JosephC

As I type this, Iowa is a 3 1/2 point favorite and the over/under is 37. Iowa's defensive front four appears to be their strength. That group is considered to be much better than the average Iowa front four, and Iowa has a pretty good history of having quality defensive linemen. The offensive line returns three starters, the first-time starters playing LT and RG. The new RG, Kade Pieper, has reportedly been playing very well. This looks like a game where Wisconsin could be dominated in the trenches. Iowa's offensive skill positions are generally a weak point, and this year is no different. Starting QB Mark Gronowski is battling injury, and will be a game-time decision. They've had injuries at the running back position, causing them to start 4 different running backs in their 5 games. The top receiver in terms of yards has totaled 10 catches and 179 yards in 5 games. Tight end is historically a very strong position for Iowa. Through 5 games, the top two tight ends on the roster have combined for 8 catches and 67 yards. If Iowa had any offensive firepower at all, they would be an easy pick to win the game. Wisconsin is at home, and just maybe can eek out a very low scoring game. Still have to think Iowa will win though, with what appears to be a significant advantage in the trenches.

Deion Sanders is maybe the best teacher in the history of football. He taught an entire generation, and perhaps every future generation, that tackling for cornerbacks is a completely optional activity.

Sounds like Shemar Stewart is going to play. He's missed the last few games with an ankle injury. Their second round pick, LB-Demetrius Knight, has gotten some pretty good reviews.

In 2023, Browning started 7 games and ended up with a better QB rating than Burrow (98.4 versus 91.0). The Bengals were 4-3 in games that Browning started, and 5-5 in games that Burrow started. It's surprising that Browning has been so bad. He's just a turnover machine now. But if I were a Bengals fan, I would still rather see him play than Flacco. At least Browning would have a chance to turn it around and be pretty competent.

Off the Deion Sanders bandwagon so soon?

Emeka Egbuka with a 7 catch, 163 yard, 1 TD day for the Buccaneers today. I can't help but wonder if the Packers would have picked him instead of Golden if he would have made it to their pick. Through the first 5 games, Egbuka is averaging 89 yards and 1 touchdown. Another "hit" Ohio State wide receiver. Broncos 0-2 on the road heading into today, and then walk into Philadelphia and win. That choke job by Arizona leaves the New York Jets as the only winless team in the NFL.

Make me feel a little better to see Wisconsin has the same record in the Big 10 as Penn State, both 0-2. Can't say I'm a big fan of James Franklin.

I watched the first half and that is enough for me. Just a good reminder on why I don't watch games anymore. Not much going on, it felt like I watched a bunch of commercials with a couple football plays mixed in. Completely boring experience. Each team gets any early score, then both defenses just load up the box and despite the spread offenses, no offense after that. Michigan hits one 32 yard pass down the sidelines and that's pretty much all the offense after the first drive for each team. Maybe Underwood will be something a in a couple years, but he doesn't deserve any hype based on what he did in the first half of this game. Good performance by the Badgers. They may be behind by three but Michigan is a top 20 team and didn't look any better than Wisconsin.

Michigan is a 17.5 point favorite this morning. Have to think with the beatdown that this team has received from the fans and media these last two weeks, that if they have any pride and guts at all, that we are going to see the best they have. I'll predict the Badgers lose, but it will be a closer game (and in general, pretty ugly). Maybe something like Michigan 22, Wisconsin 17.

The thought was the Packers had a big problem with nose tackle depth. It looks more like they have a major problem with interior defensive line depth. Stackhouse got terrible reviews for his pre-season play, and by all accounts was well beyond awful in the Cowboys game. And I appreciate that Stackhouse is a nose tackle and Brinson is not a nose tackle, but being a BAD nose tackle shouldn't make one active ahead of a player that might be able to at least hold their own. If Stackhouse is so bad, but is still active and Brinson is not, that just tells us where Brinson is now (also terrible). If those two are as bad as they appear to be, that leaves the Packers with only Wyatt, Wooden and Brooks as interior defensive linemen, and there really isn't a nose tackle in the group. Maybe including Kenny Clark in that Parsons trade was not such a no-brainer move after all.

Anybody buying the latest media hype that Romeo Doubs is next in line for an extension. I am pretty skeptical of these reports. There is the behavioral issues, along with the concussion issues. And after Doubs big 3 touchdown game, he still has a grand total of 179 receiving yards over 4 games which pro-rates to 760 yards over a 17 game season. That would be his best seasonal output by a notable margin, and would put his 2023-2025 average at 678 yards. Add in the fact that the Packers have Reed, Watson, Golden, Williams, Wicks all under contract for 2026, a lack of draft picks and cap space is starting to become limited. Seems to me like Doubs would be bottom of the list.

