Oct 22 Hour 1: Badgers Football and Mens Hoops, Brewers NLCS Reaction

Send us a text

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_01 (00:18):
How are we doing, everybody?
And welcome into WisconsinSports on the Go with Trade.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback to you here on this October
22nd.
We're at the end of the month.
You guys know what that means.
The sporting world is gettingcrazy.
We got the World Series comingup, NBA is tipping off.
College football is in well, thefull swing of things, except if

(00:39):
you're the Wisconsin Badgers.
We don't even know what they'redoing.
Um, we got we got NFL going on.
It's craziness.
It's craziness.
A men's college basketball isalmost back.
We got the Badgers coming uphere soon, taking on Oklahoma
and that exhibition game.
We have it is wild.
It is absolutely wild right now.
Here it's so crazy.
We're starting off the showtonight here with Christian.

(00:59):
Gonna be hopping on right offthe bat.
So we're gonna get to him in aminute here.
But right away, I hope you guysare enjoying your Wednesday so
far.
The Wednesday that is.
It's been it's been a good weekso far.
It's been a good week so far.
So I hope you guys are enjoyingyour Wednesday and your week.
But Christian is here right offthe bat tonight here.
Christian, how are we doing?
It's Wednesday.
You're back from your two-weekhiatus from us.
We were like concerned.

(01:20):
Badgers haven't scored atouchdown since you left.
So it's been bad.
I mean, it Christian, how are wedoing on this Wednesday?

SPEAKER_04 (01:26):
We're good.
We're good.
I've uh yeah, I think I must bethe bad luck guy, right?
I'm gone and we don't score apoint in two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 (01:32):
Uh I don't even know what it is anymore.
We lost the Maryland man afterthat.
After that Maryland loss, Idon't know what's what.

SPEAKER_04 (01:39):
I think I think everyone fell off the wagon
after the Maryland loss.

SPEAKER_01 (01:42):
Uh well, you know what?
It didn't hurt, I guess, to loseto Ohio State because even that
for the first touchdown pass ofthe game against Ohio State,
they that was a great catch.
Tate made a great catch over topof two guys.
It was just a great throw, agreat catch.
Nothing you can really do aboutit in that one.
Tate made a couple good plays.
They actually did really good onSmith.
It's just Tate had a good game.

(02:03):
And Julian Saiyan was fantastic.
I didn't think he was actuallygoing to throw an incompletion
on the day.
The run defense looked good.
So, I mean, there was some good,I guess, you can look at in that
Ohio State game.
But we're not gonna start there.
We want to start with thedirection of the program.
And that's what Chris McIntoshcame out and wrote us the
letter, right?
The letter from Chris McIntoshto Badger Faithful.

(02:25):
Basically, to summarize thewhole letter, if you haven't
read it yet, I'm not gonna readthe whole thing off because I
just lose my mind reading it.
But basically, to sum it all up,is Chris McIntosh said, he could
have saved time.
This is this is what Big Cat onBarstool said, too.
He's like, he could have savedtime and just said, I really
want to keep my job, even thoughI've been objectively bad at it.

(02:46):
So here's my here's my plan.
Here's my plan, is what he said.
He's gonna invest more moneyinto the football program.
He's gonna put more into thisfootball program because Luke
Fickle has his commitment.
Christian, we read this letter,we hear Chris McIntosh kind of
talk to us.
Apparently, from what I heard,and this was just on the camp
with Jesse Temple and ZachHeilpern, I was listening to,

(03:07):
but apparently he told a playerthat uh Luke Fickle's gonna be
back next year, which, if that'strue, I don't know how you say
that right now, with the rest ofthe schedule still in the docket
here and a lot of badge offaithful already getting upset.
You've already had ticket salesdrop for next season already.
I mean, it's just madness.
Christian, you hear all this.
What are your thoughts on ChrisMcIntosh basically telling us

(03:28):
Luke Fickle's my guy and he'sgonna stay?

SPEAKER_04 (03:31):
Yeah, I mean, I think he is gonna be back next
year, right?
Um, this that's everything I'veheard too.
But yeah, even uh I think I sawsomeone tweeted a video of uh
Jake Renfro.
He met with the met with themedia this week and he you know
got the same idea.
He even basically said, youknow, fickle and the coaching
staff will be back next year.
And I don't know, he said thethe locker room was all fired up

(03:52):
and they were hooting andhollering and doing all that.
And I mean, I don't know.
I guess if they won't, they'reall you know, if they all like
each other and everything, thenI mean I guess that's good,
right?
But I don't know.
For me, I just personally lookat that, I go, how can you be
super excited about you know,outside of I guess the inflow of
potential cash coming to improvethe roster or coaching staff.
I don't know how you can beexcited about you know where

(04:15):
they're at right now, but Idon't know.
But as far as his uh his lettergoes, I mean I think that just
sounds like a guy who you knowtook a huge swing on his first
hire.
And I mean, let's be honest,like everyone thought it was a
great hire, right?
Yeah, I thought I was over theyou know, I was over the moon,
ecstatic about it because Ithought like I didn't think

(04:35):
Wisconsin would ever be able toget a guy like Fickle, someone
who like was mentioned with likeNotre Dame and you know things
like that job, right?
Um, but I think that sounds likea guy who's you know not quite
ready to uh admit his he had abad hire.
Uh or I mean it's kind of likewhat you see with like GMs and
quarterbacks in the NFL, youknow, like or even head coaches,
you know, like they make theirhire, like that's their guy, and

(04:57):
like you know, that's kind ofyour legacy, right?
So like fickle is Macintosh'slegacy, and I don't think he's
quite ready to let it go.
So he's trying to exhaust allthe options before he actually
has to fire him.
So, you know, getting uh theBoard of Regions, you know, all
the higher ups like on board andconvincing them that fickle's
the guy and just saying, yeah,actually we need more money to

(05:17):
fix this problem.
I mean, it just sounds like aguy who's not quite ready to
admit he was wrong.

SPEAKER_01 (05:23):
The biggest question is why wasn't it already there?
Why wasn't this money if there'sthis money?
Why wasn't it already investedinto your football program?
As your football program issupposed to be the thing that
funds basically everything else,the more irrelevant the football
program gets, the lesser itseems like this.
I mean, it's it's what fundseverything.
Your football program is whatmakes you money as a university

(05:45):
basically.
Men's basketball can only do somuch, the volleyball team can
only do so much, football isyour moneymaker, and if you
don't have a football team,well, it's a problem.
This is my okay.
So I guess this is my question.
If if Luke Fickle stays, andthis was a question I heard, I
can't remember who asked thisquestion.
It baffled maybe it was on maybeit was on the camp too.
It's with uh Zach Howlprin andJesse Temple, but they ask a

(06:06):
question.
I kind of wanted to talk aboutit here.
If Luke Fickle stays, could itcause more problems?
Could it actually hurt theprogram and make it go years
now, years with more problems?
Could it actually cause moreproblems giving him that extra
year?
Where it where it derails thisprogram even further, where it's

(06:27):
even more unfixable for the nexthire.
What do you what do you think?
Like if you bring him back,could that be the case?

SPEAKER_04 (06:35):
I mean, I feel like it probably could.
I mean, they're already goingdown, you know, downhill pretty
quick, right?
Um, I think part of that too isI think we talked about this a
little bit too, is in-staterecruiting.
And I saw some like you know,Brad Nortman, uh, former Badger
punter.
Uh, he actually is like on theone of the ESPN walkie radio
shows.
I saw something with him todaywhere he was like he was talking

(06:57):
about like high school footballcoaches, like they say there's
like no presence from fickle,like he doesn't talk to any of
them.
He you know, he won't go tothese like fundraising events,
all this stuff.
I mean, how true that is, but umit doesn't really seem like he's
putting in a ton of effort tolike keep Wisconsin kids in
state.
So I mean, and because I thinkhe's more about trying to like

(07:19):
recruit nationally, you know,and I think because he talked
about that when he was hired,he's like he didn't realize how
big of a you know, how big of abrand the Wisconsin football
brand was and how muchrecruiting power they had
nationally.
So I think that probably I don'tknow if it went to his head or
what or he's just kind of saysjust thinks okay, I like the key
the in-state kids will come.
I gotta focus on you know thebig boys nationally, you know.

