JosephC

The Badgers entire offense might have needed to play 25 Big 10 games to get to 6000 yards of total offense. Congratulations to River Falls, at least there is somewhere they still play college football.

Regarding Rodgers, I know that "back up" comment was a joke, but it is interesting to take a look at his 2025 stacked against the other quarterbacks. QB rating finish was 14th in the league. That was better than franchise QBs named Justin Herbert, C.J. Stroud, Baker Mayfield, Patrick Mahomes. And for the hype of some of the young (and not so young in Lawrence's case) QBs with impressive W/L records, Rodgers QB rating was better than Trevor Lawrence, Caleb Williams and Bo Nix. And in the case of Nix...a lot better, not even close better. I know QB rating is by no means a definitive stat measuring QB play, but I do think it is accurate enough to show that Rodgers is still a legitimate starting QB in this league, and many of these other guys may be good, but not good to the level that the media has hyped them up. Another 10 win season and another playoff trip for the old man.

Six weeks ago I would have laughed at the idea of Gutekunst and LeFleur getting fired. But if they lose the first playoff game, over the last four years the Packers have a regular season record of 37-30-1 and a 1-3 playoff record. IMO 37-30-1 definitely is not a "should be fired" record, but with more limited off-season resources coming up, it doesn't give one great hopes for optimism.

Another transfer reaches an agreement with Wisconsin- NR - TE - Ryan Schwendeman - Southern Illinois 247Sports put TE-Jacob Harris in the rankings. He is #248 overall, #17 tight end. S-Preston Zachman to Indiana QB-Billy Edwards to North Carolina

The guy who was the #1 QB on their list, Old Dominion's Colton Joseph, has an agreement with Wisconsin. According to 247Sports portal rankings, Joseph was 155 on the overall list, 19 on the quarterback ranking. Dual-threat player, from what I've been told is a better runner than passer, Simply saying that he is a more experienced version of Carter Smith might not be that big of a stretch. although I think Smith has more upside as a passer. In 2025, Joseph was 173/290 passing (57.9%) for 2624 yards and 21 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. He has 158 rushing attempts for 1007 yards (6.7 average) and 13 touchdowns. Interestingly enough, Old Dominion played Indiana this year. Passing, Joseph was 11/22 for 96 yards with 0 TD and 3 INT. He broke two huge runs in the game and has 179 rushing yards on 10 carries with 2 touchdowns. Joseph should be a good fit for what Grimes offense needs. We'll see if he can make the jump from the Sun Belt to the Big 10. Some guys do, some guys don't. Several Badger podcasters have been talking about this guy for weeks, so it was no secret the Badgers were really after him. One of the things I like is that I asked a football-crazy acquaintance about Joseph, a the first thing out of his mouth was, "he's a lot better than Edwards." So he has that going for him.

Three reported agreements with portal players. Again, first number is overall 247Sport ranking, number in () is the 247Sport ranking at that position. 111 (11) - RB - Abu Sama - Iowa State 852 (87) - S - Carson Van Dinter - Iowa State NR - TE - Jacob Harris - Bowling Green Kind of a surprise right off the bat with Samu. No doubt the Badgers needed offensive skill position players more than anything else, but I wasn't expecting a running back that highly graded. One would have to assume he must have had a pretty decent price-tag. I will say, just looking at some highlight vids, I does look like a solid upgrade from what the Badgers have returning. Harris gives them 7 tight ends, a good overall number. But with all the TE visits/rumors, it sure seems likely that they will add more and probably go a receiver or two short this next year considering the lack of numbers at that spot. Van Dinter is from Kaukauna, WI.

My two favorite QBs already off the board. No surprise that Rocco Becht followed Matt Campbell to Penn State. Josh Hoover has already reached and agreement with Indiana.

