Dec 3 Hour 1: Badgers MBB and Football, Packers

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade.
Your place for all thingsWisconsin Sports.
Now, your host, Trage.

SPEAKER_02 (00:18):
How are we doing, everybody?
And welcome into WisconsinSports on the Go with Trage.
I'm your host, Trade, as we comeback here for the December 3rd
edition of the show here.
I hope you guys are enjoyingyour Wednesday so far.
I hope you guys enjoyed yourweekend, your Thanksgiving
weekend there.
It was a fantastic Thanksgivingfor myself there.
The turkey, I told you guys Iwas making that turkey on the
Traeger.

(00:38):
Fantastic.
It ended up fantastic there.
So that was sigh of relief.
Sigh relief there with thatturkey.
And then a huge sigh of relief.
The Packers with a massive,massive win against the Detroit
Lions there on Thanksgiving.
That was awesome.
So we're going to get into thathere on the show today.
The Bears got the win againstthe Eagles on Black Friday.

(01:00):
We got to talk about thatbecause now the NFC North is a
lot more enticing.
It is a lot more enticing nowthat we are seeing the Bears.
They picked up a win against agood, a good team.
The Eagles dysfunctional.
So it's still some questionmarks, but the Bears looked
good.
So we're going to dive into thathere on the show today.

(01:21):
Umber's going to be stopping byhere.
We're going to have some Packertalk here.
Probably end of hour number one,working into hour number two.
We're going to talk about that.
And then we have a little bit ofbrewer's talk to get to here
later on the show.
Hopefully we get to the brewers.
We have a little bit of brewer'stalk.
If we get to it today, we get toit.
If we don't, we'll talk aboutnext week here on the show.
So we got that.
Badger basketball.
The trip to San Diego was uh nota failure, but that game two

(01:43):
against TCU, that was ugly.
And it's left some questionsagain.
So we're going to talk aboutthat here tonight here on the
show.
So we got that talk about badgerfootball, an ugly performance.
An ugly performance.
That's all I'm going to say.
An ugly performance againstMinnesota.
And it left, it left a lot ofquestions heading into the
offseason.
So Christian, Christian's goingto stop by next.

(02:05):
We're going to hit our firstbreak.
We're going to come back.
And then Christian's going tohop on.
We're going to talk about badgerfootball because there's a lot,
a lot of question marks thatcame off of that game.
Especially the big one.
Did all that progress that LukeFickle and this team made going
into that game?
Did it all get kind of wipedout?
So we got that talk about.
If my voice starts to go today,if my voice starts to go, I've

(02:28):
been dealing.
I don't even know.
It's not really a cold.
It's just my voice.
Then I had a headache going on,but it's just been mainly the
voice trying to keep thatcleared out.
So if it starts to go a littlebit, if it sounds a little
scratchy, that's why.
It's been a heck, it's it'sextremely hard to try and clear

(02:49):
it out to talk.
So hopefully, hopefully it staysclear for the entire show here.
So we got that coming up.
Kyle's gonna be stopping by.
We got some NFL talk to get towith him, power rankings, NFL
talk complete.
We got all kinds of stuff to getinto there, some college
football talk there, and then wegot some Bucks talk to get to.
Giannis is back, Kevin Porter'sback.
You know what that means.
We have two editions back.
We gotta add two new guys to theshow.

(03:10):
The guys from Wisco Fanatics aregonna be stopping by.
They're gonna become the new,what do they call it?
The Bucks correspondents for theshow.
So they're gonna be stopping byhere and they're gonna be coming
on week by week here to talkBucks.
And this Bucks team uh has oflate here.
It's been a struggle.
Hopefully, Giannis and KevinPorter being back, that's gonna
add a little bit and it's gonnamake it a little bit better uh
moving forward here.
So we got some Bucks talk to getto here later on in the show.

(03:33):
But I wanted to get somethingoff top here.
Just uh a little a mention ofsomething that happened over the
weekend there.
So uh the Mulm family, a lot ofpeople around the area probably
heard about this, but the Mulmfamily there, residents of
Loyal, they uh they had adevastating house fire over
this, over this Thanksgiving onThanksgiving, but over this

(03:55):
Thanksgiving weekend there.
They had it on Thanksgiving Day.
And luckily, thank, thank theLord, everybody made it out
safely.
They have young kids there.
Um, everybody made it outsafely, but they lost
everything.
Everything's gone.
Everything's it's it was it itwas it's terrible.
It really is.
Like when I heard about it, Isaid, well, I honestly said

(04:16):
right away, I was like, what canI do?
What can I do?
Right.
So I contacted the hardwarestore because the hardware
store, so the hardware store inLoyal, they're foremans in
Loyal, and then the St.
Anthony's Church, and then alsothe Suite Retreats, they are
taking donations right now.
They're taking donations, youcan donate anything from pots
and pans to uh clothing,whatever you have, whatever you

(04:38):
have that you can donate, get itin there to Foremans, get it to
Suite Retreats, get it to St.
Anthony's, help any way that youcan because this this is, I
mean, we're talking about afamily with three young
children.
It's we're getting closer to theholidays now, and this is just a
terrible, terrible thing thathappened.
And nothing anybody could do,nothing anybody could do.

(05:00):
It's just one of those things,it's it's it sucks.
And anything that we can do tohelp here on the show, we're
gonna do it.
And I'm asking that anybody outthere, if you have the
capability to donate in any waythat you can, I would love for
you guys to do it.
So, and if you need help findingany of those ways to donate,
definitely hit me up.
715-990-4914.

(05:21):
That is 715-990-4914.
You can hit me up, text linethere.
I can give you um uh the addressor anything like that where you
can mail things if you wantedto, ship things to some of these
stores, or if you need addressesto just maybe even drive there,
drop it off yourself.
Make sure you guys are doingwhat you can because this, I
mean, it's it's uh it sucks.

(05:42):
It really does.
And hopefully we can doeverything that we can as a
community to help them out hereand help them move forward here
because, and like I said, thankthe Lord, everybody in the
family was safe and that theyhave somewhere safe to go right
now, but they definitely coulduse the help.
So make sure you guys are if youcan donate, stop in there at
Foreman's or Suite Retreats orSt.
Anthony's and drop off any kindof donation items that you can.

(06:02):
That is definitely needed rightnow.
So we have a whole boatload ofthings to dive into tonight
here.
Christian's gonna be stopping bynext.
We're gonna talk some badgingfootball when we come back here
from the break.
Wisconsin Sports on the Go Tradeis just getting rolling.
We'll be back back in toWisconsin.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.
And hey, this next segment hereis brought to you by our friends

(06:22):
down there at Casa M.
Spice, the low sodium, cleanlabel, no fillers, no MSG.
This stuff is fantastic,Christian.
The turkey I said off top of theshow, it went off without a hit.
I mean, it was fantastic, it wasgreat.
I used that Casa M.
Spice on there, the peckingorder, the chain reaction,
infused it in there with myinjector and a little bit of
broth.
Oh, it was fantastic.
Put it on the smoker.

(06:44):
Came off.
Thanksgiving came off without ahitch.
It was awesome.
It was fantastic.
Thanks to our friends down thereat Casa Am Spice.
Make sure you guys are checkingthem out there.
Facebook, Twitter, wherever youcan find them, Casa M.
Spice, you can find theirwebsite.
You can also find them on thereat all the Foremance hardwares,
all the Ace hardwares.
They're in there.
Check them out, grab some CasaM.
Spice for yourself.
So, Christian, how yeah,hopefully, hopefully you're

(07:06):
doing better than I am becausemy voice sounds like crap right
now.
How are you doing on thisWednesday?

