Wisconsin Football 2024

[nate82]

Locke is just so bad at throwing the ball and he can't run as he is like a statue back there.  Defenses don't even have to game plan for Locke or even account for him other than handing the ball off or over throwing his WR's.  If he does get the ball past the line it is either a lofted ball allowing the DB to get back into the play or it is 5-feet above the receivers head. 

He hasn't thrown an INT yet in this game but I don't see how Mettauer could be worse than what Locke is. 

[nate82]

11 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

figured that in a game where they have something like six yards rushing in a half of football, I'd read yet another comment about Locke. He had a poor half. The inability of UW to run the ball today exasperates that, and is a much bigger problem.

The defense doesn't have to respect Locke throwing the ball so they can play up a bit and don't have to worry about playing back.  If your QB is not a threat to do anything that means the defense only has to stop one thing and that is the run.  The run is never going to work if your QB isn't a threat to either run the ball or to throw over the defense.  Locke can't do either.  He can't run and he can't throw the ball. 

The defense doesn't even need to pack the line they can play normally and when they see run they just go full out run stop as they know even if they are fooled by this the opposing teams QB is going to do nothing absolutely nothing.  That is the game plan against the Badgers stop the run and watch Locke make mistake after mistake.  It is a simple game plan for every defense against the Badgers. 

[CheezWizHed]

Locke looks every bit the Texas QB who can't play in the cold.  Or a QB who has already selected his transfer location.  

[yourout]

This has shut out written all over it.

[nate82]

12 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

Locke looks every bit the Texas QB who can't play in the cold.  Or a QB who has already selected his transfer location.  

Him transferring would be the best thing for the Badgers going forward.

[AKCheesehead]

Man oh man, the announcers just missed a golden opportunity to utter the phrase "complimentary football."

[homer]

kind of telling that when the Minnesota guy hit the UW player out of bounds, the only person that seemed fired up about it at all was Fickell. Guys look like they've checked out to me.

[yourout]

Sad thing is I don't think we've bottomed out yet. I think that comes next year.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

The defense doesn't have to respect Locke throwing the ball so they can play up a bit and don't have to worry about playing back.  If your QB is not a threat to do anything that means the defense only has to stop one thing and that is the run.  The run is never going to work if your QB isn't a threat to either run the ball or to throw over the defense.  Locke can't do either.  He can't run and he can't throw the ball. 

The defense doesn't even need to pack the line they can play normally and when they see run they just go full out run stop as they know even if they are fooled by this the opposing teams QB is going to do nothing absolutely nothing.  That is the game plan against the Badgers stop the run and watch Locke make mistake after mistake.  It is a simple game plan for every defense against the Badgers. 

Yes it is. And it works because they CAN'T RUN THE BALL WITH ANY CONSISTENCY. They've had plenty of games, plenty of opponents over the years that played to stop the run but still could not do it. It's one thing to try to take something away from an opponent. Six yards for a half, thirty-six for the entire game, that's a new level of ineptitude. Once again, this isn't about defending Locke. He's a backup, and not a runner. It's about recognizing what you need to do to maximize whatever you can get out of him. Mediocre QBs can succeed with a strong run game, good field position & favorable down & distance. He had none of those things for most of the season & he isn't good enough to overcome that.

If there's an inclination to point out individual performances today that cost them dearly, I'd be just as apt to point to Rico Hallman, as well as some LBs that go back-and-forth with the over-pursuit

[JosephC]

First sub-.500 season with no bowl game since 2001.

IMO, the worst Badger football season since 1991.

2024 most impressive win was against Rutgers, who at 6-5 overall and 3-5 Big 10 (currently) will at least be going to a bowl game.  Can't say the same about Northwestern and Purdue.  The two non-conference wins against Western Michigan and South Dakota are nothing special, although at least Western Michigan will also be going to a bowl game.

Ended the season with a 5 game losing streak, and simply were not competitive against long-time rivals Iowa and Minnesota.

Last sub-.500 season was in 2001 (5-7, 3-5), and in that season they beat Iowa, Penn State and a ranked Ohio State team (Ohio State ranked 21st at the time, finished 7-5).

Prior to that, the last sub-.500 season was 1995, when they finished 4-5-2 (3-4-1 in Big 10).  That season they beat a Penn State team that was ranked 6th at the time (was #13 in the final poll) and also had a win against a 6-5-1 Michigan State team.

Before that was 1992 (5-6, 3-5).  The Badgers beat an Ohio State team ranked 12th at the time (finished at #18 in the final poll), although the other 2 Big 10 wins were nothing to write home about (a bad Purdue team and a terrible Minnesota team).

So that takes us back to 1991,  Badgers were 5-6 overall, but only 2-6 in conference.  The conference wins were against Northwestern (3-8) and Minnesota (2-9).  The non-conference wins were against Eastern Michigan, Western Illinois and the one "big conference opponent" win was against a 3-7-1 Iowa State team.  This was so long ago, Iowa State was a Big 8 team (before they expanded to become the Big 12).  1991 was Alvarez's second year at the Badger head coach.