(07:39):
And I think, especially now,like the um the 2026 recruiting
class in Wisconsin is absolutelyloaded.
It's just like that one that hadCarson Hinsman and Joe Brunner
and you know all those, and youknow, it's just like that again.
Like there's uh Cores Logan, Ithink is how you say his name, a
kid from Iola, one of the besttight ends in the country.

(08:00):
Uh Cole Reeder from somewhere inSpy Milwaukee.
Like he's like they have they'reloaded with like four-star
talent, and I feel like I don'tknow how hard are they really
going at him, you know?
Yeah, um, so to answer yourquestion, I guess.
I mean, if he's not really if hejust keeps continues to do the
same thing, like how manyin-state kids are gonna want to
go play at Wisconsin?
You know, and that was like thebread and butter under Barry

(08:22):
Alvarez, right?

SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
Yeah, so even the even the guys after.

SPEAKER_04 (08:26):
Yeah, I think you could definitely uh I mean, hard
to say because you know, they'velost five in a row and they look
like probably the worst powerfour team in the country, but
like I think you could probablyget worse, right?
So, I mean, maybe if he if hecontinues doing what he's doing,
maybe I don't know, maybe thetransfer portal's the key to it
too.
More money coming in, they canbuy better players and they can

(08:46):
slap a big band-aid on it andsalvage it.
But I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
Yeah, and you know, the problem with letting the
in-state guys go is where thoseguys are going, Minnesota, Iowa,
they're going to these teamsthat are beating you now.
Your guys that you that's thething is like the guys Wisconsin
used to recruit are going toIllinois, Iowa, Minnesota, the
guys that they used to target,the linemen, the tight ends, all
of that.

(09:10):
Now they're going to theseschools who are now beating the
snot out of you.
So you are allowing them toleave now, leave the state, get
out of the state, and goelsewhere.
I saw a lineman that went toNotre Dame now.
He's one of the better linemenin the country.
He's on Notre Dame, he's fromWisconsin there.
Just seeing guys like that andseeing them be successful
elsewhere and knowing Wisconsinwasn't even in the running for
him.
Even like Paul Christ was goingafter those guys.

(09:32):
Jim Leonard could have recruitedthe state of Wisconsin.
He would have recruited thestate of Wisconsin.
He didn't want to travel torecruit, he would have recruited
the state of Wisconsin becausehe's here.
So he would have loved that.
That's where I guess my biggestproblem.
One of my biggest problems withthis badger program is they
don't develop the talent that'shere.
Which guy, if you had to pickone where you looked at him in

(09:53):
this badger program, which guyhas gotten better?
I can't think of one.
Because when I look at ChristianAllegro this year, did he really
get better from last year?
I don't think so.
You look at guys like uh, well,I was just thinking of a guy off
the top of my uh uh widereceiver, uh Vinny Anthony.
Did he truly get better goinginto this year?

(10:14):
I don't know.
I don't think so.

SPEAKER_04 (10:15):
Like they can't even get him the ball.
No, I mean so that's what's sohard to tell.
Like you can't you can't youcan't tell because like their
offense is so dysfunctional.
I mean, so offensively, I can'tname one player.
You'd like to say Joe Brunner,you'd like to say Riley Mulman.

SPEAKER_01 (10:30):
But does that start up front then?
You have no offensive line whocan block, so you start there.
Did any of those guys get betterin the offseason?

SPEAKER_04 (10:37):
No, like I honestly don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 (10:38):
No, no, no, and it's it is a health problem too.
I can see that it is a healthproblem getting guys healthy,
and maybe just maybe okay.
Maybe if you have all your guyshealthy, Billy Edwards never got
hurt, Jake Renfro never gothurt, the offensive line's been
steady a go, right?
Maybe it looks a little bitbetter, but not 37 points to
Iowa better.

(10:59):
Oh man, not you know, 27 of 10better against me.
I don't think it looks better inthose games.

SPEAKER_04 (11:06):
I don't feel like we see regression.
Yeah, week after week.
We're like what happened toRicardo Hallman?

SPEAKER_01 (11:12):
That's that's another one.
That's the guy I was thinking ofwhen I was gonna say development
of players.
Ricardo Hallman got worse.
He got worse last year thisyear.

SPEAKER_04 (11:19):
He was draftable, and now I just actually saw Dane
Brugler from uh The Athleticjust he, you know, he's the guy
that like threw out thataccusation that uh fickle is
literally closing all practicesto NFL scouts for some crazy
reason.
Like he's he's not letting anyscouts in.
The only time scouts ever get tosee the Badgers players do
anything is in a game and theylook terrible.

(11:40):
I mean, so and Fickle, you know,he said, Oh, he knows he's
lying, or no, that's not Fickle,you know, he denied or then so
there's I guess he's this dude'sconnected, he talks to scouts
and they say, Yeah, he doesn'tlet us in.
So I don't know.
So, anyways, back to RicardoHallman.
Like someone has said, like, Imean, is there even anyone
draftable on this team?
And he's like, No, pretty muchnot, but he's basically hurting

(12:02):
the chances for any of hisplayers to get a deal as an
undrafted rookie, right?
So, like now, specificallyRicardo Hallman.
So I was like, Look, is hedraftable?
No, he's too small, too slow.
Like, I don't know.
The dudes, I feel like he was ontrack to be, you know, at least
a sec day two pick, right?
Yep, and now all of a suddenit's just like the dudes just
getting burnt by everyone,everyone.

SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
It doesn't even matter, it doesn't even matter.
It's a no-name guy, it isliterally the no-game guys that
are burning Ricardo Hallman atthis point.
And I really thought last seasonit was, yeah, like you said, he
was good.
It was like Ricardo Hallman, itwas like his island out there.
It was like at some points, Iwas like, you don't want to even
throw this guy's way, he's thatgood, and now it's uh you could
throw that way, it's fine.
So I if that's if it's aregression of the team, maybe

(12:43):
he's going down with them.
But then if that's the case,man, we're ruining players.

SPEAKER_04 (12:48):
Like that's what's happening.
Who's who's gonna want to cometo Wisconsin if they don't get
developed?
That's that's what was that waswhat Kristen, you know, all
those other coaches were goodat.
Yeah, we don't we didn'tnecessarily recruit at the
highest level, but like theycould develop players.
Now I I know it's completelydifferent because the transfer
portal, and like you know, kidsaren't gonna sit around and wait
like they used to, right?
But I feel like there's justalmost no development, and I

(13:11):
don't know if that's fickle'sfault or if it's it if it
honestly is because of thetransport portal.

SPEAKER_01 (13:15):
But if you sit true to a kid though, like a like
maybe bring like a three-starand you sit true to him as a
freshman, you're like, I'llbring you in.
I I picked you over top of theseother good guys, but you're from
Wisconsin, so I picked you, andyou sit with them and you're
like, Hey, you developthroughout the years.
I think you can get loyalty fromthose guys, but when you're you
know just bringing in these fourstars from Florida, like Xavier

(13:35):
Lucas, he has no ties to thestate of Wisconsin, he doesn't
care.
That's the problem, I guess,where I have with the out of
state recruiting, with you know,not targeting the state, is that
when you don't target the state,I feel like those guys don't
have that Wisconsin feelingwhere they're gonna be easily
like, oh, I'll jump ship, Idon't want to be here.
Whereas if you get a guy fromthe Milwaukee area from the

(13:56):
Madison, he's more prone to staybecause he has that background
of Wisconsin back, you know, heloves the state, he hates
Minnesota, those kinds ofthings.