SPEAKER_01 (07:12):
I'm good.
We're uh we're back, we'reready, and it's uh almost time
for national signing day, man.
Things are busy.

SPEAKER_02 (07:19):
Oh, it is it's ex well, it's exciting and then
nerve-wracking because it'slike, well, who's gonna be here?
How are they gonna scramble tofill a position?
This and that.
I'm over here drinking my dirtytea water.
I totally I forgot the honey.
I said it, Christian.
I forgot he's like, you load itup with honey, right?
I'm like, that's why it tasteslike a putting miracle grow
inside of a thing of hot waterand chucked it on the stove.

(07:39):
That's what I got right now.
Hopefully, hopefully, I keeps myvoice clear for well, somewhat
clear.
It ain't gonna clear out, I cantell you that much.
So, so Christian, we got to getto our Casa M Spice bold players
of the week from this last weekhere.
And I gotta go with our guy overthere, Dontavian Wicks.
He was absolutely fantastic forthe Packers in that win over the

(08:02):
Lions on Thanksgiving.
I honestly, if you would havesaid that Dontavian Wicks was
gonna be, he was gonna have thegame ceiling catch.
And the way that it happened,where he had to leap up, go get
it with a guy right there, I'dhave told you you were crazy.
I would have told you you werecrazy.
Two touchdowns in the game, sixreceptions, 94 yards.
He was nothing short offantastic.

(08:22):
It was the Don Tavian Wicksgame, and you love that because
in 2023, when the Packers wererolling, it seemed like it was a
different receiver every week.
This was Don Tavian Wicks week.
Christian Watson had a good gametoo, but this was Wicks' week.
Maybe next week we're gonna seesomebody else.
But that that's the Green BayPackers that we were we were
missing.
We were loving.
Wicks, hopefully, this is a goodsign to come because the drop

(08:43):
passes have been a nervous, youknow, nervous thing with him
with drop passes.
A lot better in this game here.
Loved what I saw to Don TavianWicks.
So, Christian, who do you gotfor me for your awesome spice
bolt player of the week?

SPEAKER_01 (08:54):
Uh, I know we talked about black hole, but I think
I'm gonna switch.
I'm gonna go with Nick Boyd fromthe game before in the
Providence game.
Dropping 36 points.
Oh, yeah.
Seven rebounds, seven assists,like, and then a huge blow.
And I know they went on to loseto TCU the next game, and he
didn't do anything.
But give me Nick Boyd.
That was a crazy performance.
Went 11 of 16.

(09:15):
Shot almost 70% from the field.

SPEAKER_02 (09:17):
When he's feeling it, he's feeling it.
But when he's not, he needs tolearn how there's a safety on
that trigger.
That's what he needs to learn.
And yeah, so yeah, that NickBoyd, we're gonna talk about
that.
We're gonna talk about thatlater on or in the next segment
when we're talking a littlebadger hoops.
But there's those two together,and there's yeah, there's a
whole bunch of stuff to diveinto with Badgerman's hoop.
But I would agree he wasfantastic in that game there

(09:37):
against uh against Providencethere.
So we got to get to our badgerfootball because I mean, I just
gotta be honest with you.
That was the worst possible waythe season could have ended.
That was the worst.
I I didn't think, you know, theway that the season was
trending, I didn't think thatthere was, you know, I thought
it was gonna end terrible nomatter what, but you went two of

(09:58):
three against three rankedopponents, Washington, and then
you lose to Indiana, which waskind of just expected, but you
played well, and then you playedIllinois and you beat them, and
you're like, wow, they have achance to win another one
against Minnesota to wrap up theyear.
All the momentum is in theirfavor, heading into it, and then
nothing.
It was ugly.

(10:20):
I mean, Christian, is there anyother word to use except for
wow, that was ugly?

SPEAKER_01 (10:26):
I don't think so.
Just extremely disappointing.
I mean, like thinking about thelast four games, you know, and
just looking at that, I figured,man, that Minnesota game would
have been the most likely onethey would have won.
Yes, you know, I mean, eventhough it was on the road, but
like whatever.
They've won on the road beforein Minnesota, so it's not like
it's impossible to do.
But I didn't think they weregonna obviously beat Indiana.

(10:46):
I didn't think they were gonnabeat Washington.
I didn't think they had much ofa chance to beat Illinois.
But I mean, I think all three ofthose games they played pretty
dang well, and then just laid abig stinker in the last game of
the year, the one that most fansprobably would have been like,
this is the most important ofthe four.
Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 (11:04):
Even before that, Oregon lost 21 to 7 at Oregon.
I mean, they they wereeverything was trending up, and
then it just fell flat on itsface once again, and it just
feels like it's the trend.
It really does.
It feels like it's the trend ofLuke Fickle is you get this hope
and then you lose it.
And we had this last season.
They went through a pretty goodstretch last season there, and

(11:26):
they kind of just fell aparttowards the end.
I was just trying to look backthere to see what I uh see what
they did last year.
They had that three-game winstreak, beat Purdue, beat
Rutgers, beat uh Northwesternlast year, and then they laid
the egg from Penn State, gotshellacked by Iowa, lost to
Oregon in a close one, gotshellacked by Nebraska, got the
beat the uh crap beat out ofthem by Minnesota last year.

(11:46):
I mean, they just they've hadthese years last year.
They were one game, one win awayfrom being bowl eligible.
Couldn't do it.
Now, this season, if everythingwent right with the world,
right, they could have ended upbeing bowl eligible again.
But I don't think everythingprobably went right because they
needed all those teams to golike three and fifteen or
something like that in that lastyear.

SPEAKER_01 (12:05):
Yeah, that was quite the uh elaborate thing to
happen.

SPEAKER_02 (12:09):
But you had another season where you had an
opportunity, especially aMinnesota, get the axe back, go
into the offseason, go intorecruit, you know, early signing
period week, give your recruitsa pretty good impression of you.
And now, I mean, did Luke Fickletake all the progress that he
made?
I'm gonna ask this question, andI want to hear everybody's
opinion out there.

(12:29):
715-990-4914.
That is 715-990-4914.
Let me know what you guys think.
Did Luke Fickle take all theprogress that he made?
And did he go backwards with it?
Are we back at that uncertaintyagain?
What do you think, Christian?
Where are you at?
Did all that progress that hemade those those two wins, those
two massive ranked wins, doesthis loss take away from that?

SPEAKER_01 (12:55):
Um I don't think so.
I the fan in me wants to say yesbecause of course we lost to the
Gophers and you don't want tolose the axe and you know all
that.
But like again, this team wasbeat up so badly.
We're on our fourth stringquarterback, and yeah, Carter
Smith's supposed to be the guy,right?
But I don't know, he he canthrow, like he can do stuff like

(13:17):
he literally couldn't againstMinnesota.
That's why they put HunterSimmons in that entire second
half.
And if you got Hunter Simmons asyour quarterback in a game, like
it's and he was actually doing Ithink he was actually slinging
it around pretty well, but youknow it's it was one of those
things kind of like Braden Lock.
You know, at some point, yeah,he can look really good, make
these crazy throws, just likerip the ball, have the balls

(13:39):
just ripping out of his hands,you know a pick's coming, you
know, and it's just like hugedrive killer twice back-to-back
possessions.
I just I don't know.
So I don't think so.
That's the thing.
So yeah, that definitely likesucks to end on that and go into
the season and go into theoffseason with that, but I think
it also gives us some claritythat maybe Carter Smith's not

(14:03):
all the way there yet.
He might be the guy next year,but you at least have to bring
in some competition for him.
You can't just let him just walkinto the starting job, right?
Right.
So that's they know okay, we nowwe need a guy that can
absolutely pass the ball.
So we absolutely have to get aquarterback or two out of the
portal.
So I think, yeah, it suckslosing to the Golfers, it sucks
losing the acts again, it sucksgoing out like that, but like I

(14:26):
don't know.
I think it gives you a littleclarity on definitely what we
need to, you know, do and whatthey need to address in the
offseason.
Now that they have that, youknow, infusion of cash that
Macintosh says is coming, theyshould be able to get someone,
right?
Right?
Multiple people, but like at thevery least, quarterback, I think
we can all agree was like theAchilles heel of the team all

(14:47):
year, right?
I saw I saw someone tweet this,and like I absolutely agree.
Like, if there's any position tooverpay on right now, it's
quarterback.
Like, someone you have a guyyou're offering two million
dollars, they offer a littlemore, you offer three million.
You offer, you know, it doesn'tmatter.
You just do what it takes to geta quarterback, but then with our
luck, that quarterback'sprobably gonna get hurt within
the first game or two anyway.

