintine, this is a passion of yours,
isn't it.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, it's you know, one, thank you guys for having
me on and like, you know, talking to two living
legends in Wisconsin media. It's always great talking with y'all.
And you know, yeah, it's the way, you know, someone
put it this way in a loving manner that you know,
if you get laid off, you know, if you're no
longer there. It's kind of like a merit badge for
journalism nowadays. And it's like, oh hey, look again, I'm like,

(02:52):
oh yeah, sure we'd love the paycheck still, but yeah,
I guess I'll take that as a consolation prize. But yeah,
it's you know, it's it's kind of been a weird
hobby when I've started off with this in like with
an Obscure podcast back in twenty twelve with Scott Wisnowski.
The Cobasa King Sports Extravaganza. That's where I get my
email address that I use still for sports to Polish

(03:15):
American boys from the South side of Milwaukee talking sports
even though I live in Madison now and turn into
working for BUCkies fifth Quarter and then Badger Blitz and
then the State Journal and Badger Extra. You know, got
to the mountain top, if you will. In terms of
becoming you know, obviously becoming a reporter, I didn't really
ever become. I didn't ever think that I would ever

(03:36):
become something like this, and you know, very fortunate for
my time there. Still love everybody there at the State Journal,
but also fortunate to kind of now start giving back
at you know, Wisconsin Badgers on u S I a
site that's free. We do our best to churn out
a lot of quality content. And also now like my
goal now too is kind of give back to I
had guys like Tom mulhern, Matt you were great when

(03:56):
I was younger, Andy Baggott, those guys that were establish
that showed love and guy, you know, I had questions,
they helped me out. And now in this day and age,
it's something I hope to also give back to Ask
you know too, you know those that want to cover
Wisconsin football and basketball and athletics.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
And you know Jake and your business, and you know
you've been in it now for going on around fifteen
years or thereabouts. It's changed so much, hasn't it. I mean,
just the fact that I no longer get a newspaper
delivered to the house, you know, I've got to find
this stuff on the internet, that kind of thing. But
the whole it's really changed dramatically, hasn't it. It really has.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
I mean when we started podcasts and it wasn't really
good quality. It was us talking over a speaker phone
on our cell phones and me putting up a digital
voice recorder and then trying to go on garage band
on my Mac and then just adding some music that
was royalty free so we wouldn't get sued. Now we
have like we're talking over Zoom right now. There's Zoom there.

(04:57):
You know, Skype's been there for a while too. But
you know, working through technology just a landscape to where
you know, it's you have outlets that cover a beat,
you know beat, and then they condense down into more
national We've seen that a couple of times with like
Fox Sports and the athletic we've seen uh just you know,

(05:18):
the birth of like Bucky swithcore like espianation, so the
fans side of the blogs there and then how you're
seeing uh more, you know, just newspapers in general getting scrunched.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
So yeah, it really is.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
And you see some turn it into a lucrative independent
careers on Substack and those other outlets like that. So yeah,
it's it's changed. Uh you know, even just what you're
supposed to do as a reporter now, Like we're supposed
to know how to do podcasting and edit media that way,
and then we're supposed to go and do videos and
you try to do videos and uh be like a

(05:51):
TV reporter that way because people some people like visuals
and then you're all supposed to learn how that happens,
the types of shots. But then you're also supposed to
know how to write and so like being a multimedia
reporter is really key nowadays for a lot of kids.
I think the kid the kids this generation know more
that way and they're more adapt you know, adapted acclimated
to that. But yeah, it's it definitely is different from

(06:13):
you know when I used to read papers at the
you know, when Milwaukee as a kid at the Milwaukee
Journal Milwaukee that I know, and then you know coming
to Madison. Yeah, it's definitely changed even in the last
you know, five years.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Really well, your role is vital in covering the team
and all those who are are beat reporters and around
the team. And and I would argue more than ever
now because of roster changes and roster overhauls that are
going on in specific with the Wisconsin football team. All sports,
like real estate, all sports are local. Right, We'll let

(06:44):
ESPN talk about the Dallas Cowboys ad nauseum and the Lakers.
We'll talk about teams actually based in the state of Wisconsin.
You put together kind of you're recently your best guess
at a two D with Wisconsin football. And I'm going
through it, and you know, I was at most of
the spring practice is and it it really is starting
from scratch, isn't it, with with the with all the

(07:05):
new faces, defensive line, new quarterback room, so on and
so forth them. But I thought there was what I
took notes during spring taking a look, and I see
it about right. It's just gonna be on us as
as consumers, I say, I talk about fans and even
myself as a broadcaster just going to take a while
to try to get to know who these guys are,

(07:27):
right Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
I mean that's a challenge I think for all reporters
right now when it comes to I remember even being
at the State Journal and having there's a Facebook page
where you put all our articles and hey, someone commit.
A high school recruit commits this kids like a four
star recruit. You get those comments from kids from those
fans saying, oh, he's not going to sign it, he's
going to decommit. He's gonna in a year. If he
doesn't in two three years, he's going to transfer. In transfer,

(07:51):
you know, with transfers, it's oh, well, you know, how
long will they stay now in this age? And so
that's one thing as a reporter that we have to
do is informed, but also tell us stories about these
you know, players that you know, to tell the stories
about why they are they're important. Even just I had
a conversation Friday with he's a walk on long snapper
from Montreal, you know, Andrew Goodman, and it was just

(08:13):
kind of a hey, like, saw you committed on Instagram,
would be willing to talk, well, I'll be writing a
story later today and to tomorrow about how he's a Canadian.
He went from basically like I don't know if it
was Canadian Juco or whatnot, but a Canadian football league
over to the only D two college in Canada, which
is in British Columbia. They shut down the program. Then
he bounced to FCS and then to Tulane and now

(08:35):
is up here, all in a matter of a few years.
And so that's the kind of stories that are like
interesting to be like, when have you seen a kid
ever do that? And so, but also trying to talk
to a kid like Charles Perkins who is in that
too deep, who got a lot of first team reps
and you saw not not just receive him, but he
made plays. He was getting in the backfield. They love
his attitude, but you see on his field with his

(08:56):
twitch and his power like that. But you know, that's
just part of the you know, goal for reporters too,
is to tell the you know, tell these stories for
for fans to show why and like how they could
be impactful. I mean, Perkins is one of seven transfers
from the Winner off season that are either designated as

(09:16):
defensive linemen or outside linebackers, and then you talk about
the you know, quarterback room be being Redone one of
my goals this summer for a longer series or just
a longer article is just talking about how quarterbacks have changed,
you know, the recruiting the quarterbacks have changed in just
a few last three or four years since the real
like advent of the transfer portal coming on. Because it's