So I'd put this as the worst Badger football season in 33 years, and IMO it's not really even debatable.  Fickell, and especially McIntosh, should be looking for the nearest rock to crawl under tonight.

 

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

Him transferring would be the best thing for the Badgers going forward.

If they don't play with toughness & discipline, it makes no difference. If he stays, I suspect he'll be beaten out by someone. In that case I have no problem if he decides to stay as he's definitely not a pariah.

But I suspect he leaves.

[yourout]

1 minute ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

If they don't play with toughness & discipline, it makes no difference. If he stays, I suspect he'll be beaten out by someone. In that case I have no problem if he decides to stay as he's definitely not a pariah.

But I suspect he leaves.

I would not be surprised to see a mass exodus.

[MrTPlush]

Truthfully the collapse of Badgers football was inevitable. Honestly, it’s amazing they stayed so good so long on the way they built their football team. 
 

The question becomes: what is rock bottom? How long to recover? Will they just become a middling team like Minnesota/Nevraska/etc.

[yourout]

I get you don't want to start swapping coaches like you would underwear but if he's the wrong guy and you hang on to him for another year it could really set back the athletic program for a decade. 

And with next years schedule you could actually have a better team with worse results.

No idea what the right answer is but it Fick goes Macintosh needs to go with him.

[JosephC]

An Ohio State grad that I know questioned the Fickell hire.  Even with he excellent record at Cincinnati, he wasn't convinced that Fickell was Big 10 material.

Ohio State records:

2009 = 11-2, 7-1 (Tressel)

2010 = 12-1, 7-1 (Tressel)

2011 = 6-7, 3-5 (Fickell)

2012 = 12-0, 8-0 (Meyer)

2013 = 12-2, 8-0 (Meyer)

I really didn't think that was a fair assessment, as Fickell took over a program that was really messed up and every single player knew that he was a lame-duck.  But looking back at that now, that 6-7 record sticks out like a sore thumb.  There is no way that Ohio State team had a 6-7 talent level.

Fickell now has a 11-15 record as a Big 10 coach against Big 10 competition.

[yourout]

51 minutes ago, JosephC said:

An Ohio State grad that I know questioned the Fickell hire.  Even with he excellent record at Cincinnati, he wasn't convinced that Fickell was Big 10 material.

Ohio State records:

2009 = 11-2, 7-1 (Tressel)

2010 = 12-1, 7-1 (Tressel)

2011 = 6-7, 3-5 (Fickell)

2012 = 12-0, 8-0 (Meyer)

2013 = 12-2, 8-0 (Meyer)

I really didn't think that was a fair assessment, as Fickell took over a program that was really messed up and every single player knew that he was a lame-duck.  But looking back at that now, that 6-7 record sticks out like a sore thumb.  There is no way that Ohio State team had a 6-7 talent level.

Fickell now has a 11-15 record as a Big 10 coach against Big 10 competition.

Losing seven games at Ohio State no matter the circumstances should raise a lot of red flags.

[yourout]

It's not the losses to Alabama and Oregon and USC and Ohio State that will get Fickell fired. It's getting ***** slapped by Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota that could cost him the job. 

And if Illinois and Indiana would have been on the schedule they would have 1 conference win.

[adambr2]

2 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

Truthfully the collapse of Badgers football was inevitable. Honestly, it’s amazing they stayed so good so long on the way they built their football team. 
 

The question becomes: what is rock bottom? How long to recover? Will they just become a middling team like Minnesota/Nevraska/etc.

Will they just become? They already are.

[LouisEly]

I'm not really sure if the issue is Locke, the WRs, or the scheme.  Likely a little of all three.  But I'm just not seeing many if any open WRs, and that suggests more of the latter two.  I think a big part of Locke's struggles is that there just isn't anybody open, so he tries to make a play. 

Add to that the most perplexing thing I've seen - Nowakowski split out wide on 3rd down.  Are you telling me that Nowakowski is one of your four best players at getting open?  I find that really hard to believe.  He's not tall and he's not fast, so why is he split out on 3rd down?  On 1st or 2nd down, when he can motion back to the line and become a blocker, I could understand him being split out.  But not on a passing down.  And then we wonder why there aren't any receivers open.  That's the playbook and the coaches.

Every coach on the offensive side of the ball except for Blazek needs to go. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, yourout said:

It's not the losses to Alabama and Oregon and USC and Ohio State that will get Fickell fired. It's getting ***** slapped by Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota that could cost him the job. 

 

Yes. Losing to those three, in the manner in which they lost.