SPEAKER_02 (15:08):
Yeah, we gotta keep one of these guys around, like
Hunter Simmons, just to startweek one, so that way whoever
he's gonna get hurt first, andthen we bring in the other guy.
That's just how it's gonna be.
So, um there you go.
I I wanna say the progresswasn't completely lost, but I
thought the decision making inthis game, like you said, with
the Hunter Simmons for CarterSmith, it didn't make sense

(15:30):
because Carter Smith practicedwith the ones all week, he was
your guy all week.
Why did it change in theMinnesota game?
Because he couldn't throw theball.
Well, Hunter Simmons, as weknow, and as you just said, he's
got a touchdown to interceptionratio of two to seven.
He's got two touchdowns, seveninterceptions on the air.
So you were playing with fire.
He had one good throw, and youwere like, Yep, there he is,

(15:51):
right?
The one good throw to VinnieAnthony.
But Carter Smith on the game,was he five for seven?
He wasn't bad.
He was moving the ball.
Wisconsin, I mean, you wereplaying a field position battle,
you lost it due to turnovers andnot being able to move the
football once again becausemultiple times Minnesota started
with the they couldn't get theball past 50.
I mean, everybody came out ofthat game, and I saw somebody

(16:14):
down to ESBN Madison, I sharedit on Facebook, and he's like
complaining about you knowMinnesota's Wisconsin's little
brother because they theystormed the field, and this is
this is what's terrible, andthis and that.
I'm like, you know what'sterrible?
You know what's terrible?
Wisconsin couldn't get the ballpast the 50.
They had two costlyinterceptions in that game.
There's a lot of differentthings that went wrong.
And we're complaining aboutMinnesota storming the field.

(16:36):
Who cares?
Like, who cares?
Oh, yeah, who cares?
I'm so sick.
They want to storm the field,let them.
They won the axe.
Great, good for them.
They they did it, good, good forthem.
All hats off to them.
Because it is, it's a bigrivalry.
So I would expect Wisconsin fansto storm the field if they won.
It's the same thing.
So, like, I'm good.
I don't I don't care about that.
What I care about is right now,when I look at this team,

(16:59):
Minnesota controlled thetrenches once again.
You went into the offseason,right?
If you're Luke Fickle, and yousaid yourself, though the big
thing was the Iowa game, right?
Controlling the trenches andeverything like that.
But that was also the Minnesotagame.
And you once again gotmanhandled in the trenches.
That's nervous.
That makes me worried a littlebit.
Because now, what is the what isthis offseason gonna be about,

(17:19):
right?
Like you said, you gotta go geta quarterback.
You gotta get a top-tierquarterback.
You know what the hard partabout getting a top-tier
quarterback is?
There's like 30 other teams thatwant one.
You know what the hard part is?
There's not 30 top-tierquarterbacks out there.
So now you're in a bid more,like you said, and you got to
bid a lot.
So now how do you build up thetrenches?
So, Christian, I'm gonna askyou, do you believe this is my,
I guess, one of my worries, andI want to hear what you think.

(17:41):
Do you believe that guys aregetting better in Wisconsin,
developing?
Because I just I'm losing trackof seeing guys that are getting
better, right?
We see we see some of theseyoung guys fill into roles and
play good, right?
Mason pos, Catalano, those guys.
But I mean, I could look acrossand say, like, what offensive
linemen's got better, whatdefensive linemans got better?

(18:03):
I mean, they showed spurts, theyshowed moments, but I can't like
Mason Rieger was a transfer.
I can't count him.
Mason Posa is a freshman, Ican't count him.
Catalano, I can't count him.
Like, is that a worry of yours,too?
Is that you're in a programright now where you can't spend
as much as these other ones andyou're not developing the
players like you used to, Iguess?

SPEAKER_01 (18:25):
I don't know, it's hard to tell because what is
this year three?
And when he came in, he broughtin a ton of guys from Cincinnati
that were already like you know,upperclassmen, you know, guys
like um Paulis, and you know, wehad all these guys that came in,
right?
So then he got his first waiverrecruits coming.
And I honestly felt like lastyear there's just this large

(18:45):
exodus, especially of secondaryplayers that he brought in with
too that are gone, like AmariSnowden and Braden Moore, and
you know, all these guys aregone now.
If you just feel like and thenyou got guys like Kevin Haywood,
who was supposed to be you know,I think a redshirt freshman, but
he like had you know all thispotential in the world, goes
down in spring for all for thewhole season.

(19:05):
Like, that sucks.
That's a huge, you know, hugepiece.
So I mean, it's hard to tellbecause I feel like just
especially with the portal, Iguess is what I'm saying.
Like guys just leave, you know,if they're maybe not getting
playing time, or they're nothappy with coaches, or it's just
not what they thought it wouldbe, or I don't know.
And it felt like he kind ofleaned on you know the guys that

(19:26):
were here already when he gothere, and and you know, the guys
that came with him right away.
So I feel like we really haven'tseen a whole lot of you know his
recruits from high, you know,his first, I guess Emerson man
Emerson Mandel.
We saw I I thought he playedrelatively okay this year, like
it wasn't necessarily a big weaklink.
I didn't notice him like Inoticed uh Davis Heinzen all the

(19:48):
time or Kerry Kadenko, but Imean, and but even by the end of
the year, like that line wasn'tnearly as big of a liability as
it was at the beginning of theyear, right?
Right.
So I don't I think I I'd like tosay, yeah, I've definitely have
seen a little bit, but again,like I don't know.
You got guys like DarylPeterson, who I was like kind of
saying, like, what happened tothis guy?

(20:09):
And then also he absolutely justturns it on the last three, four
games of the season.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
I think it's kind of hard totell.

SPEAKER_02 (20:16):
Because of all the missing pieces around.

SPEAKER_01 (20:18):
Exactly.
That's that's that's the easyway out.
That I'm gonna cop out here, butlike I it's just it really is
just hard to tell.
So I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 (20:24):
Like, I don't know.
It's it's so hard to judge whathe's done because of you could
always use the cop out answer ofthe quarterbacks are hurt, or
you could use the answer of therunning backs were all hurt, or
the linemen are hurt, and it'slike, okay, but after a while,
you gotta you gotta find a wayto make it look like something.
And I don't think they found away to make it look like

(20:44):
something at times on theoffensive side.
So it makes you question JeffGrimes going to the offseason.
Now, he didn't have a fulloffseason with the team, so
we'll see how it goes here goingin the next.
It's just the worry, I guess,and I guess we'll end the badger
football talk on this one, butare you worried about
recruiting?
Just because I don't know ifrecruits know what they're
getting themselves into, right?