(09:37):
once again, you know, seventy five percent of the room
you know, is now changed over from last year to
this year. And you have Billy Edwards, you have to
get to know Daniel O'Neal, who I thought really improved
over the spring, and everyone's talking about Carter Smith, who's
this former Michigan four star recruit that obviously is the
kind of the prototype like Billy Edwards Junior in terms

(09:58):
of what they're looking for in quarterbacks. So yeah, it's
you know, it's very The one good thing with Wisconsin
and what they do is they also, you know, have
players available, and not all programs have that. Not all
programs do that for the reporter. So we've been able
to talk and get to know and build rapport of
these players that give us a chance to tell their
stories too.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
You know, it's interesting. Basketball coaches on the college level
have told me that they have had to go from
building programs to building rosters year to year. Now, that's
one thing to do when you're talking about a fifteen
man roster, But in football, I believe that what is
the roster them at one hundred and five at the
moment or something like that. You're talking about a big
group of people, and to try to rebuild that year

(10:42):
to year, even with the nil capacity that Ohio State
or Oregon has or a Texas this is not easily done.
Can you tell me about the challenge that is faced
by a program like Wisconsin where you're talking about a
significant portion of the roster turning over every year in
that program aspect as we knew it, where players came

(11:05):
in as freshman, maybe red shirt had played a little
bit as so you know what I mean, that kind
of thing, and four years later they were in an
All American. That's not happening anymore.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
No, it's not.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
And I'm actually to tease out an article on it
this week. I even started looking. It's been less than
a year since the twenty twenty four class, which was
Luke Fickles first ever like full recruiting class. He signed
the class of twenty twenty three, but they had a
month to like keep trying to keep some of the
commits that were on the you know, they were already
committed before they signed, and then go from there. But

(11:35):
like the twenty twenty four class was like the first
full class that they were really able to sink their
teeth into building relationships and you know out of like
the thing. It was like the twenty fourish scholarship signees,
I think I checked already seven or out of the program.
And so that's that's just I mean, that's a year
into the program that you're seeing guys, you know, almost
a third of the class you know, didn't necessarily pay off, right,

(11:57):
and so you have with this class, it's tough. And
you know with back at basketball and football both and
you know, great Guard's done a great job for Wisconsin
and just bringing in the transfers like Nick boyd uh
and and you know and and others. But you know,
with football, it's it's a case of you're seeing these
recruiting departments really expand out. You know, Pat Lambert does

(12:20):
high school recruiting, the director of recruiting. There you have
Marcus said Berry as the general manager, you have Ethan
Russo who's now the director of player development, uh and
with you know, and so they're building out these recruiting
staff support staff that can help the coaches, because it's
not just trying to see who's in the portal that
can help out. It's also trying to retain your players

(12:41):
nowadays too, where you're trying to you know, coaches have
to continually I think I feel they have to continually
recruit their own team and uh, you know, make sure
they can keep those players you know, happy to have.
You know, I'm sure that the coaching staff's is trying
to be as honest as they can by while also
trying to take care of the team. I mean, these
coaches are getting paid at least you know, the assistant

(13:01):
six figures you know, you see with Luke Fickles salary too.
So it's you know, they're trying to build the best
roster to compete year in year out. But you're also
not able to necessarily have like maybe let's say cornerback
for instance, where you see like a large axis in
the offseason, you know, they brought in a couple of transfers.
But you know, I also wonder too. You know, you guys,
you saw guys like Darius Hillary back in the day

(13:23):
at cornerback where you know, they had to take a
little bit of lumps, you know, early on, but then
they progressed into all conference players and so, but Luke
Fickley been talked about it during the early signing period
in December, talking about trying to get guys during springball
who are enrolling early to start playing earlier too. And
you saw some of that, like with Eugene Hilton Junior
and others too, and so yeah, it's not an easy

(13:44):
job because you constantly have to look at the portal
to see who could possibly fill some holes that you
see coming up. But it's also trying to retain those
players and keep the you know, the players happy that
you have on your roster right now.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
And they're and they're trying to do it. I don't
know the exact number. I don't think they would offer
that up anyway, but in terms of nil dollars, it
is not remotely close to Ohio State or the other
blue bloods. I mean Ohio State. Last year it was
said to be twenty million, and we're hearing that Texas
this coming year will be somewhere between thirty five and

(14:17):
forty million, So it only continues to get more and
more out of control. That said, I want to preface
this next question, Jake with a bit of a qualifier
because I've fooled myself a little bit in the last
couple of years watching spring walk because I saw what
I thought was really good individual talent and like, Okay,
they got a little something going here, and then the

(14:37):
season happens and it doesn't go nearly as well as
anybody over there at hoped. But that's said, as you
have witnessed the spring practices, We've talked about the defensive line,
quarterback room. What has jumped out to you the most
about having observed this team throughout the course of spring.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
I think.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Just I would say the offense, and just and some
fans that were at the public Spring football showcase on
April nineteenth, I think people will realize just I mean,
it's not obviously exact, but just how the offense kind
of mirrors more that run heavy emphasis that people talk
about with an identity. I know Luke talked about identity

(15:22):
even with Pete Dammel from ESPN, you know recently to
it's I think, you know, and again yeah, Hope springs
eternal right where every year where they had everyone. You know,
you've watched springball. I still remember back in twenty twenty
three during Luke's first spring Ball, and you're seeing the
air raid and you're seeing big plays downfield.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
CJ.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Williams like catching like forty yard bombs from Tanner Mordecai
and you know others and you're like, oh, okay or
Brandon Locke and you're like this is interesting, you know,
and you're seeing it's something that we hadn't really seen
in the offenses that you know, Paul christ had during
his final years at Wisconsin, but then it didn't translate
over to the games, and obviously the injuries to Tanner

(16:07):
Morcai and last year with Tyler Van Dyke. That's one
of the things I want to talk about, like in
a what if series down the road five years from not, like, well,
what have happened if those quarterbacks will stayed healthy and
just how the trajectory of Wisconsin football will change. But
this offense, you know, I think to me it stands
out just how more just it's more similar to what

(16:27):
Wisconsin fans will understand in terms of motions and the
ability to run the ball. I know it's more of
a wide zone emphasis with with Jeff Grimes new offensive coordinator,
I think fans will be happy that way. I think though,
it is something to where I thought the defense looked
did the part well with They looked different as well,

(16:49):
with just how they want to line up and how
a couple of three hundred pounders right now are listed
as outside linebackers instead of defensive linemen and you're just like,
wait a second, and how they're trying to set up
and how the scheme will change. I think that probably
even greater. I think the thing that sticks up to
me most is the scheme changes on both sides of
the ball, which I think will help. But again, it's

