Wisconsin Football 2022- The Jim Leonhard Show ends, the Luke Fickell era begins

[LouisEly]

Same with the non-call on running into the kicker two plays later.

[UpandIn]

50 minutes ago, yourout said:

Want to see an egregious uncalled targeting?

That one should get a ref suspended.

CFB is a little over the top with the targeting and the suspensions, but I watched that one and was SHOCKED they didn't make a call. A lot of times it'll look worse than it is because the runner will go down and the target moves and the defender is already coming in, but this was a guy just straight up spearing another player. 

This has been a penalty before the game has become more protective of players(or soft as the tough guys who don't have to deal with the concussions say). 

[UpandIn]

On 11/12/2022 at 6:00 PM, nate82 said:

This O-line is absolute garbage.  All should have their scholarships taken away.  They don’t deserve to have them.

Bostad needs more time with this group before I write off some of these young guys, but it's disappointing to see them play so poorly. They've looked good the last couple weeks, but...another just ugly performance. 
I think they've got 3 Soph, a Fresh and a Jr(all RS). 

There's a lot of talent there. Just make sure you keep Bostad around. 

If they can't get it figured out next year...well, then maybe I'll worry more about the long term outlook, but they've had bad seasons before. 

[JosephC]

3 hours ago, yourout said:

Want to see an egregious uncalled targeting?

That one should get a ref suspended.

It was targeting, but to suggest it's a completely different game if that is called is pure nonsense.  The guy who posted that definitely was not paying attention to everything that happened before and after that play occured.

[CheezWizHed]

Little behind the news here, but the whole BA "smoke" made me wonder how much was tied to keeping Jim Leonhard at HC?

[LouisEly]

7 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

Little behind the news here, but the whole BA "smoke" made me wonder how much was tied to keeping Jim Leonhard at HC?

Literally all of it:

https://twitter.com/jessetemple/status/1591192539348230145?s=20&t=eKqMQWoEPNvXUdnhD1fzjw

(Would someone care to show a non-Twitter user how to link a Tweet in a reply?)

[nate82]

33 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

Literally all of it:

https://twitter.com/jessetemple/status/1591192539348230145?s=20&t=eKqMQWoEPNvXUdnhD1fzjw

(Would someone care to show a non-Twitter user how to link a Tweet in a reply?)

When pasting a tweet it needs to look like this: 'https://twitter.com/jessetemple/status/1591192539348230145' without the apostrophes so it shows up like below:

 

 

 

 

 

[LouisEly]

On 11/7/2022 at 5:27 PM, LouisEly said:

And the WR decommitting has little to nothing to do with the head coaching situation (they just got a commit for the class of 2024 and will be getting another commit for 2023 today or tomorrow) and everything to do with being offered by Oregon and Texa$ A&M.

And turns out his girlfriend is going to Oregon...

[UpandIn]

On 11/14/2022 at 8:40 PM, JosephC said:

It was targeting, but to suggest it's a completely different game if that is called is pure nonsense.  The guy who posted that definitely was not paying attention to everything that happened before and after that play occured.

No, he's absolutely right. Instead of punting from inside our own 10 and Iowa having a 5 play, 18 yard drive to make it a 21-10 game, the Badgers have 1st and 10 at the 25 and they've got a little room to operate. 

If they call that, it's an enormous shift in the game. I have no idea if the Badgers win, but after that sequence, it was pretty much a given they were gonna lose. Went from down 4 to 11 in large part due to that no-call. 

[SomewhereInTime]

The 2023 recruiting class is imploding.

[JosephC]

At least Terek is still on board, who many speculated would be one of the first to jump ship.  Certainly get the feeling there will be at least another 1 or 2 current commits that elect to go elsewhere.  The DT that left, opened the door for another DT to come on as there are a couple interested.  But overall, what's left of the high school candidates...it's looking pretty barren.

Wouldn't be crazy to think that upwards of 40% of the 2023 recruiting class will coming from the transfer portal.  Either that or the Badgers will be settling for a lot of MAC level high school recruits (which may not be a bad thing considering how many of their recent top-tier recruits have been busts).

 

[LouisEly]

30% of the 2022 class was from the portal.

There are quality kids that will be available - remember, December is the early signing date.  There will be kids who get recruited over at the helmet schools by 5/4-stars who commit at the last minute (a.k.a. "hat shows") who may get their offers pulled.  Jalen Berger was a January commit.  Kaden Johnson was a late December commit, as was Devin Chandler and Titus Toler.

Malik Elzy (Chicago), Chance Fitzgerald, Dakota Patterson, and Trey Spivey are all high 3-star WRs who they've offered and have had contact with but haven't committed to anyone yet

[SomewhereInTime]

On 11/18/2022 at 2:35 PM, LouisEly said:

30% of the 2022 class was from the portal.

There are quality kids that will be available - remember, December is the early signing date.  There will be kids who get recruited over at the helmet schools by 5/4-stars who commit at the last minute (a.k.a. "hat shows") who may get their offers pulled.  Jalen Berger was a January commit.  Kaden Johnson was a late December commit, as was Devin Chandler and Titus Toler.

Malik Elzy (Chicago), Chance Fitzgerald, Dakota Patterson, and Trey Spivey are all high 3-star WRs who they've offered and have had contact with but haven't committed to anyone yet

I do wonder if this will be the new program strategy now that we are in the era of the transfer portal.  Punt on the freshman recruiting class and attempt to fill out the roster with a very large amount of transfers.  They did get a high amount of them in 2022.

[Brewcrew82]

Job has been posted. Jim Leonhard is your permanent head coach. 