https://badgerofhonor.com/wisconsin-is-hosting-a-flood-of-transfer-portal-visitors-here-s-who-s-coming This has been the best list I've found so far with a summary of confirmed visits. At the end of this article are some more rumored players. I have done some internet searches on Chase Hendricks and Beau Johnson, and have not been able to find any reports linking them to Wisconsin. I've looked up all the players on 247Sports and have sorted them by overall rank. The overall rank will be the first number, and the position rank will be in (). NR means not rated, there are many players that 247 has just not gotten to yet, but there might be some that just don't get a grade. There are three lists below: Official Visits, Rumors, and More Rumors (for Hendricks and Johnson). As some may notice, ranking may be lower than previous rankings, and that is because more players will be added to the portal until the window closes. VISITS- 70 (10) - EDGE - Adam Trick - Miami, OH 73 (5) - TE - Dorian Thomas - New Mexico 130 (18) - QB - Colton Joseph - Old Dominion 181 (43) - WR - Iverson Hooks - Alabama-Birmingham 191 (14) - DL - Ethan Day - North Texas 219 (20) - RB - Bryan Jackson - USC 240 (24) - RB - Kam Davis - Florida State 296 (35) - EDGE - Lamont Lester - Monmouth 369 (29) - S - Anthony Hawkins -Villanova 650 (54) - DL -Joe Hjelle - Tulsa 820 (58) - OT- Lucas Simmons - Florida State 837 (87) - S - Carson Van Dinter - Iowa State 1193 (95) - DL - Will LeBlanc - Texas-Permian Basin NR - WR - Jaylon Domingeaux - Southeastern Louisiana NR - CB - Eric Fletcher - Oklahoma State NR - TE - Ryan Schwendeman - Southern Illinois NR - TE - Jacob Harris - Bowling Green NR - IOL - Tana Alo-Tupuola - Georgia Tech RUMORS- 107 (10) - RB - Abu Sama - Iowa State 121 (12) - TE - Luke Dehnicke - Minnesota-Duluth 146 (8) - IOL - Austin Kawecki - Oklahoma State NR - OL - Blake Cherry - Arkansas NR - OL - L.J. Prudhomme - Arkansas MORE RUMORS- 38 (9) - WR - Chase Hendricks - Ohio 199 (11) - OT - Beau Johnson - North Dakota State

More portal players reported to be visiting Wisconsin- Florida State RB-Kam Davis Villanova DB-Anthony Hawkins Tulsa DL-Joe Hjelle New Mexico TE-Dorian Thomas Iowa State S-Carson Van Dinter Read about them here- https://www.si.com/college/wisconsin/football/wisconsin-badgers-line-up-several-visits-with-important-transfer-portal-targets

So the first portal player the Badgers were reported (by a credible source) to be after was UAB WR-Iverson Hooks. 247Sports currently has Hooks as the #160 player and the #40 WR in the portal. Now we have another. Texas-Permian Basin DL-Will LeBlanc. 6-4, 300. 247Sports has LeBlanc as the #1153 player and #92 DL in the portal. https://utpbfalcons.com/sports/football/roster/will-leblanc/6399

Just an update on numbers by position. I do not know how many scholarship players they want to have by position. This is also blurred by the fact that the 85 scholarship limit is gone. Some might argue that, with the portal, teams will just look at bare minimums each year and not worry about having a "pipeline" within the program, but with most people I talk to, it seems that is not the case. Programs will still set minimums in an effort to help them avoid massive shortages at positions down the road. So, using the old 85 scholarship limit as a baseline, I'm going to take a guess at the number at each position the Badgers would be looking for. That number is in (), and the number of scholarship players they currently have will be after the =. QB (5) = 3 (this includes O'Neill) RB (7) = 3 WR (11) = 5 TE (7) = 6 OL (15) = 13 DL (8) = 6 OLB (8) = 7 ILB (8) = 7 CB (9) = 7 S (7) = 5 (Charlie Jarvis would bump the number to 6, I don't think he's on scholarship but I may be wrong about that) Total (85) = 62

Badgers new running back coach is Jayden Everett, who was the Gophers running back coach last year. If history is any indication, he will be here for one year and then will be gone. 2011-2012 - Hutchinson Community College - Running Backs/Recruiting Coordinator 2013-2016 - Indiana State - Running Backs 2017-2018 - Central Michigan - Running Backs/Recruiting Coordinator 2019-2020 - Akron - Running Backs 2021-2022 - Tulsa - Running Backs 2023 - Vanderbilt - Running Backs 2024 - Michigan - Running Back Assistant 2025 - South Alabama - Running Backs (having 2025 twice is not a typo, got hired by South Alabama and then left shortly after to go to Minnesota) 2025 - Minnesota - Running Backs

