Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the go with
Trage.
I'm your host, trage, as wecome back on this Wednesday.
And hey, if you want to find usacross social media, make sure
you're doing it.
Wisconsin Sports on the go withTrage.
You can find us across allsocial media platforms podcast
platforms, everything like that.
You can find the show out there.
Also, if you want to hit us upat any point in the show, do it
715-990-4914.
(00:22):
That is 715-9904914.
You can shoot your questions inhere, christian's on right now.
So if you want to shoot yourBadger questions, make sure
you're doing it.
We can talk about your Badgerquestions next week on the show
here.
So this next segment we'regoing to talk Badgers here,
christian's here.
This next segment of the showhere is brought to you by
Foreman's Hardware.
They offer you everything fromhome essentials to to farm
supply house, to farm grills, todrills.
(00:43):
Foreman's hardware has got youcovered.
Visit today in loyal kobe ormedford, wisconsin.
Tell them trade sent.
You get five percent off,nothing better.
You go down there on a friday.
They got the friday frenzy.
You never know what is going tobe on sale.
I'm always going crazy up inthere on the fridays trying to
find the deals and the smokerpellets, everything like that,
the cost m spice.
Make sure you're checking themout, foreman's Hardware there in
(01:04):
Loyal Colby or Medford,wisconsin.
So we're back, christian.
How are we doing?
It's Wednesday, we're gettingcloser.
Badger football is a week away.
I mean you've got to beecstatic right now.
How are we doing on thisWednesday?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh good, it's been the longest offseason of my life
, literally.
I mean once, I think, man withthe Badgers being on that
20-plus year bowl streak.
You know I've never had anoffseason quite this long.
It's not in my memory.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, and plus, you had a baby too.
So I mean you got that going on.
You got Badger football goingon.
I mean your life is just hecticright now.
You don't even know what avenueto turn on.
Just chaos, it's just chaos.
But we invite the chaos.
That's what's always fun.
We invite the chaos here,especially on this show.
We invite chaos, so we want tofirst off.
I got to ask this questionbefore we get to the badgers.
(01:51):
I got to ask this questionbecause this is chaos Big Ten.
I don't know what their thoughtwas or what their idea was with
any of this, but they want toexpand the college football
playoff to 20, 24 to 28 teams,was the report.
We can't even figure out 12.
They can't even get 12 goodteams into the college football
(02:13):
playoff and yet they want toexpand it to 24 to 28.
What was your reaction when yousaw this?
Mine was I can't believe thatthis is real.
I had to go double check acrossmultiple different platforms.
Make sure it's real.
It's real.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
They often this is their idea.
What is your like thought whenyou heard that, um, they don't
really want this, this is thisthey, because they were floating
a 16 team playoff so they couldget some more automatic
qualifiers in, right.
Um, earlier this year I thinkit was an off season at some
point was it spring now it'shard to keep track of all that
(02:46):
stuff and then it never reallygot any traction.
Obviously, a lot of teams ifyou're not in the Big Ten or SEC
, you're not really all 40 thereanyway.
Why should this conference getmore automatically, more
automatic qualifiers than otherones?
But I think it never really gotany traction.
So now I think this is one ofthose things where they're like
(03:08):
alright, now let's, since no onereally went for this idea, it's
not like the best idea, let'scome up, let's propose a worse
idea, right, and then they'lllet's meet in the middle, right,
maybe they'll come down and belike, okay, let's go with that
16-team playoff that yousuggested before.
So I don't think they seriouslywant 24 to do whatever this
team is.
I don't even take it seriouslybecause it's so ridiculous, but
(03:31):
I think that's kind of whatthey're doing.
They're trying to just do theirbest to propose some
ridiculously huge thing whereeveryone will settle where they
really want to be.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I just think you want to fix it.
Just take the top 12 teams,Don't mess around with this
automatic bid crap or anythinglike that.
Because honestly, like okay, ifI read these teams off you from
last year, tell me which onesactually had a realistic shot to
win the college footballplayoff.
Oregon, would you say yes or no?
Yes, Georgia.
Yes.
Boise State no.
(04:02):
Arizona State.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yes, boise.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
State no.
Arizona State no.
Two of your top four teams areno's at winning the college
football playoff Texas.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Penn State.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I'm not a big Drew Allo guy, so no, I don't think
that they actually would.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
They were hit or miss .
They were hit or miss.
I agree, notre Dame Not lastyear, yeah, I mean they made it
right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So I mean yes.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, probably Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Tennessee.
Would they win it for you?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Indiana.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Clemson SMU.
See so.
Mm-mm.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
See so we just went through.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
We have like six of the 12 could realistically win
the college football playoff andit's like okay.
So why don't you just, if youwant to fix it, bring in 12
teams that can actually win it?
Don't give me the oh well, I'mgoing to add SMU because they
won a conference.
Well, I get you want to awardconference winners, but also, if
you want to fix, what yourproblem is is that you had a lot
(05:07):
of blowouts in round one.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah.
But I think the problem withthat, though, is, like, all you
know, everyone's going to saythe two best conferences are the
SEC and the Big Ten.
Well, when those twoconferences just cannibalize
each other and like, what do yougo by?
Do you go by strength ofschedule?
Obviously not.
You see what indiana's doing,right, like yeah, and they poked
fun at the sec, right, um, butit's what do you do then?
It's like you got nine andthree, alabama, you know, and
(05:31):
then you got 12 and one.
Or you know 12 and oh, boisestate, you know.
Like.
You look at it like, if you justgo by wins, well, boise state's
better than or not necessarilybetter, but like the record's
better.
So you go with them, right?
I mean, I get the automaticqualifier stuff, and there's
always going to be the SEC andBig Ten bias, whether the big
media says that there is or not,which is true, they are the two
(05:56):
best conferences.
But it's hard.
Where do you pick that out?
Nine, three teams in the SECare Big Ten versus Big 12.
There's a two, a two loss team.
You know which one do you pick?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You almost have to go like college basketball.
You have to have a selectioncommittee, you go off strength
of schedule Cause you.
I mean you have a lot of thesemid-major teams that have 31
wins but they're not going toget a one through four seed
because they're not that good.
I mean that's just.
I think that's where you haveto be at and then also reseed
the darn thing when you get tothe second round so Oregon
doesn't have to play Ohio Stateright off the bat there in the
(06:28):
second round.
That's not good.
That's not good TV right there.
You want an Oregon-Ohio Stateto meet later on, not right then
.
So, I mean, yeah, I agree it'sso hard to do the fine-tuning,
I'm glad I don't have to.
But I mean, yeah, just theproposal that they came out with
.
It was like, yeah, this is odd,A lot of people are blowing up
about it.
So, yeah, I mean, yeah, there'sgood stuff there.
(06:49):
If you guys have an opinion outthere on the college football
playoff, make sure you shoot itto us, 715-990-4914.
We'd love to hear what you gotto say about what you think
about this playoff format rightnow.
Could you see some changes thatyou like, anything like that?