Just as I suspected all along. 

[JosephC]

If Leonhard gets the job, then it's as it should be.  But now I have to wonder what took McIntosh so long?  He really needed that ugly win against a bad Nebraska team to prove that Leonhard was the right man for the job?

[CheeseheadInQC]

28 minutes ago, JosephC said:

If Leonhard gets the job, then it's as it should be.  But now I have to wonder what took McIntosh so long?  He really needed that ugly win against a bad Nebraska team to prove that Leonhard was the right man for the job?

While it shouldn’t really matter, I think bowl eligibility probably made giving Leonard the job early an easier sell PR wise.

[CheezWizHed]

If JL is actually the HC, I wonder what he will do for the OC side of things.  Do you think he cleans house? Shake it up, but keep an internal candidate (i.e. Bobby Engram)? 

[nate82]

13 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

If JL is actually the HC, I wonder what he will do for the OC side of things.  Do you think he cleans house? Shake it up, but keep an internal candidate (i.e. Bobby Engram)? 

I think Engram has done well enough to stay.  Losing their best TE this year has been the biggest issue other than the offensive line.  The OL has been bad overall I am not sure as a unit they do anything that is positive.  They don't run block all that well and pass protection is like putting a wet blanket on the field as a blocker. 

The OL is limiting what they can do on the offensive side.  On the rare occasions when the OL does their job correctly the offense has looked really good.  The skill position is still poor at WR and TE is not all that great either.  The offensive scheme at least passing wise goes through the TE and without one healthy that can actually catch and run routes this offense is going nowhere.  Allen has also been hurt with a shoulder injury and he isn't really playing all that well as the #1 RB. 

I don't think he will clean house and most if not all will return next year.

[Jim French Stepstool]

When compared to past groups this OL hasn't measured up. But it's been markedly better since the N'western game. The obvious outlier was at Iowa, which on that particular day performed as well or better than any front seven we've seen this season vs the run (yes, that includes at Columbus). There's been uneven play for sure. But there's enough youth there & enough talent pushing them from the 2-3 deep to be nowhere near writing them off. Bostad needs to stay with this group. He never should've left; that was a mistake.

I think Leonhards' decisions in the off season regarding his staff are going to be key, really moreso than the portal or incoming recruiting class when you look at the big picture. In his career as both player & coach JL has walked down a tremendous # of paths & made a ton of contacts. Not a 100% overhaul, but I think this staff is going to look different.

Nate makes a great point re the TE situation. That spot has been an important part of the pass game for years, and Mertz developed a particular security blanket with Ferguson. It appeared early on a similar thing would happen with Cundiff but when he & Rucci both went down it changed things drastically. It's a shame Cam Large couldn't stay healthy; 2023 would've been a golden opportunity for him.

It looks like the circus should soon be over re the hiring. This once again proves one of the biggest roadblocks to success is over-bureaucracy, and one of the worst forms of it is higher-education bureaucracy. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't say a word about the defense. Since JL has taken over it's struggled late in the MSU game, and at times vs Purdue w/o Herbig. That's pretty much it. In the last two games they were fully responsible for one TD, and that was helped by 30 yards in penalties. Outstanding.

[nate82]

If there is going to be a shakeup it will be on the offensive side of things and I think they may just add a QB coach and not change all that much.  I wouldn't be against bringing in Tolzien as the QB coach.  He is currently an assistant coach with the Cowboys. 

Engram has coached WR / TE in the past so I think he could become the coach there if one needs to be removed for a QB coach. 

[CheezWizHed]

If I recall right, PC was the playcaller and basically ran the offense.  It would be nice to open up our options and reboot the offense.  Our OC position now becomes and attractive spring-board to another HC position.  

At a minimum, we need to do better developing our QB/WRs.

[nate82]

37 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

If I recall right, PC was the playcaller and basically ran the offense.  It would be nice to open up our options and reboot the offense.  Our OC position now becomes and attractive spring-board to another HC position.  

At a minimum, we need to do better developing our QB/WRs.

After Jon Budmayr left last year for an OC position the Badgers have been without a QB coach.  I think PC or Engram took that over in this year.  I think they need to find a permanent QB coach and Engram should be good with WR / TE as he has coached them in the past.  I think having Engram as the OC and having him calling plays on offense would help a lot.  Maybe skip a defensive coordinator and add more individual coaches for WR, DL, LB and DB's?  That might be too much for JL to do as the HC but most HC's are calling offensive plays and not defensive plays.  Wouldn't it be better to just let JL take the defensive duties and let Engram take over the offensive side of things?  This is assuming Engram is going to stay. 

[homer]

I prefer a head coach be an offensive guy (although I guess that matters less in college) but Leonard makes too much sense.

[LouisEly]

Eh, Engram has made more than his share of rookie mistakes.  I know that early in the season he, Chryst, and Bostad weren't on the same page, but it seems like Engram hasn't done a good job of scheming to get the WRs open.  The passing offense has been very basic.  Not a lot of motion, minimal use of jet sweeps/reverses/misdirection, almost no use of the RB/TE screen game at all.  Seems like lots of things have almost completely disappeared (RPO, jet sweeps, motion) the last couple of weeks.  Someone on another forum who said that they are a Ravens fan said that when Engram was there the Ravens passing game was very basic as well. 

Engram could be good for recruiting, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was replaced.  He was also close with Chryst, so I wouldn't be surprised if he chose not to come back.

[adambr2]

Only the Badgers could have first and goal at the 5 with the game on the line and lose the game with 3 false starts and a hold. 

Fitting end to the season, although I suppose they'll have it extended by one more gross game in some obscure bowl.