Today is the day where transfer agreements can become official (until someone gives a player a better offer). The portal closes two weeks from today. Two more Badgers leaving. DL-Jamal Howard Jr. At first I thought he was the last piece of the 2023 recruiting class left, which is the coaching change disaster class that was split between Chryst/Leohard/Fickell. But LB-Tyler Jansey is still here (for now). I think he's the last man standing. Howard got into 1 game last year. OLB-Ernest Willor Jr. According to 247Sports, Willor was the Badgers second highest rated high school recruit in the 2024 class. He didn't play at all last year. In fairness to Willor, I think he was recruited to play DL in Fickell's 3-3-5 defense, and when they figured out that defense was not going to work in the Big 10, it pushed Willor to OLB which may not be the best fit for him.

Badgers get a very late high school commit. WR-Kash Brock from Chandler, AZ. 6-2, 175. Originally committed to Colorado State, flipped to Iowa State, and the new Iowa State coaching staff released him from his national letter of intent. Rivals had him rated as the #277 WR, so he's not a big-time prospect, but will hopefully beat expectations.

Indiana, 50 runs, 16 passes. Emperor Alvarez somewhere in Madison with a big grin on his face.

What is likely for Wisconsin in the transfer portal? If they are serious about having more money, then I think 2 or 3 top 100 prospects should be a reasonable expectation (and I’m not talking about 2 bottom-end top 100 guys, like last year). I’d put a priority on a fairly high-priced QB, so I’m thinking a good QB plus 1 more top 100 player should be an expectation. Then I would say another 3 players in the 101-250 range, and probably another 4 players in the 251-500 range. After combing through the rankings, here is a list of some players that I like. So it becomes a mix and match game of who is interested, and how much is available to spend to fill out a roster. The number in () is the overall 247Sports rank among transfers, regardless of position. QUARTERBACK (20) Iowa State QB-Rocco Becht (RS-JR) (27) TCU QB-Josh Hoover (RS-JR) (716) Arkansas State QB-Jaylen Raynor (JR) They need to add at least 2 quarterbacks, and if O’Neil leaves, three is not out of the question. #1 priority is to land either Becht or Hoover. I prefer Becht but would be satisfied with Hoover. Raynor is an experienced, athletic player who can compete with Carter Smith for the #2 spot. RUNNING BACK (630) Mercer RB-C.J. Miller (RS-JR) There is an obvious need for bodies here, but I could live with Dupree, Ituka and Wiggins plus scraps for one season. Miller is a 5-11, 230-pound guy, teaming with Ituka to fulfill the big back role. He had 957 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns for Mercer last year. WIDE RECEIVER (47) Kansas State WR-Jayce Brown (JR) (57) NC State WR-Noah Rogers (RS-SO) (248) Penn WR-Jared Richardson (RS-JR) (444) Monmouth WR-Josh Derry (JR) (194) Ohio State WR-Bryson Rodgers (JR) With only four scholarship receivers on the roster, 2 of those will be true freshman, it’s nearly a guarantee that the Badgers will be adding a minimum of 4 WRs and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that number as high as 6. Jayce Brown would be my #2 priority after the QB, and Jared Richardson would likely be my #3 priority. Noah Rogers becomes a main target if Jayce Brown goes elsewhere. Brown has 1972 career receiving yards. Rogers is a former Ohio State recruit that has 919 yards over 2 season and is a 6-2, 197-pound receiver that looks ready to bust out. Richardson is a lower-level player, but has 2505 yards and 27 TDs over the last 3 seasons and a 6-2, 220-pound frame. Josh Derry is 5-9, 180 and had 1123 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns last season. Bryson Rodgers has not done much in his two seasons at Ohio State, but he has been seeing some playing time and could be a guy that is just blocked as Ohio State has a full stable of good wide receivers. OFFENSIVE LINE (121) Oklahoma State C-Austin Kawecki (RS-JR) (462) Northern Illinois LT-Evan Malcore (RS-JR) This is tough, because looking at the team last year, this group needs as much help as any. However, they already have 13 scholarship offensive linemen on the roster, and historically that number tops out at 15. In addition to that, it just doesn’t seem like there are a bunch of good offensive line fits in the portal. Word in Madison is that the likely approach will be to look for an experienced left tackle and center. It’s unlikely that the Badgers have given up on players that project to those spots, but those two positions just need to be much better in 2026. Austin Kawecki reportedly had some issues with snaps early last year, but got that cleaned up, and it sounds like he played very well down the stretch. Evan Malcore is a Sun Prairie kid who has started 30+ games for Northern Illinois. EDGE (308) UNLV EDGE-Ryan Henderson (RS-JR) (755) Tulane EDGE-Harvey Dyson (RS-JR) The Badgers have numbers here, but they lost their two leading pass rushers from last year. Henderson = 6-3, 250, 7 sacks in 2025. Dyson = 6-3, 250, 8 sacks in 2025. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the Badgers big gets ends up being an EDGE guy, but I’d rather try to find bargains here and spend on offense. CORNERBACK (NR) Rutgers CB-Jacobie Henderson (RS-JR) (320) Toledo CB-Braden Awis (JR) (862) Connecticut CB-Cam Chadwick (RS-SO) (1152) Kennesaw State CB-JeRico Washington Jr (JR) 247 has not put a transfer grade on Henderson yet, which is why he get the NR. I looked for experience here. Henderson is a 2 ½ year starter. Awis played as true freshman and then started for an excellent Toledo defense. Chadwick redshirted and then started as a redshirt freshman. Washington Jr redshirted and then started in each of the next two seasons. (118) Florida S-Jordan Castell (JR) I ran across Castell and was really attracted to this player. Came to Florida as a so-so cornerback recruit. Moved to safety and has 34 career starts. Two-time All-Academic player that knows how to play. Looks like a solid addition if the Badgers were to strike out at other positions. So, trying to be hopeful and realistic at the same time, I’d love it if the Badgers could wind up with something comparable to this- (20) Iowa State QB-Rocco Becht (RS-JR) OR (27) TCU QB-Josh Hoover (RS-JR) (716) Arkansas State QB-Jaylen Raynor (JR) (630) Mercer RB-C.J. Miller (RS-JR) (47) Kansas State WR-Jayce Brown (JR) OR (57) NC State WR-Noah Rogers (RS-SO) (248) Penn WR-Jared Richardson (RS-JR) (444) Monmouth WR-Josh Derry (JR) (121) Oklahoma State C-Austin Kawecki (RS-JR) (462) Northern Illinois LT-Evan Malcore (RS-JR) (755) Tulane EDGE-Harvey Dyson (RS-JR) (NR) Rutgers CB-Jacobie Henderson (RS-JR) (320) Toledo CB-Braden Awis (JR) (862) Connecticut CB-Cam Chadwick (RS-SO) (1152) Kennesaw State CB-JeRico Washington Jr (JR) And after that, they would still have 8 spots to get to the old 85 scholarship level, so more lower ranked players to fill in spots at WR, DL, S.