(17:11):
going to be hard to see with such a daunting schedule,
and I think you'll you know, it's kind of the
eye test depending upon what happens. But you know, going
to Alabama, you have Ohio State at home. You have
to go to Oregon. I will still beat you by
you know, by thirty plus points. Last year Minnesota, you know,
the last five games they gave up two hundred yards
rushing on average in twelve total rushing touchdowns in that

(17:31):
five game span. They it's approved. You know, we talked
about at the State Journal on a podcast back I
think it was maybe December January. It's a proven defense
this year. Is how I prefer to it as where
you have all these younger guys coming up and so yeah,
I think it's the scheme on both sides of the ball,
but offense, the think they have a little ways to go.
But I also liked what I saw with how they

(17:52):
could run the ball and then the play auction off
of it.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
You know, when you look at these teams and putting
together teams year to year, Conson always had under bear
in of Courus bred Bielam and going right into the
Paul christ era, there was an you know what they were.
They were You're going to have offensive linemen that would
be drafted in the round of the NFL Draft or

(18:17):
second round or third route. You had defensive players that
would command, you know, positions at the next level and talent.
I understand this is really I understand you've only seen
the spring practices, but Jake is this is the talent
level from what you can tell, has it improved with

(18:39):
this all the transfers they've had in the makeover of
the roster. I think that. I think so.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
I think there are some underrated picks. I think throughout
Luke's ten, you know, Luke Fickle's tenure, I think they
have increased the talent they've needed to because of no
longer they don't have the Big ten West, you know,
and facing the opponents in the Big ten West. They've
added four teams from you know, rip the Pac twelve
you know, my childhood right, one of my childhood conferences.

(19:05):
Even though that you know, it's always big Tevers, Pack
Pack ten or Pac twelve. Uh, you know, it's still
you know, you add in Oregon and usc who are
major players. Washington's not a program to slouch on. And
obviously UCLA, you know, is still a really good historic
program and not just football. But you have I think, guy,

(19:25):
I think if you've seen the improvement and talent, I
think Billy Edwards Junior is a really good fit for
Wisconsin's offense and what they're trying to do being multiple.
I don't think the numbers at Maryland did him justice.
Behind that offensive line in the amount of times he
got pressured and sacked last year, you know, and I
think he he is. You're seeing like the type of
quarterbacks too with he even saw it with with Phil

(19:49):
Longo and trying to have Mordecai and vandyk have that
running element. I don't know how much we'll see that
within the offense, but I also feel that Billy Edwards
can extend play with his feet, so can Danie O'Neil.
And Carter Smith is like once he's learns the quarterback
position even further at the college level. He's the type
of player that you know, he's got a great arm

(20:09):
and now it's just a matter in but he can
extend plays with his feet, and I think within this
offense that's going to be huge. I think it's huge
within football in general. I do think defensively, I think
that's where you know you've seen the talent too. I mean,
you still have Forricaro Hallman, who I think should be
an NFL cornerback. I know he didn't have the year
he wanted last year after a great, you know, red

(20:31):
shirt sophomore season in twenty three with the number of
interceptions and whatnot. And they're gonna miss Hunter Wohler for sure,
but I do think there is a lot of talent.
Like on a defense, I like a healthy tack at
Curtis and Christian Allegro at inside linebacker. I think they
will be tackling machines and can get downhill. I do
think they've also like it's you know, there's talent there,

(20:52):
but I also think there's depth at the defensive line,
which is something like you know, that was the huge
reason why they gave up so many yards rushing at
the end of last sear that you know, I checked
Pro Football Focus then Barton, Elijah Hills, and Curtin Neale
had over four hundred reps at the on the defensive
line last year, and I think the next closest, I
think was Dylan Johnson, but he was in the hundreds.

(21:13):
And so when you have when you have those guys
wear down and going up against Iowa Minnesota, you know
they needed to bring in some guys and I think
you'll see that with Perkins and Parker Peterson from Tulane
and Jvr Suggs from LSU and in Grand Valley State.
Those guys are some of the names. But I do
feel they've brought in some guys and there's you know,
they brought up some guys. I had more experience this

(21:36):
year too, which is going to help. But again, yeah,
it's it's definitely a proof of type of situation.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, it is with the defensive line. The one thing
weighing to your point, to your question, and we'll see
what this means this fall. But their defensive lineman looked
more the way you would expect big ten defensive linemen
to look like. And that hasn't necessarily been the case,
at least in terms of the depth of it here
in recent years. JVR Suggs is interesting. This is year

(22:02):
seven for him, but he redshirted in nineteen and then
the twenty twenty season was canceled due to COVID at
Grand Valley stage. So the people wondering how can this
be seven years that that's part of the answer. I
want to flip to the offensive line because they've talked about,
you know, with the old system, it was so much
on the quarterback, so much. He had to be he

(22:23):
had to be just terrific, Mordecai van Dyke, Braydon Locke, whoever.
And they still they want Billy Edwards to be really
good and Danny O'Neal if needed. But they've talked a
lot Jake about putting it on the back in the
offensive line. As Wayne said, that's always been a part
of the identity here, going back to last thirty plus
years with Barry Avarez. They got a big hit in
early April with Kevin Heywood's knee injury, Lake Nelson little bit,

(22:47):
they moved George excuse me, they moved Joe Brunner out
there a little bit at left tackle. At the end
of spring. It sounds like that is still a TBD
in try to get that offensive lie solidified for Week one. Yeah,
it feels that way.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
And also just because of who they've brought on into
you know, even Davis, I hope I'm pronounced his last
name right, Heinzen from Central Michigan, a former He's an
instate kid from a class of twenty twenty, you know,
from Mattchwak Lincoln, and I think that's that's a huge
part of that injury. I remember being at that practice
and you know, the same practice that dari Andreprie also

(23:25):
was injured, and that doesn't seem you know, I haven't
heard too much about his injury going forward. But yeah,
with Heywood and Luke Fickle talking about how you know
he acl injury, that's a main dest I think to
me that's the biggest question mark for this team heading
into preseason camp and answer by August twenty eighth when

(23:45):
they go out in the field against Miami Ohio. Because Heywood,
you know, he's still young, second year in the program, sophomore,
but he got some reps last season and A J.
Bloseikiven last spring glowed about him and thought he could
be something special. I'm in agreement with the I mean,
his athleticism, his height, you know, full package and kind
of the you know what you kind of the pro

(24:07):
type of what you think a Wisconsin offensive tackle should be.
And so now it's you talk about Layton Nelson. I
don't think necessarily based on some of the play and
I'm not an offensive flying coach. I'm not aj Blozak,
but I think hybe, you know, I don't think he
locked down the position by any stretch of the imagination.
There you saw, you know, the during part of the
spring showcase and even during the next practice after. I

(24:28):
think it was April twenty third that Brunner did slide
out to left tackle. He did that last spring for
that matter too, for a time. But yeah, so you
have him even though he's definitely I would say better
suited towards the interior line next to Jake Renfro And
you also have you know, Davis Heinzen out there. I
know Luke Wigleiven mentioned maybe I think you floated the