So let's get to the Badgers Anyfinal takeaways, Because camp's
now closed.
They're getting to the finalweek here, so camp's now closed
(07:09):
to the media and everything likethat.
But takeaways from camp, I meanjust your final takeaways.
Were there any final takeawaysyou had from the last like few
days that you had accessibility?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So I think I made like three total practices,
including their last scrimmageon Saturday.
I think this team is, it hastalent, but again, it's like all
young talent and they're goingto be depending on them this
year, whether it's the runningbacks, with Dylan Jones and
Darian Dupree, or like thelinebackers.
(07:41):
I mean you got we'll talk aboutthem a little bit we got
Christian Allegro and CurtisTackett, who are both, or
Tackett and Curtis, who are bothjuniors, but then behind them,
if I had to say like what thetwo deep was, it's a pair of two
freshmen, Same with like I meanour defensive line, I would say
is relatively, you know older,you know older guys, guys, but
(08:10):
that's because they hit thatwith the transfer portal a lot,
but I mean just and just a lotof positions.
You see, like most of thestarters are going to be
upperclassmen this year, butlike the skill and like a lot of
the talents and potential isall an underclassman and I think
they're going to be leaning onthem a little bit this year,
especially with any potentialinjuries which there will be
because it's football.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, I can completely see that.
So let's get.
We got to get our positionpreview.
I we're.
We're already.
We talked about the playoffexpansion too long.
We're already running our leg.
We're, on the later ready here.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So we'll be brief.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
We'll be brief Now.
We don't got to be brave.
We pay us by the hour.
That's all I have.
There you go.
So let's get to the positionpreview tonight here.
If you guys missed any of theposition previews from weeks
past, we've gone the last coupleweeks here, so make sure you're
checking them out.
Wisconsin Sports on the GoTrade you can find the
quarterback talk, running backroom, everything like that.
You can find it out there.
But tonight we've got to get tolinebackers.
(08:57):
We've got to get to corners,safety and special teams tonight
here as we get before next weekwhen we do the preview of the
first game there.
So linebacker room, I mean,just as a grand scheme of things
, who's standing out to you?
I mean, who's standing outright now?
Is someone rising above therest of the guys in there?
Who stands out in thatlinebacker room for you right
now?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
So you want to talk edge, or do you want to talk
middle linebackers?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Let's start with the edge.
We went D-line last week.
Let's start edge, then we'llwork the middle there.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Perfect.
Mason Rieger Soft is theredshirt senior transfer from
Louisville.
He's going to be good.
I think he's going to be a studfor us.
I think we talked about him alittle bit last week, but I
think he stands out.
He's going to be probably, inmy opinion, our best pass rusher
on the team.
Daryl Peterson, who the guy whoyou know Wisconsin supposedly
(09:50):
beat Alabama out four years agoand he hasn't done a whole lot
Like when I was there barelynoticed him.
So I'm I know it'sdisappointing, right, yeah, but
outside of that on edge, a guythat again stuck out to me as a
true freshman, who I think well,he's an injury away, I bet,
from getting snaps, is NicholasClayton.
(10:11):
Beats out Florida state for him.
He's a Florida kid.
I don't know how anyone inFlorida let that kid get out of
that state, but I think he'sgoing to be an absolute stud,
like a star, and I know there'sa lot of players on the team
that have already talked abouthim and like just his potential
and how he's going to be aspecial one for them.
So I think he's going to be abig one.
(10:33):
Tyrese Fierbre he transferred infrom Kentucky.
He looked pretty good.
Aaron Witt he's been with usforever but I swear he's hurt
every single year so he hasn'thad a chance.
But he's going to be good depth.
But then, yes, sebastian Cheeks, who transferred in last season
from North Carolina, I mean, ifhe's one of your third-string
edge guys, you're looking prettygood.
So I think edge is probably,hopefully one of the strengths
(10:57):
of the defense.
I mean, outside of Rieger,maybe he just doesn't
necessarily do a whole loteither, right, but just outside
of him there's not necessarilyone big star like a Nick Herbig
or a TJ Watt, but they havedepth and I think from the first
string to second string there'snot a lot of drop-off, which
(11:17):
hopefully is a good thing.
But middle linebacker, I think,is I'm going to do a positional
preview, like between end ofcamp and start of the year.
So I got a lot to get.
I got a lot to get out heresoon.
But one of the things I want todo is like I was thinking about
ranking, like the positions,the units, you know, like the
best units, whatever, and I wasthrowing around a couple who I
(11:38):
wanted on top and I honestlythink I would land one or two
Christian Allegro and TackettCurtis, I think, could easily
not easily, but could be one ofthe better linebacking duos in
the Big Ten.
They're both like I like tothrow around the word psychos on
the field.
They have zero regard for theirown body.
(11:58):
They're just literally flyingaround and just want to lay the
lumber on everybody.
They brought in Antron Turner.
He looked pretty good, but thenyou also got guys like Thomas
Heiberger who was a huge likecoaches would not stop raving
about him last spring or lastfall as an edge player, but then
he got hurt and basically waslimited to four games and just
(12:20):
played special team snaps allyear.
Last year they moved him inside.
But the two big guys at middlelinebacker are Mason Posa, who
was their top recruit coming inthis class.
Didn't come in in the spring atall, but he's legit.
He's going to be very, verygood.
Then they also got bad radiohere the kid, the in-state kid,
(12:44):
Cooper Catalano.
He's the all-time state leadingtackler.
I haven't heard nothing butgood things about him.
He is constantly there.
So in the scrimmage I mean Iknow when I was supposed to like
whatever string, but he was inlike the second group on defense
, those two, the two freshmen,okay.
So I think there's depth there,but also just a lot of talent,
(13:06):
a lot of talent, a lot of skill,and I think I mean Tackett
Curtis and Christian Allegro arereally, really good.
Even behind them, I thinkCatalano and Post they have a
chance to be even better in thefuture, but we'll see.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I like both rooms, the edge and also the middle.
The key word there was depthand having that depth in there,
and especially when you said inthe edge that it doesn't really
drop off much, you like that,you like that ability.
We're going to be able to mixand match guys.
Maybe somebody else have it oneday, maybe you can bring
somebody else in there off thatedge, throw a different look at
an offense, whatever it is.
Having that depth is hugebecause I mean pass rushers,
(13:45):
pass rushers they all havedifferent you know tendencies,
they all do different things onthe line there that your tackles
are looking at and everythinglike that.
So having a different guy isdifferent guys that can fill in
there.
That's huge.
That's huge to have there.
And I I love the christianallegro because we saw it last
year with him in a rough defenseto watch.
He at times he was a brightspot when he, when he got to
playing time, he was a brightspot in there.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
He led the team in sacks last year with like three.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That tells you how bad the defense was last year
that he led the defense withthree sacks.
So hopefully somebody can getabove that.
If we get four sacks, we throwa party.
That's all I know.
Yeah, absolutely For four sacks.
