Wisconsin football 2026

[nate82]

Hopkins got lucky on a few of his throws.  There was one that should have been a pick and possibly a pick six.  The fumble was bad.  He is also a true freshman it is extremely rare for a true freshman to start on day one or even in their freshman year.  Arch Manning who was a higher rated prospect didn’t start his freshman year.

Hopkins is good but questioning why he wasn’t starting earlier is just dumb.  

2 hours ago, JosephC said:

I have a feeling Eichorst will be telling Fickell that he can stay, but will also give him the order to fire pretty much the entire offensive staff.

Why would he do that?  It doesn’t make any logical sense to do that.  

[Yaz]

Btw, the Badgers are bowl eligible for first time in several years.

[Samurai Bucky]

You can see so much more at the game than you can on TV.  There was one play where Rutgers was playing zone and Hopkins threw to the window on the right sideline to where the receiver came open.  He hit him in stride.

There was a 5-10 yard out on the left where he threw on the cut.  It was obvious that the defender would not get there.  Those are things that I had not seen for a while by a Badgers QB.

Of course there was the, "What in the hell are you doing?" when he threw the pick.  When the roughing the passer penalty was called, I commented, "I didn't thing Vegas calls ever went the Badgers' way."

I am tempering my enthusiasm.  One more game to attend against the Goofers.

[nate82]

With Hopkins the real test will be against a team that can bring a consistent pass rush.  If he can handle the odd blitz packages and pick them up during the presnap I will be more comfortable.  This is a lot to ask for a true freshman.  

He did show some awareness in the presnap by changing the plays at the line of scrimmage which normally isn’t allowed at the college level.  I think we need to see more from Hopkins before getting overly excited.  Mertz started out great also.  Like I said a real test will come with  a team that will put some exotic blitz packages.  Plus with more tape out on him let’s see how he responds to teams who game plan on stopping him or putting in a wrinkle to trick him.  

I thought Hopkins still had redshirt status but he has already bypassed the four game maximum so he can’t be redshirted.