(24:51):
name Emerson Mandel during one of his press conferences too.
Who's gonna be a red shirt freshman four star lineman
out of Minnesota. He played a little bit of right
tackle last year. But he also you know, he's he
was mired in a battle with you know, for right
guard with Kerry Kodanko and JP Benchwall. So uh, I
think he's still with his heightened frame, I think probably

(25:12):
still better suited for for the inside too. So that
is a huge thing for Wisconsin to answer before you
know the home opener and and you know, you go
before they go to Alabama, because that talent will rise
quickly after Miami, Ohio and Middle Tennessee State. But you're
all but the offensive line too, I mean, you do
have guys that are I think the line is still

(25:32):
solid with Brunner whichever possession of these at Jake Renfro
being a veteran starter, and then you have you know,
we'll see what you know, canankle held down locked down
the line during spring. But you know, with Benchwall and Mendel,
you know, it will be interesting to see who can
win out. I think Mendel's got the highest UH ceiling

(25:52):
just with his physical prowess and if he continues to
improve in his technique and just learning UH the college
football blocking very what he did in high school will
be huge. And then you have an anchor at right
tackle and Riley Malman who you know could be a
talk about talent as a return that could be also
someone that whose name could be called the NFL Draft
next year.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
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Speaker 4 (26:26):
Ja ko Kowski, Wisconsin Badgers on SI as our guest
today on the Lara VI lip Hey Podcast. Guys, you
know we've talked about the Badgers and how they might
be better this year going into the season, and you know,
as I look at the what's going on in college athletics.
Everybody seems to be waiting for the government, the House

(26:50):
versus the NCAA settlement to happen that will set up
some rules at least guidelines, if you will, for how
this how business is to be conducted in college sports.
There are several tentacles to that potential settlement. But Jake,
what do you anticipate? What do you see here?

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, it's yeah, it's hard, right, it's hard to even
see like a year from now it's going to change.
But I know with that House uh settlement there, you know,
I know there's been a lot of reporting about you know,
the judge, I know Ross Ellinger from Yahoo's been really
on top of it talking about how they're you know,
the judge wants to phase in the roster limits, the
one we don't even know in terms of roster limits.

(27:31):
What's gonna how it's gonna shape out, because you know,
they want one hundred and five that was supposed that
was the reported amount that they're going to have for
football at the FBS level. Well, you know, the judge
wants now the phase in so that those athletes that
were kind of on that fence are ready to be
you know, essentially cut would be able to stay at
the you know, and they're still decide you know, they're

(27:52):
still working out that stuff that's not finalized and hopefully
that will be finalized in the next few weeks or whatnot.
But it's also you know, it will be interesting to
see about the the NIL clearing house that that's supposed
to be established, and you know, what is fair market
value and what happens if someone what's the first rejection
and then who's the next? I mean to me, it's also, hey,

(28:15):
if something's not fair market, well can't that students sue?
And then you know, now we're back at square one.
We're back at square one again and like figuring out
what's real, what's not, and what's fair and whatnot. And
I am very extremely pro player in this because of
the TV contracts and the amount of money that uh,
you know, the university's schools are getting and believe the

(28:38):
players who has very least get paid for name, image,
likeness and whatnot. And uh, I know there's been talks
about the presidential Commission, if I'm not mistaken talking with
Nick Nick Saban reportedly helping lead that charge, you know,
and we've seen it time and time again. And Ross
has done a great job over Yahoo just he covers

(29:00):
all these congressional meetings that are trying to help, right
And I know there's talks about like Senators Ted Kruz
and Corey Booker kind of being a line and trying
to help. SOI with Corey Booker being a form you know,
a former college player himself, but you know, I think
they do need to figure out something quick. And I
always talking about anti trust exemptions. It's just so wide

(29:21):
open it's even hard to figure out. I mean, me,
I do wonder. I don't know how it would work.
And I'm not an economics professor. I'm not, you know,
an expert in many many of those fields. But like
I do wonder, what would it be take just to
make them employees of an extent and that way you
have collective bargaining and then you send them sort of

(29:43):
like the NFL and whatnot, so that you have contracts
laid out so you're not seeing these players transfer every
year or there's negotiations every year or whatnot. To me,
I feel that's the you know that that's a good
way forward, But I also don't know how much that
affects Olympic sports on the road and if schools need
to cut them or if there's a new classification that

(30:04):
needs to happen there. So yeah, it's to me it's
still wide open until they figure out how to retain
the players longer than a year, you know, and going
back and forth to negotiations. And also just how Wiscott
you know, you know, in Wisconsin's case, Yeah, just how
they're going to compete in this type of world where
a lot of Niel money at the moment until how

(30:24):
settlement goes through. And even though that, I still think
there's going to be you know, the collectors are still
going to be around. And then also just how, yeah,
how to navigate forward in this world where you know,
again you have to continually recruit players on your own team.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
As you can see, Wayne, this is all so straightforward,
black and white, and it said sarcastically, it's just it is.
It is, I guess, in a bizarre way, typical of
how things work in college sports now, because really the industry,
at least the immediate future, meaning the next eight to
ten years, I guess, sits in the in the on

(30:59):
the desk of a soon to be retired judge in Oakland, California, who,
as Jake said, wants you just judge Claudia Woken, wants
the universities to grandfather in the roster limits and so like.
For football, as Jake said, one oh five basketball, fifteen
now Wisconsin basketball last year hit seventeen players. But as

(31:22):
this thing continues to drag programs really have they have
no choice but to operate as though those numbers are
going to be the numbers. One to oh five for football,
fifteen for basketball. There's also an industry feeling that they
will the universities which are hesitant to grandfather in the
whole issue of roster limits. If this is the biggest
sticking point, then it appears to be Okay, let's just

(31:45):
do this and get this approved so you could get
to the twenty and a half million dollars per year
that schools can spend directly for players, and that, as
Jake mentioned, in addition, there's the nil opportunities that once
it hits six hundred dollars or the six hundred dollars,
it has to go through an independent clearing house, which
opinions vary as to how strong that's going to be.

(32:07):
It's a you know, things tend to get litigated when
in doubt. So the first time the clearinghouse gives a
thumbs down to a quarterback who's getting a sweetheart deal
from company XYZ, some lawyer is going to say, well,
wait a minute, this company says this is fair market
value if that's five hundred thousand dollars to give a
couple of social media posts and go kiss the babies

(32:29):
and smile for the cameras. So there's there's still so
much uncertainty moving forward with this, but there is there
seems to be a feeling that the house settlement we're
recording this on a Monday morning, that the house settlement
can get approved sooner than later. And then there's also
the question about the future of the college football playoff.