(21:05):
We hear from Mason Post ofCatalano, they're like, Yep,
like I we can see the vision,you know, it's gonna be
something in a while here, butthen it's like you look at the
outside looking in, and if I wasa recruit and they said you can
go to Iowa, you can go toIllinois, you can go to
Wisconsin, or you can go outwest somewhere.
I don't know if Wisconsin's mytop pick right now, even though
I'm a Wisconsin guy.

(21:25):
I'm looking at them like, man, II don't know if this is gonna be
pretty if I go there, if I'm anoffensive player.
So I guess are you worried, Iguess, about the the signing of
the early signing guys and allthat of seeing that vision of
what this program could beversus what we're looking at
now.

SPEAKER_01 (21:41):
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.
It's they've like they had justlost one guy, you know, today to
Iowa.
I mean, granted, the guy wassigned with or committed to
Wisconsin as a tight end, andthen Iowa comes in, they're
like, hey, we think you're doingreally well at the defensive
line, and the guy had a crazy,really good off, like you know,
senior season.
Wisconsin's also like, oh yeah,cool, that's cool.

(22:03):
We'll play you a D-line too, andhe still flips to Iowa.
So we lose a guy like that.
Like, so that's the thing.
If you're in the Midwest, Iowa,they've been playing really
well.
Even Minnesota's taking all ofWisconsin's recruits, even
though I mean, this in thissenior season, there wasn't
really that many of likehigh-end recruits, not like the
next next year is, and you cantell Wisconsin's really like

(22:25):
doing putting like a concertedeffort in like keeping those
guys, because I mean, andthat'll be huge because there's
a lot of really good offensiveline talent, there's a really
good tight end in that group.
So I think I don't know.
I think it all just depends.
If like you, I mean, maybe maybeit does help.
You see like Mason Post andCatalano, and there's like, you
know what, yeah, like I want tobe part of that, you know, the

(22:48):
group that turns the programaround.
Maybe you have some pride in theprogram like that, right?
But if you're a guy that's justlike, I want to win, like now,
maybe I don't, you're goingsomewhere else.
I want to get to the NFL becausethe badgers haven't been putting
guys in the NFL lately either.

SPEAKER_02 (23:04):
That's where you're almost like you're gonna lose
out on a lot of the bigrecruits.
So now you gotta get the guysyou got to develop because, like
you're saying, those guys whoare four stars and that, they're
close to NFL.
Like they're not, they're notready yet, but they're they're
closer.
They want to win now, they wantto look good, they want to get
as many games in, which meansplayoff, which means you know,
bowl games, that kind of thing.
And being in a program whereit's been lackluster as of late,

(23:27):
not exactly the the spot that'sgonna put them in the spotlight,
right?
The big games and everythinglike that.
So yeah, I I'm I'm in aworrisome state with that.
I I can understand where you'relike, okay, we just gotta, you
know, get the right guys in theroom, everything like that.
The right guys will come around.
Okay, but it's you still, right?
You know, you had trying toattract still good quarterbacks,
everything like that.

(23:47):
So it's gonna be a almost adiamond in the rough kind of guy
if you find one of those, like aRussell Wilson coming in.
Like it's been a while since youhad a really it's been forever
since you actually had a reallygood quarterback.
So, I mean, it's it's not beenquarterback you ever.
So we'll see what the Badgerscan do here moving forward.
We're gonna talk early signingperiod, the guys who signed
everything like that.
We'll talk about that next weekhere on the show, just because

(24:09):
we're pre-recorded, as you guysknow, so we don't know
everything that happenedtomorrow, technically, right?
Today, Wednesday.
So we're gonna talk about thatnext week here on the show.
We'll get into all that.
When we come back from thebreak, Christian's gonna stick
around.
We have Badger basketball totalk to get to here.
We're gonna talk about that tripto San Diego, moving forward,
everything like that.
We'll be right back here onWisconsin Sports on the go with
Trage.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.

(24:31):
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(24:52):
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(25:12):
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winter season here.
So Christian is back.
We gotta do our this is our wegot a consensus because we both
had the same.
We're gonna do good, bad, andugly off the weekend.

And we had the same consensus: good, bad, and ugly. (25:28):
undefined
So the good, the Green BayPackers.
I mean, it's self-explanatory.
Beat the Lions, beat the Lionstwice twice this year, got that
win there on Thanksgiving atFord Field.
That was fantastic on nationaltelevision.
Once again, Jordan Love showedout there.
Matt LaFleur was aggressive.
It was fantastic.

(25:48):
We're gonna get into morePackers next year on the show,
but that was fantastic to see.
The bad from the weekend has gotto be the Badgers.
The way that they finished thatlittle tournament out there in
San Diego, men's basketballthere.
It wasn't the Providence game,it was great.
The TCU game, we saw the uglyagain.
So we're gonna talk about thathere in a minute, but that was
our bad.

(26:09):
The ugly has got to be theWisconsin Badgers football.
Wisconsin Badgers football wasyeah, there's nothing short of
ugly.
We talked about if you guysmissed that, we just talked
about here last on the show.
If you want to check that out,listen across all podcast
platforms tomorrow, next day.
You can hear us talk aboutbadger football there.
That was our ugly, and thenhonorable mention ugly.
We made sure to include that.

(26:30):
We got Lane Kiffin and the OleMiss situation because that's a
disaster.
I mean, Christian, just quickhitter on that one.
What were your thoughts on theLane Kiffin thing?
I mean, he shouldn't be able tocoach at Ole Miss.
No, absolutely not.
No, I can't believe anybody'sfighting for it.

SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
No, it's like, yeah, here uh I'm gonna leave you, but
here, let me just try to getsome extra glory, you know, and
like go coach through thecollege football playoff, get
all the credit for that, andthen I'm dipping, right?

SPEAKER_02 (26:56):
Right.
It's like, no, no, dude, you youleft, you're going to a rival.
We don't like like Ole Missdoesn't like LSU.
They they're not like peoplefrom Ole Miss do not like LSU.
So why would they want you, whois going to coach a rival, to
come and coach them through theplayoff run?
Nah, see you later.
We have an offensive coordinatorthat can step up and be the head
coach.
We can we can figure this out.

(27:17):
Like we'll be we'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 (27:18):
I think that they're they're often that guy on the
plane with Kiffin to go to LSU,and then they're just about to
say that coach.
What's what's the deal withthat?

SPEAKER_02 (27:26):
The offensive coordinator is going to LSU.
They're just allowing him to bethe offensive coordinator for
this.
So hopefully there isn't someundermining like baloney that is
gonna happen there becausethat's gonna be it's gonna be a
30 for 30.
I guarantee it.
It's gonna be awesome.
Oh, it has to be.
Yeah, it's gonna be.
It's I can't wait.
I can't wait for that 30 for 30.
College football stinks.

(27:46):
The whole layout of the earlysigning period, transfer portal,
everything like that stinks, andthat's why we have this
situation.
It's Lane Kiffen.
I don't, I I'm not, I don't carethat Lane Kiffin feels bad that
he can't coach him, but it'salso a college football problem
because they allow the trend,they have the early signing
period, the week of conferencechampionships, the season's

(28:06):
still going.
You're gonna run into thisproblem because you have to get
to your new destination to beable to recruit guys or bring
guys with you.
So they created this mess.
That's the mess that we'reseeing in front of us.
But we don't care about that.
We don't care about Lane Kiffand Ole Miss, anything like
that.
We want to talk some badgerhoops because the Badgers, five
and two, they went to San Diego.
We were like, okay, they gotthis matchup against Providence.