So let's get to one of the mostimportant rooms that we're
going to talk about, becausethis big 10 is going to have a
lot of high power, high flyingoffenses.
(14:32):
So we got to talk about thiscornerback and safety room that
we're looking at right now.
What are we looking at?
I mean, what can we expect fromthe secondary this year?
And then I mean, is there anyupdate on nizery is?
What do you think is he gonnaplay this year year?
I mean they're giving him reps,but not really giving him reps
because they don't expect it togo well, but they're hopeful.
So where are you at right now?
How does this room look?
(14:53):
Hallman in there, I mean theygot some key guys to replace
back there.
So I mean, what are you seeingthis year with this unit?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
This is like the most up-in-the-air group I think we
have.
On the team, ricardo Hellman'sdealing with some ankle injury
stuff.
Every time I've seen him he'sdone some individual stuff, but
then once his team, or evenseven-on-seven, anything like
that, he's off to the sideworking on cuts, working on some
.
He's not a hundred.
(15:21):
The official word from UW weheard was they're not worried,
but I mean he hasn't.
I haven't seen him practice intwo weeks.
So I guess it's been a week anda half, but I mean you never
know.
So whether he'll be ready toroll, maybe you hold him out
against you know Miami of Ohioand Middle Tennessee and you get
him ready for Alabama, butoutside of him the whole Nizer
(15:48):
four-areem dude.
I don't get it.
Even if things do go well andhe wins his case, he's still out
the first four games becausehis case isn't even going to be
heard until then.
So when I go to practice he'sand I understand that Ricardo
Hallman being out as part of itor just not being in the drills
and stuff as part of it, buthe's getting reps with the ones
like the top group and it's Idon't know, unless they know
(16:11):
something that they're notsharing or like you know,
whatever, but Fickle still islike.
In the spring he was very, veryadamant that, like they're
going to win, he's going to behere.
They're not even going to likeentertain the idea of him not
being here.
But it obviously didn't go hisway and now they're appealing it
(16:31):
again.
Um, it's just, the whole thingseems weird to me that he's
getting reps like with the topplayers again, or maybe I
shouldn't say but against, likebilly edwards, against the
number one defense or number oneoffense, um, but outside of him
, so like's.
So if those two can't go orlike obviously for green can't
play the first four games.
If Hallman is always fun, who doyou have behind them?
(16:52):
Right, um, they brought inDeoni Hill from Miami, um, and
he was at Marshall before that,but he was getting reps opposite
of um for as an outside cornerduring their scrimmage Um.
And then in the slot they haveJameer Latimer, um for Kareem as
an outside corner during theirscrimmage Um.
And then in the slot they haveJameer Latimer, um who
(17:15):
transferred in and,coincidentally, is the brother
of Amari Latimer.
Like huge, huge running backprospect.
The Badgers just landed that.
Georgia and Florida state arestill trying to pry from us
anyways.
So he's he's been in the slotmostly and he's actually pretty
good too.
Um, but a guy that's reallypopped out to me, like outside
all of them, is Emilio Agard.
He's been.
He was a freshman last year, Ithink, or now.
(17:35):
So he's a redshirt freshman now.
I think if Hallman can't playthe first couple games or
whatever's going on, and forKareem just doesn't have his
eligibility, I think we're goingto see a lot of Emilio Agard
out there.
But between him and Deoni Hilland Jameer Latimer it's a lot of
like Badger fans haven't heardof you, you know.
(17:59):
So we're going to, we're goingto see.
I think that's that wholeposition is just kind of up in
the air right now depending onHallman's health and what
happens with Nyser Fork Green.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
That did not.
You took my hope from me today.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I know, I know I'm sorry.
Just don't wind up your salesright.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I mean you're talking about it.
It's like, okay, it's anunproven group, but there's some
talent in there.
So that's what we're kind oflooking for is if that talent
kind of gets out there.
And you know, you have my miamiof ohio.
That's not a terrible team.
They're actually picked Ibelieve the second in their
conference this year, so they'renot a terrible team.
So no pushover.
But I mean you have a couplegames now miami of ohio, middle
(18:39):
tennessee.
If hallman misses week one andtwo because you're trying to
rest him up for the rest of theschedule, you get over it Like
you move on from it, maybe evenif he misses Alabama, because I
mean honestly, is he going tomake that much of a difference
in?
that yeah like is he going tomake that difference where
they're going to beat Alabama?
You would hope, like, yeah, Iwish, but I don't know.
(19:03):
You'd like to say yes, yeah,I'd possible.
We watched.
Who was it that year WesternMichigan beat.
Was that Michigan?
They beat Michigan on thatkickoff or that field goal there
at the end, I mean it wassomething like that.
So I mean, crazy things havehappened.
I don't want to.
How far have we fallen that?
I'm comparing us to WesternMichigan beating Michigan.
That's how far she's fallen offthe wagon.
Far she's fallen off the wagon.
(19:28):
But let's get past that.
Let's talk special teams.
One last one special teams here.
Kicker punter, who's doing ourkicking?
Who's doing our punting?
Are we confident, are wefeeling good about those
positions?
Because when you got a goodkicker you just breathe like
fresh air.
It's like brandon mcmanuscoming to green bay.
You're just like we're good.
Do we have that in madisonagain?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
all right, I'll try to be quick, because I'm pretty
sure we skipped safety and Ithink you probably want to learn
about safety.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Go on, Ness.
We forgot about the safety.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
It's all good Special teams really fast.
Atticus Bertrams punter.
He's going to be one of thebest in the Big Ten.
I'm absolutely confident thathe is even potentially like
maybe throw some money on it.
He's the Badgers like at hisposition.
We like some hot takes hereonce in a while Kicking, though
there's supposedly a competitiongoing on between Gavin Lamb and
(20:16):
Nathaniel Vakos.
Honestly, I couldn't tell youwho has the leg up in that.
Honestly, I watched them bothkick.
They both kind of got the samereps.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah right, I was telling both kick.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
They both kind of got the same reps.
Yeah right, I was telling a guyI was standing next to that and
I go geez, I didn't even meanto do that.
Anyways, it's just a bad dadjoke, I guess.
My thought is it'll be Vakosagain and Lamb will just be the
kickoff specialist.
But we'll see, I don't know, itdoesn't really matter, you know
(20:47):
.
I mean, I'm not necessarilyconfident either of them is
going to come in and nail a50-yarder or even a 45-yarder,
like I know.
Vakos has the leg for it, butI'm not confident he'll make it,
you know.
So, special teams, I thinkit'll be like punting situations
in good hands Kicking.
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Vakos has kind of hit or miss, last year a little bit
.
I mean he had his moments, buthe has kind of hit or miss.
But yeah, Burcham, I mean he'salways been solid, so you love
to hear that that you're goingto have a solid punter.
Punters, they make a bigdifference when you have a great
punter.
You can make a big differencein a football game.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, just.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
That guy was nuts.
That guy was absolutely crazy.
He could just drop it on theone-yard line.
