Wisconsin Football 2025

[Jim French Stepstool]

On 12/4/2025 at 11:57 AM, LouisEly said:

Yes, at this point they only have 6 scholarship safeties coming back (Jarvis may be on year-to-year if they have open schollies available, but he was a walk-on).  Unknown if Zachman will get a medical redshirt as he's played in 3 games.

Last month Mark Stewart of the MJS said it "appears" Zachman has the medical redshirt option if he chooses to use it. FWIW.

[LouisEly]

True freshman safety Remington Moss has announced his departure.  According to his profile on UW's website, he did not play in any games this year.

Whether that had anything to do with watching two other true freshmen start on defense and him not seeing any game action, I don't know.

[LouisEly]

Right now at 71 scholarship and 22 walk-ons for a total of 93 towards a 105-man limit.

So, at this point expect at least 12 transfer scholarship players.  The 93 does not include Zachman nor Brunner, and I expect a few more transfers out, so 15-20 transfers in is likely even if Zachman and Brunner are back (I expect both to be, from what I hear Zachman qualifies for a medical redshirt and I doubt that Brunner gets higher than a 6th round grade).

[LouisEly]

Indiana transfer portal takes:

2023: 23
2024: 31
2025: 23

Cignetti didn't build that program on freshmen recruits.

[RedStickBrew]

34 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

Right now at 71 scholarship and 22 walk-ons for a total of 93 towards a 105-man limit.

So, at this point expect at least 12 transfer scholarship players.  The 93 does not include Zachman nor Brunner, and I expect a few more transfers out, so 15-20 transfers in is likely even if Zachman and Brunner are back (I expect both to be, from what I hear Zachman qualifies for a medical redshirt and I doubt that Brunner gets higher than a 6th round grade).

Seems like I heard somewhere that Zachman was not going to pursue another year.

Based on history it would seem like 15-20 more could declare for the portal yet. UW might need to sign 25-30 transfers

[tmwiese55]

37 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

Indiana transfer portal takes:

2023: 23
2024: 31
2025: 23

Cignetti didn't build that program on freshmen recruits.

And something like 17 of the ones in the first year were him just bringing his JMU players with him. And I think the QB transfer was from MAC. And then won 11 games in the B1G with them.  What he did isn't as simple as "cuban gave money" like its being spun now.   And I think he just brought his JMU coordinators with him too, not like they dumped money on some big name hires.  A key part of all this is actually being able to coach and train the game of football.   Really too bad we didn't identify this guy years ago. 

[homer]

4 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

 A key part of all this is actually being able to coach and train the game of football.   Really too bad we didn't identify this guy years ago. 

All they had to do was Google him.

look up Cignetti saying "Google me" at his introductory presser

[JosephC]

48 minutes ago, tmwiese55 said:

A key part of all this is actually being able to coach and train the game of football.

We'll see what happens on Monday/Tuesday.  I didn't figure the Badgers would make any coaching moves prior to the end of this early signing period, but it would be pretty surprising if nothing happened next week.  They ran Longo out of town last year, hard for me to believe they would keep Grimes and all the offensive assistant coaches based on the performance.  In 2024 they averaged 22.9 points per game against Big 10 opponents, this year that number was all the way down to 9.  

[tmwiese55]

2 minutes ago, JosephC said:

We'll see what happens on Monday/Tuesday.  I didn't figure the Badgers would make any coaching moves prior to the end of this early signing period, but it would be pretty surprising if nothing happened next week.  They ran Longo out of town last year, hard for me to believe they would keep Grimes and all the offensive assistant coaches based on the performance.  In 2024 they averaged 22.9 points per game against Big 10 opponents, this year that number was all the way down to 9.  

We'll see. I've been told he's building a house here so must have some assurances.  When I was told that I had a "what? he expects to be here more than 1-2 years? OK, I guess I appreciate the confidence".

Jokes aside, if Fickell is getting another year he should too.  Its not easy to take guys recruited for the spread and try to run a power system.  Need progress next year though.  Essentially Fickell's era comes down to this hire.  And of course, its not ideal to fire OC and transition again in b2b years. 

[JosephC]

20 minutes ago, tmwiese55 said:

We'll see. I've been told he's building a house here so must have some assurances.  When I was told that I had a "what? he expects to be here more than 1-2 years? OK, I guess I appreciate the confidence".

Jokes aside, if Fickell is getting another year he should too.  Its not easy to take guys recruited for the spread and try to run a power system.  Need progress next year though.  Essentially Fickell's era comes down to this hire.  And of course, its not ideal to fire OC and transition again in b2b years. 

I'm not suggesting that Grimes and all the offensive assistants should be fired, but it would be surprising if every one of them kept their jobs. 

Coordinator, QB, RB, WR, TE, OL...name one group that performed at a satisfactory level in 2025.

[LouisEly]

3 hours ago, JosephC said:

Coordinator, QB, RB, WR, TE, OL...name one group that performed at a satisfactory level in 2025.

TE - Mason was All-Conference, 2nd team Coaches and 3rd team Media.  And the projected starter missed most of the year with injury.

I thought the OL played well the 2nd half of the season.  Once they had some consistency of the same guys in the same places, and almost all of the sacks the 2nd half of the season were because the QB held the ball for four or more seconds.  

WR and TE were the only positions where they weren't down to 3rd string/4th string/emergency starters, and TE was 2nd string.

[JosephC]

Arizona State QB-Sam Leavitt heading to the portal.  Will be a redshirt junior next year.  Began his college playing days at Michigan State, played in 4 games and preserved the redshirt, and then transferred to Arizona State where he played the last two years.  Led Arizona State to the college football playoff during his first year there, and was getting some late round one/round two mentions early this year.  Suffered a foot injury, had surgery in early November and missed the end of the season.