I'm not hearing Leonhard's name at all. Not a peep. There appears to be two favorites among the boosters/donors/grads, and by a pretty wide margin. Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Went to school at River Falls and then coached there for 6 years. Was hired by Leipold and coached under him at Whitewater, Buffalo and Kansas. This has been his second year at Penn State. Never has been a head coach, but has about 20 years of offensive coordinator experience and is only 45 years old. And the other is Lance Leipold. Kind of surprised his name is in the mix but apparently there were some "powerful" people that wanted him the last go-around and those people are still here. Doesn't seem like a favorite of McIntosh, as he was given an interview the last time but it was heavily rumored that it was a courtesy interview and he wasn't under serious consideration. Other names are Jason Eck (New Mexico) and Matt Campbell (Iowa State). Local media is talking about Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, but I haven't heard any talk from the donors/grads about him. Personally, I'd be surprised if Fickell is let go after this season. McIntosh won't want to do it, and the buyout is prohibitive. I just don't see Mnookin telling McIntosh, you must fire him AND we must pay him 25 million dollars. So IMO, this is all pretty good chatter, but it's likely all meaningless.

Already fired 3 assistants. Will be interesting to see who is hired. The new mistress must have a brother and a couple cousins that are looking for work.

They have the look of a team that is unbeatable at home but will struggle on the road. Those week 7 and week 8 games at Arizona and at Pittsburgh will go a long way in letting us know how good they are.

Kind of a followup to LouisEly's post... The negativity here in Madison is now at a ridiculous level. Ever since Alvarez got this program back to being good, this is still a program that occasionally, loses and looks really bad in a game that they had no business losing. Sure, that doesn't happen to Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia, but Wisconsin will never be one of those programs because the recruiting area just isn't as fertile. Outside of maybe 10 programs, it happens to everyone else. Even in an up year they were always likely to lose against Alabama at Alabama. Maybe the Badgers really are a 3 wins team, but just maybe they are a lot better and just dropped a hard turd against Maryland? Don't think Alvarez had these types of losses, go back and look at the history and you will find many of them. Yeah, I'm not backing off my previous statement that I would put their win cap at just four this year. But all this crap in Madison like Fickell must be fired now (firing him in September is going to accomplish exactly what?), the Badgers are by far the worst team in the Big 10, Michigan will win by at least four touchdowns...give it a rest.

There should be a fourth option. -MLB and FOX Sports don't want the Brewers anywhere near the World Series That would be, by far, my biggest concern.

Bielema went to Arkansas because they paid him 3.2 million a year and Wisconsin was paying him 2.5 million per year. Bielema may have used the assistant coach pay as an excuse, but his leaving was 100% the same reason why all those assistants left. Somebody else offered him more money and he took it.

Not sure if I would equate that Redskins team with this Browns team. The guy's own graphic says the Redskins were 3-2 after the game. That Redskin team did finish 6-10, but they were 5-5 after 10 games so they were solidly average before going into a tailspin. I'm not interested enough to explore reasons why that happened, maybe they had some injuries at the end of the year or they really over-performed in their first 10 games. But when a team is 5-5 after 10 games, I probably wouldn't characterize them as being bad in the fifth game. And the Browns, I expect them to be a 4 or 5 win team this year, but could they be better? Time will tell. But on paper, looking at the 2010 Redskins versus the 2025 Browns, I'd guess that the Redskins team was quite a bit better. Also worth noting that the Redskins QB coach that season was Matt LaFleur.

Chryst derangement syndrome on full display. Some people are obviously obsessed. Fickell's first full season at Wisconsin = 7-6 with a 5-4 Big 10 record. It's been downhill ever since. Keep complaining about Chyrst's horrible tenure at Wisconsin. Personally, I think the .713 winning percentage in the regular season, .705 against the Big 10 and .857 in bowl games is looking pretty good right now. But hey, keep tying the same thing over and over and over and over and eventually you may convince yourself that it is true.

NFL players get paid a lot of money, and when watching them play it's pretty clear that they play at the level they want to play at. I watched the first half, the most I've sat down and watched of the Packers in a couple years. Jordan Love isn't bad, but he's a very, very average NFL QB. He made himself a boatload of money in that playoff game against Dallas a couple years ago. He's not nearly that good. And no, looking at the play-by-play, I did not see the interception. Cornerbacks looked fine in the first half. I thought that would be the big weakness, but next to the defensive line, I didn't see any group out that that looked better than those guys.