SPEAKER_04 (14:05):
Do you think Hunter Woller would have sticked around
stuck around at all if he wasn'tfrom Wisconsin?
No, no, that's I I mean that'sthe thing.
He's he's such a loyal guy, butlike it's because he grew up a
badger fan, right?
I mean, he might have stuckaround just because that's the
kind of person he is, but andit's like the guy that like when
you're talking about that,that's the guy that immediately
jumped to my mind as like localkid, really good player.

(14:27):
I mean, he was a higher-ratedrecruit, but like he stuck
around because I mean, granted,he also had a really good junior
year.
He had like you know, racked uptackles like crazy in that
defense, but I don't know, theyweren't good.
No, so it's I don't know,frustrating for him.
But what about Daryl Peterson?
There's a guy like he was a guythat Wisconsin supposedly beat
Alabama for a long time.

(14:47):
He's been playing since he was afuneral freshman.

SPEAKER_01 (14:49):
Yeah, they beat out where's the development, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (14:52):
Where's the development with him?

SPEAKER_01 (14:54):
They beat out Alabama for uh Graham Mertz,
too.
So that's I sometimes I feellike crazy.

SPEAKER_04 (15:00):
I'm a I'm a grand, I'm a Graham Mertz truther.
I think he Wisconsin did not doright by him.
No, no, I think they yeah, evenPaul Christ like admitted after
he was part of like, yeah, wejust we didn't use him like we
should have, we didn't use himthe right way.
Like I think I think he got theraw end of the deal.
I think he looked halfway decentat Florida, but the problem with
that is he was a lame duckquarterback because he was

(15:22):
sitting in front of DJ Lagway.

SPEAKER_01 (15:23):
Yeah, no, that's true.
I I could definitely see that.
I thought Graham Mertz was justnot the right guy for what
Wisconsin was trying to do, andit just did not it did not
benefit him at all being inMadison.
Maybe it changed like puttingwith Nick Saban and all them
good wide receivers.
All he had to do was just throwthe ball.
So I mean it could have couldhave definitely benefited him
being down there.
So I mean, just I guess finalthoughts, Badger football, just

(15:45):
the Luke Fickle situation movingforward.
I feel like I'm gonna be honestwith you, I'm gonna be honest
with everybody right now.
I don't think Luke Fickle'sgetting fired.
I don't think he is.
I think at least for thisseason, he's here, and I could
honestly see him back next year.
I think that Macintosh is atruther.
I think he's going to investeverything he has into this
football program because his jobis tied to Luke Fickle and he's

(16:07):
in desperation mode now.
So he's throwing it all down onthe table.
Maybe they get some good talentin there, and then we see what
happens for that.
That's kind of where I'm atright now.
What are your thoughts,Christian?

SPEAKER_04 (16:17):
I absolutely agree.
I don't like for the like two aweek or two ago, and Q asked me
like thoughts about it.
I'm like, I think maybe there'sdragging him along.
He can play Ohio State andOregon and just get you know
smoked, and then they can letthe interim come in and get
smoked by Indiana.
But um, I'm with you now.
I think they're absolutely gonnastick with them and into next
year and at least give themanother shot.
Because I mean you can alwaysblame the schedule too.

(16:39):
Like, man, we got a the workhardest schedule in the you know
in college football.
And you know, your your startingquarterback got hurt again, and
you know, there's all there'stons of excuses, and I don't
know.
Fans just absolutely want to bemad.
I'm mad about it, right?
But I mean, maybe maybe therewas a little bit of truth to
that, right?
Maybe what if Billy Edwards washalfway decent and he could fix

(17:00):
some of this stuff becauseHunter Simmons looks terrible.
Danny O'Brien look or DannyO'Brien, geez, going back a lot
of years.
Danny O'Neill also looks I mean,he had a few like flashes here
and there, but otherwise he wasoverwhelmed, you know.
I'm not gonna I don't know.
I don't know if Billy EdwardsJr.
would have been, you know, youknow, he would have been the

(17:20):
answer, but I think definitelythings could have been better.
But also loot, you know, youalready have a very, very thin
offensive line, and you loseyour potential star left tackle
in spring practice, and you haveto bring Davis Heinz in, you're
already starting at adisadvantage.
So maybe it all of that, youknow, perfect storm with with
the super hard schedule, maybeeverything just Murphy's law,

(17:41):
everything that could have gonewrong did.
Yeah.
So I could see that, but also Idon't know, man.
I just I think he's gonna beback next year, and I don't
really have the highest ofhopes.
The only glimmer of hope I haveis like guys like Mason Posa or
you know, like that those youngguys that are flashing already.
Um I'm I'm fully on board.

(18:02):
Let's get let's get Carter Smithin.
Let's see what he can do.
My only problem is my only I'monly scared of what if he
actually looks really good andall of a sudden we have a Xavier
Lucas situation on our handsagain and someone comes in and
offers him a bag, even thoughhe's not even in the portal and
he just leaves.

SPEAKER_01 (18:17):
That would be that'd be the well, yeah.
That's that's my fear.

SPEAKER_04 (18:21):
Like, let's just let's just keep stashing him
away and we'll just throw youknow Hunter Simmons out for the
rest of the year or whatever,and just let him let the team
flop their way to a two and ninerecord or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 (18:31):
Let's just keep telling Carter Smith that he's
bad.
Let's just keep telling him he'sbad.
Let's just keep convincing himof that and that next year.
Sorry, man.

SPEAKER_04 (18:39):
You just can't quite beat out Milos or Milosh or you
know any of those guys.
You're you're QB5 right now,man.
Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 (18:47):
Next year, next year though, next year's your year.
I promise you.
Next year's your year.
Your year there.
I agree.
I just there's just so manythings pointing.
And the energy that he showedafter Ohio State, like after
after the Iowa game, he lookeddefeated.
He looked like he was broke.
And then after they lost to OhioState, he had this different
kind of juice to him, adifferent kind of energy where

(19:08):
he was kind of pumped up.

SPEAKER_04 (19:09):
I just not going anymore.

SPEAKER_01 (19:11):
He knows he's fine.
He knows he's fine.
He knows he was told he wasfine, and I really think that's
the case.
So I know none of neither one ofus is telling you guys out
there, just so you know, andwe'd love to hear your thoughts
on this.
715-990-4914.
That is 715-990-4914.
Let us know your thoughts onbadger football, the direction
of the program.
Neither one of us is telling youguys that we want him back next

(19:33):
year.
We're just telling you what wefeel like is going to happen
next year.
Those are two different things.
Our feel like, our wants, andwhat we think is gonna happen
are two different things rightnow, and it's not that good.
So we're gonna be back here.
We're gonna hit a quickcommercial break.
We're gonna come back and we'regonna talk some badger hoops.
A little bit better, right?
Greg Guard's gonna make us feelbetter.
We're gonna talk some badgerhoops when we come back from the

(19:53):
break.
Christian's gonna stay, stickaround.
We'll be back here at KMC,Wisconsin Sports on the Go with
Trage.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.
And hey, this next segment,we're gonna talk some badger
hoops now.
We're gonna get you guys feelingbetter after that badger
football talk.
This next segment is brought toyou by Casa M Spice, the low
sodium, clean label, no MSG, nofillers.
This stuff is fantastic.

(20:15):
You can put it on anything.
You put it on steaks, ribs,eggs, anything in between,
vegetables.
If you're grilling, if you'retailgating, you need to add Casa
M.
Spice to your spice regimenthere.
So Christian is back here.
We're gonna get to oh, before weget to this badge of basketball,
we got to do our Casa M.
Spice bold player of the week.
And there can only be one manwho we can give this Casa M

(20:35):
Spice bold player of the weekaward to.
And that has got to be our guy,Micah Parsons, there with the
Green Bay Packers.
He was fantastic.
He had three sacks, he had fourtackles for a loss.
He was massive down the stretchfor the Green Bay Packers there
against the Cardinals.
Christian, off top of your head,do you have a I'm just throwing
this at you.
I didn't even give you time toprepare.

