Wisconsin Football 2025

[adambr2]

Simmons, wow. You can’t throw that ball.

[Jimbo]

44 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

And I was wrong. He was in. Wow.

People are seeing something I didn't see.  I thought his toe was in the line, then stepped back in, making him ineligible.

 

[nate82]

Baffling how Simmons can make that TD throw and then throws that interception.  It wasn’t even close to the receiver.  

[adambr2]

No one:

 

 

Luke Fickell: “Let’s hand the ball off from the opponents’ 34 on 3rd and 9 down by 10 and then punt.”

[homer]

10 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Baffling how Simmons can make that TD throw and then throws that interception.  It wasn’t even close to the receiver.  

Carter threw that...and hasn't been in since I don't think.

[homer]

2 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

No one:

 

 

Luke Fickell: “Let’s hand the ball off from the opponents’ 34 on 3rd and 9 down by 10 and then punt.”

I don't mind handing off if you think you're going on 4th down. But if you think that then run a different running play.

[adambr2]

Yeah, 17 points is going to be plenty.

[yourout]

0 for last 6 in trophy games.

[adambr2]

I don’t have a problem with the intentional grounding flag.

I have a problem that the only reason they threw it is because Fleck threw a hissy fit.

[homer]

so we are just letting dudes tackle the QB 15 seconds after a whistle?

[homer]

that's targeting

[homer]

Just now, homer said:

that's targeting

what? that's is lame

[nate82]

How was that not targeting a defenseless receiver?

[homer]

Glad we are taking our timeouts back to Madison with us. 

[adambr2]

Not even going to review it? Sheesh.

[adambr2]

2 minutes ago, homer said:

Glad we are taking our timeouts back to Madison with us. 

I mean, they could restart the clock from 15:00 in the 1st and we still wouldn’t break 17 by the end of the game, so it’s whatever I guess.

[homer]

11 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I mean, they could restart the clock from 15:00 in the 1st and we still wouldn’t break 17 by the end of the game, so it’s whatever I guess.

Sure we can say that but if Fickell is saying that then he needs to go

[JosephC]

How did Illinois allow 27 points when playing the Badgers?  And people want to know why I just wanted to rip on Illinois and not give Bucky any credit last weekend.

Badger point totals against Big 10 competition-

Maryland = 10

Michigan = 10

Iowa = 0

Ohio State = 0

Oregon = 7

Washington = 13

Indiana = 7

Illinois = 27

Minnesota = 7

They averaged 9 points per game against Big 10 competition this year.

In Alvarez's first season, they scored 3. 10. 34 (Northwestern), 3, 3, 7, 10, 9 = 79 points / 8 games = 9.875 points per game.

I was flipping through pages pretty fast, so there is a good chance I missed a bad season somewhere.  But from what I saw, it looks like the last time Wisconsin scored less than 9 points per game in Big 10 play was 1968.

Historically bad offensive team.  Historically bad.

[Jim French Stepstool]

I don't know if the numbers bear it out or not but from '88 to '90 IMO one or two of those teams were worse offensively than this one, especially if you want to factor in this group being down to their 4th QB.

 From what I saw today (mostly just the 1st half), seems to me their punter having a great half while Sean West had a poor one might've been the single biggest factor on a day where field position meant almost everything.

[yourout]

2 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I don't know if the numbers bear it out or not but from '88 to '90 IMO one or two of those teams were worse offensively than this one, especially if you want to factor in this group being down to their 4th QB.

 From what I saw today (mostly just the 1st half), seems to me their punter having a great half while Sean West had a poor one might've been the single biggest factor on a day where field position meant almost everything.

Certainly part of the story but the QB play is still the biggest factor.

[Jim French Stepstool]

19 minutes ago, yourout said:

Certainly part of the story but the QB play is still the biggest factor.

Their QB play was certainly better than ours from what I saw, and I assume was as good or better in the 2nd half as well. Where I'm coming from, I see UW going into the locker room up at least 7-3 if not for the poor 1st half from West, augmented by their guy putting two punts inside the ten IIRC.

But from what I'm reading on this thread neither guy (did Simmons play in the 2nd half?) made plays. Given the conditions you definitely needed to run the ball something closer to what they turned in vs ILL.  I'm sure that didn't get any better as the game wore on.

[yfinn6]

I thought Minnesota did a good job of making a lot of quick, short passes to make some ground and then broke a few big plays. Basically all they had to do. 

Carter Smith has potential. He missed a lot of wide open guys today. Sure would be nice for him to get more practice time and another exhibition game. 

I basically have zero faith for 2026 but maybe I'll be surprised. 

[LouisEly]

They might have seen their own receivers open if they hadn't chosen to wear all white unis on a day when it was snowing.

Wouldn't red pants have been a better option in the snow?

[nate82]

46 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

But from what I'm reading on this thread neither guy (did Simmons play in the 2nd half?) made plays. Given the conditions you definitely needed to run the ball something closer to what they turned in vs ILL.  I'm sure that didn't get any better as the game wore on.

Simmons played the entire 2nd half.  He was absolute garbage.  There were two back to back series where the offense was moving or starting to move and then he throws a horrible pass.  Both were intercepted and that was the end.  I think Smith was taken out in the 2nd half to keep his redshirt status along with him not being able to make plays to guys who were wide open or coming open.  He is a freshman so that is understandable and he was the 4th string emergency QB coming into the season.  

I am not sure how much you can expect from a freshman QB.  Nearly all freshman QB's sit their first year and only play a handful of games or only come in during blowouts.  Smith showed all the reasons why he is a freshman but hopefully the experience he has picked up this year will help him develop next year a bit faster.  Usually QB's take about 1-2 years to develop after high school.  There are very few QB's who succeed as freshman and the ones that do are usually the running QB's and the team has that offense in place along with a good RB or two in the mix.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 minutes ago, nate82 said:

  I think Smith was taken out in the 2nd half to keep his redshirt status along with him not being able to make plays to guys who were wide open or coming open. 

The former makes a lot of sense.