JosephC

I was checking out some contract information on Overthecap, went over to the draft section and saw that they are now projecting the Packers to get a 7th round compensatory pick in next year's draft. Every little bit helps.

You do realize that Bielema was the Badgers head coach from 2006-2012, and Chryst was the offensive coordinator and playcaller from 2006-2011? So when you say you want to go back to the Bielema days, you are saying you want to go back to the Paul Chryst offense. By the way, 2009-2011, the Bielema/Chryst team put up a 32-8 record and the average points per game over those three years was 39.3. In 2012, after Chryst left, that team went 8-6 (8-5 for Bielema, Alvarez coached the team in a bowl game loss) and the average points per game dropped all the way to 29.6.

Iowa putting an absolute beatdown on Minnesota. Almost giving me hope that the Badgers might actually have a chance against the Goofers.

Purdue leading Rutgers by 17-7 about 5 minutes into the third quarter. As a Badger fan, might as well just pay attention to the race to the bottom. Either Purdue or Rutgers will eliminate themselves as a winless Big 10 team today.

This isn't directed at the NBA...it could apply to the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL....I cannot wait until a powerful owner gets busted for gambling on game(s) within his own league and then seeing what the rest of the owners do about it. I cannot wait for that day to happen.

Hard to believe that McIntosh thinks that the donors are going to give a lot more money if Fickell is still the head coach.

I see Valentine only played 2 snaps on defense in the Cardinals game. Did he get hurt, or has he fallen that much out of favor? And how did Brinson look? I see he got about 2.5 times the amount of snaps that Stackhouse did, which was no surprise after the terrible reviews that Stackhouse has been getting.

I'm just loving Chris McIntosh's letter to the fans. Especially the "As a department, we must provide our coaches the tools necessary to succeed. That means more Athletics-funded investments into infrastructure, staffing and, most importantly, student-athlete recruiting and retention. In this new era of collegiate athletics, the clear reality is that high expectations must be matched with an equal level of support. The results of this elevated support may not be immediate..." Spoken like a typical, worthless government bureaucrat. It can't be my fault or my way of thinking, it can't be my hand-picked employee's fault or his way of thinking....the solution to solve the problem is to just throw more money at the problem. A complete buffoon with an ego bigger than the entire state of Wisconsin.

Oregon is a 34 point favorite.

You must have missed the news. McIntosh had a meeting with the players only late last week and told them that he has no plans to fire Fickell during the season or after the season. You can bet just about anything that Fickell will coach every game, although now I do think he will get fired following the last game if they finish 2-10.

As much as Mnookin would just like to ignore the athletic department and let it run itself, there is no way she will be able to ignore a 2-10 football season. I'm all for McIntosh being thrown out on his rear, IMO I'd rather see him out the door even before Fickell.

Also forgot to mention how Nebraska went into Minnesota last night and got dominated. Goofers now up to 5-2 and 3-1 in the Big 10. BADgers are likely looking at being at least 7 point underdogs in all their remaining games.

And I almost forget, when McIntosh does hire the next coach, Mnookin should hire Alvarez as a consultant and have him completely immersed in the hiring process, start to finish. I damn well would not trust McIntosh to do it on his own and not complete screw it up again.

As I type this, Wisconsin is a 25 point home dog and the o/u is 41 1/2, I'm pretty sure a couple days ago, Ohio State was a 26 point favorite. A Buckeye must have broken his leg or something, otherwise I'm not sure why anyone would put money on Wisconsin. I don't think there are any operating dog tracks in the Madison area anymore. If there was, the defensive coordinator could have just taken the defense to the track, let the mechanical rabbit go, and then tell the players to go chase that rabbit over and over and over again. That's kind of the way I see this game going. Ohio State players just running everywhere with the ball, and Badgers just trying to chase them down and not having much success doing so.

What good does it do to fire Fickell before the end of the year? They would likely promote Matt Mitchell to head coach, but there is no way he'd retain that job for 2026. The 2026 recruiting class will be sunk if they fired Fickell yesterday, tomorrow or the end of November. A bunch of guys will drop when Fickell is fired, and who is going to commit when Mitchell is a lame-duck head coach? Once you get into December, they would just be fighting for recruiting scraps. I just took at look at Rivals top 250, and 245 of those players have already committed. It's probably a safe bet that if one expanded that list to 500, that 90+% of those players are already committed. The only high school recruits from the 2023 class that are on the current two-deep (+ injured) are- WR - Trech Kekahuna (injured - normal starting SLOT) TE - Tucker Ashcraft (second team) ILB - Christian Alliegro (first team) And I believe that is it. A bunch of useful transfers came in like Fourqueen and Mordecai, but a good bunch of them came with Fickell from Cincinnati like Huber and Pauling. But obviously those guys have limited eligibility at that point and were just bandages. I think the only player from the transfers that is still here in 2025- C -Jake Renfro (first team) I would already consider the 2026 recruiting class to be lost. Sure, they will likely score a good player or two, but to end up with something like a class that will have 8 future starters for a good team (not a 2-10 team) looks like a near impossibility. Best chance would be to luck out big-time and grab a coordinator from a big program would might have 5 recruits follow him and 5 transfers follow him and that might make up 1/2 of a good class right there. But I wouldn't count on that, and I hope McIntosh isn't dumb enough to make a short-sighted decision like that. He needs to cast a big, wide net and hire the guy who will be best for the program long-term.