It amazes me the Packers are still listing Melton as a cornerback. So far this season he's seen 83 snaps on offense, 176 on special teams, and a big fat ZERO on defense. I think I might have as good a chance as Melton at playing cornerback in the next game.

Preston Zachman in the transfer portal.

Diggs is likely just another typical 2025 NFL player who can be as good as he wants to be. It's obvious that he and the Cowboys were not getting along, so he very well could have just tanked the season. But when looking at the statistics, he has been awful in 2025, probably the worst CB in the entire league. Opposing QBs have a QB rating of 157.1 when throwing at him. QBs have completed 77.3 percent of their passes against him. He is allowing 12.3 yards per target. It's amazing the Cowboys didn't dump him weeks ago with numbers like that. By comparison- Nixon - QB rating = 105.1, completion percentage = 64.4, yards per target = 7.5 Valentine - QB rating = 121.1, completion percentage = 59.7, yards per target = 7.6 Hobbs (KO'ed) - QB rating = 111.1, completion percentage = 65.5. yards per target = 7.6 Packer CBs certainly have been nothing to write home out, absolutely no argument from me on that one. But they have been better than Diggs, who has been woeful beyond belief. But as I said, if he shows up and is motivated and actually wants to be good.....

We started this season getting Jerry's filet mignon, and we will end the season getting Jerry's bologna.