(20:55):
Do you have a Cost M Spice boldplayer of the week?

SPEAKER_04 (20:59):
Uh, if we want to talk bold, let's just do one
bold play.
We just talked about how aboutSean West, the punter for the
Badgers, huh?
19 on fourth and 19.
He just decides, you know what,forget it.
I'm like offense isn't doinganything.
How about I just pick this up?
And he literally went and pickedit up, and Fickle fully admitted
that the best offensive play ofthe game was not planned, and it
was just West doing his ownthing.

(21:19):
So good for him.
Just completely bucking theoffense or bucking the uh you
know the trend and you know, notreally following what he's
supposed to be doing, but he'spicking up first downs for the
badgers.

SPEAKER_01 (21:30):
That he might have had he like would it have really
made us feel bad if that was theleading rusher of the game?
Because our leading rusher was35 yards, and that was it that
Uka got.

SPEAKER_04 (21:42):
Oh, Gideon Ituka.

SPEAKER_01 (21:44):
Yeah, so he had 35 yards.
That rush was for 19 yards.
The punter almost almost had thelongest rush of the game.
20 yards.
There you go.
His rush was actually registeredas 20 yards.
So K Yakamele rushed for 30, andthat Gideon rushed for 35.
He almost had the longest rush.

SPEAKER_04 (22:05):
West West also didn't have to run behind that
starting offensive line unlessthe other guys did.
So he's already at an advantage,right?

SPEAKER_01 (22:11):
We need to put the special teams.
That punt line needs to be in onthe offensive side of the
football.
That might do it.
So let's get away from Badgerfootball because I don't even
want to think that this is bad.
Oh my goodness.
Like there was a somebody askeda question.
They're like, Do you think theBadgers will rush for more yards
this season than Melvin Gordon'suh how many yards Melvin Gordon

(22:35):
had in that game againstNebraska, which was like 408?
Yeah, so they asked if theBadgers would have more rushing
yards on the season than he hadin that one game.
Currently, right now, they gottabe their leading rusher.
They said they're leadingrusher.
Would their leading rusher wouldany of them hit 408 yards?

SPEAKER_04 (22:53):
Not a chance.

SPEAKER_01 (22:54):
So Dillion Jones has 300.
So he's 108 yards away with fivegames to go against Indiana, uh,
Minnesota, Washington, orMinnesota.

SPEAKER_04 (23:09):
That's the thing.
It's hard, it's hard to rack uprushing yards when you're down
30 points every single game.

SPEAKER_01 (23:13):
That's true.
You gotta throw the ball arounda little bit.
So you can't really get that farthere.
So that's just crazy to thinkthat there's comparisons to see.
Like, will a rusher on theseason even touch what Melvin
Gordon did in one game?

SPEAKER_04 (23:25):
That's really bad.

SPEAKER_01 (23:26):
Yeah, yeah.
I saw I heard Jesse Temple didone on Twitter.
He asked if the Badgers wouldscore more than three touchdowns
on the season, uh, in what'sleft.
And I I don't know.
I don't know.
Somebody had asked a question tohim, and I think he said they
might score three.
And I was like, ah, that's Imight be pushing it.
I might be pushing it for whatthey can do next season.

SPEAKER_04 (23:44):
Maybe all against Minnesota.
I don't think I don't thinkwe're scoring anything against
Illinois, Indiana, maybeWashington.

SPEAKER_01 (23:50):
Maybe Washington if we're lucky.
Maybe Washington.
They might find the end zonethere.
So let's get away from that.
I don't even want to.
Yeah, okay.
Let's get out of there.
Let's get out of there.
Basketball.
Basketball time.
Greg Guard is gonna save the dayfor us.
We watched that red-whitescrimmage.
That was I I wasn't able towatch a full game.
I didn't get to over to Madison.
It sounded like it was a greattime.
Everybody who went tweeted greatthings about it.

(24:12):
Uh, but watching the highlightsfrom what we saw.
I love the look of this team.
I love the depth of this team,what they look like right now.
So we're gonna kind of dive intothe depth here.
Let's look at that.
First, I want to look at thatguard position because there's a
couple guys that I want to tapinto.
Nick Boyd coming in, thetransfer, the senior.
He's been there, done that.

(24:33):
He was on the FAU Final Fourteam.
He's been there, done thatguard.
He looks like he's gonna beexciting.
He looks like a guy who can pushthe pace, he looks like a great
passer.
And watching him in thatred-white scrimmage, he can
shoot it too.
He can do it all for you.
So I love watching him.
And then Braden Carrington.
I didn't know what to expect ofhim coming in or what to expect
of him coming in.

(24:54):
He's gonna be like a KamariMcGee serviceable guard that can
come in there and fill someholes for you.
So I love him in that guardspot.
And then you got Jack Janickicoming in behind that.
Loved it, loved what we saw fromhim last year.
And I think he's just gonnaprogress from what we saw there.
And then you have some otherguys who could see some time in
the guard role, maybe a guy likeZach Keynes or then a maybe a

(25:15):
Jack Robinson if he doesn't fillinto more of a uh three spot or
something like that.
You could maybe see him fillinginto a shooting guard spot.
So I mean, Christian, when youlook at or like hear about that
guard spot there, what do youlike in what you're seeing from
these guys?

SPEAKER_04 (25:29):
Like you said, the depth.
But I think also what I reallylike because everyone has kind
of has a defined role already,right?
Um Boyd's gonna come in and be.
I mean, him and Blackwell arelike option 1A and 1B for
scoring, right?
But I think Blackwell is gonnabe the off, he's gonna be like
the two now, right?

(25:49):
He's not we're not gonna guard'snot gonna be asking Blackwell
necessarily to be the pointguard.
That's Boyd.
Boyd's gonna run the offense,he's gonna be fast based, he's
gonna be doing stuff that'sgonna free Blackwell up, right?
Last year we had like acombination of Blackwell and
Clesmet as the point guard.
We didn't really have a truepoint guard since Chucky left,
right?
So I like that.
So like they have like definedroles there.
Carrington, like you said, he'she's like a true three and D

(26:12):
kind of guy.
He's gonna hit threes and he'sgonna play defense, kind of like
Kamari McGee, only bigger.
Um, but yeah, then I think sothat's already like what three
guys for two positions.
So there's some depth there withCarrington coming off the bench.
Um, I don't know.
Can you count Roadie as a guard?

SPEAKER_01 (26:27):
And we're gonna well, maybe he could play, he
could probably fill in there.

SPEAKER_04 (26:30):
That's I mean, that's the thing with him.
Like all you know, practice andstuff.
All you hear about is hispassing ability.
The dude's not gonna be lightingit up, but that's the thing.
We don't need him to.
He's gonna be passing the ballto Boyd, to Blackwell, you know,
whoever needs to get it.
I think he had two assiststechnically in the uh in the
scrimmage, but he had threepoints and four rebounds.
Like he's just kind of that guythat's gonna do a lot of the

(26:52):
little things, and he'll score,but he that's not like they
aren't gonna depend on him to bea primary scorer.
So um, then I mean, like yousaid, you got Jack Janicki like
butt burst on the scene lastyear.
I know that the program kind ofopened up their checkbook to
keep him, him, uh Blackwell, andWinter were all from what I hear

(27:14):
very well taken care of in theoffseason to make sure they
stick around.
So, like we talk about now thefootball team's finally getting
some money.
Sorry to bring them back up, butlike there has been money that
has been put into the basketballprogram to keep their talent
around.
So um Janicki's, I think I'massuming coming off the bench,
he's gonna be you know, he'sgonna be really good in that
second unit, like a guy thatthey're absolutely gonna depend

(27:36):
on.
Um, and then Hayden Jones, thatfreshman from uh New Zealand we
talked about, like he's alreadylike halfway a professional,
right?
Because he's already played kindof some pro ball over New
Zealand or you know, prettyclose to it.
Um, but yeah, so like as far asthe guard position, like there's
depth, which is really nice tosee.
Um, but again, I think everyonekind of has a defined role where

(27:57):
everyone fits in and thechemistry is just looks good and
you know, sounds good fromeverything we've been hearing.