Cignetti just got bumped to 11.5 million a year. There will be more coaches that get raises before next season, but this puts Cignetti FOURTH on the list behind Kirby Smart, Ryan Day and Lincoln Riley. Never thought I'd see an Indiana football coach as the fourth highest paid.

RB-Amari Latimer, the second ranked recruit per Rivals of the Badgers 2026 class, had an Ohio State visit and now one of the recruiting experts at On3 is putting it as a 60% chance that he goes to Ohio State.

I won't deny that Cignetti is likely a superior coach, but to turn it around as fast as he did also required a little luck. Generally the way this works is that a new coach comes in, and year one is lost because you have new systems with players who don't necessarily fit that new system. The recruiting class almost always turns into a mess because you get a whole bunch of decommits and are left picking through the leftovers and the vast majority of the good/ideal recruits have committed elsewhere. But year #2 is normally a great recruiting year, because generally the team isn't great and the coach can sell playing time because he's now recruiting guys to fill spots on a bad/mediocre team, and recruiting guys that will specifically fit the schemes. On-the-field results are generally much the same. Year #3 is where one would expect to see an rise in the performance level. And if not, those true freshmen and redshirt freshman that have flashed start getting significant playing time, and at least give the fans hope for the following year. Year #4 isn't where you necessarily expect to hit the front of that plateau, but the on-field results definitely need to be better. 6-7 is no longer good enough. Fickell was 7-6 in his first season at Wisconsin. Fickell was 5-7 in his second season at Wisconsin. Fickell is 2-4 currently and likely projects to either 2 or 3 wins for the season. This year, even if you are not good, there should be some of Fickell's recruits and/or transfers that give one hope for the future. But frankly, based on everything I've read, there just isn't those guys on this team. If Mason Reiger and Dilin Jones are the future studs on the program, then Wisconsin is in big trouble. And that's not a knock on those guys. Solid players have real value, but you would hope to have a couple of guys who look like difference-maker/splash type players, and I'm not seeing any of those. Not to mention that from year 1 to year 3 there should be some improvement. It's a real possibility they could back up from a 7 win team to a 2 win team from years 1 to 3. I'm not seeing anything that should/would/could save Fickell outside of buyout money and McIntosh's ego. The performance by him and the rest of the coaching staff has been terrible.

I couldn't have explained 2-4 (on the way to 3-9 or 2-10) any better than what you just did...unless someone wants to make the argument that a healthy Kevin Heywood and Tucker Ashcraft would turn this into a 6-7 team.

When you are looking at 2-10 as a real possibility, then almost everything is a failure. Go to the 10 minute mark. If what is said is true, the culture of the program is pretty much ruined. This "corporate" approach may work in a football factory like Georgia or Alabama, but it will never work at schools like Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois or Minnesota. It's also time for Wisconsin fans and the podcasters to stop crying about NIL money. https://247sports.com/longformarticle/college-footballs-top-50-programs-ranked-by-nil-efforts-235181311/#2472519 If that is anywhere near accurate, it shouldn't be a problem. Occasionally Wisconsin would pull in a top 20 recruiting class, but more often than not, they would sit in the 26-35 range and were still very successful with those types of classes. If they are top 30 in NIL resources, there is no way they should get completely bullied off the field by Iowa. So I had looked at all the incoming transfers from this last off-season. To me the results seem pretty lacking. I'd argue that the only "difference-maker" in the group is Mason Reiger, and it's not like he's pushing for first or second team all-Big 10 honors. They picked up many DLmen, a starting CB, David Heinzen who crapped out at LT and is now in the interior. Billy Edwards has a very small sample size so far, but when he's been on the field he hasn't even been able to complete 50% of his passes (not to mention, his transfer has many people in Madison running to grab the nearest barf bag). So generally the first season of high school recruiting is lost, considering that, Fickell has had two recruiting classes so far. With as terrible as this team is, one would figure that a bunch of those redshirt freshmen and true freshmen would be pushing for playing time. And who has been the best player out of those two classes so far, Dilin Jones? Jones hasn't looked like anything really special. As far as the coaching staff, Tressel's 2-4-5/3-3-5/4-2-5 seems like it was built for Conference USA/MAC football. It sure didn't seem to work when they got to play big-boy Iowa. I know I'll get ripped for saying this, but I've heard enough criticism about Grimes gimmicky play-calling to think that he is a downgrade from Longo. I was super high on Blazek, but the results there have been terrible. You go through the list of position coaches, and most of them seem pretty young and inexperienced, and the guys who have been around for a long time have most of their experience coaching at Grand Valley State. Paul Haynes is one of the few guys that has a real solid resume coaching at the higher levels. I'm not saying you need a staff filled with old guys, but Wisconsin definitely seems to have a lack of higher-level coaching experience on their staff. So pick one main reason? Fickell has turned this program into a complete mess. If what Collin Wilder said in the above video is true, they have definite culture issues. Add in the fact that the coaching staff doesn't seem to be all that great and they clearly are not getting in good enough players, it's no surprise that 2-10 is a real possibility.