It's like the ball deflated andjust sat there.
It was absolutely crazy.
So, let's get over to thesafety room.
One last one, I know I forgotabout it.
Let's talk safety becausethat's a very important position
.
Let's talk safety.
What do you got for me in thatsafety position?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Austin Brown and Preston Zachman I think will be
the two starting safeties and Ithink that's a very solid
starting to.
I know like people are toyingwith the idea of Austin Brown
come down and play in the nickel, but I think Jameer Scott's
kind of got that locked up.
And why would you want to moveAustin Brown off to office
safety?
Um, other than the fact that heplayed some nickel last year
but in the in the slot.
So I think those will be thetop two.
(22:03):
But I think I really like thetwo Matthews that they brought
in in the transfer portalMatthew Young and Matthew
Trainor.
Matthew Young's that kid fromBethel, so he goes from D3 to D1
.
When I went and played I saw himjust lay the lumber on multiple
people.
It was nice to see.
He's a lot bigger than Ithought he was, and same with
(22:24):
Matthew Trainor.
He transferred in from Richmond.
So a couple of guys coming infrom smaller schools but I think
they look good.
I like them.
It's kind of like the outsidelinebacker.
I don't think obviously they'reas good as Preston Zachman or
Austin Brown, but if one of themwere to get hurt, I don't think
there's a huge drop-off betweenthe first and the second group,
(22:47):
okay, and then you have OwenArnett, who's, you know,
redshirt senior.
He's been there forever.
He's a special teams guy, buthe's he makes plays two once in
a while, right, so I think hegot five solid safeties, and
then you got some young guysbehind them.
But yeah, I think safety looksdecent too.
It's one of my favorite groupsto actually watch and practice.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
All right.
So I mean, if we take all inall, you look over these last
three weeks that we've done theposition preview, I think the
biggest thing, the biggesttakeaway I've had from
everything is there's a lot ofquestion marks yet, but there's
a lot of depth.
There's a lot of depth on thisteam and I like that.
I like having the depth becausewe know injuries happen Knock
on wood that they don't, but weknow injuries happen.
(23:31):
We know you're going to play alot of good teams here Having
that depth, having fresh legs,being able to keep trotting guys
out having problems atpositions, because you have a
lot of depth.
Talking like the running backroom with Dillian Jones Dupree
and Cade Giacomelli being apretty darn good back and being
number three Good problems theyhave.
So wrap us up here.
I mean wrap us up Any lastthoughts here.
(23:53):
Let us know what you're workingon there at the Badger Backer.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Just let the people know where to find you out there
?
Yep, you can find me atbadgerbackercom.
Feel free to subscribe.
I'm going to be trying to kickout a whole lot more in the next
few weeks here, but notespecially now that the football
season is starting up.
But just look at each position.
It's kind of like what we didhere, right?
Just a little bit of a positionpreview before the start of the
season, now that I have alittle more information from
(24:24):
going to a couple practices.
But we'll do that, we'll dopredictions, we'll do, you know,
opponent previews, all the, allthat fun stuff that we'll
probably do on here too.
But just uh, yeah.
So, badgerbackercom, come onover and subscribe always great
stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
He's always got great stuff.
I'm trying to share it as muchas I can.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I mean, there's two I appreciate, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
I got too much stuff rolling across my feet sometimes
.
I got crazy people talkingabout the Brewers.
I got Cub fans.
I got everything rolling acrossmy feet and then I got
Christian.
I'm like this is what I'mlooking for right here, this is
what I'm looking for.
So make sure you're checkingthem out there, badgerbacker,
across social media there andbadgerbackercom.
So we'll be back after a quickad break.
I think, like I said, tonightwe got a bloated up show and I
(24:58):
don't know who's stopping bynext.
So we'll see what happens whenwe come back from the ad break.
Wisconsin Sports Network,gotrade We'll be right back
after this quick commercialbreak.
Welcome back in as we wrap upour number one here on the show.
I hope you guys are enjoyingyour Wednesday.
So far here and this nextsegment here.
We're going to hit up the fanzone here and this next segment
(25:19):
is brought to you by marshfieldmotor speedway.
The half mile paved track justthree miles west of marshfield
that county road age, findupcoming events and races at
marshfieldspeedwaycom.
That is marshfieldspeedwaycomhere and this fan zone the fan
zone is brought to you bymarshfield motor speedway there.
So the question that I had thisweek was, with the upcoming
(25:39):
Badger season right around thecorner and, with this schedule
that they have, I want to hearpeople's opinions.
So we got a lot of opinions outthere and I'm going to get to
the ones that I saw there onFacebook that I asked a question
on and make sure, if you wantto check us out across Facebook,
make sure you like follow onFacebook there and I'll make
sure to get to your questionshere.
I will get to your questionshere.
I will get to your answers inthe coming weeks.
So Jeff, over there he saidfour wins and a new coach by
(26:01):
midseason.
Wow, okay, okay.
Jeff's not really high on whatthey see so far.
Dave says they are tied for thenation's third toughest schedule
.
Yes, the schedule is dauntingand it should be the toughest
schedule, if you ask me.
Matt says I think getting to abowl game is a reasonable goal.
I would agree with that.
I would 100% agree with that.
Getting to a bowl game would bea reasonable goal, especially
(26:23):
for a schedule like this.
Chad says he is on the hot seatin just a bowl game.
I see four or five wins infickle fire.
Okay, okay, maybe three wins.
Schedule is brutal, according toGarth.
Dave said, with that schedule,four wins is realistic, six is
overly hopeful.
And then said with thatschedule, four wins is realistic
, six is over overly hopeful.
And then tim said get ready forsome sore badger bowels over
(26:45):
the next few months.
Well, so the majority of thefan zone has spoken and it looks
like they're not very high onthe badgers coming up this next
season here.
So we'll kind of see.
Next week we're going to betalking badger football again.
We're going to be preparing forweek one there.
I I look at the schedule.
It's a daunting schedule.
I think there's some wins on it.
I think this Badger team isgoing to surprise some people.
(27:05):
I really do.
I think they're going tosurprise some people.
Do I think they fire Fickleafter this year?
I think it would have to goreally bad.
I think it would have to goreally bad.
I think the locker room wouldhave to look lost again.
I think it would have to lookreally dysfunctional.
That's where I'm kind of atwith it right now.
It would have to look reallybad for them to move on from
Luke Fickle after this season.
If this offensive coordinatorhire doesn't work out, I think
(27:27):
you have to get rid of himbecause that would be two
terrible picks at offensivecoordinator in a row there.
So I think you'd kind of belooking at moving on from that
point, but yeah, so that's kindof where I'm at with that one
right now.
But when we come back here,we're going to come back, kyle's
going to jump on, we're goingto talk a little NFL, we're
going to talk a little MLB, andthen later on Umber's going to
stop by.
We've got Brewers to talk aboutin between there.
(27:48):
So we've got a lot of stuff toget to.
Yet tonight during the show,make sure you come.
Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the go with
Trage.
I'm your host, trage, as wecome back on this Wednesday.
And hey, if you want to find usacross social media, make sure
you're doing it.
Wisconsin Sports on the go withTrage.
You can find us across allsocial media platforms podcast
platforms, everything like that.
You can find the show out there.
Also, if you want to hit us upat any point in the show, do it
715-990-4914.
(00:22):
That is 715-9904914.
You can shoot your questions inhere, christian's on right now.
So if you want to shoot yourBadger questions, make sure
you're doing it.
We can talk about your Badgerquestions next week on the show
here.
So this next segment we'regoing to talk Badgers here,
christian's here.
This next segment of the showhere is brought to you by
Foreman's Hardware.
They offer you everything fromhome essentials to to farm
supply house, to farm grills, todrills.
(00:43):
Foreman's hardware has got youcovered.
Visit today in loyal kobe ormedford, wisconsin.
Tell them trade sent.
You get five percent off,nothing better.
You go down there on a friday.
They got the friday frenzy.
You never know what is going tobe on sale.
I'm always going crazy up inthere on the fridays trying to
find the deals and the smokerpellets, everything like that,
the cost m spice.
Make sure you're checking themout, foreman's Hardware there in
(01:04):
Loyal Colby or Medford,wisconsin.
So we're back, christian.
How are we doing?
It's Wednesday, we're gettingcloser.
Badger football is a week away.
I mean you've got to beecstatic right now.
How are we doing on thisWednesday?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh good, it's been the longest offseason of my life
, literally.
I mean once, I think, man withthe Badgers being on that
20-plus year bowl streak.
You know I've never had anoffseason quite this long.
It's not in my memory.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, and plus, you had a baby too.
So I mean you got that going on.
You got Badger football goingon.
I mean your life is just hecticright now.
You don't even know what avenueto turn on.
Just chaos, it's just chaos.
But we invite the chaos.
That's what's always fun.
We invite the chaos here,especially on this show.
We invite chaos, so we want tofirst off.
I got to ask this questionbefore we get to the badgers.
(01:51):
I got to ask this questionbecause this is chaos Big Ten.
I don't know what their thoughtwas or what their idea was with
any of this, but they want toexpand the college football
playoff to 20, 24 to 28 teams,was the report.
We can't even figure out 12.
They can't even get 12 goodteams into the college football
(02:13):
playoff and yet they want toexpand it to 24 to 28.
What was your reaction when yousaw this?
Mine was I can't believe thatthis is real.
I had to go double check acrossmultiple different platforms.
Make sure it's real.
It's real.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
They often this is their idea.
What is your like thought whenyou heard that, um, they don't
really want this, this is thisthey, because they were floating
a 16 team playoff so they couldget some more automatic
qualifiers in, right.
Um, earlier this year I thinkit was an off season at some
point was it spring now it'shard to keep track of all that
(02:46):
stuff and then it never reallygot any traction.
Obviously, a lot of teams ifyou're not in the Big Ten or SEC
, you're not really all 40 thereanyway.
Why should this conference getmore automatically, more
automatic qualifiers than otherones?
But I think it never really gotany traction.
So now I think this is one ofthose things where they're like
(03:08):
alright, now let's, since no onereally went for this idea, it's
not like the best idea, let'scome up, let's propose a worse
idea, right, and then they'lllet's meet in the middle, right,
maybe they'll come down and belike, okay, let's go with that
16-team playoff that yousuggested before.
So I don't think they seriouslywant 24 to do whatever this
team is.
I don't even take it seriouslybecause it's so ridiculous, but
(03:31):
I think that's kind of whatthey're doing.
They're trying to just do theirbest to propose some
ridiculously huge thing whereeveryone will settle where they
really want to be.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I just think you want to fix it.
Just take the top 12 teams,Don't mess around with this
automatic bid crap or anythinglike that.
Because honestly, like okay, ifI read these teams off you from
last year, tell me which onesactually had a realistic shot to
win the college footballplayoff.
Oregon, would you say yes or no?
Yes, Georgia.
Yes.
Boise State no.
(04:02):
Arizona State.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yes, boise.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
State no.
Arizona State no.
Two of your top four teams areno's at winning the college
football playoff Texas.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Penn State.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I'm not a big Drew Allo guy, so no, I don't think
that they actually would.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
They were hit or miss .
They were hit or miss.
I agree, notre Dame Not lastyear, yeah, I mean they made it
right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So I mean yes.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, probably Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Tennessee.
Would they win it for you?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Indiana.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Clemson SMU.
See so.
Mm-mm.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
See so we just went through.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
We have like six of the 12 could realistically win
the college football playoff andit's like okay.
So why don't you just, if youwant to fix it, bring in 12
teams that can actually win it?
Don't give me the oh well, I'mgoing to add SMU because they
won a conference.
Well, I get you want to awardconference winners, but also, if
you want to fix, what yourproblem is is that you had a lot
(05:07):
of blowouts in round one.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah.
But I think the problem withthat, though, is, like, all you
know, everyone's going to saythe two best conferences are the
SEC and the Big Ten.
Well, when those twoconferences just cannibalize
each other and like, what do yougo by?
Do you go by strength ofschedule?
Obviously not.
You see what indiana's doing,right, like yeah, and they poked
fun at the sec, right, um, butit's what do you do then?
It's like you got nine andthree, alabama, you know, and
(05:31):
then you got 12 and one.
Or you know 12 and oh, boisestate, you know.
Like.
You look at it like, if you justgo by wins, well, boise state's
better than or not necessarilybetter, but like the record's
better.
So you go with them, right?
I mean, I get the automaticqualifier stuff, and there's
always going to be the SEC andBig Ten bias, whether the big
media says that there is or not,which is true, they are the two
(05:56):
best conferences.
But it's hard.
Where do you pick that out?
Nine, three teams in the SECare Big Ten versus Big 12.
There's a two, a two loss team.
You know which one do you pick?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You almost have to go like college basketball.
You have to have a selectioncommittee, you go off strength
of schedule Cause you.
I mean you have a lot of thesemid-major teams that have 31
wins but they're not going toget a one through four seed
because they're not that good.
I mean that's just.
I think that's where you haveto be at and then also reseed
the darn thing when you get tothe second round so Oregon
doesn't have to play Ohio Stateright off the bat there in the
(06:28):
second round.
That's not good.
That's not good TV right there.
You want an Oregon-Ohio Stateto meet later on, not right then
.
So, I mean, yeah, I agree it'sso hard to do the fine-tuning,
I'm glad I don't have to.
But I mean, yeah, just theproposal that they came out with
.
It was like, yeah, this is odd,A lot of people are blowing up
about it.
So, yeah, I mean, yeah, there'sgood stuff there.
(06:49):
If you guys have an opinion outthere on the college football
playoff, make sure you shoot itto us, 715-990-4914.
We'd love to hear what you gotto say about what you think
about this playoff format rightnow.
Could you see some changes thatyou like, anything like that?