[Jim French Stepstool]

47 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

I'm not really sure if the issue is Locke, the WRs, or the scheme.  Likely a little of all three.  But I'm just not seeing many if any open WRs, and that suggests more of the latter two.  I think a big part of Locke's struggles is that there just isn't anybody open, so he tries to make a play. 

Add to that the most perplexing thing I've seen - Nowakowski split out wide on 3rd down.  Are you telling me that Nowakowski is one of your four best players at getting open?  I find that really hard to believe.  He's not tall and he's not fast, so why is he split out on 3rd down?  On 1st or 2nd down, when he can motion back to the line and become a blocker, I could understand him being split out.  But not on a passing down.  And then we wonder why there aren't any receivers open.  That's the playbook and the coaches.

Every coach on the offensive side of the ball except for Blazek needs to go. 

To varying degrees it's all three IMO. The receivers have had trouble getting separation most of the year, even when the run game has been pedestrian to OK. On a day when they rush for 36 yards for an entire game & you're almost never in a good down & YTG situation, allowing pass rushers to pin their ears back, forget it.

I won't fault the 'system' too much for what happened today since you could argue that since Longo was dumped there really hasn't been one. It's devolved into a total surrender of the line of scrimmage, a mostly immobile QB constantly in 2nd & 3rd and long, and a return to the mistakes up front we saw through most of '23. Nowakowski being split wide on 3rd down is sort of the cherry on the **** sundae.

Agree with the last sentence.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, JosephC said:

An Ohio State grad that I know questioned the Fickell hire.  Even with he excellent record at Cincinnati, he wasn't convinced that Fickell was Big 10 material.

Ohio State records:

2009 = 11-2, 7-1 (Tressel)

2010 = 12-1, 7-1 (Tressel)

2011 = 6-7, 3-5 (Fickell)

2012 = 12-0, 8-0 (Meyer)

2013 = 12-2, 8-0 (Meyer)

I really didn't think that was a fair assessment, as Fickell took over a program that was really messed up and every single player knew that he was a lame-duck.  But looking back at that now, that 6-7 record sticks out like a sore thumb.  There is no way that Ohio State team had a 6-7 talent level.

Fickell now has a 11-15 record as a Big 10 coach against Big 10 competition.

He had that situation thrust on him in '11. It was as much of a 'mess' as you could have at a place with the advantages OSU enjoys. But they say you're as good as your assistants, and that's truer for Fickell than most. THAT'S where I feel his ultimate pass/fail will come from. And since he's been here, that part of his report card has been ugly.

I once read a comment from a long-ago NY sportswriter, covering the Giants training camp. The head coach was Jim Lee Howell. His offensive & defensive coaches were Vince Lombardi & Tom Landry. He said he'd walk down the dorm hall, look into Lombardis' room & see him hard at work with diagrams & notes, go by Landrys' room & see the same thing; then walk by Howells' room & see him reading the newspaper. Not to suggest Fickell sits around reading the funnies, but he seems more of a team CEO than a coach. That being the case, he has to stop making disastrous choices. Saying this is an important offseason is a huge understatement.

[igor67]

The most obnoxious thing about it in my opinion is that after that 30+ year run under multiple head coaches our status still seems so fragile. There's been plenty of big name programs that have under performed us in that time frame and yet I guess we aren't legacy program because we weren't really good by the 1960s or 70's (not sure when this intangible reputation cut off begins which is part of the frustration)

[Jim French Stepstool]

5 hours ago, yourout said:

I get you don't want to start swapping coaches like you would underwear but if he's the wrong guy and you hang on to him for another year it could really set back the athletic program for a decade. 

And with next years schedule you could actually have a better team with worse results.

No idea what the right answer is but it Fick goes Macintosh needs to go with him.

When you consider the money involved, McIntosh would be a less costly contract to eat even though he has 4.5 years left. But it would be hard to imagine hiring a new AD & telling him/her they can't fire Fickell, which is what I think they would be told. This isn't the SEC, where you can line up a host of good ol' boy, football crazed boosters, many worth seven figures, to buy out a contract because to them life isn't worth living because their team went 6-6. IMO Mac is in no danger at this point, and Fickell has next year & probably at least one more to prove whatever it is that the Luke Fickells of the world are here to prove.

[yourout]

3 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

When you consider the money involved, McIntosh would be a less costly contract to eat even though he has 4.5 years left. But it would be hard to imagine hiring a new AD & telling him/her they can't fire Fickell, which is what I think would happen. This isn't the SEC, where you can line up a host of good ol' boy, football crazed boosters, many worth seven figures, to buy out a contract because to them life isn't worth living because their team went 6-6. IMO Mac is in no danger at this point, and Fickell has next year & probably at least one more to prove whatever it is Luke Fickells of the world are here to prove.

Sadly you're correct. 

This is looking like a colossal catastrophe in the making for the athletic department. 

From killing the gridiron club to turning the stadium experience to absolute s*** McIntosh is running the universities cash cow right into the ground.