(28:28):
If they win that, we wereexpecting Florida.
Like, full fledged.
I was like, no doubt in my mind,Badgers are gonna play Florida
if they win.
They didn't, they did not.
They uh TCU pulled off the upsetwin against Florida, so they got
TCU in the second game there.
So I we can talk about the firstgame, but there's not much to
talk about.
The badgers shot the lights outof the building, they were

(28:48):
fantastic.
Second game, and I'm gonna gowith the TCU game and the BYU
game together because this isthe ugly that I'm seeing.
This front court for theBadgers, the front court, has
got me really nervous.
They're not physical enough, andI Nolan Winter has played
better.
He actually has been pretty goodagainst a pretty good big.

(29:11):
So I don't want to completelyhate on Nolan Winter here.
But Austin Rapp, the way that wewent into this season was this
front court was supposed to begood.
They were gonna be a very good,like a force to be reckoned
with, really good scoring,physical, get down low, be able
to add a post presence to thisteam, aggressive, all that.
I'm not seeing that.
And the consistency from thefront court is not there.
So I am really, I don't know,Christian.

(29:32):
Are you I'm worried about thefront court?
The backcourt, I Blackwell andBoyd, they're gonna be fine.
I think they'll be fine.
Boyd's gotta learn how to settledown a little bit, they gotta
learn how to live together likeBatman and Robin.
They have to learn how to betogether.
So I think they're gonna befine.
The front court for me, that'smy worry because there's this

(29:52):
inconsistency there, theaggressiveness.
Austin Rapp is not an insidepresence at all.
He he's nothing on the inside.
Actually, when he gets downhill,he actually like makes me
nervous driving because layup isa sure thing.
The front court's a worry.
I mean, are you worried aboutthat front court for Wisconsin?

SPEAKER_01 (30:10):
I mean, I don't know.
I like I'd like to think that asthe season goes on, they'll
figure it out, you know, becauseagain, like we've talked about
with the transfers and all thisstuff, it's you know, this isn't
a group that's played together awhole lot.
I think they still have a lot tofigure out, and I think that's
why I think that's why Guardkind of you know scheduled some
tough competition uh with likeBYU, things like that.

(30:33):
Like we saw them just blow teamsout earlier before they like
Campbell and Northern Illinoisand all that, and like that's
not necessarily making them playtogether because that's that
could just be one guy, two guysjust kind of doing their thing,
and they still can beat a team,right?
Right, um so like now Big Tenstarting up Wednesday night
tonight, um, and then the guyMarquette on Saturday, but um

(30:58):
that myths I think that'll makethem better.
So I think I'm not worried aboutit yet.
I think Austin Raps will try tofigure out how to play like big
boy basketball, right?
So like playing in the bigplaying in the Big Ten, playing
all these, you know, quad one,quad two teams and stuff.
We're not in Portland Stateanymore.
I think that'll help, but yeah,it is a little concerning so

(31:18):
far, especially since he wasbrought here to shoot threes and
he's shooting like 29% on theyear.
So it's not great.

SPEAKER_02 (31:25):
But it's a lot of rust.
It's it's a lot of rushed shotsfor this team right now.
They're trying to force a lot ofthings, and I think that is
because they do lack the insidepresence.
They don't know how to score ifthe three's not falling.
Then they get out of control.
Nick Boyd starts to drivedownhill too much, and he starts
to get out of control theregoing too fast.
And then John Blackwell, hestarts trying to do it.

(31:48):
He actually doesn't get involvedenough, actually, in my opinion.
I thought John Blackwellactually like hesitated away
from his shot at times, and thenin that TCU game, he's like, All
right, I can take over.
But then my when when he wasgetting hot, Boyd was still
trying to do too much, and it'slike, okay, feed the hot hand.
But they this team struggles attimes, and it's been like this.

(32:08):
They they stick on one side ofthe court too much, they're not
working the ball around, findingopen shooters, driving lanes,
finding those lanes like that.
They and and I talked about itgoing into that BYU game.
I said they're gonna have openshots from three because BYU is
gonna overhelp, they're gonna beable to get open shots.
Can they knock them down?
They couldn't in that game.
But then when those shots aren'tfalling, as we've seen twice
now, TCU and BYU against BYU,how do they find the offense?

(32:34):
They have not been able to findan offense when it's not
working.
Last season, it was big on likeTanja and those guys getting
downhill, but getting to thefree throw line.
And when you get to the freethrow, I mean, look at the
Arizona game.
They don't win that unless theyshoot what, 40 free throws in
that game.
Like they don't win that gameunless they shoot 40 free
throws.
That's why they won thebasketball game.
But they did that by gettingdownhill and getting to the rim

(32:56):
and allowing the refs to dictatewhat was going to happen there
by them driving the lane.
And you saw it last game.
Tanjae faded away from thecontact instead of going into
the contact there against BYU inthe tournament game.
What happened?
They lost.
This team right here, that'swhere I'm talking the
aggressiveness.
They're not taking the issue ofgoing to the rim and making

(33:16):
things happen.
They're trying to allow the gameto come to them instead of going
after it.
And that's where my worriescome.
That's where my worries come, iswith the aggressiveness of this
team to get after it.
My question to you is, and thisis gonna go along with the
aggressiveness.
Ever since the Badgers decided,well, not decided, but you know,
they said, let's go offensiveoriented.

(33:36):
Let's, you know, more shots.
We're gonna get more shots,we're gonna run a little bit,
everything like that.
The defense has taken a backseat.
And my problem is that when it'sgoing right and they can put up
104 points, everything looksgreat.
But can they beat a Purdue teamwhen Purdue is slowing the pace
of the game down?
Can they beat a team like uh aRutgers or whoever when they're

(33:59):
slowing the pace?
Michigan State.
You know, Michigan State doesn'talways score 80.
They're they're down there inthe 60s a lot.
That went 60 to 50.
Like, does Wisconsin doesn'thave the versatility to play a
defensive battle anymore?
So I guess that that's myconcern.
Are you as concerned about thatwith I guess I don't know if
that'd be more of a programproblem, but and it's not gonna

(34:20):
be fixed this year becauseyou're not gonna be able to fix
it.
But well, you can, you can, youcan tweak things, but you're not
gonna be able to fix personnelright now.
But my worry, I guess, is thatokay, Roadie's a pretty good
defender.
Nick Boyd, pretty good defender,Blackwell, pretty good defender,
Austin Rapp.
I guess rim protection isprobably my big thing.
I guess that's my biggest worryright now, is the rim
protection.
But it's just that defensive,they allow too many, uh, too

(34:43):
many drives to the basket, toomany kickouts, they allow guys
to get downhill too easy, to getto their spots.
I guess that's my biggestconcern with this badger team is
they're kind of letting thatdefense take a backseat to
trying to score a lot.
Is that a worry that you havewhere it's like, okay, we're
we're not really focused on thedefensive side now, which I
think needs to come back.
I think they need to focus moreon the defensive end because

(35:04):
right now I think that's wherethey're getting beat bad and
fast break points, everythinglike that.
They're getting beat bad in thatway.
Is that a worry that you have isthe defensive side of the ball?

SPEAKER_01 (35:14):
Yeah, I mean, and then part of that is because of
the offense, right?
Like they'll they'll defend,defend, defend, get a stop, or a
turnover, you know, somethinglike that, and then they get the
ball up the floor, and it feelslike they're five seconds into
the shot clock and they'reshooting a three, you know, and
then they don't.
I mean, they've been better thisyear, like again, offensive
rebounds, I guess, than likelast year, but I feel like I
guess I have no stats to backthis up.