So let's get to the Badgers Anyfinal takeaways, Because camp's
now closed.
They're getting to the finalweek here, so camp's now closed
(07:09):
to the media and everything likethat.
But takeaways from camp, I meanjust your final takeaways.
Were there any final takeawaysyou had from the last like few
days that you had accessibility?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So I think I made like three total practices,
including their last scrimmageon Saturday.
I think this team is, it hastalent, but again, it's like all
young talent and they're goingto be depending on them this
year, whether it's the runningbacks, with Dylan Jones and
Darian Dupree, or like thelinebackers.
(07:41):
I mean you got we'll talk aboutthem a little bit we got
Christian Allegro and CurtisTackett, who are both, or
Tackett and Curtis, who are bothjuniors, but then behind them,
if I had to say like what thetwo deep was, it's a pair of two
freshmen, Same with like I meanour defensive line, I would say
is relatively, you know older,you know older guys, guys, but
(08:10):
that's because they hit thatwith the transfer portal a lot,
but I mean just and just a lotof positions.
You see, like most of thestarters are going to be
upperclassmen this year, butlike the skill and like a lot of
the talents and potential isall an underclassman and I think
they're going to be leaning onthem a little bit this year,
especially with any potentialinjuries which there will be
because it's football.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, I can completely see that.
So let's get.
We got to get our positionpreview.
I we're.
We're already.
We talked about the playoffexpansion too long.
We're already running our leg.
We're, on the later ready here.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So we'll be brief.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
We'll be brief Now.
We don't got to be brave.
We pay us by the hour.
That's all I have.
There you go.
So let's get to the positionpreview tonight here.
If you guys missed any of theposition previews from weeks
past, we've gone the last coupleweeks here, so make sure you're
checking them out.
Wisconsin Sports on the GoTrade you can find the
quarterback talk, running backroom, everything like that.
You can find it out there.
But tonight we've got to get tolinebackers.
(08:57):
We've got to get to corners,safety and special teams tonight
here as we get before next weekwhen we do the preview of the
first game there.
So linebacker room, I mean,just as a grand scheme of things
, who's standing out to you?
I mean, who's standing outright now?
Is someone rising above therest of the guys in there?
Who stands out in thatlinebacker room for you right
now?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
So you want to talk edge, or do you want to talk
middle linebackers?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Let's start with the edge.
We went D-line last week.
Let's start edge, then we'llwork the middle there.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Perfect.
Mason Rieger Soft is theredshirt senior transfer from
Louisville.
He's going to be good.
I think he's going to be a studfor us.
I think we talked about him alittle bit last week, but I
think he stands out.
He's going to be probably, inmy opinion, our best pass rusher
on the team.
Daryl Peterson, who the guy whoyou know Wisconsin supposedly
(09:50):
beat Alabama out four years agoand he hasn't done a whole lot
Like when I was there barelynoticed him.
So I'm I know it'sdisappointing, right, yeah, but
outside of that on edge, a guythat again stuck out to me as a
true freshman, who I think well,he's an injury away, I bet,
from getting snaps, is NicholasClayton.
(10:11):
Beats out Florida state for him.
He's a Florida kid.
I don't know how anyone inFlorida let that kid get out of
that state, but I think he'sgoing to be an absolute stud,
like a star, and I know there'sa lot of players on the team
that have already talked abouthim and like just his potential
and how he's going to be aspecial one for them.
So I think he's going to be abig one.
(10:33):
Tyrese Fierbre he transferred infrom Kentucky.
He looked pretty good.
Aaron Witt he's been with usforever but I swear he's hurt
every single year so he hasn'thad a chance.
But he's going to be good depth.
But then, yes, sebastian Cheeks, who transferred in last season
from North Carolina, I mean, ifhe's one of your third-string
edge guys, you're looking prettygood.
So I think edge is probably,hopefully one of the strengths
(10:57):
of the defense.
I mean, outside of Rieger,maybe he just doesn't
necessarily do a whole loteither, right, but just outside
of him there's not necessarilyone big star like a Nick Herbig
or a TJ Watt, but they havedepth and I think from the first
string to second string there'snot a lot of drop-off, which
(11:17):
hopefully is a good thing.
But middle linebacker, I think,is I'm going to do a positional
preview, like between end ofcamp and start of the year.
So I got a lot to get.
I got a lot to get out heresoon.
But one of the things I want todo is like I was thinking about
ranking, like the positions,the units, you know, like the
best units, whatever, and I wasthrowing around a couple who I
(11:38):
wanted on top and I honestlythink I would land one or two
Christian Allegro and TackettCurtis, I think, could easily
not easily, but could be one ofthe better linebacking duos in
the Big Ten.
They're both like I like tothrow around the word psychos on
the field.
They have zero regard for theirown body.
(11:58):
They're just literally flyingaround and just want to lay the
lumber on everybody.
They brought in Antron Turner.
He looked pretty good, but thenyou also got guys like Thomas
Heiberger who was a huge likecoaches would not stop raving
about him last spring or lastfall as an edge player, but then
he got hurt and basically waslimited to four games and just
(12:20):
played special team snaps allyear.
Last year they moved him inside.
But the two big guys at middlelinebacker are Mason Posa, who
was their top recruit coming inthis class.
Didn't come in in the spring atall, but he's legit.
He's going to be very, verygood.
Then they also got bad radiohere the kid, the in-state kid,
(12:44):
Cooper Catalano.
He's the all-time state leadingtackler.
I haven't heard nothing butgood things about him.
He is constantly there.
So in the scrimmage I mean Iknow when I was supposed to like
whatever string, but he was inlike the second group on defense
, those two, the two freshmen,okay.
So I think there's depth there,but also just a lot of talent,
(13:06):
a lot of talent, a lot of skill,and I think I mean Tackett
Curtis and Christian Allegro arereally, really good.
Even behind them, I thinkCatalano and Post they have a
chance to be even better in thefuture, but we'll see.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I like both rooms, the edge and also the middle.
The key word there was depthand having that depth in there,
and especially when you said inthe edge that it doesn't really
drop off much, you like that,you like that ability.
We're going to be able to mixand match guys.
Maybe somebody else have it oneday, maybe you can bring
somebody else in there off thatedge, throw a different look at
an offense, whatever it is.
Having that depth is hugebecause I mean pass rushers,
(13:45):
pass rushers they all havedifferent you know tendencies,
they all do different things onthe line there that your tackles
are looking at and everythinglike that.
So having a different guy isdifferent guys that can fill in
there.
That's huge.
That's huge to have there.
And I I love the christianallegro because we saw it last
year with him in a rough defenseto watch.
He at times he was a brightspot when he, when he got to
playing time, he was a brightspot in there.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
He led the team in sacks last year with like three.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That tells you how bad the defense was last year
that he led the defense withthree sacks.
So hopefully somebody can getabove that.
If we get four sacks, we throwa party.
That's all I know.
Yeah, absolutely For four sacks.