(32:50):
This coming year it will be a twelve but it's
the final year of the twelve year agreement of the
original college football a playoff system. And then the feeling
is beginning next year it will go to at least
fourteen and perhaps as many as sixteen. But then that
comes down to conferences wanting automatic qualifiers. The SEC and
the Big Ten would like to have four, and then

(33:11):
the ACC and the be twelve two a spot for
Notre Dame and then at largest. So there's the push
poll with that. Other than that, there's really nothing going
on in the world of college.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
My head is spinning. You guys have my head spinning.
You know. Just can I go to the tailgate at
nine o'clock at Camp Randall and just see a game? Well,
I see a gay.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
That's the I'm really glad you said that, Wayne, because
I was at a charity function over the weekend here
in Madison and talking to one of the organizers where
this person was saying he's really kind of turned off
by what's going on with college football, and I said,
I understand, I understand your point, but let me just
tell you what I have seen from fans and Jake,

(33:57):
I would imagine as much the same with you. All
this stuff going on right now can could make your
head spin at bare minimum, if not just give you
a migraine. But on it is it August twenty eighth,
Thursday night when the Badgers play Miami, and then later
in the year they go to Alabama and Ohio State
comes here and so on and so forth. They just
want to see a good team. They want to watch
good football. The bottom line on Saturdays or Thursday. In

(34:20):
the case of the opener, it's still about the game.
The band still plays and you're going to jump around,
and then the question is how good will they be?
And I wish I had an answer to that, but
I have absolutely no idea exactly.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
No, you hit on the head.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
It's a And by the way, Wayne, I always love
when on eleven o'clock games where you spell like I
call them breakfast brats and you just like you walk
down to the tail Yeah, you're walking to the stadium.
You smell like that's my like, whenever I leave this
media then the reporting game, like I will miss that.
I'm sure. I always go down before a game and
just like uber down to get a quick quick smell

(34:54):
a waff of the brats and the beer, you know,
tailgating when then drive home to watch the game down
whenever I'm you know, done reporting. But it's like, but
it's one of my favorite things. And you see, like
I remember one of my favorite things I did last
year for Badger Extra in the State Journal was just
going down and talking about traditions, like I was trying
to do off field stories and you see the band.

(35:16):
That was one of my probably my favorite thing I've
done in a while is just the game day routine
of the Marching Band and what they do and just
how much, you know, they play a role in the
festivities and how many people are there. Like I'll have
the Badger Bash when they faced Oregon and you saw
the band come out and you see like every it's
the night game and everyone's just riled up. And but

(35:36):
even just talking about the jump Around traditions and go
around different tailgates asking you know, students who were having
like a beer pong tournament. I believe they were, but
also yeah, yeah, it's like I don't know if it
was beer pong. They're doing something, but I won't obviously
give identities. But you also have, you know, just going
to like I went to a tailgate and just talk

(35:58):
to people that they're part of the Marching Band back
in like ninety eight when jump Around first started. And
so there's there is a beauty with college football, and
I know some people say they don't like where it's headed,
but really, like you look back on the history books
like and guys like my good friend Matt Brown, who
does Extra Points newsletter he's written a book and others,
like they've all pointed out players have been paid throughout

(36:21):
the course of college football, and I think people forget
that and people want to go back to the good
old days. But it's also like there weren't any good
old days in before you know, nil they you know,
Stephen Godfrey from Espionation had an article about the bagman
down in the sec which is one of my favorite pieces,
but you know where he actually sat down with someone

(36:41):
that was you know, you talk about the passing of money. Well, yeah,
they had those bagmen back in the day, and so
now it's just kind of out in the open. But
there still is a beauty to this, the traditions, you know,
the again the band playing what happens during the end,
you know, between the third and fourth quarters, with the
ump around. People still like that was one of my questions,

(37:02):
like is jump around still relevant? And everyone, when I
did I interviewed at the beginning of last year, said yes, undoubtedly,
And maybe that's just an older you know. I went
to UW the the phantom me has been long gone
being objective, and I'm trying to be objective as possible. Obviously,
the Phantom me has been gone for a while, but
like you still like And so I had that question
where I'm like, is this overrated because maybe I'm just

(37:23):
hearing it, like I'm there every home game and then
when you're out traveling, Yeah, maybe this reinforces this even more.
You know, against Washington State in twenty twenty three when
they're out there, Washington State after they beat with Wisconsin,
jumped around on their home field and they had everybody
out in the field doing that. So that tells you
that that tradition still means a lot to even those
out they under people appreciate, you know, opponents appreciate that tradition.

(37:46):
So you know, I think, yeah, Matt, you hit it
on the head man. They want to see a good
football team. They want to see uh, they want to
see wins, and they also love the traditions that are
still part of college football throughout you know, almost every
college campus.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
In last point for me, guys, you know, as a
fan taking all this in on Saturdays, we saw some
great matchups you'd never see. You would never see some
of these matchups by Alabama, Wisconsin and Ohio State Oregon
in the middle of the regular season, and that so
you know, in that regard, despite all this other stuff

(38:20):
we've been talking about, you know, in the end, from
a consumer standpoint, there's some saturdays you get some incredible
matchups you really do that you would you would have
never seen before in the old setup of college sports. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
I love the fact that you know, and you know,
it's one thing where Wisconsin can hang its hat and
sell recruits and transfers too, like, hey, you're gonna go
up against some of the best and you're in one
of the conferences that you know is you know people
have said onke Split Zone Duo and other podcasts like
a P two model, a Power two Big tenant sec

(38:55):
are you know, are our huge programs in Wisconsin's within them?
And you get the face the Penn States and the
Ohio States and the Michigan's you know, and now Oregon
and USC and you know where those matchups were out
of conference, you know, and if you could put together
a home and home series or a couple of nutrous
like games like Wisconsin get did against LSU a few

(39:17):
years back, and you know, you're seeing them now with
Notre Dame, with what they're doing, they'll be playing in
twenty six up in Lambeau or even Pitt you know,
going to Ireland, you know, twenty seven, but they play
at Camp Randall next year in twenty six. Yeah, there's
a lot of great things. But like with a Big Ten,
you know, that nine games conference schedule is pretty good
because then you can put in all these opponents that

(39:39):
even you know, I do miss the Pac twelve. I
do miss some of those older you know, the conferences
and and whatnot. But this is a new age of
college football. But you get to see Wisconsin play USC
and go up against UCLA as well. And you know
they'll be hosting Washington this year too, which you know
has had its you know, share of success back in
the Pac twelve.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
One of the common questions, my last one for this, Jake,
is that you know what's gonna what's going to satisfy
or what I don't know, what satisfies the right word,
what's going to encourage the fans the most about this season?
Wisconsin is coming off of five and seven year It's
a five hundred team in the Big Ten over the
last five years. Some folks either conveniently you have forgotten

(40:18):
or maybe never knew in the first place. Twenty years ago,
there was a five year stretch where they were slightly
below five hundred in the big tight In other words,
this has happened before, and it's not ancient history. There
was still color video back in the year early two thousands.
So is it?