I found one article that estimated he got paid roughly 3.1 million this last season.

Hard to tell where he will rank once all the transfers get their name in the portal, but a very good chance that he will be one of the top 5 QBs available.  SI has an article up and they speculate that the top 5 landing spots for Leavitt would be LSU, Miami, Texas Tech, Indiana, Florida State.

 

[LouisEly]

Yacamelli into the portal.  He is the type of player that the portal should be for - one season of eligibility left, has his degree, not going to start, not going to play in the NFL, just wants a chance to play more with his last opportunity left.  He has his degree, so he would have been able to transfer before the portal, but he's not looking for a paycheck.

[nate82]

10 hours ago, JosephC said:

Arizona State QB-Sam Leavitt heading to the portal.  Will be a redshirt junior next year.  Began his college playing days at Michigan State, played in 4 games and preserved the redshirt, and then transferred to Arizona State where he played the last two years.  Led Arizona State to the college football playoff during his first year there, and was getting some late round one/round two mentions early this year.  Suffered a foot injury, had surgery in early November and missed the end of the season.

I found one article that estimated he got paid roughly 3.1 million this last season.

Hard to tell where he will rank once all the transfers get their name in the portal, but a very good chance that he will be one of the top 5 QBs available.  SI has an article up and they speculate that the top 5 landing spots for Leavitt would be LSU, Miami, Texas Tech, Indiana, Florida State.

 

Can almost guarantee he goes to LSU or Miami.  Both have the funds to pay Leavitt.  

[Jim French Stepstool]

Trech Kekahuna announced for the portal today. He's done that once (or was it twice?) before. So I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of him wanting to see what happens re UWs' upcoming shopping trip & whether they come up with a QB to his liking. OTOH, If the name is off his mailbox that wouldn't surprise me either.

[nate82]

Didn’t see this linked anywhere but it looks like there is more money available for teams to spend next year.  I wonder if UW is splitting this evenly to all the sports and not just the normal 70+% to the football programs.  This could be the reason why UW football is losing recruits on the football side but gaining on the basketball side.

 

https://www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq/nil/college-players-to-earn-more-revenue-dollars-in-new-ncaa-plan

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Trech Kekahuna announced for the portal today. He's done that once (or was it twice?) before. So I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of him wanting to see what happens re UWs' upcoming shopping trip & whether they come up with a QB to his liking. OTOH, If the name is off his mailbox that wouldn't surprise me either.

He committed, decomitted, then recommitted.  He was going to enter the portal after last season, but then came back.  Now he's in the portal again.

Talented player, but there is a point at which you say get in or get out.

[yourout]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/bigten/2025/12/10/indiana-football-star-stephen-daley-out-for-cfp-after-injury-celebrating-big-ten-win-vs-ohio-state/87705488007/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Tough way to end your season.

[JosephC]

Looks like a bunch of Michigan assistants just became available.  Maybe it's time for the Pickell to do some shopping and get some upgrades.

[JosephC]

I see the Journal-Sentinel is reporting that offensive line coach AJ Blazek was fired earlier today.  I didn't see this news on any of the Madison sites (WJS or local TV stations).  I was a huge fan of the Blazek hire, but from everything I was told that group was extremely "soft" and not even close to the standards that we've seen from sub-par offensive lines of the past.  It was time for him to go.

The new offensive line coach is Eric Mateos, who has been at Arkansas the last two years.  He had previously worked with Grimes at both Baylor and BYU.

https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/coache/eric-mateos/ 

Hopefully a couple more of those offensive coaches are under the microscope.

[JosephC]

 

[LouisEly]

I'm guessing there were philosophical differences between Blazek and Grimes/Fickell.  I don't know how you can blame Blazek when they were on their emergency LT, emergency center, and starting redshirt freshmen at RT and RG most of the season.

Or his firing was simply because they had an opportunity to get Mateos, who has worked with Grimes in the past.

[nate82]

38 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

Or his firing was simply because they had an opportunity to get Mateos, who has worked with Grimes in the past.

I think this is the logical reasoning here.  Not much you can do as a coach when key players get injured and the players replacing them are not physically ready yet.  Nearly all freshmen on the OL or DL are not ready to play in college.  They are just not physically ready to compete at that level.  It is not until their sophomore season or really their junior season that they are physically ready to play at the college level.  Even Bostad would have had a hard time having any success with the group Blazek had this year.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2026 OL looks a whole lot better and it won’t be because of the coaching well not 100%.  Majority of it will be because of the players being physically better in year two or year three.  

[JosephC]

The talk/rumor from the alums today was that the powers-that-be were not happy about any aspect of the offensive line.  They thought this year's play was poor, the development that the players had shown was poor, and the recruiting at the position was poor.  I honestly don't know how Blazek is singled out and how...just to pick one...the wide receiver coach still has a job?  I think the same can be said about the entire offense, it's not like one bad group turns the entire unit into a 9-points per game in conference play big black hole of nothingness.

Rumors are that one or two coaches may still be fired, but it's unlikely to be any more than that.

[nate82]

9 hours ago, JosephC said:

just to pick one...the wide receiver coach still has a job?

How is the WR coach at fault for this year?  You do know the QB has to throw the ball right???

The WR’s were not a problem this year they have been open a lot and the QB just never got the ball to them.  Is the WR coach supposed to be the QB coach also?  Is the WR coach also the OL coach to you know block?  It’s weird you are singling out the WR coach when that is probably the best of the group on offense.

I can’t remember a game where the WR’s were the problem on offense.  It was mostly the OL and QB that was the problem.  Please explain why you think the WR coach was a problem.