So let's get to one of the mostimportant rooms that we're
going to talk about, becausethis big 10 is going to have a
lot of high power, high flyingoffenses.
(14:32):
So we got to talk about thiscornerback and safety room that
we're looking at right now.
What are we looking at?
I mean, what can we expect fromthe secondary this year?
And then I mean, is there anyupdate on nizery is?
What do you think is he gonnaplay this year year?
I mean they're giving him reps,but not really giving him reps
because they don't expect it togo well, but they're hopeful.
So where are you at right now?
How does this room look?
(14:53):
Hallman in there, I mean theygot some key guys to replace
back there.
So I mean, what are you seeingthis year with this unit?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
This is like the most up-in-the-air group I think we
have.
On the team, ricardo Hellman'sdealing with some ankle injury
stuff.
Every time I've seen him he'sdone some individual stuff, but
then once his team, or evenseven-on-seven, anything like
that, he's off to the sideworking on cuts, working on some
.
He's not a hundred.
(15:21):
The official word from UW weheard was they're not worried,
but I mean he hasn't.
I haven't seen him practice intwo weeks.
So I guess it's been a week anda half, but I mean you never
know.
So whether he'll be ready toroll, maybe you hold him out
against you know Miami of Ohioand Middle Tennessee and you get
him ready for Alabama, butoutside of him the whole Nizer
(15:48):
four-areem dude.
I don't get it.
Even if things do go well andhe wins his case, he's still out
the first four games becausehis case isn't even going to be
heard until then.
So when I go to practice he'sand I understand that Ricardo
Hallman being out as part of itor just not being in the drills
and stuff as part of it, buthe's getting reps with the ones
like the top group and it's Idon't know, unless they know
(16:11):
something that they're notsharing or like you know,
whatever, but Fickle still islike.
In the spring he was very, veryadamant that, like they're
going to win, he's going to behere.
They're not even going to likeentertain the idea of him not
being here.
But it obviously didn't go hisway and now they're appealing it
(16:31):
again.
Um, it's just, the whole thingseems weird to me that he's
getting reps like with the topplayers again, or maybe I
shouldn't say but against, likebilly edwards, against the
number one defense or number oneoffense, um, but outside of him
, so like's.
So if those two can't go orlike obviously for green can't
play the first four games.
If Hallman is always fun, who doyou have behind them?
(16:52):
Right, um, they brought inDeoni Hill from Miami, um, and
he was at Marshall before that,but he was getting reps opposite
of um for as an outside cornerduring their scrimmage Um.
And then in the slot they haveJameer Latimer, um for Kareem as
an outside corner during theirscrimmage Um.
And then in the slot they haveJameer Latimer, um who
(17:15):
transferred in and,coincidentally, is the brother
of Amari Latimer.
Like huge, huge running backprospect.
The Badgers just landed that.
Georgia and Florida state arestill trying to pry from us
anyways.
So he's he's been in the slotmostly and he's actually pretty
good too.
Um, but a guy that's reallypopped out to me, like outside
all of them, is Emilio Agard.
He's been.
He was a freshman last year, Ithink, or now.
(17:35):
So he's a redshirt freshman now.
I think if Hallman can't playthe first couple games or
whatever's going on, and forKareem just doesn't have his
eligibility, I think we're goingto see a lot of Emilio Agard
out there.
But between him and Deoni Hilland Jameer Latimer it's a lot of
like Badger fans haven't heardof you, you know.
(17:59):
So we're going to, we're goingto see.
I think that's that wholeposition is just kind of up in
the air right now depending onHallman's health and what
happens with Nyser Fork Green.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
That did not.
You took my hope from me today.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I know, I know I'm sorry.
Just don't wind up your salesright.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I mean you're talking about it.
It's like, okay, it's anunproven group, but there's some
talent in there.
So that's what we're kind oflooking for is if that talent
kind of gets out there.
And you know, you have my miamiof ohio.
That's not a terrible team.
They're actually picked Ibelieve the second in their
conference this year, so they'renot a terrible team.
So no pushover.
But I mean you have a couplegames now miami of ohio, middle
(18:39):
tennessee.
If hallman misses week one andtwo because you're trying to
rest him up for the rest of theschedule, you get over it Like
you move on from it, maybe evenif he misses Alabama, because I
mean honestly, is he going tomake that much of a difference
in?
that yeah like is he going tomake that difference where
they're going to beat Alabama?
You would hope, like, yeah, Iwish, but I don't know.
(19:03):
You'd like to say yes, yeah,I'd possible.
We watched.
Who was it that year WesternMichigan beat.
Was that Michigan?
They beat Michigan on thatkickoff or that field goal there
at the end, I mean it wassomething like that.
So I mean, crazy things havehappened.
I don't want to.
How far have we fallen that?
I'm comparing us to WesternMichigan beating Michigan.
That's how far she's fallen offthe wagon.
Far she's fallen off the wagon.
(19:28):
But let's get past that.
Let's talk special teams.
One last one special teams here.
Kicker punter, who's doing ourkicking?
Who's doing our punting?
Are we confident, are wefeeling good about those
positions?
Because when you got a goodkicker you just breathe like
fresh air.
It's like brandon mcmanuscoming to green bay.
You're just like we're good.
Do we have that in madisonagain?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
all right, I'll try to be quick, because I'm pretty
sure we skipped safety and Ithink you probably want to learn
about safety.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Go on, Ness.
We forgot about the safety.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
It's all good Special teams really fast.
Atticus Bertrams punter.
He's going to be one of thebest in the Big Ten.
I'm absolutely confident thathe is even potentially like
maybe throw some money on it.
He's the Badgers like at hisposition.
We like some hot takes hereonce in a while Kicking, though
there's supposedly a competitiongoing on between Gavin Lamb and
(20:16):
Nathaniel Vakos.
Honestly, I couldn't tell youwho has the leg up in that.
Honestly, I watched them bothkick.
They both kind of got the samereps.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah right, I was telling both kick.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
They both kind of got the same reps.
Yeah right, I was telling a guyI was standing next to that and
I go geez, I didn't even meanto do that.
Anyways, it's just a bad dadjoke, I guess.
My thought is it'll be Vakosagain and Lamb will just be the
kickoff specialist.
But we'll see, I don't know, itdoesn't really matter, you know
(20:47):
.
I mean, I'm not necessarilyconfident either of them is
going to come in and nail a50-yarder or even a 45-yarder,
like I know.
Vakos has the leg for it, butI'm not confident he'll make it,
you know.
So, special teams, I thinkit'll be like punting situations
in good hands Kicking.
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Vakos has kind of hit or miss, last year a little bit
.
I mean he had his moments, buthe has kind of hit or miss.
But yeah, Burcham, I mean he'salways been solid, so you love
to hear that that you're goingto have a solid punter.
Punters, they make a bigdifference when you have a great
punter.
You can make a big differencein a football game.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, just.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
That guy was nuts.
That guy was absolutely crazy.
He could just drop it on theone-yard line.
