Wisconsin Football 2025

[JosephC]

29 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

I do not follow college football. At the same time, Washington being favored to win by only 10.5 points seems ridiculously low.

I just don't think people have a handle on how the travel will affect Washington.  They made the trip to Maryland and only won by 4.  They made the trip to Michigan and lost by 17.  So their showings when having to play in the eastern half of the country have not been great so far.

There is also the potential for snow in Madison starting at around 4.  But the forecasts have it as being snow showers, probably nothing that would have any real type of impact on the game.

[JosephC]

Now people know why I use the term Chryst derangement syndrome.  People literally making up excuses for Fickell's pathetic performance based on what the old coach did or didn't do four years ago.  Never mind Fickell went 7-6 in his first year at Wisconsin, with all the crappy players the old coaches left him with that didn't fit his system.  He's had two years with high school recruiting and the transfer portal to get better and that has resulted in 7-6 to 5-7 to 2-10 (maybe 3-9 if they get lucky somewhere).

PS - There is a reason why Chryst got fired.  I think the reason is now pretty obvious.  The athletic director is a moron.

[homer]

First off, I think you guys are really making Chryst's recruiting classes worse than they were. Yeah not great classes for sure but not bottom of the Big Ten. Secondly, Fickell's classes haven't been amazing. I think the bulk of the problem with Fickell is a horrendous hire at OC. I can't say I hated it when he hired Longo, but it turned out to be horrible. I don't know how they'd be if they'd have hired some ground and pound OC right out of the gate but I bet they'd be tracking for more than 2 wins this year. Now you're in a hole that is going to be really difficult to climb out of. It's almost like starting over. So do we give him three or four more years recruiting to the new offense? I will say the defense is at least putting in an effort the last few weeks. The offense is just putrid. 

 

[JosephC]

8 minutes ago, homer said:

First off, I think you guys are really making Chryst's recruiting classes worse than they were. Yeah not great classes for sure but not bottom of the Big Ten. Secondly, Fickell's classes haven't been amazing. I think the bulk of the problem with Fickell is a horrendous hire at OC. I can't say I hated it when he hired Longo, but it turned out to be horrible. I don't know how they'd be if they'd have hired some ground and pound OC right out of the gate but I bet they'd be tracking for more than 2 wins this year. Now you're in a hole that is going to be really difficult to climb out of. It's almost like starting over. So do we give him three or four more years recruiting to the new offense? I will say the defense is at least putting in an effort the last few weeks. The offense is just putrid. 

 

Speculation on my part, but I think the biggest reason Chryst was fired is that McIntosh saw Wisconsin's style of football as being outdated, and he was the AD who wanted to be known for bringing Wisconsin football into the 21st century and make them a legitimate national championship contender every year.  So I don't think there was any chance of bringing in an offensive coordinator who was going to implement any sort of power run game offense.  In fact, I would again speculate that if McIntosh saw Phil Longo as exactly the type of offensive coordinator this program needed.

And I'm off the Longo bashing bandwagon.  It's clear now that he wasn't the problem.  They scapegoated him, and now can only score 5 points per game against Big 10 competition.  This offense is historically bad.  Wisconsin's offense has scored 27 points in 5 Big 10 games.  The team that is sitting 17th in the Big 10 in total points scored is Purdue, and they've scored 104 points (played one extra game).  Wisconsin = 5.4 points per game.  Purdue = 17.3 points per game.  Again, this offense is historically bad.  The second to worst team in the league is literally scoring more than three times the points that Wisconsin is scoring. 

[yourout]

I'm really impressed with how good Indiana is and how quickly they turned it around. 

Amazing what a good coach can do.... And a health dose of NIL cash.

 

[yourout]

Looks like the weather is going to be relatively crappy at game time which should help keep the score down. Probably the only way that Bucky stays within three scores.

[homer]

53 minutes ago, JosephC said:

Speculation on my part, but I think the biggest reason Chryst was fired is that McIntosh saw Wisconsin's style of football as being outdated, and he was the AD who wanted to be known for bringing Wisconsin football into the 21st century and make them a legitimate national championship contender every year.  So I don't think there was any chance of bringing in an offensive coordinator who was going to implement any sort of power run game offense.  In fact, I would again speculate that if McIntosh saw Phil Longo as exactly the type of offensive coordinator this program needed.