Speaker 4 (40:33):
You know, is it?

Speaker 3 (40:34):
I thought last year's signature went and then how do
you define that? Well, it's pretty obvious it's the Oha state,
you know, Oregon, Penn state. Is it? Maybe this year
fans that have reached out to you go back to
beating your rivals, go back to you know, getting the
Acts back, getting the Heartland Trophy back, you know, not

(40:56):
getting punks that might have you know, I got playing
Nebraska this year, but that would be a pretty encouraging
first step, just to get those rivalry games back your way.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yeah, I mean it's the first year in a while,
right where the trophy case has been empty. You know,
they lose a you know Iowa, you know, but then
they lost a year before. But then you know, you
lose it the Acts back to Minnesota, and then you know,
the the Freedom Trophy for Nebraska the first time ever
losing that. And so you know, I think with Wisconsin,
I think, yeah, this year it could be, you know,

(41:27):
and someone asked me about the ceiling and the floor
of this schedule in terms of wins, and you know,
it's a tough schedule and their toss ups where you know,
we'll have to see what Wisconsin's made of. But yeah,
I think they're due for a signature win, right, Matt,
Like you feel like it came so close to knocking
off Oregon and then Penn State. They had on the

(41:48):
ropes for over a half and things faltered, you know,
that second half. So I think something like I think,
and we'll see what Ohio State does, because yeah, they don't.
You know, they're having a new quarterback, but new quarterbacks
a former five star standout right who I think originally
signed with Alabama before transferring to Ohio State. You have,

(42:09):
and of course Ohio State has tons of talent, doesn't
matter you know who they have to replace. You know,
they'll have some pieces I have to replace, But Jeremiah
Smith is someone that they're gonna have to contain. I
don't think you can control. You hope to contain as
much as he can there. But I do think it's
it does I mean, you do get Iole at home.
I think a closer game than you know, a thirty

(42:31):
point blowout where it's even just the line of scrimmage
for Wisconsin, like can you control? Can you contain and
not just allow a huge gap, you know for Iowa
running back to gash them for however many yards That
happened last year, right, But yeah, I think it does
start with I think a signature win would be huge

(42:53):
for Wisconsin this year underneath to show progress underneath Luke Fickle.
I also think, yeah, I get in one of the
trophy he's back. Minnesota does not. You know they are
getting a new quarterback. Yeah, they have Darius Taylor, and
you know they have to replace some pieces of the
offensive line. But for those that don't want to give PJ.
Fleck credit, you kind of have to because what he's
done and kind of research the program to be you

(43:15):
know more of now of a constant pain in Wisconsin's
side compared to what it was for you know, over
a decade plus when they have the wiscons had that
winning streak. So I think getting one or both of
those trophy games are gonna be huge. But yeah, I
think one singer should win and he just getting bo eligible.
I think that's gonna be if they If you can
get the six wins, that's a victory on this schedule.
And I don't know if people like to hear that

(43:35):
in my eyes, but you know, but it's also like
this schedule is formidable. It's even more favorable than we
talked about last year. We're like, oh, this is the
toughest schedule on record. No, man, like this, like twenty
six is even worse. But if you can get to
like six and six, seven and five, I think that's
a success story for for Wisconsin this year.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Yeah, you're right, because the biggest games last year were
home and now you're going to Ork and you're going
in Michigan. We'll see if Indiana as all that Illinois,
by the way, many people think could be that next
big thing among the non blue blood so to speak.
Brett Beelan has got a lot of guys back from
a team that was really good last year. They do
come into Camp Randall in November. Finally, Jake, where can

(44:15):
people find your work right now? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (44:18):
I mean it's yeah, you can find my work on Twitter.
I try to do as much as I can. If
people are on Twitter, it's at Jake Coco Koco and
then yeah, Wisconsin Badgers on SI. You just go SI
dot com slash college slash Wisconsin.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
We're there.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
It's free.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
Lauren Cox and I are both the writers there, and
you know, we're doing our best to report as much
as we can. And I'm in the midst of my
recruiting sessions of trying to talk to as many recruits
before the summer official visit season begins to see where
it runs at. And you know, you know how it is,
Matt Colpable never sleeps now, so there is no vacation. Brother,
there's no vacation right now. Maybe maybe really July, maybe

(44:57):
fourth of July weekend. I could take some breaks. But
how the kids, y'all. You gotta DM the kids. You
got to text the kids. Which, by the way, I'm
a forty nearly forty two year old man. When people
ask me what I do for a living, I say, oh, yeah,
I text high school kids and they're like what, And
You're like, no, no, guys, I'm a reporter that covers it.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
It's yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
But yeah, it never sleeps and we got a lot
of stuff coming even during the quote unquote off season
for college football. You know, we're always rolling over at
Wisconsin Badger's on SI.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Yeah, that's seven and a half or eight month off
season is anything, but it's the new Hot Stove League.
It's not baseball, and he's lower. It seems like it's
about Gallasy football.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
So exactly, Jady, ready to have you on.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Thank you guys for having me out again. I really
appreciate it. Do you guys have a great start to
the week?

Speaker 3 (45:43):
All right, take care man, appreciate it. Well.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
The Packers are about to get into ota off season
preparations and then the mini camp. There's a big break
about six weeks and then training that begins in late July.
And I thought, just to kind of wrap things up here,
where are the pack year three of the quote? I
always said there's a three year process here since they
cut ties with Aaron Rodgers and moved on, And where

(46:10):
are the Packers? And you know, we've talked about this,
we talked about the draft in our last podcast, but
you know, the Packers are probably right about where you
could project them to be. They went from nine wins
the first year of this process to eleven wins last year,
and now where are they? They played probably the toughest

(46:32):
division of football. They were zero for six against the
top three teams in the NFC a year ago. They
made some additions in free agency, but not the kindest
splash they made the year before when they brought on
Xavier mckinniel became a first team All Pro safety in

(46:52):
Josh Jacobs one of the top rushers in the National
Football League. This year, they added Nate Hobbs at cornerback
and he'll be a valuable piece and especially as a
either as a starter or as a guy coming in
in third down situation will play. Aaron Banks has signed
from San Francisco Big Bucks at the guard position and
he's scheduled to play left guard of the Elton Jenkins

(47:14):
moving to the center position. The Packers are going to
be bigger and they're going to be more physical on
the offensive line, and that's in line with what who
Josh Jacobs is as a running back. Defensively, it'll be
interesting to see how the pieces fit and probably the
biggest question at this stage as we speak on this

(47:35):
Monday here in May, what happens with Johnny or Alexander
the longer he's around. It seems like the more the
Packers are looking to make a deal with him, the
All Pro cornerback who's been injured much of the last
two or three years. They did not trade him, at
least not yet. They did not release him, but from

(47:58):
what we understand, reports are that they're trying to make
a deal with him, maybe to restructure that's seventeen million dollars.
He's going to count on the salary cap and put
it into a situation where maybe you've got incentives. Okay,
you play X number of games, you get this bonus.
You play another two or three games, you get this bonus,
and in conceivably you can make all that money back.

