2025 Wisconsin Season Thread

[bayareabadger]

I'm so glad this clown is gone.


https://twitter.com/TheCUSACentel/status/1960721891477610916

Lot of interesting lessons from that one.

One silver lining was that laid bare how stupid in particular long running message board complaint had been

[SFBadger96]

There is a 14-player "leadership group," but no named captains. At least that's how I understood what Fickell was saying. Journal Sentinel heard it the same way.

[847badgerfan]

Yep.

[betarhoalphadelta]

There is a 14-player "leadership group," but no named captains. 

[847badgerfan]

Another year, another injury to QB1.

Consistency in Madison is a thing.

[Temp430]

Sounds like Edwards had a sprain.  So, maybe back in a week or six depending.   Badgers' defense is solid.

[SFBadger96]

Offense needs to clean some things up, but it's not catastrophic. The backs are running hard, the play calls aren't asking too much of the quarterback (whomever that might be), and the O-Line looks more aggressive. Those are all positives. Controlled the clock. That is a big positive. And an improvement over last year--even against Western Michigan in the season opener and South Dakota in week 2. (Deep breaths, patience...)

[847badgerfan]

Need a left tackle. That kid will get the QB killed against the great teams coming up.

[847badgerfan]

Fingers crossed. Still need a left tackle though.


https://twitter.com/chris_hummer/status/1961455341482205489

[847badgerfan]

We'll see. Can't imagine him playing next week.


https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1961497949734658360

[847badgerfan]

I had this in the SOC but I'm bringing it here, as I think it's worth the discussion.

There are a good number of first- and second-year players who will contribute this year. That says a lot about recruiting at the tail end of the Chryst era.

Actually, I think Minnesota is mostly about the same as it has been for two decades, except Minnesota seems to have caught up to Wisconsin during P.J.'s tenure, so there is some advancement, although it could be attributed to regression in Madison.

It's this. People don't realize how far Paul Chryst let the program fall. He and his staff did not embrace the Portal or NIL. He had a staff full of buddies, and he went a whole year without a recruiting department.

PC's last class was 2023 (LF took over late in the cycle). There are only 5 kids left from that class, and only 5 (each) left from the 2022 cand 2021 classes.

Luke Fickell inherited a shit sandwich with a culture (complacency) problem.

It's mostly all his now, so we'll see how he does, moving forward. Those PC kids who weren't bought in are gone (graduated or transferred out). Those who are bought in? They stayed.

[SFBadger96]

Danny O'Neil as the starter this week. One thing highlighted in his comments to the media that I like: feels like he's been counted out everywhere because of his size (6', 200). Those guys are the best Badgers, ever since Joe Panos's Lunch Pail crowd in 1993.

Let's go, Danny. MTSU is as forgiving an opponent as you can get to make your first start. Make those reps count.

[SFBadger96]

Also, I think it was OAF's comment on the SOC thread: is the root of all of this crap at Wisconsin Bielema's departure? Interesting what if.

Bielema wasn't that good at Arkansas, but he seems to be back to his Wisconsin ways at Illinois.

The Chryst era went well enough until post-COVID. No reason to believe Bielema would have been any better, and Bielema's last season at Wisconsin wasn't any better than the years Andersen was coaching. Crushing Nebraska in the conference championship game made a lot of people forget that the Badgers were 7-5 during the regular season. Why did Bielema leave? Had he stayed he would be going into his 20th year, assuming he stayed on a similar trajectory.

But he would have made a lot less money. He left because he was worth more than Wisconsin would pay him (and his assistants, too). As much as I hate to say it, that's fair. I hope the Badgers have the opportunity in the near future to pay their consistently-winning football coach what he's worth. 

But Bielema's record at Arkansas and Illinois don't necessarily show that Wisconsin carved up the goose that laid golden eggs. He was up and down at Arkansas (trending way down when he was fired), and he has been up and down at Illinois. Everyone remembers last year, but the year before (Bielema's 3rd season) the Illini went 5-7. So maybe Wisconsin made the right choice. And so did he--he made a bunch of dough by moving around.

The Badgers didn't need to pay Chryst to stay because he really wanted to be in Madison. Apparently he also didn't really want to coach big-time college football after the pandemic. 

In the future if the Badgers want to challenge the big boys, the AD will need to be willing to open the check book to keep a quality coach. McIntosh showed that he is inclined to do so with the Fickell hire, but they are still evaluating if he's the right guy to keep...

In the meantime, Jim Leonhard is now the "Assistant Head Coach" for the Broncos, which sounds like he is getting ready for the big bucks leading a team in the League. Maybe McIntosh had a big miss there...

[SFBadger96]

And Minnesota isn't about the same as its been for two decades. Glen Mason was pretty solid for the Gophers, and Jerry Kill was ok, too, but Fleck is outperforming everyone in my lifetime:

I presume that Holtz could have gotten the Gophers going, but seems like he made the right decision to leave when he did.