If you are Fickell fan (the one left outside of his immediate family), do NOT click on the link. You have been warned. https://www.buckys5thquarter.com/wisconsin-badgers-football/88161/wisconsin-badgers-football-news-riley-nowakowski-indiana-hoosiers-not-valued-old-school

10 years from now. Broadcaster #1: And onto the field comes Diego Pavia, 12 year college football veteran. Broadcaster #2: It's been a pretty incredible career for Diego. He lost those 2 years when he didn't make it in the NFL, but what an incredible college football career he has had. Broadcaster #1: Now with his 8th different university, Diego has never won a national championship, but his teams have won the conference championship 3 times and he has been a Heisman finalist 3 times. Broadcaster #2: Another interesting fact about Diego is that he has amassed 342 college credits, but only has an undergraduate degree in business. I'm kind of amazed that there are enough college courses available to get 342 credits. Broadcaster #1: His college transcript is just as interesting as his football resume. In the last four years he's changed his major from Public Relations to Ethnic Studies to Anthropology and has moved on to Hospitality this year. Broadcaster #2: Wow, what an impressive individual. Just a reminder to everyone, we are still 3 minutes away from kickoff, so check out the new ESPN gambling app. Fast and easy to navigate, it just takes seconds to place a wager, so there is still plenty of time to get that last second bet in prior to kickoff.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/47456708/ncaa-charlie-baker-players-nba-contracts-not-eligible Current bottom-tier NBA player wants to get back into college, despite already having played in NBA games. Baylor signing, and the NCAA clearing, a player that was drafted by the NBA, but two years later appears to be a nothing as far as the NBA is concerned. As I said on the previous page, might as well just throw out every eligibility rule, including the 4-year limit. At this rate, there won't be any 18/19/20 years old players on the field/court in 10 years. It will be all 25-30 year old "ringers" who got flushed out of the big leagues. Way to go universities plus NCAA, your greed will complete destroy the spirit of college athletics in just a few years.

I think the people who wanted it never would have anticipated that the brightest and best people leading our universities would make such of complete mess of it. People were likely anticipating that if Nike wanted to pay some QB 5 million dollars to be in a few commercials, then Nike and that player would sign a contract and that player would get 5 million dollars from Nike. People were likely anticipating that if the local car dealership wanted to pay a popular linebacker 20k to appear in a commercial to sell some pickup trucks, then the dealer and the player would sign a contract and the dealer would pay him 20k. If EA Sports wanted to make a college football game and put all the player's names and pictures in the game, then the player signs a contract and EA Sports can use their name and image and then if 10,000 players have their name/image in the game, each of those 10,000 get sent a check with 1/10,000th of the pool of money. So just looking at Wisconsin, we have people like Ted Kellner throwing in bunch of NIL money, umm, for exactly what!? He is a "retired founder and portfolio manager of Fiduciary Managment Inc." So what exactly is someone like that getting when he pays for a player's name, image and likeness? And then we have the universities, who for some reason still insist that they are not paying players to play football, but are rather just paying them for their name, image and likeness. It seems the only reason for this is because they do not want to have the players classified as employees. And I can only guess that the reason for that is because they don't want them to unionize (imagine that, LOL). So we end up with this mess where we don't have actual contracts, even though millions of dollars are exchanging hand (that seems like a really good idea, doesn't it). And I have no doubt that it will only take one former player and one judge to send this entire house of cards crashing down. What will happen is anyone's guess. All I know is that if you are paying someone 100's of thousands of dollars, having an actual legally binding contract would be a real good idea.

Kind of disappointed by the group of offensive linemen in the portal, although that number will really expand on Friday. Probably the most interesting one I've seen so far is North Texas OL-Braydon Nelson. 6-4, 321. Played RG and LT as a true freshman in 2024, and then started 13 games in 2025 (11 at LT, 2 at RT). Second team all conference this last season. Some footage on YouTube of him against real low level competition, and what I saw didn't exactly blow me away. Strength-wise, he just doesn't seem to be there yet. But he does look to have some pretty quick feet for a big guy, and may fit into Mateos zone-blocking scheme, even though he doesn't necessarily look like he is built for the part. He might have a big jump in him after getting into a Big 10 strength program. At least he's an interesting, experienced guy that could fit in the Badgers price-range.