Ignoring all the pre-season projections, and just looking at results so far, I think the only winnable games for Wisconsin would be the Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota games. Michigan is post-Harbaugh, and I'm projecting that program to dip a bit. But that will still be a road game for Wisconsin and Michigan did just go on the road and beat Nebraska. Would have to favor Michigan in that one, although I think it could be closer than one would suspect. Iowa went on the road this week and beat Rutgers. Rutgers is nothing special, but that program should get a bump with Schiano back coaching. It's still a Big 10 road win for Iowa. If Iowa can beat Rutgers on the road and Wisconsin gets beat by Maryland at home, one has to assume that Iowa is the better team. I'd still give Wisconsin a chance because Iowa is Iowa, there is always a chance the passing game implodes and just handicaps the offense to the point where they can't win. But this will be a home game for Wisconsin, is a rivalry game for Wisconsin, and I would expect to see Wisconsin's best effort put forth. I will be picking Iowa, but this is a game where I wouldn't be shocked if Wisconsin pulls off the upset. Ohio State/Oregon. Both automatic losses, and likely bad losses. Washington answered a lot of questions yesterday. Washington State's conference is such a mess that this was kind of their "Superbowl." It was a close game for 3 quarters and Washington put a 28-0 on them in the fourth to win what would appear to have been a totally lopsided game. This is a home game for Wisconsin and there is an outside chance that the travel hurts Washington. But based on what has happened so far, Washington seems like a pretty easy pick. Indiana answered all questions yesterday. Wisconsin will go in there and get beatdown just like Bert did yesterday. Could easily be as ugly as the Ohio State and Oregon games. Illinois got beat down in every aspect, Indiana put in backups early in the fourth and just ran all over Illinois' first stringers. Illinois has a win against Duke, but Duke lost a game against Tulane and looks like a bottom tier power four team. Since this game is at Wisconsin, I think it is a winnable game for the Badgers. Only meaningful game that Minnesota played this year was at California and that was a 27-14 loss. They are likely not very good. Too bad this game is at Minnesota. Still appears like it could be a winnable game for Wisconsin. So I think Iowa/Illinois/Minnesota are all winnable games, but Wisconsin are bad, so winning all three is not a real possibility IMO. I would put their win cap at 4.

Well, this off-season I was the first guy to point out Indiana's pitiful schedule in 2024 and question how good they really were. They have brought out the whoopin stick on ole Bert tonight. That beating the Wisconsin got this afternoon is nothing compared to the shellacking that Indiana is putting on Illinois. Granted, Indiana has the home field advantage. But 49-10(?), and still in quarter number three. So much for that top 10 ranking, LOL.

One thing that still bugs me about McIntosh and the Fickell hire, and this never seems to get brought up, is how small the number of candidates for the job was. it's been widely reported that McIntosh only considered 4 people for that job: Fickell, Aranda, Leonhard and Leipold. On top of that, it was also reported that Leipold was basically given a courtesy interview, and wasn't a serious candidate. Nobody ever seems to talk about how ridiculous it was to cast that small of a net for a school like Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a Big 10 school. This wasn't a bad team, they finished that "poor" season with a 7-6 record. It's not like the new coach would take over a Purdue team that had gone 13-25 over the last three years. The previous coach, the coach prior to that, the coach prior to that and the coach prior to that had all been successful. The number of alumni is huge and they were/are in the process of throwing significant money into facilities. USA Today's salary database has Fickell with the 18th best salary in football (for 2024), Wisconsin isn't a crap job. So McIntosh does not consider any coordinators from top programs. He only looks at one candidate from a non-power 5 (now 4) school. He doesn't consider anyone from the NFL. I would love to see the list of people who had submitted applications, and I have little doubt that there are some names there that the fanbase would love to see on the sidelines. And as for anybody who thinks it would be pointless since he only really wanted Fickell, I'll just point out the Rooney rule in the NFL. The Rooney rule was not implemented to force anybody to hire a minority. But it is there to force decision makers to at least give at least one minority a solid look because, upon solid examination, that decision maker may just decide a minority that he wouldn't have considered is actually the best person for the job. McIntosh may have had his favorite when entering the process, but once into the process he should have been looking at a minimum of 10-12 candidates with a completely open mind. The approach of Fickell, then Aranda and if neither I'll just settle for Leonard was complete amateur crap.

Listening to some radio, and it's just like listening to Chicago radio last Sunday night. Badger football has sunk to Bear level of bad.

Against ranked opponents- Alvarez (if I counted it all up correctly) = 26-38-1 = .408 Let's throw out the first 8 losses and a later bowl win and bowl loss as he was just a "fill-in" for a bowl game = 25-29-1 = winning percentage = .464 Bielema = 10-14 = winning percentage = .416 Anderson = 3-4 = winning percentage = .429 Chryst = 12-18 = winning percentage = .400 So Barry is a whole lot better if one is willing to throw out a whole bunch of data points. Otherwise, not much of a difference between the last four coaches. Maybe somebody gets all stupid and wants to argue that .429 (with only 7 data points) is way better than .400, but I fail to see all that much difference.