SPEAKER_01 (28:02):
Yeah, no, I I love that.
And you know, the the black, Ididn't I didn't mention
blackwell, I didn't want tomention Hayden Jones.
I was kind of I was looping theminto what I could see as the the
one through three spots in thislineup are gonna be a rotational
thing where I could see uh youcould have a lineup, and I think
this is gonna be a lineup withBoyd, with Blackwell, with
Andrew Roadie, and then you'regonna see Rap and Winter because

(28:24):
Greg Garfield is the two bigguys in there.
So I think that's gonna be arotation there, and I think it
could you could see you knowguys slipping in there where
Braden Cairn could fill into thetwo or the one, and then you can
see a guy like Blackwell slidedown into that three spot
because Roadie's out of thegame, and now you mix in a
different guy like Janicki nearthat top of that guard rotation
with those two.
So I can see you know that kindof rotation working there.

(28:46):
I love the ability of Blackwellto work off ball.
Yeah, that is my favorite thingabout this is having that true
point guard.
Is now Blackwell can facilitateoff the ball.
You have guys who can get him toopen shots.
You with having weapons likethey do now, I think in the
shooting, Austin Rapp, I thinkis gonna be the difference maker
because, and this is my becauseSteven Crow, I love me some big

(29:09):
Steve.
Don't get me wrong, I love mesome big Steve.
He was not a three-level score.
He was sometimes an outsidescorer, sometimes an inside
scorer, but not physical enoughto be an all-the-time inside
scorer and not consistent enoughto be an outside score.
And he was never a middleground, which I think Austin
Rapp and Nolan Winter are.

(29:30):
They're three-level scores.
They're not afraid to hit thejump shot on you.
They're also not afraid to takeyou down on the little post, and
they're not afraid to hit itfrom the outside, too.
I think that's the differencethat Austin Rapp's gonna bring
into this.
Is Steve was willing to do allof those, he just didn't do them
at a high clip.
And he was bullied, I think,down on the post at times.
And that's something that Ithink now, Nolan Winter, I think

(29:52):
he's put on a lot of upper bodystrength.
I think he's gotten bigger.
I think that's gonna be huge.
And this Austin Rapp, he's a bigfella.
And they have a lot of bigfellas coming in.
Year.
Austin Raps, he's big.
I mean, he's what 238, 238.
That's a that's a big dude to bepushing.
That's a big guy.
He's 238.
Will Garlic's coming in at 243.
That's a freshman.
That is a freshman, seven foot.

(30:15):
And then Austin Greppi's anotherguy.
Elijah Gray.
I don't know where he's gonnaquite fill in.
I think he's probably gonna bethat guy to come in in that four
spot at times if they try to gowith like that.

SPEAKER_04 (30:24):
Is he gonna be like is he gonna be like that Xavier
Amos last year?
Except I don't think he canshoot as well as Amos could, but
like he'll he'll be likeemergency depth.

SPEAKER_01 (30:33):
Yeah, just an emergency depth kind of defender
kind of guy.
You know, nothing, nothingcrazy, nothing crazy with him,
not a super talent, but they'renever gonna depend on him.
Yeah, and that's okay.
You gotta have guys like that.
Like you said, you don't want tohave to depend on some of these
guys in this rotation, they justhave to be darn good rotational
pieces.
And I think that's where ElijahGray might be.

(30:54):
They have a lot of guys in thisrotation, like a Jack Robinson
who can shoot it from theoutside.
I love that stroke, that leftystroke that he's got going.
King Ainsur, the freshman comingin, he can shoot it.
They have a lot of depth piecesthat I really like, and I think
they can utilize all of them.
I don't think they're gonna gofull Kentucky where they have
two rotating blue and white teamwhere they're like rotating five
at a time.

(31:14):
I don't think it's gonna becrazy like that, but I think
they have the ability to goeight, nine.
If you got crazy with it in agame because you needed it, you
can maybe pull a tenth guy offthe bench and put him in.
But I think they're gonna havethe rotation of three to four
guys off their bench thatthey're gonna be able to go to,
and you're not gonna take a hugestep back.
I think that's the big thing inyears this Badger team has been

(31:36):
lacking, is when they went tothe bench, there wasn't the same
scoring.
There wasn't the same intensity.
I think now that you have a JackJanicki coming off the bench,
you have a you're gonna havelike a Braden Carrington coming
off the bench there.
I mean, there's there's a coupledifferent guys where you can see
them contributing into this, butI think that's gonna be the huge
thing for me with this team.
So I guess looking at the bigguys, is there anything that

(31:56):
stood out to you looking atthose big fellas that we got
now?

SPEAKER_04 (32:00):
I mean, like, I think you kind of hit the nail
on a head there.
Like, I think Winter is gonnatake another step forward this
year.
I mean, he's he was always kindof like in the backseat to
Crowl.
I mean, not that he should havebeen, but like Crowl was the
guy, right?
Yeah, um I think he's gonna be,I think obviously the featured
guy down low.
Um, but I think rap is gonna bea really big part of this

(32:21):
offense, a big guy that can stepout and shoot and actually be a
legitimate threat.
Like you said, Crowell could hitthrees, like he could hit a
couple of games if he got hot,but otherwise there was games
where he was just pounding theside of the packboard, you know.
So um, I think rap will be f Ithink he had 15 points in the
scrimmage.
Um in so like you said,three-level score.
He's he does really well withspacing.

(32:42):
He I think he's gonna make lifea heck of a lot easier for
winter down low.
So I just I don't know.
I think he's I don't want to saythe missing piece, but I think
he's gonna be he's gonna bringan element to the badgers that
they didn't have last year, islike with the four because I
think that's what Xavier Amuleswas kind of supposed to be, but
didn't really work out.
And obviously Tanja just tookover and was awesome, and then

(33:03):
Blackwell was also awesome, sothat helps.
But um, and I think Will Garlic,that freshman, I think when they
first had him come in, I thinkhe was just gonna be like a guy,
you know, and maybe in a year ortwo down the road, he get he
gets some playing time.
But guard seems super impressedwith him and is very impressed
with like how much he'sdeveloped in the short time he's
been there.
So I think he's gonna earnhimself some playing time.

(33:25):
He's definitely gonna be a rimprotector.
He's not gonna sit and probablyshoot a bunch of threes, I would
assume.
Um, but then oh boy, let me letme just butcher this name.
Uh Alexis uh BielakalusBelaskus.
I got to have someone I'm gonnahave to have someone like drill
into my head.
It's gonna be like GiannisAnadacumpo when he first got

(33:46):
drafted.
I couldn't say his name at all,and Alexis, you know exactly
what it is.
But I think he's also gonna behe's I think he's a little raw
from what I see.
But I think he's if you get aguy like that coming off the
bench, like I think you'relooking pretty good there.
So kind of like just like theguards, you got some depth,
which is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 (34:07):
Especially in the Big Ten where fouls get crazy.
You play some other teams withsome good big guys where fouls
like we saw last season when theBadgers played uh Danny, Danny,
uh Danny Wolf and MatthewGolden.
It got a little crazy becauseyou got guys.
Vlad Vlad Golden.
Oh, Vlad.
Who did I think?

SPEAKER_04 (34:26):
Matthew Golden.
I don't think he was playing BigTen basketball.
Sorry, I could, I could, I couldhave I could have let that go,
but I'm like, that's just areally fun thing.
That was a really fun, that wasjust a really funny thought.