And I'm off the Longo bashing bandwagon.  It's clear now that he wasn't the problem.  They scapegoated him, and now can only score 5 points per game against Big 10 competition.  This offense is historically bad.  Wisconsin's offense has scored 27 points in 5 Big 10 games.  The team that is sitting 17th in the Big 10 in total points scored is Purdue, and they've scored 104 points (played one extra game).  Wisconsin = 5.4 points per game.  Purdue = 17.3 points per game.  Again, this offense is historically bad.  The second to worst team in the league is literally scoring more than three times the points that Wisconsin is scoring. 

Yeah but when you recruit to the spread offense and then pivot back to a traditional offense you're going to be hosed personnel wise.

[nate82]

1 hour ago, homer said:

First off, I think you guys are really making Chryst's recruiting classes worse than they were. Yeah not great classes for sure but not bottom of the Big Ten.

They were bad.  Name a QB after Mertz that PC recruited.  Then look at who was going to be the QB in 2023.

Not only the QB but the OL was absolutely putrid.  PC turned that from one of the best to one of the worst.  The OL play started to die under PC there is no denying this and it is not PC derangement.  Look at the 2021-2022 offensive lines for proof.  I will exclude 2020 during the COVID years but that was another bad OL.  Bostad couldn’t even fix those OL’s.  

[homer]

23 minutes ago, nate82 said:

They were bad.  Name a QB after Mertz that PC recruited.  Then look at who was going to be the QB in 2023.

Not only the QB but the OL was absolutely putrid.  PC turned that from one of the best to one of the worst.  The OL play started to die under PC there is no denying this and it is not PC derangement.  Look at the 2021-2022 offensive lines for proof.  I will exclude 2020 during the COVID years but that was another bad OL.  Bostad couldn’t even fix those OL’s.  

I honestly don't remember anyone saying anything about Chryst's recruiting until that Jesse Temple article came out after he was fired. Recruiting and development are two different things. If you want to say that Chryst didn't develop that's fine but that isn't necesarily bad recruiting. 

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, JosephC said:

Speculation on my part, but I think the biggest reason Chryst was fired is that McIntosh saw Wisconsin's style of football as being outdated, and he was the AD who wanted to be known for bringing Wisconsin football into the 21st century and make them a legitimate national championship contender every year.

False.  He was fired because he either half-assed or flat out refused to do essential parts of his job that Mac repeatedly told him to do.  Mac put him on performance improvement plan and implored him to do those things and he still refused to do parts of his job.

Chryst took MONTHS to replace his recruiting director when he left.  He had a 4-star LB visit and NOBODY talked to him.  He refused to do or canceled meet & greets with the big donors.  He wasn't doing his job.  Nobody at UW gets fired because they are doing OK.  

And as for your "Chryst derangement syndrome", what we are saying by bringing up his last three recruiting classes is that if Chryst was still the HC they would be doing just as bad.  That's not the same as "blaming Chryst" for Fickell's record.

[LouisEly]

Fickell not wearing the T.E.A.M. vest - I'm feeling good about this!

[yourout]

Zero reason to try that FG

[wildcat83]

13 minutes ago, yourout said:

Zero reason to try that FG

College kickers should be able to kick a 48 yard FG.

 

What is this, QB 4 or 5?

[yourout]

Bad spot

[RedStickBrew]

Just now, yourout said:

Bad spot

Looked like Smith could have bounced that outside for more yardage

[wildcat83]

This freshman QB doesn’t look like he’s much of a threat to throw the football down the field.  He plays with some emotion and fire though, a little shot in the arm to the energy level.

[RedStickBrew]

2 minutes ago, wildcat83 said:

This freshman QB doesn’t look like he’s much of a threat to throw the football down the field.  He plays with some emotion and fire though, a little shot in the arm to the energy level.

I had the same thought. He was supposed to be a good baseball player in high school but doesn’t throw it like Russell Wilson

[yourout]

Welp... So much for that.

[wildcat83]

4:00 left in 2nd quarter and Washington has now completed more passes to Badgers players than Badgers QB’s have…

[yourout]

Poorly coached...

[wildcat83]

1 minute ago, yourout said:

Poorly coached...

Yep, completely unorganized.  Can’t even communicate to spike the ball.  If running a play there was intentional then it’s just a horrible decision.  You’re on your 4th QB, just spike it and let him call a play in the huddle.

[yourout]

2 minutes ago, wildcat83 said:

Yep, completely unorganized.  Can’t even communicate to spike the ball.  If running a play there was intentional then it’s just a horrible decision.  You’re on your 4th QB, just spike it and let him call a play in the huddle.

Exactly ...

[yourout]

Are we running the veer again?

[yourout]

Smith is not even close to ready.

[yourout]

I can't fault the effort on defense... They are playing their ass off.