I don't have an opinion on Kotelnicki one way or the other. I hope that Franklin's firing does not significantly diminish Kotelnicki's stock as a head coaching candidate. I remember a good bit of outrage when Ted Thompson hired Mike McCarthy, because the previous year McCarthy was San Francisco's offensive coordinator and that offense stunk (stunk as in 30th in points, 32nd in yardage). Then to top it off, there was the idea that the 49ers drafted Alex Smith and McCarthy would be stuck with Aaron Rodgers who wasn't the guy he wanted. When all was said and done, McCarthy wins a Super Bowl in Green Bay. And looking at the all time regular season games above .500 list, McCarthy sits tied for 15th at +62. He is tied with Vince Lombardi and Bud Grant. That's not too shabby. Good hire by Ted Thompson. As I had posted a couple pages back, among the grads/donors I talk to, Kotelnicki and Leipold seemed to by far the two favorites. So it will be interesting to see if Kotelnicki will have lost some of his luster now that his boss got shown the door.

Very unlikely, unless he gets fired by Baylor and is looking for work. The rumor-mill (take it for what it is worth) was that he told McIntosh that he was unlikely to leave Baylor but was willing to listen because he did want to see the what would be offered (pay, improvements to facilities/Camp Randall, structure of the athletic department, etc), and at the end of the process he wasn't all that interested in the Wisconsin job. Things change, if Fickell gets fired and Aranda applies again, then he should get full consideration. I just get the impression that he has been real comfortable at Baylor and they are sitting there with a 4-2 record so far this year. I just don't think the odds of him coming back to Madison are very good.

It was a fun day at work today. I work with several season ticket holders who were fully expecting that, when they got up on Sunday, the word would have already leaked out that Fickell was fired. When that didn't happen, they thought for sure an official announcement would have been made this morning. People just don't understand politics and the way the world works. McIntosh thinks firing Fickell makes McIntosh look bad, because that makes him the dope that hired a complete flop. So he will do everything to avoid that and only pull the trigger when he feels he absolutely has to (in other words, when it gets so bad that it's his AD job on the line). Just three weeks ago I would have still put the odds at 90+% that Fickell would be back in 2026. But that Iowa loss now has me thinking 2-10, and under those circumstances I just don't think McIntosh can keep him. 2024 = Purdue = 1-11 (Ryan Walters fired at end of season) 2022 = Northwestern = 1-11 (Pat Fitzgerald fired at end of season) 2021 = Indiana = 2-10 (Tom Allen survived, fired after the 2023 season) 2019 = Rutgers = 2-10 (Chris Ash fired 4 games into season) 2018 = Rutgers = 1-11 (Chris Ash survived) 2017 = Illinois = 2-10 (Lovie Smith survived, fired during 2020 season) 2016 = Rutgers = 2-10 (Chris Ash survived) 2015 = Purdue = 2-10 (Darrell Hazell survived, fired 6 games into the 2016 season) This year isn't completed yet, and then throw out the COVID year when full schedules weren't played, and the last 10 full seasons take us back to 2014. 2014 and 2023 aren't listed because all Big 10 teams won at least 3 games in those seasons. But in the last 10 full seasons, only 8 teams couldn't win at least 3 games. I was going to stop the research there, but wondered how many of those coaches survived. I was pretty surprised to see that 5 out of the 8 actually made it to the next season. Not good news for those who are desperate to get Fickell out of Madison.

Two NFL starters on that line in Joe Tippmann and Tanor Bortolini. Jack Nelson is a backup on a NFL 53 man roster. Other guys in that group included Riley Mahlman and Joe Brunner was coming in as a recruit. Tyler Beach was a pretty decent player when healthy, but unfortunately he seemed to be hobbled a lot. Trey Widig and Dylan Barrett went on to start at other then-Power Five programs (Indiana and Iowa State). That's not even mentioning Nolan Rucci, who turned out to be a bust. There was still plenty in the cupboard.

Chryst derangement syndrome is back. Bostad was the inside linebacker coach for 5 years, 2017-2021. In those 5 years, the Badgers were 44-17 (.721), 30-12 in the Big 10 (.714) and 4-1 in bowl games (.800). Hope you enjoy this 2-10 season.