(35:35):
I feel like they're shootingmore threes this year than they
did last year.
Um, and like really the only guyI ever see going in is Blackwell
or well, Blackwell and and Boyd.
Like there are two guards or thetwo guys are constantly
attacking the hoop, which isweird, right?
Nolan Wentzers start likes toshoot his threes.
We all know Rapp likes to shoothis threes.
Roadie doesn't really shoot atall, so like I don't know.

(35:58):
I roadie's kind of the defensiveguy, and everyone else is just
kind of there, you know, like onthe defensive end.
Everyone else is more of anoffensive threat, and I feel
like a lot just falls on him andon Roadie and then Carrington
when he's in two.
He like those are the two bigdefensive guys, right?
And then yeah, I think the bigguys, Andrew or Gar Will Garlic

(36:19):
is the only guy that like Idon't can is much of a post
presence defensively, but he's atrue freshman and he's so raw
and like he makes so manymistakes, especially on offense.
So he's a liability there.
So I think it's just yeah, Ithink like what you're saying,
defense is a problem because ifwe can't stop anyone and we are

(36:39):
falling in love with the threeover and over and we're not hot,
that's a problem because then wedon't work it inside, we don't
like you know, yeah, it's alwaysthe threes.
I think they just tied a programrecord.
I don't know if it was theProvidence game or the TCU game,
but they just tied a programrecord for 43s attempted in a
game.
So I don't know.
Yeah, I think the defense is aproblem, but I think also just

(37:00):
offensively, like all they wantto do is shoot threes.
That's all they want to do.
And then even if they're notfalling, shoot to get hot, shoot
to get hot, and it's just if itdoesn't work, that's when you
see what happens against TCU andand BYU.

SPEAKER_02 (37:12):
Yeah, I mean seven for 28 against TCU from three,
seven for twenty-eight againstTCU.
I mean, that's that's a lot,that's a lot of threes.
And 25.
Yeah, 25.
And yeah, a lot of threes, andthey're not falling.
And that's that's where I guessthe worry is like you can't find
ways to knock down shots.
So that's where if you're GregGuard in a game like that, and

(37:32):
that's where I guess thedefensive the defense is my
worry, is in a game like thatwhere shots aren't falling, you
basically have to say, okay, wehave to change the game plan
now, right?
Shots aren't falling, we're nothot.
How are we gonna change it?
We got to play defense, we haveto keep this low scoring because
badgers of the past, Bo Ryanbadges, right?
They weren't, it wasn't gonnabe, you know, 90 to 80, it was

(37:54):
gonna be 60 to 55, it was gonnabe 70 to 66 because it was free
throws.
That's where I guess we'remissing from this team is the
ability to change, change thegame and to change the way that
they're going to play a game bywhat's happening.
If it's if they aren't knockingout shots, they're going to
lose.
That that's kind of and it'skind of cliche to say it that
way.
But I mean, it's you can watchthese other teams, you watch a

(38:17):
team like UConn, they can adjustin a game.
You watch a team like Duke, youwatch a team like Kansas or BYU,
those teams can adjust to thepace of the game, well, how the
game's being played, what needsto happen at certain times.
Shots will start to fall, butwhat are you gonna do to get to
that point?
So that's I guess the worry ofthis defense right now is that
they don't have the ability toget consistent stops.
And I don't know how you fixthat right now.

(38:39):
It's it's gotta be bettercommunication, shooting lanes a
little bit better right now.
They're letting guys getdownhill too easy.
These guards, these guys, theyget downhill too easy on this
team, they get out of positiontoo easy, and that's on Greg
Guard to figure out here withthis defense.
I'm not worried about theoffense, actually.
I'm not.
I mean, yes, they they lost theTCU and they weren't shooting
the ball well, but that'sbecause they're relying too

(39:00):
heavily on the three.
They could fix that.
Drive, move the ball around,find open cutting lanes, all
that.
They go away from cutting.
Like they're such a good passingteam, yet they don't cut.
They stand in, they'recomplacent, they stand in one
spot.
Find a way to move thebasketball around, that fixes
the offense.
Defensively, there's a lot ofthings that got to happen over
there.
And I don't know, I don't knowhow it's gonna happen.
I don't know if Austin Rapp isyour best option defensively.

(39:22):
He's like a Connor Asesian, likehonestly, he's a taller version
of Connor Ashesian.
He's a three-point shooter, butdefensively, he's not really the
guy.
So we'll see what kind ofhappens there with that
situation, everything like that.
But badge basketball, like yousaid, big 10 play, opening up
here.
They got Northwestern.
I believe that's as we'retalking.
Yeah, that's as we're talking.
Well, eight o'clock tonighthere.

(39:44):
They're gonna be taking onNorthwestern.
You know, Northwestern, theyplay physical all the time.
That's a physical team.
They're gonna get after you.
We're gonna find out howphysical this team can get when
you play a team likeNorthwestern because they like
to get after you.
They're defensive team, theylove to do that.
So, I mean, Northwestern shouldbe a good game, Mark.
Cat coming up this weekend, biggame there.
And then next week they gotNebraska right away.
So big ten play, opening up somebig games.

(40:05):
Connor Asion done for the year.
I saw he had a surgery orsomething.
He's done for the year.

SPEAKER_01 (40:10):
Yeah, he had like ankle ankle injury.
I saw, so he's out for the year.

SPEAKER_02 (40:13):
Poor guy.
I feel so bad.
Prayers to that guy.
Prayers to that guy.
Hopefully.
Hopefully, he comes backstronger at like, I don't know,
like St.
Bonaventure or something.

SPEAKER_01 (40:23):
Get out of the conference.

SPEAKER_02 (40:24):
Yeah, he could be good at somewhere else.
But, anyways, anyways,Christian, I gotta run here.
Thank you for stopping bytonight.
Let the people know where tofind you out there across social
media.

SPEAKER_01 (40:34):
As always, you can find me at Christian Borman on
pretty much all the socialmedia.
And uh you can find my work atthe badgerbacker.com.

SPEAKER_02 (40:41):
Oh, I'll make sure you guys are checking them out.
Tons of fantastic stuffhappening around the Badger
world right now.
Badger Wrestling's actually gotsome guys up there in the
rankings right now.
Badger volleyball is currentlygonna get they're getting ready
for CDO tournament setting up.
Yes, sir.
There we go.
We got some post season play forBadger volleyball.
They're fantastic.
They've been playing fantasticas of late.

(41:01):
So hopefully that continues inthe tournament.
Badger women's basketball, theyhad a pretty good game against
Ole Miss over the weekend there.
Challenged them a little bit.
So I mean Badger Women'sBasketball is on the they're
getting better.
They're getting better.
They're gonna get men'sbasketball.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, that's all we can askfor is that they, you know,
getting up there.
And then recruiting, signingperiod is happening.
So he's gonna be covering that.
Make sure you guys check themout there.
Badger backers.

(41:21):
So we're gonna be back here forthe break.
We have some Packer talk comingat you.
Umr's gonna stop by.
We're gonna talk Packers at theend of hour number one, and then
in hour number two, if we'regonna continue that Packer talk,
we'll be right back here.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.
Nay, this next segment here,Ummer's stopping by.
We get some Packer Talk to getto.
This next segment is brought toyou by Marshfield Motor
Speedway, the half mile pavedtrack, just three miles west of

(41:44):
Marshfield on County Road H.
Find coming upcoming events andraces at marshfieldspeedway.com.
That is marshfieldspeedway.comthere.
If you guys want to be involvedin any portion of the show here
tonight, if you want to let meknow that my voice is sounding
like absolute crap tonight here,make sure you guys are texting
the show.
715-990-4914.
That is 715-990-4914, or at meat Twitter.