SPEAKER_02 (34:38):
He just thinks he knows what he's talking about
over there, and he's likeMatthew Golden.
Matthew Golden just bodying upSteven Crow.

SPEAKER_01 (34:45):
Yeah, he doubled.
He went and played football downat Texas, he was up in Michigan
playing basketball.
He was Matthew Golden was allover the place, Vlad Golden and
Danny Wolf.
It took me a while to thinkDanny Wolf, too.
So I mean that's yeah, that'sbasketball's been so long.
I get it back in basketball.
But, anyways, you got into agame against guys like that.
You needed that depth, youneeded that physicality, and the
badgers didn't have that.

(35:06):
And I think now, and this iswhere I guess this is where I
want to see this team get backto.
I want to see this team gettingback to that physicality down
low in the post, in the having apost-presence.
It's something that I feel likethey've lacked for years.
And I thought last season theylacked that, and I think that's
one of the crutches.
One of the problems that theyhad was that they didn't have a

(35:27):
post-presence in some of thosegames.
They didn't have a truerebounder, somebody to get down
there, get dirty, get onto theglass, do the when the offense
isn't clicking because you'regonna have nights where you
can't score it from the outside,and you need to go inside.
You gotta have that guy, and Ithink now they have that with an
Austin rap, with a bigger andbetter Nolan Winter, and then
some of the young guys that youmentioned there, even a guy like

(35:49):
Ricardo Greppi in his secondyear now, and then you have,
like you said, uh with WillGarlic, and also I'm not gonna
say the name there, Alexis.

SPEAKER_03 (35:58):
A B.

SPEAKER_01 (35:58):
A B.
We're gonna call him A B for nowuntil Matt LePay tells us how to
say it.
Uh, the freshman there fromLithuania.
You have guys like that comingin.
I think those guys, if you canget because they have some big
fellas.
I mean, this is size that theyhaven't seen coming in in a
while.
Steven Crowell wasn't this bigcoming in, Frank Kaminsky wasn't
this big coming in.
You have some guys with someactual size, some built size

(36:21):
coming in there.
And I think that's somethingthat's gonna be irreplaceable on
a team like this is thatphysicality portion of it.
And I think, and we've kind oftalked about this at commercial,
but bringing in a guy like BradDavidson back to this program, I
think he's gonna bring thatenergy, that juice.
And I think that's going to alsohelp on that defensive side
where he's gonna help guys, youknow, because watching

(36:42):
highlights of him, you just youknew that he was always giving
you 110, even when he wasstinking on the offensive end,
he was always giving itdefensively.
I mean, we had the charge game,right?
I was just gonna ask you stilldriving them nuts.

SPEAKER_04 (36:56):
Who do you who do you think is gonna take the most
charges this year because ofBrad Davidson?
Which player?
Roadie.
Really?
Oh, I was gonna say Blackwell.

SPEAKER_01 (37:06):
Blackwell seems like that pesky guy that just likes
to chirp all games gonna take alot of haymakers, if anything.

SPEAKER_04 (37:14):
I don't think he's gonna take he's gonna be
chirping and he's gonna betaking charges, and Brad
Davidson's gonna be hyping himup from the sideline.

SPEAKER_01 (37:22):
Who was the one last year?
Was that against Arizona?
That was Caleb Love, wasn't it?
Who shoved them down at thatend?

SPEAKER_02 (37:28):
Yeah, he's good.
You gotta love guys that talkthat smoke.
You gotta love guys that talkit, and then they just like uh
they just not used to that withWisconsin, are we?

SPEAKER_01 (37:38):
Yeah, I mean you like it.
Brad Davidson, he was the he wasthe master of it.
You knew they were Max Clesmont.
I think not a lot of people likeknew it, but Max Clesmont talked
a lot of that too.
Like he was he was a guy whotrash talked a lot out there,
and he he was it was fun.
You know, you gotta have guyslike that.
So you love that.
You you love that with himthere.
So I guess any uh any finalthoughts you have about this

(38:00):
badge basketball team.
They open up, don't isn't itthis Friday?
Friday night, they're gonna openup at the Pfizer against
Oklahoma.
Is that this Friday orsomething?

SPEAKER_04 (38:07):
I think it's yep, the 24th, yep, this Friday.
This Friday.
So this Friday and Black on thebig on Big Ten Plus, if anyone
has that.

SPEAKER_02 (38:14):
They always make us have to pay for something more
to watch back.
So we're gonna all have to getBig Ten Plus.

SPEAKER_04 (38:19):
I think that's that's awesome.
Oklahoma and an exhibition.
Then they got then next.
I love it.
Wednesday they got Plattvilleand their normal YAC.
They play one of them.
So guard gets to coach againsthis brother, and then they
officially open up the seasonNovember 3rd against Campbell.

SPEAKER_01 (38:36):
I like the Oklahoma because I think it gives you a
different element than whatPlatteville does.
Oh, yeah.
You like, and it's should gowithout saying, I guess, but you
don't get to like you getbecause the Oklahoma is gonna go
into that game playing theirguys because they also want to
see it, and they're also gonnagive 110% because they're also
still playing for starting spotsand stuff.
So I mean, this is gonna be agame where you're gonna see two

(38:58):
teams who are gonna be in thethick of things in their
conferences, most likely, goingat it here in the Pfizer, a big
a big arena to an NBA arena.
I mean, it's it's one of thoselike atmospheres where you're
gonna get the best out of thesetwo teams.
So I love it too.
I I absolutely love the thoughtof playing Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_04 (39:14):
I'm so jacked for this season.
Like their schedule is soloaded.
They got BYU.
Then AJ Dybon was Daibenasta orwhatever the he's the number one
recruit in the country lastyear, goes to BYU because he's
from Utah, got paid a ton ofmoney, whatever.
The team that knocked us outlast year, like that's gonna be
an awesome game.
They played no Villanova, whichwho I know is down, whatever.

(39:36):
But I mean, who do they havenow?
They got Willard, the guy who'suh is that what his name is the
guy who was at uh Maryland lastyear?
Maryland, yep, yep.
Yep, he took over.
I guarantee they're gonna bebetter.
You got Purdue, you got oh man,do we have Purdue twice?
The Big Ten slate's low.
Do we have Purdue twice thisyear?
Oh man, I'm just there's gonnabe so many good games this year.

SPEAKER_01 (39:54):
And you could end the season at Purdue in a game
that could be for a lot ofthings when it comes down to it
at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_04 (39:59):
That's yeah, they end with I uh at Purdue, too.
At Purdue.
Oh, if that could have been ahome game at the end of the
year, that'd be fun.

SPEAKER_01 (40:07):
Oh, it's gonna be fun.
It's gonna be fun.
I see the BYU games on Peacockat three o'clock in the
afternoon.
On a Friday?

SPEAKER_04 (40:14):
Oh, is that that's the Friday right after
Thanksgiving, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 (40:17):
Oh, yuck, yuck.
Why is it on at a three o'clockon a Friday?
Is it Peacock?

SPEAKER_04 (40:22):
No, it's the Friday before Thanksgiving.
That's the Friday before openingGugger.

SPEAKER_02 (40:25):
Of course, what are we doing on a Friday?

SPEAKER_04 (40:26):
We have day jobs, right?

SPEAKER_02 (40:27):
We're working day jobs.

SPEAKER_04 (40:29):
I'm gonna be driving up to the hunting cabin, man.
Like, you think I'm gonna, Iguess I'm just gonna have to
listen to it.

SPEAKER_01 (40:33):
But you're just gonna have to listen to Matt
LePay's sweet voice with BrianButch tell you what's going on.

SPEAKER_04 (40:38):
Could be worse.

SPEAKER_01 (40:39):
It could be worse, it could be worse.
You could have to listen onPeacock to uh who even knows
who's gonna be the announcerthat night.