(48:20):
But it remains to be seen how much bad blood
is there between Jaiir and the organization or the team.
I don't think from what Mike can gather in the
locker room, I think they would welcome him back, no problem.
You know what you have to wonder can the coaching
staff count on him? How much can they count on him?
Are they better equipped if Jaiyir can't play in a

(48:41):
given week, Are they better equipped to cover on the
edges of their defense? I think so. With the addition
of Nate Hobbs and some other people that they're counting on.
But for the most part, that's about it. The Packers
are going to go into the season with who they
have and Matt They're really going to be counting on
this year, more so than in the past, improvement from within.

(49:03):
They've been the youngest team of the league two years
in a row. It's time now for the second, third,
and fourth year players on this roster to step to
the next level. That's going to determine how successful they
have been in this three year process.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Question about jaiy As we sit here now approaching the
middle of May, are you surprised this is still in play?
Did you think there would be finality one way or
the other with him?

Speaker 4 (49:28):
I really did, like everyone else, and I expected they
would have made a deal with someone or just playing
released the player. But I understand. We're put yourself in
general manager Brian Gudakun's shoes. This was your first draft pick,
your very first draft pick is in twenty eighteen, ablieval

(49:49):
Jaya became one of the top cover corners in the game,
as matter of fact, and you re signed him into
the highest contract any cornerback of the league has ever received.
So there's a lot here that you like about this guy.
Can he still cover? Yes? Will he support against the run?
Not so much? But he's not the only quarterback. They

(50:10):
will try to find a way to hide when when
you know Naje Harris is barreling around the corner at
one hundred miles an hour. You know, running backs and
that type of thing. I think Jayr's career took a
turn Week four of the twenty twenty one season, Packers
and Steelers at lambeau Field. Naj Harris, big bustling running

(50:34):
back of the Steelers, comes barreling around the right end
of the offense and there's Jaiyir and Jaire sticks his
nose in there and does what you hope your cornerback
will do and defend against the run. He got run over,
suffered a broken collar, BONU believe it was, and really
hasn't been quite the same players since now. Can he cover, Yes,

(50:55):
he can still cover with the best of them, but
they you know, the I guess the desire so to speak,
and would that's a harsh word to use here, but
he's not the player against the run that maybe he
was before. Still, nonetheless, I think he's their best cover corner,
best pure cover corner. Gudikuns knows that, and you know

(51:16):
what he is. The two things Brian has done this offseason.
He did not reach in the draft. He did not
try to move around to get a certain player in
the draft. He let the draft board come to him,
which good teams do. And the other thing he did
he didn't panic on this Jayi Alexander thing. Why give
up your best cover corner for a bag of balls

(51:38):
or a seventh round draft choice, you know what I mean,
if that's all you're going to get, Let's try to
make a deal with this guy. Let's see how many
games we can get out of them.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
Well, especially the division as you said that they're in.
I mean, you just, I know, assumptions are dangerous, but
I think it's fairly safe to say the Lions aren't
going anywhere. The Vikings will be interesting, but you figure
they're going to be really good. We'll see about the Bears.
You know that's been They've won a lot of off
seasons in recent years. But you know, you're right, I mean,

(52:09):
they can't. You know, you mentioned they went zero for
six and you include the Philadelphia Eagles in there. So
and we've talked earlier Wayne about we can debate how
close are they because some of these games have been close,
and you could be fooled by that. This is going
to be to me one of the more interesting years.
Just you know, in our conversations over the last couple

(52:30):
of years, and you've been very consistent about this being
a three year extra shot with the Packers and this
being year number three. Uh, this makes this one of
the more at least from my seat from AFAR, one
of the more interesting seasons in a while. Coming up.
How good can they be? How much of a push
toward the Super Bowl can they make?

Speaker 4 (52:51):
And you know, the draft kind of tells you are
where they What they did in the draft tells you
a couple of things. Number One, they felt despite the
fact that their offense was good, they finished eighth in
the league in scoring, but their offense stalled down the
stretch and as they evolve into a more physical, run

(53:12):
first kind of offense, no problem with that, Kyle Shanahan
has done that for years in San Francisco very successfully.
But the other factor they felt they had to this
receiving corps last year all right, many of them second
year players, they led the league anywhere and again drops
is a statistic that is subjective, So look at any

(53:33):
analytic you want to look at, and that statistic changes
on everybody's board. Okay, twenty eight to thirty drop passes
by the receiving corps, and those are catchable balls. You're
supposed to make the catch. The packers said, hey, wait
a minute, we're dropping way too many passes. So what
do they do the first three rounds of the draft?
The draft two wide receivers. Okay. The other part of

(53:56):
it is the offensive line and the way that offensive
line finished in Philadelphia when they had a couple of injuries.
They said, hey, we're not good enough from a depth standpoint,
and so Anthony Belton becomes there. And a real shocking
pick to me is mentioned in the last plot that
they select this three hundred and forty pound offensive tackle
who they say can also play guard if we need

(54:17):
to move him inside. But they they bring him on
in the second round. That tells you all you need
to know. They didn't address pass rush, and Brian Goodakoutz
has said, and again I'm reticent to put any kind
of real steak or teeth into what I hear on
these convoluted press conferences. You know when they stand up

(54:40):
there and they've got the board with the Associated bank
and the g up there, you know what I mean,
where coaches and general managers have to try to say
something without saying anything, and I think they do a
really good job of saying something without saying anything. So
I look at actions and you know, good to Consett,

(55:01):
we feel like we have the makings of a very
good pass rush with the people on our roster. And versely,
in the draft, they did not address their edge rushing position,
their pass rush position until the third day of the draft.
Tells you everything you need to know in that regard. Now,
that doesn't mean that you know, they didn't get somebody

(55:23):
Baron Surrell in the fourth round out of Texas that
he can't play. Of course, he can play. Fourth round
draft choice David Baktiari was a fourth round draft choice.
You know, you can get people in the draft on
the third day to become stars. There's no doubt about that.
But I think it's spoke Volumes. Ryan believes that, hey,
this is going to be such a big year for

(55:44):
Lucas van Ness. Can he turn the corner and finally
blossom into the pass rushing specialists they so desperately need.
They need more out of Kenny Clark on the front
of that defensive line. They TJ Slayton. You know, they
have to hope that a late draft choice might be
able to replace him in Warren Brinson defensive tackle out
of Georgia. So there's a lot of stuff going on

(56:06):
here that maybe, as you look on the outside looking in,
you say, well, they didn't address that. Part of it.
Might be they feel like they have the people that
can address that on the roster already. Time will tell
if they do well.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
We joked with Jake Kokoski about college football not having
an offseason. This is schedule release week.