(42:05):
You can at me on there and I canread it off of there.
Or you can hit up me on uhFacebook Messenger or whatever.
Just find us across all thesocials, Wisconsin Sports and
the Go Trade.
So Amr is here.
Before I lose my voice, I gottatake a drink here.
Amr, how are we doing on thisWednesday?

SPEAKER_04 (42:21):
Good, man.
I'm good, man.
I can't complain, man.
It's been a crazy week.
We're supposed to get snowyesterday.
We didn't, and so yeah, for themost part, you know, we're uh
it's not too bad.
I can't complain.
I'm riding the hive fromThanksgiving and uh just really
uh enjoying a lot of thecommentary on social media
related to the bears who areacting like they've never been
there before.
So they're just they're they'refeeling themselves right now,

(42:42):
which I can't blame them.
So, you know, they had a goodgame on Friday, and yeah,
they're they're they're they'redefinitely excuse me.
I think I'm messing up too.
They're feeling themselves rightnow.

SPEAKER_02 (42:52):
They're feeling it, we're feeling it.
It's just it's just rough rightnow.
It's just rough.
But hey, I mean, like we said,the Bears had to prove it to us.
They had to beat a good team,they beat a good team.
That's what they did.
I know it's a dysfunctional goodteam, but a good team
nonetheless.
So they found a way to win, andthat's all that matters in the
National Football League, right?
It's just stacking up wins whenyou can get them, and that's
what the Bears are doing.

(43:12):
So it's gonna lead up to a goodgame here coming up on uh
Sunday, and then also I saw theBears game got flexed to
primetime 720 there for the uhwhat the December 20th match up
there.
What is that?
A Sunday or is that a Sunday?
Is it a Sunday or a Monday?
That's Sunday night and Sundaynight.
Okay, that's a little bitbetter.

(43:32):
That's a little bit better.
Sorry, Sunday, Sunday.
It's Saturday.
It's a Saturday, that's evenbetter.
That's even we can go, we canwe're gonna do we're gonna do a
live stream that day.
We're gonna do a live streamthat day.
We're gonna do one of those likewatch-alongs or whatever.
Let's get real fired up there aswe're talking about Packers
Bears.
That could be fun.
So, Packers, Bears.
We got two matchups in threeweeks.

(43:53):
We're gonna get into all of thathere.
I can't wait.
But we got to talk about what wewatched there against the Lions,
a Thanksgiving game that onceagain the Packers are as good on
Thanksgiving.
I don't know what it is.
Jordan Love and actually JordanLove in primetime, Jordan Love
in the national spotlight justends up playing well, and that's
what we saw once again in thisgame.

(44:14):
Homer, I'm gonna ask thequestion.
Okay.
Why does Matt LaFleur change theway that he play calls week by
week, game by game, because ofthe opponent that he's playing?
Is it crazy that I just want toI want him to find a way?
Like I I want to I want him tolike Dan Campbell.
What's Dan Campbell's MO?
Like, if I were to say, how doesDan Campbell play call?

(44:36):
You would tell me what.
He's very aggressive, veryaggressive, right?
And like you have play callerswho are conservative, you have
play callers who are overlyaggressive, you have play
callers who are in between.
Matt LaFleur goes both ways,like he's a roller coaster, like
he's like, I want to beaggressive this week, and then
oh, I want to be this, and thenI want to be.
It's like sometimes I just want,is it crazy for me to just want
to see Matt LaFleur to find aplay, uh play style?

(44:59):
Like it's I feel like he'smissing that identity in his
play calling where he he triesto change himself to the
opponent that he's playing.
When I listened to like NickSaban said, they said, Do you
believe somebody asked him thatlike, do you do you uh change up
the way you practice becauseyou're playing this opponent
that week?
He's like, No, because if youchange, why would you not
prepare for every game the sameway?

(45:20):
Why would you change the waythat you prepare for a game just
because you're playing a betterteam or a worse team, it's gonna
make you play worse against thatworse team, right?
So why do you change the waythat you play call just well, I
get that you're gonna havedifferent, like you had a scheme
up for like a for like a MilesGarrett, right?
Or somebody else.
I I get that you have thoseguys, but you want your play

(45:40):
style to be aggressive, you wantyour play style to be overly
concerned.
What which way do you want togo?
Is it crazy to think that youwant it have a you want to have
almost like a identity?
And I feel like at times helacks the identity of what he
wants to do.

SPEAKER_04 (45:55):
I mean, for me, I think uh the one thing we
noticed for the floor, like Ithink in the beginning of the
year he was really trying tofigure out his team, right?
He was trying to figure out whathe has, what he doesn't have.
I think the last three weeks,when Jordan did get hurt in that
Giants game with the shoulder, Idefinitely think he took a step
back because he didn't want torisk him getting hurt anymore.
Minnesota game, he wasdefinitely still trying to
protect that shoulder, and thenafter that, you know, Jordan

(46:17):
must have told him, Hey, I'mgood, let's let it rip.
I think what we're gonna seenow, I think you have a valid
point.
We'll be interested to see howhe attacks Chicago because
you're kind of like in playofftime, right?
And the biggest thing that wealways know, like we remember
back to the Mike McCarthy.
Mike McCarthy was kind of dude,like he didn't like game plan
for his opponent.
He just basically was like, Hey,this is our offense, this is

(46:39):
what we run, beat us if you canbeat us, right?
And that worked for many, manyyears up until it stopped
working.
Because then, you know, hedidn't he couldn't like really
conform to defenses.
Defenses were figuring out, theyrealized they could do too high
shell man press and disrupt thereceivers on their routes
because they were just makingeveryone you know win their
one-on-one instead of likescheming people open and things
like that.

(47:00):
And because of that withLeFloor, you get the same kind
of approach you do with him,like you do with Halfly, where I
feel like they do try to gameplan every week for the opponent
that they're playing.
Now you're right, when you dothat and you're playing like a
guy, a team like at the time,Carolina or Cleveland, or even
uh whatchamacallit, um, uhGiants or uh just all these
teams that aren't really thatgood, yeah.

(47:21):
Do you play down to thecompetition because that's how
you're game playing it, right?
Yeah, um, but I think he justwhat he tries to find out is
that team that he's playing,what their weaknesses are, and
he just tries to focus onexploring that over and over
again.
And sometimes he's in that modeand he doesn't break out of it.
So it will be interesting to seewhat he does here because you
know, against Detroit, he knewthat they play heavy, heavy,

(47:43):
heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy man.
Like they play probably 95% manand rarely play zone.
And that's the way they'vecoached when it was Aaron Glenn
and how they're coaching withKevin Sharper.
And I feel like he when it comesto that, as long as you're
willing to get the protectionthat you need for your
quarterback, you can get playsdown the field.
And if you want that game, likeJordan was pressured a lot.

(48:04):
There was a lot of times ifPocket was collapsing around
him, and and earlier in the yearwhen that happened, he would
take a sack, he would throw itaway, it would be just be just
terrible, right?
And I he was playing fearless.
Like, I don't know if Toyota'snow going and he's just popping
up.
I there was I think there's alittle bit of like LaFleur
giving his quarterback anopportunity to make plays, his

(48:27):
quarterback is making thoseplays, and the playmakers that
he's throwing it to are alsodoing their job, and that's what
we didn't see in the Phillygame.
That's what we didn't see in alot of these games where we
lost, right?
Yep, and we're starting to seeit now.

SPEAKER_02 (48:39):
I feel I had to look this up because I was just
thinking about this, and I feellike this is the way that Matt
LaFleur coaches, and Halfly kindof goes along with him.
They coach the way that youcategorize chess players.
Yes.
So there's four categories thatyou put chess players into.
If anybody does, if anybodyknows, they're probably like,
well, let's just go, you know,okay, go along with me.
You have the activist, right?