SPEAKER_04 (40:45):
So we'll or just Wisconsin football.

SPEAKER_01 (40:47):
Or just Wisconsin football.
We're jacked because we can talksomething else in Wisconsin
football when we talk aboutWisconsin sports.
So, Christian, thank you asalways for stopping by tonight
here on the show.
Let people know where to findyou out there across social
media.

SPEAKER_04 (40:59):
You can find me at Christian Borman on pretty much
all the social media things andcheck out the Badger Backer.

SPEAKER_01 (41:05):
He's gonna have great stuff.
He's now excited again becauseBadger basketball's back, so
he's got things to write about.
Because, like, I was listeningto it, it was uh, I think Zach
Heilbrin said it.
He said that there was a showfrom uh the Carolina Panthers
where they like canceled theirshow because they had nothing
good to talk about anymore withthe Panthers.
And he's like, We're not doingthat yet, but it's it's there,

(41:27):
it's it's there right now, andit's just like, yeah.
So I mean, glad we got somethingelse to talk about.
So Christian's got other stuffthere on Badger Backer.
Make sure you guys are checkingthem out.
Just a little bit to subscribeand everything.
Like there ain't nothing to it,and you get great content.
That's all you need to know.
Christian Borman there on allsocial media platforms and then
badger backer across all socialmedia.
So, Christian, thank you asalways.
We'll be back here after thequick commercial break.

(41:49):
We're gonna talk some brewers.
When we come back here from thebreak, we'll be back on
Wisconsin's.
Welcome back into WisconsinSports on the Go with Trage.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.
And hey, this next segment ofthe show here, we're gonna talk
some brewers.
After that great segment, wejust had talking badgers there
with Christian.
We're gonna talk some brewershere.
This next segment is brought toyou by 1891 Winery.
They celebrate history withflavor, sip on Artisan wines,

(42:12):
craft it on location, or grab acold beer and pair it with a
giant pretzel or pizza.
You can watch the badgers downthere.
Not the brewers anymore, but youcan watch Packers, right?
You can watch Packers.
You got a whole bunch of slew ofthings you can watch down there.
They got TVs, they got all kindsof stuff down there.
They have live music, specialevents, planning something
private.
They book parties too.
Check them out there.

(42:32):
They're open Fridays from fourto seven, Saturdays, 11 to 6,
and Sundays 11 to 5.
Follow them on Facebook forupcoming events there.
1891 Winery there in Greenwood,Wisconsin.
So we got lots I want to diveinto yet here tonight.
I want to get to the Brewersnow.
Brewers dropped the series tothe Dodgers four-game sweep.
It was, as a lot of fans put it,devastating.

(42:55):
Devastating.
The end of the season was, andyou have those fans that tell
you it was what they expected.
It is not what you expected.
And then you have the other oneswho say, well, if it they would
have got Suarez, like I said,you know, they would have went.
Oh, if they would have got thisguy, like I said, yeah,
whatever, a month ago orwhatever, you were telling us

(43:16):
that they didn't need Suarez,that he was struggling where he
went to the Mariners, and itwasn't gonna be worth it
anyways.
They dodged a bullet.
So whatever.
Whatever.
That's enough.
Enough out of that.
So we got those fans.
We got fans all over the placetelling us different things.
Here's my thoughts on the waythat it went.
The way that it ended.

(43:37):
The way that it ended was theway that it started.
Blackluster.
Nothing there.
No spark.
No energy.
Nothing.
Team looked lost.
Looked like there was no fight,no give.
That's what I saw.
That is what I watched to endthis thing.
That's what I saw against theYankees to start the year, and
that's what I saw to end itagainst the Dodgers.
They looked defeated.
They looked like they didn'tbelieve.

(43:58):
They didn't look like theydidn't believe they were good
enough to be on that field withthe Los Angeles Dodgers from
game two on.
You know how you want to talkabout hitting-wise, they were
never there from game three ofthe NLDS until the end.
They weren't there.
But I want to talk about the waythat I watched you watch them
emotionally.
The way that they looked liketheir body language out there on

(44:19):
the field.
And the guy that I harped on itlast week.
I said Christian Yelich has gotto do something eventually.
He's the worst for it.
Watch him.
Just watch him.
When he was struggling, he washead just oh, just walk back to
the Duggo.
Three pitches.
Back to the Duggo.

(44:39):
Well, I I want to, I really wantto not like harp on it.
I really because I know, I knowjust by hearing him talk and
watching him, he carries a lotof this on his shoulders.
I do.
I understand that.
I watch him, I see it, I canunderstand it.
I hear it in his voice.
I see it in the way that hetalks.
But after a while it begs thequestion, because they say,

(45:01):
well, the Brewers have a star,right?
In Christian Yalge.
I think he's a veteran.
I think he's a veteran presence.
But I think he's abehind-the-scenes veteran
presence in that locker room.
I don't think he's a lead byexample guy.
I think they're missing that.
I thought William Contrerascould be that, but I thought
William Contreras went away fromwhat he wanted to do in this

(45:23):
series.
He just all these guys did.
All these guys looked like allthey want to do is hit the long
ball.
They thought that to win thisseries, they they gave in to the
noise.
To win this series, they had toslug it.
They couldn't just win itputting the ball in play and
doing what they did.
Because I got in this argumentwith all these people out there.
They said, well, you know, theBrewers, they haven't faced

(45:44):
these pitchers like this yet.
They haven't faced uh uhback-to-back with Snell,
Yamamoto, Glass now, andShoyotani.
Not many teams have.
That's it's a really tough fourto have to deal with in a row.
It really is.
But the Brewers, they theydidn't even work counts.
They didn't the team that wewatched all season long.
What I loved about them the mostwas even in the losses, they

(46:05):
would work counts to get tobullpen.
We said it the whole time.
If the Brewers could just get tothat bullpen, the Brewers had
the better bullpen and theywould win those games.
By the time they finally got tothe bullpen, they were out.
They were they were like, itjust the team was defeated.
They didn't care.
They were like, it looked likethey checked out.
Seriously, that's what I saw.
I don't know if you if you saylet me know what your thoughts

(46:26):
were on the end of the brewerseason, the way that it went,
everything like that.
Let me know.
715-990-4914.
That is 715-990-4914.
I'd love to hear your thoughtson the Brewers.
Because the way that I saw itwas this team checked out.
There was no fight, there wasnothing of that left.
From certain guys, maybe CalebDurbin, Jackson Churio.
I saw it, Jared Caning.

(46:47):
He pitched he pitched well.
Aaron Ashby gave you everythingI got.
He was overused.
He was 100% overused.
You can look across the board,you can say Chad Patrick was
fantastic.
You can say he gave iteverything he had in that
series.
I some guys, I maybe they did.
They just didn't have it.
And the fight looked like it waslost.
Tyrangues and Freliks andYelitches of the world.

(47:09):
Contreras trying to do way toomuch.
Just put the ball out there.
Make the defense make mistakes,right?
That was the biggest thing theBrews went through all season
long.
They didn't win a lot of theirgames because they hit the crap
out of the ball.
They didn't win a lot of theirgames because, oh, they were
strongly the better team thatday.
They didn't win a lot of thosegames because they didn't face

(47:30):
good pitching.
They beat Paul Skeens twice.
But how did they do it?
Putting the ball in play, makingthe other team work.
Paul Skins is the best pitcherin baseball.
Has proven it.
Year after year.
And the Brewers somehow found anow it wasn't
back-to-back-to-back nights, no.