Speaker 4 (56:26):
Oh right, guys, are we know?

Speaker 3 (56:27):
It's the Cowboys and the Eagles NBC Thursday Night. Oh
my goodness. Nobody markets quite like the NFL, which you
saw that firsthand at the draft a few weeks ago
in Green Bay. And they're going to drag this bad
boy out all week long with the stoma. God right,
Nobody does marketing like the NFL. Nobody, and thank god

(56:49):
they don't get married. Exactly how many noon games or
how few noon games were the Packers have? You figure
they'll get their fair share of prime time. But and
I laugh about it, but I'll want to be watching too. Okay, okay, yeah,
they're done here, They're reach twenty five, their America's Game
of the Week and you know whatever, October whatever. I

(57:12):
get sucked in like everybody else.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
And there are two kinds when it comes to the
NFL A verbal masturbation, to which, by the way, is
the sin in most religions. Okay, it is when after
the draft, the Monday after the draft, you rate the draft. Oh, yes, plus,
they got a C minus. Oh I had a D.
You know, nothing could be crazier or more ridiculous than that. Now,
when the schedule comes out, what will you be hearing

(57:37):
on sports talk radio the next morning. Okay, let's go
through the schedule. Let's see, they got the Bears in
the opener. That's a win. They got the Vikings, that's
a lost. You don't and go through the whole schedule
and give and the writers will write it, Oh, they're
going eleven eleven and whatever, eleven and six or or
fourteen and three years something like that. And it is

(58:00):
just absolute ludicrous because we don't know what the We
always say this, You and I believe this meant, folks,
in football, it's not who you play, it's not where
you play, it's when you play. That's what matters in football.
And we don't know where the Vikings are going to

(58:20):
be week six of regular season, or where the Packers
might be at that time, you know, So it's it's
really uh, there's a lot of verbal you know what
going on, and like I said, it's a sin in
most religions, so I do not take part in that.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
You are exactly right with what happens though, And then
they'll get right back to the Lakers. What's go what's
up with JJ Reddick? What's he doing out there or
or in Milwaukee. We'll be back to Yannis because Jannis traded,
He's gone, according to whatever I mean, you know, according
to league sources from my cousin Vinnie at the bakery,

(58:57):
you know, as we like before we started recording this,
this whole thing with the honis again as we record
this on a Monday morning and shams breaking, I'm using
air quotes here that Yannis, according to the league sources,
is open minded about his future in Milwaukee. Will he
go somewhere else? I think that's just another way of

(59:19):
saying there's gonna be some common sense supply here gonna say, what,
what's this organization going to donna try you better? If not,
then maybe we should maybe try to work out something
where I go somewhere else. You know as well as
I do that the major the television partners would love
to see him go to a bigger market, so a
move the needle kind of team. But all sports are local.

(59:39):
So we're going to be watching and hoping that everything
could work out that Giannis will be a Buck for
the rest of his career. Yeah, but that's not going
to go away either until it's done done. It's going
to give that right after they project the Packers win
loss record, and when Dak is going to is Dak
on the hot seat as a starting quarterback with the
Dallas Cowboys, It'll be back to We'll be back to

(01:00:00):
the Lakers. And what's the honest going to do?

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
Matt. It's so predictable, isn't it our business? What happens
and what we talk about is so predictable. I'm telling
you is.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Well, well this year again, we always have fun in
this podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:00:13):
This has been we do. Yeah, yeah, we're we're a
little more irreverent and and we realize how much of
it is BS, but hey, listen, it's uh, it's better
than working for a living Matt And and I know
that very well, oh for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
Just all we've we've had great guests. Again, we thank
everybody who joined us this year. And I know this
has been been a lot of fun for the two
of us, just to chop it up about the Packers,
the Badgers and other ye and all the other teams
with the Brewers, Bucks and everybody else involved.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
So so yeah, that's good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
So I know you're diligently working on your golf game.
I'm touching the club next week for the first time
with some Big ten brethren all job, which will be
really bad, but we'll about a lot of laughs. Suburban Chicago.
This is being put on by This is the Day
then at Billy McKinney production. This year it was it
was down Ohio state last year. We're going to be uh,

(01:01:08):
suburban Chicago, a couple of polluting, a couple of courses
down there. So a lot of I think ten or
eleven of us in the Big ten, uh, you know,
play by play guys are going to be there and
a few selected others, so it'll be I'm trying to
think of who's good outside of Don Fisher at Indiana,
and I don't think any of us is really very

(01:01:28):
good outside of him. I mean, you know Fish is uh,
he's single digit. He's one of those guys who gets
very upset if God forbid he shoots an eighty. You know,
he's he's one of those.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
But yeah, we do this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
Ever, we've been doing this the last several years. And
this year's edition is put on by the good folks
at Northwestern.

Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
So yeah, yeah, no, you get some of the Pac
twelve people to come in or what do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
No, I don't think any of those guys. The In fact,
the the the longest commute will come from Steve Jones
of Penn State. I know. We always try to get
Johnny Holliday, the iconic voice of Maryland. You know, he's
like eighty something years old, still going strong as a
voice in that arrapins, and he's done so much in
his in his broadcasting career. But he's too well to attend.

(01:02:20):
He's he's in good health. He's just saying, nah, they
I'll pass on that trip. So we haven't we'd love
to get you like Josh Lewin, I think you know
him voice UCLA, did a lot of baseball in his time,
and you know some of the other guys. But who
knows that if they're having big ten media days in Vegas,
maybe one of these years we'll just fly out to
La or something.

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
And or then again, maybe not. It's a little easier
for most of us to be in the Midwest, all right, man, Well, listen,
have a great offseason and we'll look forward to catching
up with you this summer. That was good. Take care
special thanks to our guest Jay ko Keowski from Wisconsin
Badgers on SI, our engineer producer Dave mccannon. We thank
him for all of his work season, and our executive

(01:03:01):
producer is Jeff Tyler for mamphis is Wayne. Thank you
for listening to The Lerovie La Pey Podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
The Lerovian La Pey Podcast is a production of iHeartRadio
Podcasts with hosts WAYN Larovy and Matt Lapey, with production
engineering by Dave McCann. The Lreavie La Peye Podcast is
presented by UW Credit Union. Here for every you listen
to other episodes available on the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.