(49:00):
The activists, they're gonnacreate threats, they're gonna
play aggressively, okay?
The pragmatist, they're going tobe cautious and avoid
complexion.
They don't they don't want toget they don't want to get too
complex on them.
The theorist is going to they'rethey're going to play the game
where their preparation givesthem the edge, and then you have
the reflector.
And this is the way that MattLaFleur likes to go sometimes.

(49:23):
They analyze the opponent'sstrength and weaknesses and
adjust their play accordingly.
So he tries to he tries toadjust himself to what the
opponent's going to do.
And he thinks that he heoverthinks that portion, right?
Because what was againstCarolina?
He tried to go side to side toomuch, right?
He didn't go straight ahead, hetried to go side to side.
He thought he could beat him tothe edges.
That was a failure.
Instead of just being one style,and I might have just blew it up

(49:47):
there with the chess thing.
Maybe it made no sense.
I don't know.
I thought maybe it made nosense.
No, you're right.

SPEAKER_04 (49:50):
I think you're no you were so.

SPEAKER_02 (49:51):
Either way, it's like he he he has to find you
you have to categorize yourself,right?
As a play caller.
How do you want to call games?
I think you got to stick withthat because otherwise you're
one week you're going with this,and the next one week you're run
heavy.
The next week you're this.
The next week you're this.
The next week.
I want I want this team to findtheir their identity.
I feel like they lack anidentity.

(50:12):
Are they a run team?
Are they a pass team?
It changes.
Some some weeks it's like, oh,we got to see more of Josh
Jacobs.
And then some weeks it's oh, wegot to see more of Jordan Love.
And then it's like, okay, butwe're not seeing enough of
either one.
We're not seeing enough playaction.
We're not seeing enough of this.
But that's because we're notfinding an identity.
We see the play action, we'relike, oh, that worked really
good.
But then he goes away from itfor two weeks.
And then he comes back to it.

(50:32):
It's like, oh, that was reallygood.
Matt LaFleur, 2023, Matt LaFleurwas so good, so good at scheming
up games and being aggressive.
And did not, he did not waverthe way that he was calling
games.
Right.
And that's what I think he'sgotten away from.
Whether it's he's scared, uh letJordan Love just sling it, or
he's scared of this, or he'sscared.

(50:53):
You just got to throw that tothe wind.
What we saw against the DetroitLions is the Mat LaFleur that if
he calls games like that movingforward, nobody's gonna
complain.
Nobody.
If you let Jordan Love be JordanLove, you saw a team, like you
said, that went heavy man.
That's what they want to do.
They run man.
They think that they're gonna gomanoe-mano with you.
The way that their coach likesto coach is the way they play.

(51:14):
I like that.
They thought that they can goman to man.
Now, did it work?
No.
No, because the Packers,receivers, really good.
Christian Watson can blow topoff you.
Dontavian Wicks has got some ofthe best separation in the
league.
It's just he didn't have thehands to go along with it.
We saw that all last year.
Now he's getting open and he'sfinding ways to catch football.
So it's just completely takingthat to the next level.
You're gonna get Jaden Reedback, you're gonna have Matthew

(51:36):
Golden back.
This team has a boatload ofweapons.
Let be aggressive, utilize themand be aggressive.
That's the playstyle.
That's the ammo.
That's the identity that I wantto see Matt LaFleur get and to
find, just stick with it.
Just stick with it.
Because at the end of the day,I'm not gonna be mad if Jordan
Love throws a pick, but you wereaggressive.

(51:56):
If you went forward on a fourthand two on the 40-yard line and
you didn't get it, but you trustyour defense then.
I'm good with it.
So that's where I kind of atthat point with this Matt
LaFleur team is I want to seehim find an identity and run
with it.
And right now, what I sawagainst the Lions, you do that
against the Bears, I thinkyou're sitting good.
I think you're sitting good inthat one.
That's a good team.

(52:17):
That's a good team of the Bears.
They can run the football.
The pass game is still a littlesuspect, but they can run the
football.
That's still a good team overthere.
So the injured reserves.
We see some guys coming offthere.
Colin Oliver, Lloyd, BrentonCox.
We saw Reed come back last weekthere.
So we're seeing some guys comingback, right?

SPEAKER_03 (52:34):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (52:34):
Devontae Wyatt is going to the he's done for the
year.
I mean, we saw that injury.
I said, right as it happened, Isaid there's no way he did not
just break everything.
Like that was that was gruesome.
That was bad.
He was having a great year.
It sucks, but he is going to beout for the year.
So I mean, do you see do any ofthese guys actually make the
roster?

SPEAKER_04 (52:55):
Oh, I think I think right now with the way our
defensive line is becauseoutside of Jaden Reed, of
course.

SPEAKER_02 (53:01):
Outside of Jane Reed, the other yeah, I was
like, yeah, Jane Reed's gonna bea good one.
Yeah, Jane Reed's gonna be sure.

SPEAKER_04 (53:05):
I think Marshawn Lloyd would be a good element to
have if he can stay healthy.
He's a he adds another elementto our team that we probably
don't have right now.
Yep, he reminds me a lot of acombination of Josh Jacobs and
Emmanuel Wilson.
He's built like he's kind ofbuilt like Jacobs in a sense of
size, but then when it comes tolike speed, he has like you know
Emmanuel Wilson's speed, right?

(53:25):
Yeah, and it's like so he couldbe a good, like, like a good
like break, like you know,change of pace back because you
don't really have that rightnow.
Like Chris Brooks is a greatpass protector.
He's decent, you know, he's ahe's a above average player, but
he's not like that.
He's not built like that, right?
Now, when it comes to BrentonCox, Brenton Cox is having a
good year.
I mean, what was it?
I think it was like his firstsecond week, he got hurt, but

(53:46):
before that, he was he was inthere, he was making plays.
Like him, uh Barre, all theseguys that are like you know,
backup players are actuallyperforming really well.
So having like more pass rushersis not a bad thing, considering
the fact that we just lostWyatt, Carl Brooks is banged up,
Kobe Wooden has been kind of inand out of lineup as well.
Too Lucas Van Esse is stillinjured, right?
So it may not hurt to bring in aguy like him, then callin

(54:09):
Oliver.
We don't know what we havethere.

SPEAKER_02 (54:10):
Yeah, that guy he's gonna be a guy who's gonna be
like a red shirt, like yeah, Ithink so.

SPEAKER_04 (54:14):
But like if he can get healthy, if he can show up
and he could, you know, show upon special teams because he was
a special team Maven at OklahomaState, and on top of that, too.
Um, I don't know if he'd be apass rusher for Moso.
I feel like he'd be a hybridbetween a defensive end and a
linebacker.
So playing between those twopositions, right?
Yeah, um, I can see all three ofthem making the team if there's
a if there's a role for them,right?

(54:35):
Yeah, I Colin Oliver will be theone where I feel like he may
they may they did that with umuh Keen Oladapa last year.
Like he didn't play well lastyear, he was red shirt.
I feel like that might happen tosay with Oliver, but the other
two, I think then they'll comeback and they'll find a way to
make him fit.
Question is like you said, wheredo they go?

SPEAKER_02 (54:50):
Right.
And it's it's gonna be a bigquestion.
We'll see what they kind of doif Lucas Van Ness kind of, if
they maybe move him to injurereserve, all that kind of stuff
to see what they're gonna dothere.
So we're gonna come back here.
We're gonna hit the hit, we'regonna hit the hour break here.
We're gonna come back, we'regonna continue this Packer talk
here in hour number two.
We'll be right back here onWisconsin Sports on the go with
trade.