It's like the ball deflated andjust sat there.
It was absolutely crazy.
So, let's get over to thesafety room.
One last one, I know I forgotabout it.
Let's talk safety becausethat's a very important position
.
Let's talk safety.
What do you got for me in thatsafety position?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Austin Brown and Preston Zachman I think will be
the two starting safeties and Ithink that's a very solid
starting to.
I know like people are toyingwith the idea of Austin Brown
come down and play in the nickel, but I think Jameer Scott's
kind of got that locked up.
And why would you want to moveAustin Brown off to office
safety?
Um, other than the fact that heplayed some nickel last year
but in the in the slot.
So I think those will be thetop two.
(22:03):
But I think I really like thetwo Matthews that they brought
in in the transfer portalMatthew Young and Matthew
Trainor.
Matthew Young's that kid fromBethel, so he goes from D3 to D1
.
When I went and played I saw himjust lay the lumber on multiple
people.
It was nice to see.
He's a lot bigger than Ithought he was, and same with
(22:24):
Matthew Trainor.
He transferred in from Richmond.
So a couple of guys coming infrom smaller schools but I think
they look good.
I like them.
It's kind of like the outsidelinebacker.
I don't think obviously they'reas good as Preston Zachman or
Austin Brown, but if one of themwere to get hurt, I don't think
there's a huge drop-off betweenthe first and the second group,
(22:47):
okay, and then you have OwenArnett, who's, you know,
redshirt senior.
He's been there forever.
He's a special teams guy, buthe's he makes plays two once in
a while, right, so I think hegot five solid safeties, and
then you got some young guysbehind them.
But yeah, I think safety looksdecent too.
It's one of my favorite groupsto actually watch and practice.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
All right.
So I mean, if we take all inall, you look over these last
three weeks that we've done theposition preview, I think the
biggest thing, the biggesttakeaway I've had from
everything is there's a lot ofquestion marks yet, but there's
a lot of depth.
There's a lot of depth on thisteam and I like that.
I like having the depth becausewe know injuries happen Knock
on wood that they don't, but weknow injuries happen.
(23:31):
We know you're going to play alot of good teams here Having
that depth, having fresh legs,being able to keep trotting guys
out having problems atpositions, because you have a
lot of depth.
Talking like the running backroom with Dillian Jones Dupree
and Cade Giacomelli being apretty darn good back and being
number three Good problems theyhave.
So wrap us up here.
I mean wrap us up Any lastthoughts here.
(23:53):
Let us know what you're workingon there at the Badger Backer.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Just let the people know where to find you out there
?
Yep, you can find me atbadgerbackercom.
Feel free to subscribe.
I'm going to be trying to kickout a whole lot more in the next
few weeks here, but notespecially now that the football
season is starting up.
But just look at each position.
It's kind of like what we didhere, right?
Just a little bit of a positionpreview before the start of the
season, now that I have alittle more information from
(24:24):
going to a couple practices.
But we'll do that, we'll dopredictions, we'll do, you know,
opponent previews, all the, allthat fun stuff that we'll
probably do on here too.
But just uh, yeah.
So, badgerbackercom, come onover and subscribe always great
stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
He's always got great stuff.
I'm trying to share it as muchas I can.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I mean, there's two I appreciate, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
I got too much stuff rolling across my feet sometimes
.
I got crazy people talkingabout the Brewers.
I got Cub fans.
I got everything rolling acrossmy feet and then I got
Christian.
I'm like this is what I'mlooking for right here, this is
what I'm looking for.
So make sure you're checkingthem out there, badgerbacker,
across social media there andbadgerbackercom.
So we'll be back after a quickad break.
I think, like I said, tonightwe got a bloated up show and I
(24:58):
don't know who's stopping bynext.
So we'll see what happens whenwe come back from the ad break.
Wisconsin Sports Network,gotrade We'll be right back
after this quick commercialbreak.
Welcome back in as we wrap upour number one here on the show.
I hope you guys are enjoyingyour Wednesday.
So far here and this nextsegment here.
We're going to hit up the fanzone here and this next segment
(25:19):
is brought to you by marshfieldmotor speedway.
The half mile paved track justthree miles west of marshfield
that county road age, findupcoming events and races at
marshfieldspeedwaycom.
That is marshfieldspeedwaycomhere and this fan zone the fan
zone is brought to you bymarshfield motor speedway there.
So the question that I had thisweek was, with the upcoming
(25:39):
Badger season right around thecorner and, with this schedule
that they have, I want to hearpeople's opinions.
So we got a lot of opinions outthere and I'm going to get to
the ones that I saw there onFacebook that I asked a question
on and make sure, if you wantto check us out across Facebook,
make sure you like follow onFacebook there and I'll make
sure to get to your questionshere.
I will get to your questionshere.
I will get to your answers inthe coming weeks.
So Jeff, over there he saidfour wins and a new coach by
(26:01):
midseason.
Wow, okay, okay.
Jeff's not really high on whatthey see so far.
Dave says they are tied for thenation's third toughest schedule
.
Yes, the schedule is dauntingand it should be the toughest
schedule, if you ask me.
Matt says I think getting to abowl game is a reasonable goal.
I would agree with that.
I would 100% agree with that.
Getting to a bowl game would bea reasonable goal, especially
(26:23):
for a schedule like this.
Chad says he is on the hot seatin just a bowl game.
I see four or five wins infickle fire.
Okay, okay, maybe three wins.
Schedule is brutal, according toGarth.
Dave said, with that schedule,four wins is realistic, six is
overly hopeful.
And then said with thatschedule, four wins is realistic
, six is over overly hopeful.
And then tim said get ready forsome sore badger bowels over
(26:45):
the next few months.
Well, so the majority of thefan zone has spoken and it looks
like they're not very high onthe badgers coming up this next
season here.
So we'll kind of see.
Next week we're going to betalking badger football again.
We're going to be preparing forweek one there.
I I look at the schedule.
It's a daunting schedule.
I think there's some wins on it.
I think this Badger team isgoing to surprise some people.
(27:05):
I really do.
I think they're going tosurprise some people.
Do I think they fire Fickleafter this year?
I think it would have to goreally bad.
I think it would have to goreally bad.
I think the locker room wouldhave to look lost again.
I think it would have to lookreally dysfunctional.
That's where I'm kind of atwith it right now.
It would have to look reallybad for them to move on from
Luke Fickle after this season.
If this offensive coordinatorhire doesn't work out, I think
(27:27):
you have to get rid of himbecause that would be two
terrible picks at offensivecoordinator in a row there.
So I think you'd kind of belooking at moving on from that
point, but yeah, so that's kindof where I'm at with that one
right now.
But when we come back here,we're going to come back, kyle's
going to jump on, we're goingto talk a little NFL, we're
going to talk a little MLB, andthen later on Umber's going to
stop by.
We've got Brewers to talk aboutin between there.
(27:48):
So we've got a lot of stuff toget to.
Yet tonight during the show,make sure you come.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.