(47:53):
But if you're if the see theBrewers got beaten game one, and
it was a according to somepeople, if Bryce Tarang would
have taken the ball off hisknee, they would have maybe won
the game.
Okay, whatever.
Okay, so after losing game one,your excuse now is that they
faced another good pitcher.
You gotta learn how to hit goodpitchers.
And otherwise, it comes back tothe point of a lot of fans

(48:16):
saying that they didn't haveenough good hitting.
Which they had in the regularseason, they just didn't have in
the postseason again.
So then it comes back to we allgo full circle back to Mark
Ananasio.
And this is the we're are we atthis point already where usually
it's before the season where allthe sports casters and
everything in Wisconsin willcomplain because Mark Ananasio

(48:38):
didn't spend enough money in theoffseason.
Did he do enough to get thisteam ready for the postseason?
Hindsight, yeah, because at themoment, after the trade deadline
and everything was done, whatwere every fan in Wisconsin
saying?
They won the trade deadline waybefore the trade deadline
because they got Andrew Vaughnand Gwyn Priester.

(49:00):
That was the consensus.
They didn't do enough.
What got them there was enough.
But what got them there is whatthey went away from when they
got into the postseason.

(49:21):
And you can say, yes, they hadthere was I will admit, they had
really good pitching across theway.
Really good pitching betweenOtani and Glasnow and everybody
in between.
Really good pitching.
They didn't battle counts, theydidn't work anybody, they didn't
put good at bats together.

(49:44):
Constructive at bats.
That's the thing.
If if Yelich went up there as acrafty veteran and just followed
some balls off, worked BlakeSnell to a 10-pitch count,
that's huge.
But nobody did that.
That was the problem in thisseries.
Nobody went up to the plate andhad a Blake Perkins game one of

(50:07):
the NLDS against Matthew Boyd,work him to 12 pitches, single
one to center.
Because when you work a guyenough, and this is what the
Brewers did better than anyoneall season long against really
good pitchers.
They worked the counts, and whenthey got the count in their
favor, because they got 12pitches, they've seen everything
this guy wants to give them.

(50:28):
And at that point, the pitchersare so they're tired because
they've thrown you everythingthey got.
Now they're just trying to throwit by you.
Now they got to give yousomething, and they're like,
you're gonna hit it.
It's just a matter of my defensemakes a play.
Taking advantage of mistakeswhen they're there.
The Brewers didn't you're youwant you want to tell me Blake
Snell, Yamamoto, uh Glassnell,and Shoyotani, nobody had a

(50:52):
mistake pitch in there.
They didn't take advantage ofmistakes, they didn't have an
opportunity to hit with a guy inscoring position outside of game
four when they had one runearly.
Outside of that, it was nothing.
This team just the the way thatthey get the what they did to

(51:14):
get there, they went away from.
And that's what drove me nutsthe most.
So you want to hear that's mythoughts on the end.
It began, it ended like itbegan, and that's the worst
part.
I if they would have won gamethree or four, I think we would
have felt a lot better becausewe would have seen this team win
one more time.
But from the Cubs series thathigh to game one of the NLCS and

(51:37):
then just a slow drop, that'swhat hurt.
That's what hurt.
This team just it was not whatwe watched for 163, four games,
whatever you want to say.
It wasn't what we watched.
Maybe I saw this one.
Maybe if you had a ReeseHoskins, maybe if you had a

(51:59):
Reese Hoskins on the roster,having a guy who is a veteran
been there, done that guy.
Maybe I would it have hurt.
No, I I honestly, to be honestwith you guys, if I had a pick,
end of the day, give me ReeseHoskins or Brandon Lockridge,
why would you not have hadHoskins on the roster?
Like that's just my honest ofwhy what was Lockridge's purpose

(52:23):
outside of running?
He was a he's a pinch runner.
You have Collins, you haveChurio, you have Blake Perkins,
you have Sal Freelick, you haveJake Bowers if you need him, and
you had Christian Yelits, whocan play the outfield.
You have six guys already.
Why do you need Lockridge?
It just seemed crazy to have himthere.
So would A Reese Hoskins havehelped maybe a crafty veteran,
been there in the postseason,has hit in the postseason, been

(52:44):
in big moments, had big momenthits.
You didn't have a guy on theroster who had big moment hits
in the postseason in in thosekinds of situations against
really good teams.
Contreras had a big home run anda big moment, but I don't
believe that any of those guyshave had moments on top of

(53:04):
moments where it was justconsistent, right?
They've been there, they've donethat for years.
A crafty veteran.
I they were missing that, Ibelieve.
So maybe having a guy like thatwould have been in there.
But I there was just it feltlike there was something

(53:25):
missing.
It felt like the Brewers justkind of went away from what made
them successful.
And I think that out of all thethings, I think that is what
hurt the most to watch.
It wasn't that they lost, it wasthe in the way that they lost,
not playing their brand ofbaseball and trying to play what

(53:47):
they had.
You try to match firepower withfirepower, they don't they just
didn't have it.
And you play a team like theDodgers, and it it honestly, I
just think it makes a teambecause we saw it with the
Phillies, it makes a teambelieve the only way they're
gonna beat the Dodgers is toplay perfect, and they do things

(54:10):
that they wouldn't normally do,they go away from things that
they would normally do, and theytry to play the game perfect.
And the Brewers, the beautifulpart about the Milwaukee Brewers
of the 2025 season was they wereimperfect.
The things that they did, theway that they played the game
was imperfect.
And when you play a team likethe Dodgers, sometimes it gets

(54:30):
in your head that you need to besomething that you're not.
And I think that was anotherthing that coming off this
series, I kind of looked at andI said, Man, I just feel like
when you watch a team play theDodgers, they try to change
themselves when they don't haveto.
It's just when you look at thatteam, the firepower that they
have in the lineup, on thatpitching staff, it's just you

(54:52):
look at it and you say, Wow, Ihave to be good.
I have to be really good.
That's what sometimes it takesyou, it it takes you out of your
game, out of your elements, andyou get worse.
And I think that's part of whatwe saw in this uh in this series
here.
So that that was something thatI kind of went off of there.
Um, outside of that the seasondidn't end in a world series, it

(55:16):
didn't.
How do you look back at thisMilwaukee Brewer season?
And that's a question I want toanswer when I come back.
The season didn't end in a worldseries, but how do you look at
this season as a whole?
As a whole.
How do you grade it?
Where do you look at it?
How do you how do you feel afterwatching the 2025 Brewers?

(55:39):
The way that the season went,how it ended, how do you feel?
I love to hear it.
715-990-4914.
That is 715-990-4914.
Here we're gonna get to a littlebit more brewers.
We come back from the breakhere.
We're gonna get to a commercial,we're gonna come back, we're
gonna get to a little bit morebrewers as we wrap up hour
number one.
We look ahead to hour numbertwo.
Lots of stuff to dive into yethere tonight on the show.

(56:00):
We'll be right back here intoWisconsin Sports on the Go with
Trage.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.
And hey, this next we're gonnawrap up hour number one.
We're gonna look ahead to ournumber two.
This little last segment isbrought to you by Foreman's
Hardware.
They offer you everything fromhome essentials to farm
supplies, house to farm, grillsto drills, Foreman's hardware
has got you covered.

(56:20):
Visit today in Loyal Kobe orMetford, Wisconsin.
Tell them I sent you, tell themtrade sent you, get 5% off.
Tell them I sent you down there,5% off.
If you need some traggerpellets, if you need maybe a
tragger itself, maybe you needsome gardening supplies yet.
Uh they got tillers, they gotlawnmowers, they got everything.
Snowblowers coming up here.
Don't want to talk about snow,but they got snowblowers, snow
shovels, everything in between.

(56:40):
Check them out there.
Foreman's hardware in Loyal Kobeor Metford, Wisconsin.
So we're gonna get to our numbertwo.
We're gonna have Ummer stoppingby.
We're gonna talk some packers,we got some Bucks talk to get to
later on with Kyle.
We got some NFL talk.
We got all kinds of stuff to getto yet tonight here on the show.
So make sure you're coming back.
Hour number one is in the books.
Hour number two coming at youafter this quick commercial
break.